Attunement
Zag Kunde Chronicle #013 - in which Zag Kunde is introduced to the Nishina Institution
New to the story? Start at the beginning.
Previous chronicle: Zag has a dream in which Koah Koah the bird appears and tells him not to trust anyone he meets.
Welcome to the Nishina Institution! There are only two ways to get out of here. Either you die, or you achieve Nishina - Attunement with the Ancestors. And I can tell you now, it’s easier to die …..Ha ha ha ha!
It was Mr. Ndambo speaking and laughing his characteristic emotionless laugh. It rang clear and present as if it had been rehearsed many times to get just the right effect: hairs on end in a combination of dread and distrust.
He was dressed in a long black robe with red trimming and sat on a heavy wooden chair with a back that was twice as tall as him. It made him look small. The chair looked like it had gone through the hands of master engravers, who had put their elaborate markings on it. Hanging above the chair was a large shield with an emblem on it and hanging off that was a long hunter’s spear. The shield’s emblem was a circle with six vertical lines inside it, arranged in vertical banks of two lines each. Zag remembered it as exactly the same sign as the tattoo he’d seen on Mr. Ndambo’s ankle the day before. The sword was pointed obliquely downwards at seven o’clock. Zag noted that if the sword fell, it would just miss Mr. Ndambo’s head. The thick braided wires holding it up looked strong enough, though.
Mr. Ndambo spoke slowly and deliberately - very similar to how the village priest spoke when officiating a village rite. Every word was precisely chosen. Every pause was carefully measured for length and impact. There was no rush. Zag knew it was important to listen carefully.
Still, he had enough time in between the long pauses to replay his journey from being handcuffed in Mr. Nko’s upstairs bedroom to sitting on a cold floor in a large hall, surrounded by 100 other boys all dressed in white.
Mr. Nko had led Zag down three flights of stairs into the basement of the house. The further down they went, the less natural light there was, and the more lamps they needed to use. On every floor, there was a security guard who handed them a lamp and opened a door for them. In the basement, at the end of a long corridor, they saw a heavy wooden door with a latch lock arrangement. No security guard here, but Mr. Nko moved the three thick pieces of wood that formed the lock and opened the door. He must have known how to do this because it didn’t look easy, but he did it swiftly and with the minimum of fuss. The door opened into a large porch with high ceilings and another set of high doors stood in front of them. The doors were engraved with images of a war scene. It looked like one of the warring sides was on the verge of victory and the other side was either fleeing or allowing themselves to be taken captive, terror on their faces.
Mr. Nko stopped, knelt down before Zag, and looked straight in his eyes. Zag hadn’t noticed the moistness and the sadness in Mr. Nko’s eyes until now. He removed the handcuffs from Zag’s wrists and said.
I’m sorry, but this must be done for the good of all of us.
Zag wondered what this that must be done was. He was relieved to have the handcuffs off and felt a sense of safety knowing that Mr. Nko was disturbed enough about what was happening to apologize to him. He almost never got any apologies from grown-ups. He didn’t feel it was safe to ask Mr. Nko though. He would ask Koah Koah, the Oracle if he got a chance
I hope he comes again soon, he thought.
Mr. Nko opened the next door - which squeaked from the moment the hinges started moving, the squeaks getting louder until the door stood wide open. It sounded like the noise the maize storage warehouse doors made back home. Except here it was dark and they were not about to play a fun game of hide-and-seek.
The door opened into a large poorly-lit hall and there was an immediate stir in the room as everyone turned back to look and then just as quickly turned back to look at the front of the room as if instructed by an invisible voice.
It was a large hall with about 100 boys of various ages from 5-18, seated on the floor in neat rows. Each row had a paraffin lamp at the end to provide light, and at the front, there were some large lamps on top of an altar. The most well-lit part of the room was beyond the altar where the empty chair stood - like a throne waiting for its king.
The youngest boys were seated in the front row and the oldest at the back. They all wore plain white dresses on no shoes.
Take off your shoes. Mr. Nko whispered to Zag, as he took his own shoes off.
He walked Zag to the front row. Zag could feel the eyes of a hundred people on him as he walked. He could almost hear the silence in the room, wrapping itself around his ears. He decided that the best way to walk was the way he walked whenever he encountered a stray dog in the village. He’d learned this from his mother. You act as if you haven’t noticed it and walk confidently and steadily and make no eye contact. If you walk too fast you could scare the dog and it would chase you. If you walk too slowly, the dog could realize that you were scared and chase you.
They walked halfway across the front row to an open space right in the middle of the row. Zag sat down in between two boys. The boy to his left acknowledged him with a slight nod of the head. He had thick-set eyebrows and puffy cheeks. The boy on Zag’s right looked straight ahead. He had a long, slender neck that seemed to be working extra hard at not making any movements.
Zag was startled by a sound at the back of the room as the swinging, squeaking doors they had just walked in through made a noise. It seemed much louder from inside the hall. All the boys’ heads swung back to look and, as if instructed by an invisible voice, they all scampered to stand up to attention - eyes straight ahead and arms straight by their sides. Zag did what everyone else was doing, a few seconds behind, but no one seemed to notice.
It was then that Mr. Ndambo walked in from the back of the room. He scanned every row as he walked and sent a wave of silent terror from the back of the room to the front.
He was barefoot.
The boys did not sit down until he was seated on his throne in front of the altar, and he had motioned for them to be seated.
