The first time Ada¹Ada is an igbo name which means first daughter got possessed, she was elbow deep inside a cow. She shouldn’t have been shocked. Everyone knew the proclivities of the hierophant. As the closest human to Omi, the water and fertility deity, she alone knew their divine name and was blessed with many abilities which included connecting to her followers’ minds.

Previous hierophants had used their powers reasonably, restricting themselves to mentally communicating with their clerics and only possessing them when truly necessary. Possession happened so rarely that when it did, it was seen as an honour. Their order had continued this way for hundreds of years before the current hierophant took the sceptre. Anita was…different from their previous leaders. Ada had heard rumours about Anita’s dismissive attitude towards her clerics and her hobby of borrowing bodies, but this had never mattered to Ada.  She was but a newly inducted priestess among thousands of clerics on their island nation situated in between three continents. Surely, their high priestess would never inhabit her body. But then she did.

She woke up a week later, floating in the sea on a raft and almost drowned at her shock at the location. Dripping all the way, Ada made her way home trembling from cold and shock. Chioma²This word literally means good God in igbo. It also means good luck and connotes that the named person is lucky., her mother, embraced her, reassuring her that the experience would never happen again. She was more saddened when she was told that the cow she had been helping with her birth had died along with the calf because her holiness left before the birthing had been complete.

Ada’s face twitched and she clenched her fist in anger. Cynthia had been the first animal fully under her charge since she became a veterinarian. The birthing had been difficult but if she had stayed for the whole thing, it would have gone well.

For a month after that, Ada found it difficult to go about her daily life. Despite the assurances of her family and friends that her possession was a one-time thing, almost like a rite of passage, Ada worried that she would wake up days later without knowing what her body had done.

The casual reaction (and annoyance) of her loved ones began to make her feel like she was becoming exceedingly paranoid and so she forced herself to return to her routine. She took care of her animals, even had another animal birth. All without incident. All was well with the world.

Then two months later, she went to bed and woke up in room with a priest who was shivering, kneeling in fear. Looking at herself, she knew what had happened.

Later, she learnt that she had been in this state for three weeks.

When she reached home, her mother looked anxiously at her and a hint of fear, worried for her daughter but wondering why their hierophant had taken another jaunt — and such a long one too — in Ada’s mind.

“Maybe it’s a blessing,” Chioma said questioningly, “I’ve never heard of the hierophant taking another peek into someone’s mind so closely after the first one before. She only does that to her temple maidens.”

“She took my body,” Ada said slowly, “Took it and threw me out. She used me like I was her object. And I should consider it a blessing?”

“It must mean that she favours you,” Chioma responded, first uncertain then confident, “Everyone knows people she favours. You must be exceptional. You could become a high-level priestess.”

Ada was silent for a while, shocked that her own mother was advocating for the person that had commandeered her body. Yes, that was their leader, but she was her daughter. Surely, she could understand her feelings having been possessed before. Or had she?

“When Anita—”

“No,” Chioma interrupted.

“When our holiness,” Ada continued bitingly, “possessed you, what did it feel like?”

Her mother looked pensive.

“It happened once. Years ago. During my mandatory outreach, there was a very arrogant leader who refused to adhere to the agreed tribute. I asked for help, and she came. She withdrew Omi’s blessing on that land, and everything started dying. It was glorious. I’d never felt such power before. Or afterwards.”

“So, you were awake. And it was a positive experience? How dare you tell me how to feel when you didn’t even experience the same thing.”

“Ada, not everyone gets to see or feel her holiness. She is the bedrock of our existence. The conduit to Omi. Without her, we are nothing and everyone will die. I know you only joined us at ten, but you cannot refuse a blessing. Didn’t you get taught this?”

Ada looked at her mother with alarm. How to tell her mother that although she had been studious, she had never internalised their beliefs. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in Omi and their cultural mores. She did but it was the distant belief of being raised with the same common, familiar values as everyone else. Unlike her mother, she’d never fought for Omi or gone on her mandatory outreach. Her previous sexual experiences had been for pleasure not for duty. For her mother, despite the rumours she’d heard of their hierophant, everything Anita did was right.

The conversation broke down afterwards. Chioma thought she had impressed upon her daughter the importance of her experience and Ada was disillusioned with her mother and culture. So, she decided to return to her father.

The preparations took about a month but finally she secretly left on a ferry. Looking back, she felt some sadness but mostly relief at escaping a horrendous situation.

The next morning, she opened her door to a loud banging and a panicking captain asking her to return to Odinani³Igbo word referring to the traditional religious practices and beliefs of the igbo people. I have repurposed this word here to refer both to the religion and island.. He begged Ada to leave his ferry in a few minutes or he would have her forcibly removed. After this performance, he quickly scurried away.

She wondered confusedly but not for long because when she turned around, she saw on the walls a message for her.

YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE ME. YOU CANNOT DIE UNLESS I SAY SO. YOU DO NOTHING WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.

It was in her handwriting. Ada realised she could not run away anymore. It was time to fight.

