Emily, Truvos, 7th rot., 8th day

The trial was over, and I deemed myself well enough to travel, especially since I spotted that lazy lard-lump of a griffin lying about one of the fields next to the mounts' residence after morn repast. Kayseo helped me get dressed, and we crept down the stair and out a side door.

I rolled his chubby tail under my foot, "wake up, blubber belly!"

I saw his head lift, and he looked at Kayseo, who grinned at him and pointed to his tail. He swiveled his head around and saw me. He leapt up. Since my foot was on his tail, its removal threw me off my balance and knocked me on my rear. My shoulder wasn't happy, so I was scowling by the time he tilted his head to study me with one eyeball.

"Good morning, grandma," he was doing his little prancy dance that he did when he was very happy. "It's good to see you alive and in one piece, more or less. Did you really run into a tree to set a dislocated shoulder?"

"No, you idiot, I'm wearing a sling as a fashion statement. Kayseo, can you please give me a hand up?"

"So, we need to wait a bit before we go fishing?" he looked hopeful.

"Tell you what, blubber breath, let's get back to the shrine so I can dig into my colder weather clothes and find my flying cloak. Then, how about you take me up to my hot spring? I could use a little alone time and a good soak."

Kayseo lifted me into the air, settled me on her arm, and gave me the neediest look I've ever seen from her, "Can you take me with you? I won't tell anyone. It just sounds so nice. The Queen told me about it and how there's a pool big enough for people like me."

I didn't get a chance to reply. Hekees, Lisaykos' eagle, landed next to us followed by several other mounts I didn't know. It was strange and a bit scary to be suddenly surrounded by all these large flying creatures.

"Our greetings and blessings, Great One," Hekees bowed her head. "We heard about what you did at the trial yesterday. Be assured we will tell our owners that we support the elimination of the owner exclusions from the Mounts' War treaty. We also support its extension to Coyn and Chem."

"Some of us are heading to Eagle territory soon to see our relatives," said an eagle I didn't know. "We will tell everyone there that the law in Foskos will be getting better again. Eagles will be your friend forever, little one."

The gathered mounts added their agreement, talking over one another and making a lot of noisy agreement. They reminded me of what everyone was like when the Berlin wall and Iron Curtain came down in 1989. It was the same kind of optimistic joy that the world could indeed get better. I was gobsmacked by it all. I never expected a reaction like this, especially out of roc eagles who tend to be phlegmatic. I would have stayed to talk with them but Kayseo noticed I was shivering from the cold morning air.

She insisted that I go back inside with that tone of voice that I know better not to argue with. She did have a good point since a hard frost overnight fell overnight and there was still frost on the grass in the shadows of the trees. All I had with me was the green summer-weight overtunic on top of a linen undertunic and riding pants. Still, it wasn't so cold that I couldn't stand it. The incident demonstrated that even Kayseo had her overprotective moments.

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Emily, Healing Shrine, 7th rot., 8th day

It took the entire day to say hello to everyone when we returned to the shrine before mid repast. I was surprised. It was also tiring and wore my nerves to a stub by the end of the day. Even Kruck the cook came up from the kitchen, shyly sticking his head around the door jamb to peer into Lisaykos' study, unsure if he could come in.

All the people who came up to say hello made a large impression. It finally sank in that I had been gone an entire season. It had felt like both one rotation and an unfathomably long time to me. What made it feel real was Arma's imminent hand-in-hand ceremony with one of Imstay's couriers, a huge bear of a man by the name of Oysumi hat Yant. He was an acknowledged bastard son of a deceased halfhair river boater and the late Lord Yant. If he wasn't the same person as Snow Bear in the Corps of Wraiths, then I needed glasses.

Oysumi was a bearded and mustached silverhair who was almost as tall as Usruldes and as almost muscular as Imstay. Arma met him while they were recovering from the events when I was abducted by the Impotuans last season.

Both of them were approaching 30 and unmarried for various reasons, including bad luck for Arma and snobbery for Snow Bear. Silverhairs have no escape from marriage and having as many children as possible. Their low birth rate and the year-and-a-half gestation of a Cosm pregnancy meant every silverhair had to do this duty by law. Because he hadn't married yet, Oysumi paid a large fine to the Restful Shrine of Surd every year.

