no man's land || kgf (slow updates)

seventeen

SOUTH AFRICA
1971

It was a small ceremony of only three people including the bride and groom. The third one being the priest. It was over in an hour. 

Nothing too fancy. No gold. No nice clothes. No waiting for the mourning period to get over. 

Before she knew it, she was sitting on his bed, her legs crossed with a family heirloom on her finger. A simple ring with a puzzling gemstone. 

One that changed colour ever so often. When she saw it that morning it glinted a lovely blue with a green undertone in the sunlight but now looking at it under the dim yellow light of the lamp, it looked a deep red. Like crystallized blood. 

She held it up, trying to see if it would change colour again, but it remained the same. 

"Alexandrite." Jabari said from his desk as he wrote a letter. "A very rare gemstone. The first of it's kind." He paused and then said in a quiet voice, "My mother's." 

There was somehting different about the way he said it. Something that took her aback. There was a long silence that followed, one that was filled with nothing but quiet breathing and the scratches of his pen on the brittle surface of the paper. 

"I have an uncle." Jabari spoke up again, breaking the quiet, "My father's own brother." Her eyes grew wide. She didn't know that. "I don't understand. How are you- " 

"He's a threat. He'll try to take over. But we can't have that." He took out an envelope from a drawer and placed the neatly folded letter in it. 

"How do you plan on extinguishing it?" She asked, leaning against the bed post. 

"That's where you come in." He said, pointedly casting her a glance over his shoulder before returning to melting the wax for the seal. 

"I need you to write him a letter. Tell him you want to side with him against me. That you have valuable information." 

"What valuable information?" 

"My plans for the next five years." 

"What?!" Her lips parted aghast. Has he lost it?

"If he's smart, he'll wait till I'm done with the harvesting and then he'll strike." 

"How is that- " 

"Think about it. The next five years he'll wait. My dear uncle is also getting old. I'll just post him in a low level job. It'll fuel his anger, but he wouldn't do anything." He said, putting out the candle's flame with his two fingers. 

"Why give him a job at all?" She asked, scrunching her nose. 

"It wouldn't look very good on my behalf. Besides, no one thinks straight when they're angry. It'll be an insult to his ego, but he wouldn't do anything for five years. And in that time, he'll be so angry that he wouldn't bother to look beyond certain things." 

She took in a deep breath.

It made sense. So much of sense. And for the first time, she felt a sliver of fear. 

Listening to him right now made her realize just how dangerous he actually was. If she had to get out of this alive, she had to be wary of the emotional and mental game that he seemed to be skilled at playing. 

At this point, it was not about winning. It was about surviving.

ELSEWHERE IN SOUTH AFRICA

"I can't believe this." Lodewikus Eusolo muttered under his breath as he rubbed his finger over the wrinkles on his forehead. 

"That little cockroach! How dare he!" He yelled, crushing the letter in his fist. 

"Calm down." Odachi, his right hand man, said calmly as he stirred his whiskey mixed coffee. 

Lodewikus whipped his head towards Odachi, eyes alight with anger, "calm down?! You want me to clam down!? I'll calm down." He said, breathing in and out manically as he got up from his armchair and walked over to the man who stood by the bar. 

"Tell me Odachi, if your brother's son takes over the empire you built and decides to give you the measly job to look after one district, what will you do? Huh?" His face was terribly close to Odachi's but the man didn't flinch. 

Instead he took a sip of the bitter drink and leaned back, elbows on the cool granite counter. "I'd let him do it." 

Lodewikus blinked before he spluttered out a laugh, "You say this because you're not the one facing it." 

Odachi gave a one shoulder shrug and set down his glass, "That's true. I'm not facing it. Directly. But when something affects your work, it affects mine. and I don't like anyone meddling with my work."

"Really?" Lodewikus asked sarcastically as he walked over to a lamp and threw the letter in, watching the orange tongues of fire lick at the white paper. 

"Admit it Lodewikus. We've grown old and senile," Odachi said sighing and Lodewikus sneered at the comment, "He's young. He has the ability to reach the farthest corners of the world." 

"So you want me to go lick his shoes till I die?!" 

"Not till you die. Only for the next five years." Lodewikus gave him a sharp look but Odachi continued, "I have insider source telling me that Jabari has plans. Plans that'll ensure his triumph over the entire gold market in five years. Let him do the hardwork. We can take over after he's done." 

"And how can you trust this..... source?" lodewikus asked raising an eyebrow. 

"It's his wife. Of course its a credible source." 

"Wife?" Well, that's new. "And she's doing that why?" 

"She wants a part," he paused and then added, "which she's not getting of course. We can take her out once we're done with him." 

Lodewikus mumbled in agreement and then asked him, "so you want me to accept it?"

author's note
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i'm literally in my boards season omg
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