“Come on!” Xêvioso whined.
“Hurry up!” Gu growled
“We’re going to miss it!” Xêvioso complained.
“If I miss it because of you, I’m never going to stop punching you,” Gu threatened.
They were in the overlap between the Discs of Xêvioso and Lêgba and the two older of the brothers had come to collect Lêgba so that they could watch Boromo, the legendary hero of the Disc of Sakpata, attempt to remove the grigri from the pillar on Sakpata’s Disc.
“I’m coming,” Lêgba said, floating from the platform that was far away from the one the older brothers occupied, though they were jumping platforms to approach him. He looked away from them and down at Owuo whose head and most of his torso protruded from a portal of violet on the surface of the platform. “You should come.” Lêgba said to Owuo who looked angry.
“We were on our way until they showed up unannounced. Why don’t you tell them that I am here and see if they will invite me along.”
Lêgba looks at him and sighs with his shoulders, then he turns and jumps two discs away from Owuo toward his brothers and they meet there to talk, far enough away that they could not see Owuo, but he could hear them.
“Let’s go,” Gu said angrily. “I should have just gone by myself, but I had to tell Xêvi.”
“I’m glad you told me, I had no idea. Not even the Luminaries have tried to obtain the griri from the pillar and they are the only Fonlanders who I imagine capable of the feat.”
“But maybe it isn’t even a hard thing to do,” Lêgba said. “We have no idea what will happen to Boromo when he tries to take hold of the grigri. Maybe they have always just been decorative, a display of our Veves big enough to be seen from long distances.”
“Don’t shit on my hope for a spectacular show of magic,” Gu grumbled, “it better be explosive or I will challenge him to a fight to demonstrate the worthlessness of the grigri, and beat him down if he refuses. Let’s at least get through a portal to Sakpata’s Disc while you two talk about nothing. Conjecture is useless when the thing is happening.”
“Owuo told me about Boromo attempting to take the grigri,” Lêgba said as Xêvioso moved his hands to construct a portal. In those days it took them a while to master portal magic and even if Xêvioso was the most skilled at it among the three of them, it took him about twenty minutes moving his hands into precise formations to make the portal.
“I hope he isn’t there watching,” Gu said like he spat the words. He looked at Xêvioso impatiently and if he’d had a wristwatch, he would have been staring at it impatiently at regular intervals. “I haven’t run into him in a long time and I would like to keep it that way. Nothing makes my spine shiver like being in his presence. When he smiles that dead smile of his and looks at you with those dead eyes, it’s enough to make me crawl out of my skin.”
“Gu is harsh,” Xêvioso said, “but it is hard to disagree with him. I have tried on multiple occasions to engage Owuo in friendship, but he always shuns me. I know about his interest in Death Magic, I have heard the justices speak of it, and I have tried to engage him on that, but he just looks at me with that dead expression and even a Vodun can only withstand that for so long.”
“He will likely be there,” Lêgba said, “why not invite him along? I understand your apprehensions, trust me, but he has taught me a lot about Death Magic, and he is interesting to be around.”
“You like queer things, brother. Xêvi and I are fond of warriors, strong Fonlanders who embody the might of the Divine Essence. It’s your prerogative to delight in songs and stories, spiders and changelings.”
By that point, the portal was done and Gu went through it laughing uproariously. Before passing through, Xêvioso turned to Lêgba. “I would like to try to get to know Owuo, but this should be an entertaining spectacle and I’d rather it not be weighed by awkwardness.”
Lêgba looked back at the portal where Owuo had been, but he was gone. He wondered how much of the conversation Owuo had overheard.
The first Spider born from the Disc of Lêgba was Aku, matriarch of the Golden Orb Weavers. Many spiders born on the Disc since her emergence view her as a mother of all spiders, though not all spiders share the large abdomen of gold and black shaped like an egg that is a characteristic of Aku. She is the largest spider to ever dwell in the Fonlands and this distinction is made based on the circumference of her legs that were as wide around as a field is long. There are stronger spiders than Aku in the Disc and in the Fonlands; the Featherlegs are the strongest of the Disc and they are the most intimidating with their hairy legs capable of flicking individual strands of their hair that are sharp enough to penetrate golden armor.
Aku, like all Fonlanders, has no real need for food, she is sustained by Divine Essence as most Fonlanders are, but she enjoys trapping things in her web and using her venom to create a smoothie to slurp while spectating the changing desert. She mostly eats large insect kin that dwell in the Celestial Library, keeping it free of silverfish, booklice, cockroaches, and termites that attempt to enter. She is known to free things from her webbing that ask nicely or tell her jokes that made her laugh aloud.
