Lêgba is still shook. The realization that there is another Fonlands on the multiversal structure was baffling to him, though it shouldn’t have been. Lêgba is likely the being who has seen more of the multiversal structure than anyone else and he knows firsthand that even if he’d created a billion iterations of himself and sent them out into the multiverse to each visit a million unique universes, he wouldn’t even be scratching the surface. The multiverse is massive and the only reason that he has been able to traverse it is because of what he presumed to be the unique arcana of the Vodun that was bestowed upon them by the Mother-Father. Even with the information he’d acquired from absorbing all of the iterations that he intended to absorb hadn’t convinced him that there were other beings capable of withstanding the nothingness outside of everything that the Vodun could achieve in order to travel to other universes; not even Ogi of Paradise had never physically left her home universe and she was among the most powerful beings that any of his iterations had encountered. But there is another Fonlands, and even though their Discs were Septagons in that Fonlands, all of the Vodun were there and seemingly exact copies of the ones that Lêgba had grown up with. And he realized why it seemed that his Lêgba was accepted as their true Lêgba.
After Lêgba first discovered Paradise, he created the iteration to report back to his siblings because he was truly impressed by the existence he had arrived to. When his iteration arrived to this previously unknown Fonlands, many of the Vodun welcomed the sight of him. They had presumed him dead, lost in the Void Library that exists on his Septagon that is seemingly infinite like the Celestial Library that rings the entirety of the Septagon. The libraries are connected, a fact that Lêgba was unaware of and he wondered if it was true on his Disc as well, but on the Septagon, his iteration had traversed the Celestial Library that looked very much like his own, and when he emerged from it, he was in the middle of the Septagon, departing the Void Library. But when he first arrived to the Fonlands, he was greeted by many of his siblings, except for the Gu, and they were happy and very surprised to see him. They assumed that the iteration was Lêgba, and rather than confirm that it was the Vodun they apparently hadn’t seen in a long time, because the iteration was a very good copy of Lêgba, they filled him in on everything he had missed, including the fact that the Owuo had taken his place in what they had presumed was the permanent absence of the Lêgba.
His iteration was warmly welcomed onto the Septagon of Owuo, but the Owuo was not happy to see the Lêgba returned, and as soon as they were alone,
“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” the Owuo asked. “You found your way out of the black hole? Tell me how?”
“I am Lêgba,” the iteration said cautiously, not sure what the Owuo was getting at and not wanting to give away the truth that he was not the Lêgba he assumed him to be.
“You must have arrived back here with confidence that you could seek your revenge,” the Owuo said. They were inside of Owuo’s Castle made of opaque walls, in the large throne room that had high ceilings that echoed every word up and away from them. “Have you told the other Vodun?”
The iteration shook his head slyly and he smirked, sure that he would soon learn what the Owuo was talking about.
The Owuo approached the iteration on a thick cloud of smoke. The iteration hovered over the opaque floor that looked almost like ice.
“I guess this is as good a place as any,” the Owuo said. He was lean like Lêgba, but more muscular and he looked like a shiny ebony statue on his cloud. He only wore a short skirt of fabric that he had rolled and neatly tucked himself, and he pulled a cutlass from his waist that was not evident before. His dark hand held the cutlass firmly and the curved blade was extended to the iteration.
The iteration didn’t move, he hoped to use his words to diffuse this and learn as much as he could.
“What do you think I want, Owuo?” the iteration asked.
“You will try to do to me what Gu and I did to you,” Owuo smiled, showing perfect white teeth, but his eyes were crazed with rage. “It was his idea, but I jumped at the chance to take my place. I never thought I could kill you, if I believed that I could, I would have done it long ago.”
“But you can kill me,” the iteration said. “Your venom could kill anything in the Fonlands, including the Mother-Father.”
“And you all know that, so what kind of idiot would I be to use it? Unless I wanted war with all of the Vodun at once.”
“All except for Gu,” the iteration said. “And he is formidable. Take out who you can with the venom, convince who you can to join you, and vanquish the rest. Then the Fonlands are all yours.”
“That is what I said. Even that scenario sees me eventually turning on my allies and being forced to bring them to heel. I don’t want all of the Fonlands. I just wanted the Septagon that I deserve. Death is the converse of life, I am essential. You are tricks, a joke. What does it even mean to lord over crossroads? That is nothing. But death is too unpleasant to be seen, to be worshiped as a Vodun. So I softened my image, learned to be a scamp like you, listened to stories of the Mother-Father and recorded them. I showed them that I was deserving, and then we got rid of you. The black hole was the perfect solution, you were supposed to disappear forever with no trace. But here you are. So, take your revenge, brother.”
“I am not your brother,” the iteration said without hostility, but it enraged Owuo who lunged with the cutlass. The iteration moved out of the Fonlands, but not before Owuo stabbed him in the gut. The cut should not have been lethal to the iteration, but enough of Owuo’s venom was moving through the iteration that it eventually ceased its proper function and very slowly disintegrated. Until it was reincorporated into Lêgba.
“Fuck!” Lêgba screams. “I’ve been poisoned! And now I have to call Owuo to save me. Maybe I should just die.”
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