Maker of Fire

(Continued from installment 2.74 - Emily, Aybhas, Planting Season, 5th rot., 9th day)

Lisaykos insisted on buttoning up my coat like I was a little kid. At the same time, Katsa and Kamagishi circled around, looking envious. Lisaykos had never done anything so clingy before. I blamed whatever it was that those fool godmarks did to Cosm. I felt like I was trapped in a room with three giant babushkas all suffering from deprived-grandmother disease, and I was their cure.

I was concerned about Kamagishi. She did not look well. She had an unhealthy pallor, and she was on edge, constantly in a state of agitation. Why had Galt compelled someone this miserable to get up from her sick bed?

When Lisaykos was done fussing over my coat, hat, and winter mantle, I tugged on Kamagishi's overtunic to get her attention. She got on her knees to talk to me.

"How may I serve you, Great One?" Kamagishi smiled through her misery.

"What's with the Great One crapola, Kamagishi?" I needled her. "I thought we were on a first-name basis in private, and this looks pretty private to me."

"It's...I..." Kamagishi shook her head and grimaced. "This is difficult for me. I'm having difficulty speaking to you, Great One, because the honorific shows my respect. Did you know your aura has turned silver and the godmarks, they..."

"Yes, I know, Kamagishi," I sighed. She was better off than her son Otty, but she wasn't handling the godmarks as well as Lisaykos. "I already know. The godmarks are doing some kind of freaky halo thing around my head."

"And your Galt-given eyes are glowing with his godmark," Kamagishi actually looked frightened. "I have no idea what this means. Auras can take many colors, but silver is not one of them. Something is very wrong with the world today."

"The world will take care of itself," I told her. "I'm concerned, Kamagishi, about you. You don't look well. I think you should find somewhere to rest and recover some more."

"I can't," Kamagishi shook her head at me, almost wailing. "I can't defy Galt. He wants me here, now, with you."

"Please tell me you will return to your usual chatty, nosy self soon?" I pleaded.

"Great One, I can't see or feel the future," she looked like she was about to weep, "and time has collapsed. You have no magic, so I have no way to describe what this feels like for someone like me who has strong precognition. It's like my magic has indigestion. I can only sense time as one unvarying line, which is all wrong. It's like being blind because I can't see any events on that line."

What Kamagishi described reminded me of something. Then I remembered, and I gasped. I guessed what had happened, though I didn't know why or how. Maybe Vassu did because we had talked about this. I started the prayer to her and before I could finish it, I was back in the ocean with Vassu. She was in her shark form, wearing lipstick and that absurd pink chiffon thing. Today, she added an eye shadow in bright green.

She swam around me, laughing. "Well, Emily, Luv, what do you think? Do you like it? Does this color work?"

"I'm sorry, Vassu, but bright green eyes shadow clashes with the dress. Change it to a saturated blue. That won't clash with either the dress or the lipstick, but it will stand out against the grey of your skin." Damn goofball god.

The shark god laughed, and the color changed. She swam around me once, chuckling, and then the scene shifted to the sailboat. Vassu changed her form to the woman in the white draped robe.

"That was fun, but today isn't the right time to goof off," Vassu said, suddenly serious. "You have a question about what has happened."

"Yes, I do," I leaned back over the gunwale, enjoying the breeze as the boat heeled over and smashed through the waves. "Has all time in this reality collapsed to a single timeline?"

Vassu beamed at me, "It's more complicated than that, but from your limited perspective, that's what happened. All existence is now constrained to one timeline traveling towards the single outcome you created. It's an outcome that not even the gods can see. Remember what I told you? You are the Prophet. You can not change the boundary conditions of reality, but you have the ability, through the force of your will, to change outcomes. You finally have used your will to do that.

"You changed your destiny, Emily. You almost did so when you took your little trip in the coracle. You succeeded yesterday when you prayed for help to travel to Aybhas. That was an act of pure free will by a soul unconstrained by the shackles of biology. The flow of time did not encompass any possible outcomes that included your actions yesterday. Because you finally embraced your power as a prophet, we are as blind about this future outcome as you are."

"This is the uncertainty principle thing again, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yes, Luv. Time is currently invariant. We know to the microsecond when this outcome will happen. Using Earth measures, it will be exactly twenty minutes, 14 seconds, and 857 milliseconds from when I return you to reality."

