Maker of Fire

Lisaykos, Healing Shrine of Mugash

What Mugash revealed to me was human anatomy and physiology in more detail than anyone had ever known before. As many suspected, the heart was the pump that drove everything. The heart depended on the blood, and things it carried, including the one called oxygen. There had to be enough blood in the system so the muscles and organs could get enough of this oxygen stuff.

The first cure provided by Mugash in my revelation was that you could take blood from one person and give it to another who needed it.

My revelation also included the knowledge that blood needed to be matched. This was new to me. I assumed that if Mugash gave me this knowledge, then I should be able to sense differences in blood. I extended my body clairvoyance towards Emily and concentrated on just blood. It was a strange sensation and I felt it in my fingertips. I explored the sensations for a moment and then turned to my mystified healing staff in the small room, barely large enough for seven people to stand.

"Give me your hand, Thuorfosi," I asked and held out mine. I explored how her blood felt to me. Then I worked my way through the other five, ending with Kayseo. "Usivwak, please give me your hand again," I explored the sensation of her blood again and then compared it to Emily's one last time.

"Very good, folks. Usivwak, you need to stay. Kayseo and Thuorfosi, you should also since you are already Emily's healers. The rest of you are welcome to watch this. This is something new that Mugash put into my head when she appeared to us on the balcony. You can take blood from one person and transfer it to another but the blood has to match. Priestess Usivwak's blood feels like it is the closest to the Blessed Emily's blood, so we will move some of Usivwak's blood to Emily. That should provide enough blood to keep Emily's heart from failing. We will need a little elbow room to work."

"Usivwak, you know what this is?" I held up a hollow needle.

"Yes, that's a hollow needle, which I have only used once and that must have been thirty years ago."

"Emily has lost a lot of blood very quickly," I explained. "The pump, which is the heart, has barely has enough blood to keep working. Your blood and her blood are very similar. I will take some of your blood and we will put it into Emily to make up for what she has lost.

"A non-magical Cosm has about three horns of blood. If we divide by eight to get an equivalent volume for a Coyn, then a Coyn will have about three-eights of a horn. If we assume Emily lost a third of her blood, then an eighth of a horn should be enough to restore a sufficient volume of blood to her. And here is a crystal container, already purified, where I have already marked an eighth of a horn."

I took the glayon vine, purified it, and attached a needle with copal paste glue and silk string. Usivwak was already squeezing her wrist to make the veins on the back of her hand stand out. I purified the back of her hand and then had Kayseo purify my hands and fingers. In the background, I could hear hushed voices of people gathering in the hallway but had no time or attention to spare to them.

"Are you ready, Usivwak?" She nodded. I chose the fattest vein and slipped the needle in. Thuorfosi had thoughtfully already inserted the other end of the tube into the container. It took hardly any time at all to get to the eighth horn mark.

"Put that under stasis, Thuorfosi," I directed. "Otherwise, it will start to oxidize."

"What?" She looked at me, confused.

I muttered something rather foul. I now had an idea of what oxidation was, but no one else did. Kayseo looked shocked that I just swore. I don't think she had ever caught me swearing before.

"Yes, Kayseo, I do know how to use colorful language," I said, quite calmly. "Contrary to rumors on the lower wards, I am indeed full of imperfections of character. I just know how to hide them better than most."

I took the funnel, purified it, and attached another length of purified glayon vine. "Kayseo, bring her out of stasis and make sure her heart is beating. If it's not beating, make it beat."

"It's beating but it's not strong. She is breathing. Everything is sluggish, though," Kayseo looked worried.

"Let's get a vein up on her right hand," which was the hand closest to the interior of the room. Kayseo took Emily's stick-thin tiny wrist and carefully tightened her hand around it. It took a lot longer than it did for Usivwak's veins to rise. It was difficult to target such small veins. "Let's try the big veins on the inside of elbow. It might be easier than a hand." I knew that in the future, we would need smaller needles for use on the Coyn.

"Let's fill the vine up first since it would not be good to introduce air into her veins." Thuorfosi dripped some blood into the funnel to fill the vine. When a drop of blood showed at the needle she pinched the bottom of the vine and whacked the air bubbles out with her fingers while Kayseo held the funnel up. "Good enough," I decided.

I cursed how small Emily's veins were. I decided to use some other location than her hand because the veins were too narrow for the needle. I clamped my hand around her upper arm and managed to insert the needle into the big vein that runs on the inside at the elbow and unclamped the bottom of the vine. It was several long moments before all of the blood drained down the vine and into the vein. I pulled out the needle and healed the puncture.

Kayseo's eyebrows shot up while she was assessing Emily. "I can feel a difference. It's not huge but it is noticeably different. Her pulse isn't thready anymore and the pumping pressure is much stronger. Her core temperature is also coming back up, and she's breathing better."

"We still have more river rapids to shoot," I warned my healers. "We have some obstacles before us. There may be some additional internal bleeding so we need to pay attention any new blood loss. Next, her tongue is swollen so it will be hard to get her to eat or drink. Also, when she regains consciousness, pain will be one our biggest problems."

"So what are we going to do to manage those?" Thuorfosi asked.

"We will keep her in deepest sleep until the worst of the swelling is down. That's the great limitation of healing magic, as you all know: it can do nothing about edema. To get around this, as Mugash has put into my head, we will let poor Emily sleep through the worst of her recovery, while we use purified glayon vine to drip liquid sustenance into her stomach."

