"Father always told me that the sun was the gods' way of interacting with us humans. I believe that this is also applicable in this age, where the buildings are made of what Matthos called 'blocks, cement, and steel.'" Lumi wrote this down in the diary that Matthos provided. It felt familiar with its leather cover. The added lines helped her keep the words in place. She liked that. Her people wrote in different types of leaves, even in caves. However, this type of paper that looked fragile felt superior among them all.
Lumi sat at the table, watching Matthos do his research. Barney was on the other side of the room, doing Tarot readings. For once, her mind was recalling a peaceful part of her past, the sun. This morning, she watched the sunrise. She even tried avocado toast and bacon. It was different, as, with her time, they only fried pork belly. However, her people did preserve it by drying it with salt or soaking it in oil. However, this bacon was some kind of art.
It was crisp, a bit salty yet the honey and spice balanced it out. The fat was preserved in such a way that it melts in your mouth. The contrast of textures and the combination of flavors of bacon is a gift from the heavens.
Lumi was unaware of her surroundings as she wrote down an ode to bacon. Barney was holding back his laughter as he read her notes with his eyes. Matthos raised an eyebrow, to which he raised his arms in surrender. He won't tease her. Else, he'd face some serious discussion with the king of therapy, Matthos Trem. He doesn't want to be dissected today, so he would say it later than make a joke of it right now.
Matthos read an interesting article on how curses work. In his stay in the Philippines, Leonard concluded, "When the source of a curse cannot be located, babaylans will find a way to contain the curse in the current location, creating boundary spells to keep it from spreading. Once this is done, the babaylan will find a way to cut the people's ties to the curse so that it backfires to the source. The power, which we call 'nexus vorti,' may help them locate the originator and break the curse for good. However, if that does not happen, then the curse will forever run in the veins of the families within the boundaries of the place where the curse was contained."
"Matthos, I just remembered something," Lumi distracted a haggard Matthos who was thinking about nexus vorti. "Do you think the weather affects curses?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Lumi, that's a joke, right? Like the vampire's not existing in Africa joke?" Barney interrupted.
"What do you mean vampires don't exist in Africa? I know they do," Lumi frowned.
"Yeah, Lumi. There's this saying vampires don't exist there because gods blessed the rains down in Africa," Barney quoted the song Africa by Toto. Matthos was slightly irritated, especially since Lumi's frown deepened.
"No, that's not what I meant. And vampires exist there. There are different types of vampires, they can survive blessed water and even the sun. I don't know where those lies originated from, but beings exist even in the daylight…" She paused for a while and then glared, "You're humoring me!"
"Barney," Matthos's tone was laced with a warning, and he zipped his mouth in an instant. "Lumi, what do you mean weather affects curses?"
"Well, something like the heat or the sun. Can it dull or negate the effects of a curse for an instance?"
"It's plausible," Matthos stroke his chin, "When you think about how beings can be affected by the sun, there's a possibility that humans bearing curses do too. In this study I'm reading, it says that the curse runs through the veins of the people within the boundaries where they contained the curse. But I don't think it will affect it to the point it can negate the effects of a curse."
"Oh," Lumi looked downcast, "But what about the weather sending messages to people?"
"That happens a lot," this time, Barney answered. "For example, there's such a thing as the 'Sun's Warning.'"
"What's the Sun's Warning?"
"The Sun's Warning is a phenomenon wherein the sun covers the moon, and it's daylight for a straight twelve hours. However, it does not happen for everyone to see. Only people with an active eye, a third eye, can see it."
"The sun's rays also have a different shine," Matthos explained, "The rays leave symbols on the ground for people to decipher."
"The Sun's Warning also shows in the decks. It remains up when the rest of the deck is down. It can shine on a crystal bowl. Heck, it can even blind someone in their sleep. That person will wake up with all-white eyeballs." Barney shuddered at the memory of seeing a person who came with the Sun's Warning on a black and white screen. That was during an epidemic. He never wants to witness such a thing again.
"It's safe to assume that the sun's warning is one of the strongest warnings that you can't ignore," said Matthos, "When the celestial bodies also take part in creating warnings and even mentioned in prophecies, complications will surely arise."
"Curses demand to be felt, not ignored," snickered Barney, whose ribs got a painful hit from Lumi's elbow. His friend winced at what he witnessed but chose not to comment, not wanting to be next.
"So the sun is still active to this day," Lumi concluded, "Does that mean we can talk to a god or any deity? Dian Masalanta, she surely will help," she looked so hopeful.
The goddess of love, peace, stoping storms and earthquakes from happening. However, didn't she become human?
This was the problem with dealing with deities and beings. It was possible to experience the sun's warning than talk to a god.
Matthos and Barney looked at each other. How do they break it to her that she is now in the age of the gods' absence?
*Dian Masalanta - Philippine goddess of love and peace. She supposedly became human as a punishment for falling in love with a mortal. However, instead of getting mad, she was happy as she can be with her beloved.