"This isn't reality?"

"You are currently inside my godspace, Luv. And now it's time for you to return."

"No, wait. Wait! I don't get it. This is all wrong. Something like this is supposed to be some kind of great cosmic event, right? Like Moses parting the sea or Mohammad's midnight ride to Jerusalem? Just wanting to go to Aybhas is too mundane, yes?"

"No, you're wrong there, Luv. For example, Buddha did it while sitting under a tree. Moses did it when he asked his brother Aaron to be his spokesman. The big flashy events usually happen after the pure act of will." Vassu looked sympathetic at my being gobsmacked.

Then I opened my eyes to see a scared Kamagishi kneeling before me. She let out a little scream and then clamped her hand over her mouth. The sudden motion startled me, and I took a few steps back by reflex.

"I'm sorry, Great One," Kamagishi confessed. "You vanished for a moment. Then you reappeared. It was frightening."

"I'll agree with that," Lisaykos said, kneeling next to me. "What just happened, dear heart? Can you explain this to us?"

"Vassu wanted to chat about what's about to happen."

"And what is that?" Kamagishi reached out with her impossibly long arms and took my hands in hers. I thought I was out of reach, but I was wrong.

"Well, you see," I was daunted by the difficulty of explaining this, "Vassu doesn't know. None of the gods do."

"What?" Kamagishi barked. "That's not possible."

"Actually, it is," I replied, "but it's physics, and Erdos has very little knowledge of physics. It would take too long to explain it, and then I think only Aylem or Huhoti of Giltak would understand. We just don't have time for it. We only have twenty or so minutes."

Lisaykos wore the long-suffering patience look she usually saved for me or her granddaughter Fed. She asked, "Emily, dear, what is a minute?"

"It's a unit of time," I shook my head in frustration, "twenty minutes are about a sixth of a bell on the equinox. We should go outside."

I'm sure the three giant babushkas took more than five minutes to get their coats on and out the door. I refused to be carried, and despite being a little unsteady on my feet, I walked out to the forecourt.

The forecourt was a large space where three or four flying mounts had room to land. The guards used it often when bringing injured or ill Coyn to the chapel shrine. I was surprised to see Asgotl waiting with Aylem, Imstay, Foyuna, and her griffin, who I didn't know. A small crowd of mostly Coyn, guards, and healers had gathered in curiosity over the arrival of the High Priestess of Tiki. The gathered onlookers left a circle of empty space in front of Foyuna.

This was only the second time I had ever seen Foyuna in riding clothes. The star-shaped sigil of Tiki was embroidered on her hooded mantle in a blueish iridescent metallic thread. I wondered what sort of metal it was and why it was iridescent. The braids of her silver hair were wrapped around the top of her head like a crown. She looked beautiful and very regal.

Foyuna was someone who was always smiling and cheerful. Today, she looked grim, and I didn't like it. Whatever Tiki sent her to do, I had a bad feeling sinking into the bottom of my stomach. The charm of peace had worn off, and the anxiety was creeping back in. I estimated there were less than ten minutes before the unknowable event happened. I had to wonder if I controlled the outcome or if the outcome was already a done deal that no one could foresee. Then I realized it didn't matter because no one would ever know either way.

My inner cynic told me that the bored, uncertainty-addicted gods must be loving this.

*No, I am certainly not!* a worried-sounding Galt said inside my head.

*Don't listen to that worry wort, Emily,* Giltak's sultry deep alto said. *You are creating this outcome. You've been in control of all the events around you today, ever since your will manifested in your aura at mid-repast. I have faith in you that everything will work out fine.*

Oh great. Galt was worried, and Giltak said he had faith in me. That implied I could make things go sideways if I made a bad choice in the next few minutes. That was just ducky. I didn't have a chance to follow that cheerless thought. I was distracted by Coyn voices in the crowd.

"That's the prophet?" a voice asked with doubt. "She's just a girl."

"Py'oask told me she's around sixteen. She's just really short."

"Yeah, and what's happened to Py'oask? He rode up to the door of the main Shrine on his pony, and the healers took him away. No one's seen him since."

"No, Axel saw him in Omexkel."

