Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

Over a great feast, Tristan and the others decide that they will ignore Brer’s plan to bring the box back to him. They will take it Nyame for repair instead. First, however, the Amagqirha leads Tristan to the Atrium to see the Story Box of the Isihlangu. She tells him that when Nyame first gave the stories to Anansi, Nyame realized that some stories were simply too full of power to float around the world without someone providing the proper context for them. Anansesem like Tristan were the answer to that danger.

The Amagqirha shows Tristan the Story Box of the Ridge. The Amagqirha gets Tristan to use a story to open the box, and she shapes a talisman of protection, a line of little silver bells that she strings between Tristan’s two adinkra on his bracelet. Tristan scoffs at its delicacy, but the Amagqirha tells him he will need all the help he can get because the ancestors saw that sealing the hole was just a prelude to a battle that could destroy the whole world if they did not win. The spider adinkra suddenly glows so hotly that it blisters Tristan’s skin. A loud boom lets them know that the mountain is under attack.

An enormous boss monster sticks its giant hand in the room where the feast was, endangering Tristan’s friends. Ayanna wonders if somehow the creatures have been following them and argues that they should leave, but Tristan cannot bear to leave the Ridge alone and helpless. Tristan hands the Story Box off to the Amagqirha for safekeeping, then he convinces Thandiwe to rally until the Signal guards, the best defense of the Ridge, can arrive. Tristan is forced to board a forebear despite his fear of heights. He, Thandiwe, and the others attack the giant boss long enough to slow it down momentarily. The monster finally enters the room where Tristan’s friends and the Ridgefolk wait.

The monster turns out to be a hullbeast, a creature made of wrecked ships and a carrier of disease it spreads using brand flies. The creatures overwhelm the Ridgefolk and drag them off to the Maafa. Tristan, Ayanna, Gum Baby, and Thandiwe flee, but Ayanna goes down when brand flies attack her. Distant drumbeats seem to signal help, but in the moment, Tristan feels hopeless.

The drumbeats do indicate help: High John arrives with a magic ax, gifted to him by the devil’s daughter when he courted her, according to one of Nana’s tales. He comes with Old Familiar beside him. He momentarily freezes time to ask Tristan about what is happening. When time moves again, High John chops the hullbeast to bits, as Tristan and Old Familiar kill the brand flies and fetterlings. Afterward, Chestnutt, Tristan, and High John discover that Ayanna is not breathing.

High John and the entire group climb on Old Familiar’s back and fly away. The Amagqirha gives them Nyame’s Story Box at the last minute and sends them with the blessings of the ancestors. High John alone will not be enough to save Ayanna, and Chestnutt is also unconscious now. They decide to go back to the Golden Crescent, in the hope that Nyame’s conjure, or power, is powerful enough to save Ayanna. Tristan sees that the ugly red tear of the hole he punched in the sky is growing. High John asks Tristan to talk to Ayanna to sustain her until they can get help. He takes his one memory left by Uncle C—the day Eddie died—as the subject of a story.

The boys were on a field trip on a snowy Chicago day when their bus skidded out of control on a bridge. Adults said they would rescue them, but Tristan could see that Eddie was trapped between two bus seats and in danger of falling into the body of water under the bridge. Instead of stepping up to be a hero, Tristan was so afraid of dying that he froze when Eddie pleaded with him for help. Back in the present, Gum Baby and High John say all the right things—that it wasn’t Tristan’s fault, that there is a limit to grief—but Tristan stops them and owns that he failed that day. He does gain some comfort from their advice, though. The group arrives at the Golden Crescent.

High John tells them he learned his healing conjure in the forest in Golden Crescent. He takes them to the giant sycamore Tristan saw on his last trip to the city. High John calls to the forest fairies, the Mmoatia, powerful healers who might be able to save Ayanna and Chestnutt. High John convinces them to treat Ayanna and Chestnutt, and they agree to this when they see Tristan’s adinkra bracelet. The fairies are impressed, and High John passes on the message that Tristan is welcome to the forest. The remaining companions turn back toward Nyame’s palace. The tear in the sky has grown so big that it has escaped the Burning Sea and threatens to overwhelm the mainland of Alke.

The company makes its way to Nyame’s throne room, where Tristan asks Nyame for help to repair the Story Box so they can fill it with stories that will lure Anansi to help them. Tristan reveals that Uncle C is after the Story Box and must assure Nyame and High John that Uncle C is no actual relative of his. The two gods suspect that Anansi was working with the Story Box and accidentally emptied it.

Nyame brings the Story Box to glowing, golden life by using emotions and sensory impressions just like artistic tools, and Tristan uses his powers to begin filling it with stories. The box becomes beautiful and so irresistible that Tristan almost grabs it himself. There is just one dim spot on it, a representation of a tsunami of burning water bursting from the Burning Sea, and on it rides a giant, rotting ship that gives everyone the horrors. It is the Maafa, and Tristan at last realizes that its interior is the place where the captives are held and where Uncle C takes him during the visions.