The walls of Ariluwa had stood since long ago, with the magnificent walls known as the ‘Red-Gates of Arilas. Such was their thickness, such their glory that in all the land of Edo none had ever dreamt to ever attempt to take it. All knew all too well the names of all the great generals since the time of Arilas who had been repelled from those gates. Named after the great hero Arilas, who it was said had lived more than two hundred and fifty years prior. A figure said to have not only defeated an Impundulu, which was said to have seized a local maiden who was said to be the daughter of a tribal-king. Slaying it, Arilas was said to have gone on fight alongside the warrior-maiden Adanna, who led an alliance of more than three hundred tribes in the Second Wars of Darkness.

  The city that Arilas had founded shortly before the end of the wars, was said to have been painted crimson with the blood of the Mazoku and Dark Elves, when they had invaded Ifriquya in their mad war on all the lands of Pangaea. The city’s walls were later painted a permanent rust colour in honour of its name.

  Upon arrival Kayode had guided them to the Goldsea tavern, where he had seen to paying for rooms for them all. He had also made certain to arrange meat, cheese and bread saying as he passed along to them, the food prepared for them by the pub-owner, “Here you are, eat! Eat! The best cure for sorrow is food.”

  “No thank you,” Kolwé muttered coldly, which drew a frown from the older man.

  Under other circumstances, Aganyú might have gaped at the former brigand at present he did no such thing. The notion that the sorcerer did not wish to eat was a shocking one, and yet none of them commented about it distracted as they were with their individual thoughts and pain. If Aganyú and Kayode were more concerned with their own feelings, Kelechi did not quite know the once plump brigand half as well as they did.

  The pretty young woman had remained near at hand throughout all this time, and was to prove ever solicitous with food and drink or other requests. Scared as she was of being abandoned once more, or beaten she was hardly paid any mind by either of the two men. Only Kayode was at all concerned for her, often giving her what instructions he found the two men too consumed by grief to be entrusted with.

  The tavern that they had found their way into and where the two men had stayed throughout the three days that followed after their arrival. It happened that the tavern-master was to regard them with little more than disdain. Still though, with Kelechi acquiescing to work for him, as a tavern-wench and the men paying him three bronze coins apiece a day, more than enough to dissuade him from getting rid of them.

  Seated in the shade of a large hut just outside of the city-walls, as they had arrived when it was already dark, Aganyú was almost listless and hardly able to look at his travelling companions. He had done all that he could, had fought and fought if only so that Owalade and his daughter might live and yet they had still died.

  The horror of it was almost too much for him, with the likes of Kolwé having been quiet the whole time that they had walked for. He was still quiet, though he had at begun to drink what beer was available in the small tavern. Eager to lose himself, that is until Kayode called for the bartender to stop catering to his need to drown out his sorrows and guilt in beer.

  This had won him a great many complaints from the old monk, who had muttered for some time to himself, “Shan’t leave either of you alone, for a single moment.”

  Though he complained at some length, there was little in the way of bite to his words. Aware the old man was no less grief-stricken than the two men; neither of them was to take offense, where they might otherwise have. It was however with the utmost effort that after several days of leaving them be, he was to call upon them after being away during that time.

  “Really now, I shan’t believe that I found the both of you in such dire straits, grief has its place however neither of you have done aught else in recent days,” he complained in frustration, “Kelechi has also put herself to work as a wench here that the two of you might wait about here all day.”

  It was as he had said, yet what he did not know was that Kelechi was guilty of often neglecting her duties to the irritation of the tavern-master. It was because of this that he often came to whine about their comportment to Kayode. By this time, consumed by his frustrations with them he was to inform the monk, “They must either work, or they must leave for some other place. I know not how they comported themselves in the south, yet here I will not tolerate this poor comportment.”

  “I will speak to them,” Kayode replied at once, refusing to offend the younger man who with his thick beard, bald head and thick eyebrows which gave him a considerably sterner appearance than any other youth his age ought to have had. Dressed in a tunic, he carried himself with a sharpness and self-importance that hardly endeared him to the monk who shook his head at the fellow.

