Maker of Fire

Gerta, Aybhas, Harvest Season, 5th rot. 6th day to 7th rot., 7th day

I joined all the city slaves when one of the garrison guards said it was official that our control gems would no longer work. We gathered in the big square in front of the Surd Hall in the outer ring of the northeast quarter and bit our charm gems off our hands. We clawed up cobbles from the stonewalks and used them to smash our gems. Then we sang and danced and skipped work for half the rotation. The healers offered to heal our hands, but many of us, myself included, kept the wounds. We didn't want to lose that reminder that we were enslaved but soon would be free.

Like many others, I was unhappy that our official freedom was delayed. Apparently, our Cosm overlords wanted to wait for the Prophet to announce that slavery was contrary to the will of the gods. Rumor was that it had to do with politics involving the Lord Holders and private slave owners like craftspeople. The problem was that the Prophet was somewhere helping the lizard people free those of their race who were slaves on the other side of the world. Most of us could live with that. We knew the gods were on our side, and the Prophet would follow through. I had met and spoken with her for an entire evening and was convinced of her sincerity.

I could live with the delay, though I knew some who were livid about it. But it was obvious to me and many others that the Cosm were just as much on new ground as we were. It was also obvious the Shrines were trying to make the transition to freedom as painless as possible. The city council had set up mandatory classes on what free life would look like, and so far, it looked like our current life, but with some changes. If we wanted to stay at our current jobs, we could keep working and living in Coyn housing. We could still use the bathhouses and eat at the dining halls.

The changes would take some adjustments. First, we would get paid money for our work, but we would need to pay rent. However, we could change where we lived if we wanted. We would also need to pay for our own food at the dining halls or cook for ourselves. That presented a problem for the city council because city-owned housing for Coyn had no facilities for cooking.

Most of us had little braziers for extra heat and to make our morning chatea, but they weren't big enough to cook a meal on. Apparently, the council was also at a loss for how to handle heat and cooling. Mages refreshed the magic on the heating and cooling crystals in every building, including those in Shrine-owned Coyn housing, and magic cost money. How would that be paid for in the future? Could a Coyn renter pay for just heat magic if they wanted to save money by living without cooling in the Growing Season? Or would that cost be bundled into rent? Rumor had it that the Princess, who was the governor of the city, preferred the latter for public health reasons.

I learned over the half year since the riot that the issues were much more complex than I expected. With freedom of choice over where to live and work came burdens like clothing, feeding, and housing ourselves. We also needed to learn to handle money even though most of us didn't know our sums. The situation made me realize how much of our lives as slaves had been taken care of by our owners. At times, I couldn't sleep at night from the anxiety of taking care of all of these things I never had to worry about before.

My biggest anxiety was Wados, who was sweet on me and had been for years. We both had been bred, so we knew about that aspect of life. The yawning chasm I faced now was that Wados suggested we start our own family once we were free. Now, I was faced with what that life would be like, complete with the responsibility of raising and paying for children, something no Coyn in Foskos had even had to worry about. Some Shrines allowed privileged couples to have and keep their own children, but city slaves in Aybhas weren't among those lucky few.

I wasn't sure that was what I wanted. I had never considered a family because, as a city slave, I knew I would never be allowed to do that. I thought I might want to see more of the world outside of Aybhas once I was free. I had never been outside Aybhas. I confess, after I bit my gem off, I left the city through the north gate and hiked up the ridge northeast of Snob Hill just to see what the Aybhas looked like from a distance. It was an amazing experience. I could see so far and even spotted one of the Great Cracks tossing its burning rocks into the air. Beyond the Great Cracks, I could see snow-covered mountaintops in the place where I believe the Prophet Emily once lived. After her descriptions of that place, I wanted to see it myself.

With my wanderlust now wide awake, every morning, before my shift at the bathhouse, I started hiking outside the city walls – just because I could. Doing that for the first time in my life was an incredible feeling. After a few days, I was a familiar face to the garrison guards at the north gate. I began to feel less afraid of them as they began to greet me by name every morning. I came to believe what the Prophet had told me – that it was possible to be friends with Cosm.

What irked me was that the Princess High Priestess had decreed that every gemless Coyn must wear or pocket a charm that would keep us from getting sick. Like others, I pocketed one and then threw it away or smashed it as soon as I could. I never wanted to have a gem on my person ever again. They were hateful things, the badge of slavery. Gems carried on a person were evil.

