Maker of Fire

Emily after the Battle of Northport, 7th rot., 8th day, Souk time

Captain Willis pulled his crew together and got the ketch underway toward the stretch of beach next to the now-blocked harbor. I sat next to the dying Moo'upegan, feeling my rage at the gods grow.

When the crest of my anger broke, it washed away the eroded beach of my patience. My willingness to be entertainment for a gaggle of bored immortal beings failed like a piece of metal that fractures after being strain-hardened one too many times, never to be whole ever again.

I probably was not in my right mind. How could I be when I embarked on defying real gods, unfathomable entities with the ability to inflict endless punishment for my rebellion? But I no longer cared. I saw no difference between continuing this miserable existence and any future torture the gods might want to dole out for disobeying them. Either looked equally as bleak to me, so why not choose the path that at least got me out of this pain-in-the-ass job.

Looking forward, I saw no hope. The gods had already told me I was still on the hook as the Prophet after the last revelation, expected to continue churning out scripture. I saw no relief, no lifting of the burden, no prospect of a simple, happy life as a normal person raising a family. Here I was on another god-ordained mission, this time to rescue some poor sap and his eagle from the cannibal tribes of the Cosm Tirmarrans. Once again, no one asked me beforehand. Not even Galt. Galt was in on it this time – Galt, whom I trusted.

I looked at the dying Moo, and I felt betrayed. Poor Moo was also not given a choice. Vassu gave the gal her traveling papers for this concocted quest even though she was the heir to an empire that had just been ravaged by the Chem and torn by civil war. She had a capital to rebuild and a country to stitch back together. Her brat of a brother would certainly try to usurp the throne. Two of her three fleets were sunk, and over half of her legions were dead. Mattamukan pirates were shredding her shipping. So what did the gods do? They sent her to babysit me instead of allowing her to mend her empire. I'm sorry, but the needs of one small Coyn on a bogus adventure were nowhere near as important as the task now facing Moo.

This so-called fun adventure was not worth wasting Moo's abilities when her country needed her. I could tell she had the right stuff to be a great ruler. She had charisma that could cover the continent twice over. She was good-natured and kind-hearted. She was also a likable duffus, and I discovered today I had become fond of her. It really is true that you never know how much you value something until you lose it.

Watching Moo as her life ran out stabbed me where I was wounded and turned the knife. Did the gods think that a last-minute save of Moo by some pirate healer would placate the rage and grief I felt? How stupid were they? This wasn't a fun adventure. This was torment. Did they think I would be fine with the pain that Moo must be enduring and with the grief I suffered as she died in front of me?

"No," I said to no one in particular. "No more."

I stood up, startling Captain Willis and the crew not tasked with sending the cutter into the harbor. I told the vast sky above me, "I quit, you fucking assholes. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm done. Do you hear me, you jerks?"

Would I be gifted with a quick smiting, or would the gods inflict lingering agony instead? Offing myself was looking like an acceptable option. I regretted that I would never raise the family I wanted with Tom. But I knew now that I was probably infertile, and so long as I had to play the role of prophet, the gods would never leave me alone to enjoy a normal life.

All I wanted was my name and my life back, and I knew I would never have those as the Prophet. The damn eyes Galt gave me couldn't be disguised. I was forever marked. I might as well have a brand on my face.

A future where I had no control over my own existence wasn't an existence worth living. My life was too much to bear when I had to watch things like my friend Moo dying in front of me–all because of the whims of the thoughtless gods.

This little trip would end here. I had some regrets that no one would rescue that poor sap and his eagle. But seriously, if the gods cared, why did they let those two suffer twenty-two years already? Were they there just so I could come and fetch them home? It struck me as cruel to make them wait that long, as their family members died and the world changed into something unrecognizable while they languished in captivity. Death might be more merciful for those two than rescue. They, too, had been deprived of a choice by the gods.

Was the rescue of the captive pair worth yanking Moo away from rebuilding her nation, only for her to be mortally wounded on this fiasco of a fun adventure?

"Who are you talking to, Beloved?" Willis asked, looking concerned.

"The gods, Willis. I'm quitting. As soon as we know whether that pirate can save Moo, I want you to sail back to Souk. Then, I want you to go to Kwabin, either with the living Empress or her corpse. As for me, I'll be getting off there, or maybe I'll get off here if Moo dies. The gods can find some other chump to play the shitty role of prophet. I'm not doing this anymore."

