Oh nooooooooo. And I've been checking weekly for updates

I was really enjoying the story.

Okay please just tell me, who raped Tan, is Debisi really guilty? And is the igwe really genuine? Please just tell me so I can have closure.

monalicious:
Oh nooooooooo. And I've been checking weekly for updates

I was really enjoying the story.

Okay please just tell me, who raped Tan, is Debisi really guilty? And is the igwe really genuine? Please just tell me so I can have closure.

This actually makes me really sad. As a reader I know how it feels to be invested in a story and to lose that, it was just getting to the point where the story became really hard to write for various reasons. I'm so very sorry for discontinuing it, especially since you kept commenting on my blog and kept checking for new updates and you've pretty much been reading my stuff from the very beginning, I'm sorry I let you down, I'll send you an email and try to make it up to you, but I wrote this summary because you asked, hope it helps with closure, and again I'm really very sorry. I don't take my readers for granted it's just hard to explain how daunting and emotionally and mentally taxing, writing this story became

Summary

Last scene Tan finds out that her brother Tiwo has been kidnapped. She doesn’t want to suspect Nnadi, but then she speaks to her mother, and her mother lets her know that she’d spoken to Tiwo about what happened. According to her mother, there’s only one person who fits the description of the man who attacked Tan, and that’s Nnadi’s double. The rulers of the Nuri kingdom have body doubles with the same aha (markings) as the rulers, and the doubles are usually the same height and have the same body-structure. With their masks on, they are an exact duplicate of the Nuri rulers. And there’s only one person that can order the doubles around and that’s the Eze of Nuri. Which means that even though Nnadi hadn’t done the deed himself, he was the only who could have ordered his body double to do it. Tan feels betrayed, and speaking to her mother, she’s convinced that Nnadi never forgave Tiwo for killing Oza Onitsha, his uncle. She begins to fear that Nnadi is not just responsible for attacking her, but also for killing her brother, and that his intention is to steal her nation from her. Her mother is convinced that the only way forward is to kill Nnadi.

Tan struggles with this though. All she has are suspicions, can she really kill Nnadi based solely on suspicions of his guilt? She keeps wrestling with this and finally she speaks to Mede about it. Mede volunteers to kill Nnadi for her, she’s never trusted him and she agrees with Tan’s mother. Still Tan wrestles with it, she doesn’t know why, but she just can’t kill Nnadi. So Mede comes up with a solution, why not just subject Nnadi to Egbabonelmwin’s judgement. Which basically means throw Nnadi into a lions den and see if he survives. If he survives, he’s innocent, if not Egbabonelimwin has taken its justice. Tan grudgingly accepts, being the spiritual person she is, she believes in Egbabonelimwin’s justice. Then Mede and Tan make up, and have some mind-blowing sex.

Fast-forward to when Tan finally finagles Nnadi into going to the lions’ den. They leave alone, just the two of them and Tan lures him into the pit with the lions. The pit is in a flat plane, surrounded by much higher mountains. Tan pushes Nnadi down into the pit and watches him face off against ten lions. She realizes as the lions rip into Nnadi’s flesh that she is killing him. She’s coated it in Egbabonelimwin’s justice, but she’s still killing him. She struggles with watching, but she can’t look away. Against all odds, Nnadi kills the lions. Tan can’t believe it. Unarmed, alone in a pit with ten lions, and Nnadi kills them all. She doesn’t want to be, but she’s impressed. She’s so impressed that she stands there, watching while Nnadi rips out the lions’ canines and uses them as pickaxes to climb up the mountain walls. A part of her is jealous, she knows she cannot face off against ten lions and survive, but there is a tiny part of her that’s relieved. She didn’t want to see him die.

When he finally climbs out of the pit, he catches her unawares and basically backhands her with so much force she crashes into the floor. Tan is stunned, and by the time she’s in any frame of mind to fight back, he’s already overpowered, he kneels on her back, takes his belt off, and just beats her with it, until there’s no thought left in her head except for how much she loathes him.

Eventually they leave the mountain area and return to Tan’s palace. Nnadi tries to apologize later for the way he treated her but she basically tells him to go and Bleep himself. Mede returns and suggests many ways that they can kill him, poison, an ambush, he was in their land, they had the advantage, but Tan still can’t bring herself to do it. She asked for Egbabonelimwin’s justice and Nnadi survived when the odds were stacked against him, she would be a hypocrite not to accept Egbabonelimwin’s rulings. But there are still so many unanswered questions, the foremost of which is, is Nnadi really innocent, or is he just a really good fighter?

