Emily, 6 Brewers' Row & the Crystal Shrine

To my surprise, it was Kamagishi who came to get me in the morning. I was having fun over morn repast with Troyeepay as I showed him all my tricks to make long division easier. He was currently learning long division at his school. There were no public schools in Foskos. Troyeepay attended the school run by the brewers and vintners guild. He was a sharp kid and I suspected he would soon blow away his math teacher.

In the middle of the meal and math tricks, someone knocked on the back door. No one but the family used that door. Oyyuth and Ayyur, her housekeeper looked at each other. Ayyur, who had come into the dining room after hearing the knock, shook her head, "the master said he'd arrive this evening, mistress."

Oyyuth got up and crept over to the nearest window. She peeked through a tiny opening in the curtain, "Surd save us! It's the High Priestess and her eagle." She ran out of the dining room. Her footfalls echoed down the hallway as she crossed the sitting room to open the back door. I heard her make her obeisance. Then they started talking and laughing as Oyyuth led her to the dining room.

"Has she finished eating yet?" I heard Kamagishi say. "I came to take her with me back to the Crystal Shrine. I have a little more time but the Convocation meets at the third bell."

"I'm not sure she's finished eating. She's spent most of the repast teaching my son new math tricks. They are in the dining room and are probably still at it."

Troyeepay and I looked at each other and we were instantly back to working on his long division homework. We certainly didn't want to make Oyyuth look like she was telling tales.

"There you are," Kamagishi entered the dining room, remembering to duck her head.

"Stop making that obeisance before you get started on it," I warned the high priestess. "This is a formality-free zone until I finish my morn repast."

"But Emily," Troyeepay pouted, "does that mean me too?"

"Oh, alright," I begrudged the boy. "It doesn't extend to you."

He hopped off his chain and made a full obeisance, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Holy One."

"And upon you too, Troyeepay Kas'syo haup Gunndit," she smiled at him. "Please rise." Kamagishi walked behind me and looked over my shoulder at the wax tablet which had my notes on how to use the distributive rule of multiplication. "What is this? I've not seen anything like this before," Kamagishi frowned.

"It's just a trick to speed up multiplication and long division," I explained. "Troyeepay is currently suffering through long division at school using the Queen's numbers."

"I find the Queen's numbers a bit challenging," the High Priestess confessed. "I usually do my arithmetic with the old numbers and then convert them to the Queen's numbers."

"My tricks will work in base eight so you might want to try my shortcuts sometime in the future."

"Base eight?"

"The old numbers use base eight but the Queen's numbers are base ten," I turned my head to look up at her. "I'm going to get a crick in my neck if you don't sit down."

Kamagishi obliged me and sat down.

"We need to leave soon or I'll be late," Kamagishi pointed out.

I looked at Troyeepay, "you understand how my tricks work now, right? "

"I think I do," he nodded.

"That's good because I'm out of time. I need to leave with the high priestess." I turned to Kamagishi, "Holy One, where are Asgotl and the Queen?" I could probably finish my food while Kamagishi updated me on the most recent news concerning our reluctant revelator.

"Asgotl slept on the Queen's balcony last night," Kmagishi grinned. "He and Aylem have already left."

"Pppffffft!" I tried not to laugh but it was funny. What a ridiculous griffin. I don't know why it struck me as hard as it did, but I couldn't stop laughing. If he slept on the balcony, he probably skipped eating too. And since he flew back with Aylem, she'll give him nonstop grief all the way to the Crystal Shrine. Kamagishi tried to look disapproving and failed. Soon the two of us were laughing.

For a few brief laughter-rich minutes, I forgot about chronic fatigue, the loss of my home, Mugash's curse on my health, being a prophet, and being trapped by well-meaning silverhairs. That silly griffin gave me a few blessed minutes of catharsis that I didn't realize I needed. I laughed so hard, that tears fell from my eyes and all the muscles of my sides ached.

"Ah yes," I smiled in anticipation over all the payback I was about to get from teasing the Great One, the Blessed Asgotl! "That poor griffin is so doomed. I think I'm going to enjoy this."

"It gets better," Kamagishi flashed me an evil grin. "Imstay King and his griffin, Flavriansha, left with Aylem for the Crystal Shrine."

The intelligence doomed me to another few minutes of laughter. After that, we left 6 Brewers' Row on Pibl the eagle. Pibl's burns from the Ipotuan attack on her and Kamagishi were gone. The only sign of the burns were patches of slight color differences between new and old feathers.

I was surprised when Pibl greeted me since most eagles see Coyn as inferiors. Then I noticed that the control gem was gone from the side of her beak. So Kamagishi freed her eagle. Little by little, the world had already started to change.

