“So we’re the only humans here?” Alia asks Issac Washington. They are not in the large cavern of the Smiting Chamber, but they are in what seems to be a room that has been carved into a wall of the Chamber.
“Yes,” Issac says, “But we don’t have to worry. The Fonlands, this Smiting Chamber anyway, is not hostile to humanity. And I sense that you have no need to worry about the powers here.”
“Who are you again? You seem kind of familiar,” Alia asked. “You not from the universe I came from?”
“No, but they are similar. Your name is known to beings of my universe. You don’t seem at all like her though. She took souls to hell for millenia to punish humanity for its cruelty.”
“Alia is the devil in your universe?” Ivan asks.
“She saved ours,” Clay says defensively.
“There is no Devil in the hell that I am referring to,” Issac explains. “Many devils, but not the one you’re thinking of.” Issac turns his attention to Ivan and Clay and smiles at them like a proud father. “It is good to see the two of you again. I know that you all aren’t them exactly, the ones I know, but it’s good to see that you are both happy and in control of your powers.”
“You know us in your universe?” Clay asks.
“I met you after the world thought you went missing,” he said to Clay. “Your father was one of my favorite athletes to watch. Boxing can be a brutal spectacle, but he was as graceful as a dancer, and everyone everywhere was a fan. The world mourned when you seemingly went missing, but you went to Ivan and realized your arcane potential. Do you two still become the Lightning God at this age?”
Clay looks stunned and he blinks wide eyes at Issac. Ivan stares at him quizzically.
“The Lightning God? What is that?” he asks.
“In my universe, the two of you were chosen to carry the arcane distinction of the Lightning God, an ancient being of Earth who is formed when two humans fuse. Is that not the power you all manifest in your universe?”
“Things sound very different here,” Alia says.
“This is the Fonlands,” Issac says, “I know it’s confusing, but I’m not from here. My universe is very far away from here like yours. But if the two of you aren’t the Lightning God, does that mean you wield no arcana?”
“Our power is complicated,” Ivan explains. “It was a holdover from prehistoric Earth. We were chosen to wield it by some stroke of fate or something. But I am the conduit of this power and Clay is the beacon, together we are more powerful than we are alone.”
“That sounds similar enough for me to understand,” Issac smiles. “When I left my universe, Wazad and I had taken the two of you to my Museum of Aphro Arcana to learn to control your powers. You were only boys, barely teenagers, but we have been proud of your development. Wazad had hoped to reunite the two of you with your families before we were brought here. Is your father the world champion in your universe, Clay?”
Clay wanders away without a word and Ivan apologizes to Issac, then follows Clay.
“His father was like a celebrity in your universe?” Alia asks.
“The biggest,” Issac says with concern as he watches Ivan console Clay. “I should have known better, there’s no way things are exactly the same in our universes. I was just so surprised to see them. They were consumed by the powers of the Lightning God when we found them and I’ve been so proud watching them develop. But they are not the Ivan and Clay that I know. What happened to his father?”
“He was a boxer a long time ago,” Alia explains, “ and he was good, but things just didn’t work out and he had to stop to better support his family. He was bitter, drank a lot, killed Clay’s mother while he was drinking and driving. He died in jail.”
Issac is devastated to hear this and he has to sit. He takes a step to sit on a nearby boulder and Alia sits next to him.
“Clay and Ivan are my family,” she says. “We’ve all worked so hard to get to a place of peace, but in our own way, we’ve all been orphaned. I never knew my parents, Clay’s were taken away when he was young, and Ivan’s cast him out when he told them about his relationship with Clay. It’s sad but we try not to dwell on it. We like the family we’ve made just fine. But its got to be hard for Clay to hear that his father was so successful in another universe, when he was so bitter and angry in his own.”
“I should be more responsible about how I discuss multiversal matters,” Issac says.
“He’ll be alright, it’s just the shock of all of this. I’m sure he’ll have more questions about his father.”
“I have questions about how you all ended up here. It seems like you just wandered out of a cave wall.”
“Death sent us here,” Alia explains. “After what I saw in that dead universe, I went to Owuo and he said that there were whispers across the multiverse about the very thing I had witnessed.”
“So Owuo really is able to speak to himself across the multiverse. And you can to, as a recurrent being?”
“I’ve never heard it described that way,” Alia said, “but I have been able to see my life in previous iterations of my own universe and in other realities all together. And I guess it makes sense that I can do that because I exist in all of them. Why are you here, again?”
“Owuo of this universe forced us here with the Smiting Chamber. We stayed because of what we’ve learned about the thing killing universes. I guess it is multiversal destiny that we have been gathered here.”
Just then, Owuo stuck his head into the rocky opening of the room they inhabited.
“I hope you all are settling fine. Legba has gone to meet his Vodun siblings to complete their Smiting Game, and then he will return here with their analysis of the situation. You all are free to explore the Fonlands until he is back. Alia, I hope that you and your friends will join me and Yana on the heptagon. We would like to catch you up on everything to make the transition smoother. Issac, Goldie is here. She would like a word with you.”
Issac watches as Owuo slinks away from the entryway.
“You don’t like him, do you?” Alia asks.
“You can’t trust death,” Issac says, “not in manners that involve life anyway.”
“Why is he part of all this?”
“When you finish your time with Yana, I will show you the game of Smiting. Death is on the side of the living because of a card game, if you can believe that.”
“That’s all it took?”
“Fonlanders take Smiting very seriously. Should I apologize to Clay?” Issac asks. He can see that Ivan is still consoling him.
“Give it some time,” Alia says. “He’ll be alright. We’ll talk after we’re done with Yana.”
Issac leaves the room and he sees the asanbosam known as Goldie high up on the ledge overlooking the Smiting Chamber. He levitates up and they greet one another warmly.
“I guess Owuo decided you were more valuable alive than dead?” Goldie says with a laugh.
“He couldn’t kill me if he wanted to,” Issac says with a wink. “But let’s keep that between us. It has been a long time. How have you been since you helped Owuo steal us from our home decades ago.”
“There are some things that are not fun to joke about,” Goldie says. She has the appearance of a bat, but she is more humanoid than Yana and not nearly as large. The fur of her body is golden brown and she has sharp golden teeth and talons. “If I could do things differently, I would have left it all to Yana years ago.”
“We’re all glad you brought us here, Goldie. This is where we are supposed to be.”
“I’m glad you feel that way, and I hope that the blank-faced Owuo won’t make you regret those words in the end. I heard you have become quite the Smiting player. Care for a game?”
“Of course,” Issac says and he waves his wands to manifest a smiting grid with two chairs right there on the ledge.
“Do you miss running the Smiting Chamber?” Issac asks as they both sit and produce their decks.
“I still manage the meta of Smiting, just not from this Chamber. It is fitting that the Queen of the Caves dwells here. The arcana of this place has always been incredible. Yana rigged another Smiting Chamber of sorts, but we just call it the Meta Chamber. I will show you when you have time. How are your friends?”
“Good. Zacchaeus is on Age’s Disc and Maria is with Wazad in Prime 5. Have you been to Outer Spacetime?”
“I haven’t.”
“I should tell you about it. The Wazads are convinced that it is the next front of this battle.”
“Do tell,” Goldie says with curiosity and they both shuffle their decks.
PRL Serials 