She Who Knows

This fantasy novella is set on a distant future Earth where dark-skinned Okeke people live under the oppression of lighter-skinned Nuru people. It serves as a prequel to the novel Who Fears Death, telling the origin story of Najeeba, the mother of that book's protagonist.

Najeeba, a 13-year-old girl living in the village of Adoro 5, stands outside her home processing a sudden certainty: She must join her father on the salt roads, the desert caravan routes her people use to reach a vast dead lake of salt. She belongs to the Osu-nu, a group of Okeke who long ago bound themselves to the goddess Adoro to escape Nuru enslavement, becoming outcasts among their own people. The dead lake was created when the goddess Ani returned to Earth and killed it instantly. Over centuries, the salt roads became the exclusive domain of Osu-nu men, each of whom receives a mysterious inner call telling him when to go; no two caravans ever cross paths. Najeeba's father, Xabief, and her older brothers Rayan and Ger have made this journey for years. Najeeba will be the first girl to go.

Both parents are stunned when she announces her intention, as Xabief has not yet told anyone of his departure. Her best friend Peter warns that this behavior will ruin her marriage prospects. Her boyfriend Obi declares he will not be with a girl who thinks she is a boy. Neither speaks to Najeeba before her departure, and she leaves Adoro 5 with her father, unnoticed.

In the desert, Najeeba spots a "witch," a towering dust devil, and runs toward it despite Xabief's warnings. It lifts her into the air before setting her down. She laughs, feeling transformed. As she later tells Aro, the sorcerer to whom she narrates her life story, this encounter activates her latent abilities.

The caravan meets Rayan and Ger and reaches the dead lake, an endless expanse of salt crystals. Xabief finds and marks a rare crystal-clear cube. That night, Najeeba asks about his original family, a forbidden question. He reveals he grew up as Manal with a twin sister, Shada. The Cleanser, a mysterious spiritual selection tied to Adoro, took Shada, who later fell in love with a non-Osu-nu Okeke boy. When the boy's family discovered she was Osu-nu, they killed their son, invaded Shada's village, and murdered Shada, Najeeba's grandparents, and other relatives. The teenage Manal escaped by hiding in the Adoro temple and later took the murdered boy's name, Xabief, as his own.

At the salt market, while Xabief and Rayan are away, Najeeba, fully veiled and unrecognizable as female, begins hawking their wares in a lowered voice. She sells everything within an hour for an enormous sum. Terrified, she begs Ger to take credit. They have earned seven times their usual income. Back in Adoro 5, the family receives a grand homecoming, but two masquerades, ceremonial spirit figures, greet the family by name and omit Najeeba entirely. She hides in her room and sobs. Peter and Obi reconcile with her, reporting that her journey has sparked heated arguments across the village.

About a year later, Najeeba finds a manuscript at the Paper House, the village's archive of ancient manuscripts. Written by a woman named Mumtaz, it describes learning to leave one's body, a practice called "traveling." Mumtaz described needing a "marker," an initial sign of the ability, and Najeeba recognizes the witch encounter as her own. The archive's overseer confiscates the manuscript, calling it dangerous. That night, meditating in her garden, Najeeba's spirit propels out of her body, tumbling through a fence into a neighbor's yard. Her mother's calls pull her back in an explosive burst of dust. With no mentor, Najeeba develops the ability alone.

Her journey inspires girls across Adoro 5 to join their fathers on the salt roads. On her second trip at 14, she hones her traveling, flying above the desert. She again sells all the salt in disguise, but Xabief and Rayan return early and witness the deception. Xabief is terrified: If anyone discovers a teenage Osu-nu girl has been outsmarting grown men, the consequences could be lethal. He calls her gift an alusi, a spirit living in her. By 16, Obi is betrothed to another girl, and Najeeba's relationship with him ends.

After a painful year of estrangement, Najeeba confronts her father in the sky room, a grand addition built with her earnings. He calls her his greatest shame, and she retorts that he enjoys the wealth she created. He agrees to one final trip if her brothers consent and she marries the following year. The family bonds on this journey. Najeeba confides everything to Ger and demonstrates her traveling. She discovers the name of her fiery creature: the kponyungo, a legendary fire-colored desert lizard that, when dreaming, takes its true serpentine form with coiled horns. She speaks the name and briefly becomes it. Ger accepts her gift as something from Ani.

At the dead lake, news arrives that Adoro 5's Paper House has been attacked by Okeke who believe Osu-nu do not deserve to collect knowledge. The overseer, Kelechi Odumi, has been badly beaten. Ger asks Najeeba to fly home. She takes the kponyungo form, covers the distance almost instantly, and confirms the village is secure. The family stays to earn money for repairs.

Xabief discovers a crater in the dead lake containing glowing pink cubes and takes one, perfectly clear with a rotating pink light at its center. On the journey to the market, spirit creatures attack the family in a cave: shuffling humanoid figures with mismatched limbs and expressionless faces. They grab Xabief by the throat. Najeeba becomes the kponyungo and destroys them with fire, but Xabief is left weakened; the creatures have pulled something vital from him.

At the market, Najeeba's spirit lifts above while her body sells every cube, including the pink one. Afterward, men recognize she is female and rip off her veil. Men attack her, and in pain and fury she unleashes fire that sends the market fleeing. No one is physically harmed, but every witness is plagued with nightmares.

The family flees. That night, a gaunt Nuru sorcerer named Cat approaches their camp, freezes Xabief and the brothers with a gesture, and walks to Najeeba. He mocks her, magically marks her forehead, and departs.

Adoro 5 rejoices at the fortune, enough to restock the Paper House, but Xabief is diminished. Weeks later, he dies in his sleep; the spirit creatures pulled something essential from him. Her mother grows distant; Peter and Obi have married. Najeeba stops flying and tries to live normally. She meets Idris, a quiet Osu-nu carpenter whose village Paper House was destroyed by Nuru attackers. They marry and leave that night. Najeeba abandons her abilities, though she suspects her father demanded of Adoro and Ani, the night his family was murdered, that one of his children become a sorcerer.

In the closing frame, the narration shifts to third person. Aro completes Najeeba's thought: Her father demanded that one of his children be made a sorcerer, and that is why Najeeba is what she is. Now nearly an old woman, Najeeba reveals that her daughter Onyesonwu sacrificed herself to free the Okeke, but the Osu-nu remain bound to Adoro. Najeeba wants to go beyond revenge and free the Osu-nu entirely. She asks Aro to train her, and he agrees. The novella ends as Najeeba's next chapter begins.