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 Literature › Re: THE MARKED - White Sight: The Inbetween -- Sneak Peek by obehiD(op): 3:19am On May 20, 2021 |
The man snapped his whip and it coiled inwards and then froze, locked in that coiled position. He latched the head of the whip into a loop on his leather pants and then turned around. The man’s tattooed face turned towards her father. “Iyoba,” he bowed, “your mother sent me. She will be here soon.” Her father, in his werejackal form, nodded. He tipped his snout towards her mother. “Shall I take her home, Iyoba?” Again, the werejackal nodded. He stalked over to her mother, close enough that she could run her hand over the fur on his head and stroke his pointy ears. Then he moved back. “Will he be safe?” her mother asked. “Yes,” the man in leather said. Her mother’s wide eyes turned to him. “Are you…” she took a pause as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to finish it. “A wielder? Yes, I am.” The man said. “It is my honor to serve the Ehizokhae family. We should go now.” Her mother rose uncertainly, glancing between her father, and the man in leather, the wielder. Odion had never seen a wielder before, or rather, she had no conscious memory of ever seeing one. There were no wielders in the Benin Community anymore. The wielder picked her mother up and then he vanished. Odion blinked, startled, there’d been no black smoke like one saw with anger communes before they teleported. He just vanished, disappearing the same way he’d appeared. “I should have gotten her number,” Odion heard mutterings behind her and turned, and then promptly turned away. Her father was naked. “You just had to go and change in front of her, didn’t you, and then you couldn’t change back, because you’d be naked. Fool,” she heard the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh and more mutterings, and she chuckled. He was talking to himself, it was kind of cute. Black smoke drifted up into the middle of the alley, and then slowly dissipated. A woman in white velvet stood there once the smoke was gone, she had three people standing around her, they all wore white leather, one was a woman with a coiled whip hanging from a loop in her white coat, the others were men and had no whips. The woman in velvet threw a pair of black shorts at her father, who donned it hurriedly. Then he stood and bent in greeting, till his right hand touched the floor. The woman in white velvet walked slowly out of the circle of people in leather and headed towards him. She wore coral beads around her neck, on her hands, and twined through her hair like a coronet. Her face appeared familiar, but Odion couldn’t remember exactly where she’d seen her before. The woman had the same light brown eyes as her father and Osezele. She seemed powerful, regal, it was there in the set of her shoulders, and in the way she carried herself as she walked. The woman grabbed her father’s shoulders and pulled him up, her palm cupping his face and moving it this way and that. “Are you okay?” “Yes mother.” She smiled a little with her lips, though her forehead had scowl lines in them. “Shooters, I’ve been told, appeared out of nowhere?” He nodded. She sighed. “I had no inkling, I didn’t see any visions warning me of it.” He frowned. “But you’re the God-born, you see everything.” She stroked his skin comfortingly, “only what Nature wants me to see,” she mused, looking slightly to the side, then she shook herself and returned to staring at him. “Omoye will give you Itohan’s address,” she said, gesturing to the woman with the whip hanging from her white leather coat. The woman bowed. “You should pay Itohan a visit tomorrow, show her you’re okay, get her number.” The God-born’s eyes twinkled. “Mother,” he groaned. “She will be the mother of my grandchildren, Ejehmen, make sure you take gifts for her parents when you go.” He rolled his eyes. “Do you ever think that maybe I’d like to find these things out for myself?” Then he chuckled and shook his head, glaring lovingly at her, like he was irritated, but used to it. Then his gaze turned serious. “Where did the shooters come from mother?” “Omoye?” They both turned to the woman with the whip. Her eyes had gone white. “My children questioned some of the shooters, they know nothing, they’re unmarked thralls menoba.” The God-born sighed. “I fear they have begun.” “Who?” her father asked. “InCoSeM.” “Aunty?” The sound of Osezele’s young voice, probing her mind for entrance, made Odion’s heart clench and her stomach drop. She knew she had to get out of here before they were caught. Odion wanted to stay and hear more, but she couldn’t. She’d taken the oath of the Oasis and entered Seclusion, she’d allowed augur watchers into her bonding routes. If they caught another augur trying to bond with her, she’d be in trouble. But that wasn’t what scared her. It was the thought of them finding out about her tri-marked warlock niece that made her cringe with dread. “Aunty!” But Osezele was strong, the girl was steadfastly trying to bond with her, to break through the barriers that Odion set up. Odion watched the vision of her family fade away in front of her, leaving her staring at an empty white room. Osezele appeared in that room. “Aunty!” she ran towards Odion. “You have to go!” Odion panicked. She felt more augurs tearing into her mind now. Two, powerful ones, she couldn’t find their identity, searching them out would only make it easier for them to find her bond with her niece. Osezele’s face crumbled, all the joy draining out of it. “But aunty, I missed you, I wanted to tell you about the week we just had in school, you won’t believe it aunty, imps, and…” “Now, Osezele, you have to go! We don’t have time for this. Where I am, it’s against the rules to bond with anyone. I gave them access to my bonding routes, they can find anyone I bond with and bond with them too. Do you know what that means? It means they can find you Osezele! You need to go before it’s too late!” Osezele’s eyes widened. She understood then, the implications of this bond she held onto so tenaciously, she relaxed her hold, letting Odion take control, allowing Odion to end it. But not soon enough. Another augur appeared in their bond, joining them in the white room. “Uncle?” Odion frowned. Uncle? She turned. Her frown darkened to a scowl when she saw Oare standing there. Why did her niece call him uncle? “Osezele, you need to go, now!” Oare’s voice boomed and Osezele tore free of their bond. She left the white room. “You need to go too, Odion, I’ll talk to the augur watcher, I’ll tell him that it was me bonded with you, not Osezele, he won’t question it. Go!” Odion gritted her teeth against all the things she wanted to say to this man. For Osezele’s sake though, she held them back and left. |
| Literature › Re: THE MARKED - White Sight: The Inbetween -- Sneak Peek by obehiD(op): 3:19am On May 20, 2021 |
