Maker of Fire

Lisaykos, Healing Shrine of Mugash

"You're up early," my son said, leaning against the doorjamb into my study. He was dressed all in black underneath a pale blue overtunic.

"As are you," I noted, as I caught up on my unending administrative work. It was about halfway between the three quarter night bell and the first bell of daylight, a time when morning cooks, bakers and servants were first getting ready for the coming day.

"I woke up with the funny twitch I get when something is going to happen," my son said frowning.

"Funny, I had a similar feeling," I looked up from my work pile.

Katsa walked into the study in her bare feet with her hair down and a housecoat over her nightgown, "heard you talking, because I woke up a few minutes ago with the same feeling."

"Must run in the family," I put down my stylus. "The tea should still be hot if you two want some."

"Thank you, mother," Katsa walked in, poured herself a cup, and sat down.

"Is the kitchen ready to water and feed a hungry tired griffin?" Irhessa asked with that unique look he gets when he's deep into clairvoyant sight. I haven't figured out how he does long-range farseeing without trancing.

"We have a griffin who will get here just before the first bell," he added. "He's over Emily's spring at the old explosion crater out in the rootless fissures, so he's due north."

"What's he talking about?" Katsa mouthed at me, clueless as to Emily's safe path across the lava plains.

Irhessa stood straight up with his eyes wide. "He's carrying something in his beak. He's also exhausted from being in the air too long, the fool."

"I'll ask the kitchen to bring something up for him," I said. I sorted through the workers in the kitchen and found one of the smarter bakers. I mindcasted my instructions. "We should wake Emily.”

"Should we?" my son asked.

"Asgotl is bonded with Emily," I pointed out. "Would you want to explain to either of them a decision not to wake her?" The look of astonishment on Irhessa's face was a sight.

"Fish face," Katsa teased. He closed his gaping mouth and gave his sister an annoyed look. She smiled sweetly. I found the exchange nostalgic.

"Anyway, a griffin bonding with a Coyn is rather amazing," Irhessa said, "but doesn't that imply that his relationship with the queen is also a bond and not the charm of control?"

"Aylem freed Asgotl in the middle of the Mounts War," I replied. "She is his primary bond. He left her and then he came back after a season. Hunting for his dinner in the wild was too much work for that lazy featherhead."

"How did I miss that?" he frowned, "but it explains a lot."

"I will wake Emily," I said, getting up.

"I will go change," Katsa finished her tea.

"If we're not in here when you're done, we'll be on the south balcony," I informed her. "Irhessa, can you intercept the folks from the kitchen? Emily wakes up slowly so I may be a moment or five."

"Yes, I noticed that about her," he said with some amusement.

I poured some hot tea into one of Emily's beakers and took it with me to her bedroom, putting it on the side table. I sat down and shook her lightly.

"Emily?"

"Go 'way," a sleepy voice muttered.

"Asgotl has been spotted. He'll be here soon. You..."

I had never seen Emily wake up this quickly. She sat straight up fully alert, "h...how soon?"

"We're between a half and a quarter before the first daylight bell. Irhessa said he should be here before dawn."

"So there's time to change," she swung her feet out from under the covers.

"I'll get out of your way," I got up to leave. "I left you a cup of hot tea on the night table."

"Right. Thank you." She was down the bed stair before I had a chance to close the door behind me.

I found my son in my study examining Emily's pile of books. "Is she reading all of these?" he asked.

"She's mostly done with that pile," I remarked as I sat down on the lounge next to the sideboard. "I expect she'll be getting a new pile in a day or two. She's a very fast reader and remembers most of what she reads. I honestly have never seen anyone learn as fast as she does. It unnerves me, some days."

"It does disturb me that she knows so much," he leafed through a geography manuscript. "Some of her knowledge is far beyond what even many experts could know, like how the air pockets stopped the flow of water in the Is'syal aqueduct. I checked with the scholars at the Shrine of Vassu and they had never even heard of the air pocket phenomenon; yet when presented with Emily's math of what she called hydraulic head, they confirmed that it was a sound theory.

"And then there's the contraptions she designed to stop backflow and remove air pockets, which were built and tested at the Shrine of Giltak. Where did those come from? It's like the designs just leaped from her mind fully formed. How does she do that? I find it perplexing."

"Do you doubt her at all?" I asked.

"No, I would trust her with my life. She has no deceit in her, nor greed, nor ambition. If she has weaknesses, those would have to be almost the same as her good qualities. Without greed, she doesn't know the worth of her labor, and this lets others take advantage of her. She grossly undervalues herself. She has no ambition, so she doesn't put herself forward. She doesn't want to be in the public eye.

"Then there's the trust problem. She finds it very hard to trust anyone. She lived alone for so long at such a young age that she doesn't know how to handle or approach people and has insufficient skills to judge if someone is trustworthy or not."

"She trusts you," I pointed out, still a bit envious at how quickly Irhessa and Emily forged a friendship.

"She didn't at first. I read it off her when I first found her that I was a calculated risk she was willing to take, nothing more." He put the geography down, "Asgotl just passed Glass Butte and the kitchen staff is coming up the stairs."

