The War of Arcana
The Baron was having trouble focusing as the Grand Brigette explained her machinations against the perceived enemies of Arada. La Croix wanted to be contemplating the nature of death for an inhabitant of Outer Spacetime, something that had always fascinated him because beings of Outer Spacetime can practically live forever unless they are killed, and there is only one surefire way to kill a being of Outer Spacetime; cause them to leave Outer Spacetime. This fact had always been curious to La Croix. If beings of Outer Spacetime cease to exist if they travel outside of Outer Spacetime, does that mean that they are somehow less than the beings of lower Spacetime, like the Wazads–the First, the Transverse, and the other with no additional title–who could freely travel from their existence to Outer Spacetime and back? La Croix had never been interested in the metaphysics of Outer Spacetime, he enjoyed his life on Arada as a respected and fearsome Loa who was represented by skeletons and other spooky things, celebrations of such things coinciding with the harvest for the Aradnans who led full lives on the rings under the protection of their Loas. The Baron and the Grand presided over the other Loas of the rings of Arada and it was a good life, but something changed for La Croix some time ago.
Baron La Croix, while in his godly slumber, caught a vision of the lower spacetime version of himself that apparently wasn’t really from the lower spacetime of his Outer Spacetime. This La Croix was known as the Baron Samedi and he was visiting lower spacetime from a place called the Fonlands and La Croix could see in his dreams that Samedi had a very different connection to death than his own that was mostly ceremonial because the Aradnans rarely died, and when they did, La Croix presided over festivals in the streets, that was all he was really good for. If an Aradnan died, they just vanished from existence, and this also nagged at La Croix, who couldn’t help but think that maybe Outer Spacetime wasn’t real in the same way lower spacetime, and other existences like the one this Baron Samedi was from, were real.
After his brush with his alternate self in his godly slumber, where he saw a being composed of deathly power who could control the very essence of life and transmute it to the very essence of death in an eerie violet glow, La Croix wondered how he could attain such power over life and death, and if the lives of Outer Spacetime could even be converted to this violet death energy.
“You have not heard a word,” Grand Brigette said with exasperation. “Tara and the Mao Ri are plotting with those Daemon beasts that can injure and kill us and your mind is far away. I told everyone that if we had asserted our dominance before, we wouldn’t have to worry about these kinds of things.”
“I think that you are over reacting,” La Croix said with his hands up, not entirely sure what his beautiful wife was talking about, but he was interested in these beasts who could kill. “I think we should just negotiate to get them back, there doesn’t have to be a War of Arcana or anything…”
“That doesn’t quite sound right,” Brigette said.
“It hits the ear wrong that way…”
“We’ll find it. But anyway, even if we get the beasts back, every power is nervous, news of the beasts and their abilities spread all across Outer Spacetime and everyone is thinking the same thing, the same thing I have been saying to you for longer than I should have considering that you weren’t paying any attention. There will be a War, La Croix, a War Over Arcana…”
“Mmm,” La Croix made a noise with his lips pursed together.
“There will be a War, and nothing can stop that. We just have to hope that we are powerful enough to come out on top.”
“I have never heard you doubt the power of the Loa,” La Croix said, slightly worried at the shaken confidence of his normally very fierce and confident wife.
“Against Theron and the Mao Ri? Against Ame-tsuchi and the Kami? Against the Changing First World and the Nihodilhil? Not to mention the Aifyns of the Line, they are legion. I have been doing what I can to stay in front of them all with our magical defenses but if this War of Arcana gets out of hand, who knows how long we will last.”
“That was it,” La Croix said and Brigette smiled at him. “I will get those beasts back. Where is the lower space Wazad, I will use it as leverage.”
“He is enjoying the grounds, probably swimming,” Brigette said with a shrug. “He’s been very valuable, he knows a lot about the First Wazad and I am no longer worried about his power. It is substantial, but so are we.”
“Unless you plan to flip him, I think that is all we can hope to get, and the beasts of course. Something that can kill us all is the best weapon in the coming War of Arcana.”
“Ok, but let’s not wear it out before it even gets here.”
“Fair enough,” La Croix said and he stood before his beautiful wife and put a hand on each of her shoulders. “I would know death, my love. I have glimpsed a taste of it, and I will bring its magic to Outer Spacetime, be its sole wielder, unless you would take part as well. I would know death, and Outer Spacetime should tremble at the thought.”
The Baron La Croix and the Grand Brigette will return in the PRL Fèt Gede Special Vol. 2, coming October 31, 2025!
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