Maker of Fire

Emily, in a place that doesn't exist

"Is this the same place as before?" I asked as I tuned my guitar. The campfire was still burning cheerfully. Mueb was still roasting a camas lily bulb. Mugash, who was sitting down this time around, raised her eyebrows at me.

"The context is provided from what is inside your mind, Emily," Mugash smiled in a way that telegraphed care and friendship. "You are not able to comprehend our true extent so we create a context to interact with you that is based on your memories and your concepts of the divine. I find it refreshing that you have a rather under-awed conception of deity. It's such a nice change from all those mystical types who just want to fall on their knees to worship us and take everything we say without any questions or doubts whatsoever.

"Tiki adores you, by the way, not that he would let you know that. He's too fond of being cryptic and ineffable." She rolled her eyes. "You had all the social references for Trader Vic's, right down to the Birkenstock sandals and the tacky Hawaiian shirt. One of his strands of existence spent a summer bartending at Trader Vic's on Earth just for fun."

"So yes, this is the same place as before because it exists inside you," Mugash explained. "We just borrowed it to help communicate with you. It would be tempting to choose some other contexts from your existence, like riding roller coasters or hang-gliding off the cliffs of La Jolla or doing stall turns with your friend Asgotl; but if we did, we wouldn't get a chance to talk since you'd be having too much fun."

"What a shame," I grinned as I finished up my tuning. "Hang gliding is an awful lot more fun than divine revelations. The one Tiki gave me made no sense whatsoever and it hurt when he dropped it on me." I started playing a picking riff my brother wrote years and years ago. "So, why am I here?"

"Well, right now, the healers are keeping you unconscious because if you were awake, you wouldn't want to be. That's how bad you would hurt." Mugash sighed and looked distressed and so did Mueb.

"We would like to ask a large favor of you," Mueb said. "We want you to wake up long enough to tell your friends about the camas lily bulbs before it gets too late in the year to dig them up. There are only about three rotations left before the snow starts falling in the alpine vernal meadows."

"Your healer friends have you sunk so deep that it will take a little help from us to wake you up," Mugash said apologetically. "The problem is the pain."

"I still don't get you, folks," I stopped playing for a moment. "You're deities, right? Why don't you just tell me I need to wake up and do this? Why are you asking? I mean, I'm the low man on the totem pole here, so to speak."

Mugash gave me a wistful smile. "It's because you're you, Emily. You don't do mumbo jumbo voodoo pooh pooh if I remember correctly. There is also the consideration of free will, especially for you. You're a little too down to earth for the divine commandment routine. If Tiki appeared as a burning bush, you'd probably fetch a bucket of water to put the fire out."

I laughed and so did Mueb. Mugash was probably right about the bucket of water.

"So I thought it best to talk with you about it," Mugash said. "It's Mueb's request but I noticed the conversation between you two wasn't connecting well so I offered my help." Mueb nodded her head up and down.

"So you are asking if I will endure the pain for the sake of people not starving over the winter?"

"Yes."

"That is worth some pain," I conceded. "Thank you for asking. That was considerate of you. I will wake up and try to tell them about the camas lily bulbs."

"Thank you, Emily," Mugash smiled that wonderful smile full of love and understanding.

Then I gasped a ragged indrawn breath at pain so bad it was beyond imagining.

"Emily!" Twessera exclaimed, putting down the book she was reading. "How are you awake? Let me put you back to sleep. We want you to sleep through the worst of the pain."

I saw her big hand coming down toward my head and I moved to block her. I found myself whimpering at the pain of moving my arms, but I got my hands in the way of hers. Ugly blue and purple bruises covered almost every inch of skin on my hands and arms. It looked gross.

"Emily? Emily, please. I need to do this," Twessera pleaded. I started to shake my head no, but the pain of moving my head caused me to scream. Twessera looked panicked and then got that funny half-lidded look that told me she was using mind magic. I tried to move away from her, but the pain was a deterrent to motion.

On the edge of my awareness, the tiny bit not preoccupied with trying to escape pain, I heard running footsteps.

"Emily woke up," Twessera told someone out of my field of view. "It shouldn't be possible but she's awake and she's trying to push me away."

Lisaykos sat down next to me and studied me with a deep crease between her eyebrows. Dammit, can't you read my mind or something, Lisaykos? I was pretty sure I couldn't manage to speak even the outline of what I needed to convey from Mueb. I still spoke far too slowly.

"Can you hear me, Emily?" Lisaykos asked.

