Lolof Rolls: 33
“Don’t hurt him,” Tracia said forcefully. “Don’t starve him, don’t torture him.”
“My Perfection,” Carpul said, “this yumbo has disgraced you and Pultine. Every ounce of the essence he is allowed to intake is an insult to our Supreme Hive.”
“And you would dare question my word?” Tracia asked. She was on her earthen throne next to the swamp.
“No, my Perfection. I am merely reeling at the yumbo’s audacity. I will return to his prison at once and personally oversee his health. But if I may, my Perfection, why do you keep him alive? He started the conflict with the yumboes that grips Agê’s disc and has for a while now.”
“What happens when the yumboes are ready to talk terms but ask for Lolof alive in exchange?”
Carpul shook his head with frustration.
“What right do they have to any demands of the mmoatia Supremes?”
Pultine whipped a large, feathery wing from her seated position and managed to smack Carpul’s face. He took it humbly and fell to a knee, his light brown skin burning red with embarrassment and pain.
“Lolof is an elder of the Disc of Agê. His dispute is with the Supremes, not a disrespectful shit like you. Know your place, young one. Surely you know that your disrespect will bar you from my service. You are not significant enough to understand what is happening. Just follow directions and keep your mouth shut. Go back to the Fonlands before I loose one of these wompus looking creatures on you. Go, and make sure that Lolof knows he is respected.”
Carpul was very large for a mmoatia, but he was fit and moved fast through the air and over the ground. He nodded respectfully then jumped into the swamp. A flash of light blue flashed and subsided. There was a portal between the Fonlands and the swamp that Pultine created to open in the presence of Fonlanders on the Earth realm side and close behind them.
Tracia stood and spread her wings, then took flight up over the tree tops. She flew west over the green landmass until it became mountains below her. There were humans by that point in Earth’s history, but Pultine had trained them not to mind the presence of mmoatia, just as they lived alongside the birds and bears. Word of the winged woman who radiated orbs of bright, yellow-white light, who was sometimes smaller than them, sometimes their average height, with dark skin and beautiful wings, spread throughout the land, but no one disturbed her. Pultine was a curious sight from a distance, the spark of tall tales told throughout the primitive human species all over the globe.
Tracia landed in the mountains, in a wooded area where Pultine was wrestling a bear. There were deep claw marks in her skin, like impressions in clay that looked like wounds, though the mmoatia were difficult to damage physically. Pultine’s skin especially was very tough and nigh invulnerable, even when the blue tissue underneath sustained damage. A warrior like Pultine trained to harden her muscle tissue and as a result, she could sustain high levels of damage. The bear seemed to be stressing her body though and it made Tracia wince to see the claw and bite marks that the bear inflicted as Pultine tried to overpower it onto its back.
“Will you stop!” Tracia yelled. “You’re too familiar with this realm, you’re completely feral.”
Pultine pulled back from the bear, then her wings folded out from her back, skeleton first and then rapidly filled out with thick black feathers that were all prehensile when she wanted to take control of them. She took flight and grabbed the bear by the scruff of its neck, then flug it into the trees. Her clothes were tatters on her shoulders, breasts and hips, and her aphro was more wild than normal, but she was still stunning. Her dark skin that was covered in scars that slowly healed with each passing second, glistened with sweat. Her long fingers were tense with action at her side. She smiled at Tracia.
“You know what comes next,” Pultine said. “There will be a battle with potential for war, and whichever side wins, runs the disc. I am preparing for everything. This realm is mine, and Lêgba will not have it.”
“We agreed to share it, sister. Lêgba is the darkness of a pit, but he knows this realm beyond Earth. We will leverage his interest in the mmoatia to make a stand against the yumboes here. I will have Carpul bring Lolof here to bait them and Legba will ensure our victory. You can calm down, you don’t even have to enter the fray.”
“So it’s true then?” Pultine asked. Her muscles had mostly been replenished and her skin looked normal, her regeneration fueled by the essence produced by her third heart. “I thought it was a joke. The Supremes made a deal with Lêgba against the yumboes? We told the yumboes we were taking charge to ensure checks on Lêgba, but they would make us his heralds? His pretty angels making his babies? And you’re ok with this?”
“If you were ever there instead of here, then you might be able to sway influence more than my lone voice of dissent. They have their reasons, keep the darkness close to illuminate it and all that. You’re just indulging yourself here. No discipline at all for the real work of governance, and making excuses to bathe in this lesser paradise far away from responsibility.”
“You could say it like that, I suppose,” Pultine smirked. “But you see what this place has become, the Earthers growing smarter everyday. Lêgba will come here and make them his, like he is doing on Wiis. That will not end well, and by then we won’t be able to stop whatever plan he has. By then, we will be cogs in his machine, though I guess we already are. And I will stop him because I’m not bound to the things that the Supremes are. They are chasing power and posture. Sister, I am power, we are power. Being the check on Lêgba requires real attention, it requires strength and a willingness to kill. Otherwise, we are just nursemaids to the rogue Vodun. I am more than that. And I remember when you were too.”
Tracia shook her head and crossed her arms at her chest.
“Never change, Pultine. You are the stalwart, steady marching true north, charting all our path to righteousness.”
“You know that I’m right, and I know that you are. And we will meet in the middle. When the yumboes come for Lolof, I will stand by your side as your guard. My light is yours, sister. But when this all goes wrong, as it will, I will be ready to clean up the mess.”
A few days later, Tracia and Carpul discussed the offensive against the coming contingency of yumboes at the swamp. There were about two dozen aerphim warriors in the swamp, with their shiny metal armor and so many pairs of wings on their bodies that it was obscene to Tracia. She hated the look of the aerphim, like they were stitched together by Lêgba’s hand; their faces seemed distorted like their eyes and mouths were mix-matched, and even though they were large and muscular, there was something off-kilter about their bodies. Tracia was happy that there were other mmoatia in the swamp as well, almost double the number of aerphim.
Lolof was there, in a throne next to Tracia’s and bound by vines. Tracia sent Carpul to observe the lake for the arrival of the yumboes, as she sat next to Lolof.
“There’s so much intrigue around power,” Lolof said. “It’s not enough to make decisions on behalf of others, those in power seem drawn to the prospect of more. What is it about power? What makes my tears, the tears of your love, invisible to you?”
“Ignoring your tears was a favor to you,” Tracia said. She knew that no one was listening. “If it was hard to convince Pultine not to kill you before, you made it infinitely more difficult crying like that in front of her. She is not the player that I am, she is not like any of the mmoatia Supremes. I am not like the others, but moreso than her. She is very acquainted with death and not shy to execute. I see the value, the beauty in things. Power allows me to secure that beauty. We will have our future, my love. Pultine was right that our alliance with Lêgba is folly, but there are things to gain from a turn over in mmoatia leadership. I will be there to pick up the pieces, and I will shape the future. I have to keep Pultine in check though.”
“I can’t wait for the day that our love can be open, when we finally unite in love and reject war forever.”
“That’s why I love you,” Tracia said. “Sadly, a few more must die before we realize peace. Just follow the plan. I am your enemy and captor only in the short term.”
Game Move:
GM: Talk about a twist, Lolof, I didn’t know you and Tracia have a thing
Lolof: It’s why I was deluded that my tears might sway her. I’d rather that no one die, but I love her and trust her vision.
GM: So maybe you don’t need to roll at all then, since you’re in love with her. So you’re just gonna do what Tracia says, stick to the plan?
Lolof: That is my intention, yes.
GM: Then roll 2d10 for a combined score of at least 10 to stay on course with Tracia’s plan.
Tune in next week to see Lolof make Tracia happy.
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