"I don't understand, Beloved," Willis was confused, but I was too far gone to want to explain.

"I'm not asking anyone to understand, Willis. I just want the calliope to stop so I can get off the carousel." I knew Willis wouldn't understand the English words, but I didn't care. The metal had failed and nothing would put it back together again.

"Beach the ketch for now, and make sure the centerboard is all the way up. And Willis – my name is Emily, not Beloved, not Great One, not any of that. I'm just Emily. It's my name. Use it. I'm done with answering to titles."

I sat back down next to Moo. I promised I would stay with her, and I would keep that promise.

Someone sat down across from me. I looked up into the eyes of a Coyn-sized Mugash.

"I was worried that something like this would happen," the deity said. "Please, before you bite my nose off again, let me reiterate what I said to you in Pocatoe: I had nothing to do with this current excursion."

"Why are you here, Mugash? I don't want to see any of you jackasses."

"First, dear heart, allow me to give you a gift," Mugash reached out and touched Moo on the shoulder. "She will wake up now cured of the poison. Regardless, she was not meant to die here, but I had no part of that plan. Now, I have made all that moot. The anxiety you would have felt and the pain she would have endured on her path to wellness no longer exist. Emily, you have just collapsed all the timelines again. I know this singularity event will end in just a few moments, but I do not know how. That is up to you. So, now, my contrary daughter, please, what is it that you want?"

"You know what I want," I cried. "You're a god, so of course you know what I want. And don't give me that bull puckey line about what I want versus what I need. I don't give a rat's ass for what I need. I don't get motivated by what I need. Like any other human being, I'm motivated by what I want."

"Emily, please, if I am to help you, tell me, in your own words, what do you want?"

"What I want is what I'm now going to do. I am going to go home to have a simple, peaceful life with my Tom in my little valley. I'll walk there if I must."

"Good enough. The singularity has now passed," Mugash stated. "Your decision has once again reset the shape of the future. Now let us discuss how we shall deliver you home."

"No, first, we need to talk about the shape of the future," I insisted. "What good is going home if I'm going to be asked to do more shitty things, like destroying cities, condemning people to death, and corrupting peaceful races by teaching them the arts of war? If anything, I feel like this prophet gig has tainted me. I hate war, and I abhor violence. Yet, here I am, bombing several hundred people to death with weapons I designed to be maximally lethal. This has to stop. I can't – no, I won't do this anymore. No more Salicets, no more Toyatastagkas, no more clay bombs that killed my friend Wolkarys. I just can't keep doing this," I wailed and broke down sobbing. "It's just too much."

"If that is what you want, then yes, let us discuss the shape of the future," Mugash responded. I suddenly felt a sense of vertigo, much like that strange feeling at the start of a large earthquake. I looked up at Mugash, and she smiled at me with what looked like pity.

Aylem, Is'syal, 7th rot., night of the 7th day, Foskos time

The light from the shrine's Great Crystal suddenly went out. I turned back to the doorway into the dome and walked in unimpeded. Imstay, Garki, House, and Asgotl also entered, followed by the crowd in the hallway.

"Well, let's see if I can approach the crystal," I told Imstay. I walked to the north side of the sacred space, to the gap in the railing around the Well of Galt, and stepped inside the rail. As I lifted my hand to touch the crystal, House let out a yowl.

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"House says you should go home to bed, Aylem Queen," Asgotl said formally. "She says that Mugash has intervened to save Emily's friend."

That utterance left me speechless. It took me several breaths to regain my ability to express myself. "Just what is going on with Emily right now that all this," I swept my arm to indicate the whole shrine and the two stricken high priestesses, "is happening? It's affected every shrine throughout all of Erdos!"

"Merrow," said House.

"Really?" Asgotl looked at the cat in Garki's arms in astonishment. "Oh my," he shook his head. "House says Emily told the gods she's walking off the job and made it stick. The gods are currently in a dither with how to deal with the situation."

"SHE WHAT?!"

Emily after the Battle of Northport, 7th rot., 8th day, Souk time

I was working on assimilating what Mugash had just said when I heard muted cries of alarm from Willis and his crew. I looked up to see the crew cowering against the gunwales, squeezing themselves as far as possible from me and the unconscious Moo. I turned my head the other way and saw Tiki's flaming, floating Polynesian-style god mask.

