The Resolution

It is early in the morning and Mukura wakes up, sweating and everything around her levitating and almost screams but holds her mouth. Fascinated by everything she was doing in her sleep she continues to move the things in the air. Monalisa knocks on the door and she lose control and the floating objects fall on the ground. 

“What is going on in there?” she shrieked trying to break the door down.

She jumps off the bed, looks around there are things everywhere and there is no time to clean up. And Monalisa is still trying to bring down the door.  

Opens the door, “You are up early!” Mukura says with only her head out the door.

“And you are up late, that is unusual. Are you doing okay in there? Thought I heard a noise,” she tries to look inside to see but there is nothing there on the floor anymore, “What happened in here? Sounded like something fell and made a disaster!”

“You might be right but it is not that bad, let me fix it up fast and come right out and do my chores!” 

“Ohh no, you are sick! From today onward, until I have cleared you up to be well and fit to do chores. So, I gave that honour to our little ones and me also will be doing some chores. But do come out and eat! And I don’t want to hear you try to talk me out of this one!”

She stares at Monalisa for a little while, “Alright then, seems like you have already made a decision so I will just go along with it. Let me clean up my mess in here and then come right out.”

“Good, I will be waiting for you.” Monalisa turns to leave

Mukura closes her door and turns and put her back against the door, breathes heavily and looks around and could not believe what she is seeing. The mess in her room gone. Everything back in place. And she begins wondering about how and why things were levitating in her room and why everything went back to normal. 

“Ohh, well!” she leaves her room, straight for the kitchen.

“Good Morning!” Takada greets Mukura as soon as she gets into the kitchen.

She freezes, looking at her mother, she feels like dropping some eye water. Those words she has not heard from her mother in a long time, fervour but cannot explode, to show excitement she keeps calm.

“Good morning, Mom, how are you doing today!”  she responds calmly.

“I am doing good and how are you doing today?” Takada asks her and she freezes again.

It feels like she can live in this moment of warmth forever whether it is real.

“I am feeling a little better now, thank you!” Mukura sits down on the table with the others for the first time in a long time.

The two younger siblings greet her also, seems like Monalisa shouting made some changes to everything that has been going on. They bow their heads and pray and eat the breakfast silently. The experience for Mukura is exhilarating and feels like forever. But there are still those visions that felt real and the levitating objects in her room when she woke up. And her mind is start between telling them about the visions or not. But after what was said about her by her mother when she was blind, withholding seems to be the only choice she has or else she will lose even her sister’s trust.

“Monalisa!” she calls her sister.

“Yes, what is it!”

“Can you tell me a bit about our family history?” she enquires.

“Of course, I can! But right now, we are in the middle of eating.”

“Oh, okay, I was kind of hoping you would tell me so I can know what to look for at the library!”

“Your father, came from a long line of powerful magical people who acted as spirit mediums! Gifted with different kinds of magical abilities per member. But a rarest development occurred whereby one is born with all the magical attributes and is said to be able to summon gods without even needing any preparations! But has only happened on numerable occasions.”  Takada interjects and tells Mukura a bit of the family history.

“Is that really true?” she questions for clarification trying to keep her a dull facial expression from appearing.

 “Yes, it is true, and when you were a baby, a lot of people came to ask your father to connect them to their ancestors and I used to think he was a trickster but later on he showed me his magical attribute which was air. And he always said his magic is stronger because you exist and that you were divine!”

Her eyes are filled with joy and sadness at the same time, knowing her father loved her so and thought her to be the source of his strength and called her divine and her mother has talked to her much without scolding her for the first time in a long time and she can barely remember the time she felt her mother’s love. 

“Thank you, Mom!” she shows appreciation with a smile.

“You are welcome, and you should drop by the library to polish up on the history, read up on the village of Domboguru but it is found in the mythological books side.”

“Thank you, mother.”

She gets up from the table. 

“Whoa, young lady, finish up eating first and then you can go to the library! And since you are not well, it is only the library and back home!” Takada stops her and instructs her further. 

“Thank you, I will be sure to be back home after I have found what I will be looking for!” Mukura answers sitting down.

