Maker of Fire

Thuorfosi, the Healing Shrine of Mugash and the Building Shrine of Giltak

Emily was cute and often funny and really smart. She never complained, well, not about stuff that mattered, and when she felt well, she even cleaned her own room though she doesn't have to. That's what the shrine staff was for, right? Ever since she designed that shower thing and convinced the high priestess to install it, I don't get to tease and torture her in the morning anymore in the bathtub, which I confess, I missed. She was fun to tease. She made such great faces, especially when half asleep.

Just the other day, after I teased the Blessed Emily awake with the magically-enhanced fragrance of a freshly-cooked piece of bacon, my husband told me that he feels sorry already for our unborn children. "I thought you were close to perfection: well-read, musical, talented, gentle and caring, good equally with children and Coyn alike," he said. "Now that it's too late to rescind our request for family time," he added, "I find myself confronted with the reality that your refined exterior has masked your true nature as a fiend in search of small and powerless victims to torture."

My husband thinks he's funny.

I still did Emily's hair every morning in an overplait braid, which looked good on her. If left to herself, the best she'd do was an uneven braid and the worst would be cutting her own hair because she doesn't want to be bothered with it. Don't even get me started on her sense of appropriate dress because she didn't have any. I jest not: she actually attended a meeting of the Convocation once in her housecoat, an undertunic, stockings, and slips. Because she's the Blessed Emily, she got away with it but we were still all aghast that she did it in the first place.

The high priestess told me that she and Emily were traveling to Omexkel next rotation to visit the Building Shrine of Giltak. She asked me if I would like to come with them because I was one of the few people who could manage Emily. Lisaykos would be spending a lot of her time negotiating the final contracts and financial arrangements for Emily's latest creations, namely the shower, the flushing necessary, a couple of new valve designs, and something Emily called a sink trap. The High Priestess would also be negotiating the final arrangements with the Shrine of Giltak for a new craft for people who made and installed these things.

Lisaykos' errands at the Shrine of Giltak would leave Emily needing someone to watch her. She is still not well from her horrific injuries last harvest season. She could walk again, just for short distances, like from her bedroom to the north balcony and back, but two flights of stairs were enough to leave her winded. I know the state of Emily's health was an ongoing concern for Lisaykos. Emily suffered the charm of a thousand stings almost half a year ago and she still had not regained what she lost physically.

I know it bothered Emily. I could feel her unrelenting desire to get better and also the demoralizing frustration at making such slow progress. I think most other people would have given up but Emily was not most people. She also pushed herself too hard and that was what the high priestess wanted to prevent.

The complication was that Emily would be visiting the Shrine of Giltak. For a mekaner like Emily, it might as well be the worst-possible den of forbidden lusts and addictive drugs. I understood why Lisaykos wanted someone capable to restrain Emily at the one shrine capable of tempting her to overindulge in creating strange potions and objects that had magic-like effects without using magic.

I started packing her travel goods by examining what clothes she had: several pairs of leggings, all with holes worn already at the knees and heels. They were alright for being at ease on the lounge in the high priestess' study but they weren't fit for visiting. There were two pairs of pants in nice stretchy wool. They were a little worn but good enough for working with furnaces. I needed to ask Lisaykos where I could get some more. The white kirtle and the blue gown would get packed and again, I'd see if I could get another set like it before we left.

She would need the sheepskin coat and leggings for flying, plus her mantle with a hood in the Shrine of Mugash colors. It might be wise to order a second mantle like it. She had several linen undertunics and three overtunics but only one set was presentable. She would need more. The Blessed Emily was not kind to clothes. How did she manage when she was living alone in the forest?

She could use a new belt but I knew she had that tiny little knife hidden in the billet protector which she used from time to time. She would want to keep that. She could also use some new shoes. Her ankle boots were beginning to fall apart.

I made a list of everything I thought Emily needed for clothes and I went to see the high priestess right before the time that Emily got up. Once again, Lisaykos displayed her amazing skill for planning and organization.

"In the bottom drawer of my clothes press, you will find everything on this list, Thuorfosi," the Blessed Lisaykos scanned my list on my tablet. "I had more clothes made for her after her accident with the Queen. I had a feeling she would be with us for some time and she's hard on clothes." The high priestess looked just a little bit smug. "Don't forget to ask Emily where her tools are and which ones she wants to bring. You should also ask if she has any rocks she wants to bring. Take her shopping too for a decent-looking belt pouch, and don't let her talk you into something small, plain, practical, and inexpensive. She's bad that way.

See if you can buy at least two pairs of leather work gloves for her. Also, we would all be relieved if you can talk her into replacing her belt. I think the belt and pouch shop across from the scriptorium has some crafters up to replacing the leather and keeping the buckle and billet she made herself. More to the point, they will let her watch and guide the process. I know she would prefer to do it herself but don't let her even reach for a rivet tool right now."

I spent so much time shopping and packing for Emily that I had hardly enough time to pack for myself; however, we did get into the air in time to land in Omexkel well before the dinner hour on the appointed day. The only problem was getting Asgotl and Emily to land. The two of them had to have circled the central building of the shrine four or five times. There is no building anywhere in the world like the all-wood Shrine of Giltak with its strange spiraling roof sheathed in copper.

