BALQIS Munia Manike opened the old wooden gates to the Garden of Gahe Vale Galaa. Ruvaa butterflies fluttered as she made her way through the path surrounded by aromatic Fathangumaa trees[1] bursting with blood orange flowers. Dry leaves rustled on the ground as she walked to the length of it and strode into a lane that led to the house of Keyvi Hassan ge Koyya Huthaa.

Two guards wearing black sarongs interrupted Munia. They stood against a wooden door and glanced at her for a while. Loosening their grip on the Masdhaiy Fiyohi[2] fastened at their hips they shuffled aside.

“You may enter,” one of the guards said as the door was opened.

Munia stepped into a courtyard with white sand. A big undhoali[3] was suspended from wooden beams by thick coir ropes. She walked alongside it and through a circular opening into a room where music was being played. Her gaze fixed on the man at the far end.

Keyvi Hassan ge Koyya Huthaa sat at a white piano. Thundukunas[4] hung on the walls between copper lamps that illuminated the space with gleaming rays of light.

“You’ve come to murder me,” Koyya murmured as he played a somber tune.

Munia approached Koyya cautiously. The light from the lamps cast rays onto her rigid face that resembled her father, a military chief of the Akan Empire. A violent arms-race in Africa which eventually defeated the chief, ended him being sold off as a slave. He was brought to Isdhoo to work for a wealthy merchant who freed him after learning of his past.

Munia halted as she came closer to Koyya and stared at him. Her gaze swept along his hands, to his arms and then to his neck.

She gently extracted a black needle from her hair.

“People claim hearing you sing eases their sorrows”, said Koyya as he continued to play the piano, “even the pain of dying”.

Munia stood in silence.

“The algorithm I built was a truth seeker,” Koyya explained, “and it alerted you out as a threat to the empire only because that is what you would inevitably become.”

Munia drew closer to Koyya. He smelled the warmth of her breath — and felt her rage.

Koyya stopped playing the piano.

Munia curled her fingers around his neck, enveloping and tightening it. He mumbled something as he gasped for air.

Munia loosened her grip and raised his head holding him by the chin. Koyya stared at Munia and whispered “Sing to me before you kill me”.

Munia peered at Koyya, his eyelids closed from the scorching pain as the needle punctured his neck from the side. Vihalagondi[5] poison oozed into his carotid artery. He opened his eyes a last time, his pupils dilated — as his heart stopped beating.

She then sang to the lifeless Koyya Huthaa.

Nanaa huvafen dhusheemey,

Dharaavaa hindhu dhuniyeyn,

Baarakaa meehakuge numelaa,

Aarakah maamui fethey theeye,

Nanaa huvafen dhusheemey.

With the last verse she hurled Koyya at the piano, knocking him over as he fell to the floor like a rag. His dead eyes gazed out like beads as blood trickled from the piano onto his face.

THE GARDEN of Gahe Vale Galaa was silent except the rustling leaves of the Fathangumaa trees as they waved side by side. Two bloodied guards lay outside the wooden door.

A gust of wind blew away a single flower from a Fathangumaa tree nearby. It hovered in the wind for a while before spinning and lowering over the two guards. It suddenly swirled and slid through the doorway, whirling across the courtyard, over the undhoali, and into the room where Koyya Huthaa lay. It then rose high above Koyya’s corpse before falling gently and resting on his temple.

The Fathangumaa then triggered a beacon.

Inside a subterranean chamber of Phobos moon orbiting Mars — a light flickered. The beacon from the Fathangumaa authenticated a machine inside the chamber.

“Subject Keyvi Hassan ge Koyya Huthaa confirmed by KH Bloom drone 01037”, said a voice, it then continued:

“Systemic toxicity from colchicine — confirmed”

“Multiple organ failure — confirmed”

“Brain death — confirmed”

The chamber went silent except for a mechanical humming.

It then activated the lights on a system to a cloning process of Keyvi Hassan ge Koyya Huthaa.

Finis.