Wave
Issac Washington looks queasy next to the Amazing Alia as they fly through the sky over Agbe’s Disc. He is definitely distracted and misses the signal from Agbe that Alia definitely did not miss, Agbe’s water flares that shoot up from the water and explode into large drops.
“She’s down there on the island,” Alia says and flies down, leading a slow Issac to the island of black sands where Agbe is already sitting at a stone table with a Smiting grid on top. There are two other stone benches and she lifts a hand in welcome.
Agbe’s hair is short on her head that is neat and fuzzy on top. She wears scales that start at her wrists and cover her arms, chest, and legs down to the ankles in what looks like contouring body armor.
“Hello. It is nice to meet you both. Agê had very good things to say about you. Normally that would have made me hesitant to welcome you, Agê’s tastes are usually much more refined than mine, or so she likes to say. But I heard you all had a good time and I just had to sit with the duo that got Agê drunk. Tell me, Alia, do you like my disc better than Issac Washington seems to?”
“I’ve never been on a black sand beach before. I feel like a very rich person with the queen of the ocean. Hey, I was wondering, is all of the water in this ocean salt water?”
“There are many oceans, seas, and other bodies of water that comprise my Disc, and some are salty, others are not. But that is a deceptive characterization, the waves move the waters all around so I am sure that all of the water contains some salt to some degree. But you Earthers could drink the waters around this island and come to no harm. Are you ok, Issac Washington?”
Issac is pale. His dark brown skin has lost its life and he looks as though he is steadying himself on a boat rocking over chaotic waters.
“I will be fine,” Issac says, trying to hide his obvious discomfort. “We should get to the game.”
“Aww, I’m sorry, Vodun Agbe,” Alia says, “it looks like my partner isn’t acclimating well to all this water. I didn’t know he had any weaknesses though, this is educational.”
“I’m fine,” Issac insists. “The movement of the waves in the distance is making me a bit dizzy.”
“We can go below the surface if that would help,” Agbe offers with a smile. She elbows Alia and they do a bad job hiding their amusement at Issac’s discomfort.
“I am sure that it would not,” Issac says after a deep breath. He lifts his left hand and makes signs with his fingers. Blue magic issues from his fingers, lines of blue energy that wrap his body before dissolving into it. Issac takes another deep breath and exhales slowly. “That should do it. I get seasick, sorry. I didn’t think it would be this bad because we’re not on a boat, but I guess I underestimated being on a world of water. Enough about me, let’s play Wave.”
“Gladly,” Agbe says and she waves a hand to produce her first Smiting Deck. Tables rise from the sand and Alia is delighted at the sight of pitchers with glowing liquids and exotic foods of the seas and islands of Agbe’s disc. She shuffles and deals the cards while also using her magic to pour beverages for the three of them. “Don’t look at your cards, but shuffle them and place them face down. I will go first because I created the game. The point of this game is to control the Wave by having it resemble the current you build.” She flipped the top card of her deck and placed it in front of her. “I developed this game to reflect the importance of the Wave on my disc, but also to demonstrate that it is possible to influence the Wave, to ride it, to change its salinity.”
The game moves quickly, each player flipping the top card of their decks and either expanding the Wave or their current until Agbe wins the round by filling the Wave with Water Gods that reflect the Gods in her current.
“The key to Wave is not really planning, but reacting to what comes your way. Regardless of what your deck gives you, you need to pay attention to what is in play and how the card you draw can impact everything.”
They play more rounds and Alia is surprisingly good, she even wins a round to Agbe’s delight. The two of them have a natural rapport and Issac doesn’t mind being a third wheel because his anti-nausea spell is only temporary and he needs to excuse himself to refresh it regularly.
AGB Smiting Exhibition
“How does Wave relate to the way your deck plays in Smiting, if it does at all,” Alia asks Agbe.
Before she can answer, Jo arrives and greets her sister.
“Just in time for the Smiting,” Alia says.
“And for a drink,” Jo says with a laugh. “Is Issac emptying the contents of his body from his mouth?” she asks, looking over Alia’s shoulder at Issac doubled over in the distance. “Is that an Earther thing?”
“If you get seasick looking at waves it is,” Alia explains. “He’ll be fine once he refreshes his spell. But he taught me how to do this,” she says and moves the fingers of both her hands in precise movements to produce the enchanted Blue deck from the Smiting Chamber. “I’m not as good as Issac at Smiting, but he never wins against you Vodun anyway. So I think I’ll take his place in the exhibition.”
Agbe agrees and the three sit; Issac observes when he feels up to it. Agbe and Alia start the game and when the grid is full enough to start attacks, Agbe’s cards on the grid include:
- La Sirène
- Prime Crocodile Talimbi
- Nomo Warrior of the Depths
- Prime Iguana Talimbi
- Red Salt
- Grand Iceberg
- Brine Pools of the Depth
- Essence of the Absence Trench
- King Jowil, Progenitor of the Ichisonga
- Blue Salt
And Issac’s included:
- Azazel, Water Demon – Universe 1932
- Hafjeris Water Torture – Universe 1291
- Paul Young of the Druinte Ocean Depths – Universe 2213
- Face of the Ice King – Universe 16125
- COHH Water Generator – Universe 1526
- The Riverstick of Garoa – Universe 4613
- Iris, Custodian of the Bromeran Sea Library – Universe 1923
- Alia, Water Witch – Universe 2121
- CIA Experimentation to Create Sea Dwellers – Universe 1142
- Suun and Seel of the Blue Salt – Universe 1293
Everyone is fascinated by the Alia, Water Witch card, most of all, Alia whose entire game is derailed when she flips it.
