Sopona is followed by the woman and Maduabuchi.

  Sopona asks, “Why’d you wish for me to come to this house next? What happened to the original plan of staying in time square or walking around in populated areas?”

  Maduabuchi replies, “This village is small, word will spread. Best we go to the most influential person, word will spread faster that way.”

  As they walked up this small elevated mountain, they see a palace made of gold but unprotected. Still beautiful and pristine nonetheless. There was this big steel door, Sopona easily opens it with a single wave of his hand. They enter and notice broken fruits as well as food stains on the floor, causing the woman to be a bit saddened.

  The woman says to Maduabuchi, “How can people be so wasteful? All this food, it’s fresh. The village could’ve be fed with this.”

  Maduabuchi responds solemnly, “They were. They just didn’t want it all.”

  When they get to the end of the hall, they see a lavish throne with small thorns all over it the arms of it. There’s a girl sitting on the throne, with immense boredom while staring at the ceiling. A few other older women surround the child, pampering the scars. Sopona looks over at Maduabuchi, he then sighs.

  Sopona replies, “This child holds the most influence?”

  The child as well as the scenery glitches out, to where he’s back to a place in the sky. He’s above the clouds and the cosmos is surrounding him, the girl that was once sitting there is now a fully grown man who’s towering over Sopona. The man’s body is graced with red cloth alongside animal hides which included human skin placed around his wrist and meanwhile the clothing around his neck is every fur and feather of every bird as well as animal. There was jewelry on his neck that seemed like mini universes which dazzled with beauty, his crown which also had jewelry covering his face were just as beautiful. The man scars along hides body which resembled a lighting pattern, Sopona noticed this man.

  The man spoke with a voice like thunder, “You’re banished, Sopona. You are a ORISHA, we mustn’t harm another of our kind. You have forgotten this pact thus, have disgraced all of us!”

  Sopona yells back, “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO TALK OF DISGRACE?!”

  The atmosphere gets almost toxic and the ground itself decaying and the stars dying, turning into black holes. The infection spreads to the man and he simply snarls at Sopona with disgust. Everything turns back to normal and everyone seems scared, the child still sitting there unfazed. Sopona feels that the palace itself was shaking.

  Sopona calms himself, “I apologize for my sudden outburst. You people have endured enough, I do not wish to make you endure my wrath too.”

  The child moves herself to sitting up right, leaning forward and staring at Sopona with a hard to read expression.

  She says, “I don’t know who you are, but if you’re a Ajogun then you’ll find no entertainment here. We’re plagued by enough. The Orisha have abandoned us and the people of this town all keep to their own. So you can’t be begging me for food, since again, we all keep to our own. So to summarize, every word you say is a lie to me and I don’t plan on helping you if you’re seeking help of any sort.”

  Sopona scoffs and walks towards the girl, the women start to stand infront of his path. Seemingly protecting the little girl, he looks at them rather confused. A specific woman stands in front of him with strong eyes that portrayed an image of dominance even though she seemed so fragile.

  She says with a hint of anger in her voice, “You don’t get to walk in here, yell, then try to approach a child. Get your sorry ass out of my sight or I WILL attack you without hesitation. Now last chance, leave.”

  Sopona replies with a demeanor as calm the sea, “What is your name, woman? You remind me of a colleague of mine.”

  She spews, “Njagua.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Sopona simply replies, “ Hm.”

  Then goes to move her aside but she stands firm and pulls out a sword which is pointed at the side of his neck.

  Maduabuchi says, “WOAH WOAH! WE DIDN’T COME HER FOR A FIGHT!”

  Njagua says, “YOU’RE supposed to be finding out a cure, not bringing in more baggage!”

  Sopona immediately grabs her and sees the world through her eyes. He sees a little girl under him who’s bloodied and looks around to see people horrified. People are whispering and a very tall man then starts braiding him. The scene happens again but instead of something being beaten, they’re hiding behind their parents. Then it happens again, getting those same looks of horror and hate. Then again. Then again. Even just talking to someone in a slightly louder than normal voice, gets him those looks. He feels more shame and becomes smaller the more those events happens until he’s ripped out of the memory. Njagua seems to be slightly crying and she is further away from Sopona.

  Njagua yells, “Don’t you fucking touch me! You don’t get to see my memories, invading my mind! Don’t touch me again, you piece of shit!”

  Sopona says a bit taken aback, “I was just trying to help yo-“

  Njagua interrupts, “You call that help?!”

  The woman interjects, “No! It’s true, he has to see your sin before absorbing it! Then the mark goes away. See.” She shows her arms, no longer with marks.

  Njagua was about to talk but gets stopped mid sentence by the little girl, “Then heal me. Give me your ‘judgement’. I’m curious what you might say.”

  Njagua says quickly, “You don’t have t-“

  The girl says more sternly, “I know. Don’t tell me obvious facts, I simply want to see what he will say.”

