Maker of Fire

Emily, Black Falls, Cold Season, 1st rot., 3rd day

I walked the shoreline along the north bank of the river to the upper bridge and crossed there, where the river makes its great bend from north-south to east-west upstream of Black Falls. I reentered the city at the eastern wagon gate. Once there, I experienced the novelty of passing through a checkpoint where I was asked to show my charm gem of healing.

The guards had built a one-room building for the checkpoint. It had a seating area with benches. No one was sitting on the benches today. I guessed they were there for when the weather was unpleasant.

Other than the benches, the room had a railed platform about a yard high with ramps up and down. In front of the platform was a garrison silverhair on a chair, checking each gem. A clerk sat at a table next to her with a pen and a vellum scroll. I briefly wondered why the garrison was using vellum instead of paper.

Traffic through the gate was sparse. Most folks were off eating their mid repast. Only one other Coyn was at the checkpoint. I followed him into the building and watched him go up the ramp.

"Gem, please," the officer ordered.

The man pulled out a charm gem pendant on a thin pink cord. The officer took the gem between her forefinger and thumb for less than a breath.

"Name?"

"Dap."

"And who's the responsible Cosm with you today?"

"Tovitlas of First Turn Holding."

"Here for how long?"

"Just a bell or two. Making a delivery and then heading right back. Get home before dinner."

"Very good. Have a good day, Dap. Next. Well, girl, don't just stand there. Get up here. Gem, please."

I fished inside my tunics and fished out the chain with my charm gem. I held it out to her so she could touch the gem.

"It's on a chain?" the officer asked.

"How else does one wear a pendant gem except on a chain?"

"You're the first I've seen with a chain, child. Most have a cord dyed to match their mantles." She smiled at me in a welcoming way. Then her eyes detoured to the sigil of Mugash on my mantle, and she frowned.

"Name?"

"Just a Coyn with her hood up." I tugged on the hood of my mantle twice. I didn't want her to broadcast my identity because I knew the Convocation Quilting Club and Interrogation Society would be looking for me. I wanted to fade into the city before anyone caught on.

She peered at my face inside my hood and gasped.

I cut her off before she could say anything. "Before you do something foolish, let me say it again. The hood is up. Does my gem pass inspection, my lady?"

"Yes . . . yes, it's fine. Where did you find a chain?"

"Gangkego, in Inkalem."

"For the log, you traveled from . . . ?"

"Aybhas, yesterday."

Well, it wasn't a lie. We did land in Aybhas. I thought saying "Tirmarra" would be too much for this poor garrison gal. She was already fish-eyed, gaping at my eyes.

"And who's the responsible Cosm with . . . ?"

"None."

"That being the case," the clerk interjected, "I need to know where you are staying."

"How so?" I asked. I was sure having my hood up was proof against invasive questions like this.

"All of the fever victims for the last five days have been from out of town, so we are taking special care with visitors. It's important to know who you are with because that tells us where you are and that someone is watching out for you. If you are here on your own, then we need to know where you are staying. A guard will be by every evening after curfew to check up on you until you leave the city. If you don't have a place to stay yet, we have accommodations set up for visiting Coyn. You can get plaques for a sleeping room and meals here. If you're quick, you can still get a mid repast before the food service shuts down at the eastern Surd Hall."

"Oh. I understand now. In your log, please insert the Holy Senlyosart as the responsible Cosm, as I am currently her guest at the shrine. You can skip the plaque for a room, but I'll take a plaque for mid repast. And directions to the eastern Surd Hall, please?"

"Why list the Holy One when your mantle is from the Healing Shrine of Mugash? Shouldn't the entry be for . . . for . . .Oh, shit. You're really her, aren't you? Of course, you don't need a room. You could have skipped the line, hooded one."

I'm not sure why, but I found myself enjoying the reactions of these two Cosm. They were delightfully gobsmacked. I glanced and saw two gaping Coyn now waiting at the bottom of the ramp, watching the exchange. I would endeavor to be brief but not too brief.

"Is it not the current rule that every Coyn entering the city must have a charm gem of health?" I asked.

"Yes."

"You check every Coyn going through the gate for a live charm gem because, of course, some asshat who didn't like the rule probably used a dead light or boiling gem to sneak in. No doubt, one or more of these morons with a dead gem had the fever and spread it around. So, now, the rule is to check each gem to prevent the use of broken gems or ordinary crystals. Yes?"

"Yes."

"And this rule applies to every Coyn coming into the city, yes?"

"Yes."

"Am I not endeavoring to enter the city?"

"Yes."

"Might I point out, friends, that I am indeed a Coyn, all seven hands of me. Since the rule applies to all Coyn entering the city, it must also apply to me, even if my hood was down. So, no, I can't skip the line, Attendant. That would be an abuse of privilege. Do you have any further questions for me?"

