Return to the river.

This was the last person Ekwensu wanted to talk to right now. But she was in this realm and that was something that he could not avoid.

"Hello, Daughter." He began, but before he continued he was interrupted.

"Hello Daughter, is that all you can say to me? Not even address me properly by my name?" Nimu retorted, brimming with anger from her cell.

"Nimu I-"

"You've had an entire century to visit me, and now that you are here, you're not even looking for me, are you? No, you're looking for someone else's problem child." She accused, Ekwensu feeling the weight of her words on his shoulders.

"It isn't easy for me to walk between realms anymore Nimu."

"Anuofia efulefu!!! Father," she screamed, her words stinging him, "I can clearly see that, I have been stuck here seeing my father, once one of the greatest lords of this world, slowly fade away, his syncretized reputation eating away at his legacy. You want to know what the spirits have told me about your town?"

"Nimu I don't have time for-"

"Your little town of Umu-Ekwensu that was built in honor of you, and housing 'your' mortal descendants that you doted on so much no longer wants anything to do with you. In fact, they petitioned the Nigerian government to have the name of their town legally changed because they want nothing to do with you." She said gleefully, she clearly had a lot of pent up emotions that she was more than happy to unleash on him.

Nemesis put a hand on Ekwensu's shoulder, snapping him out of his fugue borne from the tirade of insults.

"Lord Khaos, we must go, your prisoners await," she said with a surprisingly gentle voice.

Ekwensu thanked her and followed her, as he walked away she could still hear Nimu Kwome yelling at him, though he could have sworn that as he got farther and farther away, it had transitioned to sobbing.

The trek went on for a while through the world as they passed several of the other prisoners locked in this realm. With the thought of his daughter temporarily banished from his mind, he was able to properly take stock of his surroundings as he inched closer to his quarry.

This section of this layer of the underworld was starting to fill with mist and water vapor, as the underground rivers that ran beneath the mantle of the earth's crust flowed. This created a slightly cooling effect as the geologic movements produced intense heat. Up above he could see an oceanic plate slowly subducting under a continental plate at the rate of a fingernail growing. While the humans would occasionally feel the plates give way in the form of earthquakes, all Ekwensu saw it as was the body rhythms of Ala herself, her body cycle much slower than a mortal organisms' pace.

The rivers started to flow down in front of Ekwensu and Nemesis as some of the water was now swirling upwards and coiling themselves tightly around a jagged array of glowing red rocks, steaming from the contact with the lava infused stones and producing a cloud of water vapor. The top of the jagged array further down was slammed together to form a crude gate.

The sheer heat as they passed through the gate made short work of any water that tried to go any further. Nemesis herself was twitching her wings similar to how an African elephant flaps their large ears to keep themselves cool. Ekwensu, however, was not so lucky, as he found himself perspiring profusely, the sweat off his brow evaporating before it left his face. Ekwensu found himself struggling to move forward, barely recognizing a series of gigantic golems of lava walking around with huge clubs of flaming rocks in their hand. This was definitely a good prison for water spirits and deities. The sheer heat would make them unable to use their abilities or even access the water or the vapor that was held just out of their reach.

After passing some Naiads that were being punished for harassing several humans that lived near the Megdovas river, Ekwensu was finally brought to the section for West African prisoners. There he saw two shriveled up pythons, hanging from chains made of lava. The chains around them had solidified from the reaction that normally happens when lava interacts with water. Ekwensu looked at them, wondering why they weren't in their humanoid form. Nemesis seemed to catch his train of thought and answered for him.

"We found that the punishment works better if they are in python form instead of a human form", she explained.

Hearing the sound of voices the two snakes wearily looked up, their scales crackling from dehydration. They both narrowed their eyes and couldn't seem to recognize Ekwensu. Not surprising, fashions had certainly changed in the centuries that they had been put away. They likely had never seen 21st-century fashion at all. The Golems unlike some of the other jailors were not the most fashion-centric of guards.

"W-who are you?" asked Ulashi, the nictating membranes on her serpentine eyes flashing rapidly to keep the gravel out of her eyes to no avail."

"This is Lord Ekwensu, he has come to release you." Declared Nemesis

That got the attention of the two goddesses who perked up. With a mere wave of Nemesis' hands, the Golems freed the two snakes, carrying them in their giant palms and depositing them at Ekwensu's feet. The two snakes slithered towards his shoots and were flicking their tongues over them in gratitude.

"Thank you, my Lord. Are we going home?" Ogbuide inquired,

"Yes, you are," Ekwensu replied, imbuing as much authority as he could in his voice, hiding the cracks from dehydration. The pythons reared back as a scythe slammed in the space between their heads and all parties saw Nemesis holding the scythe. Behind her, two golems were holding two cages similar to the ones for reptiles at pet stores. The golems put them in the two boxes while Nemesis put a wing around Ekwensu's shoulder and pulled him away to talk.

"My Lord, I think it will be dangerous if they were to find out about your present state, they will be safer in those boxes where they cannot access any water until you take them back to their mother."

"While I appreciate the concern, how do I exactly hide that, I'm juggling around charms and signage like a regular Dibia."

"Well, this solution will be a bit inelegant but how about this?"

