Chapter 11 - The Godling

Still on Rave God Review

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The sun was just reaching its peak as Ode stood helplessly before Omotola, his mouth sealed shut quite literarily. They had been arguing for the past half hour on their next course of action since leaving Oyo; Omotola wanting to go back and battle the Nupe gods while Ode insisted they head for Olumo to get further instructions from the council of the gods. Omotola refused vehemently, insisting that she would not go where they would try to control her. She had changed since the first time Ode saw her. No longer the white haired and wide eyed naïve girl they had thought she was.

Now her eyes spoke volumes, of a pain and unfathomable darkness inside her. Her face had attained the agelessness that came with being a full god but yet she still possessed some human features. This was not what was sealing Ode’s mouth however. Since they escaped, he had noticed that some things she outright did not want, he couldn’t help but go along with it. Since the day he had ’worshipped’ her, he had felt a kind of link to her, like the one he had with Olodumare which was the previous source of his power. The only good side to it was that he felt infinitively more powerful, probably because he was the only one bonded to her through ‘worship’. Right now, he had been arguing for going to Olumo and she had shouted at him, her eyes blazing and told him clearly not to speak of it again and he found out that he couldn’t. He could think about it, but the moment the words were about to leave his lips, his tongue froze up.

Omotola looked at him silently, probably taking his silence for being upset, then sighed.

‘Tell me everything you know about Olumo and the gods in it, if I will go, I have to know what I’m walking into’.

Abruptly, Ode’s tongue loosened and he began pouring out information faster than he could stop himself. His eyes widened with fear and horror but Omotola thought he was only animated as he described how powerful Ogun was, encasing a god in molten iron for a hundred years. Ode knew in his heart that he was under the control of the godling. Today marked the eight day since he gave up his divinity. He had half expected the cleansing light of Olodumare to come back to him instead of this brooding pulsing bond he now shared with Omotola, but he knew deep down it would not. He had been re-made by Omotola’s power. When he was through talking, the sun had set a few hours back and Omotola had created a suitable fire for warmth while they had sat together and he had revealed the secrets of the gods.
As he stopped talking, Omotola sighed and kept quiet for a few minutes. Then she looked up at him, those eyes a kaleidoscope of colors and said;

‘Would you teach me the ways of the gods Ode? I know I have power, and lots of it, but I do not seem to know what to do with. You have to help me Ode, you have to train me.’

He no longer fought it as the compulsion settled over him. He now knew what it was and was no longer afraid. He knew Omotola was good at heart, only changed by her imprisonment and torture at the hand of the Nupe, which no one would have remained the same after. He trusted her and believed in her. Suddenly, at his acceptance of this fact, he found out he could say No to an extent and he exhaled a sigh of relief.
‘Okay then’ he said grudgingly, ‘I’ll teach you, but be up by the first cockcrow tomorrow’.
‘Yes sir’, she said in a mock salute and they both lay down to sleep, setting wards around their camp to warn them of intruders.

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Morning came sooner than Ode would have liked with Omotola up already and breakfast already waiting. Ode grinned to himself and thought ‘I might eventually like teaching if these are the benefits to it’. He sat down and ate heartily, almost moaning in ecstasy at how good the bush meat tasted. He wondered where she got the spices to make it taste so delicious. After he was done, he stood up and walked towards her, breaking a branch off a nearby tree and setting it on fire with a brief flare of his power. It burned brightly in the morning light and gave off a minty smell.
‘Put off the light Omotola’ he said
Omotola looked at him like he was joking and on closer inspection, saw that he was serious. She barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes as she did as he asked.
Ode promptly began, ‘Your problem is you have too much power’
Omotola interrupted ‘How can having too much power be…’
Ode cut in curtly ‘Lesson One, apprentice’, he emphasized the last word strongly, ‘Do not Interrupt me when I’m speaking’.
Chastised, Moremi bowed her head and put on a meek expression.
Ode stared till he was sure she was properly subservient then continued
‘Your problem is having too much power. Normally, in a situation like that, what a god would do is to call up water and snuff out the fire or use the air to stifle it till it dies. What you did was will it to go out. That is very hard and takes a lot of power. For us gods, our power is linked to our strength, so the more power you use, the more weak you become. This is why you were weak after willing Nini out of existence’.
Omotola nodded thoughtfully as he went on.
‘Olodumare created the elements of nature to complement our power and that is why you will find it easy carrying out a task if you use one of the elements in its process. Now can you tell me what those elements are?’

‘Water, earth, fire and Air’.
Ode looked faintly surprised that she knew it and Omotola basked in the pleasure of his approval as he continued.
‘Yes, the use of those elements in working with power infinitively makes things easier’.
He paused at Omotola’s raised hand. ‘Yes?’
‘If you say its easier using elements when using power, why do gods so often wield lightning. There is no element in it and I don’t see them staggering with weakness after wielding it’.
Ode smiled to himself. This was a question every godling asked their teachers and he answered swiftly. ‘Lightning is one of the easiest manifestations of power because it is entirely composed of elements and therefore requires so little use of power.
As she opened her mouth in sync with her widening eyes, Ode almost laughed but continued.
‘Lightning is made up of two opposite elements, water and fire’. As he said this, he drew water from a nearby stream and wove it into a small circle that flowed continuously around his palm. ‘When water is spun fast enough, it glows’. And saying this, the water spun faster than ever around his palm, glowing a light shade of blue.
He held it for a few seconds and then wove fire on his other palm. And as Omotola watched, he fed the fire into the water. From the point where the fire came in contact with water, lightning spread till there was no fire and water anymore, just lightning.
Omotola gasped in amazement as Ode dissipated the lightning. ‘So that is why lightning burns’ she murmured. Ode must have heard her because he replied immediately.
‘Yes Omotola, and that is why you must wield lightning carefully. One slip and the lightning will burn you faster than your enemy. You should know this, in the time before time, when the gods were all primordial, it was said that lightning was the only way to kill another god, and that’s if you could wield it strongly enough. No god has died since those times until when you killed Jakuta, and you didn’t even use lightning’.
Omotola looked forlorn. Even among gods she was a freak. As she raised her head the smell of burning wood filled her nostrils. She looked around to see the forest behind them on fire. She looked back at Ode with panic in her eyes only to find him looking smug. He moved close to her and gripped her arms and said;
‘Put out the fire godling, and do not will them out’
And with that, faster than the eye could blink, he picked her up bodily and threw her into the forest.

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CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN