The abandoned storehouse leaned against the lagoon like a weary survivor. Its beams groaned, its walls smelled of salt and old nets, and silence pressed heavy around them.
Kafé sat beside Taye, staring at the boy who was both stranger and mirror. Their silence was layered—recognition, loss, and questions too heavy for words.
Imade paced, restless. She had fought shadows, survived hunger, faced gangs—but this moment unsettled her more than any battle. Watching the twins together felt like standing at the edge of prophecy itself.
Then came the knock. Slow. Calm. Precise.
Imade raised her rod. "If na shadow creature—"
"No," Kafé whispered. "This one get heartbeat. Human."
The door creaked open.
A girl stood barefoot in the doorway, younger than them by a year. Her patched clothes hung loose, but her eyes glowed faintly with an intensity far older than her face. Around her neck hung a crude pendant carved from bone, etched with the Resistance's mark—a serpent split in two, waiting to be joined.
"Are you the twins?" she whispered.
Taye's muscles tensed. "Who ask?"
"The Resistance sent me," she said. "The sorcerer no be the only one wey dey find una."
Imade stepped forward, rod raised. "Too many people don talk prophecy. How I go know say you no be trap?"
Zoba's gaze didn't waver. "Because I carry scars from Red Shadow's hunt. I see villages vanish. I see children disappear. I hear his laugh when blood dey soak the ground. Resistance dey bleed every day because of him. But una… una be the dawn-mark. If una no move now, una go die before morning."
As she spoke, the twins felt it—the resonance. Kafé's wrist burned faintly, and Taye's chest glowed in rhythm, as if her words had unlocked something buried inside them.
The storehouse itself seemed to tremble, beams creaking like old bones, nets swaying as if stirred by unseen hands. Even the lagoon outside held its breath.
Imade whispered, "Omo… this prophecy dey drag more people than shadow itself."
Zoba's eyes glistened. "Prophecy no dey wait. And Red Shadow no dey forgive. If una wan survive, una m