Kamagishi liked to fly with a barrier to break the wind. She was dedicated to being on the leading edge of fashion despite wearing priestess robes most of the time. She used the barrier so she wouldn't look windswept when she got off her eagle. Regardless, the barrier made it possible to hold a normal conversation in flight. Pibl was included in the barrier and even made some comments.

"It is most amusing, Asgotl and Flavriansha," Pibl remarked. "It will be refreshing to see that lazy loudmouth griffin take some grief for a change. My only regret is that he will eventually revert to his usual self. I will bet a quarter of a steer that Asgotl will be on the floor of the dome chamber but Flav will be in the mounts' gallery."

"No takers, Pibl," Kamagishi laughed, "I don't like losing bets."

While in flight, I learned that besides the crystal discovery and the two revelations yesterday, a third remarkable incident happened. A patrol guarding one of the convoys between Uldlip and Black Falls found the missing Captain Sertfos haup Black along with her eagle and one of the missing Coyn from the Singing Shrine. Both Sertfos and her eagle were injured and had to be transported by eagle litter. It was the Coyn who kept them alive. He had made a clever contraption using Sertfos' armor to make reflections off the mirror finish on the metal. He used it to attract attention to where they were stranded four wagon-days south in the Salt Desert.

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When we set down inside the dome at the Crystal Shrine, Asgotl was indeed on the floor of the chamber while Flavriansha was in the gallery chatting with other mounts. Neither Raoleer nor Sutsusum had arrived yet so we were not the last ones there. After Kamagishi helped me down from Pibl, she set off to greet Senlyosart who was reclining on a lounge.

I wandered over to the miserable griffin, working hard not to show glee at his situation.

"Have you eaten at all, Blubber Brains?" I sat down on the floor next to his shoulder.

"I can stand to go a few more hours until dinnertime at the Healing Shrine," he admitted. "I do know of a great fishing spot just up the White River from here. Want to go?"

"Good attempt at an escape, chum," I couldn't help smiling, "but I need to talk to some of the folks here first."

"Blarg," he drooped and put his head on the floor between his talons. "Such a muddle." Then he heaved a huge sigh.

"Why is this a problem for you, Blubber Head? So she turned you down, several times if the rumors are correct. Why don't you just move on? You will both be more comfortable if you do."

"It's more complicated than that, Grandma," he said softly, sounding dejected. "The last time I asked, she got angry with me and told me and the whole House of Mount why. I've been avoiding the House of Mounts ever since because most of them have been showing me nothing but tail feathers." That was a mount's expression for shunning. Now I was curious as to what Flavriansha told Asgotl.

"So, what did she say to you that was so awful?"

"She is not a free griffin like me, so she is not at liberty to mate with anyone without the explicit consent of her owner. And even if she did get consent, any kits born would be property, and she was unwilling to doom any future griffin to life as a slave. What's worse is that I am former property so I should have known better."

"Holy crappola, whale breath, and she's Imstay's mount, with special training as flying cavalry, so she can't risk pregnancy with war on the horizon. You're right, this is a mess. Do Aylem and Imstay know?"

"They do now," Asgotl sounded like the world was about to end. "Now do you understand why there would not have been a party for me last night at the House of Mounts? I'm the thoughtless free griffin who has forgotten the yoke of slavery inflicted on his fellow mounts. What's worse is that I'm Aylem's bond, so I get all sorts of special stuff from the House of Mounts staff, like bigger meals, first cuts of fresh meat, and a place to sleep far upwind from the privy pits. I'm confident that they are all wondering why Sassuu picked the biggest asshat in Foskos to be the first griffin revelator."

"Asgotl, you need to apologize to her. Then you need to make yourself scarce so it doesn't appear that you apologized just to get back into the House of Mounts. Ask Oyyuth Kas'syo or General Bobbo if you can borrow their backyards to sleep. Last, never ask Flavriansha out ever again. You've burnt that bridge behind you."

"I don't need bridges. I can fly."

"Asgotl, it's an Earth metaphor."

"Oh."

- - -

Emily, Crystal Shrine of Tiki

I was vastly amused that Raoleer took advantage of the confusion of high priestesses going in and out of the cavern to offer to take me down to see the crystals. The looks on Aylem's, Lisaykos', and Kamagishi's faces were special. It was a good reminder for them that no one owns me and I will follow my own will.

I had pondered skipping the cavern since from my point of view, if you've seen one giant rock crystal, you're seen them all. Once I was inside of it, I was glad I didn't follow through because the chamber itself was worth the loathsome need to be carried by a Cosm silverhair.