Tan’s search for her brother stalls until she receives a note telling her that her brother left the palace of his own free will, in a search for Ayisha. Tan puzzles at this note, wondering why Tiwo hadn’t told her before leaving. Tan disregards the note until she receives another, telling her that the bearer of the last note would like to meet her in Irrua, the Isan village bordering Bono. She has to come alone though. The person swears to having evidence of Tiwo’s location and so Tan goes. A part of her craves the adventure, but mostly, she just wants to be away from the palace. She can’t stand sitting idly by when her brother is missing. She follows the note and journeys on her trusty steed, Eghe, to Irrua.

A day into the journey she finds she’s being followed. She suspects it’s Mede and so she doesn’t worry too much, until her follower catches up with her and it’s the last person she would choose to travel anywhere alone with.

Nnadi.

Sadly, she can’t make him go back. She contemplates killing him many times as they travel together, but instead gets her revenge in smaller ways, making his journey a living hell. She poisons him a few times, not enough to kill him, but enough to make it impossible for him to keep food down. She laughs watching the pain he’s in. It brightens what would have otherwise been a dull journey. Eventually though, it becomes clear that Nnadi is aware of the fact that she’s poisoning him, and he eats the poisoned food anyway, silently accepting it as punishment for what he did to her.

Once Tan notices this, she has it out with him during the journey. Did he know it was his double who attacked her? Yes, he couldn’t lie about that, he did know it was his double, and he’d killed the man with his own hands for it, but he hadn’t been the one who sent the double, Nnadi swears to it. Of course he knew. Tan remembered how the food he’d sent to her had never been too spicy, so that she wouldn’t have to remember the Nuri spices that clung to her attacker like a cologne. Nnadi had been trying to spare her from the memories, but why hadn’t he just told her the truth? Nnadi confesses to not knowing who controls his doubles. His uncle, Oza Onitsha, had a double too. Oza Onitsha had been in the middle of trying to get to the bottom of the rumors that he’d been seen raping and kidnapping Bono nobles, when Tan killed him. Tan remembers Oza Onitsha’s dying words:

Jugga trader, tell nunu, the doubles...

Nnadi confirms that Nunu was his uncle’s pet name for him. ‘The doubles’ he’d been trying to warn Nnadi that it was their doubles causing all the havoc in Bono, leading to the rumors that it was them who’d been seen. The people who’d sworn to seeing Oza Onitsha himself committing those egregious acts had actually seen his double. Oza Onitsha had been innocent all along, but what was ‘jugga trader’? They both conclude that the Bono slave was somehow involved in the conspiracy with the doubles, but they can’t imagine how.

Anyway, there’s healing between them after they reveal their secrets. They finally consummate their marriage on the way to Irrua. Tan struggles with getting over her assault but Nnadi is unfailingly patient, Tan starts to fall in love with him. Honestly, they start to fall in love with each other.

The rest of the travel is peaceful, until they reach Irrua. In Irrua, Tan meets with the spy, who’s all covered up, mask over face, entire body concealed, but it sounds like a woman. The woman tells them news which breaks Tan’s heart. She tells them that Tiwo was sent looking for Ayisha, and that it was their own mother who gave Tiwo the location where Ayisha was being kept. Why would their mother do that though? Tan doesn’t understand. Until she finds out the most jarring news of all, their mother was never pregnant with the late Ooni’s child, the child is Taiso’s, the late Ooni’s eldest son, current Ooni of Bono. Still, Tan doesn’t understand why her mother lied to her.

Tan and Nnadi race to the location they’d been given. It’s in Nuri, in Enugu, just outside the Nuri Capital. On their way back to the Isan palace, they are attacked, repeatedly, it becomes clear that someone is trying to kill them. After narrowly escaping death, they decide the best way forward is to approach the Isan capital through a different route, since the route from Irrua to the capital has obviously been filled with assassins.

