There have been many myths about soulmates throughout human history, Still the majority of people agree that when they meet their soulmate for the first time, they feel a sense of familiarity, a sense of knowing things that are unsaid, a sense of belonging, they perceive a unique connection where there is no judgment, condemnation or pretention; because, without knowing it, they have been looking for each other all eternity.
Rage was what she was feeling at that moment. With a withering look, she scanned the throne room from one side to another, challenging the Elders to speak one more time.
“I think, honorable elders, you are forgetting who I am: I am the new Black Panther, protector of Wakanda, the last Daughter of the Golden Tribe, the chief scientist of this nation, the restorer of the heart-shaped herb and _”
“We know who you are, Shuri daughter of T’Chaka, sister of T’Challa,” answered Zawavari, Eder of the Mining tribe. “We know what you have done for this nation”
“Then, why do you think you have the right to request one more thing from me?” Shuri retorted, looking up at the room’s occupants. “I’ve tried to defend my people from my laboratory and the battlefield”
“Pace and strength of a nation have a price”
“And I have to pay that price?” Shur asked, raising her voice. “Who do you think you are to demand from me something like that?”
“We are the council established by your ancestors, your father and your brother to discuss everything related to Wakanda,” answered the elder or the Merchant tribe.
“We are the ones who look after the interests of Wakanda and take the concerns of the people to our king,” spoke the elder of the River tribe.
“Does this concern the people? If I remember correctly, forced marriages were banned more than 150 years ago in Wakanda. Moreover, what would you aim to gain from this? After all you all supported N’Jadaka when he destroyed the heart-shaped plant and helped him”
“We have vowed to follow the king whomever he may be”
"You all have hidden behind that excuse for a very long time and you’ve never accepted your mistake in letting N’Jadaka take the throne. I don’t think you’d ever date ask this to my father or my brother”
“However, Your brother is the reason we are here”, said Zawavari.
Shuri stood up firmly. “What does my brother have to do with this?”
“If King T’Challa had never exposed Wakanda to the outside world…”
“I will not stand here and let you question the decisions of my brother!” Shuri held her gaze with narrow eyes.
"However, it is because of those decisions that we are here today” The Elder of the Merchant Tribe responded.
Shuri’s memories of her had always been of an old woman; in fact, T’Challa used to say that she had been older even when Bashenga had been a child. This was a wise woman that had never had to raise her voice to be heard. “Every action has consequences, and unfortunately, your brother’s actions have contributed to the suffering of our people. The wars our brother’s allies brought to our borders, the wars you yourself had been involved in have made an impact in Wakanda. In less than 15 years, there have been more deaths than the last 400 years of our history, counting even the last two Jabari rebellions. There are very few soldiers left, my princess, that is a fact. And we have an entire generation that has known nothing but wars. There are children that had to see their parents march off to war to never come back, fathers that had to see their children to defend a world that still does not accept them. Not long ago, we thought that Bast had left us unprotected, but the Black Panther returned to us thanks to you, and still with all the technology at our disposal, Wakanda has never been more vulnerable than it is today. There are not enough warriors to repel an attack from the outside world.”
Shuri couldn’t refute any of it. She clenched her fists in frustration. She didn’t need anyone to remind her of all her faults. Since she acquired the Black Panther’s mantle, she had led her people to a certain slaughter-people who had followed her blindly and faithfully. She didn’t need a bunch of hags to remind her of something that she reminded herself of every night.
“What does the king think of this? You have kept yourself unusually quiet and let this council try to decide my life.”
From the moment Shuri had walked through the doors, M’Baku had kept his gaze on the ground, letting the other members of the Tribal Council expose their plan without speaking for himself.
“No, I do not agree.”
Hope filled Shuri, and she allowed herself a sigh of relief.
“But we are not discussing what I want,” M´Baku said,looking up to Shuri. “ We are talking about what my tribe and Wakanda need, and Hanuman as my witness, I’m not happy about it. Wakanda needs a solid alliance with Talokan. I’m so ashamed to ask you this and I know I’ve failed your brother and your mother. But you should know that I would not not ask for this if there were any other option. I’ve been stopping this council for over a year to ask you this, but the incursions and wars they've unleashed have put us between a rock and a hard place.” With a sad and final look, he continued, “Wakanda needs more than ever a strong ally and Talokan is all set to lend their weapons and warriors to defend our borders. But their king has asked for one and only one thing to ensure this: you as their queen.”
Every soul has to roam really for themselves; the soul has to learn about life, about happiness and hardships, and only when the soul is ready, can their other half walk beside them…
Shuri always knew she was being watched; the last couple of times she had been in Wakanda, the Dora Milaje were on her trail, keeping a close eye on her. When she had lost them easily, the war dogs were sent. But the Black Panther was Wkanda’s supreme warrior and despite their efforts, Shuri Could escape their radar if needed. And she needed it tonight. Anticipating her reluctance to marry, the council had doubled their effort on monitoring every step she took and everyone she communicated with. The cultural exchanges were fruitful, and the cybersecurity was amazing, but there was a reason she was still the Chief Scientist of Wakanda.
Stealthy, she followed the known path to the river mouth. Swift as a gazelle, Shuri arrived at the same place she and her mother had visited long ago and breathed to calm her mind. Shuri wondered, as she had done before, if she had the chance to return to that moment, would she have taken another path? If she had known what the future held, could things have gone differently? An alliance at that point could have stopped uncountable deaths, including her mother’s, and would have made it possible to defend Wakanda when realities began to collide with each other.
She took the seashell out of her bag, a gift Attuma provided her months ago in the name of his king. She examined it one more time, the bastard knew she was being monitored and had proportioned another way to contact him without an intermediary. She approached it to her mouth and blew on it, then put it on the river and waited for a moment. Unfortunately, Griot’s signal for some patrol drones took her out of her trance and she had no other choice but jump into the water.