"No."

"Might I get that meal plaque and directions now?"

The clerk handed me a palm-sized wood plaque with "one mid, C 1 r. 3, E gate 679" written on it. The "679" was in damp ink. Did that make me the 679th Coyn inspected today?

"To get to the eastern Surd Hall, go left out the gate seven blocks to the Southeast Market. Take the market's south side alley to the Salt Road. Go left again. The eastern Surd Hall is a couple of blocks on the right. It's around the back of the Surd chapel shrine and school. The plaque is good for one meal. They close a quarter after the fifth bell, so you'll make it if you start walking now."

As I walked down the ramp and out the door, I heard the next Coyn in line, a tall woman in the brown and yellow livery of Black Falls, say: "Was that her? Was that the Emily?"

"Yes, it was her," the garrison officer said.

"She's so short."

"All seven hands of her. She's tiny even for a Coyn," the clerk said.

"Can I get one of those repast plaques? Maybe I can catch up with her."

"Have you eaten?"

"Well, yeah, but getting to have a meal with the Prophet herself. That would be so wow."

"Alright, let me see your charm gem."

I passed through the gate and started walking. I wasn't sure I wanted an audience while I ate. I never got the opportunity to be by myself while out with other Coyn. I could count on two fingers the number of times I had gotten out on my own, and only one of those was enjoyable. That time was when Tom and I snuck out to the Surd Hall in Truvos when Kayseo and Otty got married. The other time was when I ran away from the Mugash chapel shrine in Aybhas after breaking my collarbone while sledding.

No, I had to be honest with myself. I did hang out with the musicians from the Singing Shrine and with the mekaners at the Building Shrine, but both those groups treated me like some exalted being. I didn't want that. I wanted to feel like a normal person doing everyday things. What I wanted at the moment was to sit quietly and just watch the world of normal Coyn going about their day.

I really didn't want to try to socialize with a lot of people I didn't know. It was so hard trying to talk to people. I never knew what to say, and I was no good at small talk. I learned the hard way over two lifetimes that hardly anyone was interested in the things I liked to talk about, like rocks and chemistry, even if they could keep up with me. I always felt like I was a gosling among chipmunks. We didn't speak the same language. I did okay with the folks from the Singing and Building shrines, but I had no idea what to say in a conversation with non-nerdy Coyn.

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Just watching the world go by was what I wanted. I desired a corner where I could sit and think. Given that Gertzpul just gave me another divine task to do, I was feeling unhappy. Well, more than unhappy. I was upset. I thought I gave the gods my two weeks notice – well, two rotations notice. Now, Gertzpul had just given me another task that I would feel guilty if I didn't carry it out.

Maybe I could take the sting out of it if I made it into a trip to the hot springs with friends. I definitely wanted to show Tom the hot springs. And Moo too. It'd be nice to go with the gang of three, but Thuorfosi now had a baby to look after, and Kayseo was pregnant. Pregnant ladies and hot springs were not a good match. Maybe I should ask Lisaykos, Listayodas, Usruldes, and Oyyuth. I needed to think about it, but a quick trip across the lava plains to collect rocks and have a nice soak wouldn't be a bad way to scratch the latest divine demand off the remaining to-do list before I retired from the prophet gig.

Because the new Black Falls was laid out on a grid, I took the first right turn and then the next left to lose the gal I suspected was following me. Six more blocks took me to the Southeast Market. I turned onto the northside alleyway instead of the southside, again to dodge those who might be following me. Like the markets in Aybhas, the alleyways flanking the main market thoroughfare were used mainly by Coyn to avoid wagon and Cosm pedestrian traffic. Many of the stores had Coyn-height shop windows and doors. I noted that some catered directly to Coyn, especially food and drink vendors, but also several sold heavy waxed leather hipwaders for working in the salt pans to the south of the city. It was an interesting walk and I enjoyed peering inside the shops.

I was impressed that the intersection of the market and the Salt Road had a garrison guard doing traffic control. I waited with a group of several other Coyn for the signal to cross the market thoroughfare to get onto the protected pedestrian way going down the Salt Road. I made a note to mention this to Lisaykos because it would make navigating the ring roads and the markets in Aybhas much safer for pedestrians, especially for Coyn.

Black Falls had two Surd Halls for Coyn, one in the northwest serving the docks and the commercial district, and one in the southeast serving the residential areas, retail markets, and light manufacturing areas south of the three hills. The eastern Surd Hall was part of a huge chapel shrine complex that included Cosm and Coyn orphanages, work houses, care homes, short-term boarding houses, a school, a park with playing fields for just Coyn, and the dining hall.

The dining hall was really four separate dining rooms around a central kitchen. It was an impressive building made entirely of Ud's solidified web. I had to laugh because Ud had added a decorative frieze on every wall of cute spiders in silly poses. The floors were mosaics of spider webs.

