Maker of Fire

Emily, Sils'chk, Planting Season, 5th rotation, evening of the 4th day

I ended up in Kamagishi's room after our dinner on the beach. Kamagishi put me on her mattress and pulled up a chair. Sitting down with her saddle bags on her lap, she pulled out a respectable pile of documents. She started pulling out several.

"Here's a three letters from Healer Thuorfosi and Scholar Wolkayrs, three from the Queen, two from Healer Tweserra, one from the Revered Garki but it's thicker than the others, six from the Honored Kayseo, and nine from the Blessed Lisaykos. There's also a letter for Tom from the Queen." Kamagishi laid a pile of both paper and vellum letters on my lap.

The letters from the Queen were in paper envelopes. Aylem was paying attention. The wax seal was about a finger-width but it was thin enough that I knew I could break it. She must have had a new seal stamp made to leave such a small impression. Cosm seals were usually bigger than my hand.

The letters from the gang of three plus sidekick Wolkayrs were all on vellum and sealed with typical Cosms seals that were too thick. The nine letters from Lisaykos were tied with vellum ribbons, and she had placed her huge, impressive seal where they were knotted together. I couldn't break her seal but I could cut the ribbons to free the letters. Lisaykos, bless her, remembered the fiasco with the seal on Fassex's letter last year.

Garki's letter was more like a book. He had wrapped it in a waxed-paper envelope which was sealed with vellum strips woven across all the seams in the wax paper. The vellum ribbons were tied in an elaborate knot over which Garki had placed his Cosm-sized seal. All I had to do was cut the ribbon on the envelope. The boy had obviously remembered breaking Kamagishi's seal for me just a season and a half ago. I was amused that Garki and Lisaykos used similar means to get around the thick seal problem.

"I confess, I've been itching to open that," Kamagishi leaned forward, almost spilling her saddle bags off her lap. She caught the bags and set them on the floor. "Garki wouldn't tell me what was in it. He said you were the only person who would understand what he wrote, besides Master Artificer Aduda. I think it's something mathematical."

"That's interesting," I said in an uninterested voice as I put the letter aside and reached for Lisaykos' correspondence.

"What?" Kamagishi was suffering from an advanced case of nosy-itis. "You don't want to know what all those pages are about?"

"As you said," I tried not to let my expression crack, "it's probably just some mathematics."

"That's all your fault, you know," she pointed a rather large finger at my nose. "You're the one who hooked him on mathematics."

I pushed her finger back, trying not to flinch, "Not so close, please."

Kamagishi blanched when she realized what she had just done, "Merciful Mugash! Emily, I'm sorry. I forgot."

I took a deep breath and relaxed my shoulders as I let it out, "It's fine. It was uncomfortable but no lasting harm was done." I decided my attempt to tease Kamagishi was a failure. To distract the butterflies in my stomach, I picked up Garki's letter package and set it across my knees. I pulled the quartz crystal Aylem gave me from around my neck and used the sharp pointed end to gouge a line in the vellum ribbon just outside the seal. I repeated that gouging seven or eight times and then ripped the ribbon away. I repeated the action on the other side of the seal, enabling me to grab the woven ribbon and pull it out on both sides, allowing me to grab the pile of paper inside the envelope and yank it out.

Well, that was what I intended to do, except the pages were too tightly wrapped inside the envelope. I didn't have the strength to pull them out sideways. I was contemplating removal of a page at a time, in order to decrease the compression in the pile, when Kamagishi interrupted the grand slalom of my thoughts.

"Can I help you with that, Emily?" Kamagishi offered in her gentlest voice. She reached out without waiting for me to reply, laid her finger on the seal and shattered it in place. "That should make it easier to pull the pages out." She tilted her head and studied me with an odd, quizzical expression, "I would never have thought to use a crystal to help tear a line in a piece of vellum."

I shrugged, "Yeah, I know it's not as good a material as obsidian or flint, but I knew that the junk vellum that ribbons get cut from is really dry so the point on the quartz would still make a worthy gouge." I looked up at Kamagishi and was stumped by the confused look on her face. Then I saw some kind of realization ignite in the back of her golden eyes.

"You misunderstood me, Emily," she laughed and shook her head. "I meant I would never have thought of using any kind of rock or crystal to cut something. I just can't fathom where you get some of your ideas from."

"If you don't have a knife, it's common to use obsidian or pottery shards to cut something while working out along the Great Cracks. Coyn use obsidian or chipped flint all the time, especially those not allowed to have their own metal knives or tools." I made that statement without thinking. Watching the horror grow on Kamagishi's face, I immediately regretted it.

