Pultine was impressed by Paradise Earth. She saw most it from afar as she traveled with her party from the Fonlands to the Paradise universe, but it was a sight to see even from a distance. It was like Earth as conceived by the Fonlands, specifically the Disc of Agê, and she marveled at the massive trees that grew up as high as the clouds. There were trees everywhere, over land and water, and when the party finally landed on Antarctica that appeared uninhibited, she got the opportunity to really inspect the trees and other foliage. The home of the Ascendant, known as Top, in the Antarctic of Paradise Earth, was camouflaged from the outside and it wasn’t until the party passed it borders did Pultine see the wonder of the city Top.
“How they hide all this?” Alia asked with wonder.
“This is more impressive than the Clandestine City of the Star Eombre,” the Halfyn Heir said.
“There are cities on stars where you are from?” Maxx asked.
“No, it is called the Star Eombre. It is a city of bright lights and I like to take my Prince there to celebrate our anniversary. We found it by complete chance, I was in a battle and he was racing to find me because he was afraid that I was underestimating my enemy and just when he arrived, a bomb detonated, someone had orchestrated my conflict and they were trying to eliminate me and my enemy. The explosion took us all by surprise and we were presumed dead until we finally returned from the new place where we had been stranded as a result of the force of the explosion. Apparently, we were floating unconscious in unexplored space when we were saved by the secretive inhabitants of the Star Eombre who I only mention now because I am worlds away from my home and I know that you all will maintain my secret.”
“They are so secretive that you worry about keeping their secret even here?” Pultine asked. She was intrigued by stories of the Halfyn Heir’s world, it seemed so different than anything she had encountered or heard about before. There were similarities that made it easy to imagine the places that he talked about, but the customs of the people were unlike anything she had ever experienced.
“It is the greatest privilege of mine and my Prince’s lives that we are welcomed on the Star Eombre. Its exclusivity protects one of the greatest secrets of our universe and I am honored to be trusted with that secret. My Prince has sacrificed his life for it many times since we found it.” The Heir got choked up as they moved through the streets of the city that was extremely technologically advanced, the spiritual opposite of the Disc of Age that Pultine called home in the Fonlands. After a moment, he continued. “I think I will miss this anniversary, but I know that he understands.”
“I have not seen my companion much since I emerged from cocoon,” Pultine said. The streets of Top were full of the Ascendant beings that were humanoid deerlike creatures with elaborate horns and wings and they bowed to Xevioso, Legba and Age, the Vodun who led the party to the largest building in Top that was home to the Idol of Ogi.
“You cocoon?” Maxx asked with wonder. “I’ve known you a long time, and I’ve never seen this. Do all the mmoatia cocoon?”
Pultine nodded. “It isn’t a metamorphosis like some things experience, it is, there are slight changes in our appearance when we emerge, but it is mostly a spiritual transformation that renews us in our long lifespans. I feel that I am someone new after emerging from cocoon, but I am new based on all of the old things that I experienced. I had been with Rusa for quite a long time before I went to cocoon and when I emerged, he said I looked younger than him. It was good to be reunited, but our time apart is necessary for the current endeavor, and maybe also for the longevity of our union. Time apart is hard, but it only makes love more fulfilling if you are lucky enough to return to it. I pray to Age,” Pultine indicated with her chin to the Vodun as she said it, “and the Mother-Father that I am able to return to Rusa and make up for all of the time apart.”
The Heir nodded thoughtfully.
They arrived at the largest building in Top and ascended the floors to the top in an elevator that moved very quickly.
“I have never been in an elevator that fast,” Alia said angrily as they emerged from the sliding door onto the room that occupied all of the floor space. “That was like a spaceship inside of a building.”
