Ahdis didn’t understand the concept of family. She was born alone in the darkness after emerging from the pod that nourished her and she rested in the silence of the soil that surrounded her. Ahdis was warm and safe in the dirt for a time that she could not measure, but she was settling. Subtle vibrations in the soil had caused her to slowly sink down into the Deep until she was falling.
The Deep Ocean is a large body of water that exists as the bottom of the Disc of Agê. It is as large as the Disc and the roof of the underground cavern is compacted dirt and the tangled roots of the foliage that grows down from the surface or from other pockets in the dirt where vegetation could take root and sprout deep beneath the surface of the Disc. There were entire cities in the Deep, nestled in pockets of dirt and stabilized by the innumerable roots, and these cities were populated by the dwellers of the surface but altered by a lifetime underground in the dark.
Ahdis had avoided all of those pocket cities and as she tumbled from the shifting dirt that was like a sprinkle of flour relative to the size of the Deep Ocean, Ahdis unfurled her feathered red wings for the first time and the curls of her thick red hair floated around her like she was underwater. She enjoyed falling, then she moved her wings to hover. She liked the feeling of flapping her wings and she tamed her curls with one hand, gathering the hair into a knot at the nape of her neck. She was completely naked and her ivory skin was stained with the dark soil from which she had emerged. The waters of the Deep Ocean glow Essence blue and give the cavern a natural light, and Ahdis squinted at the light for a while before her eyes adjusted. She eventually hovered over a shore of the Deep Ocean that was covered in glowing moss that beckoned her to land, and it was as soft against the skin of her feet as she thought it would be.
“You would dare to step foot on the immaculate shores of the Deep Ocean? Who are you to befoul this sacred place?”
Ahdis was shocked by the voice that seemed to move the crisp air of the large cavern and impact her body. Since she emerged from the dirt high above her, she had felt the wind currents and shifts she caused in them with the flapping of her wings and it was very different from her time spent surrounded by dirt. She could feel the steady movement of the atmosphere over the cavern that was moved by the movement of the surface of the Deep Ocean. The voice shouting at her was almost like a punch. She understood the words that the voice said, she understood the language intuitively, even though she hadn’t ever heard words before.
“Answer me or I will be forced to remove you!”
Ahdis saw a man on the mossy shore and he balanced on a large tail that was thick and scaled like a fish. He balanced with a large trident in one hand that stabbed into the mossy shore. The man was tall on his tail and his skin was dark and shiny in the glow of the cavern.
“I don’t know here,” Ahdis spoke and her first words conveyed her discombobulation at the very new experience she was having. She gained more confidence with each word she spoke as the fish man’s tail moved him along the shore like a snake in Ahdis’s direction.
“You should not be here, pale one,” the fish man said. “Leave at once or be removed!”
“I didn’t mean to be here,” Ahdis said, and she narrowed her eyes at the man when he stood over her and glared down. She didn’t like his aggression and she flitted her wings to hover at his eye level. “But I go where I go, you don’t control me, no you control me.”
Ahdis’s power raged out of her then. Her essence manifested as a white armor that surrounded her body in whatever form she dictated, so when she raged at the fish-man on the moss, she was covered in a haze of white that was an amplification of her actual body and monstrous, a petrifying vision to the fish-man who fell backwards over his tail and clawed back to the water in sheer terror. The white essence form of Ahdis was hulking and its skinny arms dragged along the moss covered shore. It growled with its mouth snarling layers of sharp teeth. Ahdis controlled the monstrosity while tucked inside of it and she delighted at the fright of the fish-man.
“What are you? Please, spare me,” the fish-man said as the hulking Ahdis glared down at him, too far away from the water for him to make a quick getaway.
Ahdis recalled her hulking Essence form back into her body. The fish-man was still wide-eyed with sheer terror and Ahdis just laughed and laughed. She skipped away from him along the moss covered shore, curious what else existed in the glowing cavern.
The arrival of the winged pale one in the cavern of the Deep Ocean upset the order that the battery of nommo who thought they controlled it had enjoyed. The battery was a group of about a hundred males and females of the fearsome Nommo Warriors of Absence Trench of the Disc of Agbe, who had discovered the Deep Ocean cavern by accident, but used it as their private resort when they got down time from their duties defending Absence City against the fearsome beasts of Agbe’s Oceans.
“Tell me you are making jokes, Bakary.” Oumar said with his hands. The two were cleaning up the seabed where they trained recruits to the Nommo Warriors. Ourmar had gathered all of the stone swords that the recruits used to build strength in their fighting arms and arranged them on the seafloor. Bakary had two large dummies that were carved of stone on each of his shoulders and he set them next to the neatly arranged practice swords.