"From the look on your face, you didn't know this, did you?" I asked rhetorically. "Truvos is one of the holdings where most Coyn hope to live, even as farm hands. Truvos slaves are not banned from owning an eating knife. Most holdings, especially the small independent holdings, aren't as enlightened in their treatment of their Coyn. If every holding was like Truvos, there would have been no Coyn riots in Surdos."

"I think I never really realized how sheltered my life has been," Kamagishi frowned. "I guess I never looked beyond Truvos or Esso or Gunndit, or my own shrine, which tries to do what's right and decent for our own domestic slaves. Or maybe, to be honest, I didn't want to look too carefully beyond my own little world, in case I might see where Coyn were treated as trainable livestock, or abused, or not trusted despite the control gems."

Kamagishi shook her head and sighed, "Well, this has been a conversation that careened off in an unexpected direction. Shall we change the subject? I haven't even gotten to what I need to discuss with you yet."

I had already skimmed the first few pages of what Garki had sent. I needed to go back and check his math, but I think he managed to invent the circular slide rule along with a method to graphically translate a linear scale to a circle of any diameter.

"I think Garki has invented a circular form of slide rule," I told Kamagishi. "He has sent me his reasoning, method of construction, and several trial scales made of paper for me to try."

She looked lost again, "Why would anyone want a slide rule that's a circle?"

"Same accuracy, much smaller and more convenient to carry," I replied. "You could drop one in your pouch or mount one on the back of your wax tablet. A circular slide rule is easier to carry than one that's long and skinny. Long skinny ones won't fit nicely on a belt or in a carry bag."

"And that's another thing I would never have thought of," Kamagishi frowned even deeper.

I decided I needed to divert Kamagishi before she got herself into a funk. "You know, it's not smart to compare yourself to a mekaner-in-the-making like Garki. You're a legal expert, a powerful precog and a book addict like me, but you're no mekaner. So why are you beating yourself up because you don't think like a one, eh?"

"Are you saying that my Garki is really a mekaner? Then why isn't he at Omexkel with the rest of those insane maniacs at the Building Shrine?"

"Because Galt had to stand up on his back paws to reach me when Garki was carrying me," I explained. "I don't think Galt expected it to happen, but he blessed Garki. I think it was unplanned. Regardless, having blessed the kid, there really was no other shrine besides yours for him to be trained at. I thought you already knew that. I think he'll be fine where he's at, but don't be surprised if he starts up a regular exchange of scholars between the Fated and Building Shrines. He'll need to consult with the Revered Huhoti if he wants to get his circular slide rule built."

"Gods," Kamagishi shook her head and then looked at my pile of letters. "Would you like me to break those seals you can't break?"

"Please," I handed her the stack of letters, minus Garki's, which I folded up and put aside for now. She broke the seals and handed the letters back. I immediately looked to see what Lisaykos sent me. Then I groaned.

"What?" Kamagishi sat up with interest.

"It's all my finances," I skimmed columns of numbers. "She makes me review these at the shrine at least once a rotation. It looks like she saved this up for me." I'm sure I was grimacing.

Kamagishi just laughed at me grumbling about bookkeeping. Then her smile faded and sat back, studying me with concern on her face.

"Emily, Losnana and I have both had precognitions about you during the upcoming war which worry us. We decided I should come and speak with you about this. If you know something may happen, you can take steps to minimize the harm."

"This implies you foresaw some kind of harm happening to me," I pointed out.

"Well, yes," Kamagishi grimaced.

"Did you foresee any harm to Tom?" I had to know.

"Not the physical kind."

"Not the physical kind? Oh, please, Kamagishi, quit circling the bowl and speak plainly."

"The foresight included Tom. He was distraught that you encountered mishaps he couldn't prevent."

"Well, that should be survivable," I found myself frowning. One of my biggest worries was that Tom would be killed or injured in the upcoming war.

"Emily, do you want me to go on?"

"It's tempting," I confessed. "Whatever happens between now and when I meet Landa in Yant, I know that I will walk into the White Shrine to receive my last revelation. That tells me that I will survive the upcoming conflict well enough to walk. So I'm torn. I'm like everyone else in this world: of course I want to know what's going to happen next. But part of me doesn't want to know. So much of my life has been according to some one else's design. I'm the victim of prophesy, Kamagishi. It was foretold destiny that I destroy Salicet. It's also destiny that I came here to teach these peaceful creatures how to be violent. It's destiny that I will receive a revelation from Landa in Yant. It will be destiny that I write a new scripture after that revelation. So, no, there's a part of me that wants the preserve the illusion of free will and surprise in life."

