Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

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Fiction

A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces

Here’s a list of items/materials you need for this journey. Please note that these items vary from the purpose of your meeting. Below is a breakdown.

  1. If you have suffered hurt from a miscreant, plunderer, been swindled in trade, or assaulted in any manner, this section is for you. Buy either a three-month-old native brown broiler or a seven-year-old he-goat. A five-liter keg of freshly tapped pam-wine. Spices of dried locust beans, powdered ginger, and mixed red and black pepper, and half kongo of kolanut.
  2. If what you seek is a child, bring along a smooth wooden carved doll, wrapped in a shawl. If it’s a boy you want, sew a scrap of your husband’s favorite outfit on it. If you want a girl, cut a tuft of your hair and weave it on the doll’s head. Two unblemished chickens—layers to be precise. An unsullied promise to the deity will be the last ingredient in granting your desire.
  3. If what you seek is wealth, come along with your tool(s) for work. Hoe, cutlass, seeds, needle, fabrics, pot, spoons, hammer, trammels, etc. The deity frowns against indolence. Know this, lest you go back with an avalanche of curses to compound your problems.
  4. If you are sick and it seems every trial of the healers’ potion is not alleviating your ailment, come along with untainted honey tightly enclosed in a bottle. Five turkey eggs. Be careful with the eggs. Guard them with all your might.
  5. If what you desire is long life in this mortal world, go and have a look at guide number one, with an addition of a cock and corn seeds. The amount of seeds the cock ingests will be added to your number of supposed years to be spent on Earth.

The journey you are about to embark on is a dreadful one. The road will be littered with danger. Here are a few tips for your safety.

  1. Beware of road bandits looking for slaves to auction at the human market. Mostly, their station is inside a makeshift tent concealed with banana leaves. They mount broken boulders on top of each other, forming a table in the middle of the road. These ones are called Black Cats; a dreadful ostracized cult.
  2. Witches take the form of damsels with immaculate skin and voluptuous bodies. They are usually found walking along the road side. Some carry baskets while plucking vegetables in the forest. Beware! Look not into their eyes. If you fail to heed to this, you will be ensorcelled by a cyan glow in their irises, ensnaring you into their grasp. They will take you to their lair, shapeshift into ugly vultures and feed on you to maintain their youthfulness.
  3. It is essential you enter a boat in the course of your voyage. The boat is paddled by a man who is trapped in this space. He is known as Baba Ibeji the ferryman. He doesn’t have two front teeth and dons a lace with faded shiny stones as embellishment. His payment is not coins, but stories from your world. While he paddles you across the river, keep your gaze fixed on him. Voracious creatures living beneath want you as an entertainer for your priceless stories. Never run out of stories to tell Baba Ibeji. He will be there to take you back to the other side.
  4. Avoid the road when it is sunset. A headless rider with a mace and a flag plies the dusty road. The mace collects souls of mortals. This is the only way he can pay the keepers of the underworld for a debt he owes them. He establishes his presence by an odd neighing of his stallion.
  5. In case of forces not mentioned here, I’d expect that you use a kludge to get yourself out of such situations. A piece of advice; most entities here are spirits. They cannot hurt you, but expect you to give into their gimmicks.

Now that you have made up your mind to find the deity of many faces, here are step-by-step guides on how to achieve this.

  1. Leave your home when denizens are still swathed in the comfort of their beds. The sky must still be veiled with darkness, overshadowing the atmosphere with its black sheen agbada. Grab your bag, I need not remind you of the coarse oval red stone, olive oil, knife, and other items needed for this journey concealed in the bag. You mustn’t break words with anyone after you leave your house. Sound it as warning to whoever is accompanying you.
  2. The morning breeze will become violent all of a sudden, sending gusts of shivers through you. Keep forging ahead. Enter the forest, head east where the sun will resume its morning duties to illuminate your path. As you plunge deeper your presence will awaken the sleepy, calm, and dreadful beings: dryads, boisterous cicadas, gallant gnomes, nine-lives’ bobcats, and shape-shifting avian-folks roosting on tree branches. Some of them will ignore you, perceiving you as a lonely human who’s just passing through. Some will see you as a threat, a malevolent fellow whose passing reeks of evil. Some will see you as a meal, fresh and tasty for their stomach.

