The Meeting Beneath the Temple Flame
The temple of stone breathed with power.
Torches burned with unnatural blue flame, and the stone at the center of the sacred hall pulsed with the rhythms of gods present and unseen.
Zion knelt at the highest step, his three sigils glowing faintly beneath his skin. Around him stood the four priestesses: Thalia, Sael, Ayomi, and Elis—each marked, each carrying the essence of their patron god.
One by one, the gods manifested—not in full form, but as shadows of will and voice.
First came Papa Legba, leaning on his cane, smile hidden under layers of knowing.
"Zion, the gate has opened again. The thing beyond is learning. It has tasted a god and liked the flavor."
Beside him stepped forward Papa Loko, tall and silent, with the scent of green bark and soil about him. His fingers bled leaves.
Last came the shifting form of Damballah, the serpent god, white-scaled and coiled in smoke, eyes unblinking.
Their arrival brought silence. Even the gods waited.
Zion rose and spoke:
"We will not wait for this force to strike again. We prepare. We strike first."
Legba nodded. "You'll go where the silence is deepest."
He then turned to Papa Loko.
"Make the forest move like breath. Let it twist, split, trap, confuse."
Papa Loko bowed wordlessly and faded into bark and mist.
Then, to Damballah:
"Let your children rest beneath root and branch. Should strangers walk wrongly… let their bones feed the soil."
The serpent coiled tighter and nodded. A single, echoing hiss followed his vanishing.
The Priestesses' Roles Set
Thalia, protector of blood and war, would lead in open battle.
Sael, Erzulie's hand, would secure the inner workings of economy and morale.
Ayomi, Papa Legba's priestess, would maintain the Gate and the flow of intelligence.
Elis, cloaked in death and shadow, would become the tribe's last warning—the one who senses decay before others feel its chill.
Zion's Covert Departure
Later that night, while most of Nouvo Lakay slept, Zion prepared alone.
Thalia found him strapping a curved blade to his thigh. She didn't ask where he was going—only how many he was taking.
"None," Zion said. "Too many eyes make too much noise."
He kissed her forehead. For a moment, they were just two people in the quiet before a storm.
Then he vanished into the trees, heading toward the far reaches of the eastern shadow, to where the god-eater's silence grew loudest.
In the Forest, the Change Begins
Under Papa Loko's will, the forest began to shift.
Trees rearranged themselves in the night.
Trails vanished or looped endlessly.
Thorned vines crept higher, ready to ensnare intruders.
And under every fern, in every hollow root, Damballah's serpents coiled, silent and deadly.
The land now breathed with will, watching. Waiting