“Bomb!” The cry tore through the frenzied taunts of rival fans and froze the bolokhon players in their tracks. “Bomb!!” This time everyone could see the white gleaming eyes of the teenaged boy declaring the state of emergency. His eyes showed he was an augur, he could see the future, which meant this wasn’t a joke. Everyone started running. The bolokhon field fell into a state of utter chaos, players ripping off the jerseys that bound their hands behind their backs, taking off, some running faster than any normal human could. Puffs of black smoke appeared in the center of the bolokhon field, around a tall man with an orange shirt tied around his head. That smoke drifted all the way up, fully covering the man, by the time it went away, the man was gone. He’d teleported, an anger commune. People ran for their lives, but not her, not the woman who’d led Odion here. Odion’s mother stood beside the boundary of the bolokhon field, watching the chaos with wide-eyes. She seemed frozen to the spot, too petrified to move. Odion raced towards her, desperate to reach her mother before the augur’s prophesied bomb went off. She was too late. The left score block erupted. Odion felt the ground shake underneath her feet. She turned harried eyes towards her mother. The force of the explosion vaulted her. Her mum was launched into the air like a projectile. “Mum!” she screamed, running, oblivious to the twigs flying through her. Her mum landed hard against the carpet of grass, her head slamming back into the floor. As soon as Odion reached her, she fell to her knees. Blood trailed out of her mother’s ears, red, thick, and her eyes fluttered, without opening. A large stick stuck out the side of her stomach. Odion tried to reach for it, to pull it out, but of course she couldn’t, her hands just went right through. Gunshots followed the bombs. Odion startled and looked around her. She heard more gunshots and a man who’d been running away dropped to the floor. She could hear loud wailing, so many people crying out, in fear, some in pain, the torrent of gunshots never stopped. A voice rose above the chaos. “Anger communes, teleport as many out as possible. Jackals, run with as many as you can. No attacks, just get everyone to safety, ancestry guards will come to deal with the shooters. And someone, notify my mother!” The voice that gave the order was male, young, and moving closer as it spoke. By the time the man was done speaking, he was standing in Odion, his body was right were hers was. He leaned down and reached for her mother, scooped her up and then ran. The man was naked from the chest up, only wearing orange shorts, which matched the jerseys that the bolokhon players had worn, while they played, before the peaceful game turned into a bloodbath. Odion followed. He ran fast, a werejackal no doubt, but she was able to keep up. She shouldn’t be able to, but she was, and she didn’t think too much on why she could, all that mattered was following her mother, making sure she was safe. The man carried her to an alley and stopped there. Odion still hadn’t seen his face. All she saw was the back of his shortly cropped here and the lean muscles of his back and thighs. He placed her mother gently on the ground and knelt beside her, still keeping his back to Odion. “Please, don’t die on me,” his voice shook, “you’re way too pretty to die like this. Come on, open your eyes.” He shook her a little, “that’s more like it,” Odion heard the smile in his voice. She saw her mother’s right arm moving, it flapped, like her mother was trying to reach for something, but couldn’t. Odion moved forward and grabbed onto her mother’s hand, but of course, the hand just passed through her. “What is it mum?” she asked, but her mother couldn’t hear her. “Do you need something?” The man asked, “Something here?” Her mother was gasping, struggling to breathe. Odion stared at the man’s hands, watching as he reached into a pocket in her mother’s dress. He pulled out dark seeds, with a blue-green hue. They looked like corn kernels. The man held them up to her mother. She kept trying to move her hands and the limb just flailed uselessly. “What is it? How can I help you?” The man sounded confused. Her mother’s arm stopped twitching as animatedly, it looked like she was slipping back to unconsciousness, or worse, dying. Her eyelids pulled back together. Odion tried to grab her, to shake her back to life if she had to, but she couldn’t, her hands just moved through, as if her mother was air, or she was. “Stay with me!” The man shook her mother. “She wanted seeds,” he mused, “blue-green seeds…why?” Then he jumped on his knees. “You’re a verdant!” He grabbed onto her mother’s hand and held them in his, over the seeds. “Do your magic, pretty witch, save yourself. Please!” Her mother’s eyes snapped open, she blinked a few times, disoriented. Odion glanced at the floor, her mother was losing a lot of blood. “Please mum, whatever it is you need to do, you have to live!” She knew they couldn’t hear her, but that didn’t stop her from screaming. Then her mother’s eyes filled with blue. Her irises went away, her pupils disappeared, all that was left was beautiful, blue, orbs. Her mother’s lips twitched, as if she was incanting something, and then she exhaled deeply and her eyelids closed, this time they didn’t open. Her hand slipped out of the man’s. There were herbs in the man’s hands, blue-green herbs, in place of the seeds that had been there. “Healing herbs!” She could hear the joy in the man’s voice. “Praise Duraya, she grew healing herbs.” Then he fed her mother the herbs, pushing them into her mouth, keeping her mouth closed long enough for her spit to soak the herbs and draw out their juices. Juices that would heal her, Odion hoped. Finally, her mother’s eyes pulled open. She was still weak, but she was chewing the leaves herself. Her eyes were back to normal, brown irises that looked dark enough to be black. “You had me scared there for a minute,” the man said, exhaling. Then he helped her mother up. “You saved my life, thank you.” Tears sprang to Odion’s eyes. Her mother was alive! She sagged in relief. “My name is Itohan, Itohan Omorodion.” Her mother said. “Ejehmen,” he replied, “Ejehmen Ehizokhae.” Ejehmen. Odion’s gaze darted to the man’s face. She didn’t know the last name, but she knew the first. The man was young, just like her mother, younger than the last time Odion had seen him in her dreams, but she would recognize that dark brown skin and hazel eyes, anywhere. It was the same eyes, the same skin, that her niece had, she could even see bits of Osezele’s nose in his. The tears fell freely from Odion’s face now. It was her father. She looked between them, her mother, her father, staring intently into each other’s eyes, this must have been the day they met. “Oh my God!” Her mother squealed. “Ehizokhae, as in the God-born, that Ehizokhae?” Her father chuckled. “The God-born is my mother.” “But…but…the God-born is the Queen. That would make you…a prince?” What? Odion gaped at him. Her father was a prince? Was this