"Yes," I managed to whisper despite my tongue feeling like it was ten times too big. Was my tongue swollen?

I heard more footsteps. Kamagishi ran in followed by a high priestess whose name I didn't know.

"This is what I was talking about earlier, Lisaykos," Kamagishi said. "Surd save us, is that Emily?" The look on her face could only be described as horrified.

"This is injury beyond all reason," the other priestess said, eyes wide from looking at me. I guess I looked as bad as I felt.

"This could explain your premonition, Kamagishi," Lisaykos said with the saddest expression I think I have ever seen cross her face. "I'm almost afraid to touch you, Emily dear, for fear of causing you more suffering. Is this another dream command, dear heart?"

I managed to whisper, "yes." I wanted to yell at her to read my mind, dammit, even though the thought gave me the heeby-jeebies.

"Was it Mueb again?" Lisaykos asked.

"Yes," I whispered again. Quit being so foolishly gentle, Lisaykos, and read my mind already so I can go back to sleep.

"It might be best if you read what she has to say from her thoughts, Lisaykos," the other priestess suggested.

I looked right at her, though she was at the edge of my vision, since I could not even turn my head, and whispered "yes" again.

"Oh," Lisaykos looked surprised.

"Hurry," I tried to say but I don't think anyone understood me. I was barely keeping it together. I wished Lisaykos would hurry.

"Ashansalt," Lisaykos extended her right hand to the other high priestess, "take my hand." Lisaykos then very gently touched the top of my head with her left hand.

*Can you hear me, Emily?*

Well, thank the gods, I thought. Finally! Now I could get this taken care of and go back to sleep.

*You have to think about what you need to say.*

I did? She couldn't just extract it? Alright then, I reran my memory back to what Mugash and Mueb were saying around the campfire, about the camas lily bulbs, that they needed to be harvested now, that they had to be thoroughly cooked or people would get sick, what they looked like in bloom, what they looked like now, where they grew in saturated soil and vernal pools in mountain valleys, about Shoshone Indians on the Camas Prairie gathering the bulbs as a winter staple, and how the settlers of Idaho drove them out, that the bulbs looked like onions with purplish skins, that I left some in the Oyyuth's canvas bag with the sausage rolls and the wax tablets with my aqueduct notes. I was beginning to lose coherent thought. What was wrong with me? I had to get this across or people would run out of food this cold season.

*It's alright, Emily. I understand now. You're in terrible pain which is why it is hard to think clearly, but we understand now. Can I please put you back to sleep?*

Please!

*Sleep well, little Emily*

I could feel relief and love and care in that thought from Lisaykos like a physical sensation as my consciousness and the pain receded. Lisaykos was really that fond of me? After all the trouble I gave her? Then I was back in that other place.

Mugash blew out her flaming marshmallow and opened her mouth.

"No, wait!" I stopped her. "You need to wait a few seconds before eating it or you will burn your tongue."

"Oh? Thank you for warning me," Mugash smiled. Mueb was now experimenting with marshmallows too.

"Well, that turned out well," Mueb was happy. "Sorry about the pain."

"Not an experience I want to repeat, ever," I said while playing my brother's old picking riff. I moved on to that picking riff I liked by Peter Gabriel from the Genesis Foxtrot album.

"Maybe you should get your friend Wolkayrs to make you a guitar," Mugash suggested. "Now, our next problem for you to take care of..."

"What? I'm not off the hook yet?" I asked.

"You still need to do something about your wayward friend Aylem," Mugash put another marshmallow on her stick. "That is also related to the revelation I gave you."

"I know you want me to forgive her but I'm not sure I'm ready yet," I said, feeling quite irritated about what Aylem had done to me and Asgotl.

"Well, that's what we need to discuss," Mugash said.

"If you insist," I conceded. After all, the gods were at least keeping me entertained as my injured body healed.

---

Imstay, Is'syal

There were too many rumors flying about. The official pronouncement of the Singing Shrine of Sassoo on behalf of the Convocation was not the whole truth. I asked the Holy Kamagishi when she returned from Aybhas about what had happened. She gave me the same story as the news issued by the Shrine of Sassoo. I'm the king, dammit. I needed to know. I told her that but she stuck to the official story.

I sent Usruldes to Aybhas to speak with the high priestess and assess the situation regarding the Queen and the maker of fire. He came back an angry man, and Usruldes is not a man who shows his anger. The truth, as far as he could tell, was that Aylem let her temper run away with her again and thoughtlessly cast the charm of one thousand stings on Asgotl and Emily.

