Way of The Wand

After the previous night’s escapade, Jira wasn’t looking forward to today’s class. She’d been thinking about how to break it to her pupils, especially Tomi, that they would no longer be going to the Tartian Mansion.

She could already hear their questions, their peppering of “whys” and “buts”, and the truth was, she didn’t know how she would answer. Would she be able to tell them the truth, that Arron tried to have her kidnapped as an attempt to woo her? His nice persona was a façade, all in service to an ulterior motive. It would disappointment them to hear the truth, and it would disappoint them the more to learn their carriage riding days were over.

Jira sighed. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Student after student trooped into her house that morning, first Fola, then Simi, then Juwon, Ike and Iman. Pupil after pupil came in, but no Timi and no Tomi.

Jira thought this curious. Sure, they still had five minutes before class was billed to start, but Tomi and Timi were early birds. They were usually the first to get to class, unlike their friend Lila who was a perpetual late comer.

When time came for class to start and still no Tomi and Timi, Jira started to worry. But then she quickly rationalized their absence as Tomi taking a day off to rest after the previous day’s excruciating experience.

However, when a few minutes later, Lila appeared with a giant scowl on her face and began the day’s greeting with “Jira can I please talk to you?” instead of the usual “Good morning”, Jira knew something was wrong, terribly wrong.

“It’s about the Afolabis, isn’t it?” Jira asked, bracing herself for unpleasant news.

Lila nodded, and followed Jira down to the dinning room where they could talk without in private.

“Aunt Wura found out about the accident last night and got really pissed. She’s withdrawing Tomi from the—”

“Tournament,” Jira finished for Lila.

A full minute of silence passed, through which Lila read Jira’s face shift through several expressions. Shock, but not quite, to anger, to guilt, to sadness and then resignation.

Lila bit her lip. She wasn’t done offloading all the bad news yet. “Jira,” she said cautiously, her voice warning Jira that what was coming would be even harder to bear. “Aunt Wura is withdrawing Tomi and Timi from the school entirely.”

The world spun around Jira, like she’d been poisoned by juice of the oro plant. She pulled up a sit for herself by the dining table and tried to catch her failing breath.

She’d been careless, almost lost a student, and now she was facing the consequences.

Jira rubbed her eyes to hide how much this news wanted to make her cry.

But Lila was no fool. She noticed the sting of tears in her teacher’s eyes and moved to act.

She touched Jira lightly on the arm, infusing as much affection as she could into the touch. “We don’t need to have classes today Jira. If you’re not up to it, if you need some time off—”

“No,” Jira argued throwing her head back. She closed her eyes and forced back the tears. Yes, she was hurt, but she would not break down in the presence of her students. “I’m supposed to look after you, not the other way around.”

She took a deep breath and got up. “Thank you for your concern Lila, but classes must go on.”

The two ladies returned to the living room to meet up with the rest of the students.

The news of Tomi’s and Timi’s withdrawal from her school was a lot to take in for Jira. She needed time to process it, and pending that, she saw no reason in announcing to her students that they would not be seeing Tomi and Timi again. Instead she simply told them Tomi was sleeping off her weariness and would not show up in class today.

Lila was gracious enough to stay tight lipped about the truth.

As for the remaining students, they’d been looking forward to a spar at the Tartian Mansion, and when they asked who was going to spar today in Tomi’s absence, Jira told them no one would.

No Tomi, no sparring, no Tartian Mansion.

Her second lie of the day. She couldn’t bring herself to tell them even if Tomi had showed up in school today, they wouldn’t have gone to the Tartian Mansion anyway.

“Today, we’re going to be doing something very different. We’re going to talk…” Jira said.

“About what?” Juwon with the bald head asked.

“About Edoh,” Jia answered.

Grunts of protest rang out from left and right.

As expected, her pupils hated non-practical classes where she just taught them about history, geography and everything else that wasn’t directly connected to magic.

They often told her not to bother as they’d learnt all this in the non-magical phase of their education. But the truth was, considering their backgrounds, none of them went to a good basic school, which meant their understanding of Edoh, its history, geography and politics, was deficient.

“But we want to practise magic,” Fola complained.