why her memory had been removed? Was this the truth that had been hidden from her? “No, I’m not a prince, that’s not how the Enikaro works. I’m a descendant of the Enikaro, but I can’t be a prince, an obo, until – rather unless – the elements name me.” Her mother seemed inclined to say more, but her father covered her mouth. “Shh,” he whispered, “I hear footsteps.” He cursed. “They’ve blocked our exit.” Her mother’s eyes widened. “What are we going to do?” “I’ll distract them, and you run.” He stood and started shaking, his irises flashing from hazel to an even lighter shade of brown, the brown of a werejackal going into his mark. Fangs came out of his mouth, claws grew from his hands, brown and black tufts of hair started sprouting from his body. “Run,” he growled at her, his face already starting to reshape. Her mother didn’t move. “I won’t leave you,” she stammered. He wanted to say something, but they were out of time, the people he’d heard were here. Black muzzles appeared, and then a line of shooters, blocking the only exit to the alley. They were dressed in black, men and women, holding rifles pointing determinedly towards her parents. Her father finished his transformation. He was now a side-striped werejackal, marching protectively in front of her mother. The line of shooters pulled their triggers. Odion screamed. She jumped in front of her mother and father, trying to stop the bullets with her body, but she couldn’t, she wasn’t real here, the bullets went through her. A man appeared out of nowhere. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and muscular. He was dressed from head to toe in maroon leather which resembled a soldier’s uniform. He reminded her a little too much of Oare. He had silver tattoos allover his brown skin, on his exposed hands, on his face, Odion had never seen anything like it before. He carried a whip. The man swung the whip in a wide circle. He started slow at first, slow enough that she could still see the whip, but after a while she couldn’t see the whip anymore, it was moving too fast. Instead of her parents falling, the shooters fell. It was as if the bullets somehow ricocheted off the man’s whip and hit the shooters. By the time the man was done all the shooters were dead. |
| Literature › THE MARKED - White Sight: The Inbetween -- Sneak Peek by obehiD(op): 3:14am On May 20, 2021 |
Read for a sneak peek of White Sight: The Inbetween, going to be published sometime this year. If you like what you read, follow this link and get caught up on The Marked before Inbetween drops. Crimson Night, the first book in the series is completely FREE! https://okadabooks.com/user/obehid |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 1:31am On May 20, 2021 |
Rasmodox101:Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it  |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 1:39am On Apr 29, 2021 |
Deo7:Glad you liked it. I changed the names of the nations, so Isan, Nuri, Bono, as far as I know none of these are real places and that's what I wanted. Thanks for the masquerade correction! I've heard it pronounced with the 'mwin' though, but anyway, glad you like it! |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 12:21am On Apr 20, 2021 |
King2019:email sent  |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 3:02pm On Apr 19, 2021 |
King2019:Oh, sorry if you misunderstood me, I'm not looking to post something new right now, just wanted to reach out with an offer for a couple people who haven't read the Marked yet |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 3:00pm On Apr 19, 2021 |
Tuhndhay:Thanks for the response, I've sent you an email |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 8:09pm On Apr 18, 2021 |
Hello everyone, Just wondering if there's anyone on here who hasn't read any of the Marked stories (or who's only read the Spectral Existence story here on NL), and is looking for something new to read right now? Please let me know, and wishing everyone a great week ahead! |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 7:01pm On Apr 13, 2021 |
lol @RealLordZeus @docorexcel I'm happy to be able to provide closure, and glad you could read it  |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 4:47pm On Apr 10, 2021 |
@paqman thank you @monalicious I'm glad to hear it and also happy that you asked. I feel better having posted a conclusion/summary of sorts, so thank you @DaLaw22 Thank you for the kind words, they really mean a lot. I'm really happy that you enjoy the story and that the summary is enough to complete it well for you @GeoSilYe Yeah, really really bittersweet. I played with a lot of endings in my head. I actually really like Nnadi, I wanted him to become the man that Tan wanted/deserved, but I realized that wouldn't have been playing true to the characters. Nnadi just had way too much pride to lower himself to a woman and Tan had way too much pride to lower herself to a man. They clash and gemmed in the best ways and I regret not being able to fully write that out, because some of their scenes were so fun picturing in my head, the ways they fought and got back together...anyway, yeah, who knows maybe one day I might pick this up again @cassbeat Thank you for reading and I'm glad the ending was easy to understand |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 12:11am On Apr 08, 2021*. Modified: 12:30am On Apr 08, 2021 |
I wasn't enjoying writing and I couldn't say for sure that people were enjoying reading this and so I stopped. I'm sorry to anyone who'd been following the story and enjoying it. Thank you for reading, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't see it through to the end. I'm really very sorry and I hope this summary helps |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 11:57pm On Apr 07, 2021 |
Tan remembers the reaping then, remembers that the Ikejan people did not truly love their Alake, and she uses that against them. She spreads rumors through the surrounding villages that the Alake of Ikeja was working with Taiso to kidnap his own people and sell them into slavery. She doesn’t actually have any proof. Mamus, the Alake’s heir sneaks into her camp at night and confronts her about her accusations. Tan recalls that Debisi had saved Mamus from a reaping, so Mamus was particularly sore when it came to the subject of reaping. Mamus and Tan bond over their mutual affection for Debisi, but there’s not enough proof of her claims against his father to get him to turn on the man. Nnadi and the Nuri start burning down Bono villages as payback for the guerrilla attacks against them. The Nuri-Isan army starts to fall apart at the seams. The Nuri mock the Isan, considering themselves superior because Tan was married to Nnadi and she’d knelt to him. They hurl insults at the Isan while the Alake’s army keeps burning down their tents and their supplies. They’re at the point where Tan realizes they can’t win. The Nuri are too arrogant, her people don’t trust