"Oh, look at this!" I had to turn my head to see all the details. "This is the actual volcanic vent for the butte that the shrine is built on. Usually, they don't drain like this and leave a roofed chamber behind. And look at all this black and green sand. I doubt it formed here. The gods must have placed it in here so the crystals could rest on the sand instead of a pile of scoria. This is awesome!"

"You're the only person I know, Great One, who gets taken to see a cache of shrine-worthy giant crystals and enthuses about the cavern instead." Roaleer laughed, "I shouldn't be surprised, should I?"

"It's common for the plug of lava left in a vertical vent at the end of an eruption to survive through the ages while the rest of the volcanic material around it erodes away. There are three along the Rig River between Omexkel and Rigdit. Sanddab Island is one of them. But here it's the opposite. To have the roofed vent preserved with no plug material is unusual. When the vent's preserved, there usually isn't a roof."

"I see," Raoleer looked amused.

"The crystals are pretty wow all by themselves," I conceded. "I've never seen topaz crystals this huge before. It makes me wonder where the granite or rhyolite is that hosts these big topaz crystals. They aren't very common either."

"Topaz?"

"The pale brown crystals that are rectangular, like the ones at the Shrine of Galt," I looked at them, wondering just how long it took for those crystals to grow. My Earth family would do a yearly trip down to Topaz Mountain in Utah every year to dig for garnets and topaz crystals. That made me feel nostalgic for a moment.

I looked at the giant amethyst crystal, "at least there's a replacement here for the amethyst that will be broken at the Shrine of Landa. What's so important about that crystal that makes it different from the others in terms of magic?"

"You don't know?" Raoleer looked surprised.

"Raoleer, do I look like a magic user to you?" I rolled my eyes. "I don't know much about how magic is used. It's not my gig."

"Yasknapa of Yantes discovered that the great crystals could influence smaller crystals, making it possible to create charm gems with very little effort. After some research into the phenomenon, she discovered that different crystals were aligned to certain kinds of charm magic.

"For example, the crystal at the Fated Shrine of Galt makes it much easier to cast a charm of compulsion to tell the truth which will even work on a silverhair. The priestess recorders make charm gems to compel truthful testimony in court. You place the crystal you want to use for charm gems in the Well of Galt for a rotation. That's all it takes. The magic that transfers the power of compulsion from the shrine crystal into the smaller crystal was created and cast by Yasknapa. Since her death, no one has been able to replicate her magic.

"The crystal in the Well of Mugash can make charm gems that prevent infectious diseases. The one at my shrine makes charm gems of light that work for those with no magic. The crystal at the Hospitable Shrine of Gertzpul will make charm gems that preserve the remains of all six sapient races before cremation or burial. The crystal at the Bountiful Shrine of Mueb will make charm gems to preserve perishable food. But you should already know all of this, yes?"

"No, Raoleer. This is the first time I've heard anything about making charm gems. The only time I've ever seen charm gem magic was when I visited the workshop of Priest Artificer Nitsuthluk when we were making the first slide rules."

"Seriously?" she looked surprised.

"I'm dead serious. There is a lot about Foskos I don't know. I run into this problem all the time because people assume I know things when I don't."

"But you know so much about everything, Emily," she frowned at me. "I find that hard to believe."

"Spoot slaves," I rebutted. "I never even heard of spoot slaves until a few days ago when Lisaykos told me about them. I didn't know the Crystal Shrine kept the calendar and had an active observatory with a spherical astrolabe until right after the Battle of Black Falls, a rotation and a half ago. I didn't know that every shrine has its main doors facing north until yesterday. There is a lot I don't know."

"Surd save us! I had no idea," Raoleer shook her head.

"The gods dropped a lot of knowledge in my head, Raoleer, but none of it was about Foskos or any other country on Erdos. So does the amethyst crystal at the White Shrine of Landa make control gems?"

"Exactly," Raoleer looked sad for some reason.

"When Lord Kushamar haup Blockit was found guilty of using combined control and compulsion charm gems, did someone take crystals from both the Shrines of Galt and Landa?"

"It's the only way to do that," Raoleer grimaced, "unless the gems came from another country."

"Are either of those legal?"

"No, both are crimes that will send a person to the mines if caught."

"That implies a priestess at one or both shrines might have been complicit in making illegal charm gems."

"Yes, Emily, it does, but it might not have happened last rotation. It could have happened a hundred or two hundred years ago. The enchantment of a smaller crystal lasts forever. Someone could have made a stash of such crystals and then handed them down in a family or one of the slave trader companies."

"That makes me feel sick to my stomach," it was my turn to grimace. "So much for mid repast."