Lêgba’s game is the one that I had played before sitting with the Vodun one on one, and I had actually played with Legba before, but we both enjoyed it enough that we played a game with his first deck before getting to the Smiting game.
“I believe you are up one in our running tally of head to head games,” he said.
I’d spent a lot of time with Lêgba since he arrived at the Smiting Chamber after returning to the Fonlands. Apparently he’d been away for a long time exploring the multiversal structure. When he showed up in the Smiting Chamber, and after our initial introduction, I spent as much time asking him questions as he would tolerate. As a scholar of West African religion and a child of the diaspora created by the transatlantic slave trade, being in the Fonlands was like being in heaven and conversing with Jesus Christ. In all of my scholarship, there was never a mention of a place like the Fonlands so I never imagined that a place like it could exist, a place that seemed to be home to African Gods, monsters, myths and legends from all over the continent. The wonder of the infinite universe made my wildest dreams a reality and I got the opportunity to see many of the beings of lore living their lives and interacting with one another. There are many differences between the Vodun of the Fonlands and the many dwellers of their discs, but they are similar enough, or even more impressive than described, that I can’t help but accept it all for what it is.
The Lêgba of these Fonlands is a very charismatic man who looks younger than me even if he is eons old. He reminds me of Owuo, the Abosom of Death, but Lêgba is his diametric mirror. They could be brothers, but Owuo seems to always be evaluating and assessing the things he lays his eyes on, like he is thinking of ways to put someone’s constituent parts to better use than their natural formation. Owuo is difficult to read from his facial expressions and I get the sense that the only way to really know how he feels about a given situation is to read his mind, though I haven’t tried because I’m sure he would take that as a sign of aggression.
Lêgba can be that, cunning and dismissive of the lives of other things, lesser things, but that is definitely not his default. Lêgba enjoys a good time above all else, and if that means he has to be cunning and dismissive of life, he will be. Generally, though, Lêgba seems to believe that a good time is effortless and easy. He is also wise in a way that is more inline with the Lêgba that I know from religious study. I knew Lêgba to be a wizened old trickster who bedeviled folks at crossroads. The Lêgba of the Fonlands is definitely capable of that, but his appearance doesn’t convey the depth and breadth of his knowledge and understanding. He had traveled the multiversal structure to experience reality in more permutations than I could even make up from my imagination. He had even conversed with a living universe. Lêgba is more than I could have ever imagined a Vodun to be and I can’t say enough how much of an honor it was to sit with him and to know him as an acquaintance; I would like to call him a friend but I won’t until he does.
Lêgba shuffled and dealt the Exemplar and Enhance cards to play Mutability. We always used the material cards to play the betting version of the game that reminded me of a poker game like Jo’s game. In both games, players are trying to collect as many of the same cards as possible to build a winning hand, but the Iteration Exemplars complicated that. There are only six Iteration Exemplar cards in a deck of fifty-four cards, so they are very powerful players and actually give the game its name. All six of the Iteration Exemplars have abilities that alter all of the cards in play, abilities that mirror the exceptional powers of Lêgba himself.
“Why are there six Iterations? We’ve never discussed it before,” I said to Lêgba as he contemplated the card that he had just drawn from the deck. I knew he was contemplating if he should play an Enhance card, he had that look on his face like he was thinking through possibilities that I had seen so many times in the Smiting Chamber. I guessed that he wouldn’t play the Enhance card that he was mulling over, it was too early in the game.
“When I was young on the disc, the first thing I did was create six iterations. Owuo was there, and there was so much space, I didn’t want any of it to belong to him. When I created Iterations then, they were exact copies of me, Essence making ability and all. And it’s thanks to them that this is still my Disc. I have spent so much time away, but with them here, no one really noticed. I wanted to honor their place in the hierarchy of my Disc with this game, and they have the immense power to change the nature of other things, just like I do, so that comes through.”
He discarded a card and I took my turn. In the game of Mutability, players draw a card on their turn and decide to keep or discard it, or to play Enhance cards that can allow for drawing additional cards or taking cards from your opponent’s hand. This play continues until a player plays an Iteration and then shows their hand. An Iteration is powerful enough that it can change your opponent’s hand from a winning hand into a dud, but played incorrectly, it can do the same to its owner’s hand. Mutability is all about strategy and playing against the same opponent over a long span of time allows you to learn their patterns and to play accordingly. It is just as fun with two people as it is with more players, but it has definitely helped Legba and I become more familiar with one another.
“Speaking of you being away from the Disc so long, I heard Owuo mention that you were scolded by the Mother-Father of the Lofted Disc upon your most recent return to the Fonlands.”
Legba smiled that impish smile of his. “Owuo talks too much. Yes, I was reprimanded by my parents because I left them with the most exact copy of myself that I’d created since the early days of my disc so they wouldn’t know I was away so long. My siblings made it worse, especially Agê. She was telling them all these stories about how I was ruining the other realm with Divine Essence, but I have seen Endla and its Vistas, I would hardly call that ruining. But she likes to think the worst of me. She sent her mmoatia, the favorites of her Disc who embody her strength, to tame the iteration that I left there. But jokes on her, her Tracia fell madly in love with my Metatron. I bet she was livid when that happened. It’s been entertaining to catch up on all the drama that I missed while I was away. I only wish I had returned under better circumstances.”
I thought that I would beat Lêgba at the game. I collected Enhance cards, specifically the mimics, so that even if he played an Iteration I would be able to use the mimic abilities to have at least three copies of something. But Lêgba was already down in our running total and he started playing Enhance cards sooner than he usually does, specifically the nightmares, to draw cards from my hand multiple times and he took two of my mimics that way.
He had the most annoying smirk when he played his Iteration.
“Valiant effort, Master Washington. But that makes us tied.”
PRL Serials 