It was night. These things always happened at night. Although she had never planned for it to be this way, it had been a long hard search and she had only found her now. It had been in the afternoon that they had taken her, and she had feared, rightfully so, that she would be too late.

Adaeze looked at the body of her daughter tossed haphazardly in the forest and began to weep. On her neck were the abrasions of the rope that had hung her. She could hear for a second the sound of her daughter screaming in pain before those screams faded away to nothing.

She cried in silence for a few more minutes before resolutely wiping her tears and placing a bronze idol in front of her. She opened the rattan basket next to her and pulled out a fleshy string from it. It was her daughter’s umbilical cord. Out of the basket came esoteric items which included some kola nuts, a bowl, a chicken, some palm fronds, calabash chalk and palm wine amongst others.

Ada moved closer to her daughter’s body, gulped some of the palm wine before spitting it on her body. She placed the kola nuts around her daughters head all the while beseeching Chukwuchi the creator of all to help save her daughter. Using the chalk, she drew some nsibidi diagrams on and around the body then reached for the chicken which squawked at her rough handling. In one quick motion, she slit open the chicken and let its blood pour into the bowl. Then she cut her palm and let her blood mix with that of the chicken.

She paused for a second before tearing her wrapper and using it to cover the wound. She dipped the palm fronds in the mixed blood and used it to paint more nsibidi diagrams on the body.

“Please listen to me. Save my daughter. She is too young, and she hasn’t even lived yet,” Adaeze cried in between her chants. She had never called for the help of Chukwuchi before. You were not supposed to speak directly to the creator god, only through the small deities. This was why her family had hidden this practice so that they would not be viewed as an abomination; it was why she had lied and told her husband that her birth altar was in service to Ala, the earth goddess. She could and had used it to worship Ala, but she knew that its true purpose was to get in contact with Chukwuchi.

Out of the corner of her eye, Adaeze saw a figure. It was made out of smoke and shadow, yet it felt like a bright sun was on her. It was shadow yet light, dark yet bright. It said nothing but Adaeze knew that this was Chukwuchi, there was no one else it could be, and that it was considering her plea.

She continued chanting and praying at a higher volume but after a while, the figure turned to leave.

“No,” She shouted, “I’m willing to do anything. Please bring her back.”

“Anything?” She heard a voice say in her mind. It was her voice, but it was more. For a second, she could hear life and death and the voice of multitudes in it, but it was mostly her voice. She shivered at the eeriness of it before continuing on.

“Yes. I can do anything.”

“Your daughter has already made a bargain with one of the deities before her birth. Why should I intervene?”

“Please. There must have been a reason that you allowed my tribe to be able to contact you. No one else is supposed to be able to do that. I’ve never asked for anything before. Biko, please, save her.”

Adaeze heard the voice chuckle for a bit.

“Fine. This will be interesting. Dip the umbilical cord into the blood and it will become a bead bracelet. As long as my idol and the bracelet exist, your daughter will live and as long as a daughter of your bloodline holds unto that bead bracelet, she will be stronger than ever before.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“I’ve not finished. Your daughter is dead. For her to live, someone of her bloodline must die. Either you or-.”

“-It will be me,” She interrupted, “Take me instead.” The voice laughed again.

“She did not die well so it would not be a pleasant death.”

“I don’t care. She is my daughter.”

“You have other children.”

“They have other people to take care of them. She had only me and I failed her.”

“It is your decision,” The voice echoed, “Dip it into the blood and she will live, and you will die.” After saying this, the voice stopped speaking but the figure remained. Adaeze did not question why it had not left after it had finished giving the instructions, but she did not think about it much. One should not try to understand the way a god thinks.

Adaeze took in a deep breath then dipped the cord into the blood. As she pulled it out, it instantly transformed into a bead bracelet. She put it by the side and waited for something to happen. It did not take long. It felt like someone had shoved fire inside her and all parts of her were on fire. She started bleeding from every pore but through it all she kept an eye on her daughter waiting for her to stand up and walk. It did not happen.

“What? Why is it not working? Why is she not waking up?”

“I told you that your daughter is dead,” The figure said with glee in the voice that was hers but not, “Her body is gone. But her spirit lives on. She is now tied to those beads and will live through them.”

“No. No, this is not what I wanted.”

“I said I would let her live. I didn’t say that her body would walk. You should be thankful, if I let her come back to her body, she would have been killed again and wasted your sacrifice. At least this way, she gets to live for much longer.”

“No. That is not a life. She is a person. She has to live as a person. Bring her back properly. This is not what I asked for,” Adaeze cried in anger. But there was nobody to hear her. The figure was gone, the voice had disappeared. There were only humans here.

As she wept the body turned to smoke which entered into the bead bracelet. Adaeze held the bracelet close to her breast and wept bitterly as the pain became more intense and her body bled profusely.

In the bead bracelet, a consciousness was waking up and far off in the distance was the sound of a hunting party.