Pray For Me ⇝ Black Panther

[10] Pray For Peace

" Who gon' pray for me? Take my pain for me? "

► Aadya 

My tears finally subsided and my emotions seemed to return to a place of equilibrium. I wiped whatever remnants of tears lingered on my cheeks with my hands and returned them to my sides. A part of me was still angry but what mostly remained now was utter confusion and a plethora of questions.

It now felt as if I didn't even know who my father was after the reveal. Even trying to look at it from a parental standpoint, I could find no adequate reasoning for hiding my birthplace or who my mother was. Perhaps the previous king swore him to secrecy? It mattered not what my thoughts came up with, neither men were here to support or disprove any of it. I'm only left with this reveal with no one to answer the number of questions running through my mind.

Maybe instead I should work to come to terms with it. But how can I accept a part of me that was deliberately hidden for so long?

I quieted my thoughts and tried to shove the negative feelings down. Dwelling on what my father did would get me nowhere nor provide any answers, despite how much I hoped it would. I decided to focus my attention elsewhere and looked ahead at the horizon. I finally took in the beautiful view I was met with and allowed my breath to be taken away by Wakanda's magnificent sights.

I sat at the edge of a cliff and gaped at the mountain ranges before me. At that moment, all that bothered me was non-existent and it felt good even if it was for just mere moments. I wasn't the woman who recently found out her father hid secrets. I wasn't the woman who found herself in another country when trying to get a wanted criminal in her custody after being told the case was off her hands. I allowed myself to just be a woman gaping at mountain ranges. And I was.

All was quiet and still. If I hadn't known better, I would say I was the only person in the entire world. I knew from hundreds of feet in the air, I was nothing but a tiny speck, if that, amongst Earth's structure. I turned my face to the sky to gape at the endless sea of blue before my eyes shifted closed. I breathed evenly and willed my ears to take in my surroundings. Every small chirp I heard was now magnetized. Nature bloomed in my ears and it wasn't long before I took in thumping sounds that resembled that of beating hearts. I knew the two women continued to lie in wait, hidden as if their presence had totally gone unnoticed. I continued to pretend they had.

My attention reverted back to the variety of other sounds my ears picked up before I decided to regress my hearing back to its normal state. The last thing I heard was approaching footsteps a distance away and thought it to be one of the women finally wanting to make themselves known. I shifted in my sitting position to cross my legs for comfort and busied myself with the vegetation beneath me.

"Can I sit?"

I was surprised to hear a man's voice fill my ears. He stood a few feet from where I was sitting. I noticed his familiar robes first as my eyes worked their way up to meet his dark pair of eyes. I quickly tore my eyes away due to the blinding sun.

"Sure," I muttered.

I watched as T'Challa squatted to the ground beside me and kicked his feet over the edge of the surface beneath us. His eyes scanned the horizon just as mine had done. He stared absentmindedly with an emotion hidden within his gaze. His eyes shifted to that of the ring on his finger.

"I'm sorry about earlier," he told me. His eyes found mine and I was surprised to find his filled with sadness. "I don't think my mother realized you had no knowledge of your family history."