"You're going to write a work of scripture after the revelation from Landa?" Kamagishi gaped. "When did you learn this?"

"When Tom and I hid out at Six Brewers' Row, I had a visit from Vassu," I explained, realizing I hadn't told the Convocation about this yet. "Vassu warned me that the gods had more for me to do after the revelation of Landa. Then, when we were in Gangkego, I got a visit from Erhonsay, who told me the gods want me to write a new work of scripture."

"A new major scripture? Sister Lisaykos is right," Kamagishi sighed. "We really do need someone following you around taking notes."

I ignored Kamagishi's subtle teasing, "Tell me about the precognitions."

"Are you sure? Can you first tell me what the scripture will be about? You're a cruel woman, Emily, tossing that morsel out there in front of me and then refusing to throw more crumbs my way."

"I don't know much," I said truthfully. "To be honest, I've been avoiding thinking about it. I think the gods told me about it so I could become accustomed to the thought that it will be my big final effort for them."

"Big, final effort?" Kamagishi was looking more eager with each breath.

"Erhonsay said it would be my biggest contribution as a prophet," I said, knowing it would further goad Kamagishi, the information addict.

"Do you know what the scripture will be about?" Kamagishi persisted, as I anticipated.

"How the three tool-using races are to live so they avoid destroying the surface of Erdos," I decided to have mercy on the high priestess of gossip. "Given the subject matter, it will probably take years to complete," I'm sure I was making a sour face since sour is how I felt about it.

Kamagishi visibly deflated. "Oh, Emily, I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to a return to normal life—well, normal for you, that is. I doubt that a normal life for you would be normal for anyone else."

"What's not normal about wanting to settle down, have kids, and raise a family?" I quipped. "I'm as normal as any other woman who wants kids."

"Emily," Kamagishi gave me a look, "nothing about you is normal. I could frighten myself just imagining what your children would be like with you educating them. I'm sure not even your home life would be normal. I can see you now: 'Oh, Tom,' she mimicked my high soprano voice, 'can you please stir this soup for me. I just figured out how to install the power of lightning in every home and need to consult with my business manager.'"

She hit a little too close with that comment, given that I had already had discussions with Huhoti on how to use water power to drive generators. My realization must have shown on my face.

"That's an amazing expression," Kamagishi remarked, looking at my reaction. "Don't tell me you've already considered this?"

I had to sigh, "I have considered electricity for the Building Shrine, for research purposes. Because of magic, there's no need to invent electric lights to replace charm gems of light, but..."

"Electricity?" Kamagishi interrupted me.

"Electricity is the force of lightning," I explained. "It can do many things: make light, make heat or cool a space, and power motors that can run machines, like the wagons on rails from Spot's revelation. It has many applications like any tool, some benign and some harmful."

Kamagishi's face was a wonder to behold. "Could you really put the power of lightning into every home?"

"If I wanted to," I replied, trying not to laugh at her expression of disbelief. "In my before-time, every house I lived in had electricity. Electricity swept my floors, cooked my meals, lit my lights, washed my dishes and clothes, and powered my phone, radio, and television. I'm sure you don't know what the last three are, but they made it possible to see things and communicate over great distances."

"Without magic?"

"Without magic," I replied. "If we laid metal cable from Gangkego to Mattamukmuk and built two phones, one for each end, then one person could talk to the other a half world away. Neither would need magic to use it. A working phone would make Fassex obsolete."

Kamagishi morphed from disbelief to fish face. Then she cracked an evil smile, "Making Fassex and her mind magic obsolete? That could be, well, interesting." The smile became a grin. "Is it hard to make, this phone thing?"

"It shouldn't be, assuming I can figure out what to use for the diaphrams in the transmitter and receiver. We've solved the permanent magnet problem already in Omexkel. Hmm, would I need to use induction coils?" It was an interesting problem, compounded by the fact that electric devices were not my strong suit. I would first need to introduce alternating current to make it work. That would involve some education time down at the Building Shrine, to get my partners in crime up to speed on the theory.

"Emily?" A voice broke into my thoughts. "Emily, you've drifted off into a mekaner trance again," Kamagishi brought me back to reality.

"Oh," I blinked. "Where were we before we got distracted?"

"Precognitions," Kamagishi replied.

"Well then, let me hear what you and Losnana have foreseen, before I decide to design and build a phone."

"Are you sure?" Kamagishi studied me. "Do you not want to want to preserve your sense of surprise between now and the revelation of Landa?"

"As attractive as that sounds to me, yes, I am sure," I responded, shrugging. "As you said, if I know what's coming, I can explore ways to minimize the damage." The whole tenor of Kamagishi's questioning struck me as odd. "Why are you so keen about this?"

