Maker of Fire

Emily, Is'syal

"You two seem to know each other well," Fassex observed as we started walking. The forecourt was still a muddle of mounts, riders, and grooms, with people landing and taking off constantly. "I was about to arrive from Yant when I heard the queen mindcasting for anyone in the air with an eagle who could do pickups. I was very surprised to see someone your size riding a griffin alone, Great One. At that distance, I didn't know it was you."

She looked at me, and then chuckled, "well, this is a new experience for me. I've not had any practice holding a conversation with someone who couldn't talk before." She was up there in years but she certainly seemed spry and the deep crow's feet lines next to her ears told me she laughed and smiled a lot. I certainly didn't notice the crow's feet when she was the Convocation spokesperson for interrogating me.

"Drat! The queen flew off with the bag with all the wax tablets, Emily," Hessakos grumped. "Stupid me. I'm sorry Emily. You had all your aqueduct notes on those, didn't you?" He pursed his lips in frustration.

"Yes, I heard the water problem was being fixed before we left Yant this afternoon," Fassex remarked.

"News travels fast," Hessakos replied with a questioning look.

"The Shrine of Galt sent word since we planned to send a specialist in purification magic here to start purifying river water," she explained. "Now that Is'syal has safe water again, we have sent him to Two Ferry Island, where the levees were breached."

"Yes, I heard it was bad down there," he frowned. "The king told me the lower half of the town was completely washed away and thousands are missing. And here we are, happy and healthy, walking down the North Way on a warm sunny day, laughing and making jokes." He shook his head and grimaced. I reached over and put my hand over his and tried to give him a sympathetic look. He gave me a sad smile back.

"You shouldn't feel bad about moments of joy in the midst of sorrow. There is something redeeming in laughter. It's one of the ways we are reminded that we are alive and that there are things in life worth experiencing, even when it may seem futile or hopeless. There should always be hope and there should always be laughter. You should wrap yourself around those moments and treasure them. We would not be able to bear the tragedies of living otherwise."

She was looking somewhere far away at things beyond our sight with an expression of profound sorrow. I had no idea of how old she was but she probably had lived through quite a bit. We walked in silence for a while. Our route took us through what looked like a high-end marketplace, with jewelers, bookstores, magic tool shops, fancy fabric stores, shoemakers, saddle makers, leather workers, and many other fancy businesses.

It wasn't crowded but people still got out of our way even though Fassex wasn't in robes. She was still the tallest person in the marketplace. I drew many curious looks and a few hostile ones. There was not a single Coyn other than myself in sight. It wasn't exactly comfortable.

We were almost to one of the entrances to the shrine when we passed a tea shop with street seating like a sidewalk cafe. Someone spit loudly and said, "imagine, carrying that sort of filth through the streets in public." There were a few guffaws that followed.

Fassex stopped and then everything stopped. Everyone and everything except Fassex, Hessakos and myself, were frozen in place, even the tea in the middle of being poured. She turned and stood at the edge of the tea shop seating with a quartz crystal in her hand glowing with the intensity of an incandescent light bulb.

"Who spat?"

"I did," a full silverhair man in stylish robes said woodenly. The only active thing about him was his eyes, moving around in panic.

"Were you the one who made the comment?"

"Yes."

"Stand." It wasn't a request.

"Everyone who laughed, stand." Six men and one woman stood. They were all either silverhairs or halfhairs.

Then the eight who were standing suddenly screamed and fell to the ground writhing in pain. Everyone and everything that was frozen then unfroze. Despite the return of freedom of motion, it was silent except for the eight who were screaming.

The tableau of screaming Cosm was disturbing. I turned my head and buried my face in Hessakos' tunic to get the sight out of my eyes.

There were running footsteps, and then, "sister."

"Kamagishi," Fassex said calmly. The screaming stopped. Several voices started sobbing. "I will not tolerate blasphemy of the Blessed Revelator of Tiki."

I looked up to see Kamagishi with her hair tied back in a plain functional red robe with an apron over it. "It is enough," Kamagishi protested.

"You know the law," Fassex said. "It is not up to us." She turned and looked at me inquiringly. It was up to me? This was the second time today. Was there really a law that made me responsible for punishment? How could I convey that I didn't want this? Pain might be a deterrent but it was not a reformer.

"Compassion is admirable, Great One, but it comes with the disadvantage of possibly being too softhearted," Fassex said to me with concern.

Did she just read my mind?

Fassex turned to the eight who were still on the ground, afraid to move, looking up at her with wide eyes filled with fear. "We know who you are and where you live. Hope that you never come to our attention again."

I thought about all the disrespectful things I had said to the high priestesses a few days ago about bothersome gods and unwanted blessings and felt the adrenalin surge do strange things to my guts. My ears were ringing and my vision hazed over.

I smelled bacon and wondered why. I opened my eyes to what looked like someone's Cosm-scale bedroom.

"See?" Thuorfosi said. "Works better than a charm." She set the piece of bacon aside.

