- Adofo, the Sepow Executioner
- Djallon, Ram Warrior
- Mulweri, Tinyeleti Warrior
- Nwa Wa, Zombie Warrior General
“This armor will be a true prize if you walk it through Deads’ Town and emerge unscathed.”
Djallon was angry and she stared at Yiri, the master craftsman, with indignation. The breeze moved the white cloth walls of the large workshop and despite the many lit forges in the space, it was cool.
“I have no desire to risk my life for your monetary gain,” Djallon said. She wore dark gray armor with red accents on the chest and knees. It was sturdy, but much lighter than she’d expected and the limbs moved easily. She was most impressed by the retractable helmet. “Besides, I can’t just stroll into Deads’ Town, even if your armor will protect me. If I don’t die, it will be the talk of Lêgba’s Disc why a living Fonlander dared to enter.”
“Do you think I am an idiot who will send you into danger and a den of gossiping birds?” Yiri asked with a smile. “A Tinyeleti from Jo’s Disc is bumbling around Xêvioso’s as we speak, hoping to transport an Inkanyamba by order of the Vodun. I don’t know what the Vodun are up to, but to get the Inkanyamba, the Tinyeleti will need to call on his 4Warriors connections, and there is only one other of the 4Warriors still kicking. The black queen. Fetch her and bring her with you to meet the Tinyeleti and you will have covered all your bases, and you will probably be invited to be a 4Warrior of the Fonlands to boot.”
“Why so much deception?” Djallon asked in disbelief at the intricacies of Yiri’s plan.
“I want to test the armor!” Yiri said excitedly, “and this way, Fonlanders will care more about the gathering of a new set of legendary 4Warriors and gloss over that you were able to walk through Deads’ Town. There is a benefit to you to being the only living warrior to have dwelled in Deads’ Town. You will be an instant legend and inspire fear.”
“That makes no sense, do you want them talking about me in Deads’ Town or not.”
“Once you have been accepted by the Tinyeleti and the black queen, then we brag and sell replicas of your armor. It is a guaranteed success.”
“For you,” Djallon said angrily. “I won’t see any of your rhasd, and trying to cheat my way into being a 4Warrior will backfire, they will never trust me.”
“Unless you save their lives or help them with whatever stupid mission the Vodun have sent them on. Don’t tell me you care about this 4Warriors nonsense? You are of the Disc of Gu, the Fonland of warriors of the first rank. The 4Warriors is a legend for younglings.”
“The 4Warriors serve the highest aims of the Fonlands and any warrior of honor would be humbled to fight under the mantle.”
Yiri laughed raucously. “Well, thank you for the new leverage. Do this or I will make sure your name is so sullied you will never have another opportunity to join the 4Warriors. You are clever enough to sell the lies. Go, earn your spot in history, Djallon, as you cement my own.”
“You can’t transport us again, can you?” Djallon asked Nwa Wa as they walked and jumped the colorful platforms that formed Xêvioso’s rainbow in the overlap.
“What gave it away?” Nwa Wa asked with annoyance. “I’m surprised you even figured it out, as hard as you are holding on to your secrets I’m surprised you have the mental capacity to be deceptive while proving my deception. Good red warrior, very impressive. Now hop on one leg and bark like a hyena.”
Djallon activated one of her weapons by pressing a button concealed on the side of the metal collar of the armor, and in an instant, a long, double sided ax appeared in her hand and she pointed one end at Nwa Wa.
“You insult one of the best warriors of the Disc of Gu…” Djallon was saying when she felt the force of an attack against her axe that caught her by complete surprise, and she heard a clang of metal against metal that made her ears ring.
Nwa Wa now stood with a curved cutlass that was longer than her arm and pointed at Djallon. She was in a ready position, left foot forward and the pale mask she wore made her seem completely unfazed.
“You do not know a legend when you see one,” Nwa Wa said. “You’re good, maybe, but you can’t be better than me. And I have no reason to trust you now, so my best option is to end you where you stand. You can test me if you like, or just tell me the truth about yourself. Did Mulweri really send you?”
“I was sent by someone who knows that what Mulweri is currently doing is extremely unlikely to succeed without the help of the other 4Warriors and I can be, should be, one of the 4. I was sent in this expertly crafted armor to lend a hand to Mulweri and his current companion who are probably struggling as we speak to contain an Inkanyamba in one of its belly scales…”
“This is not going how I imagined it would go,” Mulweri said with annoyance. He knelt next to Adofo who was on his back and groaning in pain, which is not an easy feat considering that executioners of Xevioso’s Disc are statues come to life. They can experience pain, though, even if their threshold for it is very high, and they can be killed. The best method to kill a Golden Executioner is to break it with brute force, which is easier with the Terracotta version and less so with the Ivory ones. Breaking an executioner into many pieces will make the executioner incapable of retaining the Divine Essence that gives it life, and likewise, smashing an executioner under tremendous weight can rend it completely dry of its Divine Essence. High heat is another easy way to kill a Golden Executioner.
“I have heard tales of the dwellers of this Disc attacking Inkanyamba for combat practice,” Mulweri continued. They were in the thick clouds of Divine Essence where the Inkanyamba had tossed Adofo, which gave them a breather because they were out of the large snake’s line of vision. The Inkanyamba freely swim the rainbow that encircles Xevioso’s Disc, but they are unable to breach the yellow portion of the rainbow which allows pedestrians to move around the circumference of the Disc without encountering the Inkanyamba.
“We spar with them,” Adofo said through groans as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. Mulweri grimaced when he noticed that the back of his head was flat. “We don’t try to pry off their scales!”
