Maker of Fire

The Godspace

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Galt danced on his two hind paws. "A whole new timeline created out of nothing! This is wonderful!"

"Completely unexpected and unforeseen," Surd smiled and then looked serious, "Emily is still not stable in her head, though, Galt. Caution is advisable. She has a lot of ground to cover between now and when she receives the revelation of Landa."

"Woohoo! Way to go, little Emily!" Giltak exulted.

"Surd is right," Tiki said. "We must go forward with care for Emily's sake. We do not want to break her so badly that she cannot fulfill the rest of the tasks."

"None of these new outcomes would spoil the Great Breaking," Gertzpul remarked.

"All except the one where she kills herself," Vassu added with disapproval.

"She now has a crisis to react to," Galt said. "Having a task on hand will keep her from the worst of her depression. She's such a handful. Besides, Landa will keep an eye on her for today. Wow, the prophet lands in Aybhas on the back of a divine dragon, "This will do wonders for her reputation."

Emily, Aybhas, Planting Season, 5th rot., 8th day

Landa banked to circle the city. There were enough fires that I couldn't count them all. Aybhas was burning.

Guards were ushering Cosm and Coyn out of the city in the northeast and southeast quarters, where the fires were the worst. In places, groups of Coyn were just sitting in the streets, glassy-eyed and unmoving. I assumed they were under some kind of restraint charm. I knew such things existed but had never seen them used on large numbers of people before.

Most of the city looked like the rioters had been suppressed by magic. The exception was the north market, which was an inferno with Coyn, civilian Cosm, and guards roiling the streets.

I spotted Captain Looxyas directing battle mages at the top of the Northway, where the meatball and nips stand kitchen wagon was on fire.

"Can you put me down next to the captain of the garrison?" I asked Landa. "I can tell her how to put the fires out."

*Do not be surprised, little one. I am too big to land, so I will levitate you down. Good luck.*

"Thank you, Landa," I was genuinely grateful to him. I was also quite angry with Kamagishi et alia. I knew she was trying to protect me, but some days, I didn't need protection. I needed to take action without my keepers getting in the way. The trip to Sussbesschem had done one thing for me: it gave me room to act without Cosm trying to stage manage my every move.

Yes, along with the knot of anger at the gods for screwing up my life, I had a second stewing pot of anger at well-meaning silverhairs who wanted to keep me wrapped in cotton batting.

One moment, I was on Landa's back. In the next moment, I was falling. My speed dropped as I approached the ground. Then I was on the street on my feet, just a handful of hands from Captain Looxyas. All the people around me, Cosm and Coyn alike, were motionless with fright as Landa circled the dome of the shrine and then flew off.

"Captain," I shouted to be heard over the sound of burning buildings. My voice broke her out of her daze of fear.

"Merciful Mugash," she looked shocked to see me. Then she dropped to her knees and made a full obeisance, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One,"

"And upon you, too," I replied in haste. "I can't help you stop a riot, but I know how to put out the fires."

"Please, pray tell," she begged. "Charms of extinction just won't work on this stuff. We thought the bombs were your instant fire that we used last year during the Impotu invasion, but water makes it worse. People are also dying after breathing the smoke from the bombs. It's not the same stuff."

"The bombs: what do they look like?" I asked. I wanted to make sure that we were dealing with calcium phosphide.

"They are little clay balls. Smashing them makes them explode, start a fire, and give off poison smoke."

"Get your mages with good telekinesis, Captain," I instructed. "Have them take sand from the sand bars in the river, completely dry it, and dump it on the fires."

"That's it?" Captain Loozyas looked gobsmacked.

"You could use soda ash or lime instead, but sand is safer and easy to take right out of the river. It will take a lot of sand, and the cleanup will be difficult, but it will stop the fires."

She looked like she wanted to argue with me, but then her face fell. "Your will, Great One." She bowed her head and started shouting instructions to her subordinates. Soon, silverhair officers were walking down the burning Northway, evacuating people still in the market. Many desperately tried to save their tools or possessions from their burning shops. I saw a few cases where a guard officer pulled out her crystal to cast a compulsion on those who would not leave.

