Chapter 2: The Matron's Heir

The very first day she arrived at Orun Isu, it was Alake who brought her.

Her grandmother was very busy and had left her with Alake’s family in the real world for three days, which was not unusual, and that night Alake had come to her bedside telling her they had to go somewhere before bringing her here through teleportation.

Tara remembered that she was still hurting, the pain of her parent’s death was still very raw, but for a moment her arrival at Orun Isu, a world of its own with gits reat beatific sights had taken her mind away from the pain.

“Your Grandmother is the Matron of the witches,” Alake had said, taking her on a tour through the halls.

“What does that mean?” Tara asked absentmindedly, looking at the strange sights around with innocent eyes; the moving wallpapers, the changing sceneries, the greens, the strange horses with horns like unicorns, and more.

“It means that she is the leader of the witches in Africa, and you are her only blood now, her heir.”

“But I don’t want to be her heir. She hates me,” little Tara had retorted heatedly, causing Alake to stop and turn around to look at her.

Alake bent down to her level and held her gaze. “Don’t say that child; she loves you, a lot. Your grandmother has gone through a lot, losing most of her loved ones under strange circumstances, and she didn’t even know about you until your parent’s death. They did a very good job hiding themselves and you.”

Tara fully took her eyes away from the sights around them for the first time since she arrived as the conversation turned to her parents. “Why did they hide?” she asked.

A shadow crossed Alake’s face and she stood to her feet, looking away. “That I don’t know,” she replied and took her to the training ground where she met Boma, Anu, and the others for the first time and was put under the charge of the hard master, Leke. The only person she knew there on that first day was Ella, one of Alake’s grandchildren who was equally her best friend now.

“You’re still at odds with Anu,” Alake said softly as they hurried through the halls to the room where her grandmother lay, breaking the tensed silence and bringing Tara’s mind back to the present.

Tara scoffed, giving no response.

“You will need to get along with her, for peace and unity as the future first and second.”

“You think I don’t want to?” Tara fired harshly without breaking her stride. She was tired of everyone telling her the same thing. Couldn’t they all see that it wasn’t her fault that she and Anu were like oil and water.

The witches were separated into categories of smaller covens, battle mages who were practically warriors and way more powerful than ordinary witches, and the thirteen chosens who would sooner or later seat on the council of thirteen.

Nine of the chosens usually came from the nine long-standing houses with pure blood, while the other four were picked from amongst the battle mages through a rigorous testing and competition process and final blessing of the pool of rebirth.

Last were the guardian families tasked with protecting the lineage of Tara’s family as they were believed to be the bloodline of the great goddess Osoro--a job they had failed terribly over the one thousand plus years their family had ruled that only two true blood remained, her grandmother and Tara.

Boma was grandson of her grandmother’s first guardian and Alake’s little cousin. Because it was in the rule that no matron must be crowned unmarried, she was getting married to Boma in two months.

 “It is not her fault you know?” Alake said, still talking about Anu. “The council thought there was no heir and so Anu had been groomed as the heir before you came and took that from her. of course she would be very bitter.”

Tara scoffed. Her thoughts shifted to the day of the choosing at the pool of rebirth, the day she and Anu became enemies. For the witches, whenever it seemed like the current matron would soon be unable to hold unto her position a new set of seeds from each of the nine families would be trained alongside the heir for takeover sooner or in the nearest future.

For all intent and purposes, Anu whose family always brought the seconds had been chosen as heir, and they had all thought she, Tara would not be chosen because her blood was not so pure and it had never happened that one of impure blood became a chosen as her mother was not a witch. Tara was only allowed to partake with the others after strong pressure from her grandmother.

She could still remember the look of shock in all their faces after they all went into the pool and went through the trials and they all came out. A large number had green arcane marks glowing on their bodies which marked them as battle mages, eleven had blue arcane marks glowing on their bodies marking them as members of the thirteen, Anu had silver, marking her as the second, and she had Gold, marking her as the heir to the matron.

