Maker of Fire

Lisaykos, Building Shrine of Giltak

Emily spent the evening before with paper, glue, hemp twine, and some beaver reeds. She had the first kite made in no time at all. It was diamond-shaped. The second kite was triangular. Raoleer was taking notes as Emily made the kites. Emily growled at Raoleer for documenting what she called "just a simple toy."

I was a little worried when Emily got the first kite in the air. I did not realize that getting one aloft required some running. Thuorfosi launched the second kite. Soon we had a crowd of people fascinated by the two kites. After reeling in the kites in time for mid repast, Raoleer was walking around telling people how the kites were made.

Given that we were at the Shrine of Giltak, I wasn't surprised that many folks spent their mealtime making their own kites. The afternoon saw general mayhem when artificers-in-training and their teachers abandoned their classrooms to make and then launch their own kites in the great ring of fields between the ancient shrine building and the rest of the shrine complex.

I lost sight of Emily at one point and couldn't find her. I made the mistake of looking for her closer to the ground. When I looked for her kite instead, I found her almost immediately but was greatly concerned to see that she wasn't flying her kite. The kite was under the control of a tall man in a sheepskin flying coat with the hood up. He was with another man just as tall, also in a sheepskin flying coat with the hood up. Emily was riding on the shoulders of the one without the kite.

Emily was smiling and talking and laughing so whoever it was, she wasn't under any kind of duress unless she was under a charm of deception or illusion. I began stalking the trio until I was close enough to recognize voices. Then I was just annoyed.

I walked up behind the kite flyer, pulled the hood down, and pinched the earlobe of my no-good son. "You know it's polite to tell people you're going to stop by to visit?"

"OWwwwwwwww!" Irhessa tried to pull away, which of course, is the wrong thing to do with an earlobe pinch. "Mother, let go!" In a mistaken moment of kindness, I released him.

"Wow, I forgot how much those hurt," he grimaced and rubbed his earlobe. "Here, Emily, grab this," he handed her the spool of string. "I need both hands to murder my mother."

"Did the two of you goofballs warn Raoleer you were planning to sneak onto her shrine?" I asked.

"Nope, not a word of notice," Irhessa said. "I figured we could take care of that when we arrived. Besides, we're missing someone. We're waiting for her to show up. I'm surprised we arrived before she did."

"That's because you didn't," High Priestess Kamagishi of Galt said, walking up with Raoleer. "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One," she made a bowing obeisance.

"And also upon you, sister. Now, why am I getting a bad feeling about this?" I asked. "Last year was strange enough. I don't know if I can survive another year like it. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."

"You are as tough as bison gristle, old lady," Kamagishi laughed. "You'll probably outlive the rest of us."

"I sincerely doubt that," I grumbled. "So why are you here?"

"There are days when I wake up and get this feeling that something is about to happen. Today is one of those days." Kamagishi was not joking at all. She was always serious when premonitions arrived. "At the same time, Lord Irhessa and Imstay King both received dream commands from Giltak last night to come here today. I was saddling my eagle when Imstay King came running into the House of Mounts, looking for his griffin."

Raoleer looked around, "where are Imstay and Emily?" That's when we all realized they were no longer with us.

"Emily's kite is on the ground," Irhessa pointed.

"Blarg," Raoleer said so softly she might as well have shouted it.

"What?" Kamagishi looked at her as did the rest of us.

"The doors to the shrine are open. It's not scheduled to be open today. We keep it locked because of the strange effects the crystal has on some people. No one is allowed into the Well of Giltak unsupervised." Raoleer started for the door at a brisk walk. We followed.

Huge charm gem lights hug on the walls of the four stacked chambers in the shrine. They were already lit when we entered. It had been many years since I had been in this shrine. The stairs wound around in a passage along the eves of the continuous spiral roof. I had forgotten how long a walk it was to arrive at the Well in the highest of the four above-ground chambers. We climbed to the Well of Giltak and found the King standing in the doorway. He was in a daze.

He gasped as Raoleer placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you back with us?" she asked.

"I was always here," Imstay said in a hushed voice, "I just didn't have any control over myself until you touched me."

"It's one of the powers of the high priestess of this shrine, to be able to release those called to the Well of Giltak. It happens once every fifty to sixty years. I never thought I would be one of those who privileged to witness it. Giltak must like you." She smiled at the King. The King looked nervous.

"It's safe to go in but don't get too close to that sphere," Raoleer said, pointing to a spherical disturbance in the air surrounding the shrine's crystal. Emily was inside the spherical disturbance, quietly sitting on the chair of judgment, eyes closed. The crystal was floating in the air above its pedestal. It was six-sided but had pyramidal caps on both ends. It was lit up and shining a bright light upwards.

"I bet that light penetrates through the roof and can be seen outside," Irhessa said in an awed voice.

