For her first try, Abeni went to the village plaza and asked around about ranks, people’s ability types and the hunts that hunters went on. Many people watched her with suspicious gazes, and few were willing to cooperate. The first couple of people rejected her question with a firm ‘no’s and even a shove until one pale old man offered his ear to her, sitting her down on a bench in front of the plaza waterfall with him and told her what she wanted to know.

“You mean how many types of manipulators there are? Well, I only know three,” the old man replied, scratching his bald with a frown.

Abeni nodded enthusiastically, feeling hope begin to brew in her chest. “Oh! Yes, anything would help. Please tell me anything you know.”

“Hm…Everyone starts as a novice manipulator, people like you and I who aren’t able to use their abilities much,” she didn’t interrupt him even though he was wrong about the last detail and just keenly listened. “then there are junior manipulators who can kill a handful of people. They are by far, the strongest in the village, the hunters, but their identities are hidden to most. Then there are senior manipulators who can kill an ẹda all by themselves. Avoid them, they’ll rip you apart.”

Was it measured by killing? She asked him who sighed before answering. “Yeah, that’s the only metric that matters, child. Who you can kill. That’s why I stay here in this village. You don’t want to know what life is like without some sort of hierarchy. Not to mention the curse. There’s a mafia, a crime syndicate, operating near here and it’s hell. I know because they kidnapped me and I almost didn’t escape with my life,” he shivered, eyes telling of horrors that she couldn’t imagine. Didn’t fully understand.

Well, perhaps with her parents’ death…now, she actually could.

Abeni hummed looking down at her puffy high-waist white dress in thought before meeting his eyes again. “What about the types of abilities?” Were there types, like a way to order them? Or was it a completely unorganised thing?

“I thought everyone knew this, no one cared to tell you? Well, from what I’ve heard there are…let’s see, matter abilities…person…no body abilities,” he paused to think, scratching his scalp again. So then, her father was a junior manipulator with a ‘matter ability’ and her mother was a junior manipulator with a ‘body ability’.

“Right…”

He continued with a renewed shine in his eyes, but that could be an effect of one of the brightly lit torches. It was daytime, after all. “There are manipulators who can transform, the ẹda are the only ones who can do that. And it usually only lasts for ten or so minutes. Oh yeah, apparently there are special people who can manipulate the mind or the spirit…” his features scrunched up with annoyance then. “but that’s a load of bullshit, if you ask me. That’s just people mistaking manipulation for the curse.”

Abeni couldn’t help but smile to herself at the comment, good to know, this was all good to know. “Do you know about the hunts too?” She asked and fear charged his features for a short time.

“Oh, no, no. You’ll have to ask hunters about that. Not that you’ll ever find out who they are. That’s private information. But…” he huffed, looking at her up and down, still acting nervously. “It’s unlikely they’ll answer you. Haha! I’m only telling you this because I like to talk and no one cares about a weak sod like me anymore,” he bitterly laughed to himself, and she found herself pitying him. Weak, huh? “you’ll have to ask someone else, child. Ha!”

Wait, no! Not yet! Abeni pressed him on it more, but he insisted she’d have to take her questions elsewhere. Even going so far as to shoo her off of the bench. This was all crucial information that put a lot of things in context about other people’s expectations of her and that her parents’ were more established in the village than she previously thought.

But Abeni had more to ask.

For instance, what were the hunts’ primary purpose? Who were the hunters? All she knew now was that they were junior manipulators like her parents. But what were their abilities? What’s was their role in a hunt and in the village? Were they all equipped with those short swords? Who were her parents really? How safe was she with them around? Should she trust them? Try to become one? Or stay distanced from them?

Then there were two other dilemmas that Abeni had pushed to the back of her busy mind. For one, did she really need to hide her mind manipulation ability at all costs like she was taught by her parents, which she now knew were uncommon, or could she use them to intimidate people if she felt threatened? And for two, how could she make money? Abeni had recently ran out of zincs, not because of the funeral, but because she had to restock her food reserves more regularly now that she had two mouths to feed.

Abeni wanted to find all of this out so she knew how to lead her life from now on. She had to know. The female ẹda would know things, but not about the inner workings of this village. Not about living here as an eniyan with no one she could really trust. No, she needed a fellow villager to tell her about this.

“Listen, little one. They were probably hunters and this is a violent world. Don’t be too hung up on it.”

And she knew just who to ask.

[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 1]