them, and Nnadi refuses to listen to her. She’s getting ready to pull her army away from the Nuri’s and devise another plan when a new army joins in. This one is much vaster than the combined Isan-Nuri army. It is the army of the Iyo empire. The army that has been threatening attack for revenge against what was done to Ayisha, except now they ride behind Debisi, supporting him. Debisi provides proof that it was his brother responsible for killing their father. He also provides proof, through Ayisha, that it was Taiso who had the Iyo contingent killed. It was Taiso who held Ayisha captive, Taiso responsible for burning off half her face. Debisi tells a story of how Tiaso worked with the Alake of Ikeja to try to kill him. Taiso bleached his skin, Debisi reminded the Bono who had begun to come out in droves to listen to their beloved albino prince. Taiso had kidnapped Tiwo, the twin brother of the Oba of Isan, not only did he do that, he attacked an Iyo contingent and framed the Eze of Nuri for it. Taiso was responsible for setting the Bono nation against Isan, Nuri and the Iyo empire. Was that the kind of Ooni they wanted? Debisi takes off his glasses and shows them all that he has flawless eyesight. He’d done this for his brother, yet his brother had still turned against him. Was that the kind of Ooni they wanted? He was their prince, perfect and albino, and they adored him. The Alake of Ikeja’s army turned on him that night and brought his head as homage to Tan. Thanks to Mamus’ support, she wasn’t held responsible for the Nuri burnings of the Bono villages. Debisi said that blood had been spilled on both sides and that it was enough, he forbade retribution on the Nuri camp. Debisi sent word of his speech to the Capital so that the warriors could hear what he had to say. In the end, the Bono warriors in the Capital opened the gates and welcomed their albino prince in with cheers. Debisi rode into his palace with Tan on his right side and Nnadi on his left providing a unified front. Taiso was holed up in the palace. In the end the combined might of their armies broke into the palace. Taiso fought for his life and killed Tan’s mother in a desperate attempt to distract them and get himself to safety. In the end it failed. Taiso confesses to using Tan’s mother to kill their father. She poisoned the late Ooni, Tan is devastated but she still wants to kill Taiso for killing her mother. It comes out that Taiso was responsible for killing his father, and for the attack on Ayisha, framing the Nuri and he also claims responsibility for moving Tan to Nuri after she’d been raped, but he swore he wasn’t responsible for planning her rape. In the end it comes out that it was Neka, all along. She was Oza Onitsha’s daughter and she’d used that to gain power over the doubles. She was the one who’d had the double attack Tan, the one who had the doubles stealing Bono children and selling them. She’d used the sugar merchants to transport the children out of Bono. Sugar merchants, Jugga traders, it occurs to Tan and Nnadi that Oza Onitsha had been trying to tell them it was the sugar traders responsible, but with his accent, sugar came out as jugga. The Bono slave he’d been fighting had been the son of sugar merchants, one of many that Neka confessed to using. She was also the one responsible for spreading whispers of Debisi’s battle might, his fake glasses, all the things that made it seem as if Debisi was trying to steal his nation from his brother. It had all been Neka trying to turn the brothers against each other. Taiso staggered back in pain when he heard it. Why? Because she hated the Nuri and hated the Bono. She wanted to tear Bono apart from within and bring war on Nuri and Bono. She hated Nnadi for sending her to marry a man who continually abused her and made her feel small because she was like him, dark skinned and not albino, she hated them all, even her father. She’d wanted her father dead, she’d devised the plan with the Bono slave to lure her father in and then make sure that he was framed for trying to rape an Isan slave. She was happy he was dead. Nnadi beheaded her. The final piece of the puzzle comes together when Mamus brings in a witness to Taiso’s crime. This was what Mamus had been helping Debisi to search for, the thing that the Alake of Ikeja had held over Taiso’s head. Taiso was responsible for Lola’s death. Taiso had made the peephole in the wall in Lola’s bathroom, a peephole Tan remembered because she’d caught them spying on her, and he’d spied on his sister for years. He’d wanted her, loved her, and she’d denied his love. She’d chosen Nnadi instead and so he’d strangled her to death and made it look like a suicide. Debisi decides that Taiso doesn’t deserve a quick death. Taiso is tortured to death and peace is restored to the Nulin nations. The Bono people want to crown Debisi as Ooni, but Debisi turns it down. He doesn’t want to rule, he never has, all he wanted was to set Bono free, and to give it to a real ruler, one worthy of the name. He reminds the people of the heralds of reunification and says the time to reunite the Nulin nations has come. Amidst grumbles from the Bono, he kneels in front of Tan and offers her his allegiance. There is silence while everyone watches to see what she’ll do. Tan secures the love of the Bono people when she turns Debisi down. He has sacrificed for his nation, if he doesn’t deserve to be the Ooni of Bono then no one does. The Bono people scream out for Debisi as their Ooni, but he doesn’t want it, he wasn’t born to rule. Tan swears to be his confidante, his helper, all he has to do is ask. Bono, Isan and Nuri sign a treaty, but everyone sees that the bond between Bono and Isan is true, strong, and that their rulers truly love each other. The Bono are ecstatic. Nnadi asks Tan to return to Nuri with him, to keep the oath she swore, Tan flatly tells him that she’d been lying when she swore that oath. She will never kneel to him or any man again. Nnadi has tears in his eyes, but he’s forced to return to Nuri with his army, without Tan. Tan and Ayisha reunite. Ayisha chooses to remain with Tan and not return to the Iyo empire with her brothers and her father’s army. Tan promises them that she will take care of Ayisha and that they’ll come to visit Iyo often. The Iyo army is satisfied and leaves. They also reunite with Tiwo who Taiso had kept locked up in his dungeon. They stay for a month in Bono. While they’re there Debisi tries to talk Tan into killing Nnadi. Tan will never be free to remarry if Nnadi isn’t dead, they swore a love match, they couldn’t divorce. Tan knows this and though she hates Nnadi now, she remembers when she hadn’t. She can’t plot his death. Finally, Tan returns to Isan with her lovers, Ayisha and Mede. When she gets back to Isan she finds out that she’s pregnant. Debisi comes often to visit her and try to talk her into attacking Nuri, Tan refuses. She delivers triplets, two girls and a boy, one dark skinned, the other lighter, Nuri