So they cross covertly into Bono, the last place anyone would look for either of them. They take a boat from Ibadan to Ekpoma and find that there’s a lookout searching for people matching their description on the route from Ekpoma to the Isan capital. They claim to be Isan tumblers, but they’re not, Tan knows her tumblers. They go back and try to enter the Isan capital through Sabon Gida and get the same result. They need more people to fight off the assassins, so Nnadi suggests returning to Nuri to get more guards. They could go directly to the location in Enugu where Tiwo was sent in search of Ayisha and then to go to the capital from there.

Tan agrees.

They got to the location in Enugu and find Ayisha in a hut. She’s been badly burnt, half of her face and body is burnt. She’s unconscious when they find her, and they kill the people guarding her and take her back to the Nuri capital for treatment.

Once they’re in the Nuri capital, Tan is eager to leave. She wants to get back to the palace to question her mother, but then rumors of the terms of her marriage pact with Nnadi begin to float around. The Nuri people find out that Tan will become heir to Nuri if Nnadi dies and they revolt. They question Nnadi’s masculinity, and claim that Tan is a witch who’s enchanted him.

Nnadi starts to buckle under the pressure from the gossips and his counselors. They want Nnadi to prove himself the one in charge of their marriage. He is the man after all and in Nuri, men rule, they lead. How can they bow to Nnadi if his own wife doesn’t? Tan refuses to dress as Nuri women do, refuses to kneel in greeting to Nnadi they way other Nuri wives do, refuses to lower herself in anyway.

They start to go estranged.

After Tan gets tired of waiting for Nnadi to provide her with the guards to return to Isan, like he promised, she decides to leave by herself. The guards stop her, she fights with them and would have killed them if Nnadi didn’t join in and stop it. She seethes with anger and resentment. Nnadi has her confined to the Nuri palace. In the time she’s there, Tan begins to form relationships with the slaves and learn their stories, learn of the mistreatments that Nuri slaves suffer. They all agreed that Nnadi was the kindest master they’d ever had, but not all Nuri slaves were so ‘fortunate’. The anger continues to build in Tan. Ayisha still hasn’t recovered, so she can’t tell them who was actually responsible for what happened to her. Nnadi refuses to budge. He says all she has to do is ‘meet him halfway’, kneel in greeting, dress as Nuri women do, just for a while to satisfy his people. Tan despises him for his weakness, why couldn’t he lead his people instead of being led by them?

Her only friends in the Nuri palace become the slaves and the new Oza Onitsha, Ekene. Ekene keeps his promise to her and teaches her the Nuri tongue. He is an emancipationist, a feminist, and he believes that given time, Nnadi will become one too. He tries to mend the break in Nnadi and Tan’s relationship, but neither side is willing to budge. The standoff continues until Mede breaks into the Nuri palace.

Tan is beyond ecstatic to see her. At first Nnadi threatens to have Mede arrested and he argues with Tan about it, but in the end he folds and leaves them alone. Mede becomes her only buffer against an increasingly cold and hostile world. She’s hated by the Nuri, hated by the men who see her walking around in her Isan clothes, and refusing to acknowledge them as her superiors, and hated by the women who see her as believing herself better than them. If they can bow to their husbands, why can’t she? Tan refuses to bend though and blames it all on Nnadi. The love that had formed between them when they travelled from Isan to Nuri together turned cold and suffocating. A part of them still loved each other, but neither one was willing to sacrifice for the other.

The standstill ends when a Bono convoy comes to Nuri. Apparently, the prince Debisi is rumored to be in Nuri and the Ooni of Bono wants his brother back to stand for the murder of their father. Tan doesn’t know what to believe. Nnadi sends the Bono convoy away, he doesn’t want diplomacy with Bono, he doesn’t care about Debisi or Taiso or their petty squabbles.

Debisi appears in the Nuri capital then. Nnadi hates Debisi. He hates Debisi because of the lie he’d told concerning his relationship with his sister Lola, and hates him for the cowardly way he abandoned Tan in the Oro forest. He wants to order Debisi’s execution but Tan asks him not to. It’s been so long since they’ve both spoken, Tan and Nnadi, that he grudgingly does what she wants. Debisi meets with Tan and explains everything to her. He has a bodyguard and amongst that guard is Toju, the face from the past, the one who’d sent Tan a note with a message about a mutual friend. She realizes then that the mutual friend he was talking about was Debisi. Mede catches up with Toju while Debisi and Tan chat.