"We should head out to the balcony," I got up.

He held the door for me, "It worries me that there's more in her brain than her age should allow. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking with someone much older than myself, but she can't even be 16 yet." He laughed to himself, "I hate puzzles I can't solve."

"How did you guess at her age?" I asked.

"She's hit puberty but her last four back teeth haven't come in yet."

"She hasn't menstruated yet," I pointed out.

"Yes, but she's underweight and probably grew up malnourished, which accounts for that. A weight deficiency can do that to a girl her age."

"I have considered that, trust me." I stopped to knock on the hidden door from the corridor to Emily's room. "Emily?" I peeked and saw the room and the bathroom were empty.

"She's on the balcony already with Katsa," he held the balcony door open for me. He kept holding it for three of the kitchen staff who followed with two kettles of water and one of raw mutton.

"He's over the river now," Irhessa said as he lit up all the charm gem lights on the balcony. Katsa had already cast the charm of warmth. I thought it was a little too warm.

Soon after, we saw Asgotl circle the dome of the atrium and then bank, making a precise stall coming over the parapet and immediately dropping onto the tiles. Irhessa ran up and took what he had in his beak. Without saying a word to anyone, the griffin walked straight to a kettle of water and drank it all.

"Oh, so much better," Asgotl said. Then he promptly emptied the second kettle of water. "More, please?" Katsa took out a quartz crystal pendant from around her neck, and then there was water again in both kettles.

"Thank you," Asgotl bowed his head, then lifted it and studied Katsa. "Have we met?"

"Asgotl," I put my hand on my daughter's shoulder, "you have met just once and only briefly. This is my daughter, Katsa."

"Ah! May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Lord Gunndit," he bowed his head again.

"And with you, Asgotl," she smiled.

"Uhg," Asgotl sunk to the floor, "too tired to stand up."

Emily ran over to him and he bumped her with his beak, "hey, grandma."

"Hey, whale blubber, w...was w...worried about you. You w...were gone ten days. You said you'd be back in six."

"I found Aylem's trail but lost it north of the Copper River Sink."

"That's not good, w...whale blubber," Emily scratched him between the eyes. "W...what did you bring back?"

"This is one of the queen's shoes," Irhessa put his hand inside the vamp, "and there are things in it." He pulled out a small burnt leather pouch, "this might be yours, Great One."

"Yes," Emily ran over and he handed it to her. She opened the burnt leather and looked inside, eyes getting wide.

"Is there fire inside?" Asgotl asked.

"Let's go burn something down, w...whale blubber," Emily looked up, grinning with mischief.

"Let's not," I said immediately.

"Killjoy," Emily retorted, still grinning.

"There are some small jars inside the shoe," my son pulled out a small ceramic jar with a lid sealed by wax. "I've never seen these letterforms before," he frowned at the writing on the jar. I took it from him.

"This says stibnite," I deciphered the Latin letters. Irhessa gave me a wondering look as he handed me the next jar. "This one says potassium chlorate."

"Hmm," Irhessa pulled the last jar out carefully, "this one is leaking something wet."

He was about to hand it to me when a loud soprano voice said: "DO NOT GIVE THAT JAR TO YOUR MOTHER. PLACE IT ON THE GROUND GENTLY AND EVERYONE MOVE AWAY." It was Emily. I had no idea she could generate that kind of volume. She was always so soft-spoken.

"Hessakos," she always used the name he was known by in Is'syal, "do not w...wipe off your wet hand and don't t...touch anything with it." My son nodded, looking a little worried.

"Drop the shoe. It w...will have to be decontaminated or destroyed. Now dunk your hand in this kettle of w...water and don't pull it out."

"Gods, Irhessa, your fingers are glowing," Katsa observed. I looked and saw pale glowing white patches on his palm and fingers.

"Hessakos, in the water, now!" Emily pointed at the kettle. He sat on the tiles next to the kettle and dunked his hand in.

"Don't rub any of your fingers but m...move your hand around in the w...water to get as much of the phosphorus off of your skin as possible. Good, the immediate danger is over but we're not safe yet," Emily visible deflated as the panic left her. "Lisaykos, are the other two jars w...wet?"

"They are both dry," I replied.

"Good," she took a deep breath and let it out, relaxing her shoulders. "Lord Gunndit, can you please drop the temperature w...within the charm of warmth you cast?"

"Is the heat too much for you, Great One?" Katsa looked concerned. "I made it warmer than usual because you said you were cold when you first came out."

"No, this is a good temperature. I like it, but the phosphorus on the shoe and jar w...will self-ignite if it's too w...warm."

"I may need to cast a new warmth charm."

"Do w...whatever you can, please. That's all I ask. Lisaykos, is there any copper sulfate heptahydrate in the shrine for m...medicinal use?"

"I know that's a chemical name but it's one I don't know yet," I said.

"What about blue acid rock?"

"Yes, we have blue acid rock."

