Masquerade

by O.O. Sangoyomi

He had taken so many lives in battle that he was often referred to as the Commander of Death.

She had worked with far too many precious metals to be impressed by the silver of the stranger’s tongue.

“She makes that silly flower again and again, yet she still does not understand that it would not have died had it not been beautiful enough to be picked in the first place.” 2 Just like blood circulating in the body’s veins, iron ore flowed through Earth’s core.

My mother was a short woman, but I had never seen her as small until now.

“I never would have eaten cowpeas had you not presented them to me. Is that the game you are playing, one that uses my desperation as your entertainment? Did you enjoy watching me be nearly sentenced to death? Was it thrilling to pay nomads to transport me across the desert like some commodity? Most of all, have you finished having your fun now, my king? Because I am a very long way from home, and I am very tired, and I still do not understand what it is you want or why you think it is me who can give it to you.”

“What is love but a choice? I do not need to fall in love with you. I have chosen to step into it—and I pray that you choose me as well.”

It was this, even more than our seemingly mystical abilities, that made us so despised; our largest crime was being, not just women, but women without a man to belong to.

As a blacksmith, my value had lain in my ability to produce for the state. And now, according to Gassire, my value as a noblewoman would lay in … my ability to produce for the state.

“What is the key to deception?” Gassire asked. “The key is to condition the enemy to see only what you want them to see.

for them to begin. You even warned me about them at that party in the garden.”

Not when Àrmọ had just confirmed that my only place here was as his bride. My existence, like my ideas, were merely an extension of him.

No, Death himself was not cruel. What was cruel was when he stayed away.

“All you had to do was look harder,” I whispered, my voice cracking

Men called us witches, they thought us demons, and yet, it was they who wished to possess us.

“Living untethered to a man is the kindest fate a woman can meet.

When Kiigba had attacked me all those moons ago, I was a helpless witch. Now, I was officially the Aláàfin’s wife, but the position had done nothing to protect me from being violated once again.

had loved him, but so long as I belonged to a man, I would never have any power of my own.