Dragoncrest Cliffs butterfly wings

Sobo peered over Erzulie's shoulder at the blank earth canvas, watching her deft work. If he knew the word for it, he would have identified it as a rough heart shape. Lwa, he repeated after his mother. It was almost the same as the word he and his siblings knew, but the inflection was subtly different. From now on he would say it properly.

Erzulie explained the purpose of the veve. Sobo wondered if it was possible to speak to the lwa without one or if a random one might respond without their specific mark to call them. These questions and more crowded the tip of his tongue, but he held them back. Manman had more to tell.

He looked up, shocked, when his mother revealed that she shared the lwa's name. Did that mean she was blessed by the lwa of femininity? Maybe, he thought, that was the reason Sapphique was so central on the feminine. It certainly made a lot of sense in his head.

Erzulie drew another shape. Only when she mentioned serpents did Sobo realize the wavy lines did resemble snakes. Damballah was the lwa who came to men. Was it he who had led Sobo to the island where Mireille was, or some other force entirely? He thought of The Listener and knew now she could not be a loa, but something else.

How can a man know Erzulie if she be comin' only ta women? he wondered, swallowing all his other queries for now.