The last song of the ancestors

It was the second day after Akachi and Fadala's arrival. Mashal still hadn't returned and wasn't answering Feruzi's calls. Azekel tried to keep everyone calm, showed confidence in his companion and declared that he would be back soon. The Ilê Apanyan agent, using his instincts, soon realized that something was wrong.

Akachi, with his grandfather, began to help the community. Whenever his grandson spoke about mediumship, the old man said nothing. He seemed to show no interest in the subject. The young medium insisted, asked curiously about his Ofó, but Azekel pretended not to hear. He soon moved on to something else and asked his grandson to concentrate on the task at hand.

"No, Grandpa Azekel, please! What is the name of your Ori Guardian? Yasini helped me get to know my mediumistic profile, what is your mediumistic profile?"

"Akachi, be careful, lift that part."

The pair were supporting a long concrete pillar. It was being used to reinforce the rooms of a house under construction. Their legs trembled under the weight and the long bar became unbalanced.

"We should use Axé to do this faster, then we'll have more time to talk."

The veins popped out of Azekel's forehead. He sniffed heavily through his nostrils and muttered angrily:

"Don't be lazy, boy! Ancestry is no toy."

"Why are you yelling at me?"

The argument raised both their tempers. What was supposed to be an activity to bring the family closer together, generated stress. Sweat poured down their faces. The two of them tried to balance the pillar, but it collapsed to the ground with a long bang. A curtain of dust rose, and grandson and grandfather, between accusations and bouts of coughing, looked at each other.

Azekel picked up his beret and tapped it on his grandson's shoulder, not in anger, but to wipe off the dust. Akachi scratched the back of his head and gave an awkward smile. They both sat down on the beam and blew all the air out of their lungs. The ex-sage took a bottle of water and gave it to his grandson.

"Thanks, Grandpa."

"Sometimes you remind me of your father, and I feel like hitting you. Stubborn like nothing I've ever seen. Then I remember your mother Fuhara… then I want to hit you even harder, you and your father are very different from her, hohoho."

"What was she like?"

"She was a good wife and an excellent daughter-in-law. She suffered a risky pregnancy and gave her life to keep you alive. She wasn't a medium, but she was a true warrior. She fought for her life until the end."

"I don't have any images of her…"

"She was a kind woman. She cooked well and kept the house in complete order. But she had a strong temper too, she asked your father to marry her, hohoho."

"That's not really what I wanted to know, I guess."

"You're very fussy about details, you know that? Well, she was a young woman, in her early twenties when she got pregnant with Adisa. Fuhara came from the East Coast to work in Ilu Nla, ah! She liked bongo flava. Her father and she were a good contrast."

Akachi tried to mentalize the image of his mother. It was the only thing he could do. He didn't even have a photograph of her. He couldn't remember her face. In his memories, he relived the days spent in the hospital, the examination rooms, the hopeless faces of the doctors, the condescending attitude of the nurses.

Adisa's face appeared blurred, shrouded in a persistent shadow. Only her eyes were visible. Hard eyes, almost as cold as those of a statue. The young medium couldn't understand why. His grandfather's face had become clear, and when he found it, he immediately related his grandfather's features to his memories and Azekel.

Even under those conditions, the relationship between father and son was not good. The father showed such blind concern for his son's healing that he forgot to support him and pay attention to Akachi like a father. The boy wouldn't forgive him. The tests and experimental treatments seemed like real torture sessions.

The teenager clutched his knees. His body began to tremble. Azekel shook his shoulder lightly. The grandson looked up at him, and in a choked voice, asked his grandfather:

"Grandpa, I don't want to be alone anymore."

"You're not alone, not anymore."

The two hugged. Akachi had his fears, and only the comfort of a family reunion could ease his suffering. In his memories, he lived surrounded by people, but he lived alone. Even his father, he saw almost every day, but he couldn't see him. He didn't feel like a son, but like a guinea pig. He wanted to find his father again and resolve the situation.

"But that's nice! Bunch of lazy males."

Siffffffffff! An explosive fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the pair. Before it exploded, the pair broke free from the embrace and ran away. However, the firework sword burned out its entire wick and failed to detonate. It emitted a high-pitched whistle and gave off a small puff of smoke. The pair came out of cover. They looked up.

On the zinc roof of a house, Spin Bomb was laughing. He threw his legs up in the air, put his hands on his belly and began to roll from one side of the roof to the other.

Azekel and Akachi jumped off the roof, rolled up their sleeves. They both pointed at the girl at the same time and shouted menacingly:

"YOU IDIOT! You almost scared us to death."

"Gee, old man, you should have seen the look on your faces."

"Start praying Spin Bomb, you'll turn into an ancestor."

"Not at all, Akachi, only if I don't catch her first."

"Wait, wait, wait a minute, you lot! You've been playing construction worker all morning and it was hard to find you here. This place is kind of big, you know? My master told me to bring you, Mashal has arrived. He's brought news."

Suddenly, Fenyang appeared between the two mediums. He had stayed away so that his grandson and grandfather could be close. At that moment, his intuition was stimulated by Spin Bomb's words.

Akachi stared at him and raised an eyebrow. Guardian Ori and the medium felt a strange sensation. A slight feeling of anguish was shared between them. Azekel didn't seem to be indifferent to this feeling. Together with his grandson and the spirit, they followed the girl to the rebel camp's command center.