  Turning away from the muscular man, he was to study both of the men under his charge for some time. He knew that he ought to see to Kolwé as the man was still vomiting to one side, and yet he could not help but lack all sympathy for the bandit. The man was hardly able to handle his liquor and yet he had sought to match Aganyú drink for drink, it was so utterly disgraceful that he felt only dismay and pity.

  Kolwé had changed this he could discern but whether it was enough to redeem him from a lifetime of sins’ he did not know. It was however the warrior to his other side that he held the greatest hopes for, as it was he who he knew was destined for great things, greater than even he might well imagine.

  “Aganyú, it is time you regained your feet and saw to thy duty, there is much to do and very little left of our time hereupon this plane of existence to accomplish them all.” Kayode remarked to him with the utmost sternness.

  The man he had taken on as a pupil of sorts though had very different notions to his own fanciful ones.

  “All that I have touched have ended in failure,” Aganyú murmured broken by this knowledge, consumed by guilt and grief at the loss of Owalade and Uju.

  Kayode studied the young man who sat beside him just outside the small hovel where they had established themselves if temporarily so. It was in his view, getting to be more and more of an irritant caring for this brash youth he told himself. “Oh you poor thing,” He retorted full of sarcasm, “How you suffer so! To have inherited satchels full of coin, and to have so much strength and so many to care for you in such hard times and to have found true love, how my heart breaks for thee O Prince!”

  Disliking his tone, Aganyú rounded upon him full of fury, “What did you say monk?”

  “Oh I had not thought you to have turned deaf, allow me to repeat myself if more simply; you have been gifted with so very much, yet you have yet to accomplish anything, let alone to commit thyself to any substantial work worthy of thee.”

  “And what would be ‘work worthy of me’?” the Prince snapped almost breathing flames so furious was he.

  “The betterment of this world, and the restoration of virtue to this fallen continent, which has fallen far from the gods’ vision for it,” Kayode retorted evenly, with a snort of his nose.

  His words stupefied Aganyú. He could not make sense of them, not for some time. How could he? When at last he overcame his shock, he could not resist a great sneering laugh. It was ridiculous and na?ve.

  Maybe in another life he might well have been moved by the man’s words, or taken them for granted and sought to put them into effect however not now. Now it was far in away beyond him, and beyond his reach as he had no more influence and power in the world than the lowliest of farmers.

  “Why do you laugh so, Aganyú?” Kayode demanded of him, his tone turning waspish as he stared at the Prince as though he had gone mad.

  “Because it is ridiculous, no it is folly to think I could do such a thing! How could a man who has fallen so far accomplish any such thing?” the prince retorted evenly, with several more chortles full of scorn escaping him. “To change the world requires royal power and authority, the likes of which I do not have at present nor might ever possess again, therefore how could I possibly do much more than drink away or survive by my sword?”

  “If such is the limits of thy understanding there is little I can say or do to dissuade, I have no wish to speak with one who might once have been great, yet now is little more than a wastrel. Greatness can only be exemplified by one who seeks it.” Kayode retorted sharply, before he rounded upon Kolwé who had just stumbled out from inside the hut to begin vomiting just outside the doorway. “Kolwé as to yourself, why do you sit there drinking and drinking when it only ever makes thee sick?”

  The other man grunted irritably, groaning out some reply that hardly pleased the monk who turned his back to the Prince. While the older man began to complain about the sorcerer, who was now decidedly ill to the exasperation of Kelechi and Kayode, Aganyú contemplated the old man’s words.

  His heart and mind descended down into darkness, as he picked himself up from the ground, refusing to quarrel with the tavern-master as he had countless others. Too wearied to resist, he was to do as Kayode bade and even bow his head slightly before the other man, who harrumphed and raising his nose said to them. “Be certain to never return, I have no wish for whatever trouble you have found along your journey and none of it to follow after me. You lot are a cursed one, and are the worst of all the workers I have ever taken on.”

