33 The time to act

Jide had just seen a vision of Hafis attacking the Abacha clan hideout with Nze, Danjma, Osaze and many other internal mages. He could not tell exactly when it would happen but judging by the clarity of the vision it was sometime in the near future. However, from the earlier vision of Hafis and Nze initial meeting, Jide knew he still had some time to remove the threat that was Hafis.

Therefore, Jide was committed to escaping from the Abacha hideout and intercepting Hafis on the way. So he had been increasing the number of hours he spent in a trance viewing the future and pouring over all his visions to find an opportunity he could use.

His chance soon came.

...

It had been two weeks since the battle at the gates of Igbo Efon and the Oshodi Kingdom army had relaxed their vigilance after confirming to the best of their abilities that the spies were no longer in the vicinity. However, the King had ordered increased military presence in all the cities and a higher alert on the western border, so the soldiers, who had just been released for vacation post the attack by the Obosi Empire, had to be recalled.

Nevertheless, Nnenna was still able to move around easily in Igbo Efon as she had changed into civilian clothing from her leather armour but mostly because she could sense and evade the patrolling guards. She had been assigned the task of researching the circumstances of Obi's former sect.

Obi and Nkeiru were from the Sabi Sect, which was one of the later sects formed in the Oshodi Kingdom but was growing in strength because of their less stringent recruitment requirements. However, before the sect could fully blossom, they were attacked by a combination of forces of which the Oduduwa Sect run by the City Lord of Igbo Efon was one. Nnenna had casually brought up the issue in bars and taverns frequented by the sect members to get them talking after plying them with liquor. But she was yet to get anything concrete on the reason for the attack or the whereabouts of potential survivors.

Meanwhile, Amaka was getting cabin fever being stuck in the unoccupied residence they had found. Even Kayto, with his abilities, only had to return to the catacombs at night to sleep but she was restricted to this one house in the city and it did not help that she spent most of her time with the reticent Obi.

Nnenna returned to the residence after another fruitless day and said to Amaka and Obi, "I think I will have to infiltrate their sects headquarters to check for the records room. Talking to their regular students has been a waste of time and their internal mages rarely if ever leave the sect to frolics in bars."

Both Obi and Amaka were apprehensive about this new plan but they reasoned that even if something went wrong, no one would be able to hold Nnenna back.

...

Jide woke up today knowing it was time.

He started the day as usual with a far sight vision and recorded what he could remember of see clearly. Then he went to the sparring ground to practice his routine.

It was on his way back that his day deviated.

He took the left turn in one of the tunnels instead of the right and a few seconds later, Abdul passed by where he was heading towards the sparring ground to invite him for lunch.

He hurried towards the communal dinning room and joined the line. As soon as he had gotten his food and proceed towards the back of the hall close to the entrance of the kitchen, Turayo stormed into the dinning hall followed by Musa, who had been trying to reason with his estranged aunt.

"Enough!!" She screamed in a cold voice, "I don't care what you say...since you faked your death and left and I mourned you, you will remain dead to me."

This attracted the attention of the hall and gave Jide the 3 seconds he needed to enter the kitchen.

The kitchen was bustling with activity. Steam and the clanging of metal dominated the room. There were large tables were people were clean and dressing meat and other were people were dicing vegetables. All the hubbub and noise in the room served as the distraction for Jide to proceed towards the back of the kitchen and follow a path towards the central food store for the clan.

Jide was counting the time and his steps.

Once he was close to a bend in the path and could see the light reflecting in from the room ahead, he stopped and wait an additional minute before proceeding forward. In the large room in front were a line of carriages which had been arranged to proceed out a tunnel big enough for two carriages to pass at a time but there was no one in the room. In that one minute something had pulled all the drivers and handlers into a tunnel opposite to the one Jide had used, but they were quickly returning as Jide could hear their footsteps.

Jide hurried forward, ignoring the closer carriages until he stopped at a particular carriage in the middle and climbed in. Then he lay down and waited. He did not have to wait long before the procession of carriages were readied and the team left the mountain abode of the clan to get supplies with one additional passenger.

...

It was night in Igbo Efon and Nnenna was in a dusty section of the Oduduwa Sect's library, surrounded by moldy and decaying tomes which recorded the history of the sect.

She had had to wade through a lot of information about the clan before she had found anything useful. Apparently, there was a child with an ability that the other sects envied and since the Sabi sect was a new threat they had set up a situation to give them an excuse to attack.

Nnenna ignored the greed of these sects but recorded all their names. What was most important were the locations where they thought people from Sabi Sect could be hiding.