Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

1 month ago | lightspeedmagazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

The humans crawl into us, carrying their instruments and consulting their manuals. Their hands run over us, searching for nuts and bolts and hidden crevices. We are big toys that they all long to play with, to tear down and study. Our origin baffles them. They express endless awe at the complexity of our systems and are always asking themselves who built us. They come up with theories that get increasingly bizarre as time passes. We could tell them, of course.

Nov 21, 2024 | lightspeedmagazine.com | Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

I am running out of Words. I stumble down the temple steps, clutching my wounded side. I had been too slow to use my fourth Word and the prison guard’s spear had drawn blood before he choked to death under the weight of my suffocation spell. Now I am in a race against time, trying not to die within the confines of the city. I distantly register that the setting sun bathes everything around me in a bloodred hue, from the skies to the stone steps I’m running on.

Aug 28, 2024 | lightspeedmagazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

Mother used to say I am a child of the river. I never understood her. I thought I would be a child of the wind, like her. Like all the children of the wind, my mother could fly. When I was younger, I liked spying on her as she shifted into a body that was more suitable for flight. Her favourite form was the owl. I used to think she didn’t know I was watching but I was wrong. The air is home to invisible things and they constantly whisper to the children of the wind.

Oct 11, 2023 | lightspeedmagazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

Hello, there. If you are reading this, then I assume you are either a mortal who somehow stumbled upon this text or a young demigod seeking to ascend closer to Eledumare’s throne. If you are the latter, I welcome you. Soon you shall sit with me and the other gods in Ọ́run. You shall be able to descend into hell, Apadi, and the fires shall not hurt you. You will live forever, enjoying the praise and adoration of the mortals on the earth below. You will be a god.

Sep 19, 2023 | fantasy-magazine.com | Christie Yant |Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

step one: stop believing. look, my hands are sticky,reddened by the blood of the death god. does this mean I have unlocked immortality? I do not know what to believe anymore. whenthe god of death came to take me away, to reap my soulfrom the field of life, I tore his heart out with a knife& consumed it. afterwards, I asked the silent heavens;does this qualify as an initiation? for I have eaten a gods heart& drank his lifeblood to quench my thirst. does this make me, too,a god?