  The man’s rudeness was such that Kayode studied him, and with more than a little sarcasm retorted, “Oh yes, I must say that it is we who ought to be concerned and not the man who lives just outside the walls. Regardless I have no interest in taking them away into the city.”

  “What?” Now it was Kolwé who spoke up, slurring this one word as he spoke, as he was still drunk, “Where do you intend to take us now?”

  “Patience Kolwé, I know this not one of thy chief-most virtues but patience,” Kayode replied with a shake of his head as he drew a curious glance from the other two charges he had taken on. “I intend to take the two of you to a place where you might enjoy peace for the first time, in thy lives.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was a startling offer and one that immediately awakened in Aganyú curiosity. While he had yet to see any evidence that his lot in life might improve itself, or that any good might win out in this life. He could not help but desire to know what it was that the monk had in mind. The man had demonstrated himself to be the most stalwart man he had ever met, and one that he could not resist the command of, even if he could not quite understand why.

  Mayhaps, he told himself, he might find the reason thereupon the hill of Obinna. This thought in mind he regained his feet, resolved to do as Kayode had instructed in the hopes he might find the answers to his many questions thereupon the hill.

  *****

  They set out early that morning for the hill of Obinna which overlooked the small town. It was said to have received its name according to Kayode many centuries ago when the warrior Obinna had fought the enemy to a standstill. A great admirer of Arilas he had felt himself to be lesser than the great founder of the citadel-city and had attempted to buy him time until he could receive all the refugees of the land of Edo into his city. Accompanied by a small number of other middle-aged and old men, they had fought as best they could against the advancing Dark Elves. It was after two hours of hard-fighting that these warriors were defeated, with Obinna captured by the monstrous enemy whereupon they tortured him for three days and night.

  Still he would reveal nothing of how the city had been built and how they might slip inside, so that they took him before the city-walls and had him, beheaded before the walls. The corpse was then taken to the nearby hill where it was thrown down and fed to the crows.

  This tale and more was related to the wanderers as they journeyed there to the great hill, shortly after the first rays of dawn began to edge out amidst the darkness of the early morning. Kayode told it to them with considerable gravity, his eyes piercing through each of them whenever he glanced back at them over his shoulders, as he advanced up along the large hill.

  Aganyú was to glance all about. He did not see what made this hill particularly important enough to warrant a journey of half a day. “Do you intend to have us reach the peak and confer upon us some form of wisdom?”

  “No, I intend to have you rest there under the stars,” Kayode retorted with a small smirk, his head craning back a little, as he smiled up at the heavens. “I think it important for thou to visit this sacred mount and see what I saw when I was young, and first journeyed here nigh on thirty years prior.”

  This correction brought them all to a halt. All save Aganyú. Eager to see what he might find thereupon the summit of the large hill, he remained convinced that there was wisdom to be found there. Kayode had yet to fail him, he mused therefore he would not simply take them there to look at stars.

  If there was peace and wisdom to be found there, he would find it and claim it for his own he told himself with the utmost conviction. It happened that as he brushed past his travelling companions, and the monk he attracted an approving glance from the latter and an exasperated one from the other two.

  Complaining they made to follow him if against their own wishes, neither of them at all pleased by his immediate surrenders to the whims of their guide. It happened that the greater proportion of hours spent reaching the top had been spent upon the road to the hill, so that they were soon to arrive not long after their short argument.

  Once they had arrived, Kolwé was to grunt, “There you see? We have arrived and found naught save a foothill full of brambles, dried and broken trees and sand.”

  “It was not always so, Kolwé,” Kayode retorted evenly, his voice sorrowful as he looked up at the darkening heavens high above them. “Did you ever study the histories of the founding of this city?”

  “But of course!”

  “And did you not take stock of the foundations of this hill? What of the land to the west? Does it not look dried?”

  “Yes, because it is a desert,” Kolwé replied not understanding what it was that the monk was hinting at.