“It’s a long way up,” Legba said to Alia as they were greeted by Ascendant guards in impressive uniforms that were militaristic enough with their lapels and neatly pleated jackets and pants to suggest that they were guards or security. Chief among them was Neu-Brosme 77 and she ushered them through the space that was a large, open space with windows for walls that looked out over the impressive city. The Ogi’s lair is a place of mediation and the party passed many Ascendant who were kneeling in the direction of the Ogi Idol that stood large at the one wall of the room that wasn’t mirrors. There was an altar all along the wall and Ogi’s Idol sat in the middle. It was seemingly carved of stone into the shape of a large mushroom. There were no features on the Idol, but as Pultine approached it, she could sense the powers that were infused inside and the golden green and purple energy formed what appeared to be a living being around the Idol who smiled at Pultine.
“It is good to see you again,” Ogi said to the Vodun and all the beings of the party could understand it. “The Smiting Chamber and Yana have been very helpful in the search for the enemy and even without the considerable powers we have brought to hear, we can only narrow down the location to Node 3 of the multiversal structure.”
“These two have talked with the enemy,” Agê said and stepped aside to allow Pultine and Alia to step forward.
“I know you,” the Idol said and smiled down at Pultine in its way. Then it spoke the language of the trees that only the Vodun knew, not even Neu-Brosme and the Ascendent knew the language of the trees. The Idol addressed both Agê and Pultine and both were awe stricken at the use of the language. Lêgba put a hand on Xêvioso’s shoulder and the two exchanged confused looks. The language of the trees of the language of the Mother-Father, and they had believed it to be unique to the multiverse, even if that notion is shortsighted considering the enormity and complexity of the multiverse.
The three of them conversed in the language of the trees and eventually Maxx asked Lêgba and Xêvioso to tell them what was happening.
“They are all plants,” Lêgba said with a shrug. “They are speaking in their way, marveling at the realization that the language of the Mother-Father exists in another existence.”
“I have found her,” Ogi said in a language that they could all understand. “It is an honor to speak in my native tongue, to be understood in the way that I understand things, I have never been able to speak it with anyone else before. This is such a privilege, I meant no disrespect to the Hyperion or to the other Vodun and your party. Hyperion, you spoke with Une, our enemy whose name has lost its power considering she has located the Fonlands and Paradise. It was your link to her that allowed me to connect and both Yana and I were able to instantly find it with the Smiting Chamber. Do you think that Une has reason? Can we end this all with a conversation, or with some healing applied to her manic psyche? She is afraid, she justifies the horrible atrocities she commits with the deep seeded belief that something is trying to end her existence and she will end theirs first. In this instance, it is true, but in another aeon, we could have been kindred, family like Agê and Pultine. But if she is bent on our destruction, of course we have no choice but to end her. What was your impression?”
Alia looked worried for a moment and she seemed to rack her memory.
“Can you remember what she said to us?” she asked Pultine.
“I have given everything under my influence an immortal life,” Pultine said with a surety that told Alia that Une had indeed uttered those words, and Alia nodded, then looked back to the Idol.
“She was afraid to die above all else. She doesn’t want to starve, to ever know hunger, and she doesn’t want other existences to stop her in her pursuit of the things that fuel her.
“She is ravenous in her hunger,” Pultine said. “I don’t think that there is a cogent enough being in there to reason with.”
“I think you and Zacchaeus said the same thing would happen to me if I laid hands on this weapon,” Maxx said and everyone turned to look at him. “I have no problem killing Une and anything else that threatens our existences, but we have to admit that we don’t know how this thing would react to reason or to healing that might settle its mind.”
“She was not open to reason,” Pultine said to Alia. “She wants to remake everything in her image, and you either serve Une or you are her food. Can she be healed of some malady to prevent her from continuing her rampage?” Pultine asked Agê.
“I can only know that if I am near to her to sense her better. Can you take me to her the way you and Pultine saw her?” the Vodun asked Alia.
“I’m sure that I could,” Alia said with a nod.
“Can we see it?” Maxx asked. “Is there a way for us to link minds so that we can see what Alia sees when she does this for Agê? I would like to see the enemy.”
“I could facilitate that,” Ogi said, “but you will be linked to the mind of Une and susceptible to its influence. It will be a smaller risk than it it will be for Alia and Agê, but it is a risk and you should know that before you join the mindlink.”
“I will take that risk,” Maxx said.
Lêgba and Xêvioso agreed to take the risk as well.