“I know…but not today,” Jira insisted. “Today we’re just going to talk. Now who can tell me who rules the kingdom?”

Fola shrugged, wondering why she would ask such an obvious question. “The king of course.”

“Yes,” Jira smiled, “but he doesn’t do it alone. Edoh has eleven provinces. Who’s in charge of nether regions like Oyo and Owo?”

The pupils looked at each other, wide-eyed, then Lila’s hand shot up.

Jira nodded for her to speak.

“Councils.”

“That’s right,” Jira beamed. “Every province is governed directly by a council of five individuals, four of whom are elected by the locals and the fifth appointed by the king.”

“Does that mean a council rules Edoh?” Kiki asked.

“So to speak. You see the council exists to exercise authority on behalf of the king and on behalf of the people. A sort of balance of power.”

She paused and stared into her pupils’ faces to make sure they understood. “Now who can tell me what happens if the king is bad?”

Fola’s hand shot up. “He’ll be removed.”

“Yes, Fola,” Jira confirmed. “But there are only three recorded instances in history where this has happened. The first was with King Kori. History doesn’t explicitly say why he was deposed but legend has it that he tried to consolidate power by dissolving the councils. After King Kori we have King Mayowa. His story is the most popular example of an Edoh king’s downfall. Who can tell me why the council voted to have him removed?”

Lila, who was very familiar with King Mayowa’s story answered without even being picked. “He threatened the peace of the kingdom by trying to turn Edoh natives against those who had come from far and near to seek refuge.”

Jira nodded in satisfaction. “Yes. King Mayowa’s xenophobic words and decrees culminated in the Eko and Osun riots where bands of natives razed communities of refugees. The councils responded by asking the king to tone down his rhetoric, and when he wouldn’t listen, they voted to have him deposed. King Mayowa tried to cling to power nonetheless. He raised an army and prepared for war, but the people revolted and Mayowa eventually bowed to pressure. The councils imposed additional punishment on Mayowa, banishing him from Edoh, and then crowned the next king from a different royal family, King Kanran.”

“So, that’s what happened,” Fola said, indicating he’d heard snippets of the story before, but never the complete version.

“The last example,” Jira continued, “is the little-known case of King Adelu, perhaps because some accounts of the story say he resigned, while others say he was deposed. The truth probably features a mixture of both accounts. See King Adelu had a sickness that not even the most powerful healers in the kingdom could get rid of, and it affected his duties. Some say the councils decided to depose him because of this, others say he resigned of his own volition. Whichever is true, it gave us our first queen in Queen Idiah, Adelu’s only child.”

Fola raised his hand, signalling that he had a question.

“Yes Fola,” Jira said, giving him the permission to speak.

“You said King Mayowa was banished, where did he go?”

Jira beckoned on him to seat down. “Mayowa lived the rest of his life as a refugee in Asante, the kingdom just west of Edoh. Ironic isn’t it? Anyway, speaking of Asante, I spent some time there as a kid.”

“Is it nice in Asante?” Lila asked, her voice bubbling with excitement.

“Absolutely. Has any of you ever been there?”

No hands went up, which surprised Jira a little. But then she remembered her pupils didn’t have the wealthy upbringing she had.

“Okay, has anyone ever been outside of Edoh?”

Still no hands went up and a furrow on Jira’s forehead appeared as she frowned. “Really, not even to Mossi?”

The students shook their heads.

“Mali?”

They shook their heads again.

“Songhai?”

The answer was the same.

Jira clasped her hands together. “Fine, but at least you’ve been to other cities, right? I mean, you haven’t lived your entire lives in Benin.”

They all shook their heads except for one student, Iman Oman, who had a complexion even lighter than Lila’s actually.

“Oman, thank the gods. Tell us which other Edoh province you’ve visited.”

“Actually,” Oman said, “it’s not that I visited a different province. My family and I moved here from Ife a few years ago. I don’t know if that counts.”

Jira dropped her shoulders. “If that’s the case, then I certainly need to organise an excursion for you.”

The faces of her pupils lit up.

“When do we go?” Lila burst out.

“I don’t know yet,” Lila replied, dimming their excitement. “But I’ll let you know when I make up my mind.”