"About what?"

"My wanting to know about the precognitions."

"I'll be frank. My mother and I have a bet with the Queen," she grinned at me. "You chose to hear the foretellings, so mom and I have won the bet."

"What did you win?"

"Ten firkins of ale," Kamagishi looked like a cat who had just discovered cream.

"Can I get a cut?" I asked.

"Emily, I know you can't hold your alcohol."

"You won your bet because of me," I smiled sweetly. "I'm an easy drunk so my ten percent cut will merely last me a long time. Whether I get drunk easily is not germane to the transaction."

"Five percent," Kamagishi countered.

"Done! Five percent is acceptable," I stated, though I was sure that Lisaykos would have bargained better. "Now, about those precognitions?"

"My precognition involves a bridge...," she began.

"It's typical Cosm beam-and-plank bridge," I interrupted, "with five stone piers, over a fast-moving mountain river that divides a big town, yes?" I was excited that her precognition and my dreams both involved a bridge. The validation felt good.

"You've seen the bridge in a dream?" Kamagishi asked, leaning forward.

"I've had several dreams about that bridge. I know I'm supposed to blow it up using the explosive I'm currently trying to perfect."

"You destroy the bridge but you are caught in the explosion," Kamagishi said. "Emily, the vision of your broken and bleeding body on the rocky bank of a river is not a good one. It hits every protective impulse I have, made three or four times worse by the effect of the godmarks. There's also Twee organizing the Chem sailors to search for you. Tom and Spot are torn between looking for you on Spot and continuing to command the Chem forces."

"Dang," I frowned. "That's not good, but we already know it's a survivable incident. What else do you have?"

"Losnana had a vision that you were lost in a blizzard and collapsed in the snow. Then some beast drags you away. Losnanan could not tell what it was other than it was large."

"That's it?" I had to ask. So far, I had heard nothing truly alarming.

"Isn't that enough?" Kamagishi scowled at me, as if I should know better. "In Losnana's vision, you are not in cold weather clothes. You're wearing just one tunic and the skins of some kind of animal on your feet. You'll probably have frostbite and the cold could kill you, if the wild beast doesn't eat you first," she gave me a chiding look. "That's more than enough."

"I noticed that about Cold Season, Holy One," I poured a little sarcasm into my voice. "It tends to be cold. I also know that I won't be eaten. I will I walk into the Fated Shrine sometime in the next year or two, so whatever happens to me, it can't be all that bad, Kamagishi."

"You underestimate the danger, Emily," Kamagishi warned.

"It sounds like that bridge is a looming hassle in the war in Mattamesscontess, but it's not something that will lead to the war's failure, so we'll just deal with it as it happens. Do you have any sense for what the event kernal is in your precognition? I bet we can carve it down to its bare essentials and neutralize most of the harm it does. Tell me everything you know about that bridge."

Dammit, Emily," Kamagishi looked upset. "You're the Prophet. How can I let you get hurt?"

"If the gods want something to happen, it will," I argued.

"The kernal of the event has to happen, nothing else," she rubutted.

"We'll just have to figure out what the kernal is, that's all," I tried to sound less concerned than I was.

"From what I've been able to research, the bridge is over the Mattaheehee River in the city of No'ank, which is the second largest city in Mattamesscontess. No'ank is at the foot of the mountains that separate Mattamesscontess from the east coast."

"That tells me that the war effort by the Chem will make significant progress, if I'm looking at blowing up a bridge that's inland from the coast. So there's a bridge incident and a snow storm incident. The first thing to do is make sure I'm not near that bridge, and the second is to make sure I keep winter clothes handy. That's easy enough to do and ought to shift some of the ancillary events from the kernal."

"No, not at all, at least not yet," Kamagishi replied.

"That's disturbing," I frowned. "That could imply that my presence might be part of the kernal for the bridge event." I considered Kamagishi's glum expression, " Don't look so upset, Kamagishi. Even if I'm injured, we know I'll be healed by the time I get to Yant and the White Shrine. No injuries can be as bad as having a double charm of discipline cast on me. I should be able get through anything between now and the revelation in Yant."

"That's not certain, Emily," Kamagishi frowned at me. "It's possible to be injured and still walk into the White Shrine. You could even be carried in, if necessary. Being able to walk is not a certainty."

"I think the godmarks are making you worry too much," I countered. "I'll be expecting my half firkin of ale as soon as I'm home from this war. Just, please, don't tell Tom about the foretelling. He'll want to wrap me in bandage linen and ship me back to Foskos. He's twice as over-protective as Lisaykos and the well-meaning healers at the Healing Shrine."