18°41'34.2"N 12°55'10.6"E - Bilma, Niger

  23.05.2024 – 12:30 UTC +01.00

  I stood outside the temple waiting for Yahaya. From the outside, it looked more decrepit and abandoned than it looked inside. I wondered if that woman regularly visited this place and maintained it.

  While waiting, I pulled out my phone and tested the GPS app. We were on the outskirts of Bilma, in a residential area of the southern part of the city, quite on the other side of where we were before.

  Tiwalade’s Manifold Curse had brought us here, but I couldn’t shake the feeling my newfound ability to tap into someone else’s heart had somehow allowed her to do that. That was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. In the past few days I had discovered that my Calling enhanced my sense of the Nabd, and let me tune into other people. Now it was apparent that tuning into other Cursed meant enhancing their Curses too.

  Yahaya’s enhancement was another testament to that. Right before killing Tiwalade under my command, her monstrous limbs grew in length.

  A warm breeze shuffled my hair, carrying fine grains of sand from the nearby dunes. It was noon and it was getting warmer. There was no one walking in the street, but most of the residential buildings looked full of life. I gazed at the buildings, noticing quickly that this neighborhood was not as green as the center of Bilma. No ivy was crawling on buildings, no palm trees sprawling next to an oasis.

  “What happens next?” Yahaya’s eerie voice startled me.

  I glanced over my shoulder and turned to her. She had just exited the mosque, and under the sunlight, her dark skin looked paler than indoors. Her long robe did not look so ominous either, more like traditional outerwear. It reached the top of the head, covering her head in a respectful way.

  Her eyes were deep within her skull, enhancing the sense of an outworldly aura.

  “We walk back to your hideout. And you explain to me what I need to know,” I told her. She nodded as she started walking next to me.

  “Tiwalade, rest her soul, was a student of mine. She was special in her own way, the way she could instill fear in minds. Mindfog she called it. Unique, at least in these parts. I agreed to mentor her and let her Curses unravel.

  Her Ward Curse came in handy, I nourished it like mine. A ward of many paths. It is my Curse that hides our house. She learned to get in places others could not. However, after our latest visit to N’Djamena, she was unpredictable. Erratic, discordant. I caught her sneaking in and out at night. Stealing things, examining them.

  She became a liability, but I did not want to abandon her. I confronted her, and it almost cost me my life. It cost the lives of other students. Friends. I couldn’t tame her. She knew what I feared most, making my mind a frail toy in her hands.

  I ran away to find what turned her like that. Rabid.”

  We walked slowly through the streets, her quiet narration clarifying a story I was initially not interested in but the story about N’Djamena had piqued my attention.

  “How does Aisa come into all of this?” I asked.

  “Is this who sent you?” Yahaya asked. I couldn’t help but notice her grin.

  “Yes. I had my own encounters here. She is convinced I can be a help to her if I meet you.”

  “Dangerous woman. But not to us. She is mortal. We are beyond.”

  Her words made me uncomfortable as we walked. She spoke as if our Curses distinguished us from the rest, and that was not the way I had learned to think of myself.

  She continued.

  “She is one of the heads of the Ngam Kúrà. Envoy of an empire past in this region. She employs me to monitor Bilma. To represent her where Curses matter. She pays handsomely, and she lets me be,” Yahaya said.

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  We continued walking in silence. Yahaya showed no interest in me or my story, which made me uncomfortable to ask more.

  After we walked for a good fifteen minutes, I saw a Baobab tree among the palm trees that decorated the central street we were walking in. Looking at the Upside-Down tree reminded my brother back at the Inn. I stopped walking.

  I searched in my pocket for the bloodied piece of paper tissue, the one that was covered in my brother’s and his assailant’s blood. I squeezed it in my hands and closed my eyes, still holding it in my pocket.

  “What do you hear?” Yahaya asked.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that someone wants me to stay in this city for some reason. And someone I care about got hurt,” I explained, “but not by you.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  I opened my eyes, to meet her wet inquiring eyes. She nodded, as I closed my eyes again.

  “Nothing,” I answered, “A faint pulse only. Somewhere in Bilma. Impossible to trace.”

  “That’s not true, open your eyes. That is unnecessary,” she said and touched my arm. I opened my eyes again.

  “Do you not hear the people around you?”

  I tried to take in the scene of the street we were on. People were walking across the street, entering a big multistory building surrounded by palm trees. Two men passed right next to us and looked at us, before walking past us. A woman speaking on her cell phone crossed the street, holding a child by her hand.

  “I hear their Nabd. Sure. They all have blood,” I answered.

  “It is good, what you hear. Nabd is more than blood. Nabd flows and passes through all of us. And,” she emphasized, “it leaves traces in all of us.”

  I looked around me. Was I supposed to sense something I was missing all these days?

  People walking past stared at me staring at them, until eventually I looked down awkwardly. This was not helpful.

  “You will figure it out,” Yahaya smiled, “let’s go around. I know a shortcut through the oasis.”

  It took a good while to reach the other side of the oasis. Then I followed her into a bus, giving me a nice tour of the East side of Bilma. The Kaouar Cliffs were in the middle of this part of the town. I could see them through the bus window. Broken edges, unshaped, towering: they oversaw the city.

  We did not speak until we reached the boundaries of the warded house.

  “Won’t you come inside? I can prepare a meal, and we can talk through everything.”

  “I know better than stepping into your ward and getting trapped like that girl,” I responded, her expression turning sour, “you might have skipped that part of the story, but I can piece things together.”

  “Yes, I sealed the manifold onto her. I had to contain her, and I did,” she said.

  “So, we can have a candid chat here. You said I am a magnet. To other Cursed,” I spoke openly. Once I got my answers I could decide whether working with this witch could benefit me at all. A mob queen recommending her to me was not reason enough to trust her.

  Yahaya revealed her white and yellow teeth under the widest of smiles.

  “No, you misunderstood me. You are not just a magnet to other Cursed. You are a magnet to tragedy and curses, Cursed people and Callings included, like me. More dangers will follow your path, and your Calling will draw you to them like a moth.”

  Each of her words felt like another chain tied on my legs, more weight pulling me down a river.

  “My Calling helps me survive.”

  “Your Calling breeds catastrophe. For the people around you,” Yahaya said and turned to the wall. She lifted her arms, ready to unfold the ward that was hiding her hideout.

  I lifted my arm and pointed right at her, freezing her in place. I held my breath, and as I did, I could feel her heart rate dropping. She tried to move her hand, in vain.

  “If you are trying to make me angry, we know how this ends,” I spoke through my teeth, standing still. I made her turn and walk towards me.

  “I am only trying to warn you dear,” she said coldly, her body slowly treading in my direction, “it led you to the Lions. It led you to me. It is keeping you here until you are done with this city. Aisa trusts me to protect this city, but my Calling is now to serve you, whatever you may herald.”

  “I have no intention to harm anyone,” I growled.

  She stared at my hand, extended as it was, pointed in her direction. I lowered it, and she stopped walking.

  “Since you don’t intend to harm me, I would like to return and rest. You should do the same, Catastrophe.”

  She waited for my reaction, but once I did not try to stop her, she turned to jump into her manifold ward.

  “My name is Khalida,” I said.

  “See you soon, Khalida.”