Xêvioso is already in the Smiting Chamber observing Sakpata’s first mission to the tendrils of Une that snaked across the multiversal structure where she had taken existences. He can link his mind to Sakpata’s even when the Vodun and two members of his team disappear from inside the mists of the heptagon, and he sees them in an existence called Red of Node 1. There is so little left there, just lifeless gray shapes that had once been the stuff of existence. There are large gray spheres that had once been stars blazing hot enough to melt gasses, now inert and drifting in the lack of gravity; everything lacks mass so nothing pulls anything toward anything, and when things drift into one another, they bounce in the opposite direction. There is no light in this place called Red, so there is no color. Nothing is dark and that is curious.
“How would you explain that?” Xêvioso asks Sakpata through their mental connection as he spectates Sakpata’s view.
“It is the most curious thing about this very curious realm,” Sakpata replies. “Azalaan, do you sense Une here?”
“I feel something in very deep slumber,” Azalaan says. He wears a gray suit that Sakpata had constructed with his hand spells for the team to protect them against extreme levels of force and to allow the Vodun to always be in contact with them in the realities they explored. The suit is simple, like a jumpsuit with a helmet and it is adorned with Sakpata’s Veve, the Ore Amulet. “Its dreams are curious. There are so many, from times long ago, from disparate realities. There are too many dreams for one thing. But I only sense a singular thing resting.”
“It is Une, this, everything we see is Une resting,” Sakpata reasons. “I imagine that if we kill her in her home realm, this realm is one that she is likely to wake up inside of.”
“That is truly frightening,” Shini, the muthi Sorcerer, says wearily. “That means she could wake up here at any second.”
“Azalaan, keep monitoring for anything that might be helpful for us to know, Shini and I will see if we can cleanse an entire universe. Shini, I need you to create a magnet for all of the latent death magic around us. I’m going to build a self-perpetuating construction that we can leave here that will be made entirely of Death Magic and will smother out any living and dreaming thing. Une is made of Death Magic, but Une is not here, only the flow her slumbering subconsciousness that gives this place its eerie grayness, but the Death Magic construction should render these structures unsuitable for Une’s consciousness, permanently severing her link to this realm.”
Xêvioso is impressed watching Sakpata work so well with his team to do what seemed like an insurmountable task; even the Vodun is small compared to the size of the scope of the Une-infected realm and it is hard to believe that any of their efforts would be effective for ridding the entire realm of their enemy. But Sakpata makes complex arcane constructions while he sleeps, when he is awake and working intently as he does in the Une-infected realm, and supplied by one as skilled at Death Magic as Shini, he manages to make an extremely large construction that gets bigger as he continues his work repurposing the latent Death Magic that Shini attracts, and as the seemingly inert objects connect to it in their random floating trajectories around the realm. The gray matter of the objects that dissipate into nothing against Sakpata’s construct, is instantly killed and converted to purple energy and whatever was inside dissipates.
Sakpata and Shini work for a long time before Sakpata is satisfied that their efforts will eventually clean the realm completely and they retreat back to the Smiting Chamber.
“That went well,” Xêvioso congratulates Sakpata.
“Azalaan helped me select the right beings to aid in these efforts. He will continue to monitor progress there while I jump into another existence with other members of the team.”
As Sakpata decides who will accompany him to the next existence, Fâ, Gu, and Lêgba are also in the Smiting Chamber, on the high ledge that looks down over the heptagon.
“It just seems redundant, that’s all I’m saying,” Gu grunts with his arms crossed at his chest, resting on his stomach. “I am the Vodun of War, and what does war bring? It brings death, so that means that I am already the Vodun of Death.”
“But doesn’t war also bring peace?” Lêgba asks.
“Shut up,” Gu says, “it’s not some philosophical thing. I am the warrior and the armorer, made to do one thing, to kill! Death has always been my purview.”
“Wars on your Disc aren’t about killing, though,” Lêgba says, “you all do it for the fun of it. You aren’t squeamish about death by any means, but it’s more about the battle than the kill. You aren’t the Vodun of Death, you are the Vodun of Chaos, war is always chaos, upending order. It’s why you enjoy fighting Xêvioso so much.”
“Shut…” Gu stops himself to think.
“Are you done?” Fâ asks. “Have you gotten it now? Can we stop talking about inane things? I was disturbed because something that is capable is coming to kill us, not to go around in circles with an idiot. I have no doubt in my mind that we will work well together, big brother, but that’s only after you drop all the gruff posturing. I get it, you’re grumpy and like to fight, but that’s no excuse for dumb arguments.”
“Are you reprimanding me and calling me an idiot?” Gu asks and he steps in front of Fâ, glaring down at her.
She pushes him violently and he tumbles over the ledge, screaming the entire time, not out of pain, but out of pure surprise. Lêgba laughs uncontrollably as Fâ jumps down after Gu.
“I know you’re not an idiot!” Fâ screams at Gu and everyone in the Smiting Chamber stares at them. “But I don’t have time for feeling each other out and giving me the business or whatever. I think that it would be wise for us to work together so that I can take the most effective beings with me when we go to Une’s realm.”
“Fine, let’s talk, but we will do battle, little sister, and I will show you my true might.”
Fâ nods and rolls her eyes as the two huddle together to talk.
Then everyone in the Chamber receives a mental alert from Issac Washington. Then Jo arrives, then Agbe, then Agê.