What he told me next shocked me: Emily died. Usruldes' mother was there and watched as it happened. She was the one who confirmed the death and closed the dead Coyn's eyes. As she prepared to incapacitate and capture Aylem, the deity Mugash appeared. In front of multiple witnesses, Mugash pronounced a judgment on Aylem, that she must kneel in penance on gravel all day, every day, until Emily decides to stop the punishment.

In addition to that, Mugash blessed Lisaykos with a revelation of the knowledge needed to keep Emily alive. Then Mugash brought Emily back to life and gave Emily another revelation, the contents of which are unknown because Emily is not conscious.

Usruldes saw Emily. With barely repressed rage, he told me that every inch of the Coyn's skin is bruised purple and blue, and the whites of her eyes are stained red with blood. Using the knowledge that Mugash gave Lisaykos, the healers have kept her alive up to now. No one knows yet when she may wake or if she will wake.

These events make one thing clear to me: this troublesome little Coyn has the favor of the gods.

I spoke with Emily only once, if you can call writing on a tablet the same thing as talking for Emily. I'm glad I had the foresight to play the role of the good-humored and approachable monarch in front of her. I couldn't and didn't show my reaction at the time, but she shocked me to the bottom of my soul when we talked. Emily is not some ordinary sub-human Coyn. She looked at me with old eyes and told me that I loved my uncles and cousins, and I needed to find a place and a time to grieve for them. I know she knew what crimes my family committed against her and many other Coyn. Yet she was able to look beyond what must be her own negative judgement of them to address one thing few others have acknowledged: that despite their crimes, they were my family and I loved them. That moved me.

I can't say I feel much sympathy for Aylem. That foolish woman should have better control of that damn temper of hers. The revival of the Blessed Emily by a god does not wipe out Aylem's crime of killing her. The Law of Landa is explicit on the punishment for the death or the attempted death of a king, queen, high priestess, prophet, revelator, or god-blessed: the killer is thrown into a Great Crack which is actively erupting.

The truce between Aylem and myself was getting stronger before she went and pulled this most recent idiocy. It makes me angry and I'm not even sure why. Am I angry because she mistreated me and my late mother's family for the last ten years? Am I angry because it upset our children, or because I was starting to like her again?

All I know is that I don't know what the answer is to the current Aylem problem. I'm as confused as anyone else; however, I'm the King and can't show that I'm confused or afraid, or indecisive in public.

I have been debating with myself whether I should leave Aylem to her fate at the hands of the Convocation. I believe they will try to pass a judgment on her regardless of Mugash's punishment. It will take someone more formidable than a tiny bedridden Coyn to stop the power of the Convocation. The downside of losing Aylem is that there is no prospective queen replacement waiting in the wings. Someone who can use the Great Crystal is an integral piece of the realm's defense. My cousin Foyuna can use it but her range is limited, only a third of my mother's reach. The other downside is that the children would miss their mother. Despite all our arguments, Aylem loves our children as much as I do. She has always tried to be a good mother. Her success as a parent is debatable, but not from lack of trying.

There is one other thing I know: the gods want Aylem alive. I find that profoundly disturbing. Granted, she was the first revelator in over 600 years. That was shocking all by itself. Now we have three revelators at the same time. This is unheard of. It's almost as if we are on the verge of a third age of divine intervention. If the confirmed number of revelators goes up to seven or a prophet appears, then we are all in trouble. There are seven revelators and one prophet in the Prophesy of the Great Breaking, a frightful foretelling by the Holy Uaysserex who received it as a revelation from Galt.

I have copies of the Aylem's sealed revelation from Tiki and the secret foretelling of the long-departed Holy Uaysserex, made centuries ago before Aylem was born. Usruldes obtained them for me, though I have no idea how he managed it. The foretelling came from the Vault of Galt. There is only one door into the Vault, in the Holy Kamagishi's office, and she has the only key. Usruldes removed the foretelling, copied it, and then returned it. He's so good at what he does that I sometimes wonder if he's really human.

The problem is that the foretelling and the revelation match yet they were made hundreds of years apart. The gods have been planning for Aylem's arrival long before any of us drew our first breaths. This forces me to conclude that Aylem has a fated purpose that she must still fulfill. Otherwise, why would a deity intervene to preserve her life? That's what Mugash did by imposing her own punishment, thereby preempting any judgment on Aylem under Foskan law.

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