CONQUEST

SUCCESSION CEREMONY

As the sun rose on the Oyo empire on this day, few people could be seen on the streets of the Capital, normally at this time, there would have been farmers preparing to go their farms for the day's work or hunters preparing to hunt and the women would be heading to one of the streams close to the capital to fetch water or preparing to go the market to display their wares but on this day, there was nothing of the sort, only a few guards could be seen on the road and even the beggars had made themselves scarce.

This was because today was the day of the sucession ceremony that was announced by the 'king' over a week ago, this was a ceremony that would decide the future of the empire and nothing could be allowed to go wrong, if someone made a stupid mistake as the ceremony was going on, it could mean death for the person and their entire family and no one knew what the petty guards of the capital would use to judge mistakes so it was simply better to hide themselves as much as possible.

Even in this early morning, there was already lines of people waiting to enter the capital's gates, this were the nobles that had arrived late to the sucession ceremony from across the empire, even some officials from the neighboring Ife empire could be seen amongst this people but unlike last time where the crown prince of the Ife empire personally came, the officials that came this time were simply disposable nobles that could be replaced at anytime, it was obvious that this was a provocation from the Ife empire but everyone simply ignored it, this wasn't because they didn't care about Ife's provocation, they just didn't have the energy to devote their attention to something else on this day.

Meanwhile in the palace at the center of the capital, Abeo stood in the throne room with Ira by his side as he stared intensely at the beautiful throne that stayed in the highest corner of the room as well as the horse whisk and crown that was on that throne, he opened his mouth and said "You know, as a child, my father used to regale me with stories of past kings especially the divine kings of this Yorubaland, he said that those kings ruled with wisdom and strength and under their leadership, the various kingdoms in Yorubaland prospered and as a symbol of their rule on this land, the god Ogun forged mighty thrones and crowns to symbolize their rule but as time passed and the kings of the different kingdoms became more and more useless, this thrones slowly lost their powers and became nothing more than a comfortable chair to sit on, most of this thrones and artifacts were eventually destroyed or lost and apparently only four of this things still remain today, the crown and throne of those bastards at Ife and the crown and throne that is right in front of me and you."

Ira listened slowly to Abeo's words and sneered as he thought "what a stupid childish story." But he hid his thoughts and said "The divine kings of the past were indeed great people, it is no surprise if the gods gifted them with artifacts that ensued their rule."

Abeo began laughing wildly as he heard Ira's words which left Ira greatly confused as he saw excitement as well as a tiny bit of madness and jealousy in Abeo's eyes as he said his next words "Great kings? Indeed they were great kings but i aim to be greater than them, Divine kings? They are just useless people that are a bit blessed by the gods, with my own hands i will destroy that pesky people from Ife and unite the Yorubalands once and for all, under my rule we shall defeat those people from Nupe, Benin and even the Ashanti, they will be reduced to nothing more than slaves to serve me, i will build an empire that exists to serve me and just me alone, then we shall see who is truly the greatest of all kings." Abeo calmed his emotions down a bit and turned to look at Ira and said "My legend will begin from today onwards and nothing must be allowed to interrupt this ceremony, keep my mother and her maids locked and away from the ceremony at all cost and make sure the guards are ready to move once i give the signal."

Ira snapped out of his daze and bowed his head as he replied "Yes your majesty, i live to serve you." Abeo smiled as he saw this, the feeling of dominating another person and holding the power of life and death of people was always one that intoxicated him and seeing Ira bow towards him pleased him greatly, without saying a word he began to walk towards the exit of the throne room but he suddenly paused and looked at Ira and he said "What about the pests, have they come out of their hiding spots yet?"