Beyond the Gates
I. When the Border Trembled
It didn't begin inside Nouvo Lakay.
It began beyond the sacred boundary,
where even drums dared not beat too loudly,
where old trees leaned like sentinels.
A faint ripple.
A shimmer in the grass.
Then—a crack in the air, like dry skin splitting.
And through it came the Beasts.
Not many. Not yet. But enough.
Fanged, deformed, crowned with bone and flame,
they skulked through the rift like shadows made flesh—
testing the world.
II. The Five Priestesses Stand
When the horns sounded,
there were no gods to call.
Zion was still gone.
The Lwa silent.
But five priestesses stepped forward,
each bearing the mark of the divine.
• Ayola – Priestess of Papa Legba
With sigils carved in salt and coal,
she moved between worlds with a whisper.
Spirits followed her voice like children to fire.
• Ayomi – Priestess of Baron Samedi
Cloaked in death's colors, she smiled when she bled.
Her laughter stirred the dead from their dreams,
and her blade never swung twice in the same arc.
• Seal – Priestess of Erzulie Freda
Gentle hand, sharp tongue.
She turned love into vengeance, beauty into war.
No beast could look into her eyes and live unchanged.
• Thalia – Priestess of Ogou Feray
Warrior flame. Steel-blooded.
Every step she took shook the ground.
She did not pray—she commanded.
And Ogou's fire answered.
• Elis – Priestess of Maman Brigitte
The funeral mother.
With a crown of ash and bone-dust breath,
she guided souls back to fight once more.
III. The Border Battle
The beasts came in snarls and silence,
teeth jagged, hunger endless.
But the priestesses did not flinch.
Behind them stood warriors:
fighters of Nouvo Lakay,
the Velek-Tu,
spirit-bound champions,
and the living brave enough to die.
Ayola bent the crossroads, trapping monsters in loops of space.
Ayomi danced through blood, raising shadows to strike from behind.
Seal turned every wound she received into strength.
Thalia, with Ogou's fury, split a beast in two with a single blow.
Elis sang a death-hymn that made the bones of monsters rattle apart.
They did not retreat.
They pushed forward.
By twilight, the beasts were broken.
Some fled. Some were trapped in binding circles.
Some burned.
IV. The Watcher in the Hills
Far from the blood and smoke,
Ejimo stood on a shadowed ridge.
No one asked where she'd been.
But her fingers were stained with ash,
and her eyes followed the priestesses not with pride,
but with calculation.
"One gate tested," she whispered.
"The next… will break."
V. Aftermath
The people returned to Nouvo Lakay in silence.
They had seen who stood and who faltered.
They had seen Thalia lead with fire,
and Elis with death,
and Ayomi with laughter that could kill.
But most of all—
they had seen the gods absent.
Still, behind the stillness of the night,
another rift began to stir.
One the priestesses could not see.