Finding Contentus

Chapter 123: Counting Blessings

"Neo says that you win one, lose one. Win more, lose more. Save one, lose one. An all in one winning streak and an all in one losing streak.'"

Neosa acted as Neo's mouthpiece. The sun was high in the sky, seething and sizzling.

She sat on top of an Inkanyamba by the name of Koyi. The serpentine mythical creature resided in the base of the waterfalls by the Zenzen mountains. A few moments ago, Neosa was... well, she was patrolling, but really, she was running away from her battering thoughts. She just so happened to find the eel-like Inkanyamba and asked him if she could chill for a bit.

Koyi looked at her with ink-like eyes and produced a static shock as his reply, allowing Neosa to get on its long neck. He didn't mind the company. He wasn't the talkative type either. Communicating with him was done through a series of electric codes. Certain shocks meant this and other shocks meant that.

Neosa did most of the communicating to take her mind off things by making small talk. Koyi had been alive for centuries, though to him, the passage of time was not slow, it was swift like zooming zebras. She told him about how she, her father and twin brother had spoken to an Inkanyamba once before. It was right after the destruction of Mootlakeng, when Renero was leading them to Petora.

Koyi expressed his sorrow by tapping Neosa with his large fin. He perked up a little in telling her about the times he had spoken to Racaans in his long lifespan and how much of a tragedy it was to feel their Amandla just... disappearing from the world.

She asked him about the primals. Outrage surged through Koyi as a brutal tempest exemplified his rage. Neosa understood. There weren't many Inkanyamba's left, like many mythical creatures with the exception of the merms, Yumboes, Azizas and Impundulus, factoring in their lesser numbers.

The worst part for him was when he saw primal combinations that had adopted the features of his kind. He wanted to fight, he really did, but the outcome was clear. He couldn't take them all on, he couldn't incite more conflict, otherwise, he would lose, so he hid in order to survive, in order to keep his life.

"I would do anything to defeat the primal gene. Anything..." Koyi produced a shock that zipped up Neosa's hair.

Neosa shared the same sentiment, though she had no reply as to how one would even go about achieving the impossible...

Actually, there was one way. Subconsciously, her hand went to her unfertilized stomach. Strange. There was no miraculous life there. Yet. However, through her contract with Ramoth, and through the eye of Ramoth, she could almost see the life they would eventually make.

Ossaro. The Rising Seeker.

Would their hybrid child be the One to save the world? Would their son be the One King for all the subjects of the world? Would he be the final key of Mami's Wata's fortune on winning one King and saving one? Would—

Tsek. Neosa swore. Would this, would that, would he, would she, wood — WOOD! Neosa groaned. She couldn't lose her mind over would and wood when it came to the unknown. What was she, a seer that saw all?

I see all that I can see. Neosa constricted her pupils from the beaming sunlight, magnifying her worldview to be small-scale, since she had agency over the small things that made up the large things. Everything was a sum of one plus one plus one. Being number one was like mathematics. One had to add, subtract, divide and multiply their failures and losses, strengths and weaknesses until they reached a positive.

There was a trick to that principle, a way she could cheat, just like her mother. The way of Sumunye. The way in which all individual numbers, added together, made up the cumulative one, like one person, one people, one nation, one province, one country, one continent, one world.