When I entered the hall, I was directed to the inner left dining room. As I passed the doors into the other three rooms, I saw staff in Surd's orange mantels and black tunics cleaning up. I got into a short line that led to a serving counter, where I was given a wooden tray with brown bread, a ceramic beaker of chatea sweetened with bog berry syrup, and a wooden bowl of mutton stew with carrots and turnips. I took a seat at the farthest table from the counter.

No one in the room had their hood up. Not wanting to stick out, I pulled my hood down and flopped it forward so it partially obscured the shiny metallic thread of the embroidered crossed-hands sigil of Mugash. I attacked my food, feeling hungry after all the walking I had done. Neither butter nor dipping oil was provided, so I used my bread for sops, like everyone else in the room. I'm not sure what I expected, but the food was surprisingly good.

No one bothered me while I ate. I overheard snippets of conversation about the fever and people who had died. It was obvious that many were grieving the loss of friends. I also heard speculation about the charm gem checkpoints in Aybhas, which Lisaykos allowed the city's Coyn to manage, and whether they might be able to do the same in Black Falls. It was the first I had heard of such an arrangement. I needed to ask Lisaykos about it when I had the chance. It was obvious to me that I needed to catch up on a lot of news. I also heard more about the new Revered One at the Singing Shrine, who was just a boy but able to play the lithophone. This was the same kid who had put the Consolation of the Prophet to music, which I had heard just the day before.

While I was able to eat my meal in peace, I didn't escape the dining room unaccosted. As I looked up at the counter where people left their dirty dishes, I noticed a handful of people at nearby tables watching me. None of them had trays. As I began to get up to bus my tray, the lady who had seen me at the checkpoint spoke to the man sitting next to her.

"Nat, take her tray up, will you?"

"Yep, save me a good spot."

My tray vanished, and eight folks in a mix of city, Surd, and Vassu mantles – brown, orange, and teal– sat at my table.

"You had the look of someone who wanted to eat in peace," the woman said.

I didn't know how she could tell, but she was correct.

"Shouldn't that still be the same?"

"You were getting up to leave. Got a moment? You're the Emily, aren't you?"

"What if I put up my hood?"

"Then you'd be the Emily with your hood up. That's weird because other than you, Coyn don't have that privilege. It's a stomp-up thing. And your hood is down right now."

I was gobsmacked. It was obvious that the hood convention didn't apply to slaves, yet I had never realized it before. How in the world did I miss that?

"I didn't w...want to stick out because no one was eating with their hoods up."

"Hey, don't look like that. We're not the neighborhood protection thugs. We just wanted to talk. No one ever gets to see or meet you. If the stomp-ups didn't talk about you, we wouldn't even know you existed. So when I spotted you teasing the stomp-ups at the gate, I decided I wanted the chance to meet a prophet before they lock you up again."

"They don't lock me up. I'm not a prisoner. The people I live with at the Healing Shrine aren't like that. They've been kind to me despite my shortcomings. I was recuperating most of the time I was there or learning about stuff because I didn't know anything about anything."

"So it's true that the Queen attacked you? But weren't you already at the Healing Shrine when that happened?"

"It's complicated."

"Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"Beginning?" I was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"Latto, I think you should back off. You're being too forward again," said a beefy middle-aged blond man in a Surd mantle.

"What? The Emily is here, now. I'm just curious."

"We're all curious, Latto, but this poor kid looks ready to run out the door if she had an opening." He stopped and then smiled in an open, friendly way. "So, little prophet, we hear a thousand rumors about you and not much else. The stomp-ups don't bother telling us anything, so we have to overhear stuff. If you can spare a moment or two, would you mind killing some rumors? Say, until quarter past the fifth bell? That wouldn't be too much, would it? My name's Zazz, but the way. Hey Yak, grab a cask from the stash and some beakers. Nom, go help him. Talking requires throat wetting."

"Yes, chief."

"Chief?" I asked.

"I'm the ward leader for all the Coyn who live at the Surd Hall."

"Oh."

"So, little lady, where are you from?"

"The other side of the Great Cracks."

"From a homestead or a trapper?"

"I lived by myself. I w...wanted to avoid Cosm."

"You're just a kid. How did you get there?"

"I ran away from an illegal breeding farm. I wanted to get as far from the stomp-ups as I could, so I did. And I'm older than I look."

"You look fourteen or fifteen."

"I think I'm seventeen or eighteen. I'm guessing I was about eight when I ran."

"Didn't your control gem stop you?"

"I bit it off. Before you ask, I thought I was dying. I decided that if I was going to die, I wanted to die free. But I lived. The Blessed Asgotl, revelator of Sassoo, thinks that the gods kept me alive. It's a hard memory. I don't like thinking about it."

