Maker of Fire

Emily, Healing Shrine of Mugash

A tall individual with pink hair came flouncing through my dream space in a sequined evening gown just like the one in The Producers musical that looks like the Chrysler Building. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.

"Name's Giltak, love," the androgynous creature in the evening gown said in a voice that could have been a sultry woman or a high-pitched man. "I was going for an elegant but still technical construction look? You don't think fits the bill? It's so hard when all I had to work with were your memories from that other place, Earth I believe it was. The problem is, you were such a tomboy that you had absolutely no fashion sense. You still don't. You didn't give me much to work with."

Wait up here, this is another one of those eleven gods? Yes, Giltak! The one who makes stuff, like Hephaestus from Greek mythology. A non-binary Giltak was invading my dreams!

"Oh, you are so smart, Luv," Giltak smiled. "Now I want you to invent the drafting compass because you are going to need it; and I would like to have it done before you come and visit my shrine, which will be soon."

Oh, joy, another one of these dreams. Yes, the deities of this place were mucking with my brain again.

"Now you'll want to study up on your logarithms too, just to be prepared and all that. You see, I'm not like that clown Tiki, being all opaque and inscrutable just because it's fun to tease people. I am all about transparency and clarity of purpose. So, get ready for logarithms and bring that compass. Paper and pencils will be useful too. It was nice of you to get those going already. Why, you'll get to be Euler and Euclid in one convenient portable package. It's just so ducky, Luv! And do listen to your overgrown friend there, Jane, or Aylem if you prefer, about your clothes. You do need to take it up a notch. Don't make me give you a revelation for color-coordinated hard hats!"

Then, POOF, he/she/it vanished in a purple puff of stage smoke with little glittering bits and the smell of lilacs.

These deities are so frustrating! What in the world was transparent about that? Was Giltak saying I would be inventing geometry?

“Well, you can do that too if you want, since you'll need geometry when you invent the slide rule,” Giltak said as if his/her/its voice was coming from an echo chamber.

Holy crappola! These gods are too much!

The drool-inducing smell of bacon strolled up my nostrils and kicked my senses into wakefulness.

"You are oversleeping this morning, Emily," my daily torturer Thuorfosi remarked, dangling a piece of bacon just out of reach.

"Y...y...you enjoy this too much," I grumbled. I spied what was laid out for clothes. "No, no, and hell no," I pronounced. "I am not w...wearing that." It was the white kirtle and blue gown that Aylem had made for me during planting season.

"The King wants to talk with you," Thuorfosi explained.

"Th...that's nice, I do not w...want to talk to him," I rolled over and covered my head with the blankets. "Going back to sleep now."

"Emily!"

"Pulling rank now," I grumbled. "I read the law. Revelator tw...twice over trumps Kings and everybody else. Go away and w...wake me up after the fourth bell." I heard her walk away. I was looking forward to what she would try next. I knew she wouldn't give up. Thuorfosi was resourceful.

I was almost back to sleep when I heard laughter. The door to Lisaykos' study had to be open. I heard new footsteps from two pairs of feet. Two people entered my bedroom and sat down.

"Emily?" it was Lisaykos.

"I'm asleep," I said from under the covers. "Come back after lunch, I'm not w...w...wearing any dresses and I don't w...want to have any chats wi...with any kings. Gods and queens in my life are b...bad enough."

"Did you not sleep well last night?" she asked.

"I did n...not. This time is w...was Gi...Gi...Giltak." I surprised myself to find that I was upset and close to tears over another damn god intruding into my unhappy complicated life.

"Dream command?" she asked sympathetically.

"Dream command and a promi...mise of an...an...another revelation," I tightened my grip on the covers.

"Gods, that makes four," Lisaykos stated the obvious.

"Four?" an unknown male voice said.

What the? I pulled the blankets off my head and sat up. It was the King.

"Good morning, Great One," he said pleasantly.

"There is something wrong with Aylem," Lisaykos stated, frowning.

"Other than her b...bad temper?" I asked.

Lisaylos gave me a disapproving look. "It is like there is no one home behind her eyes this morning. She doesn't see us or hear us. She was placed in the Well at the usual time in this state."

"She is trapped in a me...mory?" I guessed.

"It's not one I recognize," Lisaykos said. "I think it's your memory, and you are looking up at two buildings, impossibly tall buildings, all silver in the sunlight. They are both on fire, and people are falling from one of them to their deaths. From where you are, you can see their entire fall, and..." She held her eyes for a breath, "it's very upsetting..."

"Me cago en la leche..." Swearing in Spanish is a bad habit I picked up working in Peru. "Out! Out! I have to change."

"Emily?"

"Th...this stops n...now. Mugash w..w..." I smacked my thigh with my fist, "will stop this now." Oh, I was angry. Hostia puta! Tacos were going to fly, I was so mad. How dare she use that memory!

"If I stop now, Emily, it will end," a Cosm-sized Mugash appeared sitting on the end of my bed crosslegged. She was smiling sympathetically. "Are you really ready for what comes next?"

"I should have stopped y...you ye...yesterday but I can't get d...down the stairs on my own," I snapped. I'm sure there was steam boiling off from my ears.

"Emily, look at me," she placed her hand on my shoulder. I had no choice but to look at her. I experienced the same feeling that I had gotten from the Jizo Gertzpul, as Mugash looked at me and into me and out of me and through me. Then she smiled again, pleased, "yes, you are ready." And she vanished.