Debisi is horrified when he learns that Tan thought he abandoned her in the Oro forest. That hadn’t been his intention. He’d gone to pull the fighters away from Tan, and it seemed that it had worked because Nuri warriors chased him all the way through the Oro forest. He barely escaped with his life. He’d been so injured that he had to hide out in Ibadan while he recuperated. That was where Toju found him. He was still unconscious, recovering, when he’d heard of his father’s death. Debisi came to Nuri seeking alliances to destroy his brother. He was certain that Taiso was responsible for their father’s death. Debisi confirms that he had known that at some point Nnadi and Lola’s love had been consensual, but he still refused to believe that Nnadi hadn’t raped her. If Nnadi hadn’t done something to hurt her, then why would she kill herself? Debisi had been the one to find Lola’s body, he saw the Nuri slave mark on her flesh. He begged Tan not to trust Nnadi. Tan feels cheated of the life she would have had if she’d married Debisi and she can see Debisi still loves her. Debisi had left the Oro forest with Nuri warriors on his heel, trusting that she could handle the few that remained. He hadn’t known that there were more Nuri warriors waiting, that it was those who’d followed him. Tan felt honored by it, Debisi had tried to use himself as bait, while also respecting that she was skilled enough to handle the few stragglers who remained behind. He trusted that she could take care of herself. Here was Debisi wanting to be her equal not fight her battles for her, but with her, not be above her but beside her, and if need be, beneath her. Debisi would never lord himself over her, never ask her to be less to satisfy others. He was who she should have married. They have sex.

The next morning, they wake up to the news that Ayisha is finally awake and can let them know, once and for all, who was behind what happened to her. Unfortunately, when Tan gets to her convalescence home, she’s gone and so is Debisi and his guards. Tan is stunned.

Later, Mede informs Tan that she learned from Toju that there were rumors that Tiwo was being held captive in the Bono Capital. Tan and Mede devise a plan to break out of the Nuri Capital which had pretty much become a prison to them.

They come really close to breaking out, but then they are cornered right at the gates to the Capital. They come up against a group of young Nuri nobles and kill five of them. They would have killed more if Nnadi didn’t arrive with reinforcements. Nnadi is enraged, the nobles are screaming for blood. Tan can’t kill their sons and get away with it! She has to be punished.

Nnadi is caught between Tan and his nobles, nothing new there. But this time, he agrees with his nobles, they lost five young Nuri noblemen, that crime can’t go unpunished. He decides to kill five of the Nuri palace slaves who’d gotten closest to Tan, one slave life lost for every nobleman she’d killed. Tan begs him, actually begs him not to do it. She says there’s still a chance for them, but if he does this, there’s no going back, she can’t forgive it. If there must be justice, then kill her, not innocent slaves. Nnadi can’t kill her, they both know it. If it’s not the slaves, then it’ll be Mede, but there has to be a life to pay for the ones she took. It’s an impossible choice and Tan can’t bring herself to make it, so Nnadi chooses for her. He kills the slaves.

Tan is heartbroken, disillusioned, and just completely exhausted with this silent war she’s been fighting with Nnadi. Ekene’s angry with her too, he blames her, says all she had to do was bend a little. Is her pride so precious? Generations of Nuri women have been kneeling to their husbands. What makes her better than them? Nnadi could have been the one to end Nuri slavery, Ekene says, he could have been the one to give women a voice. Tan could have slyly convinced Nnadi of the benefits of doing things her way, why did she have to challenge him at every point? Tan’s frustrated. Slave life was precious, in Isan, slaves were the most cherished because they put themselves last, they gave of themselves to serve others. No one would dare end slave life so callously, in her nation she would never allow it. But she wasn’t in her nation, she was in Nnadi’s and he might be a kind and benevolent Nuri man, but he was still just a Nuri man. She can’t forgive him.

She feels as if her eyes have been opened once she’s free from loving Nnadi. She can see clearly. Tiwo is in trouble. He’s not in Nuri, and their mother had lured him out of Isan, presumably for Taiso. Why their mother would do this, she couldn’t say, but she had to save Tiwo. She swallows her pride, puts on Nuri clothes and goes to kneel to Nnadi. She begs him to let her go after her brother. Nnadi says he’ll go himself. He’s not willing to let Tan leave Nuri, perhaps he knows that the minute she leaves him, she’ll never come back.