Shuri had never cared too much for swimming, all Wakandan children were taught to swim at an early age, and she had enjoyed many summers near Nakia’s house beneath the sunny days playing and cooling off with friends in the heart of the River Tribe. Shuri saw the drones above her head and began to swim to go undetected a few more kilometers from Wakanda’s borders.
She allowed herself to look up at the sky one more time when she was far away: gods, aliens, and other creatures dwell in the vast depths of space; civilizations were being extinguished now by the whimsy of powerful beings, and that certainty made her problems seem minor in comparison. In reality, she was never destined for this life, it was T´Challa who had been destined for greatness, who would know how to handle things. Her older brother had been everything a king should be: strong, intelligent, charismatic, gentle, and just. Many younger siblings became resentful of having amazing older siblings, but not her, who, growing up in the shadow of her brother, Shuri was allowed to develop her scientific interest and study any knowledge she was interested in. Her earlier life had been so protected, full of love and freedom, but now she was an adult and knew what she had to do, not that it was going to be easy.
“For what reason have you summoned me, Princess?” Namor asked from behind her. Shuri turned around and with just one look, Namor knew the reason. “So, your King has finally dared to tell you?”
“It is you who lacks the courage to ask me, and had to have other people to do your dirty job.”
“Is that your answer then.”
“How could you think you had the right to ask me anything more than what I had given you?. I’ve protected your secrets and kingdom. I’ve fought your battles, and lent my knowledge to help your people. Do you truly believe I would accept?”
“I do not see why not,” was Namor’s reply. “Years ago , you offered yourself in exchange for a child you hardly knew. It was your first promise to me, and it was also your first broken promise."
“I didn’t know my mother would attempt a rescue mission”
“You broke that promise, and then Wakanda was the first to spill my children’s blood.”
“You killed my mother!”
“Do not take away your mother's sacrifice! She decided to help the scientist. Also, who has the audacity to put in glass windows in a throne room? Wakanda’s arrogance at its finest: to believe they have no equal in the world, when they coexist with gods and creatures from space.” His voice was calm and collected.
“What would you gain from this? What is it you are looking for in all of this?” Namor’s stoic mood always brought out the worst in her; hundreds of times she preferred the fury and rage in his eyes to this mask of indifference that did not let any of his thoughts show. It infuriated her. Shuri guessed that half a millennia was enough time to learn to control your emotions.
“What I have always wanted: the safety of my people. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to secure my children’s safety.”
“You are lying.”
His lopsided smile appeared, and his gaze changed to one that had been engraved in her memory since the first time in the depths of Talokan. “It never ceases to amaze me how well you know me, Princess.” His gaze, illuminated by the dim moonlight, was as bright as some of the stars that adorned the sky. “Since the first time we met, our connection has been strong, as if we had been destined to find each other. I thank Chaac for this, even if I had to wait an eternity for you.”
“We don’t know each other, so stop projecting your solitude onto me; if a bride is what you are looking for, I could lend you a cell phone and download you Tinder or Grindr, or both.”
“Your sense of humor is not as clever as your family has led you to believe.”
“Is this a joke to you? I'm really having a hard time stopping myself from kicking you in the face. Furthermore, you don’t have any idea of who I really am or what is happening with my life right now and…”
Approaching her suddenly, Namor drew closer while looking straight into her eyes.
“I know you feel alone, even surrounded by friends. I know it hurts so much to see your nephew because he reminds you of your brother. I know that you still don't know how to reconcile the memory of your father with everything you know he did, that you fear that in recent years your ideals resemble more like his or your cousin’s than you want to admit. I know that you don’t consider those those self-appointed New Avengers your friends, you don’t trust them; and that to you, they are another way to honor the legacy of you brother, that you don’t approve of their way of thinking.I know you never truly approved of opening Wakanda to the rest of the world and that you are still angry at the universe for not being able to help your brother in time, that you think that if I had only approached you earlier, you could have been able to save him.”
“Stop!”
“I certainly know that no matter how much you try, you cannot trust Nakia or Okoye.” As he approached her, he took her hands in his and placed them on his chest near his heart. “And I know all this because, if you trusted them, they would know that you and I are more similar than t looks, and I'm not referring to our personalities, our ideals, or the way we carry them out; if you could trust them, they would know that you have been able to breathe underwater for years without any problem or that your aging has slowed to a level similar to mine.”
They’d been arguing more than 10 meters below the river’s current; ever since Shuri noticed how strange it was for predators like crocodiles or hippos to flee as quickly as they could from them in the water. Shuri clenched her fists over Namor’s heart, her body shaking with all her contained emotions; she couldn’t deny any of this. After her brother's death, she had spent a year ignoring everyone and everything; not even her mother could break through the walls that she had built around her heart. Ironically, shortly after meeting Namor, she felt a connection that was difficult to explain and could express her pain and helplessness; she had never felt judged in his presence nor had she had to explain the reason for her feelings. And being both at the bottom of a river, there was no way to deny anything.
“Nothing I could ever say or do will ever make up for the harm I’ve caused you. I can't apologize. The only thing I can tell you is that you can't spend eternity alone I've been there and I would not recommend it, but it was you who showed me that I had lost my connection with the people around me.You cannot deny that there is something between us, that despite everything, compassion and hatred are not the only feelings I cause you. The only thing I can ask of you is that you allow me to be by your side, and maybe, in the future, you can hate me a little less. I cannot burn the world if you are in it.”
Many souls search for each other tirelessly. Sometimes they cross paths easily, others only briefly , and more often than not, they never cross into their lives... but their bond will never fade because it exists before life itself.