Maker of Fire

Emily, Sils'chk, Planting Season, 4th rotation, 3rd day evening

While I was asleep, Four Cosm from Foskos arrived, including Usruldes. According to Tom, Usruldes healed the burns first. Then he took me to the guest quarters for the Cosm in a Cosm-size waddle-and-daub house on the island immediately to the west of Sils'chk. Once there, he spent about two bells to undo the effects of the concussion.

Whatever he did to me, I woke up with neither headache nor nausea. I realized I could focus properly, too, though I didn't know my focus was off until Usruldes fixed it. That made me think that the concussion was worse than I initially thought. I was also thirsty. Usruldes made me pace how fast I drank to rehydrate. He explained that too much water ingested too quickly could result in convulsions and sometimes death if a person were too dehydrated.

"If this were fruit juice instead of water," Usruldes explained, "then I'd let you drink faster. Fruit juice won't poison you like water if you're dehydrated."

Tom told me later that Usruldes was right about too much water. I had no idea there was such a thing as water intoxication and death from too little sodium in the blood. Not enough salt leads to brain swelling, which kills people if kidney failure doesn't get them first. It figures that Mister Army Captain Eagle Scout Tomas Martinez knew all about it.

The one thing that Usruldes didn't fix was all the bruising, but he wanted to try some new thing he learned from Ud that might help reduce the pain.

"I am too tired now," Usruldes applied his thumbs to the sore muscles of my shoulders. He was as good as Kayseo at eliminating knots. "I want to try again tomorrow. I would give myself a magic-overuse injury if I continued today. I have little magic left after two days of flying here and spending all day healing you."

"I'm feeling a bit chilled," I pointed out. "Is there a blanket, or better yet, some of my clothes? Usually, I wouldn't be lying in a bed naked with a man who is not my husband doing things to my backside."

"Holy One?" Usruldes-cum-Hessakos shouted at the door.

"Which one?" Sutsusum shouted back.

"Kamagishi," Usruldes replied. "Emily wants her clothes." He stood up, "Tomorrow, I want to try something that might help the swelling and bruises, but I'm too beat right now. I will leave you since I doubt Kamagishi will want me present when you get dressed." With that, he escaped, and Kamagishi came in, still wearing her flying clothes of layered tunics, pants, and boots. She brought one of my long undyed linen tunics, some pants, a pair of stockings, and the sandals Twalkt made me out of some local variety of reed.

"I didn't bring any undergarments since Usruldes said those would be painful to wear for a few more days," Kamagishi pulled up the chair Usruldes had been using. "I heard from Tom that you two haven't been wearing stockings in Sils'chk. I never realized that you indulged in indecent behavior when no one was around to notice."

I turned my head on the pillow to look at Kamagishi. "Indecent? What's indecent about lower legs and knees?"

"Here, let's do the stockings first," She slipped the soft fabric over my left foot and lower leg. "Emily, don't you know that anything above the ankle should not be shown in public? When the Queen brought you back from living in the wilderness, didn't anyone take the time to teach you about decency and decorum?"

I didn't answer directly. Instead, I squawked in surprise, "Ow! That hurts," the backs of my calves were not happy when Kamagishi tied the first of the drawstrings that kept the stocking on just below the knee.

"We were afraid that might happen," Kamagishi stated and removed the stocking.

"We?" I prodded. My clothes had been selected by the committee?

"Tom and me," Kamagishi pulled out a pair of long pants. "Let's try these since the drawstring is around the uninjured skin at your waist. There was an awkward moment while she helped me into the pants. Then she dropped the tunic over my head.

"There, you look like a civilized person now," Kamagishi looked pleased with herself, "instead of some uncivilized beast girl living on berries and dressing in smelly animal skins."

I balanced standing on the mattress since I knew it would hurt to sit, "I will have you know that deerskin and elkskin tunics are extremely soft and comfortable, and you can wash them just like cloth. The clothes I wore before the Queen found me did not stink. I'm rather keen on having clean things to wear."

"Oho!" Kamagishi tilted her head at me and grinned, "Is that why all your clothes are filthy and need washing?"

"I've been in bed for four days, so no one did the laundry," I protested. "Tom's not allowed to wash clothes. So yes, my clothes are probably all dirty. I clean clothes, I wear clothes, I get clothes dirty, and then I clean them again, just like everyone else." Now, I was getting grumpy.

"Ooooo!" Kamagishi smiled with unrestrained pleasure, "You did the flaming daggers of death glare! It's been so long since you've used that on me. I cleaned all your laundry for you, by the way."