"You believe that old gossip? I wouldn't. He's usually so drunk he's lucky he doesn't fall off his delivery cart. And you can't trust those Villa guys. Just the other day, Ragat told me Py'oask got blessed by a god, and now he's some kind of holy person. Seriously? The rake Py'oask? What a joke!"

"Silence," Imstay commanded, using the full force of Voice magic. It was effective because I couldn't speak. Imstay frowned at me, "Not you, Great One."

I knew I could speak again. "Thank you, Imstay King."

Foyuna stepped forward, holding something wrapped in cloth-of-gold brocade. She knelt before me and made a full obeisance, bowing her head deeply, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One."

"And also upon you, Holy One. Please rise."

Foyuna looked up, "If I may, Great One, permit me to remain kneeling."

Knowing the godmarks affected her too, I replied, "Do whatever you may, Holy One."

"Thank you," she responded with a humble voice.

Aylem stepped up and gestured to a guard carrying a Cosm-scale camp chair. The guard handed her the chair, which she placed behind me, facing Foyuna. "Please use my chair, Great One."

"You're pregnant, Aylem. You need to sit," I tried not to snap.

"Please, Great One," she pleaded with her eyes, "you should not need to bend your neck to speak with the High Priestess of Tiki. Allow me to lift you into the chair?"

I realized that if I told Aylem to go jump in the river, she would be unable to stop herself. I hoped this crazy godmark effect went away after the unknowable outcome was done and over with.

"Yes, dear heart," I smiled up at her, "you can pick me up and put me in the chair, on the edge so my feet dangle, please." Aylem did that and then stepped back to stand next to Imstay.

"Great One," Foyuna began, "Tiki spoke to me this afternoon under the dome by the Great Crystal of Time. He came as the flaming mask and put a geas upon me. That geas is to offer you the use of the oldest magic of my Shrine, older than the charm of stopped time that we used in Salicet."

All the Cosm present gasped.

"What is that magic, Holy One?" I asked, feeling nervous. I did not like the expression on Foyuna's face; it was as if she was hiding grief behind a facade.

"It is the charm of returned time. It has been used only once to save the life of Uskya haup Foskos, the first revelator, high priestess, and Prophet. The conditions for its use have now been met for the first time in four thousand years."

"How does it work and what are the conditions. And why has Tiki chosen to offer this to me?" Something didn't sit right with me. Why didn't Tiki just tell me himself?

*You shut him out, beloved,* Erhonsay said in my head, *and you've not let him back in.*

I wondered if this might be some kind of revenge on Tiki's part.

*No.*

"Did a god just speak to you?" Foyuna asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes."

Foyuna looked unnerved, but when I didn't elaborate further, she continued, explaining, "The charm of returned time returns everything back to an earlier time. Everything goes back, not just those involved in the charm. It affects the entire world. How far it goes back depends on the size of the crystal used to cast it. This crystal should be good enough to turn time back by two days." She took the cloth of gold and unwrapped a lovely piece of quartz a bit bigger than my forearm. Then I realized I knew that crystal.

"Hey, I collected that," my eyes took in its lovely shape. It was pretty special because it had bipyramidal caps on both ends, which is rare for quartz though not uncommon for my crystal pocket at Tourmaline Mountain.

"The Crystal Shrine of Tiki purchased this crystal after the Blessed Lisaykos put it up for auction almost two years ago, along with the other two offered for sale. We had to outbid the Queen for one of them."

"Don't remind me," Aylem sniffed.

Foyuna chuckled at Aylem's reactions and then returned to her solemn demeanor, remarking, "This crystal fulfills one of the conditions to cast the charm," Foyuna said. "The crystal used must be collected by a sacred person, who must be present for the charm to succeed. You are that sacred person, Great One. For the revival of Uskya haup Foskos, the crystal was the gift of the spider monster Ud."

I knew she had left some details out. "What good is that charm, Holy One, if no one knows what will happen after it is cast?" I asked. "Someone has to know. Is that supposed to me?"

"Everyone will know, Great One," Foyuna replied. "The charm of returned time does not turn back memory. Everyone will remember what had happened in the time they just had lived, even though they will return to some point in the near past."

