Daytime exchange

The n'danga still hummed with laughter and lively conversation. Echuranmi and Penalky had settled apart from the others, two cups set before them, barely touched.

It was Echuranmi who broke the silence.

**Echuranmi:** "Tell me what you saw."

**Penalky, wary:** "Why you first?"

**Echuranmi:** "Because I was there."

A silence. Penalky set down his cup.

**Penalky:** "…A battlefield. Pale-faced men, fighting alongside the army of Kano. Awoye retreating. Lagoki covering them. And a colossus who…"

He stopped.

**Echuranmi, softly:** "Who threw you into the rocks."

Penalky looked at him for a long moment.

**Penalky:** "How do you know that."

It was not a question.

**Echuranmi:** "Because I had the same dream. You, Awoye, Lagoki — you were all there. I was watching from a distance. As though I hadn't been invited to that battle… but someone had wanted me to witness it all the same."

**Penalky:** "Anansi."

**Echuranmi:** "That's what I believe. He doesn't speak without reason."

**Penalky, calculating:** "But why show this to both of us? Separately?"

**Echuranmi:** "Perhaps so that we would end up exactly where we are right now."

Penalky let the silence settle for a moment, his eyes fixed on his cup.

**Penalky:** "In the dream — those pale-faced men. They weren't only there to fight. Kano was opening the way for them."

**Echuranmi:** "I saw it too. Zomassa isn't enduring their presence. He is choosing it."

The silence that followed was heavier than all the tam-tams of the day.

**Penalky, in a low voice:** "If this vision is true… it's no longer just Kano's problem."

**Echuranmi:** "No. It belongs to the entire continent."

He leaned slightly forward.

**Echuranmi:** "What troubles me is why your kingdom. Why Tanetier in this vision, and not Kong, not Shona? What is Zomassa truly after on your side?"

**Penalky:** "The routes. Our trade routes give access to the entire continent. Whoever controls Tanetier controls the flow — of men, resources, information."

**Echuranmi:** "Then this is not an ordinary war of conquest."

**Penalky:** "No. It's a war of position."

A long silence.

**Echuranmi:** "We need answers before the delegations leave. A vision badly interpreted can do more damage than an army."

**Penalky:** "Do you think we should tell the others?"

**Echuranmi:** "Not yet. Not without understanding what we saw."

Penalky nodded. His gaze drifted toward the entrance of the n'danga, where the noise of the festivities carried on, carefree.

**Penalky:** "Those pale-faced men… have you ever seen any before?"

**Echuranmi:** "No. Never."

**Penalky:** "Neither have I."

He finally picked up his cup again, but did not drink.

**Penalky, to himself:** "Then where do they come from…"