Monalisa stares at both of them smiling. What she had been trying to accomplish in a long time is now happening and their mother is attending to the child she had segregated for a long-time.  Whether it is real or not, she does not mind just that feeling that no one is being alienated is what is important.

Mukura finishes her food and runs straight to her room to prepare.

“She did not even put away her plate she just ran off!” Takada highlights the mistake.

“Oh mom, give her a break it is just a moment of excitement, I will put them away!” she defends Mukura, “I am glad you are trying to be nice and accommodative of her, among all of us your children, she is the best one you have!” she puts light on the fact.

“But you are the one who is wise though!” she praises her.

“Let me prepare and take her to the library!” she gets up off the table and puts all the dishes away, “Where are your younger children?” 

She points at the direction of their bedrooms, “They got tired and mad about doing chores and went to sleep!” 

“See mom? You spoiled them much. It’s time to mould them into good children.” She leaves begins cleaning the dishes. 

Takada leaves the kitchen to go and check on Natasha and Taylor.

An hour later, the two are in the car headed for the library with Monalisa on the wheel. Mukura seems thoughtful and stressed about something.

“Are you alright?” Monalisa asks Mukura.

She wakes up from her deep thoughts, “Yes, yes, I am good!” she answers quickly.

“Come on! You know that you can tell me anything.”

Mukura looks at Monalisa with tearful eyes. She does not speak but looks at her sister begins pondering some more. With the images of what she has seen flashing in her mind, trying to understand what it meant and why everything that has been happening to her.

“I am scared sis, I am scared that I do not know what is happening to me!” she begins crying.

“Heyy, do not worry! Everything is going to be okay.” She tries to calm her down.

“I don’t think so sis, not this time.” 

Monalisa stops the car on the side of the road and looks at Mukura, who is sobbing and tears racing down her cheeks. 

“What is it Mukura, what do you mean nothing is going to be alright!” 

“Those blackouts I was having yesterday? They were more like visions!”

“What do you mean visions? And what did you exactly see?” she asks keeping herself so calm.

“They were visions of things that happened centuries ago, at least I think and everything felt so real. I was seeing a woman wearing army gear and holding a stuff that looked like a magic stuff and that same women I saw her wearing a nice garment holding up a bowl.” she pauses for a second and her hand begins shaking, “And she felt anything but good! Her essence felt evil.”

“What did this woman look like and what was she doing?”

“You believe me?” 

“With our family history? How can I not believe you little sister!” Monalisa puts her hand on Mukura’s cheek, “But you probably should not tell mom, it will make her paranoia worse! You can tell me all this later, right now let me get you to the library, so you can conduct your research. Buckle Up!”

She laughs scratching her eyes, “Okay!”

The two continue their drive to the library talking and laughing.

Get to the library and Mukura gets out of the car and rushes into the library. 

Monalisa gets her head out of the car through the window, “I will pick you up after exactly 2 hours, would you like me to bring you anything to eat?” 

“Yes! Ice-cream and chocolate and a drink too!”

“That does not sound healthy!” Monalisa resounds her concern shaking her head. 

“I already had a healthy dish in the morning!” she runs into the library. 

As she walks in the library going to look for the mythological books she bumps into a person while looking around.

“I am so sorry!” she says picking up the books he dropped, “It is all my fault I was not looking!”

“I will not deny that fact but it is also kind of my fault Mukura!” he states with a smile on his face, “Still as clumsy as ever I see!”

She cannot believe what she is hearing and is lost as to how to respond or look up at the person. She continues looking down on the ground filled with shyness, never been taught how to keep her cool and right now she needs to do so. Enfeebled in this situation and it is taking her time that she should be using to research before Monalisa returns to pick her up. She gets up comes face to face with her ex-boyfriend Gurudza who she had dumped after being forced to do so by her mother and kept her distance up until now.

“Hi, long time, how have you been and how are you.” he keeps it cool looking at her in the eye hiding his excitement to see her. 

Mukura shy her face away, “You know this and that but everything has been much better, I have not seen you in months, what have you been up to?”

“Well, you have been avoiding me, well at least it feels like it and also there is school tying me down as you can see!” 

“Okay, okay that is good!” she brushes him from being the main thing in her mind remembering she has a task to do.

