Words of Swords

2 . 0 - Flightless In The Sky

This sister Ala had mentioned Abu didn't have trouble identifying. He already knew she was the falling girl with flowing robe, the girl with the horse and the necklace. But he didn't know her name was Khadija, he only now discovered it for his conscience had since that encounter named her Green Oasis.

"What are you trying to say Muhammad?" Abu spoke up, hoping he had truly heard it wrong.

Ala breathed heavily, he too felt the gravity of what he asked dragging down his feet but his emotions had the better of him. They had been throwing tantrums in want of Khadija's safety ever since he was assigned this task and today, being the last day he could assure that, he had failed to supress them.

"Gobir, you are to ensure that Khadija does not get sent there." Ala said.

"And how am I to do that?" Abu was still in disbelief.

He thought if there was one person who understood his struggle to get to where he was today, to get to the impossible status of being a Tuareg prince trusted by the Foulahs and being used as a spy in a plot to conquer Indarari, it would be Ala since he was subjected to the exact same situation except he was to do so in Razf. But here Ala was, requesting that he throw all that away so easily.

"I myself am not sure but I beg of you to at least prolong her stay here, I'll handle everything myself from when I come back. I just need her to be here when I do." Ala's pleas grew relentless.

"And again Muhammad, I'll have to ask, how am I to do that? You very well know how it was hard enough to make those Foulahs agree to exile our family to Gobir instead of execute them so how am I to make them-"

Ala was swift to interrupt, teeth clenched in determination. "Listen Abubakar, I will not go on with this if I do not have guarantee of her safety. And you know the complications of that on us both."

Ala had clearly resorted to threats, he knew all along that Abu wasn't going to agree so easily. He as always was too adamant on sticking to Madu's safe side but that wasn't to say that Abu was cowardly for he was the most fearless man Ala had ever known, Abu was just cautious and thorough on making everything go as it should. This was after all the first mission he was ever tasked with.

He was proving to be too  loyal to the people who, if Abu had only known, had only granted him this task not for their trust in him but for the assurance that when and if he fails and turns out to be a traitor, they wouldn't have to deal with him, the Hausas would do it for them since he was now helplessly in their midst.

Abu couldn't see any of that for he was too blinded by the high this honor, as he termed it, had brought to him. They who he had night and day toiled to acquire an iota of their trust had granted him of such a massive opportunity and thus finally accepted his oath of allegiance to them and their cause. The whole of the Sudan would fall under the Foulahs, under one Caliph's command, under one Faith's rule, under the reign of Islam and only Islam.

Abu had been lost not long ago, his spirit battered by his brothers and father and despairing in darkness contemplating the possibilities of him survivng three more suns without ending his misery by ending his own life. It was then that the Foulah Revolt had sprouted. Abu figured he was going to die soon and it was inevitably by his own hands so why not die in the course of this instead and make the very people he had long awaited to end fall with him?

He had already forsaken that land and his people eons ago and was only residing their in body but never in soul so he would and would do it a hundred times over, sell his Kingdom to the Foulahs. But as payment, he had asked something to him that was more precious than money. A safe passage to Timbuktu. Where a younger him had once lived and discovered there that he could never be what was sought after in a son of Ibrah. He was but only a ghost meant to live in the shadows forever. At eighteen summers, he had left that great city but left his spirit there. Now, all he wanted was to after it and claim it again. The best moments of his life await him there.

But Ala's reck of emotions knew not and cared not of all that and threatened to ruin his only chance at that. They had just placed him between a rock and a hard place and Abu knew then, accepting Ala's request was a much softer rock than the hard place Ala's threat would put them in.

Though, unwilling, Abu had made his decision. "I'll see what I can do to ensure your sister does not get sent there Muhammad. You will come back victorius from claiming Razf and meet her here."

"I want you to promise me, give me your word Abubakar." Ala had perceived it too good to be true. If it had only taken one threat to break Abu, he needed a promise to believe him.

"I give you my word."

The stars and the moon, the wind and the sands as well all witnessed a vow sealed that night and a promise etched on the stone that was Abu's heart.