Our world is much more than we imagined when our blindfold falls.
Princess Calista has always wondered beyond the walls of Aelburn but as an Elite Supreme Warrior she has never set foot outside of her home. After The Kutawala invaded Acirfa, her kingdom was the only one left standing out of the six dynasties. When finally given her first solo assignment to Kimarr, the eagerness to uncover what has just been stories quickly turns into something much more with the stranger awaiting her arrival.
With an introduction into a world that shouldn’t be; a legend spoken of in relation to her divine purpose; the voice thawing at the back of her mind presses her into the unknown.
Where the truth will either lift her to greater heights or encourage her fall into her Lower Self.
Either way, she will never be the same.
Our world is much more than we imagined when our blindfold falls.
Princess Calista has always wondered beyond the walls of Aelburn but as an Elite Supreme Warrior she has never set foot outside of her home. After The Kutawala invaded Acirfa, her kingdom was the only one left standing out of the six dynasties. When finally given her first solo assignment to Kimarr, the eagerness to uncover what has just been stories quickly turns into something much more with the stranger awaiting her arrival.
With an introduction into a world that shouldn’t be; a legend spoken of in relation to her divine purpose; the voice thawing at the back of her mind presses her into the unknown.
Where the truth will either lift her to greater heights or encourage her fall into her Lower Self.
Either way, she will never be the same.
{Calista}
Fight or flight?
The former has always been encouraged, but right now the latter was a must.
The strangers materialised from nothingness, gathering around me like a pack of hungry wolves, eyes ready for their feast.
*Â
For miles, the earth screamed for nutrients, as a web of cracks sprouted like alfalfa across its fragile skin. Steep hills with the occasional eyesore of crumbling huts were visible through naked trees, their fruit lost within death’s phantom.
The Sixth Dynasty’s Palace still bore the scars of the war, blood and ashes trailing around every chunk of stone. After all these years, it is the only reminder of what was and what could have been. The kingdom’s black walls still remained pockmarked, with straws of roots weaving through its crevices. The once elegant palace tilted beneath engraved, crumbled pillars, it was a pity it had become liken to rubble. When it fell, the hearts of the people must have crushed with it. Even the statue of the Dynastic Emblem of a Lion’s head with a Cobra wrapped in its hair had become disfigured by Ma’at’s side, one leg folded beneath her. The goddess of truth, justice, cosmic order; her yellow-brown skin chipped with red rocks, oh the sight of dried blood everywhere, my stomach churned. The one thing intact as though the only hope and willpower of the people who once occupied this space was the model golden staff. The one every dynasty had with the Red Sunstone pieced at the centre of the top loop.
With every step I took, my breath hung like a fog in the air. Wading not just through the disaster but the memory of their past crawling along my skin, this was the first sign that nothing was as it appeared. The second — a gravitational shift.
A ghost-like blizzard of energy danced across the land with a seeming content sweeping rocks off the ground, and I mere inches on-and-off the earth. Then a high-pitched frequency, deafening to the ear, my hands cupping them, could not dull the sound nor relieve the bubbles that pressed my eardrums. Even my eyes, as they began to dizzy, I thought it best to give my head a shake, to snap out of the spell-like sensation, but my legs were weakening at the knees too. For all of this to happen at once, I must have travelled too close to something, a part of Kimarr that had been untouched since this devastation. To be firm; to be calm in mind — I needed to be. So, with both hands pressed to my heart, a deep breath drawing from my chest, it was better to remember why I was here. As a matter of urgency, why I had crossed the lands and seas to uncover a truth guarded. Such earthly tricks would not send me scurrying back to Aelburn.
Defiant, gaze forward, unwavering, I proceeded.
From the moment I crossed the border, my bare feet wading through the River Elin and its red soil to set foot on the deserted Kimarr, a vague feeling of unease crawled over my skin with a quiver. My ankle beads rattled amplifying my concerns. Despite the stories about the Sixth Dynasty’s disappearance after the Civil War, it felt surreal to be here; strange energy hinted at life here — the unseen wandering. Anyone who had set foot on Kimarr within a decade would have thought it too; an overwhelming feeling of pure Ka, energy and spirit, infused with pain and misery. It burned my tongue –- a metallic taste staining my saliva, twisting my insides into fists. It took a lot not to vomit on the very ground where death had marked its territory. It was at this moment that I knew …
I was not alone.
