11. The Love Garden

When you know the name of Laaroye, you must be careful. 

For he is a very vengeful Orisha who would not spare anything to ensure that those who trouble the peace of his children be vanquished to the depths of the First Heavens. Only fit to live amongst the worrisome descendants of the fallen one. 

Listen carefully to whatever incantations that are spewed out on the battlefield, for the time that you hear the words invoking  the Law of the power of a God who was killed out of hatred, then you must flee. 

However, do not be deceived, though.

Neither should you fear for those who Laaroye smiles on, are those who are saved and given a special power to protect both themselves and their loved ones. They master the art of making their great heroes remain seven amongst them, this is something that not even the Other Orisha can grant. 

However, before I can go on the praises of thid fearsome being, I must first let you get aware of whatever did lead to his present state. That is, the state of him becoming an Orisha, the godhood entrant. 

Yes, listen, Laaroye was not always an Orisha.

He was never a God to start with. And unlike you and me, he was not a spirit being to even mention the least.

He was a human, one of the least creations that Eledumare has come to favor more than everyone else. Not that we have the notion to complain, Eledumare has given us everything that we may need, all in the heavens here. 

Laaroye was a human, a designer or should we say, an artisan. The history has it that while he lived as human the King of a certain Kingdom had requested for the rebuilding of his palace.

After Moremi, the Queen who allowed herself to be captured into the enemy ranks just to seduce their King and learn the secrets returned back to him, victoriously. The human King rejected his queen and asked for his Throne to be pulled down for it had been desecrated by his woman, regardless whether she was the only reason why they had successfully defeated their strong imposing enemy. 

It was at this time that Laaroye presented his design to the King, the bored King who had rejected every other design that the others had brought for a new palace. One which is devoid of every memory of the former Queen. 

Laaroye was blessed and his design was immediately accepted. This was a big win for him being that he had traveled far to come here and then he did get accepted on the first design. Even without any revisions. It did not go without being envied by the others who had been there for longer, trying to convince the kIng why their design was the best. 

You could pretty much imagine what the rest of them plotted to do, that is simply human nature for you. Very envious beings that they are. They plotted and ganged up, coming to the tent where Laaroye dwelt in. And then, burnt him to death, even within

 his place of temporary abode. 

Laaroye died, a taste of vengeance on his tongue and contempt for the one god who refused to protect him. The goddess being Oya, the mother of Storms and War and weather. And the intermediary for the dead.  

______________

Culled from: How the Gods came to be; As written by historian Culminus 

_________________

The portal fizzled just as Maacabu who was the last person walked through, the walls of it collapsing on itself. In the next second, the air had cleared up of every sight that spoke of the existence of a portal in the first palace. The people who had travelled through it stood for a while as they got accustomed to the new environments that they found  themselves in, all except for Iyabo, the woman in teh two piece clothing. 

Iyabo continued walking, her eyes gaunt with some almost unnoticeable signs of fatigue as she sighed to herself now. The staff in her right hand was held onto firmly and then struck just as firm against the clodden ground of soil and dirt. 

AT the top of it, it had a circle on it, then within the circle, there was a  sort of asterisk that was within the circle, all the sides of it humming with some vibrant magenta color hues. It was a depiction of just how much power that this lady was capable of, which was not a problem being that she was an Irunmole. For Irunmoles had to be the most experienced people when it came down to laws and Agbara manipulation. It was one of the perks that they enjoyed being the race that was immediately answerable to the Gods and did their biddings, which included running their errands. Their natural affinity to any law they picked was only one of the certain rewards they did enjoy for a race servitude to the Orishas. 

There was the growth of vegetation around, all so fine and beautiful that they immediately relaxed the mind of just anyone who would venture into this place. The air was fresh, much fresher than the previous space where they had been.

But this time, there was the distinct absence of the smells of cooking bacon and meals on the fire. The absence of children running and playing and laughing happily in the festive moods that had overtaken the whole palace. It was much different compared to the previous place and no one needed to be told about it. 

The grass and the vegetation that was about was spread out in such a circular style around the huge bungalow styled building which was some meters in the center of everything that they looked on. However, within the spirals of the grass, there were some park benches which were put there for relaxation ro whatever the purpose of it was intended for . That aside, at the spot where the house was, itself, there  a clearing existed, a square clearing which cut out for some meters as a wheel. And in the front of the building, more like to the left hand side of the building there was the noticeable presence of a waterfall. 

The waterfall jetted out from the central hose in a circular concrete basin which was shaped like a petal. And indeed not so far from the truth for at the bottom of the basin were some rose petals that crawled on the base and the sides of the basin. The water pressure was high enough, the water bursting out at a height of six to seven meters high. 

That generally increased the height of the fountain, if one were to consider the foot sized length of the basin, to the size of seven to eight feet tall. That was roughly intimidating to the 5ft tall Hadjans and the Ronke who was only some inches away from being  5footer too. However, to Macabu and the woman named Iyabo, it was nothing. In fact, Macabu was more than taller than the fountain, being that he was a natural 9 footer. 

Shin and Hana stood in awe, watching the serenity in the place for as long as they could. Ths was somewhat tempting because of the lull that was present, pushing them to just close their eyes and rest that everything would be fine. And this lull pushed harder and harder, despite that spirit beings did not really sleep. In fact, they could not sleep.

Sleep was a by-product of human labour. And by a long shot, they were not humans.  Still the pull on them was hard and tough enough, which was just enough to get them on the guiard as they tried to look for whatever could be the potential threat in the area. 

“Are you going to move or would your friends die out here?” Iyabo said, turning back after she had noticed that she was the only one who was walking now. “In as much as I would love to help you, by the reason of my person, I would hate for you to record a death here in the Love Garden. It would bring my ratings down by far and you and I know that I cannot do business well enough here if that comes to be.” Iyabo spoke, a hint of displeasure in her voice, despite the smile that she had on. 

Her silver hair flashed now, swaying just a bit in the motion of the wind, left and right. She lightly tipped the end of the staff in her hand against the ground once more, her smile still unfading. Although it was showing that the smile was just at the verge of fading off. 

“Come on, you both. I know you are strangers here but then since you crashed down here,then you must get the help you need. Even though I can tell you that this place sets you on the edge.” Iyabo sighed.