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As soon as Ego followed Ato into the bright golden light, she felt a cold sensation overwhelm her whole body. The next thing she knew, she and Ato were standing in a village she did not recognize.

“Do you know where we are?” Ato asked Ego.

“No, I don’t. Where are we?” Ego asked.

“We are in Achi, 200 years before you were born,” Ato responded, and immediately Ego heard that she looked around in shock. She had just been taken back in time and could barely recognize the Village of Achi, where she was born and raised. Everything looked so different, from the huts to how the people dressed, and somehow, even the language the villagers spoke sounded different.

While Ato and Ego were standing close to a hut, Ego watched as the villagers of Achi danced to the hut. When the villagers arrived at the hut, an old man emerged from among them. He walked to the hut’s entrance, broke three white eggs, poured some local gin on the same spot where he had broken the eggs, and said some incantations.

Immediately after the man poured the gin and said the incantations, lightning struck in the sky, and all the villagers of Achi jubilated. The lightning was a sign that the gods of the land had accepted the gin, and he had chosen a priestess for himself. 

While the villagers of Achi were dancing and jubilating, a young woman with small red clothes tied around her chest and waist came out of the hut holding a wooden staff decorated with red strings, white cowries, and human skulls. That woman was Ato, and she had just been chosen by the gods of Achi to be the seer and priestess of Achi at age 18.

While Ego watched the scene, she couldn’t help but notice the striking resemblance between the young Priestess and Ato, who stood beside her.

“Is that you?” Ego asked.

“Yes, that’s me. That was the day I became the first priestess of Achi,” Ato answered in a cold tone.

“You see, I wasn’t the only one in the village of Achi who wanted to serve the gods. There was a man named Azuka, and he was the son of a chief priest, whom the villagers believed would take after his father, just as his father had taken after his grandfather. But for some reason, we all did not understand, the gods of our land rejected Azuka and chose me, making me the first priestess to serve this land,” Ego explained.

“Look, there he is,” Ato pointed to a man at the back of the crowd. He was frowning and obviously did not look happy that the gods had chosen a woman over him.

“Even though the gods had chosen me to look after the spiritual affairs of this land, Azuka still paraded himself as the priest of the village, and he would go around healing people for money, which was forbidden in our land,” Ato said, ” and when the news of his misbehavior reached me, I consulted the gods about it, and I was told to warn Azuka to stop his acts. Well, I warned Azuka several times until one day,” Ato added.

While Ato spoke, Ego suddenly felt that overwhelming cold sensation again. The next thing she knew, she realized that she and Ato were standing in a place that looked like the Village Square. In that village square, Ego spotted Azuka standing next to a woman who was convulsing badly; she was an epileptic woman having a seizure. Also, the villagers of Achi had gathered around Azuka and the epileptic woman to see if Azuka could heal her.

 To stop the woman’s seizures, Azuka took some leaves out of his medicine bag and tapped the woman’s forehead three times. As soon as he did that, the seizure stopped, and the woman stood up like nothing had happened earlier. When the woman stood up to her feet, Azuka demanded that she pay him 30 cowries or he would return her sickness to her. At first, the woman tried to beg Azuka to not charge her, but when she realized that Azuka was serious about the fee, she paid him the 30 cowries.

After collecting his fee, Azuka was just about to leave the village Square when he heard the priestess Ato screaming his name.

“Azuka! Azuka,” Priestess Ato called him, “have I not warned you several times to stop parading yourself as the priest of this village and to stop  healing people for a fee?” Priestess Ato said.

“How dare you call me by name? Don’t you have respect for your elders?” Azuka barked at Priestess Ato.

When the villagers saw the tension between Priestess Ato and Azuka, they all stood and watched. 

“Azuka,” Priestess Ato called him in a stern and angry voice, “Consider this as your last warning,” she added and with that, she walked out of Azuka and the rest of the villagers. 

As soon as the young Priestess Ato walked out of Azuka, Ato turned to Ego and said, “That was the day Azuka and I became rivals. He was so mad that I had humiliated and embarrassed him openly, so he swore to pay me back.” Ato said, “Since I was already betrothed to a man and pregnant for him before I became the priestess of the land, a few months later, I was due to deliver,” Ato added.

Immediately after Ato said that, Ego began to hear the screams of a woman in labor. When she looked around, she noticed that she and Ato were no longer standing in the village Square; they were standing next to a labor room with midwives running in and out.

“I expected that day to be the happiest day of my life, but it turned into a nightmare. I gave birth to two children at once, which had never happened in our land, and Azuka used that opportunity to get rid of me.”

While Ato and Ego stood by the hut, Ego heard the screams of midwives from inside the labor room and saw them dashing out in fear. Shortly after the midwives ran out of the room, they returned with Azuka, the village head, and some other villagers. 

“This has never happened before. It is an abomination for one woman to give birth to two babies,” Azuka said to the villagers after he went into the room to see the babies,” the gods of our land have told me that if we do not kill and sacrifice these babies, the village of Achi will suffer greatly,” Azuka lied. As soon as he said that, the villagers of Achi began to murmur, knowing that it was wrong to kill innocent babies, but no one wanted to suffer the consequences.

