Destined

Chapter Eight

Paloma Mfusi

“The state of the palace is fatal. Things are falling apart, and you are here.”
“But I don’t know what I should do gogo, I haven’t gotten anything that is forcing me to go there.” I can’t possibly rock up to the palace without a reason.
And I surely won’t just let clues lead me there, I have to have a solid story.
“Since when do you ignore your dreams. You were given the task of being a self-initiate because you get your messages through your dreams. The problem with this whole thing you have involved your heart, and that is going to lead you astray.” I don’t understand what she means when she says  I’ve involved my heart.
I’m still getting those dreams; the palace being on fire, that weird man that told me I was his soulmate; all of these things keep appearing in my dreams, but for the first time, I’m unable to connect the pieces together.
That is why I’m here to see my mentor, I want guidance about them.
“They aren’t giving me the answers I want.” she gave me that look.
I sighed and shifted. My legs have fallen asleep.
“You know Gog’ Mfusi was the Royal seer, and was working closely with the late king before she died. That is the gift she left for you here on earth, yes you were going to inherit this bag because you were the first great-grandchild, but this job, this task, it was a gift for you specifically. She left it to you and no one is going to do it but you. You don’t want to let her down by letting all her hard work and efforts to bring back the Zulu palace into the light go to waste.”
I kept quiet.
“You have to go there before it’s too late.”
I wish I at least knew what I’m going there for, imagine rocking up there, having to stand face to face with the queen without a valid reason for my presence. I can’t just say “Hey your majesty, your home is on fire.” she will laugh in my face and have me kicked out before I can even elaborate.
“Go to the water, pray for guidance on your journey, pray for protection and strength. You are going to need it.” she said and got up from her mat.
She’s scaring me. I didn’t come here to be scared, I came here for guidance. But the quicker I understand that she’s just my mentor, not my trainer, the smoother this will go for me.

•••

I’ve called Olly and I asked her to bring her investigative skills along with her. I need more information about that man, and more importantly, I need all I can get on the royal family. I need to do this before I go to the beach.
I can hear her before I can even see her, my ears are already ringing and she hasn’t even entered the yard.
“Open up for me bestie!” I get up and go meet her at the door.
She barely greets me before she forges her way through the door. She’s carrying bags, looks like she came prepared indeed.
“Who are we stalking?”
“Hello to you to Olly.” she rolls her eyes.
“You called me to come, I’m here, who are we stalking!” she already sitting down prepping her equipment.
I go sit next to her and take out my phone.
“You remember weird ice-cream guy.” I say to her.
“You mean hot sports car guy?” I laugh.
“Yes, him.” she gives me that look.
“So you have a crush on him!?” she squeals in excitement.
“No, I don’t have a crush on him, but I think he may be from the royal family.” her eyes dilate.
“What is he in the royal family, I’ve never see him anywhere before!” she’s hooked, the royal family drives her crazy, that nothing new to me.
“I don’t know, the Prince maybe. I found his Instagram and he’s is from the Zulu family, I just don’t know who’s son he is.”
I passed her the phone and she spent at least a minute scrolling through his profile. I saw her eyes dilating, her mouth opening and closing for a moment, a frown dancing on her face before she placed my phone back on the table and started typing on the laptop.
“He’s not the prince anymore, he’s the king.” she said turning the laptop to face me.
“King?” I said picking up.
“Don’t you watch the news?” what do I need to watch the news for.
“He was ordained last week after the public reading of the king’s will. Apparently, he’s the late kings first son, we all didn’t know about him!” she spoils before I can watch the clip she has placed in front of me.
I press play and watch. This is taking place at the royal palace in Zululand, where I’m supposed to be right now. All of them are there, the royal family. A lawyer is the one presenting the will, and when he announces Prince Vukani Zulu as the regent king of Zululand, the queen is seen crying and being escorted out the room.
Chills run down my spine and I immediately pass the PC back to Olly.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, I’m guessing she’s looking at the horror on my face.
“Do you really like him? Did he find you again? Talk to me P!” she places her hand on my thigh.
For once she’s serious. She can see the horror on my face.
I gulp down the lump stuck in my throat.
“There’s something I need to take care of.” I say.
“What does it have to do with him, or the royal family?”
“I can’t tell you that Olly, but my ancestors are trying to tell me something and I need to find out what it is.” I say and stand up.
She sits there with a frown.
“So are we done here?” she asks as I make my way out the lounge.
“Yes, you will let yourself out.”
“Oh wow okay!” I don’t mean to be rude but I need to get out of here as in yesterday.
*
“Gogo I’ve been looking for answers everywhere but I haven’t been getting any. I have prayed, ngiphahlile, I consulted my bones, but nothing. Even my dreams are not coming through clearly.”
“You were given plenty of time to build immunity for this trip, but you are slowly tearing down all those walls and that is going to hinder your journey. You have one purpose and one purpose only when going to the palace, and that is to save it, and be the guide and protector. Don’t involve matters of the heart.”
“But my heart is not involved gogo.” my ears started ringing.
It’s giving me a headache. I close my ears and let out a shrill scream, my heart is suddenly starting to race.
The flames are coming up and encircling me once again. It’s hot in here and I can hear a faint scream, voices echoing in my head. I hold my head.
“Let me go! Let me go!” I feel two hands grabbing me, one on each side of me.
I can see who or what it is that is pulling me, but the other is forcing me into one direction while the other is pulling me into another.
“LET ME GO!”
I get a sudden load of strength and I gain the courage to fight them off. The fire that was surrounding me stops, am I free?