"Yes, you're probably right," Raoleer said. "According to shrine records, during a revelation from Giltak, strange things may appear inside that sphere. We might hear things too. Usually, Giltak will appear inside the sphere toward the end of the revelation. I didn't see any mention in my records about how long a revelation should last."

Raoleer was right. Strange things began to appear and disappear inside the sphere. A person appeared who was covered in a form-fitting suit of some shiny thick fabric, wearing mittens and a strange contraption over the eyes. The figure was moving at an impossible speed through powdery snow with two long sticks for balance. Then the person was gone, replaced by many people in hardly any clothes at all, showing indecent amounts of skin. They were running off a cliff overlooking a sea with what looked like giant kites. The nearly naked people were strapped to the kites. They floated over the water and vanished, replaced by a woman dressed in rich clothes all in black, singing impossible high notes to swelling strange but beautiful music.

"...Houston Grand Opera, summer of 2008, I got to hear her in the Magic Flute and then again in 2010 at the Met..." It was a woman's voice, speaking another language but the sense of what was being said was conveyed to our minds. I guessed it was Emily's voice from her previous life speaking the language called English.

"I got it," the woman said, "Heaven's Design Team. You're Ven-chan in the English translation, Kanamori in the subtitled anime, and Venus in the dubbed version. I coerced the manager of my assisted living center to buy a subscription for Crunchyroll. I wanted to catch up on all the anime I missed after the car accident in West Australia. If I had been smart, I should have stayed in Australia and not gone back to America but my family wanted me to come home."

"The character fit my personality well," a sultry woman's alto stated. "You'll be bringing your friend Aylem home soon, and I did want to share something with you before then."

"I will?" Emily's other voice sounded surprised.

"When you return to Foskos, your friend Aylem will need to use her strongest magic and I wanted to warn you about it. She is the second strongest magic user on the planet, after all."

"I've already been warned about that," Emily remarked. "She doesn't need a mount to fly. She only uses Asgotl for the sake of appearances. She never gets cold. She only wears winter clothes, again, for the sake of appearances. I've been warned already."

"So did anyone tell you she can take out an army by herself with magic?" Giltak asked.

"No one has said so to my face but I don't think it would surprise me at this point."

"I see. Well, then, just don't be too shocked when she destroys her first army. Now, can I see the compass?"

"Of course, since you instigated its creation. The folks here made me two. I never imagined you could cut threads this well without a modern lathe. See, there's one that will fit big hands and one that will fit my hands. Isn't that lovely work? My little pencils are nowhere near the same quality. I'm in awe of how well they can make things without machinery and automation."

"Oh, yes, I see," the sultry alto voice said. "They aren't slackers at the shrine. The folks doing those threads are all Coyn. Small steady hands cutting small uniform threads. Cosm hands are too big and clumsy to do this level of fine work. The priestess and priest artificers who run the shrine don't suffer from the usual prejudice that Coyn are just well-trained domestic animals that talk. I expect you noticed that half your bloomery audience was Coyn."

"I did notice. I found it encouraging. But I haven't been able to make contact with other Coyn yet in Aybhas, but I've chatted with more Coyn in the last three days than I have since the bunkhouse fire. I've been living at a shrine that's scaled to Cosm. There aren't even Coyn for domestic chores. The healers segregate the facilities for Cosm and Coyn. There's a chapel shrine by the north gate in Aybhas that caters to just Coyn when they need healing."

"Mugash thought that was best," the sultry voice said. "It's a safety feature. It's easy for a thoughtless Cosm to injure Coyn and you don't want that happening in a place of healing. So you are right, where you are living puts you in a place where you can't meet any other Coyn. Is that a problem for you?"

"Yes and no," the Emily voice said. "I admit I would be more comfortable around people my own size, though I've gotten used to the people I live with. These days, I forget about the size and strength difference most of the time. The big exception is when I want to go somewhere, and someone comes up with those huge hands and picks me up like I'm a small sack of groceries. The folks at the shrine are kind and generous, and well-meaning, but I get the feeling that I'm some kind of intelligent pet for some of them and that really bothers me.

"I do want to see what life is really like in Foskos for Coyn. I want to see if there are any more of those terrible places where I got trapped as a child. I've researched the law regarding Coyn and now I want to see how the law lines up with how Coyn are really treated. But this lingering fatigue that won't go away is stopping me from getting things done and I'm feeling frustrated over it. From my perspective, I'd like to get all these revelation chores done and out of the way so I can get back to what I want to do on my own time.

"I'm taking care of iron and steel right now. But I need to find Aylem so I can expedite the revelation of Landa. Once Aylem takes care of the crystal, I believe my to-do list for you folks is done. Then I'll be able to determine whether chattel slavery can be eliminated with or without bloodshed.