complexioned, and the last much smaller, obviously prematurely delivered months early, and albino. People whisper about the heralds of reunification. Tan knows that Debisi started these rumors, convincing people that her children are a sign, three complexions born of the same womb, three nations under the same person. The masquerades willed it. Debisi sent out pamphlets titled ‘The heralds of reunification explained’ and they read: The heralds of reunification: Corpses scattered over pristine grounds. A peacemaker warmonger. A loveless love match with love true. A ferocious fragile flower. Lost items whose locations were known. Chaos and confusion amidst the longest calm. Corpses scattered over pristine grounds. The Iyo contingent laid out on the sparkling white Bono palace grounds. A peacemaker warmonger. Debisi, who from the start wanted peace, but ended up arguing for war against his brother. A loveless love match with love true. Tan and Nnadi, started their love match without love but found it in the middle and lost it again. A ferocious fragile flower. Neka, pretending to be pure and innocent, gentle, all the while behind everything that had led to the war. Lost items whose locations were known. Ayisha, lost though Taiso knew where she was the entire time. Tiwo, lost though most of the Bono capital knew he was there. Chaos and confusion amidst the longest calm. There had been no outright war while all of this was happening, there’d been a surface peace, but underneath, there’d been chaos and confusion. Until finally the calm ended and war came to the Nulin Nations. Debisi disseminated these pamphlets making sure they reached the furthest edges of the Nulin nations. Tan stayed in her nation, advising Debisi to stop, while she raised her three perfect babies. He didn’t listen. Nnadi came several times to see his children but each time Tan sent him away. Debisi came and she always granted him access. In the end, Nnadi took affront over the rumors Debisi was spreading and attacked the Bono nation, ending the short peace truce. Tan sent word to them both that she would not pick a side, she wanted peace. A few days later she got word that Debisi was dead, Nnadi had killed him. Tan couldn’t believe it. Was it really all about the explained heralds of reunification that Debisi spread? Was it jealousy that Debisi could see Tan and the babies while Nnadi couldn’t? Tan didn’t know, and she didn’t try to find out. She raised an army in Isan and Bono and went to get revenge on Debisi’s killer. Their combined armies defeated Nuri’s and Tan killed Nnadi with her own spear. She seized the Nuri nation by force and accepted the allegiance of the Bono nation. She united the Nulin nations under a single Oba, herself, back as it was in the days of the five masquerades. She appointed Ekene to govern Nuri in her stead and Mamus to govern Bono. Nuri slavery was abolished and Nuri women given equal rights as the men. Under her leadership, the Nulin nations finally knew true and lasting peace. THE END |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 11:52pm On Apr 07, 2021 |
Nnadi starts to buckle under the pressure from the gossips and his counselors. They want Nnadi to prove himself the one in charge of their marriage. He is the man after all and in Nuri, men rule, they lead. How can they bow to Nnadi if his own wife doesn’t? Tan refuses to dress as Nuri women do, refuses to kneel in greeting to Nnadi they way other Nuri wives do, refuses to lower herself in anyway. They start to go estranged. After Tan gets tired of waiting for Nnadi to provide her with the guards to return to Isan, like he promised, she decides to leave by herself. The guards stop her, she fights with them and would have killed them if Nnadi didn’t join in and stop it. She seethes with anger and resentment. Nnadi has her confined to the Nuri palace. In the time she’s there, Tan begins to form relationships with the slaves and learn their stories, learn of the mistreatments that Nuri slaves suffer. They all agreed that Nnadi was the kindest master they’d ever had, but not all Nuri slaves were so ‘fortunate’. The anger continues to build in Tan. Ayisha still hasn’t recovered, so she can’t tell them who was actually responsible for what happened to her. Nnadi refuses to budge. He says all she has to do is ‘meet him halfway’, kneel in greeting, dress as Nuri women do, just for a while to satisfy his people. Tan despises him for his weakness, why couldn’t he lead his people instead of being led by them? Her only friends in the Nuri palace become the slaves and the new Oza Onitsha, Ekene. Ekene keeps his promise to her and teaches her the Nuri tongue. He is an emancipationist, a feminist, and he believes that given time, Nnadi will become one too. He tries to mend the break in Nnadi and Tan’s relationship, but neither side is willing to budge. The standoff continues until Mede breaks into the Nuri palace. Tan is beyond ecstatic to see her. At first Nnadi threatens to have Mede arrested and he argues with Tan about it, but in the end he folds and leaves them alone. Mede becomes her only buffer against an increasingly cold and hostile world. She’s hated by the Nuri, hated by the men who see her walking around in her Isan clothes, and refusing to acknowledge them as her superiors, and hated by the women who see her as believing herself better than them. If they can bow to their husbands, why can’t she? Tan refuses to bend though and blames it all on Nnadi. The love that had formed between them when they travelled from Isan to Nuri together turned cold and suffocating. A part of them still loved each other, but neither one was willing to sacrifice for the other. The standstill ends when a Bono convoy comes to Nuri. Apparently, the prince Debisi is rumored to be in Nuri and the Ooni of Bono wants his brother back to stand for the murder of their father. Tan doesn’t know what to believe. Nnadi sends the Bono convoy away, he doesn’t want diplomacy with Bono, he doesn’t care about Debisi or Taiso or their petty squabbles. Debisi appears in the Nuri capital then. Nnadi hates Debisi. He hates Debisi because of the lie he’d told concerning his relationship with his sister Lola, and hates him for the cowardly way he abandoned Tan in the Oro forest. He wants to order Debisi’s execution but Tan asks him not to. It’s been so long since they’ve both spoken, Tan and Nnadi, that he grudgingly does what she wants. Debisi meets with Tan and explains everything to her. He has a bodyguard and amongst that guard is Toju, the face from the past, the one who’d sent Tan a note with a message about a mutual friend. She realizes then that the mutual friend he was talking about was Debisi. Mede catches up with Toju while Debisi and Tan chat. Debisi is horrified when he learns that Tan thought he abandoned her in the Oro forest. That hadn’t been his intention. He’d gone to pull the fighters away from Tan, and it seemed that it had worked because Nuri warriors