Chapter Seven
“Murdered?” Gamba boomed. He punched the sofa in fury and then stomped his legs against the floor.
“Murdered…?” Madzimoyo repeated, the words wafting in the air for what seemed like an eternity. He sat back and placed his right hand over his mouth, his eyes returning to the ground to scan over it randomly.
Visola pulled me back towards her chest and then shook me reassuringly. “What happened?” she asked seriously, “What did Diane tell you?”
“Remember a few weeks ago…” I began with authority, sitting up straight and leaving Visola’s grip so that I commanded my sibling’s attention, “We heard about the attack that took place in England?”
“To the Ventus Trio?” Gamba chipped in.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Weren’t they attacked by the Inimicus?”
I shook my head. “According to Diane, they are the Inimicus…”
Madzimoyo groaned loudly, and Visola sighed in sadness. Confusion swept across Gamba’s face.
“But how…?” he questioned angrily.
“The leader of the Ventus Cohors, their mentor Sigwald… Apparently he’s a double agent and recruited them into the Inimicus. And when Valeska found out, he forced them to kill her…”
“No!” Madzimoyo screamed out, jumping from the sofa and rushing across the room. He began pacing up and down feverishly, trying to make sense of what he was being told. I heard him begin sobbing, quietly, to himself. I tried to hold back my own tears. Seeing my brother in this state of sadness felt like someone had slapped me in the face.
“But it doesn’t make any sense…” Visola added, “They’ve only been in training for less than a year. To turn to the Inimicus so quickly… It’s crazy!”
“Diane kept going on about Sigwald, saying that he was corrupt and manipulative, and that he orchestrated the whole thing.”
Gamba locked onto and held my gaze as he stood up slowly. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. “They’re coming here tomorrow…” he uttered.
Madzimoyo stopped his rhythmic pacing and glared at us in turn. Now it was Visola’s turn to jump to her feet, and I quickly followed suit. She put her hands up defensively, and pushed them towards Gamba.
“Now hold on,” she warned him, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s think this through…”
“What’s there to think about?” he snapped at her.
“Visola’s right,” I added calmly. “We have to make sense of this situation.”
“There’s nothing else to say!” Gamba barked, “Valeska- our friend- is dead. She was murdered by three other Elementals. We must avenge her death…”
“By starting a war?” I exclaimed.
Gamba shook his head. “It wouldn’t be a war, Shasa, because they aren’t on equal footing with us. It would be an extermination.”
My mouth dropped open. I was speechless. What had I done? Maybe I should have just kept the information to myself! I couldn’t quite believe that my little brother was so full of bloodlust that he would want to kill three strangers.
Help me Lord, to keep my calm…
My body began to shake with emotion. Who was this person in front of me?
Please Lord; give me the strength to control myself…
I just couldn’t contain it anymore.
Please Lord: forgive me…
This time, I didn’t cry. I was furious.
“We’re not killing anybody!” I balked, my bellowing howl erupting from my tight throat.
Gamba’s face twisted and contorted in defiance.
“So what do you want us to do? Just sit on our arses and let those killers get away with it?”
“I don’t know what to do, okay, but we aren’t going to kill anyone! Do two wrongs make a right, Gamba? No, they don’t! You always rush in, full steam ahead, without thinking of the consequences! Diane told me that the Ventus are dangerous and powerful. I’m not going to let you attack them because they might hurt you!”
“They can’t hurt me!” Gamba replied, full of arrogance. “We’ve been training for seven years! We can take anyone down, and you would know that if you only let us get out into the real world and prove it! I’m stronger than you think, Shasa! I’m not a little boy anymore, so stop treating me like it!”
I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. My chest jolted up and down to the beat of my hammering heart. He was right. I had been treating him like a child. Growing up, as the eldest, was tough. Seeing my siblings’ transition from children into adults had been such a strange experience. I had always been the one to look after and protect them but now they didn’t need me anymore… And even though what he had said was correct, he was wrong to want to enact vengeance without thinking things through properly.
The room was now silent, and tension flooded the air like a poisonous gas. Madzimoyo, who had stopped crying and was now listening calmly, stepped towards us. He had switched into his ‘philosopher’s mode’, something that he often did when trouble arose. I was happy that at least one of us could think straight.
“Why would they come here?” he questioned thoughtfully, brushing tears from his taut cheeks.
“What do you mean?” Gamba roared.
“Let’s just think this through,” his voice was oddly serene and soothing, “logically.” Madzimoyo directed this pointedly to Gamba, who, in response, rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.
“There are three big questions we need to answer. The first is: are the Ventus working for the Inimicus? The second is: if so, why are they still a part of the Ventus Cohors? And the third is: why would they come here if they are the enemy?”
Madzimoyo looked at us all solicitously. His questions were valid, and needed to be discussed.
Visola nodded her approval, and Madzimoyo continued.
“Let’s answer the first question I have posed: are the Ventus Trio working for the Inimicus? What are the facts here? Babajide, the Aqua Cohors and the rest of the Elementus Populas haven’t said anything to us about this before. If the Ventus had turned against them, wouldn’t they have told us, and begun to do something about it? And why would Babajide invite them here to see us, if they were now a threat? That leads onto the second question- if it was a well-known fact that they had defected, why would they still say they are working for the Ventus Cohors? And that also brings up question three: if they are working for the Inimicus, why would they come here to see us under the guise of the Elementus Populas?”
“It’s not rocket science, genius!” Gamba answered sarcastically. “No one knows they have turned, and they’re still pretending to be working for the Ventus Cohors so they can come here and either kill or recruit us!”
Madzimoyo considered his brother’s answer.
“Let’s say that’s true,” he contemplated, “then those two things don’t go together with the death of Valeska.”