“Trust me,” Bakary signed back when his hands were empty and he signed emphatically, pushing currents of water at Oumar to emphasize his frustration, “I wish that this was a joke. It definitely sounds like a joke, but this thing fell out of the soil above the cavern, so presumably it is of Agê’s Disc, no doubt sent by the spiteful Vodun female to claim the Deep Ocean as her own. I knew it was too good to be true, I told Issa that this spot she found couldn’t be truly abandoned and unknown to the Vodun. And look at us now, being constantly humiliated by a pale thing with wings.”
“You really think Agê sent her?” Oumar asked, his interest piqued by the notion that Agê herself was clearing the Deep Ocean of the nommo who had come to use the it as their own private getaway. In the long years that they had enjoyed their secret spot, they had transported a small community from Absence City to live along the shores of the Deep Ocean to serve as cooks and to maintain the homes they occupied while there. The Deep Ocean was a secret city before the pale one arrived.
“Who else? I don’t think the white thing even knows where she is, what she is. She just lets out that cloud that consumes her and shows everyone looking at it their greatest fears. If it were some kind of illusion we would have taken care of her already, but she is unbelievably strong in that cloud form. She is terror with red wings.”
“I can’t believe that Agê knows about our setup there,” Oumar signed. He started to swim away from the training floor, and Bakary followed him toward the large headquarters of the Nommo Warriors that was an underwater castle carved into the natural stone structures of the seafloor by ancient artisans whose work was so impeccable that it outlived even them. “Even if she knows about the Deep Ocean, I can’t imagine that she cares what goes on there, so long as there is no harm to her disc or its inhabitants. And we aren’t harming anything. But I fear that trying to rid the Deep Ocean of this white thing could attract Agê’s attention.”
“That’s even worse somehow,” Bakary signed. “So we can’t even get rid of her?”
“Not until we know what she is,” Oumar signed. “I don’t want to lose that retreat, it seems like Agbe’s Disc is teeming with things everywhere and we finally found a nice, quiet, immaculate place that is undisturbed by the masses. We can’t use our strength to solve this problem, we have to use our heads.”
Ahdis found her home in the Deep Ocean and for a very long time, she hardly even remembered that there was a ceiling of dirt above the ocean that she had fallen from, an entire world that she was completely disinterested in. The male nommo, and then the stronger females that confronted her on the mossy shore of the Deep Ocean became her entire world and she found that she enjoyed tossing them around and then back into the ocean. She enjoyed the talimbi who seemed to be servants to the nommo. The talimbi were pleasant enough and she would have conversations with them and never feel the need to unleash the white armor of her Essence. She learned about the nommo from Thierry, the talimbi who ran the large resort that the nommo had built in a picaresque corner of the mossy shores. Even after she realized that she had overreacted the first time she met the nommo male, she was still convinced that they were all deserving of her aggression. Thierry had told her how many of the talimbi had taken the work as servants at the resort not realizing that it was so far away from the city they were originally from on Agbe’s Disc, and their duties were so numerous that it was easier for them to just live at the Deep Ocean rather than travel back and forth at the whims of the nommo. Ahdis thought the nommo took advantage of the talimbi and she was happy to disturb their comfort, though she did enjoy the resort they had built and she refrained from completely destroying it.
“Where did you get your name?” Thierry asked Ahdis once when she sat with him on the dock where the nommo kept their fancy flying machines that they used to take scenic flights over the Deep Ocean. “You said that you were born in the dirt above, alone, in the dark, then fell out here. If that is the case, who named you?”
Ahdis thought for a moment. She had never contemplated this before. Her name was the natural response to the question others asked when they met her. Her name had always been part of her, though she had never heard it aloud before she uttered it the first time to the young talimbi boy who had a handsome human form with dark brown skin that he mostly kept when he worked at the resort. When she met him, she was confused as she happened onto the large structure on the mossy shore, and he was so startled by her that his shapeshifting ability faltered and he looked like a dark brown crocodile on two legs and in human clothing for a moment before he regained his composure. She hadn’t meant to frighten the boy and she was apologetic, and then they became friends. When he asked her name, Ahdis answered without hesitation, and it was the first time she had heard it aloud.
“So you named yourself?” Thierry asked.
“Not exactly,” Ahdis said, taking her time to try and explain it. “I didn’t make it up, I just knew it. Like somebody already named me. Maybe it was my parent, whatever that is.”
“I get that,” Thierry said, nodding his head. “It’s a nice name, unique. Ahdis. Never heard it before.”
“Thierry is a nice name,” Ahdis said. She sat on the dock and ran her feet through the water. “Where did you get it?”
“My mama. Thierry was her brother and her uncle. She just liked it I guess.”
“It’s sweet and important sounding. It fits you.”
Thierry chuckled. “Ahdis, you are very nice indeed. Nothing like what the nommo say you are. How much longer do you plan to terrorize them? I hope not forever. You may not like everything they do, but we got a life out here now, too. You run them off, you run us off. Some of us will be happy to go back home and not just send our earnings back to family, but this is a nice, cushy job for someone like me. My whole life is here. I would like to die here when I’m even older than I am now. Will you let us keep the life we have?”