Because of the sanctity of marriage and its role in creating the next generation, especially for silverhairs, bastards were looked down upon. That didn't make sense to me. If more silverhairs were desirable, wouldn't that make bastard children welcome instead of stigmatized?

Foskos was funny about relationships, infidelity, and sex outside of marriage. Foskos had no taboo over adultery, which is to say, there was no crime of adultery but it was considered bad form not to tell your marriage partner you were "sleeping out." It was even stranger that given the practice of loose marriage, children outside of marriage met with disapproval. It made no sense whatsoever to me.

The culture was also neutral over same-sex relationships. If someone had a same-sex lover, which many in the shrine system did, then the lover was expected to step out of the way while the silverhair had children. Love in marriage was optional, though getting along was deemed important, especially since husbands often raised the children if the wife was a priestess, lord, court official, or business owner. It was a very different culture of family and sexual relations than Earth had been. It was very odd.

Arma was one of the first people to show up at Lisaykos' study to say hello. She immediately dragged me down to the third floor, to the long-term recovery hallway, to greet her mother. Mieth was waiting for her prosthetic legs to be completed by Huhoti at the Builder Shrine. She would be the second to receive a prototype pair.

Mieth was the first person Galt had taken me to see on our strange trip together, but only after he paid me my promised bribe for becoming his revelator. Seeing her again reminded me of the very beginning of the strange trip that Galt, Vassu and Erhonsay took me on across the middle to eastern parts the giant continent of Erdos.

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It was an amazing trip that Galt arranged. It started in Berkeley, California, in 1972, with Galt's promised bribe. I must be honest here and confess that I really liked Galt's little excursions to Earth's 20th century. I'll try not to be too boring about the salmon and creamed spinach dinner at Spenger's, which was then followed by a hot butterscotch ice cream sundae at Edy's. Oh, so good.

Galt was disgusting, snacking the whole time as we traveled on Salinas sardines while describing the best places to catch rats on the East Bay shorefront. He's such an unrepentant cat. We did go watch the sunset down on North Beach in San Francisco, to watch the green flash right as the sun went down.

As far as bribery payments go, it was a good bribe. Damn, I really did love the creamed spinach at Spenger's. Galt said the next excursion would be afternoon tea at the Russian Tea Room on Central Park South followed by the Pelican Inn at Muir Beach for prime rib and Yorkshire Pudding. That cat must have known all my weak spots. Well, he's the god of knowledge. Of course, he knew all my weak spots.

Sadly, the trip to Spenger's reminded me of that last night Tom and I shared. It was July 6, 1972, and the last day of his 30-day leave before he got shipped out to Vietnam. We first went to Spenger's and then went home to the little cookie-cutter house we rented in Daly City. We made love until we could no longer move from exhaustion. At 5 a.m., I drove him to Oakland Army Base. My last sight of him was while he was walking down the sidewalk into the check-in building, where he would catch a bus to Travis Air Force Base. From there, he would board a flight to the jungles of southeast Asia. Five months later, he was dead and I was a war widow. I don't think I've ever fallen out of love with him. I still dream of hanging with him down in the West Village and playing our guitars together. He had the sweetest tenor.

Galt poured me another Michelob Dark as we sat at the Brass Rail on Broadway across from Columbia, *That was then, kitten. This is now. Buck up. We have some work to do. Would it help if I got you a hero from Mama Joy's?*

"Isn't there anymore," I said morosely. "I don't know when it closed, but it was gone when I visited New York in 2001." That was the trip when my brother Michael died. New York City was full of so many hard memories.

*Kitten, it's 1972, and Mama Joy's is just across the street and one block down. Come on, let's go. I didn't mean to get you all sad. I hear the falafel guy up by 116th street is good too. Or we could go for a strudel at Zabar's.*

"No, let's start visiting the places on Erdos you want me to go," I got up from the bar. It was surreal the way time stretched and the scenery changed when traveling with gods. "The sooner we're done, the sooner I can get home. Poor Lisaykos has probably had a cow by now with worry."

*Hmm,* he put on that goofy fedora of his, *that's some very interesting imagery. She should have had kittens instead.*

"Knock it off, duffus," I pulled his hat down over his eyes, "and let's go."

