PRL Serials

Tracia was quiet as Lolof brooded in front of her. She rested on the grassy hill in the glowing Yumbo Knolls and the night was beautiful. There were distant balls of lights whizzing over the glowing hills where the Yumboes of Aje’s disc made their homes. The knolls were in a section of the forest with fewer trees and a large river wound through the hills. It was a pleasant section of the forest for sure, and Tracia had always enjoyed visiting Lolof there. 

“After everything, you’re here asking me about Azizas?” Lolof said when he stopped pacing and crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you care for me, Tracia? Or was I just cover to throw Agê off the scent of your romance with the iteration?”

“Lolof, you know how I feel about you,” Tracia said gently. She didn’t want to sound as disinterested as she was because she knew how upset Lolof was about everything and she needed to know if he knew what happened to the Azizas. The current Supreme Mmoatia, including Ariel and Leilar, had stumbled upon the vanishing tree mansion that appeared on Earth and was a sort of magical retreat for the Azizas, though when the young Supremes found it, it was abandoned. When Tracia found out what happened at the vanishing tree mansion, she went to the Fonlands, specifically the First Aziza Mound in the Northern jungle and was shocked to discover that the Azizas had vanished. The entire mound that was normally swarming with activity was completely empty. Tracia was determined to find out what happened to the Azizas and she partly blamed herself because she had witnessed this future in a premonition from her glowing calabash and been unable to prevent it. In truth, she had been so distracted by the events that unfolded in the other realm that she had not been to the Aziza Mound in a very long time. 

“I expected empty words from you,” Lolof said and his voice cracked like he struggled to hold back tears. “I am not worth your real feeling, I am nothing to you, just a seed in a pit. I don’t want to be your game piece anymore, Tracia. Everything I did, including convincng the Elder Yumboes to bow to the Supremes back then, I did because I thought we were building a future together. But you only care about your elaborate schemes to control everything. You love making powerful beings bow to you, don’t you? You think you’re Age. But you are no Vodun, Tracia. The Vodun could never be as cruel and indifferent as the Excellent Tracia. They would have to descend very far to reach the depths of your self centeredness. The worst is that you disguise it as sage wisdom, using your vast powers to protect the innocent and steel the future. You cannot love me because I am not enough for your ego, one yumbo is not enough, you need everyone bending over backwards to please you. And I cannot stop you. The Disc is already yours and every being in it owes their happiness and prosperity to you. But you have lost one, Tracia. I no longer feel love for you.”

Tracia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was used to long winded lectures from angry males who resented her power and Lolof ‘s hurt feelings weren’t enough to illicit the guilt he worked hard to mine from her emotions. She just had to be patient, hope that he would become more cooperative before he stormed off. 

“There is nothing that I can say that will make up for the feelings I have stirred in you,” Tracia said softly. “I’m not here to try to make up for the deceit. I am not apologizing for anything, Lolof. I don’t want what we had. As harsh at it may sound, you understand that I got what I needed from our interaction and I have no desire to continue to hurt you by pretending that we could rekindle the relationship that we had. You can say whatever you need to say to me, I will listen because I hurt you and I will allow you to punish me how you see fit if it means that you will tell me what you know about the disappearance of the Azizas. I have asked all around the Disc. Whatever happened, seemed to happen gradually, some think that the Azizas have migrated to another disc. Do you know anything about it?”

Lolof clenched his jaw and dropped his arms to his side. “I will tell you what I know, but only because the Azizas are our shared ancestors and I was shocked by news of their disappearance. I guess I have been distracted. Maybe by someone who pretended to love me and used me.”

Tracia sighed and shook her head.

“The last of the Idols…”

“Was it Jeje?” Tracia interjected and Lolof continued.

“Jeje shrunk out of existence and without the Idols, there was no organizing force in the community. The most loyal to you and the Idols wandered away first, many to the Deep apparently so you will most likely find some Azizas there. There was significant in-fighting that killed many of those who remained at the mound, and there was a large portion that left as a result of the civil war. They left the disc completely because there were so many kin instigating the struggle that they didn’t know who they could trust. Supposedly there are Azizas on the islands of Agbe’s disc now, but I have never witnessed this. This was a while ago and the few Azizas that remained couldn’t sustain the society that you remember and they either wandered away or disappeared into nothing. It would seem that the only Azizas remaining on the Disc of Agê now reside in the Deep and they are very secretive. They don’t seem to interact with anyone.”

