Finding Contentus

Chapter 126: Relations

Everything started with my Impulse dream. That is why it is my mission to connect all the things in this world that I hold dear to my splintered psyche. To charge the links that must be linked into adjustable loops that will carry on and on and on. I am the connected. I am the connector. I am the connection. I am the gift that always gives... ah,neh?

Eh,ya. You are. The Gifted One reminded Mpho of what and who she was. Specifically, she ensured that Mpho's memories were never lost, from the countless times Mpho lost all sense of the person she used to be, the person she wanted to be, and the person she needed to become.

Mpho stood still in her one-legged tree pose on one of the sandstone pillars of the floating Halala Island. Thousands of different plants sprouted from the towering stones that elevated themselves to be high and sturdy monoliths, like they were reaching for the stratosphere.

She felt overjoyed at the fact that her cousins were one with one another after becoming their own individuals. In all honesty, their reunion on this day had happened sooner than Mpho had anticipated, but not so fast that it was out of the foreseeable margins. The pathways were fluid and solid like that, changeable and unchangeable.

In any case, Genesia and Neosa had been surprising her immensely along the way, just as she had expected them to. That's what they were. Surprises. Abnormalities. Deviations. They were the Tenacious Twins that answered and questioned the fabrics of reality. Her faith in them was the strongest, as was her unshakable love.

It was always meant to be like this, wasn't it? Mpho asked herself. Us three against the world. Us three that defied the world. Us three that shook the world. Mpho — the Almighty crafter. Genesia — the Greatest warrior. Neosa — the Number One warrior. The Big Three. The Trio.

Mischief shined in Mpho's eyes. Omphile sat still on the sandstone pillar opposite her mother, wearing her rainbow coloured dress and beaded necklace. She made small animals out of clay while she buzzed a song to herself like a musical bee bathed in fine honey.

Mpho smiled, watching her, just watching. Her daughter. Her baby girl, only three years of age. Seeing her daughter buzz so happily didn't just mean the world to Mpho, it made up her entire world.

Before her, Mpho didn't see the point of living during her full year of grief, of limbo, of psychosis and loss in sanity, but the mere sight of her gifted girl like this was enough to usher in a flame of warmth from the heat she lost from her race that were erased into extinction.

And... him... Omphile's father, the man she was supposed to marry, before he decided to be the first human tri—

Mpho stopped herself. She couldn't hold it against him. At the same time, she could. Nothing was ever so simple to feel one thing, only in the abandonment of the pantheon of complexities that resided in the heart.

Her pupils shrank into tiny points like needles. The colourful cliffs provided an otherworldly background, as did the large bodies of vegetation that extended across the floating island for the Impundulus who soared overhead in symmetrical patterns.

Mpho listened to the waters that fell off the edges, merging with the sea of clouds that swirled like streams of smoke, beneath and around them. The strong winds spoke the calming and tumultuous speech of storms.

So much openness was available to her sight. She could see the whole world from here. It was how she was able to pinpoint the locations of Genesia, Kakara and Neosa from opposite oceans of the world. It was how she was able to enter their dreams, turning them into signals for the Impundulus to find.

Her powers nauseated her. She preferred her time in Mootlakeng when her parents taught her to suppress her abilities. In the enchantment barrier, she learned control, attaining not just serenity, but what she craved the most in life.