Heated
intro
Finding Legba 2024 Annual
– Issue 2 –
by Wesley Livingston
“What if we all give it our best shot?” Lêgba said to Xêvioso, Jo, and Gu who all sat around a smiting grid that hovered over the Disc of Xêvioso. “What if we all play against this Deck of Impending Doom to determine the best way to defeat it. Then I can go back to Ogi with solutions that don’t involve exposing Paradise to their enemies.”
“What are you talking about?” Jo asked. “Who is Ogi?”
“The protector of Paradise,” Lêgba explained.
“Are you going to make her ask?” Gu said with annoyance.
“I told you all about Paradise. It is an existence far from the Fonlands that rivals the beauty of our home.”
“You have told us no such thing,” Jo said. “Don’t tell me your memory has deteriorated. Must be from absorbing all of those iterations.”
“Are you struggling to reconcile your experience?” Gu asked deliberately and loudly like they had questioned Lêgba’s hearing.
“Shut up,” Lêgba said defensively. “I was sure that we’d discussed this before. We were at a table like this one, but not on Xêvioso’s Disc…”
“This is the first conversation you are having with us since returning from your multiversal travels,” Xêvioso explained and he looked concerned.
Gu stood from the table and when he opened his clenched fist, a large weapon appeared in his hand with a long metallic handle and a dual sided head, one side was an ax and the other was a hammer. He looked to Jo.
“This is the real Lêgba isn’t it?”
“Xêvi is the Lêgba expert,” she said and looked to Xêvioso. “This is the real Lêgba?”
“Unless he has perfected his duplication to the point that he has created a true copy of himself, this is the real Lêgba. I tracked his return when he reentered Prime 5, I felt him reabsorbing his iterations. I was only surprised by his arrival here because Gu and I were already Smiting and I was distracted, and then you both arrived. But this is the Lêgba that I was tracking. When did you tell us about this Ogi, Lêgba?”
“It was right after I first encountered Paradise,” Lêgba explained, on the verge of frantic. The doubt of his siblings was making him doubt himself. He knew that he was himself, he was sure that he was the real Lêgba, but he worried about Gu’s question before he became so paranoid that he summoned a weapon. Lêgba was struggling to reconcile his experience. He’d created more iterations of himself that he’d kept track of and he learned that they had rich experiences in the long period that he was away. He had never absorbed so many iterations in such a short period of time, and he knew that his siblings were right to be cautious. Some of Lêgba’s iterations were very dangerous. Though each iteration he creates is loyal to Lêgba and incapable of hurting him, he could not control the nature of the iteration he created; an iteration could have any personality that Lêgba could manifest and he could have a devilish temper if the mood struck him.
“It wasn’t you all,” Lêgba said as it dawned on him. He said it slowly as he recalled creating an iteration shortly after discovering Paradise and meeting Ogi for the first time. The iteration was very nice and obedient, and Lêgba told him to go back to the Vodun and tell them of Paradise and its wonders. And the iteration did what it was told, but it hadn’t arrived at the Fonlands of Node 5. “There’s another Fonlands.”
Xevioso grumbled angrily, and Gu was confused but had checked out a little while ago. Jo leaned on the Smiting table.
“One shocking thing at a time, brother,” Jo said calmly. “Unless it benefits us to have duplicates in the multiverse to deal with this Doom Deck.”
“Is he even sure that any of this is real?” Gu asked skeptically. “This whole iteration thing is so confusing to me. Maybe the memories he has are all false.”
“The Deck of Impending Doom is real,” Lêgba said after a moment of silence between the siblings where they all stared at him, refusing to blink. “I witnessed that personally. The other Fonlands, I did not. But it seems that you are all there except for me, until my iteration arrived. But if that is true, then it seems my iteration was always the Lêgba of this existence, even before I created him…Jo is right, though, one shocking thing at a time. We have to deal with the Deck. Give me some time to sort out all my new memories, we will all take that time to explore and build the strongest decks we can muster, and meet back here for the first ever Smiting game of its kind. All of us united against one deck.”
Jo and Gu looked to Xêvioso.
“You heard him. Lêgba, alert us when you are ready, and we will reconvene here two week after the alert.”
The Vodun parted, including Xêvioso who disappeared through a yellow portal.