They all looked astounded. "That's so obvious when you think about it," Kayseo said, marveling. "I can't help but think why no one had ever thought of this before now?"

"That's what I thought too," I admitted. "Now, you two," I pointed at Thuorfosi and Kayseo, "are back on permanent Emily duty, as is Twessera. I will spell you three if you need breaks since I'm right down the hall, just like we did when she first arrived. She must be rotated and you'll need to be on alert for bed sores. Can I get one of you other folks to go down and tell the kitchen that we will need a pot of strained bone marrow broth going around the clock? Now I need to take care of our visitors and the disposition of the Queen so I will be unavailable for a bit. Kayseo?"

"Yes?" she looked up from where she was still assessing Emily.

"You are in charge of this sick room," I smiled, in the full knowledge that it unnerved her. I pulled a tablet out of my belt pouch that I had ready for several rotations already. "Here is your tablet to authorize schedules and supplies. I expect you to report every morning on Emily's progress at the second bell. Now I must be going. I will check back in soon. Mindcast if there is an emergency."

I made my way out the door, and as I exited, I heard Thuorfosi say to Kayseo, "congratulations, you undergrown overachiever." After all, Kayseo had just turned 16 and hadn't come into her full height yet.

Out in the hallway, there was not only Senlyosart but also Foyuna of Tiki and Sutsusum of Gertzpul.

"Sisters?" I asked. There was so much to do. The last thing I wanted was the other high priestesses underfoot before I was mentally prepared for them. Then I realized that I wasn't going to get the chance to prepare myself.

"Your scholar attendant, who is currently on the balcony helping with the injured griffin, told us what he believes has happened," Foyuna began as was her place. Her shrine was the most senior, after all, "but we would like to hear it from you directly, Great One."

The use of the highest title caught me by surprise. That's when everything came crashing down on me and for a moment, I felt a little dizzy. Foyuna took my arm and led me to my own study. "First, you need to sit down and take a moment for yourself. Being on the receiving end of a revelation is very hard on most people according to the history rolls. Then, when you've had a cup of tea, you can tell us what happened. That way, when the rest of our sisters arrive, we can pass it on to them if you need to be taking care of your shrine's business."

"When the rest of our sisters arrive?" I asked, looking at the three of them askance.

"I was napping," Sutsusum remarked in her ethereal soprano, "and I received a dream command from Gertzpul to come here immediately. It is the only time I have ever received one."

"That show-off Fassex contacted everyone by targeted mindcast," Senlyosart said with just a hint of the impatience that Fassex often provoked in others with her overbearing pride. "They will all be here, though Rakkalbos, Irralray, and Fassex will probably be chasing the sun down to get here by the seventh bell, so warn your cooks to have something ready for them."

I sat down on one of my lounges in my study and dropped my head into my hand, suddenly feeling rather tired. "I should have just stayed in bed today."

Senlyosart, who is one of the most efficient people I have ever met, pressed a beaker of hot tea into my hands, "take a minute for yourself, dear, and then fill us in on the details we don't know so we can help you the best we can."

I did what I was told and took a few moments for myself. As I sipped my tea, I thought of poor Emily, guilty with Asgotl only of the exuberance of youth. And that reminded me of my wayward former student, stripped of power by Mugash the Merciful and condemned to what I thought was far too lenient a punishment for killing Emily. I took the anger that threatened to rise in me and slammed a door on it until I had the leisure to indulge myself with what I might do to Aylem to pay her for her idiocy and arrogance.

---

Aylem, Healing Shrine of Mugash

One by one, the high priestesses arrived, landing on the balcony, dismounting from their winged mounts, and entering the shrine through the door closest to Lisaykos' study. Before each entered, they stopped to look at me. I couldn't even meet their eyes.

Fassex was the last to arrive. She stopped in front of me. "To think that I wasted three years of my life trying to teach a failure like you control. We should have just put you down when you were six like we were originally going to do."

I knew about that but, when I received my revelation from Tiki, he told me I had to live because I had a purpose. He said that I would break magic and make magic and change magic. Nothing like that had happened to me yet. I had to wonder if those were empty words or if I had destroyed that future through my actions this afternoon.

I was too ashamed to raise my head and meet Fassex's eyes. I had a sickening feeling that I had destroyed more than just my own future. What would happen to my children? And the Coyn I has rescued over the years? And Emily, who I wanted as a friend and who I have harmed so grievously?

Whatever Mugash had done to me, I could not rise off my knees. I did not know what would happen next to me.

Wolkayrs brought Yutmuss back with him from the garrison. Yutmuss was one of the few male healers since healing magic tends to run strongest in women. He was a big round jolly man who specialized in the healing of animals. Both sapient mounts and dumb animals loved him, even ones who didn't like people. He had a way with all creatures.

He spent time assessing Asgotl and giving instructions to Wolkayrs. Asgotl would unable to walk or fly for at least two rotations, maybe more. I had hurt him badly. Before the evening was over, Asgotl was covered with blankets with full-time attendants to take care of him. Yutmuss spent several hours healing various hurts. After the quarter-night bell, Asgotl regained consciousness. In a low voice, Yutmuss explained to him what had happened.

For the rest of the night, I could see Asgotl's gold and black eyes glaring at me, unblinking with a smoldering anger.

---