“Une is here!” Xêvioso says and Jo nods solemnly then looks to Agê and Fâ.
“I think it is time for you all to go,” Jo says. “Gu, Agbe and I will make sure there is a Fonalnds for you all to return to.”
“We have to go now?” Fâ asks with annoyance. “My force only includes my sentries, I don’t have the numbers that Agê and Xêvioso have.”
“We can send reinforcements if they are needed,” Jo says. “ The Arcana Master, he’s the Arcane Wizard now, but he will stay here while we confront this form of Une, but he can come to back you all up with reinforcements when that is necessary. I truly feel that this is our best shot. Arcane says that this form contains a lot of Une’s consciousness, which means that she isn’t her whole self in her home realm. We have to take advantage. You all should go, and make sure that Wazad the Transverse is with you. Go!”
Xêvioso, Agê and Fâ all link hands and then they disappear from the Smiting Chamber. They go first to rally their forces, then with the help of the being known as Ogi of the Paradise Universe, they begin their journey to the Une-verse.
“Arcane says that we must be ready for the arrival of Une’s forces very soon,” Jo says to Agbe, Gu, and Lêgba. “Go to every Disc and make sure that their defenses are ready.”
“I want to become a water barrier around the Fonlands,” Agbe says. “I know how it sounds, but I am not the only Fonlander who can become water, and we should be able to link up to create a barrier around the Fonlands that heavy hitters from my disc can occupy to act as a moat around the Fonlands, another protective layer before the enemy can reach the surface.”
“It sounds like a good plan to me. I will gather beings of mine and Xêvioso’s Disc to guard in a sphere around your water layer, and Gu, your forces will be the last defense. Construct a layer of iron around the Fonlands with the largest Fonlanders on the surface to meet anything that gets through the water. I will coordinate all of the ground forces through Arcane who will only retreat from the aether outside of Aido Hwedo if Une overpowers him. He is our vanguard and we have to be in position if or when Une or her forces become too much for him. We will make Une regret leaving her home realm.”
Fâ isn’t nervous, it’s just that things have happened so fast since she emerged from the Disc. She did have time to settle on the Disc of Deads and Wraiths, enough time to meet many of the dwellers of her Disc who felt her and came to pay their respects, and that time had made her happy that she had emerged. It was good to be among beings that were made of the same stuff, who understood the existence of a being of Death Magic. All the time she spent watching her siblings before she emerged from the Disc, she was nervous that she wouldn’t fit in with them. They had taken to being stewards of the powerful beings of their Discs, and they had lived long enough to find a rhythm with one another that allowed them to get along and to work together. Fâ worried that she would disrupt the rhythm that the Vodun had established and she worried that she didn’t have the personality to be a steward of powerful beings. Her time on the Disc had alleviated many of those fears. But she hadn’t emerged to be a steward of the Disc of Deads and Wraiths, not exactly. She had emerged to fight alongside Xêvioso and Agê against a being that mastered Pattern, Life, and Death Magic to the point that it was able to conquer sections of the multiversal structure, and Fâ had never been in a fight before. She had never wielded her magic to cut something down, she had never been attacked. But even those fears were assuaged by her time with Gu, the two of them sparred often in the little time they had spent together and he had shown her that it was easy to attack something that was annoying and aggressive to her. She was familiar with battle, too, even if she hadn’t been in one, she had observed countless battles from her position inside the disc.
So no, Fâ isn’t exactly nervous, she isn’t afraid that Jo had arrived out of nowhere and she, and Xêvioso, and Agê, had been flung into action. She isn’t even afraid to face Une. She just can’t be completely optimistic because everything she was experiencing was very new to her and she couldn’t be sure if they would succeed. She wants to believe that they would triumph, but that doesn’t erase all of the unknowns that she was racing toward.
“I worry that we didn’t spend time actually fighting together,” Agê says as she stands with Fâ and Xêvioso on a large platform from the Disc of Lêgba occupied by a large number of their forces, the most powerful Fonlanders and beings of the multiversal structure that they were able to contact and recruit who wielded Yellow/Gold, Green, and Purple Magic. “But Gu trained our forces in fighting together so at least we have that.”
“If you weren’t so hostile to the idea of me,” Fâ says, “I don’t think it would be difficult for us to wield our powers in tandem.”
“I am not…” Agê starts but Xêvioso interrupts.
“Since we saw her emerge from the tree,” he says. “You are resentful, Agê.”
“We would have a lot of experience with one another if she had emerged from the Lofted Disc like we did,” Agê says angrily.
“If I had, Lêgba would have been an underside twin, and if he’d been that, none of you would have been aware of Une and her harm to the multiversal structure!” Fâ is angrier and both Agê and Xêvioso lean away from her. “Tell her, Pattern Master! Surely you are aware that things happened as they had to, and if they had been different, we might not even exist!”
“She speaks the truth,” Xêvioso says to Agê. “You resent her for things beyond her control.”
“It’s not real resentment, not of you, Fâ,” Agê admits. “I’m mad that there is a possibility we will not be enough. That she took us by surprise and entered the aether around Aido Hwedo! That is an affront to the Mother-Father and I’m taking that frustration out on you, I see that now. I’m sorry. While we have this time, we should get to know one another well enough to strategize in the event of a battle with Une.”
Fâ smiled at her sister and the three of them extended a hand inundated with their magic and they shared their psyches in a way that allowed them to train together.
PRL Serials 