Then we heard about the fever in Black Falls. A riverboat slave came down with the sickness upon arriving at the water gate. The healers were not able to stop the fever in time, and that man died.

Days before the victim died, on the eighth day of the sixth rotation, the Shrine had the Priestess Voices assigned to the garrison to compel every Coyn within a wagon-day of the city to wear what they called charm gems of health. That almost caused another riot. It felt like our overlords were going back on their word not to control us. Every morning, before the second bell, Coyn from all over the city flooded the square in front of the healing chapel shrine, yelling at the doors and demanding the compulsion to wear the gems be removed. The crowd got bigger by the day.

By the sixth day of the seventh rotation, most Coyn who didn't live with their owners stayed home from work. The city ground to a standstill. We strode through the North and West Markets, marching up the wide streets which were the usual territory of the stomp-ups, arm in arm with one another, in columns twenty wide and hundreds long, singing the "We ain't gonna take it" song.

On the seventh day, those of us who were block and ward leaders met at the northeast Surd Hall. That's when we learned that there was someone in Aybhas with the fever. We walked to the chapel shrine of Mugash to see if we could learn more. When we arrived, we and many other likeminded Coyn were faced by a line of garrison guards with their huge, nasty halberds out. They forced us back from the doors, shouting we needed to make space for any griffins landing with sick or wounded patients. The gems they forced us to wear the previous rotation didn't stop some of us from throwing a few rocks. The guards had a barrier up, so none of the projectiles landed, but the guards went from wary to hostile after that.

Priestess Arma, the healer with the Impotuan accent, soon came storming out of the chapel shrine carrying a body wrapped in a shroud. I was shocked that she was still working at the chapel shrine, given that she was very pregnant and Cosm are cautious about pregnant mages working close to term. Arma cast a magic that prevented any of our voices from carrying so the square was suddenly silent. Then she cast more magic so everyone could hear her voice with its goofy-sounding vowels.

"I know many of you, and you know me," she began, sounding and looking angry. "We aren't trying to trick you into wearing control gems. Only three great crystals could make control gems, and now, every one of them has been destroyed. One was destroyed in a fire in Impotu more than thirty years ago. The second was destroyed just last year in Mattamukmuk by the Prophet Emly and the Queen of Foskos. The third was shattered two rotations ago by the Holy Fassex of Landa. Control gems no longer exist on Erdos, anywhere. We can no longer make them. The gems we have forced upon you are gems of health, made here in the Well of Mugash, in the Healing Shrine, so that this doesn't happen to you," she stripped the shroud and held up a gross, green and yellow corpse of a Coyn man with discolored, burst boils covering his body. The body had no underclothes on it, so everyone could see the disgusting, open, still oozing sores on his genitals, along with those under his arms. After we all had time to look on the wreckage of the dead fever victim, Arma covered it back up and handed it to a garrison guard who took it back into the chapel shrine.

Then Arma started talking again. "Every gem in Foskos, regardless of its other functions, is a gem of health. By law, every gem manufactured in Omexkel – the only place they are made – comes first to Aybhas and sits inside the Well of Mugash, soaking up its healing magic. We do not have disease outbreaks in Foskos because every sentient being, all our livestock, and even our cats have a gem of health. Fevers are rare here because of this. In other places, gems of health must be purchased, and those without the means to own one often die of fevers or flu. But in Foskos, we give them away to everyone at no cost.

"I will not hold back what I think," Priestess Arma scowled at us. "Every gem of healing you destroy costs 500 silver outside of Foskos. A slave in Jutu could never hope to even see a healing gem, and you, you fools, are smashing the ones we give away for free. You would be better off throwing yourself off the Salt River Bridge to drown because that would be a kinder and less painful death than catching this fever."

"I have now said what I believe you need to hear. Many of you know me and know I will not lie to you. These gems are not to control you. They are to keep you from dying from the fever that killed this poor man. Now, please disperse and go home."

Priestess Arma then cast her magic to give us our voices back.

"How can we know this isn't a trick?" a man yelled.

"The man who died of the Black Falls Fever is no trick. This man and hundreds of others who discarded their gems of health caught the fever and died. Only one in twenty survives this fever. It is a painful death. Drowning in the river is a nicer way to die. Please, if you want to refuse to wear your gems of health, I can arrange a quick and less painful death for you by suicide off the bridge."