"May I request that you still write your scripture on your own time, according to your own schedule? I can wait a lifetime for it," Tiki said.

I blotted my tears on my sleeve and struggled to catch my breath, "What's in it for me, other than a lot of work I don't want to do?"

"Your scripture will become the guidance by which the world will run from this time forward. If you want to forbid practices like the planet's corruption by industrial pollution, you can do so. If you want to forbid systems of run-away economic greed like irresponsible capitalism and consumerism, you may. You already know you want to abolish chattel and economic systems of slavery. The world is once again yours to mold, Emily, if you want. But you don't need to make that choice now. Take your time. I can wait."

"Dammit, Tiki, you make Goebbels look like an amateur," I complained. Damn gods. "What about those two captives of the Tirmarrans? Are you going to leave them there to suffer?"

"That was their fate before you took up your destined place as the Prophet, Emily," Erhonsay said, sitting down next to Mugash. "I realized that this trip could be the means to free that eagle and his rider from their captivity. I never arranged their imprisonment twenty-two years ago just so you could free them now. Including their rescue in this well-meant adventure was simply opportunistic on my part. You created that opportunity for me when you reset fate the first time in Aybhas a half year ago. I will work on some other way to bring them home. As Galt told you in Pocatoe, their rescue will make someone very dear to you happy. That remains true. And Melk would be a wonderful revelator. He has all the qualities I want for the role."

"Wait," I waved my hands to slow Erhonsay down. It felt like the information flow was too fast to absorb. "Do you mean that they would have died in captivity if I hadn't reset the future on my way to Kayseo's wedding?"

*Exactly so,* said Galt. *That's the way the rules of this reality work. Your actions a half year ago made it possible to free that eagle and his bond.* Galt walked on all fours into Erhonsay's lap and curled up with his paws tucked in.

*Scratch,* he instructed Erhonsay.

"You expect me, another deity, to scratch you? And where do you get off thinking you can curl up in my lap?"

*Seniority matters, and I am the oldest among us. Besides, when wearing this aspect, I am both ineffable and inscrutable, affirming my hypothesis that the best aspect for a god is a cat. Now, please, lovely lady, scratch. Between the ears would be nice.*

"Is there any way to get the two captives home without this stupid so-called adventure?" I asked. I knew I would feel better if the mage and the eagle could return to their home somehow. I couldn't fathom what twenty-two years of imprisonment would be like. For myself, I think I would kill myself first. "Why can't you just go and take them home without hiring contract employees like prophets?"

"The problem is the rules we made when we set up this reality," Surd said, popping in behind Erhonsay and Mugash. She was dressed exactly as her statues depicted her, wearing a black and orange ancient-style gown and shawl, golden hair up in a neat bun, and a glowing golden halo shining behind her head. She waved a stool into existence and sat. "We will not act directly without interaction from the souls who occupy our creation. Those rules are looser now because we are currently in a correction period, otherwise known as the third age of miracles and divine intervention, but they still apply."

"What? You have to be asked?" I snapped. I pointed at Erhonsay, "You're saying that resetting all the timelines a half year ago made it possible for those two to escape their fate and go home? And you want them to go home? And you even have a revelation for the eagle when he gets home? However, despite all that, you won't help them get home because someone must ask you first? Are you for real? What good is being a god if you can't act on your own desire and judgment to rescue those two? That is so screwed up!"

"I can build an automobile," Giltak said, appearing in a magnificent lavender gown with puffy sleeves and lace everywhere, "but a mortal still has to get behind the steering wheel and start it. I can create the concept of the element of fire, but someone still needs to gather fuel and a spark to start the flames. I'm afraid more is involved that you can't sense, little one, but trust me, these are decent metaphors for why Erhonsay cannot just stomp into the Tirmarran eagle tribe and liberate the captives."

"You know I hate the ineffable excuse," I snarled at Giltak.

Giltak sighed, "I know you do, and yet, it is the only correct answer."

The six gods present all looked at me expectantly. I had no idea what this meant.

Vassu the shark in her pink chiffon swam through the air behind the other gods, wearing hot pink lipstick and cobalt blue eye shadow.

