PRL Serials

“I encountered one of his iterations,” Gû said with annoyance. “I was so sure that I had found him.”

Xêvisoso chuckled. He leaned over the elaborate iron and gold table, scanning the Smiting grid laid out on top. He had a deck that he cut-shuffled in his hands and the cards glowed a soft yellow. 

“Where were you?” Xêvisoso asked.

“Inside the Living Universe,” Gû said.

“I told you that was an iteration,” Xêvisoso said. He lifted a finger that glowed on the tip like a bulb and the Sepow card in the relative middle of the grid began to glow. “I will exhaust the Sepow to attach it to Anyanwu.” As he said this, the Sepow card seemed to evaporate from its spot in a glitter of yellow and the yellow figure of a woman grew up from the Anyanwu card to stand about a foot tall; she brandished the Sepow dagger. “My sun goddess attacks your Shaka warrior.” Xêvisoso sat back in his seat, satisfied with his move. “What was he up to?”

“You knew he was an iteration and let him live?” Gû asked, and he now leaned over the Smiting grid. 

“He saved the Living Universe from a very dangerous enemy,” Xêvisoso explained. “An iteration like that is a boon to the multiverse.”

“And what do we care about the multiverse? The multiverse is not the mother-father,” Gû said. “My Ninki Nanka will exhaust to shield Shaka this turn,” Gû said and he turned his hand palm up where a red flame flickered to activate the Ninki Nanka card that glowed red. A red warrior, shorter than the Anyanwu figure on her card, rose up from the Shaka card. The red glow of the Ninki Nanka card lifted up from the card to form a Ninki Nanka that resembled a coiled snake, and then a storm raged around the Shaka card, obscuring the figure there. Anyanwu on her card lifted a hand to shield her face from the winds. The Ninki Nanka card lost its glow, like the energy had been cut from it.

“Good counter,” Xêvisoso said with a smile. “Talj told me something that helped me understand that a threat to the multiversal structure is a threat to the mother-father and their Fonlands. You realize that it is all connected?” 

“That is something that we should remedy,” Gû said gruffly. He was scanning the grid.

“Until we do, the fate of Talj is the fate of the Fonlands, even nodes away. If there are beings capable of threatening a universe, then we should be concerned. That iteration is convinced of a bigger threat.”

“That thing babbled about some dark vein spreading through Talj, but he fixed it with the help of the champions there. I’ve added some to my deck.”

“None on the grid,” Xêvisoso quipped. “That Lêgba told me about the champions of Talj, and they are formidable. But you have to grid them to bring their substantial talents to bear.”

“Do you think that we will ever find Lêgba?” Gû asked. “This search has been embarrassing for the children of Mawu-Lisa.”

“I have found him,” Xêvisoso said casually.

“You better not have found him and let the tensions build between our siblings. Jo and Agê have really angered Agbe with their suspicions of her. They are convinced she is helping to conceal Lêgba.”

“She was at some point, but when he created enough iterations to explore the multiverse, even she could not keep track of who was real.”

“How many of them are there?” Gû asked with wonder.

“Countless,” Xêvisoso said and leaned his elbows on the tabletop. “But they are disappearing. He is calling them back into himself and I followed one back. I found the real Lêgba.”

Gû stared at him suspiciously. “Go on, brother.”

“First,” Xêvioso said and his index finger glowed yellow as the Sokpe Stone card began to glow along the back row of the grid closest to Xêvioso. “I will activate the Sokpe ability without exhausting it to allow Anyanwu to challenge any card on the grid despite its position. She’s aiming for that exhausted Ninki Nanka. You always forget about the Sokpe.”

Gû scowled at the board and then at his brother. “Pause this game for a moment, I’d like to hear about Lêgba.”

Xêvioso laughed out loud. “We’ve been playing this game for too long. You’re stalling, brother, because you know that I will have my pick of your deck.”

