An Earther in the Fonlands – 6
“There is a grand scheme afoot,” Gû said when he met Xêvioso at the high wall of the Celestial Library. “I can feel it, brother.”
“A scheme?” Xêvioso said as they prepared to exit the disc of Lêgba.
“Lêgba is up to something,” Gû said.
“That’s why the mother-father summoned us, to put a stop to it.”
“He knew that the mother-father would discover his deception, and he knew that we would all be summoned to search for him. This is what he wanted, for us all to be distracted.”
Gû and Xêvioso had completed their search of Lêgba’s disc and came up empty. They stood before the Celestial Library and rather than wander the maze of the Library to find an exit, Xêvioso summoned lightning that struck the sand of the desert before them and an oval portal opened. The two walked through it and into the room where the Vodun had met before their search for Lêgba. Most of the Vodun had returned and as Xêvioso and Gû arrived, so did the last of them. They all took their seats in the high thrones and Xêvioso sat behind the large bench.
“I see that Lêgba has not been found by anyone,” he said. “Thank you all for your cooperation. I will handle the search from here.”
“He’s with the living universe isn’t he?” Agê asked.
“Of course he is,” Jo said, “where else would he be?”
“He’s in the Earther realm,” Sakpata said. “He knows it’s the last place any of us would look.”
“The Earther realm?” Gû said with disgust on his face. “It’s not worth the effort to look there because we would know if a Vodun had traveled there. If any of us were to dwell there, there’d be an abundant source of Divine Essence that any of us or the Fonlanders of our discs could feel. I don’t feel any significant generation of essence from the Earth realm.”
“He’s with that living universe,” Agê said again. “Our brother is up to something.”
“Indeed,” Jo said. “He has already figured out a way to enlarge the Third Heart, how else would his iteration have fooled the mother-father for so long? It must have been producing a lot of Essence.”
“I’ve had two of my warriors slaughtered and missing their Third Hearts in recent history,” Gû said. “I chalked it up to envy among my ranks, but I have not recovered the Hearts.”
“I will go to the living universe myself,” Xêvioso said. “Thank you all again for your efforts and your intel. We will reconvene again soon, look for my sign.”
Xêvioso descended his high bench as everyone parted. Gû was the last to leave.
“I hope that you noticed which of us were silent during these proceedings,” he said to Xêvioso.
“Agbe,” Xêvioso said. “She is often an ally of our wayward brother. Keep an eye on her and her disc for me.”
Gû nodded as Xêvioso concentrated on the space before him. He dipped both his hands into the thick, glowing blue mist that covered the floor of the room, and then he moved his hands and the many fingers of his hands in specific patterns until an oval of space in front of him differentiated from its surroundings, like a plane of space had been separated from the existence around it.
“I’ll be back soon,” Xêvioso said and as he approached the differentiated oval, the center of it began to warp back, like it elongated into a corridor. When he touched the oval, he disappeared from the room in a flash.
“Safe travels brother,” Gû said and he summoned an oval portal to the disc of Agbe.
When he was outside of everything, Xêvioso was staring at nothingness.
“Brother,” he heard behind him, and when he turned, the massive glory of the superstructure filled his view, and then he noticed Lêgba floating in nothing.
“No,” Xêvioso said angrily. “My brother’s iterations do not call me brother, you must be new, and my brother must be trying to make me angry.”
“I knew you would come and I can’t have you slowing me down. Some of us have real things to attend to, not wasting existence on a disc, presiding over monotony.”
“Why are you buggering that living universe, Lêgba? And why did you abandon your duty to the mother-father? You need to visit the Lofted Disc immediately.”
“Or what?” the Lêgba asked with a sly smile. “They will come after me? If I were here, outside of everything, how would they find me? If I were in the Fonlands they could summon me easily, or even in that universe the Fonlands moves through. But out here, I can resist their influence.”
“So you seek freedom from your duty and family? The mother-father will be disappointed.”
“I wouldn’t dream of being derelict in my duties. The iteration that was left with the unconquerable Mawu-Lisa was a fine copy that I bet the mother-father destroyed, what a waste. I created a Vodun, brother…”
Xêvioso threw silent lightning at the Lêgba that tore most of the body away, leaving the Lêgba’s head attached to tatters of what remained of the body.
“Do not call me brother, ragdoll. So it’s true, you have been collecting Third Hearts?”
“I made a Vodun, Xêvioso, so that I can explore my curiosities and attend to my duties to family at the same time.”
“If the mother-father wanted to replace you, they would make your replacement. Until then, I will find you brother. And whatever scheme you are cooking up, I will uncover. You might as well tell me now.”
“What if the children of Mawu-Lisa can do more than preside over discs? What if we could rule entire universes? Surely that realization would be of some use to the mother-father. Imagine a whole node on the superstructure of our own, generating Divine Essence and creating existence in the glorious image of Mawu-Lisa. Can you think that big, Xêvioso?”
“I don’t care to think big. You might find all this nothing interesting, but there’s nothing more to it than what it is. We can see what our existence truly is from this vantage, and that is a privileged view. You can explore the structure, but nothing is more glorious than the Fonlands. The Vodun, children of Mawu-Lisa, have reached the pinnacle of existence. There is no curiosity curious enough to abandon our duties.”
“I will show you, brother,” and it was the last thing it said before Xêvioso obliterated the remainder of the Lêgba’s body.
Xêvioso returned to the Fonlands and took the slow journey to the Lofted Disc. He rode the mists that circulated between his and the Lofted Disc through the pillar that connected them. He’d hoped to deliver Lêgba to the mother-father personally, but instead he had grim news of a Vodun gone truly rogue.
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