"for the beauty of the rose, we also water the thorns."
Descendant of Loa lineage, Karliah Shango stems from masters of Haitian and the old Oyo Empire Vodou. After the nuclear wipe out, she finds herself thrown into leadership with little comprehe...
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Karliah swatted Michael's hand from it's place on her cheek, backing away from him. "I don't have to tell you shit," her voice dripped with venom.
"What other choice do you have?" he jested, his blue eyes glinted mischievously.
She crossed her arms, her gaze flickering amongst the room until her eyes fell upon the wooden door behind him.
"Unless you'd like to be killed, I suggest you keep to this room."
"What happened to me being powerful enough to kill everyone?" She took a step forward, staring up at him with a daring gaze. Michael peered down at her, a smirk playing at his lips.
"I wasn't referring to them."
A sudden huff of a laugh passed Karliah's nose, an amused grin growing on her lips. "You think you could kill me?" she mused.
A defiant look lined Michael's features, concealing the unease growing within the pit of his stomach. He rolled his shoulders back, silently answering her through his stone cold gaze.
Karliah nodded slowly, "I was just seconds away from crushing your windpipe, wasn't I?" her words came out more as a statement rather than a question. "I also saw the fear in your eyes in the face of the Loa. So I suggest you learn your place, Mr. Langdon."
The event that'd been playing in his head for several nights grew louder with every word to pass her lips. A sly smile met his face, "You seem more certain than you were the first time we met," he noted.
"Because, I'm beginning to understand just what you are Michael," Karliah's eyes beamed into the man's sea of a gaze. "I grew up on stories about demons like you, and you seem to share the same cowardly, egotistic characteristics as every single one of them." she spat.
He blinked slowly, his features growing humored. His arms rested behind his back, a deep breath running through his nose.
"You may house an infinite amount of power within that little head of yours, but understand this," he muttered in a low tone, "You can barely control your powers. If I wanted to, I could've torn you skin from bone the second you appeared in here."
She gave him a suspecting expression, "If you wanted to?"
He tilted his head, his hair running over his shoulder in turn. "What a waste that would be," his knuckle ran over her stained cheek. "Someone has to teach you how to use these powers you harbor."
Before Karliah could respond, he pulled away.
"So," he began, striding over to his desk, taking a seat at his chair with ease. He crossed his legs, lying his forearms along the armrests as she watched him from a distance. "Why don't you explain just what you are, Karliah?"
"I already told you, I'm not-"
"I don't care," he practically sang, "Unless you can find it in you to teleport yourself out of my presence, this is your only option."
He chuckled at the sight of the girl reluctantly rolling her eyes, trudging towards him. She sat opposite of him on the edge of his bed, staring at the ground as she collected her thoughts.
"In simplest terms," she sighed, "My mother is the daughter of Marie Laveau and the descendant of the Loa Marinette. My father is the son of Kweku Shango, the last man of the Oyo Empire and the great-great grandson of the Loa Ṣàngó."
His brows drew together, "Marie Laveau's daughter was taken by a loa in return for her immortality."
"Yes. He brought my mother back," she paused, her grandfather's words running laps in her head. "He brought her back to give birth to me, said something about me being the strongest vodou queen and leading the chosen four descendants to save the world from the end of times." she trailed off with a chuckle, almost as if the whole concept was comical to her.
Michael only stared at her, distinct concern in his face. "You were birthed to save the world... from the end of the world?"
She nodded slowly in response, meeting his gaze, almost certain his blue eyes glinted with that of distress.
He glanced to the ground for a moment, pondering upon his thoughts. Karliah bit her lip, "When I visited my granpapa, he saw the mark on my cheek," Michael perked up at her words, "... I asked him, and Legba, why I was seeing you,"
The girl looked down, picking at her nails, "They said something about me having some type of connection to you."
Michael stared at her intently, his fingers resting against his lips.
She shrugged in response to his silence, "I don't know... Maybe it's just folklore like my mother says. It's just-"
"Karliah? Mwen cheri, can you hear me?"
She froze, lips parting in shock as her father's voice echoed in her head. Michael frowned as she stood, "What is it?"
Karliah shook her head, shushing him abruptly, "Do you hear that?"
"Sweetheart, if you can hear us, we need you to come back... wake up." her mother's voice spoke.
Her vision suddenly fell blurry, growing black once again as her surroundings faded away.
