The dripping cavern was cold. The sounds of the hunt had faded, but the fear hadn't. It was stuck in my throat like a bone.
Tunde finally broke the silence. "We cannot stay here. The Mmuo will search the drains soon." He looked at the shard in my hand. "That thing is like a tracker. They go sense am."
He was right. The piece of the ledger glowed, a tiny, hot beacon in the dark. I had to know what was on it. Now.
"We need to go to the in-between," Uzo said, his voice low. "The place where Lagos almost touches this realm. It is the only spot they cannot see clearly."
We moved. Uzo led us through tunnels where the walls changed from spirit-marble to concrete and rusted pipes. The air began to smell of Lagos—smoke, sewage, and life. We found a space behind a flickering billboard on the Third Mainland Bridge. On one side, the ghost-lights of the spirit realm. On the other, the real Lagos, trapped in its endless traffic jam. We were stuck in the middle.
I held the shard tight. The symbols were a spirit language of sharp lines and circles. But I forced my eyes to focus. I saw lists. Endless lists of names from every part of Lagos—Isolo, Surulere, Ajah. Next to each name was a number. The debt. But it wasn't just naira. It was a measure of life-force. I watched as a name from Mushin flickered and turned grey, the number beside it zeroing out. The soul had been collected. Fuel.
"This is how they rule," Uzo said, watching me understand. "The Alusi, the old gods, they were about balance. Give and take. These Orishas... they are new managers. They saw a city already struggling and poured fuel on the fire. They didn’t create the loan apps. They just took over. Every time person borrow money wey dem no fit pay, na prayer to them. Every threat from loan spirit, na ceremony. The more Lagos suffer, the stronger they grow"
He made it sound like a bad market deal. "The slums? Dem make am on purpose. A hungry person na desperate person. A desperate person dey easy to control."
I kept scanning, my heart pounding. And then I found it. My mother's name.
It wasn't with the others. It was set apart, burning with a cold, bright light. The debt beside it was a number so large it had no meaning. But that wasn't the worst part. Next to her name was a mark. A symbol I had seen only once before, carved into the witch's amulet. A symbol for a source. A battery.
The shard grew hot in my hand, almost burning me. It flickered, showing a new sequence. A time. A location deep within the government house. The vault's heart was going to appear there for a ritual.
"She's not just another soul," I whispered, the truth like a knife in my gut. "She's a prime debtor. Her spirit is... purer. Stronger. That's why they targeted her. They didn't just want her debt paid. They wanted her . She's not fuel for the machine. My mother is the key to starting a bigger one."
I looked up from the glowing shard to Tunde and Uzo. The honking of cars felt a million miles away. We knew the whole rotten story now.
"I go alone if I have to," I said, my voice low. The shard felt heavy with the truth. It was my burden now.
Tunde shook his head. "We don start this thing together."
Uzo just grunted, his melted face grim. The final storm was coming, and we were the only ones left to stand in its path.