  Sopona walks over to the girl and Njagua asks solemnly, “Why should we get rid of this? What’s the point? We all have seen each other’s sins, so why try to get rid of it? The truth is out and opinions what change. So what now? How will fixing the disease fix the damage it’s caused?”

  Sopona responds, “Humans are all the same, you all live similar lives only going through different extremes. No sin is greater than another because they both hold the same impact, only a soft noise in the orchestra of existence. The suffering in the world is so immense that everyone has grown numb to it and blind to the suffering they cause themselves yet have the will to disregard another for doing the same thing they do everyday. I’m getting rid of these scars because the right to show the extremes of your own experience is the only real thing humans can truly say they own, and having that taken from you is a disservice. It won’t fix anything entirely, but it’ll give you back the little power you have and will allow you to either, forget what happened and move on or build a new standard for accountability. I’m giving you back your choice, because like most of your existence, you’ve always had the reigns just no vision.”

  The little girl giggles, “You lost me with the ‘all sins are equal’ thing you said. Now I’m even more curious on what you’d say of my sin, is it equal to that of the woman following you?”

  Sopona grabs her hand and sees fire. Large and sprawling. Deafening screams and burnt flesh fills his senses. Running, he’s running and his legs are aching. Everything is large, the fire is larger than anything he’s ever seen. Encompassing everything in view, there’s no end in sight. He’s snapped out of it but he sees he’s still touching the girl, so why’d he? Before he can process any more thought, he’s back to running. Running to a stage, seemingly wooden. The fire isn’t spread to that stage, so he keeps running. The fire slowly reaches for his legs and once it simply graves him, he sees a flash of something. The setting around him changes but, it’s the same environment with the one change being that it’s no longer engulfed by flame. Then everything changes back to being on fire. He’s shifting between both anger and fear, safety and danger, destruction in his control and out of his control. The anger is like a temper tantrum, but he still is piecing together why. Everytime he shifts back to the burning village, the stage is getting further. He sees that flashes back to when the village wasn’t on fire, but now he sees the only fire there was…the one he had. It’s a torch.

  The realization pulls him out of the vision again and he says with shock, “…You caused the fire. You were angry, weren’t you? So you burned the village down.”

  The girl scoffs and looks down, but Njagua speaks for her, “YOU STUCK UP ASSHOLE! THAT WAS A AC-“

  The young girl stop Njagua from continuing, she finally speaks up but her voice is soft and somber, “That’s a hasty conclusion you made, but perhaps that’s what you saw. Who am I discredit it?”

  Then he thinks, “This trial…relates to Shango? How?”

  Before he can think anymore, he’s thrown back into that town. He feels immensely tired and the scenery is back to normal. People seem to be scolding him then again the scene changes back to fire surrounding him but this time he’s on the stage. There’s a rope and noose. He knows what comes next and tries to get off the stage but his body keeps moving forward. He wants to avoid it, yet it’s like he’s being drawn to his fate. Before he can keep resisting, he hears a loud ringing noise. Everything goes black, then he feels a tightness around his throat. It’s the noose. He’s being hanged. He’s dying. It’s a long and agonizing moment.

  He thinks to himself, “What are you trying to show me? Is this your attempt at making me FORGIVE him?! Because he suffered?! Because he DIED?! I HAD TO FIGHT FOR MY EXISTENCE AGAIN AND AGAIN BUT I SHOULD FEEL SORRY BECAUSE OF THISS???”

  The pain gets sharper but he begins to only laugh, it’s more of a gargle if anything. Simply finding this all hilarious.

  The laughing gets more intense, “OLORUN! ORUNMILA! OBATALA! YOU THINK I’LL FEEL PITY FOR YOUR CHOSEN KING??! YOUR TYRANT!”

  The pain stays the same but, he begins to feel like he’s falling. He feels weaker, feels his muscles deteriorate and bones ache. He remembers this feeling all too well, he’s being cast out. This thought makes his heart race, his body begins to shake.

  He nervously laughs, “This isn’t real…I’m too important…I’M TOO IMPORTANT TO LOSE THIS TITLE.”

  The fall only gets faster.

  His voice is shaking, “I WAS THE FIRST TO GET THE GIFT! WE’RE ONE STEP CLOSER BECAUSE OF ME!“

  His throat is getting choked hard enough to the point he couldn’t even force out words.

  He’s now thinking, “Wait, this doesn’t make sense. This shouldn’t be about me, this aspect of the trial shouldn’t be even making me experience this. This isn’t his experience…unless they’re trying to tell me otherwise. No, he’s not like me.”

  He lets the fear leave him. He lets the experience overtake him, the pain which he was so used to. The pain he forced himself to forget, he’s frail but his mind is the same. He forces himself to remember the Torment. The familiarity of suffering. Then he’s pulled out.

  The little girl stares at him, “So, what did you see?”

  Sopona says it outright, “You tried the escape the anger you felt, through suicide. Your sin encompassed everything around you and the only way to escape was through eternal peace. The sin you have, is cowardice”