The next breath I took, I was in total darkness. I had wonderful night vision, thanks to Galt's gift of eyes, but they didn't work in the complete absence of light. Galt was probably paying me back for the stunt with the hat. He was rather vain about that stupid hat. Regardless, I was back in my undersized flat-chested Erdos body wearing the dark green overtunic with the red and yellow embroidery and just one stocking.

He left instructions in my head. Who was I supposed to tell those instructions to in the darkness? I knelt and fumbled for the contents of my pouch. I unwrapped the matches and my striking stone by feel. The oilcloth wrapping made a lot of noise. How did a candle get into my pouch?

"Who is there?" a woman's voice called out with an Impotuan accent.

I struck a match and lit the candle.

"Aaaaeee," the woman called out in pain. The candle showed me that I was in a limestone cavern. About 100 hands from me was a disheveled silverhair woman in rags. The remains of her dress were barely decent. She had her hands over her eyes. She must have been accustomed to the darkness.

"Should I put it out? Can I walk over to you first? I can't see the way if it's dark." I gathered the copper box of matches, the oil paper, and the striking stone.

"It's fine if I don't look directly at the light," she said, staring off to the side.

I walked to a stalagmite just in back of her and set the candle down there. Then I walked back to face her. That's when I noticed that she had no feet.

She studied me with squinting eyes, "You're just a youngling? How did you stumble down here, little one? I do not think I will be any help in getting you out of here."

I repacked everything into my pouch and then sat down in front of her, "Am I in the caverns under the dungeons of Salicet Citadel?"

"You are. Did you not know that?"

"I have traveled with gods through many places and many times. I was not sure where this was, which is why I asked. Are you Arma's mother?" My guess for location and for her identity was based on her lack of feet.

She searched my face frantically, "You know my Arma? Have you seen her? Is she well? When did you see her last?"

"I saw her last rotation, if my time sense is not too far off," I grabbed her flailing hand and tried to hold it. Instead, she engulfed my hand in hers. "Your daughter is well, and I hope she is now safely in Aybhas with our traveling companion, a Chem called Twee."

"Aybhas," she sighed, "the mother shrine of Mugash, run by Sister Lisaykos, who I have met only once. If Arma can reach there, then she will be in good hands. I know my captors persecuted her as a way to persecute me. I fear for my nation and my people."

"You are a silverhair," I wondered, "so why can you not use your magic to leave here?"

"When they cast me in here, they used a large charm crystal of compulsion on me that prevents me from using my magic."

"So that's why," I said out loud without thinking.

"Why what?" she looked confused.

"Galt asked me to tell you that in two rotations, the Shrine of Galt in this city will be destroyed. The giant topaz crystal in the shrine will break and all the compulsion charms made with it will fail. At that time, which will be one of great confusion, you must use your restored power to escape to Foskos or the land of the Chem, where you can get passage to Foskos. You will meet people on your journey who will help you, so do not despair as you leave this city behind. Salicet is a doomed city. To everyone you meet, you must tell them the Prophecy of the Great Breaking. The ones who fear the gods and follow the gods' will to value the right things will leave. The rest will be left to fate. This is the message you should spread."

She looked at me with concern, as if I might be suffering from a delusion: "You have talked to Galt? Was it a dream, child? Because the gods only speak to Cosm, and then, only to the holiest of the people."

I knew better than that, though I was having a hard time thinking of Asgotl, for example, as someone who was most holy. Then I banished the thought before I started laughing. I needed to correct her with tact.

"Holy One, you know the prophecy, yes?"

"I do. Every high priestess on Erdos knows it."

"Look at my eyes. Galt gave them to me."

"Surd save us," she said in her funny Impotuan accent with the aspirated vowels.

I fumbled for a match and the striking stone. I lit the match, "my name is Emily and I am the Maker of Fire."

"How did you do that?"

"Artificer's secret," I winked. "It's just a clever layering of potions that I made. By the way, there is now me and a griffin who have received revelations. I expect that there will be a revelator who is a Chem before the year is over. It's all in the prophecy. The world is changing, Holy One, and the gods want the Cosm to know that all six races have their blessing. Cosm were intended to be caretakers, not oppressors. Remember that, Mieth."

"I never told you my name," her eyes grew wide.

I smiled. "I know," I replied as the scene faded from my eyes. "Remember, Mieth, in twenty days, you must escape. Arma is waiting for you in Aybhas." The last I saw of the cavern was the candle I left behind.

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