"I n...need a horn of blue acid rock crystals and some rags that can get thrown away, and not into the rag pile for p...paper," Emily stated. "Please burn them w...when we're done."

"Give me a moment," I found the night rounds healer in charge on the second floor, where the regular medical supplies were kept. I mindcasted the request to her. "Some is on its way."

"Thank you. Alright, here's the plan," Emily finally started to explain. "The last jar had white phosphorous stored in w...water, which is the only safe way to store it w...without inert gas. Hessakos got some w...white phosphorous on his hand. This is bad. First, when the w...water evaporates, w...w...white phosphorous can spontaneously burn if it's warm out. Next, white phosphorus can also react with the skin to create chemical burns. Last, it's a potent poison even in low doses. Hessakos is a Cosm so he's big enough that I'm not w...w...worried about phosphorus poisoning but, Hessakos, just in case, for the next day, if you start feeling nauseous or crampy, or have abdominal pain, or a weird heartbeat or get breathing problems, head for the nearest healer. Better yet, just camping out in your mother's study should suffice."

The door from the hallway opened and Imstay walked out onto the balcony.

"Hey, that's one of Aylem's shoes," he walked toward it, bending down to pick it up.

"Don't touch that," both myself and Katsa blocked the King and moved him back.

"What?" Imstay was unhappy to be blocked.

"Imstay King, Asgotl came back with something dangerous without knowing it," I told him while holding him back by the shoulders. "Some of it is on that shoe and if you don't want to join my son in getting treated for touching it, just stay still and be quiet for now."

"But...!"

"I will command the grace of Mugash," I uttered the magic words that allows a healer to restrain a king about to harm himself. It's a charm only healers blessed by Mugash can use.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Imstay King," Emily got his attention. "You know the charms for drying and p...putting out fires, yes?"

"Of course I do," he frowned.

"Please dry the shoe out," Emily requested, trying not to smile and not succeeding.

"Fine," Imstay took his personal crystal out of his belt pouch and cast the charm. There was a small tendril of smoke from the shoe and then the fabric of the vamp burst into flame.

"Gertzpul spare me," Imstay stared at the burning shoe in disbelief.

"Pl...pl...please put it out now," Emily was still smiling.

Imstay cast the charm to put out the fire. The fire went out and then a breath later it started back up. The king swore under his breath and put the fire out again. It started back up again.

"Try using the water charm and get it wet again," Emily suggested. The king gave Emily a long questioning look and cast the water charm. The flames vanished.

"Could you please explain, Great One?" Imstay demanded. He was interrupted.

"Who needs the acid rock and rags?" A healer in a working grey robe ran onto the balcony.

"I'll take them," I walked over to the door. "You might want to stay for this, Sulkirk. We have a new poison and flammable substance we're trying to contain. Just don't touch anything."

"Surd save us," Katsa said in a loud voice. "The jar just caught fire."

"Let it burn and don't breathe the fumes," Emily said loudly, then she dropped in volume now that she had everyone's attention. "It's just the material that leaked out and c...caked on the outside. It w...will go out on its own, eventually."

"I'll fix the smoke," I took out my crystal and created a breeze to blow the smoke away from everyone. Then I walked over to my poor son who looked just a little worried.

"Put the acid rock crystals into the w...water, please, w...without splashing," Emily directed. "Now, Hessakos, count to fifty, then take a rag, soak it in the w...w...water, and keeping your hand in the water, brush off the remaining residue on your skin."

"Alright," he started counting out loud.

When he was done, Emily explained: "Blue acid rock is a sulfate of copper. It reacts w...with phosphorus so the phosphorus gets bonded with some of it, preventing it from catching fire again. The rags w...will remove the phosphorus, and the acid rock neutralizes w...what’s left. Just to be sure, you w...will use all those rags, brushing stuff off, even if you can't see any left on your skin. When you're done, you should wash your clothes right away or at least rinse them in a lot of water if you want to keep the dye from fading."

"Why do I need to use all the rags?" my son asked. "That's a lot of rags, Great One."

"Because there can be some phosphorous particles left which are so small that the eye can not see them. Just because y...you can't see the danger, doesn't mean it isn't there."

"There's no better way?" he asked, starting on his second rag.

"Not that I know of. There could be a charm that might w...work, but I'm not the person to be asking about charms," Emily gave him a lopsided smile. Then she turned to Asgotl, who had been watching everything with a worried expression. "Whale blubber, d...do you have any burning sensations in your mouth or on your tongue?"

"None that I noticed," he replied.

"I am so glad that it's cold out, which kept the stuff on the leaking jar from igniting w...while you were flying," Emily pinched her nose and grimaced. "If you notice any mouth or b...beak pain today, say something, even if you think it's minor. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Great One," Imstay ventured a question, "how do you know there are particles so small that the eye can't see them?"

"If I built a microscope, w...we probably could see s...some of them," she replied without thinking.

"Great One," Imstay had an incandescent grin on his face, "pray tell, what is a microscope and how hard is it to build one?"

"Arg!" Emily whacked her palm on her forehead.

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