Damballa looked out at the Essence blue space and he lifted a hand, a sparkling dust in the wake of his large arm, and he pointed a finger at the emptiness. A flurry of sparkling magic issued from his finger, coalescing into a large stellar body at a distance.
“Spread them out,” Jo said as she appeared next to him. “You don’t want them colliding on the winds.”
“How about I do the job you gave me and you focus on generating a current that won’t cause everything to collide into each other.” Damballa was annoyed but not aggressive.
Jo laughed and looked out at what their Disc had become since she was placed in the middle of the Essence blue Disc along with her underside twin, and they did battle across the vast, soft blue expanse until the underside twin yielded and was removed. Jo heard the voice of the Mother-Father then, and the voice said her name for the first time. After that, the Essence blue of the vast Disc where she found herself alone, slowly began to change; it became transparent and Jo began to fly alone, until she met Damballa. He was like her, they had a similar face and he was young but old all at once, and very happy to see someone else.
“I came into being and watched the Disc disappear,” Damballa said with amazement in his voice, in a language that only the most ancient beings of the Fonlands know. “What will it be? All this space?” he asked Jo and she looked out at the expanse that was forming and the two decided to make what made sense to them in the space after long discussion.
The two spent so much time in their discussion and creation, Jo was the last of the Vodun to meet her siblings and her Disc was as mysterious to them as the undersides of the Discs that they never saw first hand in the early days. But she did eventually meet them and they were awed by what Jo had created. That creation continued for a while longer after she met her siblings and it was in that time that Jo and Damballa enjoyed a very playful yet adversarial relationship. Still very young compared to the Fonlanders they would live to be, they had spent a considerable amount of time together and their interaction was as easy as the winds that Jo commanded. But their true adversarial relationship was brewing underneath the facade of calm disagreements and playful banter.
“Please, Dam, if I could give you a job, this Disc would look very different, I assure you. We could have created at least the great asteroid belt from Agbe’s Disc to Legba’s, that would have made things more accessible.” She said it flippantly, airing a grievance like a throw away gesture, like a shrug. She meant it, but she didn’t mean for it to rile Damballa, and she didn’t expect that it would because it wasn’t out of line for the things they normally said to one another as they organized the Disc and the routes of the currents through the space. But somehow, it was enough to be too much and Damballa let loose.
“If only I possessed the perfect vision of the high and vaulted Vodun Jo I would have divined your infinite wisdom and still be less than you.”
It took Jo a minute to discern the insult in Damballa’s words because his tone was so even, the words themselves contained all of his anger, his voice had no need to carry it, and when Jo realized, she looked at him with shock.
“Oh, are you surprised that I am bitter…?” Damballa started, but Jo interrupted.
“We have always been equals…”
“You love being a Vodun, you love when these powerful Fonlanders come and prostrate before you!”
“I have only ever done what the Mother-Father dictates,” Jo was very wounded by that point and she was holding back tears. “I have never meant to make you feel anything less than my equal. You have always been my partner.”
“That you have to cajole into doing things the way that you see them. You think that I lack the sophistication of your vision. That I am not as us as you are.”
“What are you even talking about?” Jo was instantly exasperated. “You’re not as us as I am? What does that mean?”
“I was made from the Disc that formed after the Mother-Father chose you. I am not your equal, I know that. But when you pretend that I am, I get angry, resentful of you. You are lying to my face to placate me when I don’t need to be placated. I know my place, Vodun Jo of the Ubiquitous Intangibility, I am of the Disc, and you are the Disc. There is no need to pretend otherwise.”
The disagreements between the two of them from Jo’s perspective had always seemed artificial, not substantial differences that put them completely at odds, but usually disagreements about how best to achieve a specific thing that they agreed should be done. And they would bicker to a resolution and that had been the nature of their relationship. But Damballa had confessed that Jo was patronizing from her position as the Vodun of the Disc, and even though that had not been her perception or her intention, obviously Damballa had been stewing in it for a long time and she had unknowingly picked at him too much.