The crowd broke out into happy and expectant talking. The prospect of returning loved ones and possessions from the time before the riot thrilled almost everyone. With the memories of these two terrible days preserved, the garrisons could move to stop the riot before it began. The thought of Wolkayrs and his family and Ruxlos and Kilkun alive and well danced before my eyes. I could go to Truvos with all of my dearest friends for Kayseo's wedding without the weight of grief dampening the ceremony and celebration afterward.

"Aylem, please silence the crowd," I ordered. I needed to think, and the noise distracted me.

Aylem took in a breath and cast a compulsion instead of using Voice magic. "The bystanders will now be silent," she informed me, and they were.

"Will you need to lift the compulsion before they can speak again?" I asked.

"No, dear," she smiled with just a touch of vanity, "this compulsion will fade after just a moment."

"Show-off."

"Thank you, dear," she purred. She was probably the only person alive other than Ud who could cast a compulsion on multiple people without using Voice magic. I know she did it without a crystal for a focus. She didn't need to use a crystal anymore. Damn overpowered monster. I confess I was envious. I wanted to experience magic in the worst way.

Regardless, I needed to return to the business at hand. "Foyuna, what aren't you telling me? I can tell by your face that something is wrong here. What is it?"

"Nothing that would affect you or anyone listening," she replied in such a neutral voice that it was screaming her distress.

"Because you are the speaker and not a listener, then it must affect you. I order you to tell me what else is involved or what else will happen."

"As the caster of the charm, it will cripple my magic," Foyuna replied in a voice wreathed in misery.

"No, Foyuna," Lisaykos cried. "Teach me, and let me cast it. I'm an old woman with not many years left to live. Let me do it."

"Everyone stop," I ordered. "I decline the offer to use this charm. This is either a trap or a cruel temptation."

The crowd broke out into angry murmurs and shouts. I couldn't blame them. They didn't understand the trap inherent in the offer. Now, I was stuck trying to explain this to people who didn't think as fast as I did and had no knowledge of the stashes of clay bombs in cities from Kas to Gunndit.

"Aylem, could you please quiet the crowd again?"

She nodded, giving me a speculative look, and then the crowd was quiet again.

Damn Tiki, what was he doing? He had to know that anyone with a brain would see the terrible consequences of using this charm.

I felt Tiki's sigh in my head. *This is why intelligent prophets are so difficult,* I heard his voice in my head. *You figured it out so quickly.*

*She figured it out exactly on time,* Vassu said. *so put that in your gills, Tiki, and try not to choke on it. I told you so.*

*Yes! I knew you could do it,* exulted Giltak.

*You have grown greatly in wisdom,* Erhonsay said. *I am pleased.*

*I'll take you and Tom out to Spenger's. You've done good, kitten.*

My anger was profound. Was this some sort of test? "Dammit, Tiki, you are such a jerk," I muttered.

Foyuna heard me and gave me a shocked, disbelieving look. "I can feel the gods talking to you, but what happened for you to curse Tiki like that?"

"Sorry, sweet lady," I looked at her with sympathy. "I'm not sure why, but Tiki did this as some kind of cruel test for me. I don't understand why he did it. Still, given that my name is about to be dragged through the dirt for disappointing all these people, I really don't appreciate it, and I want to know why."

*You created a new future not foreseen by the gods,* Tiki said. Foyuna gasped and then planted her head on the paving stones in the most abased posture possible in this culture. I realized that she had heard Tiki too.

*Existence had to be rebalanced,* Tiki continued. *Either choice presented to you would succeed in rebalancing — but only one choice was right, and you chose it.*

Then, all the noise of gods talking in my head stopped. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. What the hell was that all about? Rebalancing existence?

Foyuna sat up and gave me a sad smile, "Your aura and godmarks have returned to normal, little one. The glowing eyes were terrifying, by the way, though I know you couldn't see them. So what is next, Great One?"

I didn't get a chance to reply because someone yelled something unintelligible, and a clay bomb flew out of the crowd toward Foyuna and me. It traveled at a speed that suggested a Coyn threw it. Foyuna saw it, gestured, and the bomb stopped in midair.

The world went sideways. The clear sky was suddenly filled with a black and dark bronze wall cloud actively spinning. Lightning came down and struck a woman in the crowd from where the bomb had been thrown. The sound of the immediate thunder left my ears ringing. Half the crowd was thrown to the ground.

