News of Adewunmi's apparent divine blessing, whispered from neighbor to neighbor, eventually reached the ears of the village elders, the custodians of their traditions and the interpreters of the spiritual realm. They summoned her to the sacred meeting hut, a place usually reserved for important decisions and solemn ceremonies. As Adewunmi stood before them, their faces, illuminated by the flickering light of oil lamps, were etched with a complex mixture of awe, apprehension, and deep concern. While a direct blessing from an Orisha was an exceedingly rare and usually auspicious event, seen as a sign of great favor, the unsettling circumstances surrounding Adewunmi's experience – the ominous blood moon, the violent theft of the sacred amulet, and the tragic death of Iya Agba – painted a far more ambiguous and potentially dangerous picture.
The oldest of the elders, Baba Ifa, a man whose wrinkled face bore the map of countless seasons and whose eyes held the profound wisdom of generations past, spoke, his voice raspy but firm. He spoke of an ancient prophecy, a forgotten curse that had lain dormant for centuries, a dark tale intricately tied to their lineage and the very Orisha who seemed to have blessed Adewunmi: Oshun. He recounted a somber tale passed down through oral tradition, a story of a mortal in a distant era who had been similarly gifted with Oshun's radiant power. However, this individual, blinded by pride and consumed by selfish ambition, had tragically misused the divine gift for personal gain, leading to a devastating era of strife, suffering, and imbalance for their people. The blood moon, Baba Ifa explained, his gaze piercing, was believed to amplify such divine connections, acting as a conduit between the mortal and spiritual realms. The theft of the amulet, he theorized, could have inadvertently awakened dormant spiritual forces, both benevolent and malevolent, stirring echoes of the ancient curse.
Baba Ifa further revealed the profound significance of the stolen amulet. It was not merely a symbolic representation of Oshun's favor, but a crucial artifact, a linchpin that maintained a delicate balance of spiritual energies within their land, protecting them from unseen threats. Its absence, he warned, could weaken their spiritual defenses, leaving them vulnerable to darker entities and potentially angering other powerful Orisha whose domains were intricately intertwined with Oshun's. He looked directly at Adewunmi, his eyes filled with a heavy weight of responsibility. He cautioned her that her newfound power might not be a blessing at all, but a heavy burden, a direct consequence of the unfolding events, and that she, unwittingly, might be destined to play a pivotal role in either saving their beloved village from impending doom or tragically leading it down a path of destruction, mirroring the tragic fate foretold in the ancient, forgotten curse. The weight of his words settled heavily in the small hut, the flickering lamplight casting long, dancing shadows that seemed to whisper warnings of the uncertain future.