  An exasperated sigh escaped the older man’s lips, before he impatiently remarked, “I see now how you failed to keep to the path set before you by thy Master.”

  His words won him the attention of the other two members of their group, who looked on both robed men with a great deal of surprise. Neither of them, familiar with this particular detail regarding their traveling companion, with Aganyú having by this time travelled for some time with him. What fascinated him then, was how little he knew of the other man so that he asked of himself; what did he truly know about Kolwé?

  It was only now with a start that he pondered the question of how exactly had his travelling companion found his vulture-cloak and discovered the gourd with which he had captured Charáji. Bewildered by his own ignorance, he was to study the former brigand who flustered hardly noticed his intrigued look.

  “What do you mean?” Kolwé asked flustered confused as he stared at the monk who met his gaze sternly. “How did I fail? How do you know he did not fail me? And how do you know this about me?”

  “I know you Kolwé, and I know your Master Orestes, and the pain which you inflicted upon him by turning away from his teachings and fleeing from the Order to which you once belonged to.” Kayode retorted sharply, a hint of disapproval in his voice so that the younger man lowered his gaze.

  It was as he did so that he took notice of Aganyú’s gaze upon him, so that Kolwé flushed scarlet and he glared at the muscular warrior-Prince. “Why do you look on me so?”

  “It is only that I have never heard talk of your past before now,” Aganyú confessed studying the other man for several minutes looking, indifferent to the dark look that the other man directed against him. “I would know more, notably of how you came to possess all the magic trinkets that you have made use of.”

  “Indeed, it is interesting but perhaps a discussion for another time,” Kayode replied as he turned away once more, this time to lead them up the rest of the large hill, saying as he did so, “What you ought to have noticed is how this land was once covered in water.”

  “What?” Kelechi asked dumbly, “I have never heard such talk before.”

  “That is because you are a desert woman, and not versed in history, you have not been educated as I have been, nor did you think to do any inquiries into this place as I have, since our arrival into the city.” Kayode retorted evenly with a snort, “Mark this place in thy minds my friends, for once there was a great river that flowed from the ocean all across the three kingdoms before curving southwards near to the city of Puppata.”

  “What? Is this true?” Aganyú asked of the two of them, with Kolwé glaring once more at him frustrated by his interest in his past.

  “What difference does it make? How can the past possibly aid us, or do us much more good than to distract us from the present and the future?” Kolwé responded with a great deal of bitterness that the Prince had ever seen him speak with.

  It was with a start that he found himself answering the man before he truly realized it. He soon found his words to be an echo of something that his father had once told him, “How can it not make a difference? It is only through the past that we discover the present, and from it that we can discern the future. We must therefore not turn away from it, for we can never forget it, can never hide from it and must embrace it if we wish to truly be strong. It is only through the completion of past oaths, victory over past enemies and the glory of our ancestors that we might equal their deeds.”

  So enraptured was he by his father’s wisdom that Aganyú did not immediately pay heed to the stares of his friends, so that he was startled by Kayode’s next words. “Where- where did you hear those words Aganyú, for they are uncannily wise and wholly unlike you my friend.”

  “My father uttered them once to me,” Aganyú admitted quietly, almost more to himself, “I am but a shadow of him for he was the finest of all the princes who ever sought the throne of my ancestors.”

  “Hear hear,” Kolwé murmured sympathetically to his surprise, with the once plump brigand looking no less defeated as he bowed his head in defeat.

  After a moment Kayode spoke up to them, his eyes piercing through them as they looked up at the heavens up above them.

  “Do you see now? It is not by seeking to hide from the world that we find it, but by entering into it, challenging it and seeking to put yourself in the midst of its forging fires that you find it and by extension yourself.” Kayode told them all pointing to the great constellations that loomed high over head and the stars up above them. “You ask why I do not seem to be grieving as you do, Kelechi it is because I am not hiding from myself. It is because I speak no evil, and speak no lies that I am able to grieve in such a way that does not subtract from my being that does not make me plunge into the nearest mug of ale. By giving oneself over to madness of this sort, one undermines’ one’s being and turns sorrow into an excuse for indulgences of the worst kind.”

