Say Walah

45: Written In Stone And Water

The clouds rolled in like an army, dark and purposeful, swallowing stars one by one. Nne ogwu's prophecy taking shape in the heavens – the storm that would shield our strike against the Onowu's heart.

I reached up as the first raindrop fell, catching it in my palm. A soft sound behind me made me turn.

"Always trying to catch the uncatchable," Mairo said, her voice carrying that slight accent that marked her as foreign to our lands. The golden eyes that had unsettled so many when she first arrived watched me with familiar warmth. They reminded me of Wago, my jaguar – that same wild intelligence, that same unfathomable depth.

"Some things are worth trying to catch," I replied, watching how the rising wind played with loose strands of her dreadlocks. Even in the dying light, her beauty struck me like a physical thing. The sharp angles of her face, softened by a smile that held secrets. The graceful way she moved, like a dancer who had learned to carry blades.

"Like justice?" She moved closer, standing beside me to watch the approaching storm. "Or vengeance?"

"Sometimes they're the same thing." I felt the air change between us, charged like the sky before lightning strikes.

"Rimi used to say there was a difference." Her voice caught slightly on her sister's name. "She said justice heals, while vengeance just makes a bigger wound."

"You sound like her when you say wise things." The words slipped out before I could catch them.

She turned to me, those golden eyes searching my face. "Is that why you avoid being alone with me? Because I remind you of her?"

The question caught me off guard. "No," I said honestly. "I avoid being alone with you because you remind me of you."

A heartbeat of silence. Then, "What does that mean?"

The rain was falling steadily now, but neither of us moved to seek shelter. "It means..." I struggled to find the right words. "It means that every time I see you practicing with your knives at dawn, or grow and mix your healing herbs, or standing up to traders who try to cheat the elderly... every time I see you being uniquely, completely yourself, I..."

"You what?" Her voice had gone soft, almost lost in the sound of rain.

"I forget to breathe," I admitted. "Just for a moment. Like I've been struck."

She stepped closer, close enough that I could see the raindrops catching in her eyelashes. "Is that why you never volunteered to train me? To have an excuse not to be struck speechless regularly?"

Despite everything, I laughed. "I never volunteered because you're a natural fighter who deserves proper training. The breathless moments are just... complications."

"Complications," she repeated, testing the word. "Is that what we're calling this thing between us?"

Thunder rolled in the distance. "Mairo..." The weight of tomorrow's mission pressed against my chest. "Nobody knows what awaits us after tomorrow night. Not even Nne ogwu. If... if perhaps the gods don't will it that I return, I want you to know—"

Her finger lingered on my lips. "Let's not speak about tomorrow when we have the present," she whispered, rain running down her face like tears. "Tomorrow can sort itself out."

She rose on her toes, replacing her finger with her lips. The kiss was gentle at first, tentative as a question, warm despite the cool rain. Everything else seemed to fade – the thunder, the mission, the weight of destiny. There was only this moment, only her.

When she began to pull away, I drew her back, my hands cradling her face. This kiss held every word we couldn't say, a language of unspoken promises and shared fears, mingling with a hunger that matched the storm roiling above us. Lightning flashed, bathing the world in a fleeting, brilliant light, and thunder followed like the beating of our hearts—deep, insistent, inescapable. Our bodies pressed close, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle that had waited lifetimes to be whole. Beneath my hands, her skin was warm and rain-soaked, and I could feel the wild thrum of her heartbeat echoing my own. This kiss was fiercer, a fire that devoured the silence between us, ignited by everything we hadn't said and all we feared the future might take from us.

We made love there, under the pounding rain and the fury of the storm, with lightning illuminating our bodies, thunder our witness. The rain drummed on our skin, mingling with the heat between us, until there was nothing else in the world but her and this moment we had stolen from fate. The air was the storm, charged with something beyond us, and as we moved together, every heartbeat, every touch became an affirmation that for this fleeting, fragile instant, we were timeless.

Nlecha found Nne ogwu standing motionless in the rain, her white hair turned silver by the water, her eyes fixed on the distant darkness. Lightning flashed, illuminating the knowing smile on her face.

"Should we interrupt them?" Nlecha asked softly, coming to stand beside the elder woman. "The meeting is about to begin, and—"

"Let them have this moment," Nne ogwu replied, her voice carrying despite the thunder. "The paths ahead are dark, and moments of light are rare treasures."

Nlecha shifted uncomfortably. "But the prophecy you spoke of... about sacrifice and loss..."

"Some things are written in stone," Nne ogwu said, touching the beads in her hair that clinked softly in the rain. "Others are written in water. Even I cannot always tell which is which." She turned to face Nlecha, her eyes reflecting the lightning. "Love has its own power, its own magic. Sometimes it can rewrite destinies."

"And sometimes it makes the pain worse," Nlecha countered, thinking of old wounds. "When the sacrifice comes..."

"When the sacrifice comes, it will come," Nne ogwu cut in sharply. "But tonight..." She looked back toward where Mairo and I were hidden by rain and shadow. "Tonight belongs to them. The gods themselves pause to watch when true hearts meet."

Another crash of thunder, and Nlecha saw something unusual – tears mixing with the rain on Nne Ogwu's cheeks.

"You've seen something," Nlecha realized. "Something about their future."

"I've seen many futures," Nne ogwu whispered. "Some bright, some dark. Some where love conquers death, others where death conquers all. But this moment..." She closed her eyes. "This moment exists in all of them. Like a stone thrown into water, creating ripples that change everything that follows."

"Should they know?"

"They already know," Nne ogwu said, opening her eyes. "In their hearts, they know this might be their only night. It's why they seize it so fiercely." She turned, her wet robes swirling. "Come. We have preparations to make. Let them have their sanctuary in the storm."

As they walked away, Nlecha glanced back one last time. Another flash of lightning illuminated two figures wrapped in each other's arms, oblivious to anything but their own private world.

"May the gods be kind," Nlecha whispered.

"The gods are never kind," Nne ogwu replied softly. "But sometimes... sometimes love is stronger than the gods themselves."

They disappeared into the compound, leaving us to our stolen moment of eternity, while the prophecied storm raged on overhead.

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