Ariel is in a dream. She has just emerged from the studio and she heads to the first floor restaurant for a late breakfast. She’s been in the studio for almost twenty-four hours, with short breaks to use the bathroom or to grab a snack. She has not paused to eat anything substantial, and she has a large water bottle to quench her thirst that she keeps with her.
She hadn’t meant to be inside for twenty-four hours. After she signed with Third Sphere Records, she was eager to produce something that would prove to the legendary Jess Mess that he had made the right decision. She’d left that day after signing her record deal and she was on the phone with her mother for hours. The following day, she went to work at the restaurant where she declared that it was her last day, and when she left the restaurant, she went straight to the studio where she hadn’t seen the light of day for hours.
At the first floor restaurant, she gets eggs Benedict and an orange juice, and she sits next to the large windows so that she can watch the day out on the sidewalk. It is early afternoon and the streets are humming with life. Her cellphone rings and she answers.
“I called you all night last night,” Bell says.
“I’ve been in the studio, Bell. It’s been so amazing. I recorded the song Jess heard me perform at the restaurant, he swears it’s gonna be a hit single, but I have some songs I wanted to record and they got a catalogue of beats for me to choose from. I swear, Bell, all this feels like a dream come true and part of me is worried I’m about to wake up any minute now.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying the work. I’m so happy for you.”
“Are you happy enough to take the bar and be my full time lawyer? Your friend is nice and I’ll trust them as long as I have to, but I want you to come with me, to do this with me.”
“That’s why I called. I’m taking a test prep class and I’ll take the test this fall.”
“See, it’s a dream. I’m scared I’m gonna wake up Bell.”
“Just don’t pinch yourself,” he joked, “and it’ll last forever. But seriously, though, you’ve worked hard and you deserve this. This is a dream come true, it’s real. Have you met Seraphiel yet?”
“No, but Jess wants me to be at his Third Heaven set on Sunday…”
“Are you serious?” Bell interrupts excitedly. “That’s been sold out since they announced he would be there.”
“It’s crazy. I almost said no, this is all so much so fast, but I have to go. My mama flipped when I told her I was gonna see him live and meet him afterwards.”
“You get to meet him too? Oh man, get his autograph for me please.”
“I wish you could come with me, but I’m going with Jess. I didn’t get tickets or anything, but I’ll bring you an autograph.”
The two talk for a while before Ariel heads back up to the studio. When she goes inside, the track she’d recorded, the song she’d sung at the restaurant when Jess discovered her, was playing and there was a small crowd inside listening intently. Ariel stood just inside the door as the song finished and no one seemed to notice she was there.
“This is my new angel,” she recognizes Jess’s voice, and then the room explodes in applause. “And think, I just happened to stop at that restaurant and she just happened to be on stage. She was filling in for somebody else. It’s not coincidence that Seraphiel is back and I find this voice within the same week.”
“Is she debuting at Third Heaven?” someone asks.
“She’s going to be at Seraphiel’s set, but we haven’t talked about introducing her then, no. But that would be amazing.”
“Is that her?” Ariel hears a voice close to her.
“That’s her,” someone else says and the room breaks out in excited murmurs.
“Alright everybody,” Jess says, “let us have the studio. I’m glad you all came to hear it, and this is just the start of something big. And don’t ask her for an autograph or anything, this is her work space and you all are guests.”
Ariel was in a state of utter disbelief as the people filed out and complimented her like she was already music royalty.
“What do you think?” Jess asks when the two are alone. He always looks very calm and relaxed, and the loose fitting clothing he wears is like his uniform.
“About what?” Ariel asks and leans against the wall length desk underneath the glass of the sound booth.
“Debuting at Third Heaven.”
Ariel’s eyes are wide with shock, but the rest of her face feigns nonchalance.
“If you want to introduce me, that would be unbelievable…”
“I sent Seraphiel the recording,” Jess interrupts. “He’s so excited about it he said he’s coming a day early to meet you. I don’t know if you know this, but that is his favorite song, and he said you have the best version of it that he’s ever heard. Not only does he want to introduce you to the world during his set, but he wants to do the song with you as a duet. He already has an arrangement that I want to play for you. I know it’s a lot and it’s really fast, but I wasn’t just talking before. None of this is coincidence and you are going to be a star. An angel.”
Ariel is crying tears of joy. She has never been so happy in her life and she will tell everyone for the rest of her life that this is the greatest moment of her existence.
“I will definitely perform with Seraphiel,” Ariel says when she collects herself. “But my mama has to be there. This is such a huge moment, I need her to be there.”
“Consider it done,” Jess says and they hug. “Go on in the booth, I’ll play the track.”
Ariel listens to Seraphiel’s arrangement over and over, more than twenty times. Jess says good night after her first listen through and they plan to meet the following day to go over any notes she has before Seraphiel arrives.
– – –
from the Manual and Reference of the Fonlands
There is not concrete evidence that the true Lêgba has ever been to the Aerphim settlement of Endla. Some of the Vodun believe that the Lêgba who historically presided over the founding of the species was an iteration carrying out experiments for the true Lêgba who was doing his duties for Mawu-Lisa. Gû has always been very skeptical of his brother and after travelling to Endla, he is convinced that the planet of Prime 5 is Lêgba’s laboratory where he was first able to produce a being of universe Prime 5 that was born with the ecstatic gland that allowed Fonlanders to catalyze Divine Essence into magic. All Aerphim born on Endla in the past millennium are born with the ecstatic gland and there have been no documented cases of Aerphim born with a Third Heart. Gû is especially suspicious of Lêgba due to the nearly undetectable imposter that Lêgba created to do his duty to Mawu-Lisa that evaded the notice of the mother-father for much longer than it should have in recent history. Gû believes that recent indicences on his disc of murdered Fonlanders with stolen Third Hearts that Gû had personally gifted, is evidence of Lêgba’s desire to give the Aerphim Third Hearts, though nothing of the sort is evident on Endla.
Very few Fonlanders are born with Third Hearts and the majority of Fonlanders or even hybrid Fonlanders and Earthers or other beings of Prime 5 who have Third Hearts, received them directly from a Vodun. The Vodun all have Third Hearts, as well as many of the Lesser Vodun. The Vodun receive Third Hearts as gifts from the Mawu-Lisa on the holiest day of the Fonlands and they gift them as honors to beings of their discs for their own reasons.
The Daughters of Pultine are the only known Earthers with the potential to be born with the ecstatic gland or a Third Heart and it is not known how many of Pultine’s Daughters are presently on Earth and in possession of a Third Heart.
Within the Venerated Aerphim Empire, or VAE, of which the planet Endla is the throne world and Wiis is the secondary seat, the Aerphim are born with the ecstatic gland, but no Third Heart has ever been recorded. There have been documented cases of some Hafjeris of Wiis born with the ecstatic gland and there is a popular legend of a Hafjeris born with both the ecstatic gland and a Third Heart, but this has not been confirmed. The demi-planet Bromeran of the VAE, home to the Bromeris, has documented cases of Bromeris born with the ecstatic gland, no Third Hearts. The demi-planet Druont only recently joined the VAE after a protracted war with Xaxax. There are a surprising number of incidences of Druintes of Druont born with ecstatic glands, and to a lesser extent, Third Hearts.
The planet Xaxax is located within the VAE territory but has resisted its rule and influence. There are documented cases of Xaxews born with both the ecstatic gland and the Third Heart.
Outside of the Milky Way and Soulaxar galaxies, there are numerous sentient civilizations, but incidences of beings born with either ecstatic glands or Third Hearts is so rare as to be nonexistent.
PRL Serials 