An angry woman's voice from the back of the crowd shouted, "We only have your word for this. How can we trust that you haven't used surplus control gems on us or gems of compulsion from the Fated Shrine?"

Priestess Arma cast her silencing magic again. "You come to us and trust us to heal you. We send you home with potions to treat your illnesses and keep you well, and you trust those. These gems are just another form of medicine. They are another tool your healers use. You trust us in other things. Why can you not trust us with this?" Arma sounded so sorrowful when she said this, and her face pleaded with us to believe her. "Please, the healing priestesses of Mugash the Merciful would never do anything to harm you. That would be against everything we believe in. I know many of you. You are my precious patients. I do not want to compel you. I am asking you, as the priestess who runs this chapel shrine and who knows and cares for you, please go home. The Blessed Lisaykos will lift the compulsion when the fever outbreak is over. You simply need to be patient." Then, she lifted her silencing magic again.

The crowd muttered as we regained our voices. We all felt unsatisfied and stayed where we were, wanting something more. I don't know what we wanted, but it wasn't a plea to go home.

"You!" A guard stepped into the crowd and lifted a young man with a rock in each hand, "Drop those now."

A Voice in her red ochre mantle stepped into view through the line of guards, "If I see one more projectile, you will be detained and punished under the new riot law."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

We all froze. We knew it was a threat with teeth because Coyn cannot win against Cosm in a direct confrontation.

As the mob muttered, my friend Bina stepped out of the crowd and addressed the priestess. "Lady Arma, I know you and I think you remember me."

"Ah, yes," Priestess Arma smiled with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "How could I forget Bina, who tripped over his own two feet and fell down the stairs, breaking both legs, an arm, and two ribs? Have you a question?"

Bina blushed and then recovered himself. "Lady, let's say you lived with an owner who beat his slaves every day, underfed them, and overworked them. Then, one day, the guards took that owner away and punished her for cruelty. Once the punishment was over, would you want that owner to come back into your life? That's what charm gems are to us. And now you have forced us to wear them again. How is that not control when you've promised us we would be free?"

Shouts of "He's right," and "You tell 'er, Bina. We ain't gonna take it!" Then, several of us started singing that song. Soon, the whole crowd was singing it, and some began to pick up rocks again despite the warning of the Voice.

Then she arrived, bigger than big and scarier than the great sucking mouth of Uedroy: Aylem, the mad Queen of Foskos. She descended from on high and landed with a boom that knocked most of us off our feet. Half the guards fell down, too. The Queen wore a black nursing gown, and her long, wavy, silver-white hair streamed out behind her like a cape. Around her head was a plain cloth-of-gold diadem.

The Queen waved a hand, and a Coyn woman in the crowd floated up and into the Queen's hands. She paused momentarily and then turned to a guard, "Take this one into the chapel shrine. Tell the healers I just restarted her heart, but she will need to spend a few days and receive care for cardiac arrest." Then she turned to the crowd, "Is anyone else hurt?"

Receiving no answer, she frowned at us and then spoke, "You there, the man in the Surdos mantle and the brown overtunic." She pointed into the crowd to my left, "You broke your collarbone when you fell. My apologies for that. I underestimated the force of my landing. Please go into the chapel shrine and take care of that. You, the woman with the red hair next to him, help him up and take him in."

We were all silent while the two made their way into the chapel shrine. The presence of the Queen was so overwhelming that it was difficult to breathe. She was that frightening. No one could forget the riot when the Queen cast her anger-tinged compulsion on every Coyn in the city. That compulsion stopped the riot because it left every one of us helpless, paralyzed in a state of terror. Even the Prophet endured it.

When the Queen saw the door close on the pair entering the chapel shrine, she turned to Arma, put her hand on Arma's shoulder, and said, "Priestess, you have done well. But why are you even working? You should be off your feet this close to delivery. Go inside and we will talk later." Arma made a bowing obeisance to the Queen and disappeared into the chapel shrine. Then, this monster of a Queen looked at us with a thoughtful frown.

"Those with things to throw in their hands will drop them, now!" This compulsion was followed by the sounds of rocks and bricks hitting the flagstones of the square.

"You know who I am," the Queen began, "and you know that if I want, I can send every one of you to any place I desire. Our good Priestess Arma asked you twice to disperse, and you have not. I cannot say that this pleases me." She took a visible breath and closed her eyes for a long moment. Then she exhaled and dropped her tense shoulders.