”You- you had something to do with this…” Anu had turned and pointed a challenging finger at the matron after getting over the initial surprise. Everyone gasped, surprised at her effrontery. Even if they all thought so no one dared voice it.

“The pool of rebirth chooses who is right for which post,” her grandmother had replied with a smile, seemingly taking no offense.

“Bullshit!” Anu hissed, her face looking like a crazed woman’s as she turned a wicked gaze through the crowd to stop on Tara.

“Come here, child.” Anu’s grandmother had arrived before her. A loud slap resounded on her cheek as her grandmother took her away, putting the awkward moment to an end. After that day, everything changed.

“I wait for the day two of you would truly be friends as it had always been right from the beginning,” Alake murmured.

You wish. “Why is there such a foolish rule that no one should teleport within the halls,” Tara hissed, changing the topic as they could finally sight the quarters of the matron after half-running, half-walking for a better part of seven minutes.

“So everyone wouldn’t be hooked up on using magic so much you will make an error and teleport in the real world,” Alake replied.

Tara nodded to the battlemages guarding the doors as they voiced their greeting, stepping inside the anteroom as they opened the doors.

“Tara, grandmother.” Ella, her best friend stood to her feet where she was seated on a soft couch and came towards them.

“Ella.” Tara nodded towards her with a forced smile and turned to the entrance of the room behind.

“She’s waiting for you,” Ella said somberly, looking down at her feet as Tara tried to catch her eye.

Something was wrong. Tara left them standing in the anteroom and hurried inside. She arrived beside the huge fluffy bed where her grandmother lay and gasped as she caught sight of her.

Her grandmother was looking so unlike how she had left her just yesterday, with long pale green veins all over her gnarled ebony skin and the stench of death thick over her. Her golden arcane marks glowed faintly from her magic which seemed to be the only thing still keeping her alive.

“Mama,” Tara hissed as her eyes filled up quickly and her tears began to fall in torrents.

“Little princess,” Her grandmother called her in a near whisper. Tara quickly moved to assist her as she tried to seat up, putting a pillow behind her.

“Mama…” Tara began.

“Assist me in putting up a sound barrier.” She slowly reached a hand up which Tara grabbed, and began to link their magic.

“I can…”

“Together.” The staff of Osoro in her grandmother’s other hand began to cast a soft white light as she summoned power from it.

Tara gasped as a heavy stream of power rushed through her through the link. It was nothing like she had ever sensed before. Under the direction of her grandmother, she began to set up the barrier, casting a tight net.

For a moment her heart was filled with wonderment as her grandmother showed her how to wield the powerful magic, making her see magic through another lens.

They completed the spell in a minute, but her grandmother did not stop, setting up a powerful protective spell beneath the barrier. From there on she took Tara through different spells; invisibility spell, spirit conjuring, gales of wind, thunderstorm, and more. Her grandmother would form the spells under the cover of the protective containment and then disperse them before they went out of hand.

“That is how to wield the scepter of Osoro,” she said finally, bringing the spells to an end. It took a while before Tara could come back to.

“That was…”

“Cool right?” a sliver of a smile appeared on her grandmother’s face as she took in her expression.

“Yes.” Tara nodded, sadness clouding her visage once more.

“I’ll be leaving you soon, sooner than I expected,” Her grandmother began, making the tears burst forth from Tara silently again. “Listen attentively to me.” She suddenly reached over with a surge of strength and grabbed Tara by the shoulder.

Tara wiped her tears and stared into her grandmother’s eyes, the steel in them making her sober.

“There is a prophecy about our lineage known only to us. The other parts of the prophecy are missing except for the last line which says; for the last daughter of Osoro shall usher in a new era, darkness so thick the universe would tremble in fear, light so bright angels would bow in worship. The earth shall be lost except all twos return to one.” her grandmother said.

“The fear of the prophecy was why the matrons of the old set up the guardian family to protect the bloodline, but looking at how they’ve failed so woefully I must say that there is more to it than meets the eyes. There are people both within and outside this country who wants the entire bloodline wiped out .”