•••

I can’t seem to get myself to go into the water like I normally do when I get to the beach. I’m sitting so far away from the shore that if the water comes any closer, I feel the sudden urge to get up and run away. Something is wrong with me, my heart has been bulldozing my chest the whole day.
I know for a fact it has everything to do with these dreams I keep having, or better yet, this pending issue I keep postponing, my issue of going to Zululand. The Mfusi ancestors are making sure that they make me suffer for my terrible decisions. It feels like my heart is going to stop.
I get up and leave my shoes in the sand. I gradually make my way towards the ocean. The sun is about to set, it’s late in the afternoon of a Friday afternoon, people are slowly but surely starting to leave. I also always choose the quiet side of the beach, because sometimes my rituals may require me to do abnormal things, and not everyone should experience that.
I step a little closer, and if feels like my heart will come out of my mouth.
“Come on Paloma, you love the ocean, nothing is going to happen to you.” I said out loud, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
I’m sure I look so stupid to people who can see me.
I could hear the waves drawing closer, I kept my eyes closed and when I felt the cold water wash against my ankles, I opened my eyes. I saw the whole body of water turn blood red before I felt as if the place where my foot was placed was sinking.
I didn’t know I could run and scream until today. I wasn’t looking at where I was going, in fact, I was running with my eyes closed, trying to wash away the image of the blood…
“Hey, are you okay?” instead of looking up, I buried my head on the chest and cried.
I clung onto the stranger so much so that when my senses kicked back in, I felt so embarrassed that I let go of him and looked down.
“I’m so…”
“What’s wrong?” he lifts my chin and looks at me in the eyes.
He looks mesmerized. Its probably because my eyes have changed colour. Well not completely, I have blue eyes naturally, but they seem to look different to people when I have tears in my eyes. They really don’t change colour, its just the reflection of the tears that…
“Nothing, I’m okay.” I say and remove his hand from my face.
I don’t like being touched. I walk past him, and do a little run back to where I left my shoes and shell jar. I should have just stuck to collecting shells today, going into the ocean was a terrible idea, now people think I’m mentally unstable.
“Nkosazane, you dropped something.” there it goes again with that word, Nkosazane!
I turn around and he’s holding my waist beads in his hands. When I try to take them, he pushes his hand behind his back. I’m really not in the mood for this.
“You are the most beautiful human being I have ever laid my eyes on.” why do men of this age have no decency, is he trying to ask me out? Really.
“You can keep the beads if you don’t want to give them back, but I really don’t want to do this right now.” he saw the unimpressed expression on my face and he brought back the hand that held my beads.
“I’m just being honest with you, you are so perfect. And I just want to make sure if you are really okay, I mean you almost tripped over your own feet running.” he chuckles.
I don’t see whats funny about anything he just said. He wipes the smile off his face and folds the beads that I haven’t taken from him, and he puts them in his pocket.
“Thank you for your compliments and for your concern, I’m okay.” he then proceeds to scan me from bottom to top, and his eyes sit longer on my waist.
I clear my throat and move away from him.
“I’ll get going then.” he announces.
I really don’t care. Well I think I don’t care until I look into his eyes and I see the flames I saw in Vukani’s eyes.
I tried to blink multiple times hoping it would go away, but his eyes were glued to mine, and his were on fire. I’m the first one to back away from the eye contact, I bend down and pick up my shoes and jar, and walk away from him, as quickly as my feet can carry me.
Shit I didn’t take my beads from him! There is no way I’m going back there, this is all too good to be a coincidence. Is he also related to the royal family? I need to go to the palace as in yesterday, this is not the life I signed up for.