Gurudza notices that her mind is somewhere else and for a second, he starts to debate whether to ask her what it is that is bothering her or to just leave her be?

“Hey, umm, do you mind me asking what is going on? Because you seem to be troubled by something and distracted by something, a little jumpy it seems,” he sounds concerned.

“Nothing much, just that time has been ticking ever since I got here and my sister will be back in an hour and some minutes and I have not even made progress to find what I want to find.” She is frustrated and cannot stand still and he notices.

“Ohh, did you by any chance take your time to enquire with the librarian to help you find what you are looking for?” he offers her a suggestion.

“Thank you, Gurudza! My mind is probably too clouded, I could not think of that. Thank you, I think I am going to do just that now!”

She hugs him a bit and rushes off to search for a librarian. 

“Huh, so like her, she did not even say goodbye. Better be on my way before I am banned from the library after making such noise!” He smiles and continues on his way also.

Her search is made short by finding a librarian close to the mythology section and she rushes to him.

Hello, sir, can you assist me on how and where to find Ancient texts? Specifically, those surrounding the Domboguru.” she asks looking around.

“That is good, you are one of the few who knows what they are looking for at least and luckily what you are looking for is not hard to find. Follow me!” the librarian leads the way to the source of information, “What are you looking for specifically? Domboguru has many mythological stories associated with many creatures!”

“Specifically, the witches, the mythological ones, those said to have possess immense power!” she pin point clarifying what she is looking for.

 The librarian looks at her in terror over what she said.

“What?” she asks.

“Why the dark dimension?”

She sighs, “It’s just school research. And I want to bring them something that is ahhh………... unique and not baby tales.”

Relieved upon hearing of the project he starts looking for the books, “You want to be the outstanding student? I cannot deny that it is not commendable.”

He lays out all the books for her to do her research and tells her to research in the room while he goes out to handle some business. 

Browsing through one of the books, Mukura stumbles upon a familiar face in the book and she reads the stories for a while. And starts thoroughly reading again! Seeing the face in pictures and paintings illustrated in the book. And she pulls out her phone and starts taking pictures of the pages, so that she can read when she gets home. 

Right after she is done she begins reading again. Time elapses fast and Monalisa returns with what she had said she would love to eat and they went home.

Get home and head straight for her room and closes the door. And begins reading everything again after transferring them into her laptop. 

“Who are you lady!” she asks in a low voice.

She received all her answers while reading the pictures she had taken from the book. That the woman in the book was known as the most powerful witch and sorceress in the Domboguru chiefdom during her time and that her name was Gwanhoya and also that she was a member of the council of the chiefdom. 

“Gwanhoya huh? I think I have ran across your name before. But where and when did I come across your name?” she dips into her mind to search but cannot find the answer and decides to keep on reading.

“Ohh, there seems to be a magic spell here!” she increases her focus, “Ohh a spell to summon a spirit, should be easy,” she grabs a pen and paper and begins writing down the requirements and leaves in a hurry to get them.

After sometime she returns and sets up the candles, Azan flower between them, in front of the black mirror she had taken and place in front of herself. She lights up the candle and begins chanting the words on the witch spell text. 

“It is he who gives life and causes death. And when he decides upon a thing he says to it only: ‘Be!’ – and it is.” She chants repeatedly for three times while her eyes are closed. 

Dark thick smoke emerges and rises from the candles and fear takes a grip on her. Frightened she goes and tucks herself into the corner of her room sneaking her eye to see what is coming. A dark unholy feeling enshrouds the room and her body begin to shake involuntarily. She does not blink an eye just in case something emerges from the dark thick smoke. 

Slowly Gwanhoya emerges from the smoke and the uneasy feeling becoming denser with her soul manifesting into the mortal realm. Mukura cannot master the courage and strength needed to confront the spirit of Gwanhoya. 

“Come out child!” Gwanhoya calls her out, “It is futile for you to try and hide from me!”

Mukura, masters a little courage and out of the corner she goes to face this woman that just emerged from the dark thick smoke. 

“Who, who are you? And, nd, umm why do you look like my sister?” she tries to speak with authority but the stammering blocks the authority.

“I do not know what you are talking about child!” Gwanhoya denies speaking a distorted voice.