---

The horrible thing about rebellions is that you need other people to succeed, and it is exceedingly more difficult to rebel when your target can mind-read or possess anyone, and your culture accepts, no glorifies, said possession/mind-reading.

Ada had planned on meeting the hierophant and sticking a knife inside her to end all the misery but shortly after becoming a temple priest found that to be impossible. Anita incredibly paranoid arrogant. Why should she meet low level peons?

The first step to her revenge was a failure. And Anita kept on possessing her.

However, something had changed since her return. Instead of completely controlling her, Anita mostly kept her aware and sometimes even spoke to her. For some reason, her mind was “interesting and comfortable”. Ada had learned to pretend to accept her current situation to reassure Anita. And yet, every day she looked for a way out. In the day, she prepared ritual materials, helped the higher ups, and socialised while in her spare time, she devoured books on ancient priestesses and even charmed the temple librarian into allowing her to read the advanced, forbidden tomes but they all said the same thing.

There was no way out. Once inducted, the hierophant could always ‘contact’ you when necessary. Induction connected your soul to Omi and by extension the hierophant. She was at her wits end when a miracle happened.

The librarian had noticed her reading material and one day slipped her a card detailing a meeting location. Ada went for the meeting and found hope. There was a rebellion who saw their hierophant for the disgusting threat that she was and who wanted her out!

As a temple priest, Ada was very valuable. It was very difficult to input a spy inside the temple, but she was favoured and willing to help. She didn’t lack bravery, just direction, and being in this organisation gave her plenty.

She was still a risk because she constantly got possessed by the hierophant, but she found a way to mitigate this. Putting together information from books from the temple and the Onwe⁴This word means freedom in, you guessed it, igborebellion, Ada created a dark ritual to essentially split her mind at any sign of possession. Whenever Anita possessed her, she would automatically forget any incriminating evidence, transfer them to a more hidden section of her mind and remember them when the possession was over. However, this was risky as there was always the possibility that it would not work or that she could lose her mind at any possession. Besides, the ritual couldn’t prevent Anita from getting that information, only from knowing it existed. Still, Ada thought it was worth it.

After three years of spying and working in the temple, Ada became a high-level priestess and also a top level Onwe agent. That was when she met the Onwe patron.

Sady, rebellions need high class backers to be successful. After all, who is going to pay for all the spies, materials, and training. It all requires so much money. In return, such rebellions promise to help such persons. There was no way a well organised group like Onwe did not have a high-ranking priest as support, but Ada was shocked to find out that the support was Anita’s daughter Fortune, the next hierophant-to-be.

“My mother wants to live forever,” Fortune said to Ada’s sceptical look, “She plans to keep on possessing daughters and granddaughters till the end of time. I refuse to be her vessel.”

Ada accepted this explanation.

“Recruiting you was risky,” Fortune continued, “but worth it because we can’t remove mother from her position as long as she knows Omi’s true name. Fortunately, she likes your mind and that has made her careless. Possession rarely goes one-way. When you casually connect to someone, there’s always a possibility that they can peep back. Get Omi’s name from her head and give it to me so we can oust her and crown me.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“I almost wrestled control from her once,” Fortune said proudly, “Mother will never connect to me again until her deathbed.”

Getting Omi’s name was not easy. Anita had to be invoking Omi, something she would only do on certain occasions, and she also had to be connected to Ada. Luckily, one of these occasions was the mandatory outreach mission where Odinani clerics went out to surrounding countries to increase their influence and population. Ada had reached the optimal age to go on her outreach and it was the one thing that the hierophant could not stop. This was probably the only time most clerics saw the hierophant as she had to bless every one of them before they left for their mission. There was no way that Anita was going to miss a chance to taunt her.

“If I do this and it works, you have to promise to never touch my mind,” Ada said after they had worked out the logistics.

“I promise,” Fortune said immediately. She smiled brightly with an impish gleam in her green eyes. “When I am hierophant, I will use my power for better purposes.”

“Thank you,” Ada said but did not believe her. ‘She’s as selfish as her mother’, Ada thought. Perhaps it was true, perhaps it was not but Ada had had years of being controlled and had grown tired of promises by her superiors. She would never believe them anymore.

In reaction to her upcoming outreach, Anita ramped up her possession. With each one, Ada slowly, slyly explored Anita’s mind. And then the day came.

When it was her turn, Ada entered the blessing hall with trepidation. Everything she had done for three years was all for this moment. If she failed, she would live the rest of her life as nothing more than a vessel.

On entering the hall, Ada looked up and there she was. The Hierophant. Ada had gotten used to her cold, biting voice and cruel, fleeting thoughts but had never met Anita physically until now. Dressed in gold and white, with a sceptre of diamond, Anita looked every bit the domineering yet kind priestess she was meant to be and yet in her eyes was that cold, acerbic glint that assured Ada that this was the woman who had captured her body solely for her amusement.

With the previous clerics, Anita had looked on disinterestedly but at Ada’s entrance, she perked up and grinned wickedly at the kneeling priestess.