Nemesis placed a hand on Ekwensu's forehead and he felt a swift rush of power fill his veins. It tasted like fury and vengeance but he was grateful for the boost in the meantime.

"That should last until you get back to the river, I'm sorry I can't give you any compatible magic."

"This is more than I could have asked for. Thank you, Nemesis." Ekwensu said with a bright smile,

"It was still good to see you here, grandfather," Nemesis responded with a bow.

Ekwensu smiled, it was nice to at least see a family member that did not bear ill will towards him. She was the daughter of his son Erebus and Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. When he had discovered mortal humans propagating he had decided to make children of his own. There were a lot of gods and goddesses on earth that he had created, or had been made accidentally from his essence, thus like most pantheons he had a large family.

His relationship with his various descendants varied. Much like his adopted daughter Nimu had mentioned, he had a village full of mortal descendants, and other mortal descendants scattered throughout the millennia, but he didn't talk with his mortal ken that much considering their short lives. Things were even harder since he couldn't just bounce around the world as much as he wanted anymore, he would actually have to buy plane tickets. First-class tickets but still, he was a bit of an inconvenience for a being that was used to appearing wherever he wanted to.

He took the boxes and walked through the portal that Nemesis opened for him, walking through and finding himself returned to the sight where Njaba was still being treated by scientists and dibias.

The large river goddess turned her head, hearing the distortion in the air produced by the portal. She looked him up and down, and once her gaze came upon her daughters in the boxes, tendrils of water lashed out and wrested the boxes from Ekwensu's grasp. They squeezed on the boxes with enough pressure to shatter the containment.

Like a dam bursting forth, the moment the snakes came into contact with the water, they were immediately revitalized. Blue light crackled from their scales as they once again resumed their humanoid forms of centuries past, eagerly diving into their rivers.

While watching the spectacle Ekwensu noticed the seal on his arm given to him by Njaba fading away. He turned his head and found the goddess had shrunk to the height of a large human and had left the water, her daughters already at work cleaning the rivers behind her.

"Part of me was unsure whether you would keep your word, 'Lord' Ekwensu.", She said with a less frigid but genuine smile this time around.

"I'm the god of bargains my lady, my reputation should have given me some merit," Ekwensu replied jokingly, "Speaking of bargains," he pressed

"I have already begun, my waters will no longer accost Chameleon or the rest of her kind and I'll make sure my daughters follow suit, but good luck trying to get Idemili to remove that grudge." she warned

"I do not forsee that changing in the future. Will you go back to the sole control of the Njaba river?" he asked

"Eventually yes, but my daughters need to be caught up to speed on how the world works and I will promise to prevent their, problematic habits from resurfacing. Tell Amadioha that for me when you next see him." she implored

Ekwensu nodded, bowed and prepared to get back in the boat he came in when he heard a voice calling his name. He jerked his head around and to his surprise, he saw the Yoruba scientist Ifasola running towards him, his slightly portly physique leaving him panting for breath. Ekwensu stopped in his tracks and sat down, waiting for the man to catch his breath as he finally caught up to him.

"My lord, a moment of your time if you will." the man said, nearly keeling over from lack of breath. Ekwensu raised an eyebrow with a gentle smile, though he was in a bit of a hurry personally.

"Mr...Ifasola, correct?" he asked

"You remembered." Ifasola answered, giving a truly delighted smile.

"It has not even been a day since I saw you." Ekwensu pointed out.

Ifasola nodded sheepishly, then began to rummage through a rucksack that Ekwensu just noticed he had slung around his back. Mayhaps that was the true cause for his exhaustion and not his figure as Ekwensu had been quick to assume. Feeling a little bit ashamed for being judgmental initially, he decided to humor the mortal.

"Yes, well, I have a request of you. Hear me out please and promise not to laugh."

"Oh?", Ekwensu was intrigued.

"I'm writing a research paper on deities maligned by Christianity, gods like yourself, Loki, Lugh, Coyote, Wisakedjak and others."

"An interesting topic to be sure. Do you already have a title? Have you interviewed other gods?"

"Loki was stuck beneath a tree with snake venom in his eyes, he wasn't in much of a talking mood. Coyote and Lugh I was able to talk to, some of the others do not want to communicate. As for my title Lord Ekwensu its, 'Syncretization and the slandering of trickster gods'. I was initially intending to talk to Elegua since he's a Yoruba deity like me but I was afraid I might be accused of bias, but then you showed up."

Ekwensu personally felt a little miffed that he was not this scientist's first pick, but the idea did sound intriguing, and who knows, if this paper became well received then maybe it could help his image and solve a lot of his other problems that he was having, though he doubted they would be resolved before the upcoming banquet with Chukwu.

"Very well then, but I warn you, following me around may come with quite a lot of troubles. You are sure you wish to come with me for the sake of your PhD thesis?"

Ifasola stood up as tall as he could and looked Ekwensu directly in the eyes.

"For the sake of the truth Lord Ekwensu, I would go to hell if you will let me."

Ekwensu held his stomach and gave a hearty laugh, scaring all the superstitious individuals nearby and even the passing Njaba raised an eyebrow.

"Very well Mr. Ifasola, if you would come along, we have a chameleon to meet."