They argued passionately for a long time, and eventually, Jo helped Damballa understand things from her perspective, that she didn’t view herself as the owner of the Disc, she viewed herself as a vessel that allowed the Disc to commune with Damballa to create the Disc that best accommodated the arcana that they produced. Things cooled between them for a little while, until the Shooting of the First Stars that the two came up with together. Some say it was the stress of organizing the event together, that was a truly massive undertaking that involved corralling stars to move in synch through the main wind current that Jo created to move around the entirety of the Disc, and in their movements, they would create an impressive show of lights that could be seen all around the Disc and by dwellers of the overlapping Discs. The true point was for Jo to revitalize the wind current by having the stars of heavy mass move through the route, but they hoped that it could be a real show for the entirety of the Fonlands to migrate to the Disc to witness.
Things went well in the beginning. Damballa recruited the stars who would take part in the Shooting, and Jo made sure that nothing had strayed into the intended route that would get destroyed if the stars collided with them. When they came together to ensure that the Stars chosen to participate could complete the route safely and with the desired flare to impress onlookers, Jo became frustrated that Damballa hadn’t been selective in his choices.
“So you mean to say that only the IsiLimela are worthy of this ceremony?” Damballa asked, trying to subsume anger, hoping to avoid what was obviously boiling up in both of them.
“I never said those words in that order,” Jo said, trying to be funny, though Damballa would argue that it was condescending and Jo would regret having said it at all, but the beginnings of the confrontation were already unfolding and the others who had helped them to organize, the Luminaries Gleti, Nyame, and Obatala were whispering among themselves about the argument soon to commence.
“You denigrate every star that isn’t the seven,” Damballa said in his characteristic way of revealing long buried grievances that Jo had no idea about as evidence of her current infraction.
“I would never. You think that I denigrate everything that you do!” Jo said, trying her hand at Damballa’s tactics but it felt toothless given the general nature of the comment.
“Of course,” Damballa said with a sarcastic laugh, “that is the very nature of my grievance! For you to try to hurl it at me only exposes you for your ignorance and stubbornness to genuinely listen when I speak to you, which is the very reason that I don’t express these grievances to you.”
For the record, Gleti, Nyame and Obatala were on Damballa’s side, but Damballa had very bad timing as the Shooting of the First Stars was waiting for him and Jo to start the ceremony, and everyone on the Disc was wondering what the hold up was.
The Shooting of the First Stars was a resounding success. It accomplished the goal of renewing the main wind current of the Disc, and those in attendance were stunned by the show of lights. The light show was visible to more Fonlanders than either Jo or Damballa anticipated and the Shooting of the Stars became a beloved event that many looked forward to.
It should also be stated for the record, that if it hadn’t been for Gleti, Nyame, and Obatala, the Shooting of the First Stars may not have happened, which the three of them discussed shortly after when they were in the Nyota Supercluster located in the southern region of the Disc and contained the planet Mosu where the Luminaries gathered to catch up and to discuss things.
“How are you feeling?” Obatala asked Nyame, and Gleti smiled at Nyame like she had the same question. “Not long ago you were glued to your rocking chair on the Cotton-Wood, feeding the Scroll, but since your son took that burden, you’re one of us now.”
“I don’t know if I have the patience for those two,” Nyame said and they both understood that she was referring to Jo and Damballa. “Do they hate each other? Are they subsuming other feelings that manifest as rage? Answer seriously, have either of you ever been in their presence and it didn’t devolve into a back and forth? Because I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed the two of them together and just being, just making stars and wind or whatever they do spending so much time together. That’s what really baffles me about the whole thing, that they could do what they do apart from one another, but it’s like Jo feels bad to do anything without at least offering to include Damballa, and he seems to usually agree just so he doesn’t come off as dismissive. Do they have some like tether to one another, did the Mother-Father make them co-Vodun?”
“Are you finished?” Gleti said with a smile. “I forgot half the questions you asked.”
“I’m sorry, but they are a lot to get used to and they make me yearn for the quiet times on my Cotton-Wood, even with Obea interrupting me every chance she gets.”
“They were the first of this Disc,” Obatala said, “and for as long as I have observed them, that has been the nature of their relationship. Jo is insecure about her place as the Vodun in Damballa’s presence and I think that makes her awkward. She works with all of us very easily…”
“That is another thing that is so confounding!” Nyame interrupted. “She is like a different Vodun with Damballa, which is why I wonder if they are suppressing romantic feelings, or if she is.”
“I have wondered that myself,” Gleti admitted. “But sometimes they bicker like siblings, other times like lovers.”