"Emily, Luv, you are out of sorts and feeling befuddled," Vassu said in a calm and kind voice, absent of condescension. "These thickheaded excuses of deities aren't reading you correctly, so they are missing that you're not yourself right now. And you are too distraught to realize they are waiting for you to direct them. You see, Luv, you just flushed the timeline cache, so the decisions you make right now will shape destiny going forward. But you must articulate what you want to happen to shape that destiny.

"For example, Erhonsay can't rescue Listay'odas and Melk from the eagle tribe unless someone asks her. You are the only one who knows about them so that someone is you. You can ask Erhonsay to do it herself. You could even ask to go with her. You could ask me to take you home across the ocean or ask Sassoo to give you a ride in his aspect of the Lord of the Winds. Right now, all of existence is waiting on you. As Mugash explained to you at Pocatoe and as I explained to you at Aybhas, this is the power granted to a prophet, and even though you hate this role, you are the current prophet."

"And if I refuse to do any prophet things from now on and tell you to leave me alone and never bother me again?" I growled.

Vassu sighed, "That also would be the decision of the current prophet, and it too would shape the future. It would also make a mess of things, but that's your choice."

"Blarg." Everything was too complicated. While I knew I wanted to go home without all this divine quest nonsense, I hadn't had time to consider how to get there. I also knew I could not live with myself without addressing the issues of the two Tirmarran captives and Moo'upegan's responsibilities to rebuild Mattamesscontess.

I suddenly realized that the dunderheaded gods had expectations for my trip home and that I had just uprooted those. Were they hoping I could salvage their plans somehow? I felt like screaming. Why wouldn't they simply state what they wanted? Their reluctance to participate directly in their own creation was enraging.

"Alright, you numbnuts," I collected my thoughts together, the few I had, "I want to think about things before making any big decisions. That means I want to sleep on it. But first, I need to know a few things. First, why did you corral Moo'upegan, who has a nation to rebuild, as my babysitter on this trip? Why her and not some other silverhair?"

"It was for Moo'upegan's benefit. Any silverhair could have protected you while you traveled," Vassu explained. "I wanted Moo'upegan to spend time with you to teach her that she can have friends despite her position. That's because you are the only one who could befriend her without being frightened by her rank. No one else on this side of the continent would talk to her as an equal like you have. Putting you together wasn't for you; it was for her."

"But her empire?" I protested.

"I have nudged affairs to ensure she will return to a polity eager for her guidance," Vassu stated. "The acting regent is capable and loyal. I arranged outside help to aid the regent while the Empress was traveling. I also intended for Moo'upegan to visit Foskos to see how the shrines work and to stop at Sils'chk on her way home to meet and negotiate with the Five Caretakers of Sussbesschem. The outcome could have benefited both nations."

"What about her bratty brother who wants the throne?" I asked.

"The acting regent has the brat locked up," Vassu smiled, showing off all those big pointy teeth. "He already tried to make trouble."

"And what about you, Galt? What was your real objective for this adventure?" I know I scowled at him, but his betrayal really hurt.

Galt sighed and looked dejected, "I just wanted to make you happy after all you have done for us."

"Ever read the Book of Job?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"I was afraid you were going to mention that," his ears were flat. "You have won the bet. I am so sorry, kitten. Much of this is my fault. I made a mistake. I believed you would enjoy adventuring with Moo'upegan, who would, in turn, profit from her time with you. I thought I understood how you thought and felt, but I know now that I was wrong and have hurt both you and her because of it."

"I have to second that," Giltak said, drooping.

"So, just who are these two captives in Tirmarra? And which of my friends are they related to?" I inquired.

"Dammit, we wanted that to be a pleasant surprise," Galt squawked.

"Seriously, catface?" I retorted.

"You know what it's like when someone guesses what you're giving them as a present?" Galt pleaded.

"Alright, I won't pursue it, furball. Does anyone else have plans for this aborted trip that I haven't heard about?"

"I wanted you to take some of the slate that crops out under the basalt to the north of the harbor and give it to my High Priestess Senlyosart," Sassoo said, appearing next to Surd.

"Well, that's easy enough," I conceded. "Anyone else?" I prodded.

"Well, I don't exactly have a specific request," a miniature purple dragon popped into existence next to Tiki, "but I do have a suggestion for you, Emily, and ask that you sleep on it."

"Suggest away, Landa, but when you're done, that's it for today," I told him. "I'm tired, and I'm drained, and my head hurts. We can reconvene in the morning."