“It’s been a while,” Tracia says as she lands on the road leading to the Aziza mound.
“Not so long,” Pultine says and she hugs her sister in a way that the two haven’t embraced in a long time. Pultine holds Tracia at arm’s length and stares into her eyes. “We have come a long way together, haven’t we, sister? We have cocooned more times than we should have been able considering we haven’t even made it to recession, neither of us are shrinking. I am thankful for the time we had together and the times that are ahead, even if they lead to the destruction of everything.”
“It went badly in Paradise?” Tracia asks with concern. “I’ve never seen you this…nice, and morose. Is it that bad?”
“Une is a terror, she will enslave or kill us if we don’t kill her first. And she is coming. I am not afraid, not exactly.” Pultine thinks a moment as the sounds of the jungle sing around her. It is a beautiful day and Pultine would rather be lying on the large branch of a tree and staring up into the canopy. “I just know that what comes soon is the most consequential thing we have done in all of our time, and it is time to go. Everyone is gathering, armies of Golden Executioners, the asafo warrior groups of the jungle Asanbosam and forest colonies, and the legendary Deads who now stand as Fâ’s sentries.”
“Who is Fâ?” Tracia asks, and she has many more questions but Pultine is in a talkative mood.
“The new Vodun of Death. You will like her when you meet her. Agê does not, but that is mostly resentment at the fact that she has resided in the Disc of Lêgba all this time and could have been cultivating the Death Magic of the Fonlands. But she was born from the underside of the Disc fully aware of what is coming. We will go to Une soon, it is all coming together. And though I have every intention of surviving this attack, just as I did in our last encounter, I would be remiss not to plan for the worst and to settle my affairs here. I want to appreciate being here on the Disc while I can. Before we go. You are going with me, aren’t you?”
“Of course,” Tracia assures, “and I’ve had the same thought. Metatron and I have taken up residence in the Aziza mound. I haven’t felt so at home there since before the Idols shrunk out of existence. We are the Idols now, that is hard to believe, and it has been so long, but it feels like home in the mound again.”
“I was with Rusa before coming here and I will see it all one last time, then we must go to the house of Agê to rendezvous with the other green generals before we are transported to the realm of Une.”
“So the battle is imminent?” Tracia asks as Pultine nods. She knew it was coming and she is prepared, but this seems sudden.
They fly to the Aziza mound where Pultine receives a warm welcome from the mmoatia, the umbatia, even visiting yumboes, abada, and homun who are disturbing their regular movement in the jungle to see the classic Supreme Mmoatia before their big confrontation.
“Why isn’t Ahdis here?” Pultine asks Tracia at the head of the large table made from the dirt of the mound and elegantly decorated by the aboatia Whil.
“She doesn’t know?” Whil asks dramatically; he sits across from Tracia. “Why has no one told her? It’s very heroic, just like you three, she is one of Sakpata’s Seven that I read about in the exclusive scrolls from the Smiting Chamber. They have gone in search of the enemy across the multiversal structure to help Sakpata destroy it.”
“You spend too much time reading scrolls,” Lorv says with annoyance, sitting next to Whil. “I don’t even have to read them because he’s always going on and on about them. Ask me about how things are going for him in the swamps, I couldn’t tell you because he’s been following this Une business like it is entertainment. It is very interesting to hear about all of the beings from other realms, though, I will admit that.”
“I would have gone with them,” Raius says next to Tracia. “But I’m happy to help defend the Fonlands.”
“She will be an asset to Sakpata,” Pultine says, masking her disappointment. “It would have been good to see her before we left.
”They are all silent for a moment as the Fonlanders at the table celebrate them and enjoy one another’s company.
“Are you both afraid?” Whil asks.
“Of course not,” Raius says with a laugh. “You’ve read about the Pristine’s triumph against Une.”
“A triumph that was short-lived,” Pultine says sternly, not hiding her frustration. “Did the scrolls tell of the realm of Talj that I fought to preserve? How the entirety of it was ripped in two? Because that hardly sounds like triumph to me.”
Raius and Whil are both embarrassed and look down at the food in front of them.
“What we face is serious,” Tracia says and they all look at her. “We can’t underestimate it so we have to be sober about the reality. This may be the last time that we are all together like this. I am glad that we could be here together. It is not an occasion to be sad, we have had a good time, but we can’t be flippant about what we face. Now is the time to renew yourself in the magic that made you because if the enemy gets its hands on you, it can kill you, but worse, it can bend you to its will. We know something of bending things to our will and we will not surrender easily to anything. We will not let our fellow Fonlanders surrender either, not if we can stop it and be safe ourselves. The Fonlands survive if we survive and we will not disappoint the lands that made us.” Tracia has been speaking loudly enough that others along the table, the younger mmoatia, the abada, the homun, the yumboes, the umbatia, they all pause in their revelry to be stirred by Tracia’s words. They cheer when she finishes and then it is time.
“This is the end of an era,” Lorv says after they wave goodbye to the last of the guests to the mound, the permanent inhabitants are still enjoying the spread on the decorated table.
“No,” Pultine says. She had been largely silent since her outburst at Raius and Whil. “We have been in the time of the Second Unrest since the Outsiders arrived and alerted us to the threat that was coming, over a hundred Earther years ago. We go to the end.”
