Way of The Pride

11| The Revelation I

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Impossible!

His chest flared, struggling to contain the erratic beat of his heart. With each breath he took his heart tugged painfully, causing a wave of discomfort to spread through his body.

A quiet stillness enveloped him, deafening him to his surroundings. Still frozen in a state of disbelief, his mind was filled with nothing but the clear image of that golden earring. Eji laughed at his pathetic state as he watched himself come undone by a mere piece of jewellery.

His feet paced restlessly about the confines of his chambers as he struggled to put meaning to what his eyes just witnessed.

It was impossible!

A favourite proverb of his late father came to mind, when a bird dances alone in the middle of the road know that a drama is happening nearby. The young man was that bird who had come to taunt him and rob him of peace.

Years of harmony and peace had gone by with more to live through in the foreseeable future and yet the mere presence of a strange man threatened to destroy everything he had ever worked for. All because of that cursed earring!

Feeling out of breath, he unfastened the knots of his robe and threw it against the wall. His legs resumed its furious pacing. This was an unprecedented situation, one he never thought he would have to face. Could there have been another earring?

Even as the thought crossed his mind he immediately rejected the idea. He forced himself to confront the cold, hard truth staring him in the face. It was undeniably true that the scorpion-shaped earring was the only one of its kind. The pads of his thumbs unconsciously traced the smooth scars branded into the flesh of his palms, the mark he got from carving the earring.

Once upon a time - before his ascension to the throne - young Eji used to be an excellent goldsmith of his youth. His creations were the envy of all among his peers, especially him who had always supported his trade when all thought him mad. As a token of gratitude for the great friendship they shared, young Eji made him a special scorpion-shaped earring.

He still remembered the look in his friend's eyes displaying the earring with pride. Echoes of his laughter drifted into his mind, his body stiffening against the onslaught of dark memories he knew would come but was helpless to stop. Blood of the innocent dripping down his hands, pain-filled eyes pleading to him for help, a bloodstained earring laying discarded on the ground.

He closed his eyes to the flood of guilt that accompanied those memories. It was the darkest moment of his life, one he had desperately wished to rectify if only he could turn back the hands of time. That unfortunate day left a mark in his soul, one he could never wash away no matter how many times he repented. Till this very day he still had nightmares of those dead eyes haunting his dreams, reminding him of his past crimes.

Now his past had come to haunt his present in the form a young man. Aniweta he was called?

Questions besieged his mind demanding to be answered.

Who was he?

Nnayi Ibezim stated that he was an apprentice he brought from Orgun Kingdom, a Kingdom he shared a strong alliance with over the years. But was there truth to the healer's words?

Did ala have a hand in this? Could the goddess have brought Aniweta before him to finally answer for his crimes and face the music? How was he connected to all this?

Thinking back to the meeting earlier, his mind started piecing together things that stood out to him. Despite his strange appearance, the young man bore no striking resemblance to him. So how did he come about the earring? There was a look of confusion on Aniweta's face when he noticed Eji's strong reaction to his earring. It made him think that he was oblivious to his ill-fated connection to the earring.