Maker of Fire

Emily, Healing Shrine of Mugash

It was the morning after I released Aylem.

Something was wrong and it wasn't the hollandaise sauce on the eggs benedict.

The excursion for street food did me a world of good, though I was tired enough when we got back that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next morning was an informal meeting of the Convocation over morn repast in Lisaykos' private dining room, between her bedroom and her study. Eggs benedict, myself and Aylem were on the menu but Aylem was nowhere to be found. No one explained why. Lisaykos dodged the subject.

I had little interest in being grilled by the high priestesses a second time. To be truthful, I was quite keen on spending the day in bed, looking out the window at the now-melting early-season snow. I felt tired. I think part of that was due to the exertions of the day before.

The other part was dreaming last night where I could remember the gods telling me things, really important things, only to wake and not be able to remember. Was I just dreaming or were the gods messing with my head again? I really didn't like that. Alright, to be honest, I hated it. They had taken my love of science and turned it into their tool. Waking up and knowing things I had never studied before was unnerving. It made me feel violated, like I had no privacy inside my own head.

Thuorfosi put out the kirtle and gown. For the second day in a row, I refused. I showed up to morn repast in what I usually wore to the the first meal of the day: my red plaid housecoat over an undertunic, leggings over stockings, and slips. Foyuna rolled her eyes at me and smiled. Kamagishi did the same. Lisaykos gave me one of those looks. I found it very interesting that Fassex didn't even react. Maybe that was her version of being polite.

After we were done eating, I protested at the subsequent meeting about being held responsible for Aylem's absence, which some of them tried to pin on me: Irralray, Rakkalbos, and Moxsef.

"I am n...n...not Aylem's keeper," I'm sure my anger was audible in my voice. "Mu...gash g...gave me the power to end the pun...ishment that she imposed on Aylem. Once that w...w...was done, there w...were no further actions t...to take. Done is done. It can't be un...done. Your desire to impose a third-party retribution does n...not make Mugash's punishment any less complete." I had to stop briefly to catch my breath. I caught Lisaykos giving me a concerned sideways glance.

"W...W...Who do you think y...you are?" I couldn't generate much volume but they were all dead silent, listening to every word. Scary old bats. "Further punishment is an arrogance on y...your part because by seeking that, y...you are disparaging the actions of a god. Do you think y...you are b...better than Mugash?"

"Know your place," Fassex snapped. "You are one to talk since you don't even reverence the gods inside their own temples."

"W...w...what are y...you talking a...bout?" That was a surprise. I had no idea what she was referring to. I knew enough about passive reading to know that most of them would know I was telling the truth.

"The statues of the gods inside temples, the ones at every major doorway," Fassex spoke as it this was the most obvious thing in the world. "It is disrespectful not give a reverence to them when walking through those doors."

Was there something like that inside the three temples I had visited? I never noticed anything like that.

"The blame may be mine," Lisaykos remarked. "I never pointed these out to Emily."

"Then you too share this wrong," Fassex decided.

"Fassex," Lisaykos' expression and tone of voice could not have been colder, "I am not Emily's teacher. I am her healer. Besides, you are losing sight of what is in Emily's sight."

"What?" Fassex interjected.

"Why would the Blessed Emily reverence a mere pedestal?" Lisaykos stuffed the knife into this ridiculous exercise of character assassination. "That's all Emily can see at her eye level. She is only seven hands tall. There was no intent to disrespect the gods nor was there even knowledge of the tradition."

"Yet the act of disrespect still happened," Fassex asserted. "Some form of contrition is called for."

"If I had no intent and no knowledge, then w...what purpose does this unnamed punishment serve, High Priestess Fassex?" I snapped. "W...without knowledge or intent of a wr...wrong, there can be no offense. W...without wrongdoing, any punishment becomes j...just an exercise to assert your power over the powerless, nothing more and nothing less. Any p...punishment thus inflicted becomes a wrongdoing, Fassex, one possibly w...w...worse in character that Aylem's offense..."

"How dare you?" Fassex barked.

"...because Aylem had no intent to kill me or Asgotl. Her offense was one of thoughtlessness and lack of self-control; but your proposed punishment would be full of intent and malice of forethought, w...w...which is far w...worse.