"Wow, little Emily, that raises more questions than it answers. Can you back up and explain why you were dying?"

That began my recounting of what the breeding farm was like and how the fever spread in my bunkhouse. The faces of my small audience were grim as I told how my bunk mates were murdered as they ran from the burning bunkhouse and how I was hit on the head, making me mute. I described how I snuck around holdings, stealing food, clothes, and small hand tools. I explained how I barely escaped Cosm pursuit because I was small enough to run and climb through small openings Cosm couldn't fit through. I could enter crawl spaces and hide inside walls, and was lucky that my pursuit never included any silverhairs with clairvoyance. I told how I found my path across the Great Cracks, after seven tries, destroying many pairs of stolen shoes.

I downed two beakers of illegally-brewed Coyn-made beer while describing how finding my cave made it possible to survive my first cold season. These folks didn't know that caves maintained year-round temperatures of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius. The faces of my listeners grew increasingly astounded as I described making my first iron in a pit furnace and my first attempts at forge refining and tool making.

Then I described how the Queen found me after I rescued her children and how she rescued me after my furnace accident. The fifth bell rang while I told of Lisaykos's patience and kindness as she taught me Fosk letters and then how to speak again.

"So that's why you talk like a palace slave," Latto interrupted. "I was wondering about that. But how is it that you knew how to make the iron metal, and the things that explode, and the little sticks that make fire without magic?"

"The gods put all that in my head." It wasn't exactly a lie, since the gods allowed me to remember my life and all of my knowledge from Earth. But they also filled my brain with new information, like two new languages, how to sail, and the names of people I'd never met before, like Ishapur of Moorookumush. "It's strange and uncomfortable. It's not fun waking up and realizing I know a lot more than I did the day before. It feels like I don't own my own mind sometimes. I don't really like it."

"But isn't that a miracle? Shouldn't you feel grateful to learn things without doing the hard work of learning? And revelations! It must be incredible to be touched by a god. Even the high priestesses have to bow to you if you're a revelator and you're famous, and your name will be known for the rest of time. That's so amazing!"

"Revelations are hard." I'm sure I grimaced. "They hurt. The first one I got, from Tiki, hurt as bad as a charm of discipline. I'd rather not be a revelator. I don't like pain." I slumped and took a breath, feeling worn from all the talking. "I'm not sure I'm up to anymore today. Can I come back later, maybe tomorrow? I went for a walk this morning wanting to dodge the Convocation, but the day wasn't the pleasant escape I wanted it to be."

"I heard that the god of death visited you today," Zazz said. "I think I'd dump my bladder if that happened to me. But it's almost quarter after the fifth bell, so we should let you go," Zazz said, looking at me with pity in his eyes. "You look tired. And you could have told us to go away, and you didn't. For that, we thank you. But before you vanish, would it be possible for you to make fire for us?"

"That's easy," I dug into my pouch for the striking stone and the copper box of matches. I had about twenty left from the ones I packed in No'ank a season ago. It felt like a year to me. "This is a potion formed and dried on the end of a short wooden spill. The striking stone has a thing called phosphorus on it, which you can make from urine or bat poop. Quickly dragging the potion on the spill across the phosphorus on the stone ignites the potion, like this." I struck the match and let it burn until it got too hot to hold. "I didn't know this when I made my first instant fire sticks, when I was still living in my cave, but the stomp-ups had a prophecy that's over 600 years old that predicted a girl with golden eyes would show up one day and make fire without magic. I didn't find out about the prophecy until I had been living in Aybhas for a year. The stomp-ups didn't tell me when I got here. I think I might have run away again if I had known about it."

"I heard there's a factory now in Kas making instant fire for the army and the guards," Zazz said.

"Is there?" I guessed that the King was behind that. He was the one who lusted after matches for his soldiers. He got his matches, and I got my freezing and boiling charm gems for the steam bomb that destroyed the bridge in No'ank. "I suspect instant fire will become available to everyone soon. They are easy to make now that I taught the Building Shrine how to make the main ingredient for the potion."

"Is it hard?" one of the other Coyn asked.

"Yes and no. It's kinda complicated." I cringed at the thought of trying to explain electrolysis to make potassium perchlorate.

"Not today, folks," Zazz ordered. I was ready to canonize him. "Where are you headed from here, little lady?"

"I think I want to go back to the shrine and watch the world go by from the gallery around the dome. I'm sure the Convocation won't think to look for me there."

"Nom, go tell Mule to saddle up a pony. I can get you a ride back to the shrine down alleyways not used by the stomp-ups, and we know all the back entrances. If you find a guy named Otwee, he can show you the stairway for Coyn that goes up to the gallery."

"I didn't know the shrine had a Coyn stair at the dome chamber, but I do know Otwee. He's a good guy. Thanks, Zazz. That sounds like a plan."