Nnadi attempts to ride into Bono, but he can’t get past Ikeja. He returns to Nuri and explains to Tan that he tried. Tan begs him again to let her go. She has an army, they can attack Bono together. It takes days, everyday she swallows her pride, wears the Nuri clothes and kneels in public to him. She keeps doing this until finally Nnadi lets her go. He makes her swear on the Nulin masquerades that she will return willingly to him, to be his wife, she swears.

Tan and Mede leave Nuri behind. They go to Isan, assemble their army and join with the Nuri army, laying siege to the Bono capital, together. But Taiso stays holed up in the Capital, refusing to leave. They face their first real challenge when the Alake of Ikeja rides to battle them. He arrives in the middle of the night, burns down their camps and disappears before they’re able to mount a defense. Night after night, the Alake of Ikeja follows this tactic, reducing their numbers using guerrilla warfare. Nnadi and the Nuri officers counsel burning down the surrounding villages, anywhere the Alake of Ikeja could be hiding. Tan argues against it, she just wants her brother back, she doesn’t want to burn Bono to the ground. But the Nuri have had enough and proceed without her.

Tan remembers the reaping then, remembers that the Ikejan people did not truly love their Alake, and she uses that against them. She spreads rumors through the surrounding villages that the Alake of Ikeja was working with Taiso to kidnap his own people and sell them into slavery. She doesn’t actually have any proof. Mamus, the Alake’s heir sneaks into her camp at night and confronts her about her accusations. Tan recalls that Debisi had saved Mamus from a reaping, so Mamus was particularly sore when it came to the subject of reaping. Mamus and Tan bond over their mutual affection for Debisi, but there’s not enough proof of her claims against his father to get him to turn on the man.

Nnadi and the Nuri start burning down Bono villages as payback for the guerrilla attacks against them. The Nuri-Isan army starts to fall apart at the seams. The Nuri mock the Isan, considering themselves superior because Tan was married to Nnadi and she’d knelt to him. They hurl insults at the Isan while the Alake’s army keeps burning down their tents and their supplies. They’re at the point where Tan realizes they can’t win. The Nuri are too arrogant, her people don’t trust them, and Nnadi refuses to listen to her. She’s getting ready to pull her army away from the Nuri’s and devise another plan when a new army joins in. This one is much vaster than the combined Isan-Nuri army.

It is the army of the Iyo empire. The army that has been threatening attack for revenge against what was done to Ayisha, except now they ride behind Debisi, supporting him. Debisi provides proof that it was his brother responsible for killing their father. He also provides proof, through Ayisha, that it was Taiso who had the Iyo contingent killed. It was Taiso who held Ayisha captive, Taiso responsible for burning off half her face. Debisi tells a story of how Tiaso worked with the Alake of Ikeja to try to kill him. Taiso bleached his skin, Debisi reminded the Bono who had begun to come out in droves to listen to their beloved albino prince. Taiso had kidnapped Tiwo, the twin brother of the Oba of Isan, not only did he do that, he attacked an Iyo contingent and framed the Eze of Nuri for it. Taiso was responsible for setting the Bono nation against Isan, Nuri and the Iyo empire. Was that the kind of Ooni they wanted? Debisi takes off his glasses and shows them all that he has flawless eyesight. He’d done this for his brother, yet his brother had still turned against him. Was that the kind of Ooni they wanted? He was their prince, perfect and albino, and they adored him.

The Alake of Ikeja’s army turned on him that night and brought his head as homage to Tan. Thanks to Mamus’ support, she wasn’t held responsible for the Nuri burnings of the Bono villages. Debisi said that blood had been spilled on both sides and that it was enough, he forbade retribution on the Nuri camp. Debisi sent word of his speech to the Capital so that the warriors could hear what he had to say. In the end, the Bono warriors in the Capital opened the gates and welcomed their albino prince in with cheers. Debisi rode into his palace with Tan on his right side and Nnadi on his left providing a unified front.

Taiso was holed up in the palace. In the end the combined might of their armies broke into the palace. Taiso fought for his life and killed Tan’s mother in a desperate attempt to distract them and get himself to safety. In the end it failed. Taiso confesses to using Tan’s mother to kill their father. She poisoned the late Ooni, Tan is devastated but she still wants to kill Taiso for killing her mother. It comes out that Taiso was responsible for killing his father, and for the attack on Ayisha, framing the Nuri and he also claims responsibility for moving Tan to Nuri after she’d been raped, but he swore he wasn’t responsible for planning her rape.