“I knew that I liked you,” Agbe says with a smile. “But you are not a Water Witch, right?”
“No,” Alia says. “I’ve never even heard of that before.”
“What exactly are your powers?” Jo asks. “If you had a card that wasn’t an iteration of you from the multiversal structure, but the you who is here with us know, what color would you be?”
“From what I know about Smiting, probably white,” Alia says after some thinking. “I get my power from a cosmic source. The Luminaries of Jo’s Disc seem the most similar I think.”
“I would agree with that assessment,” Issac chimes in. “I thought the same for myself, but my magic is blue, always has been, but I don’t think arcana from the multiverse adheres to the rules of Smiting from this universe. My aspect seems to align with Agbe, but the actual purview of the Vodun says that I am probably in Jo’s colors.”
“This Alia is from an Earth that is covered in water,” Agbe says as she examines the data that the card projects. She prefers to read it rather than have the card create a replica that speaks to her. “Apparently Water Witches are venerated beings, and Alia is the greatest of them. She has the ability to manipulate water, that is impressive.”
Despite the impressive nature of the cards of the enchanted Blue deck, Alia isn’t able to beat Agbe, but she isn’t disappointed.
“I can’t wait to add these new cards and play against your new deck, Jo. This is going to be fun,” Agbe says to Jo with a smile that dissolves once she sees the look of seriousness on Jo’s face.
“It will be, but it’s important that you understand what we are doing here. I know that we are just bringing you into all of this, so know that while we have fun playing with new Smiting Cards, this is only the beginning of a fight that threatens everything.” Jo produces the Smiting Chamber’s replica of the Doom Deck with its eerie collection of colors. “We can play against one another, but I will test your new deck against this one and then introduce you to the new Smiting format we’ve been using to team up against the Doom Deck. Issac and Alia will leave here to see Sakpata and then we will all convene to see what we can do collectively against the Doom Deck. It will likely be very intense. I hope that you won’t be too disappointed that this endeavor could very well taint Smiting as a source of fun and escape from the worries of presiding over the Fonlands.”
“Way to take the wind out of my waves,” Agbe says jokingly. “Well, let’s get to the fun before that erodes.”
“There are many reasons why it is difficult to locate the origin of the Dark Reflection,” Neu-Brosme 77 of the Ascendant explained to the Vodun Xêvioso and Lêgba, “One reason is because the Dark Reflection is us, the Ascendant, or a copy of us. Or we are a copy of them, or we are both the copy of the group of Ascendant who tried to travel to the past but were replicated across the multiverse. Trying to track the Dark Reflection by its energy signature will lead you to many civilizations like this one.”
“I don’t understand,” Xêvioso says. “What is the Dark Reflection? Is it the same as the Pito that Lêgba told the Vodun about?”
Neu-Brome nods solemnly.
“So you all are the Pito, is that what you are saying?” Xêvioso asks with concern and he glares at Lêgba. “This is the base of the enemy and you led me here like we were meeting friends?”
“Of course not, brother. The Ascendant are a multiversal anomaly, replicated across the multiversal structure because of something they describe as science. The Pito are the same Ascendant we sit with now, but instead of landing here in Paradise, on Earth, they landed somewhere that corrupted them.”
“They have corrupted iterations,” Xêvioso says. “No wonder you are so fond of this place, you fit right in.”
“Unlike my iterations,” Lêgba explains, “they were not created intentionally, and it is possible that they are the iteration, but there is no way to ever sort that out. The Pito, the Dark Reflection, are the dark opposites of the Ascendant and the source of the Descendant is a mystery to them on purpose.”
The three of them sit in expertly crafted wooden chairs inside of the office of Neu-Brosme in the building with the highest spire in the city that the Ascendant refer to as Top. They sit around an idol of Ogi that suddenly begins to glow, and it has the same colors of the Doom Deck; it is shades of purple, green and yellow, all neon, showing simultaneously.
Xêvioso is startled to his feet and he lifts a balled fist that suffuses with his lightning.
“Hello Xêvioso, brother of Lêgba,” the idol says in its way. “There is no need for a hostile position. But I understand that you Vodun have been learning more about the Dark Reflection, the Descendant, and you have identified that they are powered by an arcane signature that is similar to my own. But a similar power doesn’t necessarily mean a similar nature. I could have seized the minds of these Ascendant and sent them out into the multiversal structure to conquer it in my name, but I have not. I see no value in that. I have protected these Ascendant, this Earth, this entire reality from the threat of the Descendant because if they come here, they will only consume and add all of this reality’s resources to their power and become even more difficult to fight. I have tried to protect Ascendant of other realities to varying success. I assure you that despite the colors you see, I am very firmly against the Descendant, the Pito.”
“If you are so knowledgeable,” Xêvioso says, “then why haven’t you located the source of their powers?”
“But I have,” the Ogi idol responds in its way. “I know of Une and her intentions to conquer all that is, but even saying her name makes me vulnerable to her. She cannot know my name so I will refrain from ever speaking hers again, but now you know Xêvioso. She is the source of the terror that is coming, but if we say her name in fear and apprehension, we only draw that terror faster. She is heartened by the fear she spreads. Sit. I will tell you all I know so that we can be true allies. We will only defeat this enemy together.”
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