When Emily and Asgotl landed, Emily had her problem-solving look on her face and her eyes were on fire. She was about to say something when Lisaykos walked up in a hurry and put her hand on Emily's knee. She leaned so close to Emily's face, their noses almost touched. She said something so softly I couldn't hear it. Nor could anyone else. Then Lisaykos stepped away, looking satisfied. The look on Emily's face told me that the high priestess just prevented Emily from committing a breach of protocol.

The Blessed Lisaykos and the Holy Raoleer traded a glance and I knew they were mindcasting at each other. High Priestess Raoleer then nodded and she and her welcoming committee made a full kneeling obeisance. "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One," Raoleer, her deputies, and her craftmasters said in perfect unison.

"And up...upon you, good people," Emily managed to say with some surprising dignity and solemnity. "P...please rise," there was a short pause, "before the snow gets your knees cold and wet." The grin was back and Emily studiously avoided Lisaykos' look of frustration. Emily and Raoleer traded knowing smiles.

"Raoleer, how old is the central building of the shrine?" Emily asked, now looking rather intent.

"About 1,200 years," Raoleer replied.

"W...Who designed it?"

"It was the Blessed Soykrux, the first revelator and high priestess of Giltak. It's all wood. There were no metal fasteners used. Still aren't other than the tacks to hold the copper sheeting on, and..."

"So p...please tell me if I have this right: there are four floors w...where the volume of each floor is equal to the others but the height of each floor follows an inverse logarithmic progression and the edge of the eaves of the roof is a logarithmic spiral w...when looking straight down on it, yes?"

"What kind of spiral?" Raoleer was displaying the typical reaction of someone just run over by the strange things that came out of Emily's head.

Emily started unbuckling the straps that kept her on Asgotl's saddle. "Correct me if I'm w...wrong, please. If you use the method of squares to help draft a logarithmic spiral, which is the usual method, the inner square has a side of a length of one, the square next to the first square also has a side of one, but the next square which abuts the first two has a side of two. The fourth square next to the first and third has a side of three, then the fifth next to the first, second and fourth has a side of five, and so on. The length progression of the sides of the squares is one, one, two, three, five, eight, 13, 21..."

"Then 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, and so on," Raoleer grinned. "I'll stop there. Great One, have you ever been here before, or have you already studied the building of the Shrine of Giltak?" Raoleer asked, looking somewhat perplexed.

"No, never, but I couldn't help notice the spiral made by the line of the r...roof. The name I know for that spiral shape is a logarithmic spiral. Is the top of the spiral where it begins at the W...well?

Lisaykos already had her tablet out, "how do you spell that, Emily dear? The name of the spiral, that is?"

"Oh crappola," Emily grimaced in realization.

"Did you do it again, Emily?" Asgotl asked with a sigh.

"I don't think so. If the Holy Raoleer knows the Fibonacci series, she probably knows the math of logarithms, though she might use a different name for it. My apologies, Holy One," Emily said to Raoleer, "this is a b...bad habit of mine: I saw the spiral on the roof and got stuck on the idea of the mathematical design of the shrine. Once I get stuck on an idea, I often have problems getting unstuck."

"Emily, dear heart," Lisaykos walked up next to Emily, "I believe we should move inside and out of the snow before you and Raoleer freeze the rest of us while the two of you get carried away...again." Lisaykos smiled at Emily. "Aren't you feeling a cold at all?"

"Oh," Emily had the good grace to blush as she realized she got so carried away that she forgot that it was cold out. "Maybe some."

"I'm not offended, Great One, though we should move somewhere warmer," Raoleer smiled with just a touch of amusement. "Most everyone who lives here is familiar with getting trapped in a thought storm. I noticed last time I was in Aybhas that you suffer from thought storms more than most."

"How far are our quarters, sister?" Lisaykos asked.

"The regular guest house, not the one for the Convocation." Raoleer pointed, "it's that building over there."

"And meals?"

"Informal ones in my dining room, which is in the building next door to the right. Formal affairs, like this evening, are in the refectory. I'm sure you remember where it is."

"Ah yes," Lisaykos replied. "Thuorfosi, don't let Emily do that walk."

"Yes, Great One," I nodded. Emily looked like a little storm cloud and stared daggers at Lisaykos. Lisaykos just lifted one eyebrow in reply.

"Emily can't manage that short a walk?" Raoleer asked Lisaykos in a quiet voice, looking worried. "It's been half a year." I'm not sure if Emily heard them or not.

Lisaykos looked equally concerned. "Her recovery has been slow. She could walk that distance right now but she would then spend a day recovering." In a much softer voice, she said, "and I can not determine why."

The two walked toward the guest house, heads together. "I noticed the search for the queen seems to have shifted north and west," Raoleer remarked, "but there have been no official updates."

"Asgotl, the Queen's griffin, found her trail in one of the valleys to the north of the lava plains but he was lost it north of the Copper River." Lisaykos sighed. That was six rotations ago. There had been no progress since then.

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