In the end it comes out that it was Neka, all along. She was Oza Onitsha’s daughter and she’d used that to gain power over the doubles. She was the one who’d had the double attack Tan, the one who had the doubles stealing Bono children and selling them. She’d used the sugar merchants to transport the children out of Bono. Sugar merchants, Jugga traders, it occurs to Tan and Nnadi that Oza Onitsha had been trying to tell them it was the sugar traders responsible, but with his accent, sugar came out as jugga. The Bono slave he’d been fighting had been the son of sugar merchants, one of many that Neka confessed to using. She was also the one responsible for spreading whispers of Debisi’s battle might, his fake glasses, all the things that made it seem as if Debisi was trying to steal his nation from his brother. It had all been Neka trying to turn the brothers against each other. Taiso staggered back in pain when he heard it. Why?

Because she hated the Nuri and hated the Bono. She wanted to tear Bono apart from within and bring war on Nuri and Bono. She hated Nnadi for sending her to marry a man who continually abused her and made her feel small because she was like him, dark skinned and not albino, she hated them all, even her father. She’d wanted her father dead, she’d devised the plan with the Bono slave to lure her father in and then make sure that he was framed for trying to rape an Isan slave. She was happy he was dead. Nnadi beheaded her.

The final piece of the puzzle comes together when Mamus brings in a witness to Taiso’s crime. This was what Mamus had been helping Debisi to search for, the thing that the Alake of Ikeja had held over Taiso’s head. Taiso was responsible for Lola’s death. Taiso had made the peephole in the wall in Lola’s bathroom, a peephole Tan remembered because she’d caught them spying on her, and he’d spied on his sister for years. He’d wanted her, loved her, and she’d denied his love. She’d chosen Nnadi instead and so he’d strangled her to death and made it look like a suicide. Debisi decides that Taiso doesn’t deserve a quick death. Taiso is tortured to death and peace is restored to the Nulin nations.

The Bono people want to crown Debisi as Ooni, but Debisi turns it down. He doesn’t want to rule, he never has, all he wanted was to set Bono free, and to give it to a real ruler, one worthy of the name. He reminds the people of the heralds of reunification and says the time to reunite the Nulin nations has come. Amidst grumbles from the Bono, he kneels in front of Tan and offers her his allegiance.

There is silence while everyone watches to see what she’ll do.

Tan secures the love of the Bono people when she turns Debisi down. He has sacrificed for his nation, if he doesn’t deserve to be the Ooni of Bono then no one does. The Bono people scream out for Debisi as their Ooni, but he doesn’t want it, he wasn’t born to rule. Tan swears to be his confidante, his helper, all he has to do is ask. Bono, Isan and Nuri sign a treaty, but everyone sees that the bond between Bono and Isan is true, strong, and that their rulers truly love each other. The Bono are ecstatic.

Nnadi asks Tan to return to Nuri with him, to keep the oath she swore, Tan flatly tells him that she’d been lying when she swore that oath. She will never kneel to him or any man again. Nnadi has tears in his eyes, but he’s forced to return to Nuri with his army, without Tan.

Tan and Ayisha reunite. Ayisha chooses to remain with Tan and not return to the Iyo empire with her brothers and her father’s army. Tan promises them that she will take care of Ayisha and that they’ll come to visit Iyo often. The Iyo army is satisfied and leaves. They also reunite with Tiwo who Taiso had kept locked up in his dungeon. They stay for a month in Bono. While they’re there Debisi tries to talk Tan into killing Nnadi. Tan will never be free to remarry if Nnadi isn’t dead, they swore a love match, they couldn’t divorce. Tan knows this and though she hates Nnadi now, she remembers when she hadn’t. She can’t plot his death.

Finally, Tan returns to Isan with her lovers, Ayisha and Mede. When she gets back to Isan she finds out that she’s pregnant. Debisi comes often to visit her and try to talk her into attacking Nuri, Tan refuses. She delivers triplets, two girls and a boy, one dark skinned, the other lighter, Nuri complexioned, and the last much smaller, obviously prematurely delivered months early, and albino.

