Chapter 6

The dappled early morning light filtered through the thick bald cypress stands that surrounded the small home in the middle of the bayou. The morning sounds had started, the cicadas song, the frogs croaking their good mornings to the sun, it was as it had been for millennia, the bayou awakens.

Takari stirred in her bed, her dreams had been vivid as they always were when she stayed on the bayou. The night's dreams had been filled with portents, images that did not make sense to the voodoo priestess but were nonetheless flashes of the future; a future that seemed filled with new places, new companions and a dark evil.

Rising from her bed, Takari stretches, she is an imposing woman; at almost six feet tall she towers over most of her followers. Her body is in proportion to her height, large heavy breasts, sensuous rubenesque features; she revels in the physical gifts Bon Dieu has provided.

Stepping naked onto the gal-ree she greets the morning, memories of last night's dreams still swirling in her head.

'Being high priestess is not all its cracked up to be', she thinks to herself as she sits, the cool morning air stiffening her nipples as she watches two squirrels spiral up one of the ancient cypress, frolicking in a dance that crosses species, the dance of life, the dance of lust the dance that drives everyone to mate, to pass on their essence.

Closing her eyes, Takari's mind drifts back to three days ago and the ritual, the one that had finally ended the terror Ingra Vondarn had brought to the bayou.

After the hurricane three years ago the area was in turmoil, many turned to Takari for aid during this troubled time. Takari took her role as leader of the flock very seriously, performing the life affirming rights that would ensure a quick and fruitful rebuilding of her neighborhood almost daily.

She lost weight, looked drawn and tired all the time, she was putting in 20-hour days for months to help stabilize the area and get everyone back on his or her feet. It was during this time, when Takari's attention was so focused on the needs of those around her that Ingra had shown up in the bayou.

Ingra was an Obeah priestess, just off the boat from Haiti, arriving supposedly to help her extended family. Ingra was an ugly woman short and squat with a coal black complexion and an even darker soul. From their first meeting Takari knew the woman was trouble but at that moment she had neither the time nor strength to be bothered with her.

Ingra quietly built up a following among the many Caribbean workers who had immigrated to the area to work in the rebuilding efforts. Her son Tom was always at her side, a mountain of a man he stood six foot six and was almost as wide, his imposing form had the effect of quieting anyone who questioned Ingra's decisions.

Once the area had begun to rebuild and her followers had begun to get back some sort of normalcy in their lives, Takari took some time to rejuvenate herself and make sure that all was well in her garden. What she found enraged her and put her on a path that culminated in the ritual.

Takari, like her mother and her mother before her always worked on the side of light.

As with all things in the universe there is balance. Light and Dark, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong; universal constants that cannot exist without this balance.

Takari was taught from a young age that shadows don't exist without light, meaning that for all of the good things that we try to do for those around us there are others who feed off that light to gain power, corrupt others and cause pain.

Takari had met several shadows over the years; they were the yin to her yang the balance to her light. Being who she was Takari had always sought a peace with these people, understanding that to fight them was to fight herself as neither could exist without the other.

And so, soon after her ascension at the age of twenty one to high priestess she had called a meeting of the leaders of the varying sects in and around the bayou, light and dark were equally represented.

"I want to thank you all for coming, it is rare that such a diverse group of us gets together in one place without ... complications" Takari smiled as she said it and it elicited the hoped for chuckles from those in attendance.

"I have talked with many of you and shared my desire for peaceful coexistence between us, most of you have agreed that this would be best for all of us." Takari continued as she surveyed the varied group before her.

There were eleven total, five who would be considered "dark" 3 women and two men, five who would be considered "light" 4 women and one man. The eleventh was Reynard he was a mystery and in a round a bout way represented the grey.

Reynard had been around for as long as she could remember.

Her first memory of him was from childhood, she had walked out into the back courtyard of her home to find her mother and Reynard in an unusual embrace. Her mother was sitting on the ground between his legs facing away from him, her hands resting on his knees while his hands slowly moved around her body, never touching her but getting a strong physical reaction from her mother.

Afterwards her mother explained that Rey was helping her cleanse a curse that another priestess had tried to infect her with. From then on Rey was around off and on her whole childhood, disappearing for months then showing up again to hang around for awhile before setting off once more.

Now in his late forties his most striking feature was that he was as Anglo as they come, this was a stark contrast to the mostly African/Creole decent of the rest of the assembled group.

The gathering, for the most part, was effective, lines had been drawn, rules had been put in place and a general agreement on living together peaceably had been forged. That had been 15 years ago and in that time only a few toes had been stepped on, the infractions minor and easily soothed.

That changed with Ingra. Her darkness was spreading, several of the other practitioners had come to Takari looking for help and guidance, even Rey had made his feeling known.

Sitting on the gal-ree he had looked into her eyes, deeper than any other had and said, "This Ingra, she is different than anything you have encountered before cher. Up till now you have met dark workers that still maintain an internal balance between the light and the shadow, this one has no such balance. She seeks only to dominate and destroy; do you think you are strong enough to go down the path that can provide for her destruction? Can you put aside your own beliefs and embrace both the shadow and the light to find the strength to defeat her?" Rey finished.

Takari smiled at her friend, "That is possibly the most you have ever said at one time Rey," she teased. Rey's face did not change as he regarded her, 'so much like her mother' he thought.

"Takari, this is serious, if you are to be the one to stop Ingra it will cost you much, you will be changed by it and may find that your life just doesn't fit anymore." Rey said, hoping that she understood the weight of his words, hoping that the decision she made would not cost her everything that she was.

Takari regarded Rey; she had never known him to be this adamant or this serious. Ingra was a monster, she knew of three people cursed by the black-hearted whore and dozens of others who had lost everything because of the evil Ingra had sewn over the past year.

The final straw was Catti, the young orphan girl was found wandering in one of the wards, beaten and bruised she had been used in a rotevane. The ritual was gruesome the point of it to remove the soul from a living person. That soul would be bound to the one performing the ritual, feeding them their ethereal power unable to cross over to the next plane.

"What must I do Rey" Takari felt a shudder pass through her, immediately understanding that those five words had just changed her life forever.