“So this is impossible?” Mulweri said mostly to himself. “Why would Jo send me here on an impossible mission?”
“I haven’t seen you even try to retrieve a scale!” Adofo yelled angrily. “If we attack it together we may be able to succeed.”
“Watch what happens as I approached, and you better be ready to retrieve me when it happens,” Mulweri said, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Adofo watched as Mulweri reappeared on the rainbow. The Inkanyamba had dove into the rainbow and crested a few feet from where he stood, and it brought a fury of winds with it that carried what started as water vapor, but was a slushy sleet when it flew at Mulweri who tried to run at his full speed that was undetectable to most eyes, but he only moved at a fraction of his normal speed and the winds threatened to stop him completely.
Adofo seized on the opportunity and ran as fast as he could through the Essence clouds to come up behind the Inkanyamba. He sprinted on the yellow strip of the rainbow, swinging his double-sepow rope (a long rope that the executioner ties a sepow dagger to each end). He threw it at the Inkanyamba that was preparing to strike at Mulweri who was moving in slow motion by that point and steady running toward the open mouth of the annoyed Inkanyamba. Adofo swung the rope as the sepow flew toward the giant snake and there was enough slack in the rope that it began to wrap the snake’s neck. Adofo eyed it until there was no more slack and he gave himself a cheer as the sepow caught one of the side scales of the inkanyamba and held firm. He pulled with all his might, managing to save the life of the Tinyeleti Warrior who was practically still by that point.
The inkanyamba whirled around to see Adofo with the rope and it bucked its head, causing Adofo and the rope to whip violently side to side. But he refused to let go.
“…I’m not your enemy,” Djallon said.
“I am not entirely convinced but now I am worried about Mulweri if he was foolish enough to agree to trap an inkanyamba given his weakness to cold and the inkanyamba’s ability to generate it. If you are lying to me, Dalion, I will take you back to Deads’ Town without that armor and watch the elements reduce you to shreds.”
Nwa Wa lowered her cutlass and moved the fingers of her free hand in a flourish. The two were surrounded by black smoke and when it dissipated they were in the Essence blue clouds of Xêvioso’s Disc, not far from the spot in the rainbow where Mulweri was a frozen statue and Adofo was a ragdoll on a string connected to a large, angry snake.
“Who is the golden idiot?” Nwa Wa asked, shaking her head. “Why is Mulweri even here, Dalion? Did his Vodun send him?”
“So you did have more power to transport us. And my name’s Djallon. All I know is that Jo asked him to retrieve an inkanyamba and the craftsman that sent me was aware because the Vodun have been testing the mettle of their denizens since some group of Outsiders brought word of a powerful enemy the Vodun must face. A lot of Fonlanders are watching this, there’s talk that these missions are designed to update the Smiting Meta. I didn’t get all the details, I’m happy to introduce you to this craftsman once we have saved these two.”
“The golden idiot will die over Smiting? And possibly the greatest warrior the Fonlands have ever known?” Nwa Wa scowled at Djallon. “You will take me to this craftsman, Jacalon. But first, put your helmet back on and go grab that golden idiot’s rope.”
“Djallon!” she yelled and she ran to help Adofo.
Nwa Wa walked toward Mulweri’s frozen body, moving her hands and fingers and chanting archaic words loudly. When she stood next to Mulweri in the bitter cold created by the inkanyamba, she faced the thing that was bent back, its belly exposed because of the combined strength of Adofo and Djallon on the rope that pulled its head back. She placed one of her hands on Mulweri, the other she aimed at the Inkanyamba and as she touched Mulweri, a projectile of smoke launched toward the inkanyamba and smashed into the scales of its belly, causing it to hiss and screech, and knocking one if the scales loose in the neat formation on its belly.
The hand on Mulweri surrounded him in a sphere of smoky black and he smiled when he noticed Nwa Wa.
“Never thought we’d meet again, your high darkness,” Mulweri said.
“We can catch up when the deed is done. The scale is loose, care to retrieve it so we can wrap this up?”
Mulweri smiled and then took off, Nwa Wa’s black smoke keeping his incredible pace and preventing him from freezing over long enough that he grabbed the loosened scale and worked it off of the snake with enough time to enchant the large thing. He gave a signal that was meant for Adofo and he was surprised when both he and a horned warrior attacked the head of the snake together, knocking it unconscious and causing it to tumble to the ground. Mulweri made sure that its head landed on the enchanted scale and the body of the inkanyamba was lightning on impact, then absorbed completely by the scale. Mulweri went to retrieve the scale, but Adofo reached it first, holding it high over his head as the other warriors gathered.
“We did it,” Mulweri smiled around at them all before speaking to Nwa Wa. “I guess we’re still two of the four warriors. But who sent you and who is that?” he asked, pointing at Djallon.
“There’s much to discuss,“ Nwa Wa said. “Hopefully things will make sense after we give this thing to Jo and she tells me what is going on.”
“She didn’t send you?” Mulweri asked with confusion. “Can you take us to my disc? To the aziza Cotton-Wood?”
“This one, Dandelion, made me use the last of my juice to save you.”
“That’s not even close to my name,” Djallon said.
“Then I guess it’s the slow way,” Mulweri said amd then smiled at Adofo. “You are coming? I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“You didn’t do much,” Adofo said before Mulweri patted him hard on the back with a chummy levity.
“The 4Warriors assembled again for the first time,” Mulweri said nostalgically as he began to walk the rainbow, sure to stick to the yellow, and the other warriors fell in step behind him.
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