Tara’s eyes widened as she digested the news. She had heard whispers that her family was cursed and even thought it to be true sometimes. How else could it remain only two of them after tens of centuries?

“I had your father go into hiding, hoping to at least safeguard him, but then they still got him in the end.” Her grandmother burst into a heavy cough, and Tara quickly reached and supported her.

“I- I don’t have much longer. I have so much to say but I can’t hold on anymore.” She shivered visibly for a moment before bringing herself under control with magic. She reached into the folds of her robe and brought out a copper neck chain with a smooth round bronze pendant the size of a small egg.

“This belonged to Osoro and had been passed down our lineage since time immemorial. It is said to possess great powers, but none of us have ever been able to tap into it.”

Tara bent her head as her grandmother wore it over her head, and then she pushed it under her clothes so it rested upon her skin. She hissed as a burning pain struck her where the chain rested on her skin, and when she looked down it was gone. But she could still sense it as it bonded with her. Tara turned a questioning gaze to her grandmother.

“Go, don’t wait up for me,” her grandmother said to the empty air, staring at nothing.

“Mama…” Tara hissed in a broken voice as she saw the darkness that slowly clouded her eyes.

Light quickly returned to her grandmother’s eyes again and she turned to her “Open up, I’ll transfer all my powers to you before I go.”

“What? No!” Tara hissed. “That would mean…”

“Yes, that would mean losing my soul and never having a chance to reincarnate, but then I don’t want to reincarnate into this world.”

“Mama I-”

“It is not up for argument,” Her grandmother fired in her hard voice which brooked no argument. She reached up softly and caressed Tara’s cheek, wiping away the tears that streamed down. “I want you to know that I’m proud of you, all the way. Ever since I knew of your existence I knew that I wouldn’t be there to always protect you, and so I have been preparing myself to this day, storing a great bulk of my powers within the scepter of Osoro. Beyond that, I’m going to try something that has never been done before, something that might mean your death too if we are not careful, so no matter what don’t struggle and just follow the flow.”

The tears continued streaming down uninhibitedly as her grandmother tapped into the scepter once more and began to draw from it. The wrinkles in her face began to recede fast; her face began to smoothen as her old visage began to grow younger, white hair blacker and longer till she looked to be in her late twenties. Her skin glowed brightly, the arcane marks lightning up the barrier surrounding them. “Open up!”

Tara let her in, gasping in ecstasy as power flowed into her like torrents of a flood, this time melding with her perfectly. At a point, her magic rose as if to rebel, but she brought it under control through sheer force of will.

“This has to work, and if it does never let anyone know about its existence. Keep everything happening right now hidden for as long as you can. It would be your last resort.” The arcane marks on her body then began to slowly peel off and attach themselves to Tara, forming new lines of gold on her body.

Tara closed her eyes, growling under the wave of pain that came with it. The arcane marks destabilized the flow of her magic, she didn’t understand them, they were not a part of her, and so they began to attack her. Immediately her grandmother was there, soothing the marks, calling to them like you would a child.

She did something with her magic and Tara felt like a new wave of blood had entered her veins. The marks then began to meld with her, rushing so fast from her grandmother to her body that she couldn’t help but moan in pleasure. It seemingly continued for long minutes and then it stopped.

“Beware the darkness…” her grandmother hissed in a whisper and drew away. Her words threw Tara into shock as a feeling of déjà vu hit her. These were the same words her father said before he teleported her away during the attack that claimed his life.

 It took her a minute before she regained clarity and turned to her grandmother. "Mama, What--?"

Dead, blank eyes stared back at her.

Her grandmother looked dry as if drained of blood. She was dead.

“Mama!” her voice thick with grief resounded within the room, breaking both the protective barrier and sound barrier in one move.

“Tara,” Alake and Ella called from outside the room, running towards her.

In brief, a moment of clarity Tara allowed the gold arcane marks which now took a larger part of her skin to quickly recede and quieted her magic before she reached for her grandmother and broke into a mournful sob.