Shortly after Aku’s emergence from the Disc, the Celestial and Void Libraries were erected along the circumference of the Disc and at the midpoint of the radius of the Disc respectively, and Aku spun a golden web to bridge the libraries when the surface of the Disc she had emerged from disappeared in the gap. Her webbing shimmered golden in the light, for Aku was the first Fonlander born with a gift for Transmutation and Pattern magic, though her proclivity for the Black was stronger. As the Disc became more populated, Aku decided to make it easier for others to use her webbing as a conveyance between the two libraries and she cast a hand spell using all of her limbs to transform the webbing into golden colored sand, and the space outside of the Void Library and circumscribed by the Celestial Library became known as the changing desert. As a result of the magic she used to create the changing desert, it can sometimes be difficult for travelers to navigate and many have reported very elaborate mirages that held them in fantasy for many risings and settings of the daysource. Despite the tricky nature of the desert, cities would eventually form there.
Aku made her permanent web in the southern slope of the Celestial Library where she could spectate the travellers of the changing desert. She was mostly amused by the Fonlanders bumbling around the golden sands, and eventually she noticed a glowing violet dot in the desert of yellow that grew larger as it approached her web. When it was close, she saw the man, Owuo, coming closer with a violet halo as a disc that was always behind his head. He wore a tunic shirt with short sleeves, and form fitting shorts that stopped well above his knees.
“Oh, the handsome demon has returned,” Aku said with delight and she made her way quickly to the bottom of the large web where Owuo was climbing up along the vertical strands of the web that weren’t sticky like the radial strands. She spun a comfortable swing from him. “Sit, sit,” she insisted, happy to host the Abosom who had only ever been kind to her despite his wicked evil that she often saw on display in the changing desert. Aku wasn’t a big fan of torture and suffering, she was sure to inject her meals with venom to put them to sleep until she was ready to eat them. She killed the insect kin of the Celestial library to protect the books of the library. She’d witnessed Owuo torture Fonlanders in the desert and at first she only noticed his cruelty and she watched like someone tragedy, usually out of curiosity and horror. But over time, she became amused by Owuo’s elaborate traps Owuo set that seemed to only ensnare Fonlanders who were self-serving and had recently been the cause of another Fonlander’s death.
“Hello, Aku, mother of the desert,” Owuo said with his dead smile warmed Aku. Nothing about the Abosom of Evil unnerved her and she found him pleasant to look at and to be talk to, which Owuo appreciated because he was used to the fear or loathing of other Fonlanders who knew that if he was present something was soon to die. Maybe it was because things always died around Aku, her web was full of insect kin waiting to be consumed.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Aku asked.
“I am recently returned to the Disc,” Owuo said and for a moment, his dead smile betrayed him and the flash of sadness that appeared on his face was noticeable enough to Aku, though Owuo quickly replaced his smile and continued. “I was meant to meet Lêgba. I made a breakthrough when I was on the Disc of Gu with Za Mane of the Hira because he leaves death in his wake. The bond between Red and Black magic is stronger than anyone realized and I saw it while I was with Za Mane. Lêgba seemed excited to talk about it, but then…”
“Let me guess, the Vodun do not approve?”
Owuo rolled his eyes when he heard the word Vodun.
“I sometimes follow Lêgba at a distance when he is with the Vodun and I hear the way they talk about me. I’ve always known their feelings toward me, they’ve never made it a secret. But there was a time when Lêgba and I spent a lot of time together exploring the Disc, back when there was less of everything. But I understand, the Vodun of the Disc can’t be buddies with the Abosom who delights in the deaths of the dwellers of the Disc, it would make him appear to be cruel by association.”
Aku understood this logic. Many Fonlanders feared her because of her web and her appetite for the insect kin, and it was for that reason that everyone expected her to be friendly with Owuo even before she was, and they would be surprised to know that Lêgba visited her every time he left the Disc and returned to it, like she was its gatekeeper. But Aku never visited the Opaque Castle of Lêgba or was seen in the Shifting Planes with him because she didn’t want to be gawked at.
“The Vodun can’t be evil,” Aku said. “I wonder if Fonlanders consider me evil?” she mused aloud.
“Definitely,” Owuo laughed. “You keep evil company, and you are constantly eating things in your web. And many don’t realize your essential function, Lêgba does, and he is infinitely grateful for you and the other Orb Weavers of the Libraries. Without you all, there would be no library. It’s the same for so many spider kin of the Fonlands, you all do more than anyone notices because you are subtle and quiet.”
“There is nothing worse than the opposite, a Fonlander who is coarse and loud,” Aku said and they both laughed at that.