*THIS IS EMILY COURAGE, OUR BELOVED PROPHET. WARE THE FATE OF THOSE WHO WOULD HARM HER AND KNOW THAT HER CHOICE HAS SAVED THOUSANDS OF LIVES TODAY.*

Everyone heard Galt's angry pronouncement and saw him in his aspect of wrath. I later learned that everyone in the city heard his words. Fear boiled off of everyone in the forecourt. All the Cosm had their faces planted on the ground, trembling in the presence of the angriest of gods. Even the Coyn, usually indifferent about any god but Surd were scared witless.

The people near the lightning strike tried to flee. I know I would have run too, but I wasn't done with the people gathered here. It was time for damage control.

"Aylem, dear," I got the Queen's attention, "can you please bring anyone trying to leave back to the forecourt? Can you get everyone to sit, please, where I can see them?"

Aylem was still for a breath, and I knew she had done what I requested. She turned to me and said, "Now, dearest, let me take care of the smoking corpse Galt left us." The corpse was a bit gruesome, a blackened and burnt person-shaped piece of meat which was burning in several places. Aylem waved her hand for dramatic effect, and the corpse vanished.

When everyone in the crowd was sitting on the ground, I asked that someone cast that nifty charm that would project my voice. Then I began.

"Can someone tell me what that woman yelled when she threw her bomb?" I asked the gathered onlookers.

To my great surprise, the teenager Eddo, who worked at the now-burnt meatball and nip stand, was the one who answered, looking embarrassed. "She said, 'You fucking bitch, bring my friends back to life.' Please pardon my language."

"Thank you, Eddo," I smiled at him. He really was cute. "I glad to see that you survived the last two days."

I looked out over the crowd of mostly Coyn, guards, and healers. "I won't pretend that I can share your pain at what any of you may have lost," I began. "Being able to bring them back to life is a terrible temptation, but the dead should be left with Gertzpul, who has them safe in his beautiful gardens full of rest and peace. Gertzpul's gardens are not some story for children. I died two years ago and walked with Gertzpul under the flowering trees full of cherry blossoms. Your loved ones are now in the care of a kind god.

"Among those now with Gertzpul is a friend whom I loved dearly," I let the tears fall down my face as I spoke. "If I could bring him back, I would because I will miss him for the rest of my life."

"Why didn't you?" someone shouted from the back of the listeners.

"Because turning back time would have caused immediate bomb attacks and rioting in Kas, Kesmat, Yuxvos, Blockit, Rigdit, Weirgos, and Gunndit. The attack on Aybhas was only one of several planned riots."

"That's just conj—" some other person started shouting in an angry voice.

"STOP," Lord Katsa rose to her feet and used the Voice. I wondered where she learned that magic, usually wielded by the priestesses and priests of Sassoo. Then I remembered the talent for Voice magic ran in the haup Foskos bloodline, and Katsa's mother was a haup Foskos princess.

"You are all fools," Katsa told the crowd, with anger and intimidation pouring off her. "The Prophet is too kind to all of you. She owes you nothing, yet she chose to tell you why she refused to turn back time despite losing someone she loved in the riot. Did you idiots not hear the words just now from the god of wrath? The Prophet Emily saved many thousands of people by choosing not to bring her own friend back to life. How did she save those lives? By preventing more riots.

"She attempted to tell you why she refused the offer of the god of time. Why? Because you're too stupid to figure it out yourselves. Two bells ago, the Prophet was attacked by some of those responsible for the riot. They used a clay bomb to try to kill her. When the Prophet questioned them, they confessed that their colleagues had bomb stashes in seven other cities and were planning to riot. We have now found all those stashes of bombs in the cities that Emily has named."

"If the Prophet chose to turn back time, all those planning to riot would remember they had been raided and arrested this afternoon. They would not forget that we knew about them and all their bomb caches before Emily turned back time. As a result, they would have risen up immediately after returning to their past to burn and destroy as much as possible before the garrisons could assemble to stop them. They have sworn oaths to die, so they don't care about you and your loved ones anywhere. Eight cities, including Aybhas, would have burned and countless lives lost. That is why the Prophet refused the charm even though it meant she could not bring her own friend back from the dead.