"Yes, Holy One, I do dare because I know w...where I stand w...with the gods." I was on fire by now, I was so annoyed. "Do you know w...w...where you stand w...with them, Holy One? Make sure y...your own house is in order before the d...day I come to the Shrine of Landa, because Landa said he has a revelation w...waiting for me."

"Aaah," screaming Kamagishi stood up suddenly, clutching her head between her hands. "Great Galt," she sat down with her hands shaking slightly. "Sisters, the four of you should drop this," she said with her eyes wide and looking somewhere in the far distance. "Landa's hand is indeed upon Emily."

"Fine, but then what of The Queen's offence?" Moxsef barked.

Kamagishi took a deep shuddering breath and pulled herself back to a semblance of normalcy. "May I remind you, sister, whose shrine is the one that makes judgements? As high priestess of that shrine and the Supreme Justicar of Foskos, I concur with the Blessed Emily that it would be wrong to add to what the deity Mugash decreed as the judgement and punishment of Aylem Queen. It would be disrespectful to Mugash."

"What then should we tell the people about the Queen?" asked Senlyosart.

"Tell them the truth," Kamagishi replied. "Everything that is happening now is in the hands of the gods and people should know that great change is coming. Before you ask, Sister Fassex, yes, this is a premonition." She sighed and pressed on either side of her forehead with her hands. "Oh my aching head! This is most definitely a premonition. Great One, how much do you know of this?" She looked at me with painful eyes.

I tried to think of what to say. It would be a lot harder to dodge an entire room of overpowered magic wielders than it had been to dodge Lisaykos on this subject.

"I asked the Blessed Emily the same thing," Lisaykos answered for me. "She said there were three things: she would receive a revelation from Landa sometime in the future, that she would set up iron and steel making as new crafts, and that she knew what the gods intended."

"Gods," Kamagishi said, "isn't that three revelations?" Kamagishi studied me with eyes that pitied me. It was disconcerting.

"Four, actually," Lisaykos looked resigned. "The Blessed Emily received a new dream command the night before last from Giltak where the god informed her there was a revelation waiting for her at the shrine in Omexkel."

"Giltak?" Raoleer of Giltak sat up.

"How can we be sure that all these Emily dream commands are really from the gods?" Irralray asked.

"I asked the same thing myself, Holy One," I said in the lull. "The first one w...was from Mueb, for two medicines. One uses an ingredient called bismuth. Imstay King lent me use of a courier who took me to w...where Mueb said to find bismuth. It was w...where Mueb said it w...was. That's how I became sure these w...were real."

"There's another thing," Lisaykos said. "Two of these dream commands have woken her from the charm of deep sleep."

"I was there for one of those," Ashansalt of Mueb said. "The message imparted from Mueb was the information that the bulbs of the purple wet weed were edible when cooked. We previously had believed this plant was poisonous.

"The Blessed Emily had a different name for purple wet weed but there is no doubt over the identity of the plant. We will avoid food riots this cold season because of this because we had enough time to harvest them. To be honest, they are quite tasty with butter. Lisaykos, have you told anyone about the circumstances when the Blessed Emily received this dream command?"

"No, there was too much going on at the time, not to mention my head was befuddled from receiving the revelation of Mugash," Lisaykos explained.

"It was two days after the Queen killed Emily," Ashansalt said. "Raoleer, Kamagishi and I stayed later than the rest of you. Because of what our shrines do, we wanted to see paper made. When the Blessed Emily woke up from the charm of deep sleep after only two days, she was in unbearable pain, too much pain to try to talk. Lisaykos read her mind for the content of the dream command and passed the information to me by handlinking. I had glimpses of the dream from the Blessed Emily and I have no doubt that both Mueb and Mugash were present in it."

"Mugash?" Fassex asked, confused.

"W...when I w...was dead, I m...met several gods. Mueb failed to impart her command to me at the time. After...w...ward, Mugash intervened to help Mueb impart her dream command because there w...was urgency f...for it." When I finished getting through that difficult-to-speak bit, everyone except Ashansalt and Lisaykos was gobsmacked.