“The Unrest,” Lorv says with a slow nod. “That brings back memories I had largely forgotten considering how much time I’ve spent in the other realm. But those times in the Fonlands when the rifts to the Earther realm appeared spontaneously were so unsure and chaotic, Fonlanders were disappearing left and right. And I hadn’t felt that level of dread since I brought Top back to Endla in the other realm. Second Unrest, indeed.”
“Are you all joining the army to defend the Fonlands from Une?” Tracia asks, realizing that she isn’t sure exactly what would happen if and when Une tried to land on the Fonlands.
“Lorv, Whil, and I have been training the forces of our disc in fortifying their psychic defenses. There is a sizable force, too,” Raius says. “The younger mmoatia are studying as well, but they are creating safe havens to protect the defenseless in the event the enemy makes landfall. If that happens, the three of us will lend our talents in green magic to other discs that are organizing the same way. When she comes, she will be met with considerable resistance.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Tracia says with a smile.
Pultine and Tracia linger for a while longer before they say goodbye and leave the Aziza mound for the House of Agê.
“It is good to see you,” the Vodun Agê smiles with her arms outstretched as Tracia and Pultine land on the wooden roof of the large House that straddles the jungle and the forest in the center of the Disc on top of the canopy. “It is always good to see the strong mmoatia you two have become. I remember when Tracia was a child obsessed with my calabash. Did you see all of this coming?” Agê asks genuinely as she stands before them in her long, strapless skirt that exposes her bare feet. The Vodun is tall, but the mmoatia aren’t dwarfed by her.
“I knew we were coming to darkness, but then I thought that we had arrived at it multiple times already, and that is when the calabash lost its luster for me,” Tracia admitted. “Divining is only helpful in times of peace and we have been at war for quite some time. I find it best to act.”
Agê nods and then looks to Pultine, who smiles weakly at the Vodun. There are others on the rooftop, the Strange Witch is talking with the Luminary Aziza, Obea, and there is a group of large asanbosam in dark green tunic shirts to match the skirts that Pultine and Tracia wear. Agê sits in front of the mmoatia who sit cross-legged like the Vodun.
“You wonder if your best will be enough considering Talj,” Agê says to her and Pultine nods. “I was there, I was outside of everything using all of my magic, every drop of Divine Essence, all my knowledge of the Green that we have cultivated with the Divine Essence, but it wasn’t enough. I watched the Talj Junction rip down the middle and then curl up out of existence into oblivion, and I also felt it because I was trying so hard to save it.” Agê looks down at her hands and she cups them, her right hand on top of the left as tears fall from her cheeks. The tears are a subtle shade of Essence blue, and from two tear drops, dirt begins to fill the cup of her hands and when they are full to the brim, a sprout begins to grow in a vibrant shade of green. The sprout becomes a stem and then a flower that neither of the mmoatia have ever seen before begins to bloom and Agê wipes the last tear from her cheek. The flower is a vibrant shade of yellow with two clusters of stacked petals on either side of a large red receptacle.
“This flower will forever grow on this Disc and be called Junction. It will one day give birth to a great Idol who will have legends like the two of you to inspire them, and they will be known as Talj the Living.”
Age’s hands are inundated with green magic and then the flower and the dirt in her hands disappear.
“I was helpless,” the Vodun continued. “All I could do was watch Talj disappear, so I understand feelings of inadequacy. But you beat her, Pultine, daughter of Iuma, the sturdy and steadfast. You hurt Une and she fears us because of you. I think that she underestimates me because I have made contact with her many times with the aid of the Hyperion and I have tried to dissuade her from her plans to infect the Fonlands, but she is coming. We have more time than we thought to prepare here, but Xêvioso and the new Vodun Fâ are eager to catch Une unaware where she lives.”
“So Une is coming here?” Tracia asks. “If that is the case, we should meet her with all of our might in the aether around Aido Hwedo.”
“She won’t truly be here,” Agê explained. “She will see and feel, but she will be safe in her home realm, safe to die here if we manage to kill whatever form she takes. She is the Pito, she lives in everything that she infects, but they are her limbs, nothing vital that would cut her down. She is not sending her heart to the Fonlands, and while she is so focused on revenge, we will drive a steak through that heart. It will not bring Talj back, but I know that every being of that existence that was lost would be glad to know that we ended the thing that ended them so casually. We are enough, Pultine, but we cannot let this enemy use our own strengths against us. She is trying to demoralize us, she is puffing up to be bigger, but it is bluster. She is scatter-brained and nervous. But she is very powerful and we can’t let doubt give her the edge, if we slip up or hesitate, we will miss our chance.”
“I won’t miss again,” Pultine says resolutely. “I brought backup this time,” and she smiles at Tracia.
“Une will know the true power of the green,” Tracia says, “and it will be the final death of her.”
“She is here!” The Luminary Obea yells and it disturbs the Vodun and the Mmoatia and are up on their feet in a second. “Jo has sent out a psychic message, she says that Une has been identified in the aether around Aido Hwedo!”
“How is that possible?” Agê asks. If she is panicked by the news, she expresses it with anger that rages on her face. “How did she catch us unaware?”
“Jo says that the enemy is being delayed with a spell by the Arcana Master, and powerful beings are learning what they can. She has fallen into the trap set by those watching for her. You should go to the Smiting Chamber, the Vodun are meeting there now.”
Agê disappears from the rooftop.
“She is here?” Tracia says to Pultine, both their wings high and on alert.
“She is here. It’s time,” Pultine says, but they have to wait for orders from their Vodun.
PRL Serials 