“If you’ve found Lêgba, then we should summon our siblings to your arbitration room right away,” Gû said and raised a fiery red hand that he squeezed into a fist. Before Xêvioso could protest, they were inside of the room where the floor was covered in a light blue mist of Divine Essence. Xêvioso was shirtless as he had been, and he sat behind his high bench. Gû was shirtless as well, wearing the same simple skirt that Xêvioso wore that hung just above his knees. Gû smiled and sat on the throne adorned with his Veve amidst the other five thrones of their siblings. 

“I put out the call,” Gû smirked. “Everyone will be here shortly, then we can return to the game.”

“If you’re so afraid to lose a card, we can both forfeit that bet right now.”

“I will have that Master of Arcana,” Gû said confidently. “I don’t care how long I have to stall.”

“You could just go meet him,” Xêvioso said. “Oh wait, my uniquely minted card is based on stats from the Smiting Chamber and you could never properly evaluate him on your own. Goldie and those Outsiders proved that the Smiting Chamber is unparalleled, better than we could ever hope to evaluate. You will never have my Master of Arcana Card. Maybe if you can get those Talj Champions onto the grid you’ll be a threat, but I think you should just give up.”

As he finished, the other Vodun began to arrive. 

“Smug doesn’t look good on you, brother,” Gû said, trying to hide his frustration. 

Meanwhile, outside of everything…

“I know who I am,” Lêgba said. 

“Do you?” Lêgba asked and he cocked his head. He was handsome in the exotic glow from the section of the universal cluster where they hovered. The Vodun can survive outside of everything because they require nothing to sustain their consciousness that is capable of holding a bodily form together despite the conditions of the empty nothingness outside of the multiversal cluster. Other beings of the multiverse are able to access the nothingness outside of everything but none can survive it long enough to travel a significant distance. The Lêgbas were very far away from Node 5 and the Fonlands, they were hovering close to Node 3. 

Lêgba chuckled and crossed his arms. “You cannot fool the original, I have the constancy of lived experience. I know that I woke up everyday to make the memories we share. You can only recall them.”

“I could say the same for you,” Lêgba said.

“You can say anything you like,” Lêgba said and shook his head dismissively. “I remember making you on my Disc and leaving you out here to confirm that Vodun could move through the nothingness without worry of permanent damage. When I saw that you were thriving, I made you me so that when Xêvisoso inevitably came looking for me, you would be convincing enough to stall him for a time. I feel no guilt shattering your perception.” As he said that, the Lêgba that he addressed was suddenly a mangled body floating space. The real Lêgba had reconstructed him enough to hear the details of his interactions with his Vodun siblings. He hoped that they would not be too mad with him when he returned to them. He had traveled the multiverse and sent out copies of himself to see the worlds that he could not out of sheer curiosity, but what he found on his travels is worrisome. There was a dark power rising, something vile and capable of blighting entire existences. Lêgba had experienced at least five dead universes that were like rotten grapes on the vine of the multiversal structure. Whatever was happening to them could threaten the Fonlands, and Lêgba had been away so long to investigate what had caused the death of the universes. A very sophisticated copy of himself had been spending considerable time with Talj, the Living Junction Universe to establish a repore with the hopes of being able to communicate with other universes who might be able to explain the mysterious death of universes. Lêgba would soon call all of his iterations into himself so that he could synthesize all of the information he’d gathered.

“But…but,” the Lêgba in tatters was shocked and looked at his mangled body in horror. “But I am Lêgba, I cannot be reduced to this.”

“Come back into me and be whole,” Lêgba said. “I could use the boost of your power as I go to investigate the strangeness unfolding in that Sad Universe. Then we will truly be whole. We will return to the Fonlands to regroup and tell my siblings about the state of the multiverse.”

The Lêgba in tatters floated sadly toward Lêgba whose arms were outstretched and he waved his hands encouragingly until the Lêgba in tatters melted into him. Lêgba knew the fury that Xêvisoso unleashed on this iteration and he knew that his siblings would take some convincing. 

Lêgba moved towards the Sad Universe and after time, he plunged into it, emerging deep in the cosmos.