There is a spark, a crackle of bright golden and green and purple light around them, and then Alia and Agê, and everyone spectating with the aid of Ogi, are no longer in Ogi’s Lair. When the light subsides around them, they are no longer inside of the tallest building in the city of the Asecendant on Paradise Earth. They are standing on the surface of a world familiar to Alia and Pultine, where the ground at Alia and Agê’s feet looks like the surface of a planet-sized ball of yarn, and there are fields of the hairy ropes that stretch far into the green and purple and yellow glow of the distant horizon.
“You again,” Alia and Agê hear before the tree of that bears Une grows up from the hairy fibers. She is as striking as Alia remembers with her mushroom head and the long tendrils that frame her face like braids. The folds of her body resemble clothing around a human form that walks confidently to stand in front of the visitors. “I am glad that you returned. I will be at your Fonlands soon enough, you still have a chance to join me. The conquest should be epic and send chills across the multiversal structure that you have altered to my existence. You will be the last challenge to my plans, I will so utterly destroy the Fonlands that the structure itself will tremble before the might of Une.”
Agê took a step toward Une with one hand on her chest and the other she offered to Une. “If you stopped consuming realms right now,” Agê said, “You will be sated for the remainder of existence, and there is something that even immortal beings cannot escape, and that is the death of the existence that they inhabit. If you stop now and we vow that will leave you in peace with the realms you have conquered, you will know the peace that seems elusive to you. I can feel the enormous void at the center of you, it is created by your anxiety, your fear of death, and you have tried to fill it with so much, but nothing can fill that void. Nothing you have tried, anyway. I offer you the chance to feel whole, Une. Take my hand, let me show you another way.”
Une looked at Agê’s hand and then began to laugh. “You are so small you cannot even conceive of my plans. Let me educate you, Vodun. I will outlive this existence that is my home, that is why I have spread the multiversal structure. It is a self-sustaining organism, it is in a constant state of death and rebirth, but never all at once, the constituent realities never blink out all at once. And I have claimed enough realities that I am as perpetual as the structure. I know you all plan to launch an assault here with your great powers, I have learned a lot about my enemy since we last spoke. But know this, small, tiny, insignificant pests, even if you manage to wipe this existence clean of me, you are not done with me until every existence I have taken is wiped clean of me. I have taken a Fonlands before, I know you Vodun, and though you all proved too head strong to lead my Pito, you make for excellent nourishment, my knowledge of magic has never been stronger. I persist, I defy the will of everything that wants me dead.” She grabbed Agê’s hand aggressively. “Now, get out of my consciousness, or let me consume your essence,” she hissed at the Vodun.
Une’s grip on Agê was firm, but she soon let go when her hand began to sizzle and bubble, and then slowly dissolve.
“You have sealed your fate, evil one,” Agê said. “We have no choice but to snuff you out. And personally, I will enjoy every moment of burning you out of existence.”
Une was wounded and though she tried to maintain her show of confidence, it was clear that Agê had surprised her with her ability to injure Une’s mental form.
“Me too,” Alia said and then she ended the mental connection to Une.
“That is disheartening information to learn,” Xêvioso said when they were all standing in Ogi’s lair. “It makes sense, but I didn’t think about the fact that she has spread and we will have to rid many existences of her.”
“Can we ever truly be free of Une?” Lêgba asked.
“I am happy to battle across the multiversal structure to try,” Agê said fiercely. Her face was balled in anger and she looked ready to work her frustrations out with physical force.
“I was talking big, but this seems impossible now,” Alia admitted. “There no guarantee that we can even beat Une on that planet, and if we manage to somehow pull that off, we have to do it how many more times before its over? How many universes has she taken over?”
“I will consult with the Smiting Chamber to determine every location touched by Une and the current status of those locations,” the Ogi Idol said. “Maybe there were other existences like Talj that no longer exist and we don’t need to worry about her in those places.”
“Get that list as soon as possible,” Xêvioso says to Ogi. “We have to start strategizing based on this new information. We need to link everyone in charge of some aspect of this mission immediately.”
PRL Serials 