"Great One," Kamagishi asked, looking concerned, "how many gods have you met?

"Tiki, M...Mugash, Mueb, Vassu, Ger...ger...gerpul," I really mangled that name. "Landa, Surd, and Giltak. I am sorry, I can not say Ger...pul today."

"Gertzpul?" Sutsusum asked, kindly, in that airy high voice of hers.

"Yes." I smiled, nodded. This was more talking that I usually did and my jaw and tongue ached. I was starting to think of hiding in the solitude of the study fondly.

"Why don't we take a short break for now?" Lisaykos said. There was a general murmur of agreement around the table. She got up and knelt next to me, "you're looking worn out."

I nodded, "Jaw hurts. Talking is hard." She gave me a funny look and then touched my head. "Thought so. You should rest some more. Thuorfosi will be here in a moment to rescue you."

"Rescue?"

“Yes, I wish she could rescue me too,” a flash of impatience crossed her face for less than a breath, and then vanished as if it had been my imagination.

"I'll send someone to wake you for mid repast."

"Huh.” It would be nice to escape the scrutiny of the Convocation.

---

Emily, Healing Shrine of Mugash

I waited until I could hear the deep long breaths of Lisaykos sleeping. It was difficult staying awake but I considered it worth the trouble. Earlier in the day, Kamagishi and Foyuna persuaded me to have dinner with the high priestess sewing circle and terrorist society. I was gratified that my wine-basted lamb served with mint jelly went over well. No one here had ever seen mint jelly before. It was quite the coup for Lisaykos, who cared about the reputation of the shrine's kitchen.

Raoleer campaigned to sit next to me and we ended up talking shop for most of dinner with the other ladies in various states of astonishment while they mostly listened as the two of us talked furnace design, types of clay, smelting copper and tin, and to my great joy, cutting threads in wood and metal. My tongue and jaw didn’t last long but I brought my tablet and Raoleer did enough talking for the two of us. I drew for her my design for a compass, discussing the merits of cutting threads, which is still done by hand here, versus making little spring-loaded clamps for the angle-adjustment piece. She had the knack of finishing my sentences for me though I have a suspicion she was reading my mind too. I must admit that talking with me right now is a chore for both me and everyone else too.

I was relieved that Raoleer knew about zinc and about white vitriol, which is zinc sulfate heptahydrate. She didn't call it vitriol. To her it was the white acid rock. Turns out she knew all three of the vitriols, which were blue, green, and white acid rocks to her. I had fun with Raoleer at dinner which makes me glad I made the effort to go. I promised I would come and visit her shrine in Omexkel and we could get into some proper pyrometallurgical trouble together.

Poor Lisaykos spent most of dinner muttering things like "I've done a terrible thing," and "I've created a monster." She was thoroughly disgusted with the two of us. Apparently, Raoleer is the nerd of the convocation and quite unapologetic about it. She'd be fun to take rock collecting. I think I like her a whole bunch.

I nodded off without meaning to before the end of the meal but I made through the first two courses. That unplanned nap was a blessing in disguise since it gave me the staying power to stay awake later until Lisaykos fell asleep.

Then I was out the sliding panel to have a talk with Asgotl. He was still sleeping in the corridor every night in front of my door, the sweetheart.

"Yo, w...whale blubber," I whispered and I sat on the floor cross legged.

"Isn't it after your bedtime, Grandma?" He bumped me with his beak.

"W...what's the story on Aylem? Everyone is w...way too conspicuous at not even bringing up her name, but she was supposed to be at the meeting this morning along w...with the King. Neither showed and I know the King was still here this afternoon."

"What sort of evidence is that?" he remarked neutrally.

"And you're still here," I pointed out.

"Well damn," Asgotl replied. "Lisaykos was hoping to find Aylem before you caught on. She was afraid you might blame yourself."

"So, she's been missing since when? Early this morning? Yesterday evening? She can't get far on foot."

"I wish it were that simple," he sighed. "It looks like no one ever told you that Aylem doesn't really need me to fly. She can fly on her own."

"W...what...?"