*
When they come, the sky opens baring its soul with a tremendous downpour of rain. Thereafter, in an erratic pattern striking the earth, blinding-red flashes. Luckily, not so close to have me worried. Nonetheless, with the shadows that near, I crouch one arm protecting my front, the other gripping the Jasper-hilt sword at my waist. To the eerie stillness, the only disturbance is the beating rain followed by my slow exhale. When they close in, dread shifts my weight from one foot to the other. A sudden wind slapped my shoulder-length plaits with small silver beads into my face. The trail of fire in my eyes, the red lightning picturing once more, “Ah.”
The rumbles thump with my heart. Turn back, it shouted. Evade the oncoming group. I have no business being here. My assignment should be marked as a FAIL.
Yet, in honour of my father, my mentor’s philosophy too, “Fear is an illusion; false evidence appearing real.” I needed to find reassurance in these words but, their weapons …
Strapped onto their backs, ranging from the basics of axes and spears to whips and knives. Those were very real. So was their shadow. A black coat of fur shimmering silver with the Blue Star’s reflection in its eyes. Water dripping from its whiskers, its paws splashing in the mini sinkholes behind its masters.
“Panther.” I gasp, never seen up-close, mesmerising, royal in its stance.
They are all male with a skin tone unlike any other. Very different from the shades of black-brown, foreign but strange, I assume they are people of the ice rather than the Red Sun. How else would you explain their excessively pale skin with a subtle red tint to it? If not for this variation, I would have thought they were bloodless. And when they bare their teeth, in I guess an attempt at a smile, the sharpness, looking is enough to slice me. If not for their broad nose and thick lips, I would have thought they were an entirely different species. Despite this they hold some form of beauty, maybe not so long ago they held more a likeness to the original black man than the diluted version before me.
About eight of them stand tall with unkempt hair defying gravity. Their loincloths decorated with mini black beads accentuate their bulging thighs.
“You’re trespassing,” the one standing across from me, his hoarse voice carrying with the wind and the cacophony of the rain. His bloodshot eyes watch me like a lion does its prey, unfazed through the mist of the downpour. Under his gaze, my claw-choker neck jumpsuit feels stripped to nakedness. They skim across my two beauty spots nestling, almost sheltering, beneath my full lips. Then to my sun-kissed complexion over the prominence of my cheekbones. Mere metres from each other we mirror our differences. I imagine the energy around me is captivating, alluring even; I always attract what I should not. He takes a deep breath as if my presence would invigorate his life; his mind a projection of images explode through my sight. Images of a woman much darker than I, her features blurred, his true love I suppose. “How? How can I see his thoughts?”
When the images fade, the only thing remaining, “he thinks I’m exceptional.” His thoughts touch my lips, utilising my mouth instead of his. “To be surprised I have made the trip, would be an understatement. There’s a plan …”
The short link between us severs.
“What plan? What do I have to do with it?” The glint in his eyes, our encounter … my eyes widen.
When he rolls his neck, a long scar running from his chin to the base of his throat becomes visible. His companions; each holding the same mark, “Clones?” My jaw slacks. He does not bear the mark of the Eye of Horus, yet he so easily conjures multiple reflections of himself. Looking at my own, he couldn’t possibly be an Elite Supreme Warrior.
I clear my throat. “If you could just let me pass, then I’ll be on my way.”
“You are a long way from home,” he whispers in a sing-song voice. Then he holds out his hand, tasting the rain as it speaks to him, or maybe bridging the energy gap between us. His panther prowls closer to his side, sparkling like an unstable portal. “This was no accident -–” he pauses “-– intentional.” Sweat slithers down my back with his every word.
The sky darkens.
“We have been expecting you.”
The relief in his voice, it does something. The questions brimming in my heart.
A trap?
This assignment … did Father … am I to be taught a lesson?