People whisper about the heralds of reunification. Tan knows that Debisi started these rumors, convincing people that her children are a sign, three complexions born of the same womb, three nations under the same person. The masquerades willed it. Debisi sent out pamphlets titled ‘The heralds of reunification explained’ and they read:

The heralds of reunification: Corpses scattered over pristine grounds. A peacemaker warmonger. A loveless love match with love true. A ferocious fragile flower. Lost items whose locations were known. Chaos and confusion amidst the longest calm.

Corpses scattered over pristine grounds. The Iyo contingent laid out on the sparkling white Bono palace grounds.

A peacemaker warmonger. Debisi, who from the start wanted peace, but ended up arguing for war against his brother.

A loveless love match with love true. Tan and Nnadi, started their love match without love but found it in the middle and lost it again.

A ferocious fragile flower. Neka, pretending to be pure and innocent, gentle, all the while behind everything that had led to the war.

Lost items whose locations were known. Ayisha, lost though Taiso knew where she was the entire time. Tiwo, lost though most of the Bono capital knew he was there.

Chaos and confusion amidst the longest calm. There had been no outright war while all of this was happening, there’d been a surface peace, but underneath, there’d been chaos and confusion. Until finally the calm ended and war came to the Nulin Nations.

Debisi disseminated these pamphlets making sure they reached the furthest edges of the Nulin nations. Tan stayed in her nation, advising Debisi to stop, while she raised her three perfect babies. He didn’t listen. Nnadi came several times to see his children but each time Tan sent him away. Debisi came and she always granted him access. In the end, Nnadi took affront over the rumors Debisi was spreading and attacked the Bono nation, ending the short peace truce. Tan sent word to them both that she would not pick a side, she wanted peace.

A few days later she got word that Debisi was dead, Nnadi had killed him. Tan couldn’t believe it. Was it really all about the explained heralds of reunification that Debisi spread? Was it jealousy that Debisi could see Tan and the babies while Nnadi couldn’t? Tan didn’t know, and she didn’t try to find out. She raised an army in Isan and Bono and went to get revenge on Debisi’s killer. Their combined armies defeated Nuri’s and Tan killed Nnadi with her own spear. She seized the Nuri nation by force and accepted the allegiance of the Bono nation.

She united the Nulin nations under a single Oba, herself, back as it was in the days of the five masquerades. She appointed Ekene to govern Nuri in her stead and Mamus to govern Bono. Nuri slavery was abolished and Nuri women given equal rights as the men. Under her leadership, the Nulin nations finally knew true and lasting peace.

THE END

I wasn't enjoying writing and I couldn't say for sure that people were enjoying reading this and so I stopped. I'm sorry to anyone who'd been following the story and enjoying it. Thank you for reading, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't see it through to the end. I'm really very sorry and I hope this summary helps

wow what more can I say obehid

obehiD:


This actually makes me really sad. As a reader I know how it feels to be invested in a story and to lose that, it was just getting to the point where the story became really hard to write for various reasons. I'm so very sorry for discontinuing it, especially since you kept commenting on my blog and kept checking for new updates and you've pretty much been reading my stuff from the very beginning, I'm sorry I let you down, I'll send you an email and try to make it up to you, but I wrote this summary because you asked, hope it helps with closure, and again I'm really very sorry. I don't take my readers for granted it's just hard to explain how daunting and emotionally and mentally taxing, writing this story became

No sis you don't have to apologise, u didn't let me down. I understand, really. Thanks alot for taking out of your time for us all. Xoxo

obehiD:
I wasn't enjoying writing and I couldn't say for sure that people were enjoying reading this and so I stopped. I'm sorry to anyone who'd been following the story and enjoying it. Thank you for reading, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't see it through to the end. I'm really very sorry and I hope this summary helps

Listen here ObehiD,
I am gonna be honest with you, You are magnificent and this is easily one of the best stories here on Nairaland!
With this summary, the story is complete for me.
I can beat my chest and say that every reader who read this story absolutely enjoyed it. The plots, twists and intrigues in the story are Wow.
I Stan You always and I Look forward to more of your writings.

I'm happy you finally closed the story this way, I really did wish Tan would be able to redeem Nnadi, it's a bittersweet story and like I said I hope it is something you come back to later on. Hugs xo

No one that read from the beginning will tell me that he/she can't understand this ending part.... God bless for this.....

