The First Legacies Of Zion: Omaye

More Bitter Truths

ESTHER

Someone once said fear was an illusion, that it was just a way our bodies reacted when we are shocked or shaken by something. Esther would very much like to meet the i***t who said that, because here she was, all numbers and codes, but yet she still felt fear.

Her father lay bleeding beneath her hands, and with every passing second he drew closer and closer to death. So far no body knew what death would be like in Zion, no body had been stupid enough to risk it. This was now the reality of billions of people; it was only natural that they all took it seriously.

You only have one life on earth, was there a reason for it to be any different here, Esther was not sure, and like the millions of other people who have had the same thought process as her, she was not willing to risk any thing for a sense of immortality that might not even be true.

So far, with how isolated Orun was to the outside world, Esther had no idea what the stance about dying was in this world. Do you get a respawn, or is that it for you, once you’re dead you’re dead?

And at the moment, she has never been so close to death in her entire life, it was quite natural to be scared, especially when her father’s life still depended on her. Esther could feel her hands shaking as the fatigue and strain of keeping a constant connection to the celestial plane, began to wear her down. At this rate she was going, she was not even going to last five minutes.

“Esther you should take a break. I’ll be fine.” Hearing her father’s voice shook her concentration a little, but she was able to gather herself quickly enough to regain control of her heal spell. But she was glad to see he had regained consciousness. And that was when she started crying. Apart from the fact that she was partly to blame for the state her father was in, Esther’s emotions were still over the place after her fight with Nathaniel, and she was much to weak to keep a handle on them.

“Its ok, girl it’s not your fault.” Her father tried to console her, but Esther was having non of it as she shook her head in disagreement.

“But it’s my fault. Everything is always my fault. At least that’s what Nathaniel thinks.” Esther cried out, letting her tears fall unhindered over her father’s body.

“You know Nathaniel doesn’t think that. You’re his sister, and he loves you.” Her father defended.

“But that’s not true dad. Whenever anything goes wrong he blames me, sometimes mom and Faith do the same thing. Even y…” Esther’s words got stuck in her throat, as she couldn’t bring herself to tell her injured father that he was part of the people who loved to shift the blame on her. But her father had no such qualms.

“Even me right?” he spoke up, completely ignoring Esther’s startled twitch.

“Dad you know I don’t mean it like that. I….”

“But you do.” He cut her off before she could say anything else.

“It has always been a tradition of sorts in Africa for the first born of every family to shelter the woes and responsibilities of the entire family. At least until that child gets married. But we have strayed, no I have strayed from the path our ancestors used to raise our children.

They believed responsibility of a family belongs to the first born son, your only job was to be a girl who was taught the values of keeping a home, of being a good wife. Instead I ruined everything.

Sometimes I can’t understand how I came to fall so low, how I somehow became the perfect example of a failure as a father. I could not keep my son from living like a hooligan, I could not teach him the proper way to be man.

And you, my sins against you are the worse. I could not stand up for you my child, I let your evils incarnate of a mother sell and bound your future to a dark path. I sat back and watched her destroy your innocence. And when things really went wrong and you were involved in any way I joined hands to blame you, because I did not see you as a person anymore. Only a used rag, dirty and unclean.

Oh God! I’m a monster. I failed you Esther, now I am cursed to watch the three of my children fall apart just like your mom and I did. Forgive me child, forgive your brother, and forgive your sister. But even if you can’t forgive me, remember your siblings, because in the end they are all you truly have left in this world. This place is not any less dangerous than earth, in fact its more dangerous, and you need each other.

You still have to protect them Esther, that would forever be your responsibility as their elder sister. But I promise when the time comes and it matters, they will protect you too. Because family always look out for each other.”

Life was a very complicated idea. And chief among its problems was love. There was no way you looked at it, that the answer does not remain the same; love was made to cause pain. No matter how strong a love you have, it will always because you pain. It made Esther wonder if love was not just a curse on all its own. Maybe life would have been better off if love was not so integral to it, it would have made a lot of things easier.

Esther had nothing else to say to her father as this point, the old man had made his point. But she doubted him, because she was not so sure this family could look out for their self when it really counted. Nathaniel was not man enough, and their mother was just a figure head.

She stopped being a part if this family a long time ago. Faith might as well be the person who points a gun at their family’s face, and her father never had the courage to stand up for himself much less his family. No matter how you looked at it, this family was doomed to fail.

Esther looked up at the sound of grass being parted. It was Nathaniel with a batch of dry wood for the fire. He looked like he was about to say something for a moment, but turned his head and kept his mouth shut. He placed the wood on the ground and moved closer taking about five steps before he stopped about ten paces away from Esther, it was obvious he wanted to ask how their father was doing.

But he was unable to talk to Esther. And Esther did not care what his reasons were, she was not saying anything unless he opened his mouth, and that was if she even decided to talk to him.

“Its okay Nathaniel, I’m fine. Esther is doing a good job”

Well it seems their father had a different idea as he gave Nathaniel the answer to his unasked question. Esther found it annoying, she would rather take every opportunity given to her to torture her brother rather than reassure him. He deserved to suffer.

Nathaniel still did not, or couldn’t say anything as he left the tiny clearing and made his way back into the dense foliage. Esther hoped he was stewing with guilt and hoped he also got bit by a snake or a bug, a mosquito would do nicely, or maybe a hundred of them.

It didn’t take long for Faith to find her way back to them. But she had no qualms about speaking, in fact she did not seem to be affected any by the previous fight. She matched straight for Esther with a bag filled to the brim with herbs.

“I found a batch of cello moss and reg grass. They’re main components for low level heal potions. Reg grass has cellular regeneration properties, however I haven’t learnt a lot yet, so I don’t know how to apply it properly. The cello moss is a disinfectant, I don’t have a catalyst or a bind herb that would mix the properties of both of this plants, so we have to apply them separately and in different ways.”

As she was speaking Faith was busy bringing out different things from the bag she took with her into the forest. First she brought out an eating bowl and a huge flask of water. Then she spread it at their father’s side and looked up at Esther who was staring at her silently the whole time. Then Faith said to her.

“You think you have me all figured out, I’m not saying what you have discovered about me is wrong. But let me tell you something Esther, you don’t know anything about me, or at least not everything. I care about this family too, after all you’re my family. Our father is failure, our mother a cheat and our brother is on his way to becoming and even bigger failure than our father and you’re a slut.

One of us has to have balance so that the others can be taken care of.”