The panther growls and fuses with its master. In a blur, I cut the guy to my right a burst of blue light exploding a path to follow. He disperses. Gravity’s pull weakens. I leap every other step, arms trying to balance me in my flight. All the while, I click my fingers; only sparks, I needed more than that.
ching
Their swords unsheathed, the remaining seven slice the air. From my periphery, four of them split into two on either side running ahead of me. “Such speed …” I think fast. Pressing two fingers into my Eye of Horus, I call upon a portal. A gold streak sauntered forward to the stream of water in reach. I galloped then placed two feet together, vaulting off. My arms caught my knees and I tug-to-flip into the lake. The water separated with the parting of my hands. The black hole that should have swirled me through … “Ugh.” I gulp the salty water, heaving my body to the surface. An excruciating pain ripped through my calf. All around me, my blood dirtied the water even more. The rock that had cut me I forced away. With a throbbing hand, I feel for the gash that is widening by the second.Â
How strange, where had the portal gone?
The water licks my wound; everything solid becomes so soft it seems to melt before me. The low tide I yield to. His figures looming over me brings a chill to my spine.
In a sprint, the seven become one. The image of his panther occasionally pushes through the barrier of his flesh. His lips distort into a smirk. I squeeze a blink unable to get rid of his ripple-like reflection.
“S-stay back!” The echo of my voice hadn’t travelled further than the bank of the river. I throw my hands up, tensing, pushing until finally spirals of black tentacles wrapped around my fingers.
“The Blue Flame.” His eyes light up.
Just about more than sparks, flickers of baby flames. More. I need more. Clenching my teeth, my eyes watering, “More.” It felt like I was begging myself to do the bare minimum. This is me, the Blue Flame, why now do I defect at what I’m good at? If Father could see me … he’d be more than disappointed.
“Ssh –-” he crouches.
“No, no not like this.” The tears in my eyes.
“It will soon be over.”
My fingertips vibrate, with a sizzle my Blue Flame becomes smoke.
 “What do you want from me?” My tongue slurs, heavy along the bottom of my lip. In the lake, my reflection wavers, loud and clear it tells me I should have listened, I should have stayed where I was, in Aelburn.
He jumps into the water and scrapes me up just before I collapse. A spark ignites between us as our skins rub.
For a second, I forget whose embrace I am in, as I stare into his brown eyes. A man with a depth to his soul, an obligation to those he serves. He must perform like everyone else.
    Protect.
    Empower.
    Awaken.
Just as quickly as the spark had approached, it disappeared, leaving me void of emotion, void of thoughts. Our connection lost. The darkness cocoons my inner flickering flame.
“You will soon find out.”
My blade falls from my hands into the lake. Light passes through it as new territory claims it as its own amongst two-toned rocks. The sky with quick succession closes back up and the red lightning strikes taking us with it.
Calista had only wanted to impress her father, the King of the First Dynasty of Genapa on Acirfa (specifically Allburn); and was beyond excited and emboldened to receive her first solo mission to discover the truth about the mysterious Sixth Kingdom - Kimarr (which was assumed to have been destroyed). Things take on a disastrous, and somewhat surreal, turn when she's captured by a pale man and held as a prisoner.
Dakarai and Khari have been sent on an undercover mission to earth - to seek out potential threats to Acirfa and Genapa that may come from the earthlings. They take on assumed identities and have jobs - Khari as a bartender in a trendy club in Canary Wharf, Dakarai - a detective. Use their advanced Genapain technology to keep each other informed of any developments, Khari asks Dakarai to meet him in the club; he's been 'made' by a strange woman who has left a strange code on a napkin. The woman is soon murdered in front of them, only sharpening their unease and making their entire mission even more dangerous.
Although written in a slightly jarring style, which makes you go back to ensure you've not missed anything of import, you shouldn't let that put you off what is an exceptional book with a rich, colourful word built into its pages. Yes, at times, it's slightly surreal, but surely that's what Nicely wants to achieve, especially when Calista is almost certainly hallucinating. In no small way, Genapa's technology reminded me of that of Wakanda's - as well as the protective veil Acirfa from earth.
What I think I especially loved about The Masterpiece is that it made me search for all of the myths and legends which surround African heritage - aside from Egyptology. It led to an eye opening experience, and vastly improved my education.
S. A