Midnight Shrub

chapter 4 -Sijuade

"My son,
It is with mixed feelings that I write this letter to you. You must have questions regarding the incident that occurred, but do not fear for all will be explained in this letter. I am perplexed as I am curious to what these visions entails.
You will know its time when the new crown approaches. I might not understand anything but one thing I know for sure is that, this is the god's message to you.
Agony that dwells in their heart
Bother the children at night
Legends unseen but you believe
A place where the dead live

History has been bent
Chronicles, buried by time
A message has been sent
A paper uncovers the crime
This is all I have been shown and I know this mission was not mine to begin. This letter will guide on the path to the answers you have questions to. Fear not, for you will not be alone. With three you will go; the one full of life, the mind with a different perspective, a warrior with a burden.
Anju, I have always told you the gods have blessed you with beautiful eyes and I pray I will still be alive to see all the great things you are going to do. Don't forget all I have taught you, though I wish there was more time to teach you. Live my son and may the gods continue to bless you. When the time is right the eye will show you.
  I love you my son."

That made it the tenth time I heard someone reading the letter from Anju's father, but hearing her read it made it like the first time for me. The honey sweet voice that could charm any man.

We had arrived at her house the previous night, were immediately turned away. Anju then promised we would visit her before sunrise and introduce ourselves properly. Right now, we sat in her living room or somewhere one could sit in her tiny flat. I wondered how someone could live here. The house looked well-furnished for someone her age, with white walls (very clean, I'm guessed she was a neat-freaks like Anju), she had books everywhere (a typical easterner but I think she is overdoing it), two armchairs and a small table at the center, necessary household items, a little bed at the corner of the room and a door that must  lead to the bathroom.

None of this really caught my attention except the tall wooden shelf next to her bed. It stood two foot taller than she did.

The question was how she got it to fit into the room, and how she managed to reach the top shelf. I wondered where her kitchen was though because I heard eastern girls loved to cook, I think the shelf took the room for it.

What if it's behind the shelf?

Last night, she guessed right away that we were not easterners, and also figured out Anju's southern heritage at first glance and didn't even care.

Who was this girl?

I had heard about her from a merchant that I paid off heavily. He said, if I needed someone, intelligent, low-key and pretty desperate for money, she was who I needed.

Despite, the black market's reputation for having everything, including information and weapons. There was close to nothing on her. All I could get was her name, age and where she was from— things that weren't very helpful.

When we found out she stayed in Central City to hustle for her family, I knew money would be an easier route to follow and I had more than enough to pay for.

How could a nineteen-years-old girl be as intelligent as they claimed? Or nearly as beautiful by the gods were they right.

She was quick witted, smart and astonishingly beautiful. I have met women, a lot of them and not once have I been so spellbound.

As a western boy, I believed our clan had the most beautiful women but this girl had proven me wrong. She put most women I have encountered to shame with her light skin, her black eyes with a hint of gray hue— a very rare color in Nijiria. She had pale pink lips , a small nose, beautiful dimples on both sides of her cheek
and the body of a goddess, one would believe she was a foreigner. And although I didn't mean to, I found myself oogling her.