Feruzi's eyes welled up with tears. He held them back with a barrier of determination.

  Akachi bowed his head, not knowing what to say. The story had ended before the fateful moments that preceded Yerodin's death. There was no need to say any more about it.

  “I'm sorry, Mr. Feruzi.”

  Hakim turned to Akachi, and his Axé began to pulse hostilely. Even the non-mediums were affected. Ekundayo had to grab his friend's shoulder.

  “Are you sorry? Don't be! Nobody felt anything when he disappeared.”

  “Don't say that, Hakim.”

  “Come on, leave me alone!”

  Plaft! The Sage of the Law slapped the other sage's hand. Mediums knew the depths of death, the hard part was facing them. Not everyone versed in the cult of ancestry dealt well with loss. Friends and family succumbed for the most diverse reasons, and those who remained didn't take it well.

  It was in these moments of denial of the natural cycle that mediumship was perverted. The more attached to life the medium became, the more distant he became from Fante Obataiye.

  Hakim's heart was full of hurt, and it tore him apart like no other.

  “Yerodin was used as a scapegoat by the Masters of Suspicion, too cowardly to face the real enemy.”

  Ekundayo, more aware of the cogs that moved Yerodin's fate, shook his head with conviction and said:

  “Don't say that. Don't blame them, we also condemned Yerodin for treason. That's why you're so upset.”

  “Take it back!”

  “No, I won't take it back.”

  The atmosphere of tension hanging over Hakim only increased. He was in a state of denial. Until the coup d'état erupted over the country, everyone believed that Yerodin was really a spy who was handing over the nation's secrets to internal and external enemies.

  In reality, he was a double spy: he acted on behalf of the mediums against Minister Ojwang, and pretended to spy on the mediums on his behalf. When he discovered the information leaked by the Sage of Knowledge, the super-minister went ahead with his plans and ruined Yerodin's life, as well as hitting his clan hard.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The campaign to massively destroy the image of the most popular sage of the decade paid off for the politician. He created a strong anti-medium sentiment in the population. Public opinion turned heroes into villains very quickly.

  “You want me to accept all this, but I can't, Ekundayo.”

  “Yerodin was a sage, Hakim. He wasn't a fool or anything like that. He made his choices, it would be unfair not to understand them. Looking for blame for this won't solve anything.”

  “Ilu Nla always seemed very unfair to her children…”

  Azekel understood well what he was saying. His son had been kidnapped, and his grandson had also been away from him for many years.

  “Yes, ungrateful in many ways, and cruel many times.”

  Adisa looked at her father anxiously and said:

  “Dad…”

  “It's not true. Ilu Nla made a lot of mistakes, or rather, we made a lot of mistakes with you younger people. We acted like the eagle that lets its eggs be guarded by a snake.”

  “Blaming yourself right now won't solve things or remedy the situation.”

  Hearing this, Hakim turned away from Adisa.

  “You talk as if you didn't have a finger in it.”

  Azekel's son took the cup in his hands. He drank the bitter coffee. He was one of the keys to Ojwang's rise in Ilu Nla.

  He was one of their most dedicated scientists. If it hadn't been for Adisa, none of Ilu Nla's war technologies would have killed his compatriots. Akachi's father was well aware of the importance of his role in the plot.

  “I know, Hakim. You and anyone else can blame me. I made mistakes, I accept your judgment.”

  “Don't expect condescension from me, you egotist.”

  Akachi raised his voice and emitted a pulse of Axé that rivaled Hakim's.

  “Don't talk to my father like that!”

  “Shut up, you brat, this is grown-up talk.”

  Hakim turned to Akachi. The teenager didn't back down and took two steps forward, determined to react in the same way as the sage.

  Feruzi and Azekel stood between the two mediums. They seemed unwilling to let anything serious happen.

  Fadala smiled. He pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket. He searched his pocket for matches or a lighter. To his surprise, Spin Bomb pulled out his portable torch and lit the hitman's cigarette.

  “Now you know why Ojwang took you over.”

  The Sage of the Law pointed an accusing finger at the gunman and gritted his teeth:

  “What did you say, undertaker?”

  “Sowing discord between elements so willing to divide is very easy.”

  Ekundayo immediately understood his interlocutor's words.

  “Divide and rule.”

  “That's right.”

  “Fadala, Ilu Nla is an ancient kingdom in Africa, but it has never enjoyed real ethnic or political unity. The agreements have been maintained up until now purely out of utilitarianism. We needed this false unity to maintain sovereignty in the face of neighboring kingdoms and European colonizers.”

  That didn't satisfy Akachi, at least not what he wanted to know. How had his father, such an intelligent man, been seduced by Ojwang's words to the point of using his knowledge to make weapons?

  His family, by action and omission, had participated in the downfall of Ilu Nla. This burden weighed heavily on his shoulders. He felt he had to do something to change the situation. But he needed to know:

  “Father, how could you go along with all this?”

  Adisa took a deep breath and put her hand on Akachi's shoulder. The sadness in her eyes said more than a thousand words.

  “I did all this out of love for you, Furaha. A selfish love that only a desperate father and an embittered widower can cultivate.”

  Akachi's eyes remained steady. Adisa knew that mere sentimental catchphrases wouldn't be enough. It would take more than that to convince her son.

  Ojwang and Adisa's fates had crossed in a trivial way, at least that's what the latter had believed until he learned her true intentions. Anguished, and under the watchful eyes of the mediums, Adisa told his son about his relationship with Ilu Nla's tormentor.