“What are you on about?” Gamba snapped in annoyance, clearly lost in Madzimoyo’s thought process.
“If it was popular knowledge that the Ventus were defectors, and that is the reason why they had a huge battle that resulted in Valeska’s murder, then wouldn’t the Elementus Populas have done something about it? They definitely wouldn’t allow them to continue to be a part of the Ventus Cohors…”
“It’s all a conspiracy!” Visola suggested enthusiastically. “Maybe the Ventus and their mentor allowed the Inimicus to infiltrate the Ventus Cohors. That way, everyone now working for them is also a traitor!”
Although what Visola was saying sounded stupid, it kind of made sense. Gamba thought this idea over zealously, and Madzimoyo pondered to himself.
“From what we’ve been told about the Inimicus, that could well be a possibility,” I added.
“But what if they’re innocent?” Madzimoyo added.
Gamba blew through his lips to make a discouraging sound, and Visola became annoyed.
“Can’t you just let me be right for
once?” she retorted. Madzimoyo ignored her.
“But if they are innocent,” I puzzled, “then that would mean either that Diane is lying to me, or that Valeska was…”
The words just couldn’t come out. Valeska was my friend. She was like family. She would never work for the Inimicus. She was a good person.
“No way!” Visola shouted, “Don’t even say it!”
“It’s hard to believe,” Madzimoyo said calmly. Almost too calmly. “We all grew to love her, me in particular, but we have to look at all of the options. It’s the logical thing to do.”
“You and your stupid logic!” Gamba spat furiously, “We all know that Valeska wasn’t a bad person, so why even bring it up? I can’t believe you’re even standing there defending three people you’ve never even met!”
“The only other option,” Madzimoyo answered thoughtfully, still lost in his own world, “is that Babajide is also working for the Inimicus, and it’s all some sort of trap to either kill us or recruit us…”
Now it was my turn to dismiss Madzimoyo’s ramblings. I frowned in disagreement.
“Babajide may be a lot of things, but a traitor is not one of them,” I confirmed sternly.
Visola nodded in agreement. “I don’t think Babajide would turn against the Elementus Populas. It’s his life; his world. It means everything to him!”
“So then that leaves us with two alternatives,” Madzimoyo continued, “either Valeska or the Ventus Trio have been working for the Inimicus…”
“Well it’s not Valeska!” Gamba defended. And I was inclined to agree with him, even though I didn’t want it to be true.
“I agree,” Visola added, “Valeska was our friend. She came here to help us- to help you Madz!”
“I know,” he replied tenderly, “it’s hard to imagine that she fooled us all…”
“She didn’t,” I confirmed. “Because she… didn’t!”
My brothers and sister looked at me as if I was waffling. Which I clearly was.
“I just can’t believe that she had evil intentions,” I explained, “But then again, I don’t want to believe that the Ventus do either…”
“They’re killers!” Gamba snarled, “They murdered our friend, and if we don’t do what they say, they’ll try to murder us too!”
“What are we going to do?” Madzimoyo exclaimed in fear.
“We’ll have to reason with them. We’ll have to talk to them and find out the truth. Babajide will help us…” Gamba groaned at my suggestion.
“This is a situation where talking won’t work,” he stated. “We have to fight fire with fire… Or wind with water…” I could see the fury thundering behind his squinting stare.
Visola nodded. “Gamba’s right. We’ve been preparing for this for years, and we know we’re ready…”
“I’m not!” Madzimoyo interrupted, “I’m not ready to fight or kill or do any harm to anyone!”
“There’s something wrong with you,” Gamba taunted him, “if you won’t use your powers to save your own family!”
“I’m not like you two…” he pleaded. He cranked his neck to look over at me, and then pointed back and forward between us. “We’re not like you two. We don’t want to hurt people. I don’t even think that we can!”
His words stung me like a poisonous viper. None of my siblings knew about my ‘real’ power. They just thought that I was an ‘ice maiden’ as Gamba liked to call me. If only they all knew the truth, perhaps they might respect me more. Or fear me.
“I don’t want us to fight anyone,” I confirmed, “but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared for all eventualities…”
Gamba and Visola exchanged a grin of delight. They had been waiting for this day for a long time. Madzimoyo was distraught. He looked betrayed and disappointed.
“I always thought that you would be a just leader…” he whispered.
“She was your helper!” Gamba shrieked at him hysterically, “and you’re the one who doesn’t want justice!”
“It’s not justice, it’s revenge.” His words struck me deeply, and with that he turned and made his way out of the room. As soon as he had closed the door behind him, Visola and Gamba look at one another in excitement.
“We’re finally going to use our powers for something fun!” Visola uttered moronically.
“How dare you!” I yelled at her. Her face dropped, as did Gamba’s. “This isn’t a game! These are people’s lives were talking about! Even if they did try to murder us, and we had to attack in retaliation, we would still be killing people!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Gamba shrieked back at me.
“What is wrong with you?” I repeated back at him, “Taking someone’s life is no joke!”
“And how would you know?” he countered spitefully.
“Because I do!” I screamed back, unable to keep it in any longer. I then burst into tears, and threw my face into my palms in shame and disgust.
The room fell silent, except for my loud gulping sobs and the sound of the aquarium water pump. I was so ashamed with myself for what I had done, but I was also disgusted with my brother and sister. How could they revel in such misery and destruction? It made me want to retch…
Please Lord; help me…
I tried to pray, but it was no use. I felt about as far away from God’s grace as humanly possible. Would he ever forgive me for what I had done?
I had to get out of the presence of other people: I had to escape. Within seconds I was running across the room and flinging the door open. I couldn’t bear to look anyone I loved in the face. I was disgusting. I was horrible. I was a monster, just like the men I had killed.
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