    Watch out for the green animated vines slithering on the ground to your feet. They see everyone as a threat. Quickly, pull out the red stone, it doubles as a talisman. The vines know better than to attack you after sighting the stone.

  3. The dim appearance of the sun shows the gloaming is set to take charge. A favonian air will first saturate the atmosphere before dissipating away. Remain calm, brace yourself for what comes next. First, you will sight a swarm of belligerent bees carpeting the vast sky. Second, the atmosphere will gradually become tulgey. The forest creatures will take their abrupt leave. Trees will shrink, turn inanimate and close their hollows. Fossorials will scamper into their burrows, sealing them to avoid the wrath of the Night-Demon—that’s what he is called. He’s the king of this forest, an autocratic creature from the abyss of hell that spares no time in spreading a conflagration of danger to anyone in its way. Do not allow his poisonous goop to touch you. Run, mortals are no match for this horned dark-ocellated beast. He rides on an undead pteranodon cawing aloud to strip the brevity off your skin. Stretch forth the red stone toward the sturdy iroko tree, and speak the incantations the babalawo told you to chant. The iroko tree will widen its mouth for you to take refuge. Enter, grope for the medieval torch hung in the sconce screwed on the wall. Light your match. Pour the olive oil on the torch. The brightness will drown the dread in you.
  4. You are safe here. I assure you. Sleep, rest, tomorrow you will continue the journey.

Congratulations on making it in one piece. This next guide is essential to receiving from the deity. It is sacrosanct that you heed this final part. You have come too far, passed many hurdles, escaped life threatening experiences to return with nothing.

  1. The deity is a sucker for consecration. Ensure you empty your heart of hatred, vengeance, and their cohort. Peel yourself of any dolorous clothing material.
  2. Place the items in front of the gargantuan effigy. Close to their feet, kneel and make your requests, complaints, and desires known.
  3. Shut your eyes and allow yourself to be immersed in their aura that will levitate you into another realm.
  4. Due to their magnificence they will appear to you in different forms.
  5. You may find yourself in the woods: gelid and mist, thick among the trees. Listen to the howling of the she-wolf. In the vibrant howling are the instructions you need. In your ears, they will be translated plain and sound for your comprehension.
  6. You may find yourself in an open field during the day, lying amidst wavy maize plants, or in a verdant glade. The birds will tweet and sing. Listen to the finches and blue jays, hovering, producing a harmonious tune for your study. Their voices will heal you.
  7. This is rare, but they appear as a water goddess while you are seated on the beach. This is how close you can see them in person. An image from the river will appear in a female physique. The water might encircle you, lift you up and draw you closer. Count yourself lucky, they find you worthy to reveal this much to you.

I trust this was detailed enough directions for you. Remember to go over all that has been said in case you feel there’s something you are missing. May I remind you that no part of this guide must be reproduced and resold in any format existing.

Good luck!

Oyedotun Damilola Muees

Oyedotun Damilola Muees

Oyedotun Damilola Muees is a Nigerian writer of contemporary and speculative fiction, and an associate member of SFWA and ASFS. His short story, “All We Have Left is Ourselves,” was a winner of the 2022 PEN Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers, and a winner in the 2022 Utopia Awards in the short story category. His areas of interest are queerness, environment, history, war, tradition, myths, folklore, and pop-culture. You can find his works (published and forthcoming) in Dark Matter: Monster Lairs, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Our Move Next, Solarpunk, Reckoning, Kalahari Review, Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction World, and other places. When he is not solving customers’ issues in his day job, you can find him watching animations, horror and thriller series, and snacking on plantain chips. You can connect with him on Twitter @dhamlex99.

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