"The Prophet Emily predicted this would happen," the Queen said, to all of our surprise. "Emily advised the Blessed Lisaykos to make charm gems of healing because she knew that most of you would destroy your dead control gems. She also knew that you would resist any charm gems of healing, just because they were charm gems, which are hateful to you.

"Charm gems are hateful to the Blessed Emily, too. The very first miracle of the Prophet, which no one knows about, was when she bit the control gem off her hand. Emily was born in an illegal breeding camp. On a day when she thought she would die after an attack by an overseer, she hid in a sewer ditch and bit the gem of control off her hand. She did that because she believed she was dying and she wanted to die as a free person. The miracle is that she lived.

"When I found Emily two and a half years ago, she had been injured and blinded by an accident. She had a wound fever because she had no gem on her person to prevent it. Then, the gods took Emily from us a year ago. They sent her from Salicet to Mattamukmuk, where Emily made predictions and delivered warnings to apostate rulers. She encouraged slaves of all races in their desires to be free. During her travels, she burned her feet after being attacked by a mage in Toyatastagka. When the gods returned her to us, she had another wound fever from her infected foot burns. We asked the Prophet on that occasion to wear a gem of healing, but she refused because, having worn a gem of control, charm gems were hateful to her.

"The gods sent Emily and the Revered Tom, the Chosen of Galt, who many of you know as Py'oask, to the land of the Chem, the lizard people. Their mission is to help the Chem free their enslaved kin who were taken in slave raids by Mattamesscontan and Mattamukan slave raiders. She has not come home yet from that task.

"Before she departed for the land of the Chem, we made her a gem of healing, identical to the ones around your necks or in your pockets. Because fevers are one of the hardest things for a healer to cure, we didn't want the Prophet to contract another, especially if she was traveling. When she left, I knelt before her," the Queen knelt, "and begged her to wear it. She made me no promises, and I could see her hatred of charm gems when I gave it to her. But when Emily was here during the riot earlier this year, she was wearing it.

"Emily is a practical woman. She knows protecting her health is more important than her hate of charm gems. If she were here, she would ask all of you to wear a healing gem or keep one a pocket. So instead, I will ask in her place."

To our shock, the monstrous Queen of Foskos put her hands together against her forehead and bowed to the ground on her knees. In a voice all of us heard despite her talking to the flagstones, the Queen said, "Good Coyn of Foskos, I know that charm gems are hateful to you, but we have given you charm gems of healing to keep you from catching fevers or flues that could kill you. I beg of you, as one who is charged by the gods to look after the welfare of the five other intelligent races, please keep the gift of these gems with you."

Still on her knees, the Queen straightened up. She was so huge that she still towered over us even when she knelt.

"I will not lift the compulsion to wear these gems for now," the Queen informed us. "It is the Blessed Lisaykos who ordered it, and only she can lift it. I know she intends to keep the compulsion active until the disease in Black Falls is completely gone. That may take one to two rotations. She ordered the compulsion for the southern quarter of the kingdom, which demonstrates how concerned she is to stop this fever from killing any more Coyn. She would order it for the whole kingdom if it spreads any further.

"If you wish to discuss the compulsion to wear these gems, you must negotiate with the Blessed Lisaykos. She is not an unreasonable person. With that advice, I will leave you now. I trust you to disperse peacefully." With that, she got up and walked into the chapel shrine.

Dumbfounded, we all left the square and went home or to the Surd Hall to talk.

Aylem, Aybhas, Harvest Season, 7th rot., 7th day

I found Arma immediately because she was sitting at the greeting counter. I grabbed a stool and sat next to her before she knew I was there. I didn't want a very pregnant lady to stand up to do an obeisance.

"Ack! Great One! You startled me," she started to get up, and I pushed her shoulder so she would sit back down.

"Pregnant ladies shouldn't bother with obeisances in their last season before giving birth," I stated. "And now we wait for the Coyn outside to go home on their own."

"What if they don't, Great One?" Arma asked.

"Then they will find themselves going home anyway," I pronounced. "I can cast a compulsion on that crowd from here, and they won't even realize it. No need to upset them further, but I will not abide any more riots. We can't afford to lose any more granaries. At least the harvest looks good this year. The acquisition of Yuxviayeth is finally paying off."