I found myself wrapped in a blanket in Thuorfosi's ample lap and held in her arms. At that moment, I felt very safe.

"Back with us?" Hessakos mussed my hair and looked at me with a concerned frown. "I wish I knew what scared you so badly. I don't think it was the charm of discipline Fassex cast on the blasphemers because you laugh off charms of discipline like water."

I gave him an incredulous look. Laugh off charms of discipline like water? No, that wasn't how it worked. Charms of discipline were a combination of the worst period cramps ever added to monster migraines and then squared. One does not laugh off something like that like water.

"Good withering glare, Emily," he smiled. He looked at Thuorfosi, "she has the best glares, stares, and burning eyes of death and doom I've ever seen."

Thuorfosi laughed, "I'm worried all those wonderful expressions will go away once she can talk again."

"I'm not," Hessakos grinned. "The library of looks won't go away, it will merely gain commentary." Then he looked at me with that concerned frown again, "I wish you could talk right now."

I made the writing motion and Thuorfosi had a tablet and stylus already handy. She was way too good to me and patient too.

"Didn't know such a small insult was considered blasphemy and then remembered how badly I maligned the gods when the 11 high priestesses questioned me at the palace. That could have been me five days ago and it scared me."

"I wasn't there, little one. Were you truly disrespectful of the gods?" he asked.

"It was Fassex that did the questioning and it got very theological," Thuorfosi explained. "Fassex is strict about blasphemy and sacrilege. She indeed accused Emily of disrespect, and Emily counterposed with statements on the nature of respect, the relative nature of divine blessings and burdens, and the fallacy that only Cosm are blessed using an argument based on the Revelation from Tiki to Tessoep. She knocked them down flat. You should have seen her, with that angry pout of hers that thrusts the lower jaw forward and the smoldering unrelenting stare. If she had magic, the whole palace would have been on fire."

"Tessoep? On the right things?" He laughed in surprise, "When did you run into the scriptures, Emily since you've been living on the other side of the Great Cracks?"

"Right before Growing Season Midday," I wrote.

"Emily was on fire when the Convocation of High Priestesses questioned her," Thuorfosi sounded like a proud mother of a student who made the dean's list. "Then, as soon as they were done, she couldn't stop shaking so the queen and Lisaykos whisked her out of reach. I can understand why Fassex's actions in the market would be frightening to Emily considering what those old birds did to her five days ago."

It's almost the seventh bell," Lisaykos walked into the room. "Oh. Emily, you're awake. How do you feel?" She got down on her knees to speak to me. "Doing better?" I nodded.

"Fassex is taking my place here so we can head home tomorrow," Lisaykos studied me. "Did Fassex frighten you?"

I shook my head and showed her the tablet with my note about blasphemy.

"Oh dear," Lisaykos stared at the tablet. "Do you know anything about law and how it affects your standing, Emily?"

I shook my head.

"That explains a lot. We'll have to fix that when we get home," Lisaykos continued. "Thuorfosi, could you please fetch my travel bag from the shrine guest house and meet us by the west entrance? Irhessa, let us collect your daughter so we can all go home and eat."

---

Usruldes, in Is'syal and Gunndit

I was restless and fidgetting the day the folks from Aybhas left and I remained that way for two more days. Imstay lost patience with me and kicked me out of the palace.

"If you can't settle down because you're worried about meeting your sister, then just go and see her. Your mental state is getting on my nerves." Imstay was pacing up and down his study. "Out! I don't want to see your face until you've gotten this out of your system. Take your eagle and get out of here."

I went as Hessakos, or rather, as Irhessa, in my official forest green flying cape with the gold-thread trim. I wore my grey hat with the turned-up red-ochre brim as a certified herald and had my tablet as a courier in its case hanging conspicuously from my belt. I left at the first bell. The time between bells grew shorter as the equinox approached, so my flight to Gunndit put me there halfway between the second and third bells.

The flood damage from Is'syal to Queensland was sobering. Half of the town was missing on Two Ferry Island. There would be food shortages during the cold season and into the planting season until the winter wheat was harvested next year.

Aybhas was untouched by the flood, excluding a handful of fields; however, there were multiple roofs under repair and downed trees. Gunndit was the same, though in the distance I could see that the salt pans and berry bogs of Black Falls were flooded.

The market town of Gunndit was right on the river and my sister's lands stretched from Gunndit east into the mountains. The fields under cultivation were heavy with grain and the pastures were full of fat happy cattle and sheep. The sight of the Lord's manse left me feeling strange, a curious mix of anger, sorrow, nostalgia, and nervousness.

I didn't want anyone like my mother telling my sister. I wanted to do it myself, though I didn't understand why it was important to me. I was concerned that there would be no forgiveness from her since my absence forced her to leave her position at the Shrine of Landa to become the Lord Katsa haup Gunndit.

Cadrees circled the manor and then landed in the forecourt. A groom ran out.

"Leave my eagle here for now," I said to the boy. "I may be leaving immediately after I see Lord Katsa." I passed him four bronze for his service.

