Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. I | ✓

Chapter 40: Ghost of Our Pasts

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Tempus Summatum - drifter of time. One who can manipulate time. One who glides on the sands of time.

When I had come back into consciousness, Aza explained to me - to us - what tempus summatum was; Sajida had left right when I passed out. Silently, like a cold, bitter wind pushing through.

"It's a form of black magic," Aza said. "It's the type of magic that most witches don't go near, 'cause not only is it dark, but it can be deadly. To force your body to bend to the will of space and time, manipulating it to your benefit, is an act against nature. Against the universe. Against the gods. The concept of time is just forward, with the past having already happened, the events set in stone. We can't be jumping forward or falling backward in it whenever we see fit.

"Which is why only supreme witches who are masters in the art of dark magic have a better chance of practicing tempus summatum successfully without killing themselves or going crazy or getting stuck in a particular time. But again, not many of us, even the most corrupt of us, set out to do it."

Except for me. I had done it. Sometime in the future, apparently. I had gone back in time for reasons that, at the time, I wasn't too sure of. But all I knew was that I was the woman in the photo Hezekiah showed me, posing next to his wife, Camile. That photo was taken in the late 1800s after Camile and Suzie, Hezekiah's daughter had fled New Orleans with Marie II after Marie Laveau's death and gone to Kansas. It was taken years after these events, right before Marie II and Camile Mercier, having formed the Coterie, came back to New Orleans to reclaim it from Terah's clan.

My connection to Camile? I didn't know, and none of us did, because Hezekiah refused to tell us.

Mama stood up from the couch where we sat, still processing what Aza was telling her, and gave Hezekiah the nastiest look she could muster. "Are you serious? You ain't gonna tell us what you know?"

"I already told you too much," he answered. "You supposed to figure it out yourself."

"Why?" I questioned, becoming upset. He saw how frustrated I was getting and looked almost conflicted.

"He might be right," Aza suddenly spoke up. "If he tells us anything of what you did in the past to affect the future, it might mess up everything. It might change an action you or I or Alize were supposed to do, you understand? Whatever is supposed to happen in the future depends on what decisions the universe and the loa push us to make; fate. If Hezekiah tells us what happened in the past when you were there, especially since it hasn't happened yet, that's going against fate and the gods. For better or for worse." Aza looks at Hezekiah gravely. "He might have changed history, even by the slightest, by just showing us the photo of you in his locket; we were probably not meant to see the photo tonight, but tomorrow or a year or five years from now, but him showing us now might have changed history. You understand, Lisa? Time is delicate. Very delicate."

"But don't I go against the loa by literally manipulating time?" I ask her, growing even more frustrated.

"Not if the loa are pushing you to use tempus summatum," she says, lowly like the realization is hitting her for the first time. Aza gives Mama a look, but Mama can't even meet her eyes.

"No. I won't listen to this nonsense any longer -"

"Alize, if Lisa's spirit guide gave her the hint that she used the spell then the loa probably want her to go back in time; it's not an act against fate, it is fate. Her spirit guide spoke to her, Papa spoke to her -"

"Wait, Papa spoke to you?!" Mama exclaimed at me. I said nothing. I didn't want to self incriminate myself. But then again, it seemed that Mama was already coming to her own conclusions. Her eyes, a blue inferno, darted to the bible on the table. I slowly got up as she continued to stare at it. My hands were trembling; Hezekiah's eyes narrowed in on her.