chased him all the way through the Oro forest. He barely escaped with his life. He’d been so injured that he had to hide out in Ibadan while he recuperated. That was where Toju found him. He was still unconscious, recovering, when he’d heard of his father’s death. Debisi came to Nuri seeking alliances to destroy his brother. He was certain that Taiso was responsible for their father’s death. Debisi confirms that he had known that at some point Nnadi and Lola’s love had been consensual, but he still refused to believe that Nnadi hadn’t raped her. If Nnadi hadn’t done something to hurt her, then why would she kill herself? Debisi had been the one to find Lola’s body, he saw the Nuri slave mark on her flesh. He begged Tan not to trust Nnadi. Tan feels cheated of the life she would have had if she’d married Debisi and she can see Debisi still loves her. Debisi had left the Oro forest with Nuri warriors on his heel, trusting that she could handle the few that remained. He hadn’t known that there were more Nuri warriors waiting, that it was those who’d followed him. Tan felt honored by it, Debisi had tried to use himself as bait, while also respecting that she was skilled enough to handle the few stragglers who remained behind. He trusted that she could take care of herself. Here was Debisi wanting to be her equal not fight her battles for her, but with her, not be above her but beside her, and if need be, beneath her. Debisi would never lord himself over her, never ask her to be less to satisfy others. He was who she should have married. They have sex. The next morning, they wake up to the news that Ayisha is finally awake and can let them know, once and for all, who was behind what happened to her. Unfortunately, when Tan gets to her convalescence home, she’s gone and so is Debisi and his guards. Tan is stunned. Later, Mede informs Tan that she learned from Toju that there were rumors that Tiwo was being held captive in the Bono Capital. Tan and Mede devise a plan to break out of the Nuri Capital which had pretty much become a prison to them. They come really close to breaking out, but then they are cornered right at the gates to the Capital. They come up against a group of young Nuri nobles and kill five of them. They would have killed more if Nnadi didn’t arrive with reinforcements. Nnadi is enraged, the nobles are screaming for blood. Tan can’t kill their sons and get away with it! She has to be punished. Nnadi is caught between Tan and his nobles, nothing new there. But this time, he agrees with his nobles, they lost five young Nuri noblemen, that crime can’t go unpunished. He decides to kill five of the Nuri palace slaves who’d gotten closest to Tan, one slave life lost for every nobleman she’d killed. Tan begs him, actually begs him not to do it. She says there’s still a chance for them, but if he does this, there’s no going back, she can’t forgive it. If there must be justice, then kill her, not innocent slaves. Nnadi can’t kill her, they both know it. If it’s not the slaves, then it’ll be Mede, but there has to be a life to pay for the ones she took. It’s an impossible choice and Tan can’t bring herself to make it, so Nnadi chooses for her. He kills the slaves. Tan is heartbroken, disillusioned, and just completely exhausted with this silent war she’s been fighting with Nnadi. Ekene’s angry with her too, he blames her, says all she had to do was bend a little. Is her pride so precious? Generations of Nuri women have been kneeling to their husbands. What makes her better than them? Nnadi could have been the one to end Nuri slavery, Ekene says, he could have been the one to give women a voice. Tan could have slyly convinced Nnadi of the benefits of doing things her way, why did she have to challenge him at every point? Tan’s frustrated. Slave life was precious, in Isan, slaves were the most cherished because they put themselves last, they gave of themselves to serve others. No one would dare end slave life so callously, in her nation she would never allow it. But she wasn’t in her nation, she was in Nnadi’s and he might be a kind and benevolent Nuri man, but he was still just a Nuri man. She can’t forgive him. She feels as if her eyes have been opened once she’s free from loving Nnadi. She can see clearly. Tiwo is in trouble. He’s not in Nuri, and their mother had lured him out of Isan, presumably for Taiso. Why their mother would do this, she couldn’t say, but she had to save Tiwo. She swallows her pride, puts on Nuri clothes and goes to kneel to Nnadi. She begs him to let her go after her brother. Nnadi says he’ll go himself. He’s not willing to let Tan leave Nuri, perhaps he knows that the minute she leaves him, she’ll never come back. Nnadi attempts to ride into Bono, but he can’t get past Ikeja. He returns to Nuri and explains to Tan that he tried. Tan begs him again to let her go. She has an army, they can attack Bono together. It takes days, everyday she swallows her pride, wears the Nuri clothes and kneels in public to him. She keeps doing this until finally Nnadi lets her go. He makes her swear on the Nulin masquerades that she will return willingly to him, to be his wife, she swears. Tan and Mede leave Nuri behind. They go to Isan, assemble their army and join with the Nuri army, laying siege to the Bono capital, together. But Taiso stays holed up in the Capital, refusing to leave. They face their first real challenge when the Alake of Ikeja rides to battle them. He arrives in the middle of the night, burns down their camps and disappears before they’re able to mount a defense. Night after night, the Alake of Ikeja follows this tactic, reducing their numbers using guerrilla warfare. Nnadi and the Nuri officers counsel burning down the surrounding villages, anywhere the Alake of Ikeja could be hiding. Tan argues against it, she just wants her brother back, she doesn’t want to burn Bono to the ground. But the Nuri have had enough and proceed without her. |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 11:52pm On Apr 07, 2021 |