A doorman was waiting on the front stoop. I did not recognize him and he made no indication that he knew me.

"Welladay. Is the Lord at home?" If I excluded running into mother during the last rotation, I could not remember the last time I had felt this nervous.

"May I know who I am announcing?"

I held out my courier's tablet. He eyed it for a moment and then opened the door, "If you would follow me." He led me to the reception chamber immediately to the right of the front door. The only thing that had changed was the rug on the floor. My eyes devoured the details of a room I hadn't seen in 19 years. I ran my fingers over the linen-fold wood paneling, remembering the feel and the scent of the well-oiled wood.

My sister entered the room, looking older than I remember but still so beautiful in a lavender gown in the latest fashion. I knelt on both knees and put my hand over my heart in obeisance, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Lord." I looked up into her startled face and waited for a reaction.

Her expression changed to a frown as she walked up to me. She slapped my face with enough force that I was sure it would bruise. "That is for running away and making mother cry herself to sleep every night."

She grabbed the front of my tunic with both hands and yanked me to my feet, glaring at me with ire. I prepared myself to be thrown out the front door physically since she was even stronger than mother.

"This is for coming back," she wrapped me in a hug from which there could be no escape. "Thank you for being alive and well." I could hear the catch in her voice that told me she was close to sobbing.

I felt my eyes tearing up as I hugged her back. "I was so scared you would show me the door," I tried not to sob myself. "I've been dreading this day for years. I wanted to see you again so badly and was so scared you wouldn't want to see me." I buried my face in her shoulder and couldn't stop weeping. She just hugged me closer. We stood like that for I don't know how long.

"Silly boy, I have never stopped looking for you and worrying about you and hoping you were still alive and well. Let me look at you." She held me at arm's length and looked me up and down, tears on her cheeks. "You're all grown up and finally got taller and...Oh dear, you poor boy, you got mother's nose."

"My daughter calls it the beak," I confessed.

"You have a daughter? You have to tell me everything. Let's sit in the solar." She led me down the hallway to the room in the back of the manse with ceiling-to-floor windows and comfortable chairs.

I sat down facing her, "I left my eagle with the groom out front. Can someone..."

"Wait," she held up a finger and closed her eyes for a moment. "It's taken care of."

"Thank you."

"So, missing brother for almost 20 years, start talking," she ordered. "You have a daughter, and...?"

"I have a wonderful wife, two daughters and one son. My oldest, Fedso'as, is 12 and she will be enrolled at the Healing Shrine of Mugash come cold season midday."

"Great Gods! Mother!" Katso looked concerned. "I have no idea how she will react."

"Mother knows. We met last rotation," I explained. "She just spent two nights at my house in Is'syal and your daughter, Twevyar, spent one. She and my daughter were instant friends. They got to know each other while volunteering at the shrine to help with the flood victims. This was before they discovered they were cousins. Your daughter, by the way, looks just like you when you were her age."

"I know, poor girl," she sighed. "It will be hard to find her someone to marry who will be sturdy enough to survive."

"You have four kids and I haven't heard about any funeral notices for Musshia, so it looks like he survived marrying you."

"Just as witty as ever, I see," she gave me a wry look that was straight out of my mother's repertoire. "If you don't need to leave soon to carry out your courier duties, will you stay the day and maybe the night? The boys will want to meet you. They don't remember you at all but they were still quite young when you left."

"I can stay. The king has given me leave time to take care of, ahem, my family entanglements."

"Excellent!" She shook her head, "I can't believe you're actually here, in that chair, talking with me." She suddenly skewered me to the chair with her eyes, "you are not allowed to disappear ever again."

"I have worried for a very long time that you would be angry with me because you had to give up your position at Landa to become Lord Gunndit." I had to bring it up before I lost my courage.

"To be truthful, Irhessa, if father had not been so obsessed with the boys-get-land, girls-get-shrine thing, I would have preferred taking the land and giving you the chance to go to the shrine of your choice."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," she steepled her hands. "So, before we get too far down the path talking about family and bragging about our children, tell me about this flood up north. We had a wind storm here and heavy rain but none of the catastrophic flooding."

"It's heartbreaking. It's all I've been working on for the last several days. Uncounted thousands are dead, caught in the sudden flood. Half of the town on Two Ferry Island is gone, if you can believe that, swept downstream after the levies broke. Every street is flooded in Queenstown and the Crystal Shrine of Tiki is an island of high ground surrounded by water. I estimate the entire spring wheat and barley crop is lost between Queenstown and Is'syal. It will be a hard and hungry cold season for the survivors."

"Gods! It's every bit as bad as the rumors say," she grimaced. "I'm sure there will be a relief order coming my way for foodstuffs. Let me just get my steward to start on making an inventory," she held up a hand and mindcasted for a few moments. Then she was done.

"Moving on, let's get back to you. I'm happy you met with mother and both of you survived. I've always worried about what might happen if you met." She leaned forward in her armchair, "now start at the beginning and leave nothing out."

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