Deities of Deceit

Chapter Fifty-six

Yarima Abubakar | Fifty-six
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PINKY PROMISE
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"You all stand before me worthless! Bottom of the food chain! The weakest hold of a solid chain! A foot mat and nothing more. You will carry that knowledge with you every waking second! The knowledge that you are nothing! When you sleep, when you wake, when you rub your cunts and stroke your cocks! You will hear that whisper in your head that you are not worthy! That you are pathetic! Useless! Without honor!" My gaze slit across the new arrivals of trainee enforcers standing before me in clean vertical lines, their faces determined, their bodies far from ready to endure the treacherous training ahead.

"Do what you will with that voice. But once you cross those gates and thread upon my grounds, you become mine. You will leave all your insecurities behind, abandon your weak minds, your unsteady will, and surrender yourself to my command. You will forgo all you think you know about combat. Those are not my standards. I will forge you in new fire, and if you are lucky, if you are deserving. In six months you will stand here before me, adorned in black and gold as enforcers of the law. To serve your people. You will be reborn. Flesh and blood."

"Ise!" The courtyard echoed. "Ise! Ise! Ise!"

I nodded once. "Let the trials begin."

I was determined to reshape the simplistic nature of the enforcer training program. The protectors of Arjanaians needed to be held to the same high standards as the military. Both in fellowship, combat, and swordry. The trials were my way of achieving this. Split the new trainees into four different groups and bet them against one another.

As they received their new assignment from older trainees, I turned into the passageway, making my way to The Pit. Since departing Hareti's presence that morning, The Pit was where I remained. I needed to get away from her, from the palace, from all of it. The look on her face as she pushed me away weighed heavy on my heart.

I only wished to be there. To hold and kiss her through it. But that was the thing about Hareti Jaja, she was so afraid of not being loved she built walls to keep it away, even when she tried to let it in. There was no getting around those walls until those insecurities were eased again. I was lost in the impossible maze that was Hareti. I was not seeking a way out. I was seeking a way through. However, after seven years, the repetition of it exhausted me. Just let me love you. How hard could it truly be?

Arriving in the pit, I freed myself of clothing, as all did when combating hand-to-hand. The goal with every match was simple, topple your opponent to the ground. However, this required a precise level of concentration, especially if one's opponent was just as tactical and well-trained as I was. All morning I had faced ten different enforcers and none posed a challenge tight enough to rid me of all thought and force Hareti out of my mind.

"Again?" Preye approached with a cup of water and I gulped it down. "If you're trying to impress the enforcers with your shiny combat skills, you have, give it a rest already." His voice pitched over the crowd of cheering enforcers.

"He's going to lose." I pointed at the enforcer gripping their opponent by the thigh, exposing his lower back to an easy maneuver.

"He's won three matches since you were gone. A high enforcer from the northern villages. Look at those muscles. Delicious." Preye slurped on his water.

"Stop drooling."

"Can't help it, the man looks like he was created to fuck me ." We chuckled. "Oshun would approve."

"Careful, Preye. A man who worships the Goddess of the old openly is a thing scorn."

"I'm white, General. They'd scorn me regardless of whom I worship." Preye's crush was toppled to the ground and the crowd cheered, making him sneer. "Even in loss, he's so seductive."