I climbed down the too-tall steps to the top of the north market. In front of the musical instrument ship was a clump of Coyn and two bodies. One was Cosm-sized. It was the remains of Ruxlos. She was dead. The corpse was not an easy thing to look at, with the hair and clothes burnt off and the fat under the skin charred, bubbled, and blistered on the skin. It was gross.

The other body was a Coyn. It was so badly burnt I couldn't tell who it was.

"It's Kirkun, Great One," one of the Coyns said when he noticed me looking. "She didn't come out with the rest of us, and Rux went back in to get her. Then the roof fell in."

That was a punch in the gut. Kilkun had been kind to me on the day I consulted Craftmaster Ruxlos about building an organ. She had not even realized who I was when I walked in the alley-side door. Being treated as a normal, everyday person had been special to me for those few brief moments. I was not ashamed to stand there in the street and weep over the needless deaths of Ruxlos and Kilkun with the Coyn from the musical instrument shop.

After a few moments, I noticed bombs flying overhead towards the shrine from the neighborhoods to the west of the market. They were flying too fast and too far to be thrown by hand. How were they doing that? Some actually got as far as the gardens around the shrine because the gardens were burning in places. The bombs that impacted the side of the shrine burned out where they hit but couldn't catch the massive sandstone blocks of the shrine exterior on fire. The problem was that some of the bombs didn't make it as far as the shrine ground and fell short, contributing to the fires.

Then, suddenly, every fire went out. It was a shocking and stunning sight. The breeze blew the smoke away, and I could see down the Northway. The entire north market was nothing but ruins. I hoped that Wolkayrs' family was alright, though it was apparent their shop was gone, as was the shop of Prelb, the bronze worker.

As I watched, little spots of fire flared up. When they did, a guard officer on a flying mount appeared with a blob of sand suspended in the air and would send it to smother the fire. Calcium phosphide and its byproduct, phosphine gas, needed oxygen to burn. Dumping sand on a calcium phosphide fire suffocated it.

The problem with calcium phosphide was the reaction with water, which made calcium hydroxide and phosphine gas. Phosphine spontaneously combusts on exposure to oxygen.

I could tell some of the sand wasn't completely dry because the fires would not extinguish. I started walking back to where Captain Looxyas was. I needed to tell her that the sand had to be dry.

An oppressive weight bore down on me, and I fell painfully to my knees on the paving stones of the road. The Coyn from the shop fell too.

*STOP!*

It was a compulsion charm that robbed me of the ability to do anything but be afraid. I could sense anger and impatience in the command. I had no choice but to obey. It was frightening.

After some time had passed, a squad of guards appeared accompanied by an adept of Landa. The adept examined us, one by one, and released the compulsion. She swore when she reached me. Then she made a full obeisance, which was a nuisance.

"What was that?" I demanded when I could speak again. "That charm was one of the least pleasurable things I have encountered in this life."

"That was the Queen," the adept replied. "She wanted to stop the bomb attacks. Casting compulsion on all the Coyn in the city was her way to do that."

Damn. Aylem was such a monster.

I refused to be carried into the shrine. First, I found Captain Looxyas to remind her the sand had to be dried. Then, I struggled up the Cosm-sized steps to the forecourt in front of the Healing Shrine's front doors and walked in, dodging knees and thighs as I wound my way through the confusion at the triage station that had replaced the greeting table. I managed to get to the atrium and watched trainees setting up cots. Guards carried in burnt people and laid them down. Healers sat down to each one and started their healing. It looked like chaos on the surface, but I realized it was organized. All the people doing the work knew their task and where to go to do it.

It reminded me of the scene at the Fated Shrine in Is'syal right after the big flood two years ago. More cots lined the walls in the wings. I climbed the south stairs to the fourth floor, but Lisaykos was not in her study. A scholar attendant I did not know was sitting in Wolkayrs's chair. The Revered Galpahkos, the deputy who managed most of the day-to-day logistics of the main shrine, was seated at Lisaykos' worktable. She got up, gestured to the scholar attendant, and knelt to make her obeisance. The scholar attendant was right behind her. When that nonsense was over, I wanted answers.

"Where is the Blessed Lisaykos?" I asked.

"On the roof, Great One."

"Got it." I turned to leave.