  “Then what is the answer?” She asked bewildered by his words.

  “Look above thee, and know the beauty of the universe. Look on the stars which have seen and which speak to this day of the finest deeds of your ancestors Kelechi.” Kayode replied as he pointed up high above his head. “Up there, you see the deeds of Arilas, and of Adanna of how the former pushed back the attack against his city’s walls, of how Adanna threw back the Dark Elf invasion, pushed them back, with the aid of the people of these lands. You see up high above our heads, also the sacrifice of Adanna of the Second Wars of Darkness, how she perished that these lands might know peace. Of the sacrifice of Emeka the Dragon-Redeemer, who redeemed the great drake Ojuwura, and freed him of the hatred that lay within his heart and broke the great chain that was bound about his throat, with his last sword stroke just before he perished.”

  Staring up at the glimmering stars high above their heads, Aganyú felt then for the first time in many weeks a sense of how badly he had gone down the wrong path.

  It was as he looked up at the shimmering white and yellow dots in an ocean of blue and inky blackness that was more magnificent than anything any man could ever hope to build. It was with a great deal of fascination that his mind wandered to how different the constellations were in the east, from whence he came. So that at this juncture, he mused over what it was that Kayode had told him and resolved not only to find the strength in him that he knew those of whom he spoke had possessed.

  The only thing he could think before sleep claimed him, was that the strength which they had held were vastly superior to his own. He was alone as always, and the only way to access the strength of those who had built the three western kingdoms was by discovering the strength and wisdom of which Kayode spoke of.

  *****

  The previous night had not gone as Kolwé would have liked it to have. More of his past than he liked had been revealed. It was a source of incredible shame to him that he had abandoned the teachings of his Master, had abandoned the Order of Auguria to become little more than a brigand. He had he knew fallen from the path that had been ordained for him as a child, when he had first been taken in by his wise and kindly old Master, and yet he could not help but also burn with resentment at Kayode’s knowledge and pointed reminders of his having failed the Order.

  It was a point of humiliation. A constant thorn in his eye so to speak, and one that he had no wish to be reminded of, all while a part of him longed for those simpler times.

  Full of guilt and regret for those he had lost in recent days, he was to upon awakening regret swear to himself to never again imbibe so much liquor. He had matched Aganyú drink for drink, all while knowing that it was a foolish thing to do. Why had he done it, was a mystery even to him until he concluded that the loss of Uju and Owalade had wounded him more deeply than he had originally thought it would.

  “Ah awake at last,” Kayode remarked to him, only to snigger when he saw the sorcerer rub his temple with a grimace. “That pain you feel is well deserved, given you ought never to have drunk quite as much as you did.”

  “Oh do be quiet,” Kolwé grumbled back to him, relieved to find Kelechi still asleep, snoring softly to one side so that she could not see and snigger at his expense also, as he knew she would. He was however startled when he noticed one thing or rather person missing. “Wait, whither did Aganyú go to? Has he left to go hunting, or is it that he has gone off to do something stupid within the city and have himself imprisoned once more?”

  Kayode smiled a little, visibly amused by his consternation so that the sorcerer growled at him. This only served to amuse the old man all the more, as he commented, “I daresay that for all the trouble and difficulties that he has caused thee Kolwé, it appears as though you have grown quite fond of the Prince.”

  “Fond? Nonsense, I only fear having to give chase and clean the mess he will inevitably make for us all.” Kolwé argued at once, unable to believe his ears as he spluttered at those words, hating that the old man did not look wholly convinced.

  It was with considerable amusement that Kayode at last told him what it was that had happened to Aganyú, “He has gone away.”

  “Away where?”

  “That I know not, I know only that he has decided to venture away whither by himself, in the hopes to find himself.” Kayode studying him intently said, “He has left to find his wife and to find the nobility that has gone from his heart for many moons now.”

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