While the villagers deliberated and murmured, Azuka stormed into the labor room and snatched the twin babies from Priestess Ato. Because Priestess Ato was very weak from her labor, she could barely get out of bed to rescue her children from Azuka or convince the villagers that Azuka was lying against the gods.

As Ego watched as Azuka turned the hearts of the villagers against priestess Ato, Ato turned to Ego and said, “And that was how he took my twin babies away and slaughtered them in front of the villagers, at the same village square I confronted him. As if killing my children was not enough, he convinced the elders of the village to banish me from the village, saying I was an abomination; if not, I would invoke the wrath of the gods on everyone, and they did banish me.”

“So what happened to you after you were banished,” Ego asked Ato. 

“I went to the same cave you slept at, and I died there,” Ato responded, ” See, Ego, I brought you here because I failed as a mother, and I do not want the same thing to happen to you,” she added.

“What must I do now to save my children? They killed my first children, and I’d rather die than let them do the same thing again,” Ego said.

“You must go back to Achi, and you must let everyone know that the killing of twin babies started from a place of Jealousy and not because the gods had ordered it. Giving birth to two children is a blessing and not a curse. If animals can give birth to more than one offspring, then why can’t we do the same as humans?”

“What you’re asking me to do is almost impossible; the villagers of Achi will kill my husband and me the moment we step foot on Achi,” Ego said.

“No, they won’t. They want you and your babies alive,” Ato said.

“And even if they don’t kill us, how do I plan on convincing an entire village that had been killing twin babies for generations that the gods of the land are against the killing of twin babies,” Ego asked.

“If you let me, I will use you and speak through you to the people,” Ato said to Ego.

“If you using me, will help me save the lives of my innocent babies. Then, I accept, ” Ego said.

“Alright then, let’s return to your time,” Ato said. Immediately after, Ato said that Ego saw the same bright golden light she had seen when Ato appeared to her in the cave, and the next thing she knew, she was back in the cave with her husband and children.

As soon as Ego realized she was back in the cave, she immediately woke up her husband, Eze, and explained everything she had seen. 

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming? You know you have been so stressed these past few days, and you could be mistaken,” Eze said out of concern.

“No, Eze, I knew what I saw, and this was not a dream. Priestess Ato came to me here. Please, my husband, let us do what she has said. It is the only way we can save our children,” Ego said.

“Alright, get some sleep. Tomorrow, by sunrise, we will go to Achi,” Eze said, and with that, Ego went back to bed.

The following day, Ego and Eze woke up at sunrise. After Ego breastfed her babies, they began their journey back to Achi. Since they were already close to the village, it took them less than an hour to get there by foot.

Immediately, Ego and Eze entered Achi that morning, the villagers who saw them began to shout and call the attention of other villagers who were still inside their huts. Barely 10 minutes after Ego, Eze, and their babies entered Achi, all the villagers came out of their huts and followed them to the village Square. Before Eze and Ego reached the village Square, the news of their arrival had already reached the village priest and the village head, so they got to the village Square before the rest of the villagers.

“Give us those babies, now,” the village head said to Eze as he walked to collect the babies from him, but Eze resisted.

“Are you defying the order of the gods?” the village priest asked in an angry tone. Roughly a minute after the village priest asked Eze that question, a bright golden light appeared in their midst, and priestess Ato revealed herself to everyone. Some of the villages, who were scared, ran away as soon as they saw Ato walk out of the golden light.

“Do not be afraid; I am not here to harm any of you but to deliver you all from your ignorance,” Ato said, “many years ago, before all of you were born, I was the priestess of this village and the first mother of twin babies, but because my rival, Azuka, was mad that the gods had chosen me instead of him. He lied against the gods just so he could kill my twin babies and pay me back. And that was how the killing of twin babies started,” Ato added.

Immediately, she said that the villagers who were still in the village Square began to murmur.

“Today, I have come to say that twin babies are not a curse. They are double blessings from the gods. If animals can give birth to more than one baby, why can’t we? For many generations, different chief priests have spilled their blood and slaughtered innocent babies, and that must end today. If it doesn’t, then the real wrath of the gods will come upon you all, and the blood of every twin baby killed in this village will be on your heads,” Ato said, then she disappeared.

After Ato appeared to the villagers of Achi, even the priest and the village head, who were both trying to take the twins from Eze, could not say anything. Everyone was in shock and could not believe that an ancestor had appeared to them in broad daylight.

One after the other, the villagers of Achi returned to their homes, and no one ever mentioned killing Ego and Eze’s children after that day. Though Ego expected that Ato would need to possess her body to communicate with the villagers of Achi,  she was glad Ato revealed herself to them instead. She later understood that Ato was asking for her consent to reveal herself to the villagers of Achi.

From that day henceforth, the killing of twin babies stopped in Achi, and pregnant mothers stopped being afraid of the number of babies in their wombs. As for Ego and Eze’s sons, they became popular in the village of Achi for being the first-ever twins to survive in the history of Achi. 

And as for Ego, four years after she gave birth to her twin boys, she got pregnant again and gave birth to another set of twins: two girls. It was almost like the gods were compensating her for the loss of her first two babies. With two new additions to her family, Eze and Ego were thrilled, and they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

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