Zag’s thoughts snapped back to the present and to Mr. Ndambo’s measured speaking.
It is easier to die than to achieve Attunement, he repeated for emphasis and this time he did not laugh.
But let that not stop you. You are here because you have demonstrated that you have a tangible connection to the Ancestors through your Gift. Your gift gives you power, but it is useless and could be destructive without virtue. Now you need to develop the 12 immutable virtues to absolute mastery in order to even stand a chance of Attunement.
The equation for Attunement is simple. It starts with understanding your gift and ends with the perfect enfoldment of your gift into your virtues. It is beautiful and powerful when it happens and I’ve seen it only a few times. It saddens me to say that those times are extremely few and far between, but we must change that.
I said it is simple, but I didn’t say it is easy. And that is why we are here. Your job is to work diligently at mastering the virtues. Nothing short of mastery will do. My job is to keep you on task. I know for sure that I will do my part and you might have to hate me. I don’t mind. Go ahead and hate me ha ha ha ha ha.
Nobody else laughed.
I hope you will do your job too because if you don’t the consequences for you will be dire.
He raised his voice.
Over my dead body will I allow you to endanger this mission. I demand extreme attention to detail. Occasional failure can be understood, if you were attempting something new, but I will come down heavy on anyone who fails to honor his Gift. Do you understand me?
It was understood by all that this was a rhetorical question. Nobody said a word.
Yamika, come up here. He said
A boy about 12 years of age stood up from one end of a row further back from where Zag was sitting and walked to the front. He stood facing Mr. Ndambo, the altar separating them.
Yamika you are six weeks from reaching level five. At level five you should not only know what the 12 immutable virtues are. You should have mastered at least four. Can you tell me what the 12 immutable virtues are and which four you are working on?
Zag thought that the boy who had stood up looked like one of the boys he’d seen in the picture in Mr. Nko’s bedroom. The older one. He looked like Mr. Nko. Zag looked over to Mr. Nko, who was sitting off to the side on a chair next to three other grown men. He was close enough to notice the moistness still in Mr. Nko’s eyes but not close enough to tell for sure if Yamika and Mr. Nko were related.
Mr. Nko must be one of the teachers, thought Zag. Maybe this is his son.
Yamika stood with his chest out and spoke loudly and clearly. It sounded like he had done this many times before.
The 12 immutable virtues are:
To have self-mastery
To avoid anger
To be Teachable
To have Reverence for the Divine
To Honor parents as representatives of the ancestors
To be Diligent in all things
To Transcend the ego
To be Patient
To be Fearless
To be committed to Truth
To practice Discretion, and
To have Charity
Good! Very good, said Mr. Ndambo
Yamika continued:
I am working on avoiding anger, being teachable, reverence for the divine, and fearlessness.
Very good, said Mr. Ndambo. He allowed himself a tiny smile and said
You will take care of Zag here. He is our newest Innocent. I want you to teach him the 12 immutable virtues.
Yamika nodded, bowed, and returned to his seat.
Soko, stand up! said Mr. Ndambo
One of the two boys right next to Zag shot up. The one with the long neck who hadn’t looked at Zag. He was taller than Zag expected.
Maybe nine years old, he thought.
Come to the front, said Mr. Ndambo to Soko.
Soko’s unnatural, stiff walk to the front made Zag feel a knot in his stomach.
What are the 12 immutable virtues? Asked Mr. Ndambo. You just heard them!
Soko: Umm
Mr. Ndambo: First of all. No umms in here. You’re either saying something, or you’re saying nothing.
Soko started again.
To have self-mastery
To do no anger…
No! No! No! To *avoid* anger. Use the exact words in the book. You’re not here to rewrite the Book! said Mr. Ndambo
Soko started again. His voice sounded dry and cracked as if starved of air. His neck seemed longer and more taut than it was when he was sitting next to Zag.
He shifted his feet slightly and composed himself.
To have self-mastery
To avoid anger
He paused and looked upwards and to his left as if searching for words. Then something inside him seemed to snap. He looked straight at Mr. Ndambo, and he said:
I will not do it. Let me out of here. I am not your slave.
There was an audible gasp in the room and then silence.
There are varying degrees of silence and we rarely ever experience pure, unadulterated silence. Even space, which is supposed to be a vacuum is not completely silent. The silence that covered this room brought to the awareness new sensations that went unnoticed before: The shuffling sound of the air through the vents in the wall. The changing colors of the candles as they dance in response to the air movements. The smell of decades of mold and candle wax mixed together. The muffled tapping noises from somewhere outside the hall - maybe from a nearby workshop. Zag’s heart beating in his temples.
Very well said Mr. Ndambo. As you wish.
He nodded to two security guards who were standing at the back. They swiftly walked to the front of the hall, tied Soko’s hands and feet, and airlifted him out of sight. Soko was defiant throughout all this and put up a fight but it was clear to everyone including Zag that there was no escape. The scuffle was over as quickly as it started as the heavy back doors slammed shut again.
To avoid anger…
The last of the virtues that Soko had mentioned was still ringing in everyone’s ears. Mr. Ndambo smiled awkwardly, as if aware of the irony. The silent, clinical anger with which he had dispatched Soko must have been obvious to everyone in the hall. He was still measured in his demeanor and said:
We will break here for the day,
He motioned and everyone stood while he left the room.