* * *
This week:
– – –
ANNUALS
As Maxx battles Daemon in space, a dark taint spreads on Bludon. Ined is just your average blu who enjoys time with her family. Until the taint reaches Two Rivers’ Shell Park.
Âmuk: “There were also many kites in the air, and Ined wandered over to a section of the park where blues were battling their kites that had sharp designs and were operated by two strings that the blues controlled with precision. Kite battles were common on any beach on Bludon and Ined would have brought her own to join in, but she hadn’t finished repairs from the last battle.”
– – –
The best plug in Mississippi is back, and we learn what happened to him after he died. Of course he went to heaven, God smiles on the reliable and unflappable. But if this is heaven, Brad Jordan has questions.
The Deft Hands of Zacchaeus: “When he died, Brad Jordan went to heaven. He would not be able to recount the journey from his body to heaven because his consciousness only experienced what he recognized as sleep, and he was only subconscious at that point and had no way of truly grasping the experience in a way that would make sense to someone else.”
– – –
Maria is on a quest to explore Outer Spacetime, and her first stop after leaving Theron, is the Aifyn Line, home of the Aifyn Kings and their emotionally distant son, the Ice Prince.
Wazad of Outer-Spacetime: “Before the unification of the solar system, Aifyn was just one of nine planets revolving around the star known as Skye, and the inhabitants of Aifyn, known as Fyns, were convinced that they were alone in Outer Spacetime. It wasn’t until the Aifyn Kings decided to fly from the surface of Aifyn to discover the true nature of Skye that was life-giving, but so elusive and far away, that the Fyns learned the truth.”
– – –
Why is Ariel, a Supreme Mmoatia, at some old house looking for a spoon? Helping out family of course, but what evil has her uncle unleashed?
The Old House: “I know, it’s just…this thing is dangerous. I shouldn’t have read that book, I just couldn’t help myself. Even with all the crazy Fonlands stuff around now, I didn’t think this would be real. I didn’t want to involve Ariel in this, but I didn’t know what else to do.”
– – –
Sarah has been alone for a long time, but since arriving on Paradise Earth, meeting the Ascendant, and becoming fast friends with Par-Cell 77, she has a plan to get her father back. But what does she risk by looking for him?
Bright Lives: “Sarah had been in the city of the Ascendant in the South Pole for few weeks when she told Par-Cell 77 her plan to see her father again. She knew that Crone, the old woman who had brought her to the South Pole, would be busy with the mysterious Ogi, like she had been since they arrived to the South Pole, and they could fly to and from Rycoia with one of the advanced Ascendant space vessels that scouters of the galaxy used to monitor for treats before Crone or anyone else became aware that they had left.”
– – –
Ali is a powerful being of the Talj Junction and after he stopped the feral Bludonians from threatening the universe, he was in need of peace of mind that he found inside of the Cavern of Tranquility.
Amazing Alius and the Masters of the Universe: “‘You have achieved so much,’ Kazi Lograt said to Ali after he successfully defeated the corrupted Bludonians. They stood on the plateau of the Dojo and Kazi Lograt had white clothing folded neatly in his arms. He held them like an offering behind Ali, who stood facing the mountains in the distance as a breeze blew the tails of his headband sideways.”
– – –
Did somebody say, Cavern of Tranquility? Apparently it exists on the planet Eel of the Node 1 Prime universe as well, and that’s where Alia went after ushering in the time of Hyperion.
Amazing Alia, the Hyperion: “Alia was always destined to reset the universe, to become the Hyperion and rewrite history. She achieved this with the help of the Kazi, and shortly after, she returned to the planet Eel with Kazi Fandral.”
– – –
The Pito exist to serve their mother, Une, the all and everything. We know about Neubril, the Descendant, and the all-white Pito with their cosmic webs, and today we learn about the newly christened leader of the all-black.
The Descendant: “Ever since the fall of the Fonlands, Pultine has been a leader among the Pito’s All Blacks. It is a position that suits her. Ever since her birth in the forest on Agê’s Septagon, she has had to prove her ruthlessness to survive the dangers that dwell the forest. Only the strong survive to serve the Vodun Agê in her struggle against the Vodun Gu, who secretly plotted to take over each Septagon of his Vodun siblings.”
* * *
Fan me off, I’m hot, hot, hot! It’s the PRL Serials Volume 4, 2024 Annual Issue!
* * *
PRL Serials 