PRL Serials

“Where’s Ivan?” Clay asked when I saw him in the Smiting Chamber. “He going to Talj?”

“He’s not, he’s still training with Owuo. I believe that they are on Lêgba’s Disc…”

“Take me there,” Clay said. “I can’t leave for this mission if I don’t see him first.”

“Maybe don’t go?” I suggested. “I don’t have time to leave the Chamber, I’m going into the mists soon so that I can coordinate the travel of forces to and from Talj. Clay, this isn’t the real fight. No one would be disappointed if you stayed here and spent time with your friend…”

“Husband,” Clay said forcefully and it was clear that I had offended him. 

“My apologies, of course, your husband. If you stay, I will get word to Lêgba himself to help you find Ivan.”

Clay was silent for a moment and even though this was a multiversal variant of the boy I knew, all grown up and a man now, I could see that he had the same heart as the Clay I knew. 

“Do you know why Ivan so mad at me?” Clay asked after a moment. “I know you have a lot to do, but just before you get to work, has Ivan said anything to you?”

“Sadly, you two are the talk of the Chamber. Ivan hasn’t said much to me directly about it, but he confides in Owuo. I would be wary of that association if I were you. Owuo mentioned to me that your dreams of Gu caused both you and Ivan to experience…something very intimate…” I didn’t know how to talk about it, but if Owuo told me, he’d likely told others and I wanted Clay to be aware of what was going around.

“What the fuck?” Clay asked with the disgust a child maintains for their elders when those elders mention or discuss things of a sexual nature. “How do you know about that? Did Ivan tell you?”

“Owuo did,” I said and Clay almost lost his temper completely but he maintained himself. 

“Everybody’s all in our business. It’s not what it seems like,” Clay struggled to explain and I was regretting this entire interaction. “Gu is making me one of his hounnongan, then I’ll be able to summon his powers through spells.”

“Really?” I asked with wonder. “But you don’t have an ecstatic gland. All of the hounnongan I’ve met in this world or in Prime 5 where Earth is located have been Fonlanders, or hybrids that possess the ecstatic gland..”

“Gu says I’m built for it and an ecstatic gland ain’t necessary for a hounnongan. What happened in my sleep was Gu poking around my subconscious and not knowing what he doing until he do it, it’s part of the intimacy between a hounnongan and their Vodun, which is why Ivan was affected ‘cause he always in my head.”

“Owuo says you sleep in his workshop, too,” I said and Clay cursed loudly enough that it echoed through the Chamber and he got dirty looks from others.

“I’m not fucking Gu!” He said angrily. “Just ‘cause he like me more than most living things don’t mean we’re being intimate and Owuo needs to keep our names out of his mouth.”

I watched him storm off, sure that he was being truthful.

“Where are you going?” I called after him.

“To find Ivan. I’ll sit this mission out.”

I found Yana about to enter the mists of the heptagon and I stood next to it on the Chamber floor.

“You’re a being of arcana,” she explained, “this shouldn’t be extremely foreign to you, but I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like it before. It is most similar to flying, not the take off, just floating and moving intentionally with your limbs. If you flap your wings in the mists, move your arms or legs, you are sure that you are moving, but it is metaphysical, your body doesn’t actually move.”

“So it’s like a simulation? Do I have to move from one universe to another?”

“You do but you’re not moving at your own speed, it is the speed of the magic of the Chamber which is instantaneous. If you are in the mists, you can create a portal from the chamber to the opening the Chamber can create in whatever realm we want to travel to. We can also send communications to other realms without traveling there. I am not savvy enough at casting portals to pull this off. I’ve been contacting the beings of the multiversal structure from the Smiting cards that Xêvisoso, Gu, Jo and Lêgba selected to join us for this mission, and Owuo is on Lêgba’s Disc to receive them. We are assembling forces in the Shifting Planes there. The nature of it makes connection to the Smiting Chamber much easier and you should be able to transport a large group much easier. I’ll be up in the Meta Chamber helping you navigate, and it’s on you to get everyone to Talj and then back to the Shifting Planes.”

I didn’t realize that we were bringing in others from other universes for the Talj mission, but it was a relief to know that Yana had already sorted out how to get it all done. In addition to the 4Warriors who were in the Shifting Planes with Lêgba familiaring themselves with the forces they would lead into battle, the four Vodun who started this endeavor had picked a being from the enchanted deck in their color to test the ability to safely assemble anyone to help.   

“Do you want to give it a try?” Yana asked. “Owuo has been transporting the multiversal Smiting Champs, and there are a few left.”

I have experience wielding arcana across the multiverse, but this was a much smoother experience with the help of the Chamber and Yana who stayed with me in the mists as they engulfed the heptagon. Having witnessed Yana inside the mists, and based on what she said about the metaphysics of the Smiting Chamber, I was stunned that a detailed map of the multiversal structure was instantly visible as the mists blotted out the view of the Chamber. It looked like a giant spider’s web in space and to navigate it, Yana took my hand and a moment later we were at a different part of the web. 

Inside of this view of the multiversal structure, both Yana and I retained our bodies, but it was all a very realistic simulation. I could hear her voice as clearly as I had before we began to navigate the structure. 

“This is the existence,” Yana said once we arrived at a ball of the webbing located at a crossroads of many intersecting strands.  The ball was much larger than us and it glowed white against the expansive black backdrop. 

I focused on the ball, feeling the nature of it, feeling for the arcana available there for me to exploit to avoid any need for acclimation to the new space-time. My abilities with the arcana of other worlds was greatly improved by that point, and it was helpful that the arcana of this new existence was similar to the arcana I had experienced before. I created a portal that led to the Shifting Planes of Lêgba’s Disc and then I pushed the portal into the glowing ball while Yana and I guided the portal to the location she had already determined inside the existence. I never entered the existence, and before long, the view of the multiversal structure began to dissipate as the mists diffused and we were back in the Chamber. 

“Who did we send to Owuo?” I asked.

“A Halfyn Heir,” Yana said. “Extremely powerful elemental powers. We considered bringing his partner with him, but decided against it. Good job, Issac. We can do it as many more times as you need to practice and soon we will have to test it with me in the Meta Chamber. I’ll let you know when that is ready. But soon, we will have our first battle with the enemy of all things.”

We did a couple more transports to Owuo on the Disc of Lêgba before taking a break and I found Ali and Whadgaf with the group preparing to leave the Smiting Chamber for the Disc of Lêgba to rendezvous with all the forces traveling to Talj. 

“How are you feeling?” I asked Ali and Whadgaf who more resembled friends than they had when I met them. 

“We have been in touch with the warriors of our universe,” Whadgaf explained. “Despite how bleak things seem, we are feeling optimistic for the first time in a while. If things go as smoothly as we have rehearsed over and over again, this just might work.” She looked to Ali with a smile on her beak. “We might be able to know our existence without this darkness once again.”

Alia, Maria, and the momatia Pultine and Tracia, recently returned to the Chamber, both from places they chose not to discuss with the larger group, were there as well. 

“Shall we go to the Shifting Planes, then?” Maria asked and I watched her create a portal to the Planes. I could see the large force assembling, some Fonlanders, others not of a universe I’d heard of before. 

“This will work,” I said to myself.