“I don’t question my place anymore,” Owuo said. “There was a time when I wondered why I even existed, but what is the point of that? I exist, and I am delighted by the things that delight me. Does evil need to exist in the Fonlands? That is a question for the Mother-Father who has not removed me from it to this point. But without me, without fearsome figures like yourself and the other spiders, and other Fonlanders like us, the Fonlands would be innocent and frankly, boring. What if there is some great evil out there just waiting to descend on the Fonlands? Only Gu and Xêvioso would be able to stand up against it, everything else would be beautiful while it crumbled under the pressure. A realm without evil, can’t conceive of it and will be shocked at the introduction of it. But again, I don’t feel the need to justify my existence anymore, so let’s stop talking about this.”
Aku extended one of her long legs toward Owuo and slowly massaged his back so as to comfort him. “You are the Abosom of Irony. You cannot say what you mean, if even what you feel is apparent. You really don’t need any validation from anyone. But if it weighs so heavily on you, Owuo, maybe it is time to let go of parts of yourself that are evil. You can still exist as a death dealer without luxuriating in the demise of a Fonlander.”
Owuo threw back his head and laughed uproariously. “I thought so too, but then next thing I know, I’m in one-eyed ogre form eating corpses. It just comes out of me.”
“Well, you are always welcome on my web,” Aku said. “Are you hungry? I have a lot of things in the web.”
“I’m alright. I don’t like sleeping prey, but I will delight in watching you eat. And if you don’t mind, I will tell you about the interesting mix of Chaos and Transmogrification that I witnessed.”
Aku agreed and she barely listened while Owuo talked.
Lêgba is on the underside of his own Disc, the Disc of Deads and Wraiths, when he hears the voice of the Luminary Nyame in his mind.
“You are a hilt, apparently,” she says in the detached way that she sometimes said things.
“What does that mean?” Lêgba asks out loud. He is in the field where Fa had emerged from the Disc, marveling at the magic that still looms here.
“It means that you are part of the enemy’s plan to take the Fonlands. Owuo is the blade.”
“Why are you speaking in riddles? This sounds like a serious thing but I don’t understand what it means.” Lêgba is nervous and it is apparent in his voice.
“I am not speaking in riddles, I am being interrupted,” Nyame says with exasperation. “You are a hilt to wield Owuo as a blade to kill the Mother-Father so that this thing, Uneb, can corrupt the Lofted Disc. The two of you need to hide. We know from the Talj Rip that the assault of the enemy on a realm is slow moving, but Uneb has arrived to expedite the process. What will you and Owuo do with this information? The Luminaries and the Arcane Wizard are curious to know.”
“I guess I have to go ask Owuo. What do you all think we should do?”
“I think you should hide, you have never been a fighter.”
Lêgba chuckles. “I guess that is the truth. But Owuo delights in the death of things, he has trained long and hard to be able to humiliate warriors so that the last thing they hear is his laughter.”
“Then I am glad to hear that you will have a capable bodyguard in hiding. We think that the best thing is for you to hide.”
“I am sad to hear that you Luminaries have such a low opinion of me,” Lêgba says.
“Then it must be really devastating to know that the Earther agrees,” Nyame adds.
“Who is this Arcane Wizard?” Lêgba asks.
“The Arcana Master, he has upgraded to Pattern Magic, most impressive. Contact me when you have spoken to Owuo and let me know what your plans are.”
Owuo is with Aku when Lêgba finds him and they seem to be having a good time laughing together when he lands high up on her web. He grows extra long legs to walk the web and both Aku and Owuo cheer with delight when they notice him.
“This has never happened before,” Aku says with genuine delight. “The Vodun and Abosom together in my web. I guess it is the time of unprecedented things. I heard that the enemy arrived unexpectedly.”
“Indeed,” Lêgba says and looks to Owuo who is swinging in a seat that Aku had spun for him. “We have a problem.”
“You just realized that you’re as useless as I am since Fa emerged from your underside?” Owuo said and the way he said it make Aku laugh out loud.
“No, I already knew that I was useless, but apparently neither of us is useless. The enemy wants to use us to kill the Mother-Father.”
Owuo looks skeptically at Lêgba until it is apparent that he is not joking.
“Can it do that?”
“The Luminaries think so. And I don’t like to underestimate Nyame, she gets violent when I don’t take her seriously and I prefer her loving on me.”
“When was the last time that happened?” Owuo says.
“It can happen again if I don’t agitate her. So what are we going to do? She thinks we should go into hiding.”
“She said that you should go into hiding and I should be your bodyguard,” Owuo guesses.
“Whatever,” Lêgba says dismissively. “Do you agree?”
He shrugs. “Get comfortable I guess. We will hang here in the web with Aku until it is no longer safe to do so.”
“And then you can go into the Celestial Library if things get hairy,” Aku adds. “Nothing not born in the Fonlands will ever find you in there.”
PRL Serials 