Mukura takes a picture of her and Monalisa and shows it to Gwanhoya. Gwanhoya looks at it closely.

“What wizardry is this?” Surprise and confusion echoes in her voice.

“Now answer me! Why the hell do you look like my sister?” she gains some confidence.

“If this is your sister, then correction child! Your sister looks like me.” She regains her composure and places her hands behind her back, “may I ask who you are supposed to be?”

“I am one of your descendants and my name is Mukura!” she speaks boldly looking directly at Gwanhoya.

“That would explain why you were able to summon my spirit from the land of the dead!” she pauses for a second looking at her, “So what element do you command?”

“I do not understand, what do you mean by ‘element I command’?”

“I see, so you still have a lot to learn!” Gwanhoya sounds disappointed.

“Yes, maybe, that is not the point so why answer my question, why do you look like my sister?”

“I think you already have the answer to that little girl!” she listens for a moment and there is no other person nearby, “So, how can I be of assistance to you?”

Mukura runs to the door touches the handle ……...

“There is no one around!” Gwanhoya stops Mukura from checking, Mukura turns around.

“And how you know that?” 

“It is one of the things you should be able to do, I will teach you but for now tell me how I can assist you!”

“Okay, okay here we go. Umm, I have been having visions the first one I saw, there was a woman dressed like a warrior holding a shield. A snake head knob staff raising it into the sky facing something, that is the first one,” she pauses for a second looking a Gwanhoya’s face which has undivided focus, “The second one, I fall back into the darkness again and this time I appear at a different place, a place filled with malice and wreaks of death and there is the woman again bowing down wearing different clothing from before and appear to be praying holding a bowl in the air and the vision ends,” and she stops talking and they stare at each other for a while.

“Then the last one I see the same woman being burned alive!” she shivers, “It was scary!”

“I see, there is too much to do.” She stops talking for a little while thinking of a way to answer Mukura with a satisfying answer.

Gwanhoya pulls out a lump of darkness, splits it into two and hand over the two lumps to Mukura.  

“One will direct you to where you want to go and the other one, will assist you with the knowledge you will need to do what needs to be done!” she discloses the functions of the lumps, “The one that will guide you, hold it up in front of you and utter these words, ‘take me to the heart of everything’ it will guide you to a place where you will get into a cave and then eat the other lump!” she instructed.

“What will happen after I eat the lump?”

“You will get the knowledge and strength required to do what should be done!”

Confused by what she means she asks for clarification, “And what is this that has to be done?”

Gwanhoya smiles, “You will know soon!” she fades back into the darkness.

Mukura cleans up her room fast, before anyone comes to find what she was doing and jumps on her bed to sleep. Thinking of everything, whether she must do as Gwanhoya said or not. 

With the images flashing in her mind, she sits up shakes her head, takes a pillow, bite it and screams inside it and falls back down on the bed. Reaching a decision is hard for her at the moment but she wants to learn how to use her power and also more about her family’s past. 

“It is settled then, I will go and find out although this is going to be scary!”

A knock comes from her door.

“Heyy baby girl! Are you in there?” that is Monalisa’s voice.

“Yes, I am! Let me come to the door real quick.” She gets off the bed and rushes to open up the door and back on her bed. 

Monalisa enters into the room, “Is everything okay in here!” she looks around the room smells like something was burning.

“What do you mean?” 

“The smell in here, smells like something was burning in here!” she continues to scout around, “Are you sure everything is okay?”

Mukura looks at Monalisa thinking of what to say that will pull her attention away from the smell and scouting for the reason behind the burning smell. 

“Ohh, I was trying to wax my body a bit! But it did not go as well as I thought it would be. Regardless of the failures I struggles for a while and I gave up recently!” she throws a lie in Monalisa’s face and stares at her waiting to see if she will buy it.

“Well, that explains the little wax on the floor!” she points at the spot and Mukura jumps to see what she is talking about, “I am now going to round up cooking dinner, just thought I should check on you!”

“Thank you, sis!” she smiles closing her eyes.

“Anytime! Maybe tomorrow we can go and get a proper beauty treatment somewhere?” 

“Let us do a rein check.”

“Okay, rest a bit and tell me after you have thought it through!” she leaves the room leaving Mukura alone.