The haircut didn’t take a lot of time; less than one hour passed between the moment she parted the hair and the moment she finished the last twist. Yassena was known for being talented in a lot of areas, and hair care was one of them. Her agile hands were able to manifest a hairstyle extremely rapidly. Kazeem taking a lot of time combing his hair was also a great help.

  The twists were long enough to cover a part of his face, slightly hiding his eyes. He never really cared about what hairstyle his mother gave him, but it was still his favorite. He knew how his look was, and although he didn’t mind people watching him, covering his face made him avoid a lot of unnecessary attention from both sexes.

  Thinking about certain types of men looking at him in a weird way made him shiver.

  “Maa, what consequences are you talking about?” he said while looking at her in the mirror.

  “Sigh, we are free to do anything. But remember that all actions have consequences. Always think about what you do and what it could cause in the future.” Putting the last oil on his scalp, she continued, “As I said, the Sunsums had an extremely large lifespan. Before the war, humans never saw one die and what happens when they do. Every being that comes from earth returns to the earth. The mango that you ate last time, for example, the part that you couldn’t eat, where did you put it?”

  “Hum… in the trash?” he said. He had in fact just tossed it on the street, but he knew that Yassena would scold him.

  “Hmm?” she said, staring straight into his eyes. Her eyes, flickering a little.

  “… I tossed it on the ground,” he mumbled.

  “Tchrr… Anyway, the seed you TOSSED on the ground,” she said while pinching his ears, “in the right conditions will grow into a mango tree. Even the part that you ate, you will poop it and it will eventually go to earth.”

  “Ew.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Ahem… ok, but what does it have to do with the Sunsums?” Kazeem asked.

  After spending some time gathering her thoughts, she responded, “When a living being dies, all the Tumio it accumulated returns to the planet. However, the Sunsums had another innate ability: they could make their emotions affect the environment where they die. If they die peacefully, the area changes depending on what positive emotions they felt the moment before passing. However, if they die with resentment or any type of negative emotion, the area also changes. Those two changed areas are called Sacred Areas and Cursed Areas.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Seriously, who named those things? Hope he never gets to name anything again.

  “The names are ‘sick,’ right?” said Yassena with a little smirk.

  “Ewww, who taught you that?”

  Eh, isn’t that how kids talk now?

  “Ahem… anyway, as you could’ve guessed, during the Primordial War all the Sunsums that died created Cursed Areas, and the stronger they were, the stronger the curses were. They manifested in diverse forms all over the world. Now we had Element-type Cursed Areas and Djinn-type Cursed Areas. The ones that died in war zones left piles of bodies everywhere; the resentment and negative emotions there merged, becoming extremely dangerous Forbidden Zones.”

  Damn, that’s crazy… wait, is the faceless monster a djinn? But aren’t they only supposed to be in Forbidden Zones? … WHY THE F ARE WE LIVING HERE THEN?! Goddammit, what the hell did I get into?!

  Azuma sits where old roads cross, between the trench road and the forest path. Trade needs a town here, and the old city ruins still hold faint wards. It’s risky, but it has held.

  “Son? You listening?”

  “Huh? Ah yeah, of course.”

  “Hmmm… anyway, this war and the consequences of it pretty much depleted the Tumio of this world, almost killing all living beings. Learning how to breathe and live without it was extremely tough. Above all of it, without Tumio, all the miracles that humans used to perform were impossible. This meant humans had to rely on other resources to survive and fight against the remains of the Sunsums.”

  “Hum, but Maa, how were they able to fight without Tumio?” Kazeem asked.

  “It’s true that the world couldn’t produce Tumio, but it still existed through a new form.” After she said it, she stayed silent, waiting for her son to find the answer.

  After seconds of reflection, he said, “Does it have to do with the Sunsums’ remains?”

  “Yes, the Sacred Areas and Cursed Areas were the only thing humans could rely on. Those were the only areas where Tumio still existed. The Sacred Areas are places where Tumio is extremely pure and dense; those are usually used as capitals for powerful nations, some have one, like our nation, and the most powerful can have up to three, while the weaker countries don’t have any. There, humans can freely use Tumio, and although we can’t perform the same powerful things as our ancestors, we have the technology to use it more efficiently. The Sacred Areas have some treasures at their heart that can be obtained through trial, and it is said that the possessors of those treasures have the ability to perform the same miracles the dead primordial spirit was born with, transforming them into new powerhouses. In fact, the power of a country is not only proportional to the number of Sacred Areas that it has but also how many it has conquered. You can think of them as blessed zones left by our old friends.”

  “Buuuuut…?”

  “But they are incredibly rare compared to the size of this world, and a country can’t function with only them. So we turned to the Cursed Areas. Those lands also have trials such as fighting monsters, solving enigmas, or even confronting past trauma. However, instead of treasures they give a part of the ability of the Sunsums dead in the area. However, it ain’t without consequences. After passing the trial, the Cursed Area basically merges with us.”

  That… sounds disgusting, he thought.

  “It does sound disgusting,” said Yassena, smiling at him.

  “…Maa, you can read thoughts?” Said Kazeem slightly taken aback.

  “What do you think?” She said with a little smile.

  Yeah, that would explain how she can speak with everyone in the village and always know what to say!

  “How can I not see what you’re thinking with all the faces you make, you little dummy,” she said, chuckling.

  “…oh,” he said, a little embarrassed. His dad and him could be considered pretty emotionless; Zokou seemed cold and stoic, while he had a stoic but lazy demeanor, always looking beyond people, absentmindedly. Only Yassena was able to know what they were thinking as she was the closest person. Kazeem of course knew it, but the talk about power and mystic abilities made him wonder if there was a deeper meaning to it.

  Seeing her son embarrassed made her burst out laughing, and she kept teasing him until his ears felt hot from shame.

  Closing thought: Every seed returns to the earth; not every place grows the same tree.