“It’s not my fault the nommo lord over you all, they could be nicer to you and the other talimbi, but they act like you all are second to them, just servants who only exist to make their lives easier. Maybe if I drive them off, you can find better customers. The resort will belong to you and you can cultivate beings with a good nature here in the Deep Ocean. Not hoarders trying to keep it all to themselves like they own all of this.”
“And you are the new sovereign of the Deep that gets to make the determination who righteous and who ain’t? Who gets to enjoy the Deep Ocean and who don’t?”
Ahdis frowned at Thierry. “That’s not my point. I never tried to rule anything and I won’t, but the nommo won’t either, not while I’m here“
Thierry laughed. “Your heart in the right place, Ahdis, or I like to believe it is. Maybe you ain’t no good at all. But I like you more than the nommo. They definitely think they better than us shapeshifting spellcasters. They like to call us Death Magic users to make it seem like we reject the Divine Essence and scandalize the Mother-Father on their Lofted Disc, which ain’t true. Some talimbi use Death Magic, but none of us substitute it for Divine Essence, that’s just lies to make us seem more different from the mainstream than we are. But, the nommo made this place and I can’t see how we maintain it without them. You my friend, Ahdis?”
She nodded. She looked up to him like a father figure even though his human form at the resort was an old black man and his reptile form was an iguana with dark brown skin. The talimbi had largely accepted Ahdis even if there were some who were perpetually skeptical of her pale skin.
“Then we talk to the nommo as friends and we all make the Deep Ocean a place of peace and prosperity.”
Ahdis nodded again, but she wasn’t eager to agree with Thierry.
Ahdis hovered over the moss covered shore as the nommo approached, led by the female known as Issa. Ahdis disliked Issa with a passion, but seeing her always brought joy to Ahdis who recognized Issa as her only real competition in the Deep Ocean. Her tail was long and she was quickest on dry land among all the nommo. Issa was strong, too, and their clashes had always ended in a stalemate that left them both breathing heavily; it should be noted that Ahdis had never unleashed the full might of her Essence form on the nommo because she was afraid of collapsing the cavern of the Deep Ocean and the same can be said for Issa.
Thierry stood on the moss covered shore below Ahdis and he smiled kindly at the battery that looked fearful of the pale one hovering overhead.
“You honor us by agreeing to speak here,” Thierry said with a slight bow. He leaned on a cane in his iguana form and it delighted him to see the look of disgust on the faces of some of the nommo.
“We are nothing if not fair,” Issa said, her tail coiled out from beneath her over the moss with the large fin at the end.
“Then you are nothing,” Ahdis said, and the nommo whispered their anger amongst themselves at the disrespect to their leader.
“I know what you are,” Issa said to Ahdis and she slithered forward to approach the spot where Thierry stood, never taking her eyes from Ahdis who returned the intensity. “You are one of the mmoatia, the new kin of Agê’s disc. Only, nothing up there knows you exist down here, do they? You have nothing but Thierry here, isn’t that right?”
“With all due respect, Fierceness Issa, all of the talimbi accept Ahdis as one of us, regardless of her origins. And Ahdis has made this her home. We can learn to live here together in harmony.”
“We shall see,” Issa said.
Suddenly, a ball of dark green light appeared on the mossy shore, and then a portal took shape between the nommo and Thierry that caused everyone to gasp with fear, except for Issa who knew what was happening, and Ahdis who honestly couldn’t care less. But when the Vodun Agê emerged through the portal and into the Deep Ocean cavern, every being who bore witness dropped to the ground to prostrate before the Vodun.
Ahdis stared up at the wondrous woman after she’d been bowed for minutes. She had never laid eyes on the Vodun before, but Ahdis knew exactly who Agê was.
“Stand,” Agê said and Ahdis stood, shaking with nerves. “Tell me your name.”
Ahdis said her name more forcefully than she knew she was capable.
“Very good, you did hear me way down here.” Agê approached Ahdis and put a hand on her chest. T][ he spot where they connected glowed bright green and then subsided. “You now bear a Third Heart. Find your way to the surface and to your sisters”
Then Agê turned her attention to the nommo and she beckoned Issa to stand.
“If you were mine, I’d give you the same gift, but my sister will see you soon enough. I have not come here to arbitrate a dispute like I think you counted on. This Deep Ocean is my Disc and it also belongs to Agbe, but we only care if harm is done to it. If you don’t like Ahdis here, then she is your problem to address. But Ahdis is mmoatia, the future of my disc and whether you are allowed to remain here is her decision to make. I have done what I came here to do,” she said and she vanished from sight without even the appearance of a green portal, or another word to Ahdis.
In the absence of the Vodun, the nommo looked to Ahdis, but she was flying up toward the dirt roof of the cavern.
“Do whatever Thierry says until I get back!” she called down to the nommo. “Make trouble and I’ll make you all regret it.”
Then, Ahdis plunged into the dirt far away from the mossy shores.
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