"Let me take you up there, Great One," she offered.

"No, I know the way," I said as I ducked out the door. I walked into my bedroom, pulled out the bottom drawer under the bed platform, and climbed up to the trap door above the bathing chamber. I saw a small crowd at the belfry: Lisaykos, Aylem, Imstay, Moxsef, Sutsusum, Kamagishi, Lord Skalta haup Black, and Lord Katsa haup Gunndit. After a season of not being around Cosm, they all looked too big to me, and I felt wary and a bit scared for just a moment. Then, I stuffed those feelings somewhere deep and ignored them.

"There you are," Lord Skalta looked relieved. "We chased after you, but you had disappeared into the city by the time we arrived. I am happy you are unharmed."

"You found Captain Looxyas and told her about using sand," Imstay remarked. "Thank you for that. How did you know? These are different from your instant fire bombs that we used in Yant and Black Falls."

"I taught the slaves in Salicet how to make them last year. It's an easy-to-make weapon they could use to oppose those who had enslaved them," I replied. "It's upsetting that they've been used here."

Aylem turned to look at me with anger on her face, "Are these the bombs you told me about, the ones made by boiling bones in urine?"

I did not like that look one bit. "Yes, Aylem, they are."

"We could have conveyed the knowledge on how to put them out by mindcasting, Great One," Lord Skalta said in a calm, reasonable voice.

"No, I had to make sure the bombs were the ones I taught the Impotu slaves to make last year. Knowing the makeup of incendiary bombs is crucial to picking the right method to put the fire out. I had to come."

"You should have told us that in Black Falls," Sutsusum said. "It would have made a difference."

"Would it, Holy One?" I retorted. "I have my doubts based on the previous behavior of my Cosm captors. You all err on trying to protect me too much. I am tired of it."

"Speaking of that," Kamagishi said with a resigned look as she stepped out of the crowd and approached me. She got on her knees, put her prayful hands against her forehead, and bowed her head all the way to the copper cladding of the dome roof.

"I have committed the crime of lesser sacrilege by defying the will of the prophet," she stated in a choked-up voice. "Please pronounce your punishment."

"What the...?" I didn't expect this. "What is the usual punishment?"

"The tongue is cut out and the ears cut off," Imstay replied. "Then the offender is exiled to the far side of the Great Cracks."

The silence as I considered my next action was profound. While I was angry with Kamagishi, no harm had been done by her opposing me. I knew I took some twisted joy whenever I managed to dodge all the restrictions these over-protective Cosm imposed on me. Getting a ride on a dragon had been amazing. I could guess what the reaction had been of the four silverhairs in Black Falls. Seeing a god personally manifest to take me to Aybhas must have been upsetting, especially when they had just refused to do the same. I confess I got a good dose of schadenfreude over that thought.

Kamagishi astounded me. She was one of the twenty-three rulers of Foskos, trembling in the most debased posture a Cosm could assume. I could see her tears falling onto the copper cladding and making little rivulets toward me.

"Because I'm a sacred person, whatever I decide is what will be done, yes?"

"That is correct, Great One," Imstay replied. "That is the law."

I contemplated Kamagishi a little longer, thinking hard. Foskan laws were so harsh, but I knew such laws were the norm in pre-industrial societies and in some post-industrial ones, too. These folks were resigned to throwing away the life of one of their most talented mages because she and I disagreed in Black Falls. It was so overboard it made me want to scream.

I walked up to Kamagishi, grabbed a fistful of hair, yanked her big head up—I pulled a muscle in my upper arm doing so—and slapped her on the cheek as hard as I could.

"There, you've been punished," I scowled at her unbelieving face. "Don't you have work to do, lady? Aybhas is a disaster, and your talents are needed, so get to it, slacker."

"Emily, that is not enough," Aylem pointed out.

"Dammit, woman," I snapped at volume, "the law says that what I decide is what will be done. I have decided, and it is now done." I glared at Aylem, too angry to be scared of her. Why was it Aylem who always made me lose my temper?

Aylem glared back at me. We stood glowering at each other for a long moment. Then, the very pregnant Aylem carefully got to her knees and made a full obeisance. In a calm and submissive voice, she said, "You will, Great One."