"That...that...that was...was," Imstay was in a complete panic. Lisaykos reached out and touched him, and he breathed out and calmed down. "Thank you, Great One," he said to Lisaykos.

"Yes, Imstay King, that was a manifestation of Mugash," she explained. "This is her shrine and that is the fourth time she has appeared since the day that Aylem lost her temper and killed Emily and Asgotl."

"Out, go talk elsewh...wh...where," I ordered.

"I will send Thuorfosi back to you."

"W...w...whatever." As soon as they were out the door, I was off the bed and pulling open my clothes drawers. I was out of my nightgown and into my underwear in seconds, though it did get me out of breath. I pulled on leggings and an undertunic, followed by my plaid housecoat. Though I was breathing hard, I had the hidden sliding door to the hallway open.

"Scoot, Asgotl, I need to get out." He had taken to sleeping in the corridor on the other side of the hidden door. He's was such a nice griffin. He was doing it as protection for me.

He got up and I got out, closing the sliding panel. "Can you get me downstairs, Asgotl?"

"Can you climb up on your own and can you stay on without the saddle right now?" he asked me, poking me with his beak.

"I don't think so. Can you pick me up by the collar with your beak and carry me down?"

"No, it will rip your clothes up."

I heard someone inside my bedroom. It was probably Thuorfosi which meant I was about to get busted.

Out of nowhere, which took my breath away, Usruldes the Wraith stepped into existence. He knelt on one knee, "Great One, may I be of service?"

"Of course you can," I beamed. "Could you please take me to the Well of Mugash?"

"Your wish is my command," he scooped me up and seated me on his arm. I grabbed the back of his collar with my arm for balance. He ran down the stairs. People took one look at him and scurried out of the way. Asgotl followed us.

His foot touched the tiles of the ground floor and the place lit up. What is it with these goofball gods and their light shows?

He walked around to the door into the Well of Mugash, which faced north. The door opened on its own. He put me down gently, "I don't think I'm invited. Good luck, little wolverine." Then he vanished. It was a good trick, appearing and disappearing like that. That was nifty magic.

I looked into the Well at Aylem's back. She was wearing the same serviceable kirtles day after day. Today's was blue. Her hair was a mess. I stepped inside and the painful glare of the light stopped. I was thankful for that though it still seemed very bright outside in the atrium.

I studied her back. Even kneeling she still towered over me. She really was a monster. I walked around her and over to the Seat of Judgement facing her. I realized, looking at the seat at the level of my eyes, I couldn't get up on it. I still wasn't used to living in a world on the wrong scale.

I had forgotten how long her arms were. She picked me up and put me on the chair.

"I w...wish y...you wu...wu...would wa...warn me before you do that," I said. I was developing a real hatred for the W sound. I sat down and looked at her. She looked like hell.

"I w...wasn't responsible or even in on wa...what Mugash decided to do to you," I explained in my painfully slow speech. "I am not happy Mugash did that." Aylem didn't say anything. She just looked at me with a confused expression.

"W...why aren't you saying anything?"

"I am not allowed to speak without being spoken to," she explained. I think my jaw dropped.

"Go get a chair and sit," I said.

"I am not allowed to sit in a chair," she said meekly. Good gods, someone took the ginger out of Aylem. I don't think I was mentally prepared for a meek magical monster woman. I liked the energetic confident version a lot better.

Somehow, my voice came out clear and loud and with no stammering, "Aylem, you are allowed. I release you. You are free to go." I realized the sound of my voice was echoing in the atrium. How did that happen?

The light suddenly grew painfully bright and then it began to narrow and coalesced on Aylem. It fell into her and the world returned to normal, except every single bell in the city, including the one on the roof of the atrium dome at the shrine, began ringing. Those stupid goofball gods, resorting to such a cheap theater trick. Well, it probably played well enough in Peoria. Then it occurred to me, no one here would even get that old joke.

"Aylem, close the door and lock it," I told her. She did. Then she knelt in front of me. Not seeing her for such a long time, I had forgotten that she was just that smidge bigger than everyone else. It made a visual impact that triggered the fright reflex in me and probably would continue to do so for a long time to come. Even with my sitting on the Cosm-scale chair, she was still looking down on me and it still sent a chill down my back.

I was sure at this point that she knew about the butterflies in my stomach just now. I had learned that much about passive telepathy. Looking at me, she looked distressed. She gently pulled me off the chair and into a hug. She was weeping.

"I'm so sorry," she said, "I just...I just..."

"Aylem!"

"Yes?"

"Can't breath."

"Aaah!" She put me back on the chair as if she was afraid I would break.

Everything I had done since waking up hit me all at once and I suddenly wanted nothing more than to go crawl back into my warm comfortable bed. Before that happened, I needed to say a few things.

"Aylem, I need to go rest soon, but before I do, I want to warn you that Imstay and your daughter are here. So are all the high priestesses. You can proba..bly blow off the Convocation for a day or two, but you need to fix things with Asgotl and with your family and you can't put either off."

She closed her eyes, bit her lip, and nodded her head, looking miserable all over again.

I was at the point where the room was threatening to spin.

"Emily!" She grabbed my shoulder. I managed to look up at her alarmed face. "You went and pushed yourself too far again," she scolded.

Ah, now that sounded like the Aylem I knew. She picked me up and carried me out of the Well of Mugash. She stopped, looked around, and then walked up to Thuorfosi, "she overextended herself just now so please, take good care of her." I was fading at this point and wasn't able to pay attention to what else was going on around me.

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