Summary Last scene Tan finds out that her brother Tiwo has been kidnapped. She doesn’t want to suspect Nnadi, but then she speaks to her mother, and her mother lets her know that she’d spoken to Tiwo about what happened. According to her mother, there’s only one person who fits the description of the man who attacked Tan, and that’s Nnadi’s double. The rulers of the Nuri kingdom have body doubles with the same aha (markings) as the rulers, and the doubles are usually the same height and have the same body-structure. With their masks on, they are an exact duplicate of the Nuri rulers. And there’s only one person that can order the doubles around and that’s the Eze of Nuri. Which means that even though Nnadi hadn’t done the deed himself, he was the only who could have ordered his body double to do it. Tan feels betrayed, and speaking to her mother, she’s convinced that Nnadi never forgave Tiwo for killing Oza Onitsha, his uncle. She begins to fear that Nnadi is not just responsible for attacking her, but also for killing her brother, and that his intention is to steal her nation from her. Her mother is convinced that the only way forward is to kill Nnadi. Tan struggles with this though. All she has are suspicions, can she really kill Nnadi based solely on suspicions of his guilt? She keeps wrestling with this and finally she speaks to Mede about it. Mede volunteers to kill Nnadi for her, she’s never trusted him and she agrees with Tan’s mother. Still Tan wrestles with it, she doesn’t know why, but she just can’t kill Nnadi. So Mede comes up with a solution, why not just subject Nnadi to Egbabonelmwin’s judgement. Which basically means throw Nnadi into a lions den and see if he survives. If he survives, he’s innocent, if not Egbabonelimwin has taken its justice. Tan grudgingly accepts, being the spiritual person she is, she believes in Egbabonelimwin’s justice. Then Mede and Tan make up, and have some mind-blowing sex. Fast-forward to when Tan finally finagles Nnadi into going to the lions’ den. They leave alone, just the two of them and Tan lures him into the pit with the lions. The pit is in a flat plane, surrounded by much higher mountains. Tan pushes Nnadi down into the pit and watches him face off against ten lions. She realizes as the lions rip into Nnadi’s flesh that she is killing him. She’s coated it in Egbabonelimwin’s justice, but she’s still killing him. She struggles with watching, but she can’t look away. Against all odds, Nnadi kills the lions. Tan can’t believe it. Unarmed, alone in a pit with ten lions, and Nnadi kills them all. She doesn’t want to be, but she’s impressed. She’s so impressed that she stands there, watching while Nnadi rips out the lions’ canines and uses them as pickaxes to climb up the mountain walls. A part of her is jealous, she knows she cannot face off against ten lions and survive, but there is a tiny part of her that’s relieved. She didn’t want to see him die. When he finally climbs out of the pit, he catches her unawares and basically backhands her with so much force she crashes into the floor. Tan is stunned, and by the time she’s in any frame of mind to fight back, he’s already overpowered, he kneels on her back, takes his belt off, and just beats her with it, until there’s no thought left in her head except for how much she loathes him. Eventually they leave the mountain area and return to Tan’s palace. Nnadi tries to apologize later for the way he treated her but she basically tells him to go and Bleep himself. Mede returns and suggests many ways that they can kill him, poison, an ambush, he was in their land, they had the advantage, but Tan still can’t bring herself to do it. She asked for Egbabonelimwin’s justice and Nnadi survived when the odds were stacked against him, she would be a hypocrite not to accept Egbabonelimwin’s rulings. But there are still so many unanswered questions, the foremost of which is, is Nnadi really innocent, or is he just a really good fighter? Tan’s search for her brother stalls until she receives a note telling her that her brother left the palace of his own free will, in a search for Ayisha. Tan puzzles at this note, wondering why Tiwo hadn’t told her before leaving. Tan disregards the note until she receives another, telling her that the bearer of the last note would like to meet her in Irrua, the Isan village bordering Bono. She has to come alone though. The person swears to having evidence of Tiwo’s location and so Tan goes. A part of her craves the adventure, but mostly, she just wants to be away from the palace. She can’t stand sitting idly by when her brother is missing. She follows the note and journeys on her trusty steed, Eghe, to Irrua. A day into the journey she finds she’s being followed. She suspects it’s Mede and so she doesn’t worry too much, until her follower catches up with her and it’s the last person she would choose to travel anywhere alone with. Nnadi. Sadly, she can’t make him go back. She contemplates killing him many times as they travel together, but instead gets her revenge in smaller ways, making his journey a living hell. She poisons him a few times, not enough to kill him, but enough to make it impossible for him to keep food down. She laughs watching the pain he’s in. It brightens what would have otherwise been a dull journey. Eventually though, it becomes clear that Nnadi is aware of the fact that she’s poisoning him, and he eats the poisoned food anyway, silently accepting it as punishment for what he did to her. Once Tan notices this, she has it out with him during the journey. Did he know it was his double who attacked her? Yes, he couldn’t lie about that, he did know it was his double, and he’d killed the man with his own hands for it, but he hadn’t been the one who sent the double, Nnadi swears to it. Of course he knew. Tan remembered how the food he’d sent to her had never been too spicy, so that she wouldn’t have to remember the Nuri spices that clung to her attacker like a cologne. Nnadi had been trying to spare her from the memories, but why hadn’t he just told her the truth? Nnadi confesses to not knowing who controls his doubles. His uncle, Oza Onitsha, had a double too. Oza Onitsha had been in the middle of trying to get to the bottom of the rumors that he’d been seen raping and kidnapping Bono nobles, when Tan killed him. Tan remembers Oza Onitsha’s dying words: Jugga trader, tell nunu, the doubles... Nnadi confirms that Nunu was his uncle’s pet name for him. ‘The doubles’ he’d been trying to warn Nnadi that it was their doubles causing all the havoc in Bono, leading to the rumors that it was them who’d been seen. The people who’d sworn to seeing Oza Onitsha himself committing those egregious acts had actually seen his double. Oza Onitsha had been innocent all along, but what was ‘jugga trader’? They both conclude that the Bono slave was somehow involved in the conspiracy with the doubles, but they can’t imagine how. Anyway, there’s healing between them after they reveal their secrets. They finally consummate their marriage on the way to Irrua. Tan struggles with getting over her assault but Nnadi is unfailingly patient, Tan starts to fall in love with him. Honestly, they start to fall in love with each other. The rest of the travel is peaceful, until they reach Irrua. In Irrua, Tan meets with the spy, who’s all covered up, mask over face, entire body concealed, but it sounds like a woman. The woman tells them news which breaks Tan’s heart. She tells them that Tiwo was sent looking for Ayisha, and that it was their own mother who gave Tiwo the location where Ayisha was being kept. Why would their mother do that though? Tan doesn’t understand. Until she finds out the most jarring news of all, their mother was never pregnant with the late Ooni’s child, the child is Taiso’s, the late Ooni’s eldest son, current Ooni of Bono. Still, Tan doesn’t understand why her mother lied to her. Tan and Nnadi race to the location