"On the other hand, even if I could manage to escape the shrine and mingle with other Coyn, I don't know what I would talk to them about. The weather? How they feel about being enslaved? What they do with their free time, assuming they have any? I worry that what's inside my head is just too different from their reality. I often feel like there is no one I can talk to who can understand me. I have this fear that the cognitive dissonance would result in being shut out or ostracized for being too strange."

"You worry too much, Professor Emily McGuigan," the other voice said. "By now, almost everyone, Cosm and Coyn, expects you to be strange. After all, you've already done a few outrageous things and you have the gaggle of goofball gods dropping by and visiting now and then. That is part of our protection for you."

"Yes, I figured that out, especially with Tiki. I appreciate that he made me a revelator as a means to protect me, but that implies he could have picked anything for a revelation. He demonstrated that he really is twisted by giving me the recipe for Ex-lax as a revelation. Seriously, Giltak, look at his pattern of nonsensical revelations. He even gave a middle-aged maiden aunt of a priestess a revelation to write a sex manual, for both sexes. I find his sense of humor perverse.”

"Well, it is funny on a certain level," the voice of Giltak argued.

"Yes, if you're not the butt of the joke," Emily retorted instantly. "He knew that I would know it was impossible to make phenolphthalein without coal tar and a decent chemistry set-up to do fractional distillation. These people don't even have glass yet. Do you know how hard it is to use a ceramic alembic instead of a proper glass distillation coil? I damn near killed myself three years ago making phosphorus. That's Tiki's idea of a joke?

"On Earth, one of his aspects was Coyote."

"The Navajo trickster god? That explains a lot. So Giltak, can you tell me how long it will take me to get better? The chronic fatigue and weakness are wearing me down. I'm not sure what is worse: the chronic fatigue or the depression over the chronic fatigue."

"That's not my department. You will get better but I do not know how long it will take. The person to ask is Mugash."

"Unfortunately, she didn't leave me her cell number, pager number, or email."

The sultry alto laughed. "You could try prayer."

"Alright, on that subject, why is prayer even necessary?"

I think all of us listening gasped in unison. What a blasphemous thing to ask! I was shocked. I revised that opinion as the rest of the conversation unfolded; however, it made me realize just how different Emily was from the rest of us.

Emily's other voice from her previous life continued: "If you deities are omnipotent, or close to it, omnipresent and omniscient, then you already know all our needs, our hopes, our fears, and desires. And if you already know all that, then why must we pray to seek answers or ask for things which you already know about? It strikes me as needless work and not at all efficient. When you already know what people think, then why make people tell you?"

"You really don't know?" the sultry alto sounded amused.

"It looks like a lot of wasted effort to me."

The alto sounded amused: "Let's us discuss prayer then. You became lost to prayer in your previous life, love, and you have not found it again."

"What good is prayer that is never answered?" asked that other Emily voice with a bite and bitterness in it.

"You know so much, love, but you are not yet wise," the alto was sad. "The importance of prayer is the act of prayer itself."

"If the act of prayer is what's important, and the content is secondary, then what about all those unanswered prayers?" Emily demanded to know. "Isn't that a betrayal by the gods towards an act of faith by their believers?"

"You missed my intent, child," the alto sounded just a touch disappointed. "You are speaking from where your pain lives. Your pain still owns you. You must learn to own your pain. Only then can you give it away and leave it behind you. First, prayer is an act of faith, which is how the soul acknowledges it is not alone, that there is something greater than the self. That was your failure in your previous life, love.

"Prayer is an action where a soul looks outward, child; however, you turned inward after you fled your abusive second marriage in Elko for Peru. You never looked out again, especially after your brother Michael died. You don't like conflict, little one, and your answer to it is to flee. When you need help, you must learn to ask for it. Second, regarding the content of prayers, souls receive what they need, not what they ask for. Prayer could be useful to you, Luv. You may want to consider it next time you get stuck in a tight spot."

"Tell me, little one, what was the most famous quote of John Donne, whose poetry of love you and your young man Tom so adored?" The alto still sounded a bit sad but now there was a hint of teasing. I was left wondering who this Tom person was.

"Death be not proud, though some..."

"No, no, no, not that one. How melancholy."

"I see what you want, needling god," the other Emily voice accused with a hint of amusement. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

"Now you are teasing me," Giltak's alto laughed. "Come on, you know what I want you to say. Give me the other really famous saying from out of the middle of that same essay."

Emily heaved a vast sigh, which despite speaking with another voice still sounded just like her: "No man is an island, entire of itself."

"Ooo! You even quoted it correctly. It's what you need to remember, little one. Ah well, that's enough for today's advice from an understanding god,” the voice of Giltak said. "People are waiting for you so we need to move on to your revelation, which I promise you will enjoy."