Tracia nodded slowly. “Thank you, Lolof. I appreciate this. If you ever need me, you know how to find me and because I feel bad for your hurt feelings, I will do what I can to help you move past everything I put you through.”

Lolof waves a hand. “Go before I get stupid and try to kiss you.”

Tracia waved and then left the Knolls.

She met Nille on the road to the abandoned Aziza Mound and they walked casually through the ground entrance, then through the mound where their voices echoed around them in the large space.

“It is so eerie to be here,” Nille said as they walked up the ramp to the next level of the mound. “Nothing in the forest is what it used to be, but aside from seeing Golden Trumpet absent from her throne bush, walking this empty mound is the most heartbreaking reminder of my age. It is not fun to grow older, even if I appreciate the wisdom that comes with it. It is sad to realize that what you’re used to doesn’t exist anymore.”

“I didn’t even see Jeje before he disappeared,” Tracia said and produced his pipe. Despite her sadness, it made her chuckle to hold the pipe in her hand. Jeje had carved it when he was very young and Tracia knows that he had large hands because of the size of it, but she had only ever known the Aziza Idol when he was old enough to be much shorter than her. He had lost track of his pipe so long ago that if he had found it in Tracia’s lifetime, it would have been too big for him to lift.

“You were with him,” Nille reassured her, “all of the Idols loved you like a daughter and they would not hold anything against you. Besides, you were serving Agê and making them so proud.”

Tracia nodded, then took a hit of the pipe that was perpetually lit. It only warmed when someone actively smoked it and it felt nice in Tracia’s hands; the mound was cooler than she remembered. She enjoyed the soft buzz from the pipe that seemed to radiate from the top of her head and down her face. When they arrived at the museum on the large plateau that opened onto the outside of the mound where the Idols had lived, they went inside the structure and Tracia fell to her knees.

“It is so very sad,” Tracia said. “I used to hate coming here, but all of that feels so distant now. I would give anything to laugh with Jeje and the Idols again.”

“Soon we’ll be Idols,” Nille said.

Tracia laughed and Nille laughed with her for a long time. 

“How are the Abada?” Tracia asked. “Are you an Idol now?”

“I will be soon,” Nille said. “The elders are vanishing and I am the longest serving member of the Court now. They are planning a large party in the Triangle Glade. You will be there.”

“Of course,” Tracia said and hugged her around her neck. “You deserve it. I learned so much about serving your kin from you. Too bad I didn’t learn as much as I could have. I will be on Earth with Pultine in the swamp. It really is lovely there. The Earthers have embraced Fonlanders and it is a nice place to be. Just call and I will be back here in a hurry.”

“It is strange that the original Supremes no longer rule over the Disc of Agê. Not to disparage your replacements, the new Supremes are fair and thoughtful, but it is just another indication of things being very different than I remember.”

“They are very good. I was with them before I suffered through that interaction with Lolof. I am proud of them, many of them my nieces, and my children. I never imagined that Agiel and Zazel would embrace the Mmoatia parts of themselves, and I never imagined that Agê would accept them because of their Metatron parts, but they have truly embraced the Fonlands.”

“How is Metatron? Are you two still an item?”

Tracia shrugged. She didn’t want to be sad, or she didn’t want Nille to know that she was sad. “He has found something else to occupy his attention for the moment. Something about a perfect Wiiser, I got bored when someone was explaining it to me. But I have not seen him recently. That is bound to change, though. The calabash shows me very troubling things in the near future, and the old Supremes have decided to be on Earth to help how we can.”

“Of course,” Nille chuckled. “You all only know how to protect others.”

The two talked for hours in the empty mound before Nille returned to her home. Tracia curled up on the dirt floor after smoking from Jeje’s pipe, and she dreamed of the Aziza Idols, of her father the First Aziza, and of her mother Golden Trumpet.