“Did you really think you could run away from me,” Anita spoke physically to Ada for the first time but continued mentally. “No matter where you go, I will always be with you. But when you leave, I will take the time to clean up that Onwe mess.”

Ada looked up in shock.

“Yes, I knew about it. So many minds. All hating me. All that psychic energy. There was no way I could miss it. I was going to kill them all but then you joined and so I gave them a little bit longer to have fun. I wanted to see what you would all do but an assassination at an outreach blessing? That’s so boring. And irresponsible. Who’s going to speak to Omi when I’m dead. Not my daughter, that’s for sure. I expected better from you. But thank you for bringing my enemies together in one room.”

Anita laughed uproariously before raising her hand as Ada looked at her in despair. Instantly, guards surrounded all the high level Onwe members — who had gathered to see their goal being fulfilled — except Fortune. Ada tried to move, but Anita used her mind to keep her kneeling.

“No. Don’t get up. We’re here for a blessing, right? So, keep kneeling. Deities and stars above, my priestess — Ada — has worked so hard at the temple and is about to begin her mandatory outreach mission…”

As Anita continued her blessing, Ada’s mind kept racing. She was stunned to realise that Anita had known everything she had done for the past three years. And had let her. That cavalier disregard towards her and her efforts was what had enraged her more than anything. She had struggled for years just to kill her, and her target had brushed everything off.

She started thinking about everything Anita had just said, hoping to find something she could use. She suddenly realised Anita didn’t really know they planned to learn Omi’s name. Apparently, Fortune had told her alone the plan. She had a chance.

Usually, Ada tried to ignore the feeling of Anita’s mind on hers but for now, she fully opened her mind to Anita, finally bridging her divided mind. Anita could feel that something was happening to Ada’s mind but dismissed it as her puppet’s delicious distress. Instead, she ignored her instinct to disengage and focused on invoking Omi. Ada finally grasped Anita’s mind and forwent all subtlety, ripping into her for Omi’s name.

In her surprise at being mentally invaded, Anita missed the optimal time for resisting Ada. Still, she quickly regained herself and started forcing Ada out of her mind. But it was too late. She had already started invoking Omi. With her last strength, Ada carved out Omi’s name, OMUMUONWU NDU⁵The full version of this word is omumu, onwu na ndu which means birth, life and death in igbo.  I shortened this so that it appears like a name., as she was forced out.

“No. Give it back,” Anita screamed furiously, “Seize her.”

No one responded to her. The temple guards only served the high priestess and knowledge of the divine name was the true mark of the hierophant.

“Oh,” Ada said in amazement as something clicked in her mind and she felt a connection to a powerful entity. All around the world, Odinani clerics stopped what they were doing as they realised that their hierophant had changed. Ada felt suffused with uncountable energy that she instinctively knew was the divine energy that came with being hierophant.

She’d barely thought for the guards to let go of her companions and apprehend the former hierophant before it happened. At this, she threw back her head in rapturous laughter, her dark curly hair swaying in joy. She would never be under anyone’s control ever again.

She smirked at the suddenly fearful Anita and bent down to pick up the sceptre.

“Great,” Fortune said with that confident smile, “I’m so glad it worked out. Now, give me the name. Fulfil your promise.”

“Ah yes that,” Ada said with amusement, “Well, I’m not giving you anything. I did this. I opened my mind to that monster. I divided myself every time she touched my mind. No way am I giving it up.”

“Now Ada. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. I know you can’t handle the expectations that come with that seat, but I can.”

A sharp laughter interrupted their argument. “So that’s why I loved your mind so much. You had the potential to be hierophant, it was barely anything, but it was there,” Anita looked at Ada with poisonous, green eyes. “You would have been nothing if I hadn’t taken a fancy to you. No matter what happens next, you’re going to remember that I made you.”

Ada looked her with abject hatred before becoming expressionless. “I’ve spent so many years hating you and now that I have power over you, I realise that you are nothing. You didn’t make me. At most you were a whetting stone. And now I never have to care about you again. So, stop interrupting me.” Anita started to say something, but Ada kept her silent. “You once promised me that I couldn’t die without your permission. Now, I give you that permission.”

Ada turned to look back at Fortune ignoring the actions of the past hierophant. She never quite learnt how Anita died just that it happened. That was enough for her. As for Fortune, Ada had never planned on giving her the divine name. That would have been a profoundly stupid thing to do.

The best thing to do would have been to kill Fortune but she had some good feelings for her. Still, she couldn’t let her live on in the island. Fortune had immense influence and would be an obstacle to her future reign.

“I’m going to banish you, Fortune. Neither you nor your future offspring will ever be allowed back into Odinani.”

Fortune shrieked in rage and swore revenge but with a wave of her hand Ada dismissed her and ascended her new position. As she watched her leave, Ada promised herself then to never enter anyone’s mind. She would learn from her predecessor’s mistakes.

Years later Ada regretted keeping that promise as Odinani was consumed by fire and war. Drowning after quickly passing on Omi’s name to her daughter, she cursed at Fortune. She really should have killed her.