Long ago, Nyame, the wise Luminary of the Disc of Jo, was sitting high in the Cotton-Wood tree that she called home. She rested in a rocking chair on the branch that was as thick as a lake is wide around and the surface of the branch was busy with other dwellers of the Disc who called the Cotton-Wood home. As they moved about around her, they would stop to pay their respects to the mother of the trees that sustained them, for Nyame created the first seed that she planted into the surface of the star Damballa that eventually gave rise to all of the flora of Jo’s Disc including the Cotton-Woods and other trees, as well as the star flowers. Nyame appreciated the respect of the other dwellers of Jo’s disc, but they knew that she liked to sit alone with her thoughts when she was in her rocking chair and none would try to engage her in conversation, but prostrate at a respectful distance and chant words of thanksgiving and admiration. When she was not in her rocking chair, Nyame observed the stories, the lives of Fonlanders on every Disc when she wasn’t listening to Fonlanders tell her their stories or taking part in them herself. Nyame was the holder of the stories of the Fonlands and when she was in her rocking chair on the Cotton-Wood tree seemingly stoic and staring into nothing, she was producing the Scrolls that collected in the Time Chamber on the surface of Damballa to serve as a record of the Fonlands that was accessible to any Fonlander. The Scrolls are contained in the Time Chamber because it is a pocket dimension created by Damballa using Nyame’s design to contain the near infinite Scrolls that have recorded stories since the naming of the Discs.
Nyame was puzzled as she sat rocking high in the Cotton-Wood. Anansi had approached her just before she sat to rock and it set her time of contemplation down a path of curiosity that she hadn’t intended to contemplate.
“Before you sit, mother,” Anansi had said as he descended on his invisible webbing, “I have come with a request from my father. He would like your stories for the Celestial Library. He says that his library is not complete without your contribution and it is time to rectify that. I would access it on his behalf and create volumes to rest in the library so as not to disturb your Sacred Scroll.”
“What need do the Vodun have for the stories of my Scroll?” Nyame asked, slightly defensive but not meaning to be. Anansi was many things to many Fonlanders, but he was always a respectful and dutiful son to her. She couldn’t imagine that this would be a scheme, not until she sat to contemplate it, but when they spoke, she tried to relax her defensive posture and embraced the handsome man that looked like his father, but with extra arms and legs. He had two big beautiful eyes with three smaller ones half circling the tops of each, and he had a warm smile that melted her like only a child could for their mother.
“As I said, father craves completion of the Library. If it is an unreasonable ask, do accept my apologies and I will return to father at once and express your reservations.”
“There is no need to apologize,” Nyame said with a warm chuckle that she manufactured. As much as she loved her son, he was the son of his father, of Lêgba, and he had inherited great powers of deception that were his nature. She loved and trusted him, but she would need to verify this all with Lêgba himself just to be sure that there was no scheme afoot, but she didn’t want Anansi to be aware of her apprehensions. “I am just surprised. The Mother-Father seems content with the contents of the library as it exists, otherwise my Time Chamber would not be. And every Endlander, including the Vodun, are welcome to access the Scroll if they can access the Time Chamber, which Lêgba certainly can.”
“I did not probe him for those answers, mother, I am just a messenger. Shall I return to him and find out more, or will you inquire with him directly?”
Nyame dismissed Anansi, she would speak with Lêgba, but only after time in her rocking chair that had been hijacked by that encounter.
It was possible that Lêgba didn’t care at all about the Scroll and Anansi had some need for it that he was not willing to share with her. But what use could Anansi have for the Scroll, the stories of the Fonlands, that he would not want to share with his mother? Anansi wasn’t concerned with the control that a powerful Essence wielder could achieve by seizing another’s stories, he was handsome and charismatic enough that he could get most anything he wanted from anyone without the use of Essence. Anansi was concerned with the way others talked about him in his absence, he was obsessed with his reputation, to the point that Nyame found him to be a little hard to bear in mixed company because he was alway too accommodating and insisted on attention from everyone. Nyame could believe that Anansi wanted the stories for selfish reasons, but it was also possible that Lêgba was planning something.
Nyame was locked in contemplation when Obea yelled at her.
“Nyame, I know that you see me!” she yelled with frustration as Nyame blinked her eyes and shook her head, then focused her attention on Obea, the Luminary Aziza.
“Why are you disturbing me?” Nyame asked and she relaxed in her chair but stopped rocking.
“Why is Anansi telling everyone that he is the Vodun of stories?” Obea asked with a look of concern on her face.
“Maybe it is something his father calls him, but I haven’t heard it before.”
“You’ve been in your trance for long enough that I have heard it around the Discs, like it is being accepted as truth. No disrespect to your first born, but he is no Vodun, especially if his mother is not, and the Vodun of stories, no less, when you created the Time Chamber and the Fonlands Scroll. It is just like a male to think himself more deserving than a female, his own mother.”
“Is that why he wants access to the Scroll, he is bragging about being a Vodun with a purview?” Nyame said with a chuckle. “I’m glad it isn’t something more nefarious. He is his father’s son, afterall. I’ll allow it. He is my son, my legacy, I will make him the keeper of the stories of the Fonlands.”
“But a Vodun, though?” Obea asked incredulously.
“I’ll talk to him about that.”
“You should make him work for those stories. Have him complete trials before you relinquish your greatest work to him.”
“It will allow me to do other things,” Nyame admitted. “I have always wanted to spend time in the other realm. The Smiting Cards I have seen of the beings of that realm are interesting. I deserve a break from collecting stories. But the trials aren’t a bad idea, it will reinforce the importance of a keeper of stories.”
“You should introduce him to some griots as well,” Obea said with annoyance. “From what I hear he has never sat with one.”
“That can’t be true, every Fondlander has sat with a griot to hear the stories from the Scroll of the Fonlands, it is our education.”
“Did you ensure that he sat with a griot? Because you know his father was content to be that for him so he never sat him with one.”
Nyame was embarrassed. “He is Anansi, he was never really a child that I reared. He was a man at birth, he is probably younger now than when he was born. That will be one of the trials.”
“Have him fetch the mmoatia from the other realm, her name is Pultine.”
“Why? What do I care about a mmoatia called Pultine?”
“You care because your good friend Obea cares. I need to speak with Pultine and I will not be traveling to the other realm anytime soon, I hear that she does not come to the Fondlands often.”
“Will you share with me why I would ask my son to abduct Mmoatia from her chosen home?” Nyame asked.
“I’m not going to smite her or anything, and her name isn’t Mmoatia, that is her kin which is new to Agê’s Disc. I’ve just never seen one up close and I hear Pultine would be a challenge for anyone trying to capture her. A leopard from Lêgba’s Disc, a hornet from one of the nests of Sakpata’s Disc, and a python from Gu’s Disc. I will be sure to monitor his encounters, keep him honest.”
“Enjoy the spectacle,” Nyame said. “Sure, whatever, but I will only present the silly trials, you will collect them and let me know when he has proven himself worthy of the Scrolls. You will explain to that very aggressive collection of Fonlanders why they had to be forcefully taken from their homes and used as a trial for the child of a Vodun to prove himself.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Obea said enthusiastically and then she flew away faster than most eyes could perceive.
“Everyone is always scheming,” Nyame said and sat up straight in her chair. She didn’t worry over Obea’s plotting, she had known the Luminary Aziza long enough to know that she didn’t have evil intentions and at the very least, it would all be interesting to spectate.
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