"You were sufficiently transparent about that: one slide rule, delivered in record time. How many scales do you want?"

"Multiplication, squares, cubes, inverse, and basic trig. It would be better to find the math whiz kids and teach them the principles of building the scale and then let them do all the work."

"I like that. Can I get another pina colada for the road?"

"Guzzle it down, Emily-chan."

"Do I get to keep the buzz, Giltak-kami? I haven't had a good bar hop since Tiki took me to Trader Vic's at the Plaza Hotel."

"I think you've had enough drunken buzz for one afternoon, young lady."

"Party pooper."

"Pleasant dreams, Emily."

A being in a lavender robe and long braided lavender hair materialized out of glittering light and placed a hand on Emily's head, "Euclid and Euler, Emily. Enjoy the buzz."

The manifestation of Giltak exploded into uncounted bright pink sparks that faded out. The light in the crystal vanished and the crystal floated down into its padded depression in the pedestal.

Raoleer walked up to Emily and touched her lightly on the head. "Lisaykos, your opinion, please."

I joined her at the chair of judgement where Emily was still sitting, eyes closed, not moving except for the slow motion of her breathing. I extended my hand and made an estimate of Emily's level of consciousness. If I were to describe it, it was as if she was strung out on stimulants. I was reminded of Aylem's description of what Emily was like after Tiki imparted his revelation.

"Aylem described a similar state in Emily's brain immediately after she was touched by Tiki. This might be how she reacts to being touched by a deity. Or it could be how a Coyn reacts, but since Emily is the only Coyn known to receive revelations, it's not known which it might be. Tiki left Emily writhing in pain so Aylem put a charm of deep sleep on her. Her brain activity did not resemble dreamless sleep but she was not awake so Aylem left her like that until her brain resumed normal levels. I suggest we do the same."

Imstay wandered up, interested in what I was saying. "Great One, I have never heard of different kinds of brain activity before. Is this something new or just advanced healer magic?"

"It's new healer magic, Imstay King." I replied. "If you haven't been trained to detect brain patterns, you might not know what to look for. There are seven different patterns that I can distinguish. It's one of the Queen's greatest contributions to healing. Right now, Emily's brain resembles someone who has taken too many stimulants. If she follows the pattern of what happened at the Shrine of Tiki, she'll be fine tomorrow."

"May I?' Irhessa walked up to Emily and touched her head. "Interesting," one of his eyebrows floated up.

"You can distinguish brain patterns?" I asked my son.

"Yes, though I wasn't aware anyone had actually classified patterns," he replied. "I would like to learn more about this. This is interesting to me."

"I am fascinated by your magic," I remarked. "You were quite talented when you were a boy, but I never had the chance to observe how you developed as you reached maturity. You have the makings of a good healer. If you would like to learn more, something could be arranged, either formally or informally."

He looked at me with some surprise, "I am interested. I can manage the basics with what I learned on my own and I can do stasis too, on others and on myself. But my healing magic has always been strong and my body clairvoyance is quite good. I can see all the aura colors, including the blue fatigue fog."

"Really? You could always quit your current employer and sign on with the Shrine of Mugash." I smiled.

"Oh no, you don't," Imstay King squawked, right on cue.

"Is the King always this bad?" I asked my son who keeps surprising me.

"Yes, he falls for every goad imaginable," Irhessa smiled innocently. "We should probably make sure Emily doesn't wake up for now. Then I think the five of us should sit down and have a long talk with you about Emily as one of the legendary reborn with memories of a previous life."

"Yes, sister," Raoleer gave me an accusatory look. "I did note that you were not at all surprised by that conversation between Giltak and Emily. I suspect that you've known this for quite some time."

"At least since before Aylem disappeared," Imstay added, "given how you reacted on the morning of Aylem's release by Emily to the memory that Mugash borrowed of the burning buildings, which made Emily so angry."

"I think Raoleer's sitting room would be an appropriate place to talk," Kamagishi added her opinion.

"Memories of a prior life would explain many of Emily's mysteries," Irhessa remarked. "Asgotl too."

That caught me by surprise. "How did..."

"Ah, yes! I was right about that." My son smiled with satisfaction at my reaction.

"Aylem's griffin?" Imstay was surprised.

"He was once a leviathan," Irhessa remarked. "I overheard him and Emily talking about it one day. He calls Emily 'grandma' and she calls him 'whale blubber.' They have strange conversations together. I picked up a passive thought from Emily about Asgotl complaining he didn't know much about humans since he had lived in the ocean."

"I will need to talk to my people once we exit the shrine about the revelation from Giltac," Raoleer sighed. "There will be a crowd waiting for us outside. I will take care of that and I will meet up with you as soon as I can at my quarters."

I was not looking forward to this.