"Did you know, fools, that the Prophet Emily invented the clay bombs? She taught the slaves of Salicet in Impotu how to make them so they could rebel. She did it because the slaves in Impotu are many times more abused than you are. Do you know how she must feel, knowing that the bombs of her own invention were the means by which her own dear friend died? I can not imagine the anguish she must feel right now. None of us can. Yet she tried to explain why she refused to turn back time, and you greeted her kindness with ingratitude and hostility. I would have you all beaten, but I know the Prophet would forbid it. Instead, I will send you on your way to contemplate your unworthy behavior today."

Katsa now used Voice magic to compel the crowd, "All of you will leave this place to go about your business or to go where you currently abide if you were loitering. As you leave, you will be silent."

Then, the crowd dispersed. It wasn't exactly what I would have said, but I was grateful that Katsa had spoken for me because I was beginning to melt. She covered all the essential points, though she missed that anywhere in the world, the condemned would be executed twice. Women who had given birth would suffer through labor a second time. People on their deathbeds would die a second time. The second time around, they would know their suffering would be repeated. There was more wrong with turning back time than there was in trying to stop the deaths of those who died. The charm of returned time was terrible magic.

All I wanted now was to find a hole and crawl into it. I must have been visibly wilting on Aylem's chair because Aylem and Lisaykos suddenly flanked me, looming over me with concern. I was starting to lose my tolerance for looming. It had been too long a day.

"Emily was attacked?" Aylem asked Lisaykos.

"Yes, though I was carrying her at the time," Lisaykos said, "and I think they were really after me. I got an earful about being one of the evil, cruel oppressors."

"Where are your attackers?" Aylem inquired, looking like she wanted to murder someone. "I'd like to do my own questioning."

"That w...will be difficult," I cut in, though it took effort. "I sentenced them to death and immediately carried out their execution in the street to m...make an example of them."

"But they should have been thrown into one of the erupting Great Cracks," Aylem protested.

"Aylem, trust me," Lisaykos put a hand on Aylem's arm, "it was a terrible punishment. I would have preferred the kinder death of the Great Cracks."

"What?"

"I'll tell you later," Lisaykos said. "I think we need to take somebody home, and then someone needs to get me drunk because I need it."

"Mother," Katsa said in consternation. "You? Drinking?"

"Don't give me grief, child," Lisaykos gave her daughter a weary look. "It's been a very long and horrible day, and yes, I could use some medicinal alcohol right now. Mieth and Galpahkos are running the Shrine and the chapel shrines, and I want a night off." She studied Aylem, "You're pregnant. Your geometry is not optimal for carrying the Prophet. I will take her home."

"Hey, d...don't I have any say about this?" I protested, feeling like I was being treated like a captive intelligent pet again.

Lisaykos and Aylem both turned to me and said in near unison, "No!"

My composure was fraying, and I could feel my anger growing. I really had had enough. I was about to get nasty when Asgotl caught my eye. He winked and walked over to the chair, forcing almost everyone out of the way with his bulk. He bumped me with his beak in greeting.

"Does the Prophet need a ride?" He tilted his head and looked at me with one eye.

"I sure d...do, Blubber Brain."

"No, you don't," Aylem protested.

"Yes, she does," Asgotl disagreed in a calm voice. "May I remind you of what we talked about on the beach when we brought you home from Ud's?"

Aylem's face began to turn red, and then she stopped herself, exhaled, and looked down at her feet. "You said you were your own griffin, and Emily was her own person, and the two of you would do what you would do, and I had no business interfering with what you did together."

"Good, you do remember," Asgotl said with approval. "Be a dear, old friend, and lift Emily onto my saddle?"

"Emily isn't wearing any leggings," Aylem tried to protest, looking for excuses to stop us.

"I'm only flying halfway across the city, girlfriend. Now quit looking for excuses and give me my Emily."

Aylem sighed and lifted me onto Asgolt's back. I strapped myself in and wrapped my arms around his neck strap.

"All set, Grandma?"

"I'm ready, Blubber Brain. Let's go buzz the tent city across the river, and then y...you can take me home."

"Woohoo!" Asgotl hooted, gathering disapproving looks from everyone but Imstay. The King looked amused and cupped his hand in approval. Then, we were airborne.