Maybe I needed to get grumpier. I wasn't amused that this overgrown, overpowered mage thought my ire was a source of humor. I was unhappy she found my dirty laundry and washed it for me. How embarrassing.

"I see," I said as coldly as I manage, "not only do you think I'm a filthy slob, but you think I'm a wanton and loose woman who dresses indecently."

"I don't. I would have reacted as badly if it was just us girls," Kamagishi rolled her eyes at me. "But what will Usruldes think? Do you not know that he's as proper as his mother and sister?"

"Kamagishi, Usruldes got well acquainted with my knees the first time we met. I doubt he'd be shocked at anything I did."

"What?" Usruldes incredulous bellow erupted from the other side of the door. I also heard Tom start laughing. It was apparent they were eavesdropping. I was beginning to feel picked on.

I found myself sighing. So, Tom told Kamagishi, and maybe all the other Cosm, that in Sils'chk, we wore nothing on our legs. I was glad Tom refrained from telling the Cosm that we often ran around in our underwear without tunics. Sussbesschem was on the warm side, and fewer clothes were more comfortable. Most days, I wore only Ud's shirt and some underpants, which were really just drawstring shorts.

Kamagishi lifted me off the Cosm-height bed, and we joined everyone for dinner. She sat on the ground facing the cooking fire next to Sutsusum. I stood on the opposite side of the fire because I wanted to watch Sutsusum cook. Sitting down was not comfortable. I guessed it would be three or four more days before I could sit without pain.

I wanted something to eat, and I wanted it soon because I was already tired. I didn't know how much longer I could keep standing. Given how good the rabbit and vegetable skewers smelled, I was ready to murder anyone who might get between me and my dinner.

Sutsusum was having a good time cooking for all of us. She had learned to cook over a campfire when she was a young priestess working on her shrine's road projects. The woman knew her way around a fire.

I wish I had known that the Cosm who visited every year had planted various vegetables to grow on their own as a wild veggie patch. They had been doing this for centuries. As a result, the skewers had carrots, little onions, nips, and cubes of some kind of squash. I might have been drooling.

Sutsusum fed me first, "Here, Great One, use a dinner towel. The skewer is hot." The show-off levitated the skewer over to me. I managed to blurt out a thank you before attacking the food in front of me. I pondered whether I could stay on my feet long enough to get seconds when Tom tried to decide for me.

"Now that you've eaten," he said cheerfully from behind me, "you should go and get some more rest. Do you need help, wookums?"

"Wookums? Don't you wookums me, mister, boss-me-around!" Tom managed to hit a button I didn't know I had. "I'm not sure I'm ready to go to bed while the rest of you socialize all evening around a pleasant campfire. Besides, I think I have some more to eat."

"Kami," Moxsef whispered loud enough that I could hear her, "what's a wookums?"

"I don't know, Mox," Kamagishi whispered back. "Maybe it's Coyn slang."

I looked at Tom. Tom looked at me. We both looked at Kamagishi and Moxsef. We looked at each other. We looked at the two high priestesses again. We looked at each other.

Tom cracked first, but I wasn't far behind him. We laughed and laughed and laughed. I ended up having to lean against him just to keep standing.

While we regained our composure, Usruldes had made a pile of pillows and blankets, sloped so I could lie on my stomach with my head elevated to see around the fire. After he picked me up and deposited me on his makeshift eating lounge, he passed the skewer of seconds that Sutsusum had ready.

"I thought I was good at Coyn slang," Usruldes gave me a dubious look, sitting cross-legged next to me on the ground. Tom joined us.

"Wookums?" Usruldes asked, "Is that a Coyn word I haven't run into yet?"

"It's not Coyn slang," Tom said. "It's English."

"Oh, please, you two," Usruldes rolled his eyes at us. "I have too much to do as it is. It would be too much work to cast the charm of tongues just because you two are stuck speaking a dead language from a place that doesn't even exist." He heaved a tremendous dramatic sigh, "My life used to be so simple and easy." Then he actually pouted. Usruldes, with his mask off, was a lot of fun. No wonder his kids adored him.

Usruldes looked so put upon that I had to get up. I needed to hop up on his knee to reach. "Let me demonstrate, dear heart," I caught his eye, and he looked worried. "Idda-wadda-foo-foo," I patted him on the head and talked as if he were four years old, "the poor widdle wookums."

I can't even describe the look that Usruldes gave me after I patted him on the head. It was most satisfying. Sutsusum had to sit down from laughing too hard. Poor Twalkt was confused, but Twee, who was much more familiar with humans, was doing that barking thing the Chem do to laugh.

