Broken

Ode struggled to lift the bag of amala on his back as he moved into the palace, sweating irritably. He had spent 5 days already trying to worm himself into the inner caucus of the Nupe royalty. It had taken serious backbreaking work and long hours of hauling cahiku, a Nupe delicacy which the gods loved to eat. They were seven in number, all male and powerful. The leader was guba followed by the cranky guta then guni and gutsun, twins, followed by gutswanyi , gutwaba and the runt of the litter nini.

Losing his divinity had made him look younger so the gods never recognized him as he groveled and served at their feet. They were numerous Yoruba indigenes in Oyo who had been taken as slaves, a tall dark and muscular youth was no rarity.

Every day since he got back into Oyo, he heard Omotola’s screams as they drained and tortured her day and night. It was heart wrenching and painful to listen to and eventually the nerves of everyone was frayed by the fifth day as people were already leaving the city gradually.

He adjusted the bag on his back and headed into the kitchens to deliver his burden to the cook. He sat down at the entrance to rest awhile when the screams began. He looked through the window and saw that it was dusk already, which explained the screams. The screams got louder and louder and the cook who was of Yoruba origin cursed under her breath, saying a small prayer to Ode, asking him to hunt the intruder gods down.

‘If only she knew the person she was praying to was sitting at her feet, dusty and weak’ Ode thought to himself.

The cook’s attendants were also nervous and jittery as Omotola’s screams intensified. Ode abruptly stood and took the side entrance as if going out of the palace but ducked in through a window into the cellar when no one was looking. He had mapped this route several times over the past few days and he knew the way by heart.

It would take 3 hours for all the gods to drain Omotola and after which they would seal the corridor down to the entrance of her prison with divine and impenetrable power. His only shot was to get into the dungeon and find somewhere to hide before they sealed it up. He moved forward stealthily, dodging guards left and right as he went deeper into the bowels of the palace. The entrance was around the corner and he began to move faster, the sounds of Omotola’s screams covering up his loud footsteps as he ran. He made the turn onto the last passage leading to the prison then came face to face with Nini, the seventh of the Nupe gods.

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Omotola’s head raged as she fought the pain battering her mind. For five days every day, day and night, they had tortured and drained her, trying to find the secret of her self-sustenance. The first god guba was especially cruel in his methods, stripping her flesh away and doing it again just as soon as they grew back. The rest of the gods had had their way with her, taking her like a dog and dumping her like trash. She had given up fighting and told them all they wanted to know the last time they all forced themselves on her at once.

The days passed in a haze and she stopped feeling, except that her human flesh kept screaming out for the pain. She did not know herself the secret of her power for her to tell them so they could stop torturing her. She would have wished for death, but she had found out painfully that she could not die, even by a divine weapon. And yes, they tried. From cutting her up to burning her to disassembling her molecules. Nothing worked. She just couldn’t die.

She was strung up between two pillars, separate divine ropes tying each hand to each pillar. As bolts of power lashed at her, she raised her face long enough to stop screaming and watched numbly as they brought a body inside. The gods talked among themselves for a while before filing out, leaving her with Nini and the body. It seemed to be alive as it struggled while Nini tied its wrists to a rope high on the ceiling, drawing him up till he dangled by his hands.

‘You wanted to see the source of the screams yourself worm’ Nini said, speaking to the tied figure hanging by the wrists, ‘get comfortable, she will watch you die by morning’. On hearing this, the figure struggled more violently and Nini chuckled.

‘The ropes are divinely made, only a god can cut you from that, and we three know that I’m the only god here’. He paused, then added, ‘technically of course’ while chuckling as he walked out and resealed the passage with power.
Omotola raised her swollen face to look at the prisoner. It was Ode. No! It was not possible. No! No! No! She had gotten captured so that they could escape and it was all for nothing?? She tried to summon concern about their condition, but she couldn’t. Her head drooped. She just didn’t care about anything anymore. She was well and truly broken.

‘Omotola’ Ode whispered.

She refused to raise her head and concentrated on shutting out his voice.

‘Omotola you have to listen to me, you can’t give up now, and they are trying to break you’

‘They have already broken me, god of the hunt’, she mumbled. ; There is nothing anyone can do now, I am well and truly lost’. And as an afterthought she added, ‘We both are’.

‘No, nothing is truly lost so long as Olodumare lives. WE ARE GODS! The earth trembles at our command. We can overcome this. YOU can’.

Omotola sighed. The inexhaustible well that she could never see the bottom had finally proved contradictory to its name. She had reached the bottom two days ago and had gone further in the attempt to source up more power for the gods to take so they would not burn her out. It was now well and truly deep. The sad news was that it was currently empty from her last draining. She remembered the sun and the moon, the feel of the wind kissing her face when riding and the divine rush she felt when she wielded her power. She wanted that back. She wanted to be free again.

Eyes suddenly alert, she looked Ode straight in the eye and said;

‘I take it you have a plan?’

Ode, who had been smiling at the new determination on her face faltered a bit and said sickly;

‘I planned to rescue you two days after today, but I couldn’t bear to hear your screams and I got captured when coming down here to rescue you. I relinquished my divinity to Olodumare to be returned in seven days which coincides with the day after tomorrow. We have to find a way to survive till then’.

Omotola cut in, ‘You heard what he said to you, you will be killed tomorrow, and if I head you correctly, right now you’re a useless mortal. How do you expect to survive tomorrow?’

Ode looked at her uneasily. ‘We would find a way. If only Oduduwa had come with me, I’d have asked him to pray to Olodumare to grant me my divinity; Olodumare would answer his own son’s request’.
‘I can try to dig deeper for more power’, Omotola said weakly. ‘We’ll need all the help we can get by morning’.
And as the night wore on, Omotola dug harder than she had ever dug for anything in her life.

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Show some love guys. Next episode coming soon.