Dark ominous clouds hung over Kunje City, with thunder giving a rolling growl every few minutes. I stood staring at the monolithic grey stoned building, with its massive charcoal black oak door in front of me. How did I end up here? Why could I not wrap my head around the fact, that Niku, my friend, guardian and only person I could call family was dead? And why did this building look shit weird? The thoughts fleeted randomly in my mind, as I absent-mindedly absorbed the humidity around me, grief hanging its own dark cloud over me.
I probably looked an odd sight, with my pink sneakers and my dusty yellow suitcase that matched my eye colour. It certainly was a sharp contrast to my olive brown skin and shoulder length braided, raven-black hair. Nku used to call me 'lion eyes'. Damn, I missed him badly.
"Are you now ready to go in?"
Startled out of my thoughts, I blinked and glanced at the speaker, the woman who had escorted me here. She had a lithe frame, her coffee brown hair pulled back in a loose chignon and she wore an expensive looking black coat and sky-high black heels. Set in an angular face, with what looked like a leopard pattern on the left temple, her piercing grey eyes surveyed my face as though she was reading each thought that fleeted in my mind.
"This is a safe house?" I finally managed to croak out, my voice sounding weirdly pitched.
The woman swung her gaze to the building in front of us. She seemed to weigh her words carefully, before she uttered, flatly, "Yes. It's an academy. You will be a student here."
"Excuse me, student?!", I baulked turning to face the woman, feelings of mistrust flooding in, as I remembered how she had just turned up in Rwisi City at Nku Chanda's, my guardian's funeral a day before. Somehow she had a letter in his handwriting, written three years ago, instructing me to let the woman escort me to a safe house for guardian-less Anibas like me. I had been reluctant and somehow she convinced me by saying Nku would want me safe and given I was numb with pain from losing my guardian, I took it as a sign he was still looking out for me, even beyond death. So here I was in Kunje City.
My voice shook, as I spoke again, "You told me this place was a safe house for Anibas, not a school."
"It's both," she countered quickly, and continued, her eyes still fixed on the building, "It's just that given how you let your energy leak, it has become evident that Nku failed to train you well in how to reserve your energy. You are in bad need of education."
Her eyes now came to settle on me, a slight disdain in her gaze.
"Nku did his best by me!" I choked back, angry tears pricking my eyes. How dare she talk negatively about my guardian, who had died protecting me?! It was not even more than a day since his funeral. Or least, whatever that odd ceremony was, where they burned and stripped his body of energy. My skin broke into goose pimples at the memory and this woman had been there, appearing to be doing most of the energy stripping. I had hated her in that moment, and it only lessoned slightly when she explained that it was to prevent energy scavengers from exhuming his remains later on.
"Perhaps, he did try his best. Yet here you are, a defenceless, guardian-less seventeen-year-old Aniba," she countered, indifferently.
"I am not defenceless. I know how to fight!" I blurted out tearfully. I hated that I felt so weepy. I hated that this woman showed no sympathy. How dare she make it seem as though Nku had done nothing for me?!
Without thinking, I reached inwards and pulled up the ball of energy within, the tips of my fingers turning a hot topaz as I raised my hands and stepped my left foot backwards in a fighter's stance. The woman raised her hand, drawing an arc and I felt a wave of icy air wash over me, taking the topaz energy from me.
"Calm yourself, child. I have no interest in fighting you. And it was no insult to your guardian. I am only pointing out that you would benefit from this academy," she said in a cool tone, that bordered on icy boredom.
I felt vulnerable at being so easily stripped of my power. Confused and shaken, I stared down at my energy-less fingers for a moment. Feeling less sure of myself, I mustered the courage to ask, "What is this place called? And how did you do that? I thought that could only be done to dead bodies."
The woman seemed to take pity on me and her gaze softened. She replied, "This is Kwenyu Academy. You will learn much here. Like what I did there, an energy dissipating move. But I am not your teacher. He is."
I turned to see where she gestured and flinched.