“I’m sure they are rivals,” Obatala said, chuckling at Nyame and Gleti’s theories. “They don’t have romantic feelings, I don’t think, but I have never discussed it with either of them. I think they bristle in one another’s presence because they are so similar in their abilities to create, and they are both wise enough to know that their creations are best when they collaborate. But their natural rivalry kicks in, just as their desire to not be combative for no reason, and it results in the awkward interactions that we are subjected to. I honestly don’t think they like one another at all, but they don’t want anyone to know that because they have no reason for dislike that would make sense to anyone but them. Maybe one day they will be honest and stop the charade, but they’ve been at it so long, I doubt they can exist together any other way.”
“Should we be insulted that Jo doesn’t hate us?” Gleti asked. “Does that mean she doesn’t view us as a threat to her power, and not on her level?
“Yes,” Nyame said glibly, “and thank the Mother-Father for that.”
“No,” Obatala said. “I think the rivalry is based on the fact that they were the first two because the first is the Vodun, not the most powerful.”
“Well, I don’t know how much longer I can be in the Vodun’s council,” Nyame said with a sigh. “It’s like being the referee to the most boring sparring match in the Fonlands. But I will stay longer because I am fond of the two of you. It’s you two who actually run this Disc, the Vodun is too distracted.”
“In all honesty,” Gleti said, “no one runs the Disc and no one needs a Vodun for that purpose. I was in the oceans of Agbe’s Disc visiting La Sirene in the Kelp Forest. I go there often because we are old friends. Agbe is just a story to the dwellers of her Disc, no one runs it, Fonlanders are cooperative enough to get along, and that happens on this Disc, on every Disc that I have traveled to. The Vodun are the land, they don’t really preside over it.”
“It’s all ceremony,” Obatala said with a smile. “And we definitely don’t run the Disc, I’m hardly ever here lately since I was named a Justice in Xêvioso’s high court. I think you would be well suited for a robe, Luminary Nyame.”
“I am well suited for most things,” Nyame said unironically, “but most things are hardly worth my attention. We should take this planet to the Neon Caves on Sakpata’s Disc, I think we have earned some relaxation.”
All of them agreed and they combined their powers to wake Mosu and have him transport the trio to the Disc of Sakpata. Mosu moved so fast, that even to the eyes of the average Fonlander, it appeared that he teleported, disappearing instantly and reappearing just as quickly, and he was a rocky body slightly smaller than the size of the planet Earth.
“You did this so you don’t have to talk to me anymore didn’t you?” Jo asked as she stood on the glassy surface of Damballa.
“Because everything I do is about you,” Damballa said sarcastically in his way. As a star, Damballa communicated with flashes of his light and pinging noises that he seemed to produce by pushing his energy against the glassy surface from inside.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” Jo said with frustration.
“I am a star because I prefer it, and it’s true that we don’t compete when I take this form. You’re not edgy and strange like I’m plotting to steal your crown. Stars have no need for crowns.”
“You know that a Vodun is far above a mere crown…”
“And I thought that you understood that, too,” Damballa interrupted. “If you did, you would know that it is unnecessary for you to be threatened by my incredible and immense powers, they mirror yours, and we are equals. You have nothing to prove, and no need for the edge.”
“I was strange around you because you do seem to embody the Disc more than I do at times,” Jo admitted. “It doesn’t threaten me, it makes me worried that I am not showing you proper deference is all, you know this.”
“Always overthinking,” Damballa said and chuckled in his way.
“Such is my fate. I know that you had your own reasons for taking this form, and I am glad that it is working for you. It definitely works for me.”
“Just in time, too, Nyame was about to abandon us for good,” Damballa said.
“She is a welcome addition to our council, she is the Luminary that shines on the Cotton-Woods of the Disc. She knows the language of the trees. With Obatala spending so much time away, I am glad that she will continue with us and that we won’t drive her away.”
Nyame, Obatala, and Gleti are currently navigating Mosu in a 360 degree orbit around the entirety of the Fonlands, in the aether outside of Aido Hwedo, as the Arcane Wizard, Issac Washington, holds what seems to be their enemy in a time loop spell.
“Any change?” Jo asks over communicators.
“Nothing that we have seen,” Gleti says as the robes tied to her chest flap on the wind generated on the surface of Mosu. It is mostly barren, Mosu does not like to be tread on and will only move for Fonlanders that he calls friends.
“The Arcane Wizard is contact me, be on alert.”
The luminaries look to one another and then ease Mosu to a stop in the direction of the Arcane Wizard.
PRL Serials 