@paqman thank you

@monalicious I'm glad to hear it and also happy that you asked. I feel better having posted a conclusion/summary of sorts, so thank you

@DaLaw22 Thank you for the kind words, they really mean a lot. I'm really happy that you enjoy the story and that the summary is enough to complete it well for you

@GeoSilYe Yeah, really really bittersweet. I played with a lot of endings in my head. I actually really like Nnadi, I wanted him to become the man that Tan wanted/deserved, but I realized that wouldn't have been playing true to the characters. Nnadi just had way too much pride to lower himself to a woman and Tan had way too much pride to lower herself to a man. They clash and gemmed in the best ways and I regret not being able to fully write that out, because some of their scenes were so fun picturing in my head, the ways they fought and got back together...anyway, yeah, who knows maybe one day I might pick this up again

@cassbeat Thank you for reading and I'm glad the ending was easy to understand

All hail Mighty Obehi!

Wow. God bless you for this closure

lol @RealLordZeus

@docorexcel I'm happy to be able to provide closure, and glad you could read it

Hello everyone,

Just wondering if there's anyone on here who hasn't read any of the Marked stories (or who's only read the Spectral Existence story here on NL), and is looking for something new to read right now?

Please let me know, and wishing everyone a great week ahead!

obehiD:
Hello everyone,

Just wondering if there's anyone on here who hasn't read any of the Marked stories (or who's only read the Spectral Existence story here on NL), and is looking for something new to read right now?

Please let me know, and wishing everyone a great week ahead!

Hi........ I am looking for something new to read right now......
Thanks in anticipation

obehiD:
Hello everyone,

Just wondering if there's anyone on here who hasn't read any of the Marked stories (or who's only read the Spectral Existence story here on NL), and is looking for something new to read right now?

Please let me know, and wishing everyone a great week ahead!

Please post it thanks

Tuhndhay:


Hi........ I am looking for something new to read right now......
Thanks in anticipation

Thanks for the response, I've sent you an email

King2019:


Please post it thanks

Oh, sorry if you misunderstood me, I'm not looking to post something new right now, just wanted to reach out with an offer for a couple people who haven't read the Marked yet

obehiD:


Oh, sorry if you misunderstood me, I'm not looking to post something new right now, just wanted to reach out with an offer for a couple people who haven't read the Marked yet

Ok I will wait thanks

King2019:


Ok I will wait thanks

email sent

Hey Obehi amazing story and I really enjoyed it especially the summary hope you are doing good and quick one

it's Esan (pronounced "A San") not Isan
And it is spelt Egbabonelimin (dancing masquerades) I have been opportuned to meet some of this dancers once and just like you discribed they are extremely fit and appear powerful at all time I wouldn't want to fight them � great story sad it took a toll on you but great story regardless

Deo7:
Hey Obehi amazing story and I really enjoyed it especially the summary hope you are doing good and quick one

it's Esan (pronounced "A San" not Isan
And it is spelt Egbabonelimin (dancing masquerades) I have been opportuned to meet some of this dancers once and just like you discribed they are extremely fit and appear powerful at all time I wouldn't want to fight them � great story sad it took a toll on you but great story regardless

Glad you liked it. I changed the names of the nations, so Isan, Nuri, Bono, as far as I know none of these are real places and that's what I wanted. Thanks for the masquerade correction! I've heard it pronounced with the 'mwin' though, but anyway, glad you like it!

obehiD:
I wasn't enjoying writing and I couldn't say for sure that people were enjoying reading this and so I stopped. I'm sorry to anyone who'd been following the story and enjoying it. Thank you for reading, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't see it through to the end. I'm really very sorry and I hope this summary helps

you are a darling, I stopped writing also because of the challenges the country is facing currently.

It's really so sad how this beautiful and breathtaking piece had to end the way it did...

Damn, this story felt like i was practically watching a blockbucter movie series...

This is a great work ms. ObehiD u shall go awesome places.
You are simply genius.

Rasmodox101:
It's really so sad how this beautiful and breathtaking piece had to end the way it did...

Damn, this story felt like i was practically watching a blockbucter movie series...

This is a great work ms. ObehiD u shall go awesome places.
You are simply genius.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it