The Great Father Baba Oluwa Aiye appointed Yerna as Servant of the Aftermath upon noticing her purity and excellent healing abilities during her human life. Born blind as a child, her intelligence overcompensated for her blindness to say the least.
It was ethereal.
She devoted her studies to the discipline of botany and water. Furthering to alchemy.
Baba Oluwa Aiye saw this and was pleased. She was chaste, a lover of children, gentle, patient, and disciplined.
So Baba Oluwa Aiye appeared to her one day as a bright single Oleander of Nerium in her garden. Perplexed, she picked the beautiful flower and fell ill - losing consciousness. There, in her stupor, he uncovered his form - a figure draped in palm fronds and extremities laden in scars.
He assured her that she would never die, and granted her immortality, advanced healing, poisoning, and the special gift of fresh water manipulation as indicated by a blue crystal embedded in her chest, granted by his consort.
He charged her with the task of becoming the healing aftermath of the Scourge. The Scourge is known as the cyclical peril inflicted by Babalu Oluwa Aiye and his consorts. It was a necessary phenomenon. He and consorts would visit the Earth for some days, enacting this. Chaos, Illness, and Delay.
Yerna would follow through.
Rather than roam the earth for the rest of her life as a human, Yerna decided to cycle her life in tandem with the scourge of Baba Oluwa Aiye and his consorts. She created an elixir with the base of resins that would turn her into a tree. She would grow as a tree over decades, forming into the Servant in a Human Body during the scourge, materializing fully at the scourge's peak. She would leave her throne and make her way to the populace to perform her duties. Providing cures, remedies, and boons to those in need. Afterwards, she would plant herself into the earth, restarting her life - and restarting the cycle of the Scourge.
Yerna met many heedless passersby who mistook her as a tree early on. The haphazard commoner often jested and made impish remarks at the figure, neglecting the prophecies in her forming.
Now despite the onset of fear brought on by her abilities, her healing is permanent each lifetime.
She blinds first.
There, one is truly able to see. And know.
She pulls one down into the Earth. Beneath the soil. Beneath the seeds. And there you will hear. And there you will Taste. You will Smell. And Feel. The root. of All things.
She restores your sight. And you, climbing from your burial are renewed.
In other ways, she teaches the importance of self sustainability. The Nurturing of self - and equally, the nurturing of Others.
Currently, Yerna guards what remains of the last temple of Sakpana in an abandoned ruin in the land of Buruku
Live burials, drinking of water and other life giving sustenance, slowing down, coolness, rest, the study of botany and fresh water, snake venom and other poisons, amongst many other acts of healing of the self and others are ways to honor Yerna, the Servant of the Aftermath.
it is said that the presence of Yerna is felt during the feeling of joy one receives after the healing of illness.
And one should touch the ground
And give their thanks
Copyright 2020 Justin Green