"Aylem really is a monster in many respects," Asgotl explained. "Her mind magic is so strong she can fly about ten to twelve wagon-days per day. The best of the silverhairs can fly, usually an hour or two; but Aylem can go all day."

"No one ever told me," I remarked.

"I think everyone avoided telling you about all of her powers for fear you'd get too frightened to deal with her," he confessed. "You were quite jumpy when you first got here. Lisaykos was worried you'd hit your limit and take off."

"She was right to be w...worried," I conceded. "I had escape plans in the w...works starting from the moment I arrived here."

"I figured as much, Grandma."

"Did she have any cold w...weather clothes? It w...was snowing yesterday and it was w...windy and wet today."

"Her charm magic is so strong, it turns out that she doesn't need any cold weather clothes. She can surround herself with warmth and lack of wet everywhere she goes. She wouldn't normally since it would shock even silverhairs, so she acts like she was a normal silverhair instead of the monster that she is. In truth, she is practically indestructible." He swiveled his head so one eye was staring me down from an arm's length away, "everyone was wary of telling you."

All I could do was hold my head. "W...what a farce." I exhaled and relaxed my tense shoulders. "Damn. What w...w...was her state of mind like yesterday?"

"Soggy. Remorseful if I'm any judge. Full of self-doubt."

"Soggy?"

"Weepy," he said.

"What did y...you talk about w...when you spoke w...with her?"

"I didn't. The one time I tried to get near her but she avoided me and I never found her after that."

"Crappola, blubber boy," it sounded like Aylem might have really run away.

"You're staring off into space with your thinking look again," he bumped me with his beak. "Any good thoughts in there?"

"I'm w...worried about things like p...post traumatic stress disorder or severe depression. Stuff like that can br...break a person."

"Hey, land bug, I was living in an ocean and never learned about human mental diseases. What's post traumatic stress disorder?"

"It's a disease w...where the memory of a traumatic event messes w...with your brain. The most famous symptom is a flashback of the event itself w...while awake. There are other signs like nightmares, panic attacks, avoiding reminders of the event, insomnia, isolation. It's a nasty mental illness."

"Huh, sounds like someone I know," Asgotl nailed me.

"Yeah, I'm aware I fit the description, w...whale blubber," I admitted. I didn't think it slowed me down any but I didn't want to talk about it so I changed the subject.

"She have any run-ins w...with any of the high priestess hit squad?"

"None that I know of," Asgotl sighed. "No one saw where she went when she got out of the Well of Mugash."

"Mugash the Merciful was not pulling any punches for Aylem," I remarked. "She w...was pulling memories from people, mostly me but some from Aylem's family, and replaying the really horrible ones in Aylem's brain. I w...was fading out when I released her and didn't have the chance to talk with her."

"I don't get it. How bad can a memory be?"

"Mugash let Aylem experience the six days it took for me to die of respiratory failure---all six days w...worth. That w...was three days ago. Two days ago, Aylem relived the bunkhouse fire and the time I w...was punished with 50 lashes. She also w...was treated to her own daughter being afraid of her."

"No way!"

"Yes, w...way. Yesterday, Mugash treated Aylem to the day my brother died. He w...was trapped in a burning building. I w...was on the phone with him w...when the building collapsed. I heard him scream just before the connection got dropped, w...while I w...w...watched the b...building fall down."

It happened decades ago in a different life and I found myself shedding tears even now. I had to work not to sob out loud. "It's the w...worst thing that...that...," I had to stop or I would break down down. It took a long moment to get myself back under control. "I am quite unhappy Mugash used that memory. It's my own private hell and it w...w...was not for sharing."

I used my sleeve to blot away the tears. "What are w...we going to do about Aylem, whale blubber? You can't fly yet. I can't w...walk as far as the north balcony w...without getting out of breath. How in the name of perdition are w...we going to find her?"

"You won't be finding her tonight," said Lisaykos' voice in back of me. "You are going back to bed and this time, I will charm you to sleep. You too, feather head."

I leaned back and looked up...and up at Lisaykos looming over me in her nightgown and housecoat, her hair down and in two braids. It send a chill down my spine. She looked really huge right then.

"Dang, busted again," the griffin said. I think he picked up dang from me.

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