I laid back down carefully with a hand from Tom. He pouted and made big puppy eyes at me because he was worried about me. I have no idea how I got so lucky to find a guy like Tom. Here he was, sticking with my inadequate, short, flat-chested self. I knew he wasn't into my current body type and that he liked tall, busty women. In the deepest, darkest parts of the night, I worried that he stayed with me only because a god forced him to. My nightmare was that he would leave me someday when he found someone more to his taste.

Before I could deepen my melancholy, Twalkt spoke up in his soft, hissing wind-tongue voice, "Ssswhy are there four of you?" He tilted his head and blinked his large, luminous eyes. "Usually, only two come from Foskosss."

"Ah," Usruldes smiled, perfectly composed, "the Holy Moxsef, High Priestess of the Shrouded Shrine of Vassu in Weirgos, is here to deliver the charm gems. The Holy Sutsusum, Beloved of Gertzpul, High Priestess of the Hospitable Shrine of Gertzpul on Two Ferry Island, is here to meet with the Blessed Spot, Revelator of Gertzpul, and to collect his revelation so it may be distributed. The Holy Kamagishi, High Priestess of the Fated Shrine of Galt, is here to consult with the Prophet about a precognition regarding the upcoming war in Mattamesscontess and Impotu."

"Sss...and you?" Twalkt asked Usruldes.

"I thought it was obvious," Usruldes blinked in surprise. "I'm the adult supervision."

Tom, Twee, the three high priestesses, and I laughed. Poor Twalkt looked confused. Twee said something to him in the water tongue that I couldn't make out. Then Twalkt barked a Chem laugh.

Twee told me later that Twalkt didn't have a large vocabulary of wind tongue words. Twee had to translate "adult supervision" into something close to it in the water tongue.

Three High Priestesses, Sils'chk, Planting Season, 4th rotation, 4th day

"Magnificent," Moxsef exclaimed, looking up from unpacking charm gems on the outdoor dining table. She had Sutsusum and Kamagishi helping her.

"Oh," Sutsusum looked up and gaped at the black winged horse who had just landed at the Cosm visitor quarters, his long neck and every quarter of him built for speed. Only the three high priestesses were present outside. Tom was with Emily inside the wattle-and-daub Cowm-scaled house that the Foskans used while in Sussbesschem. Usruldes was with them since he wanted to try his new magic on Emily's bruises. None of the Chem were currently visiting, so it was just the six humans.

Sutsusum stepped around the table to the black winged horse. She knelt and bowed her head, right hand over her heart. The other high priestesses joined her with barely a pause.

"May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One," they said in unison. There they remained, patiently, waiting for a reply.

After a long, uncomfortable moment, Spot tilted his head, flicked his ears, and asked, "Am I supposed to say something, or is this some kind of test? Hey, you're Cosm, right? Bigger humans? Huh? I thought you'd be bigger and a lot uglier."

"Say what?" Moxsef picked her head up in surprise.

Kamagishi laughed.

"Yes. We're Cosm mages," replied Sutsusum with a friendly smile, "and we're as large as Cosm get. Most are smaller and shorter than we are. And yes, we assumed you knew the reply to our obeisance. Since you're from Alkinosuk, that was a mistake on our part. Of course, you don't know the reply. You've never been this far west before."

"So, what should I have said?" Spot asked.

"Your response should have been, 'and also upon you.' Then, since we're all waiting for your permission to stop kneeling or bowing, you should say, 'Please get up,' or 'Please be about your business,' or something similar."

"Why?" Spot tilted his head.

"What?" Moxsef squawked, still surprised.

"Why do you have this strange ritual to greet one another. Why not just say hello?" Spot tilted his head the other way.

"Why not just say hello?" Kamagishi asked rhetorically as she shook her head, knelt back on her heels, and started to laugh. "Surd save us; it'sIt's a good thing Emily didn't hear that. We'd never hear the end of it."

Moxsef rolled her eyes, "Sister Sursusum, he's your revelator." She smiled with just a hint of mischief, "I believe you need to explain to the Blessed Spot about Foskan hierarchy and the forms of proper address, lest he show up on the King's doorstep saying, 'yo, what's up, King dude?'"

"Merciful Mugash, why me?" Sutsusum sighed and wished Usruldes was free so she could push the explanation onto him. As their diplomatic escort, Sutsusum decided it should be his job. The problem was, Spot was here now, before her with questions, and Usruldes---she needed to remember to call him Lord Irhessa on this trip---was busy trying to help the Prophet.

"Would you mind, Great One," Sursusum asked, "if we resumed this conversation around the table? We must finish unpacking the charm gems we're giving to the Chem tomorrow. We can talk while those of us with hands finish our work."