they’d been given. It’s in Nuri, in Enugu, just outside the Nuri Capital. On their way back to the Isan palace, they are attacked, repeatedly, it becomes clear that someone is trying to kill them. After narrowly escaping death, they decide the best way forward is to approach the Isan capital through a different route, since the route from Irrua to the capital has obviously been filled with assassins. So they cross covertly into Bono, the last place anyone would look for either of them. They take a boat from Ibadan to Ekpoma and find that there’s a lookout searching for people matching their description on the route from Ekpoma to the Isan capital. They claim to be Isan tumblers, but they’re not, Tan knows her tumblers. They go back and try to enter the Isan capital through Sabon Gida and get the same result. They need more people to fight off the assassins, so Nnadi suggests returning to Nuri to get more guards. They could go directly to the location in Enugu where Tiwo was sent in search of Ayisha and then to go to the capital from there. Tan agrees. They got to the location in Enugu and find Ayisha in a hut. She’s been badly burnt, half of her face and body is burnt. She’s unconscious when they find her, and they kill the people guarding her and take her back to the Nuri capital for treatment. Once they’re in the Nuri capital, Tan is eager to leave. She wants to get back to the palace to question her mother, but then rumors of the terms of her marriage pact with Nnadi begin to float around. The Nuri people find out that Tan will become heir to Nuri if Nnadi dies and they revolt. They question Nnadi’s masculinity, and claim that Tan is a witch who’s enchanted him. |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 11:51pm On Apr 07, 2021 |
monalicious:This actually makes me really sad. As a reader I know how it feels to be invested in a story and to lose that, it was just getting to the point where the story became really hard to write for various reasons. I'm so very sorry for discontinuing it, especially since you kept commenting on my blog and kept checking for new updates and you've pretty much been reading my stuff from the very beginning, I'm sorry I let you down, I'll send you an email and try to make it up to you, but I wrote this summary because you asked, hope it helps with closure, and again I'm really very sorry. I don't take my readers for granted it's just hard to explain how daunting and emotionally and mentally taxing, writing this story became |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 1:38pm On Mar 21, 2021 |
@popeshemoo, thanks a lot for the feedback, that's something I'll have to work on in the future then, because I think the start is the most important and that's when you really reel readers in, and I don't want that to be confusing @dekoy11 I'm a reader so I know what it feels like when you get invested in a story and the writer stops. I think that's why I added the disclaimer at the start of this story, that I was only playing around with this and that I didn't know how far the story was going to go. I put that out honestly because I just didn't know where this story was going to go and if I had it in me to write again. I'm really sorry if you feel disappointed or let down and I'm glad you enjoyed the story while it lasted @GeoSilYe thanks for the understanding, I really appreciate it and I wish you the same |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 3:41pm On Mar 20, 2021 |
Hello, So, I don't know if anyone is still checking this out for updates, but in the rare chance that someone is, I wanted to let everyone know that I'm closing this story out. I was really busy for a stretch and that's why I couldn't get any new updates out. I'm still busy now and I don't know when things will lighten up for me to be able to get back to writing, but when things do I'll be going back to writing in the Marked universe. I feel like there were a lot of issues with this story, I started it for fun and in all honesty, it just stopped being fun to write, I probably should have planned the plot better so it didn't stretch out as much...and I could feel that a lot of people stopped being engaged with the story (stopped comments and such) so that just tells me that I'm doing something wrong and I need to work on fixing that. Anyway, I didn't want to just stop posting without an explanation, so that's it and that's why. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend. |
| Literature › Re: THE Marked___white Sight: The Awakening by obehiD(op): 3:31pm On Mar 20, 2021 |
The next one is White Sight: The Inbetween, I'm done with writing the draft for that, but I need to edit it, and I haven't started the editing process yet. I honestly don't know when I'm going to be able to get that edited, but I'm thinking it should be sometime this year...fingers crossed |
| Literature › Re: THE Marked___white Sight: The Awakening by obehiD(op): 1:14am On Mar 10, 2021 |
ayshow6102:Thank you! I'm really really happy you enjoyed it |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 4:53pm On Feb 22, 2021 |
The next chapter is up now! Hopefully you guys enjoy it |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 10:45pm On Feb 18, 2021 |
eROCK247:This is the link to the instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/obehi_dibua/) and that has the link to wordpress, let me know if it works now |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 3:10am On Feb 15, 2021 |
I'm having some serious trouble posting this link. Even the post I put with the link and spaces was recently deleted and I was banned for putting that in. So, I've put the link up in my bio on my instagram page obehi_dibua (link in my signature). Let me know if this works now...plus, if possible, please save the blog link so you can access the updates. Thank you!!! |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 10:52pm On Feb 13, 2021 |
Thank you @Tundhay and Elvictor, that's a great idea! So I tried that, and it doesn't work, everytime I try it the '' part is deleted and it makes it impossible to go the site from the link. I think the only thing that works is just copying and just removing the space to turn it into a link |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 12:47am On Feb 13, 2021 |
Fazemood:Sorry to hear you lost your password and you've had to stay away, but glad you're back though! Hope you enjoy catching up |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 8:07am On Feb 07, 2021 |
Hey everyone, I've been really busy this week, so I have gotten a chance to write the next chapter yet. I'll post it up as soon as I get the chance to write it. Thank you |
| Literature › Re: Masquerades Of The Nulin Nations (18+) by obehiD(op): 7:37pm On Feb 01, 2021 |
NoChill:This is really strange. I posted the link to the update on Saturday evening, but it looks as if the post has been taken down for some reason. Anyway, the new chapter is up on my blog |
not Isan 