I turned to study Arma. "So, Arma, why are you still working and not resting at home like you should be?"

"My mother," Arma said, sighing and rolling her eyes. "She's turned into a horrible nag. She is uncomfortable around Coyn, so she never comes here. I'm also a bit bored sitting around with nothing to do, so I come down here and sit at the greeting counter and perform triage, which doesn't involve any healing other than a brief examination. My body clairvoyance is my best skill. I suspect I could do it in my sleep if I needed to. This isn't really work. It's mother avoidance."

"Seriously, the Holy Mieth can't be that bad," I said.

"You weren't raised by her," Arma said with such angst that I had to smile. I hoped I wasn't that bad with my own daughter. Knowing Mieth's inclination towards proper rules and protocol, I could see where Arma might need to escape.

"I love my mother dearly," Arma added, "but I confess, I am looking forward to her returning to Suapsepso next season."

"Really?"

"Ever hear of smotherhood?" Arma gave me a knowing look.

"Maybe," I replied. "Maybe not. I was an orphan though my childhood was rather smothering. I spent five years, from when six until I was ten, with three adepts of Landa in a house in the woods far removed from other people. My mind magic at the age of six was so strong that I was passively compelling people to my will even then. I spent every day under constant scrutiny while they taught me control. I was never left alone. I learned years later that the Convocation debated whether to end my life before I became too powerful to control; they feared me that much. Given the damage I've done to others with my power, they certainly had some justification."

"But you are better now, yes?" Arma asked. I could feel her apprehension though her face hid her thoughts.

"It is a struggle at times, but I think so. It was hard admitting that I was broken and needed mending. But I didn't come inside to talk about my lonely childhood under the thumb of three smothering matrons. I came inside because I wanted to check on that poor woman who had the cardiac arrest when I arrived and to check on the man who broke his collarbone. Also, I wanted to check up on you since pregnant healers less than a season from giving birth really shouldn't be working."

"You are starting to sound like my mother, Great One," Arma heaved a sigh.

"I didn't mean to. You did a wonderful job handling what could have turned into a riot."

"Thank you, though all I did was try to reason with them. I think it helped that many of them already knew me. For reasons I don't understand, I work very well with the little people. They seem to like me."

"You don't condescend," I told her because it was true. Arma had the knack of treating everyone the same. Maybe her egalitarian approach to people was in reaction to her mother's unmoving adherence to class distinctions and protocol.

I didn't tell her that it behooved me to get to know her better. She was living in Foskos now that she was married to a kingdom official. Lisaykos had given her positions of responsibility working for the Healing Shrine. I wouldn't be surprised if she achieved revered status in a few years, given who her mother was and how well she fit in with the Foskan healers. She was only a few years younger than me, and my youngest children would be the same age as her child. I realized that she was someone who might become a friend. Kamagishi kept telling me I needed to reach out and make more friends.

"Is Lisaykos doing your delivery?"

"She insisted," Arma smiled. "She has been very good to me, given my circumstances. She didn't need to give an exile such a good welcome, but she did. And she made sure my mother got the best possible care. I worried that after her ordeal, Mother would never recover her confidence and wits. She has, thanks to the Blessed Lisaykos and the Revered Lyappis. She is back to her nagging, overly-attentive self, ready to take back control of her Shrine as soon as I give birth."

"You will have at least a year of maternity leave to spend, and I suspect you're someone who will get bored quickly, especially with your spouse on duty with the King. We will both have little ones underfoot during that time. Why don't you spend some of that leave in Is'syal as my guest at the palace? Let me and my staff pamper you a little while your husband is working so hard on behalf of the kingdom?"

Poor Arma looked shocked.

"You don't need to make a decision right away," I told her. "Just think about it. The invitation is open-ended. And now, can you tell me which rooms my two victims are in? I'd like to visit both."

Arma's fish face was exquisite.

"Excuse me," a trainee came running up to the greeting counter. "There's a griffin on the roof complaining about too many Coyn in the square to land safely, and he –"

The trainee stopped, gaped, dropped to her knees, and performed a full obeisance to the Queen.

"That will be the Blessed Asgolt," the Queen said, amused. "No doubt he's unhappy. I flew here without him, but I wanted to get here faster than he can fly because I will not tolerate another riot. Trainee, tell that lazy griffin that I will meet him at the Healing Shrine."