Emily, Aybhas and the Crystal Shrine, Harvest season, 8th rot., 10th day
Asgotl and I spent a long day explaining to five high priestesses and the king what we were trying to do with Salicet and its residents. I discovered that both Kamigishi and Losnana started having precognitions before Aylem left. The visions were of violence and fire involving a still-populated Salicet. This upset me because it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Needless to say, Losnana, as a former resident of Salicet, was upset to the point of tears.
Added to the mayhem was the king. Imstay was a bundle of unhappiness as he fretted about the effect that Salicet might have on Aylem's pregnancy.
I knew nothing could be done to change the Salicet outcome until Aylem returned. Until then, both Asgotl and I made our separate escapes. He vanished in the direction of the garrison. I captured one of the drafts of the revised law and fled to my room to review what Imstay and Kamagishi had done to it.
Blinda, the buxom blond halfhair that served Losnana, knocked on my door to announce dinner. I dreaded eating with Lisaykos’ current company, and I was right to do so. It was a silent solemn meal, full of dire faces. Kamagishi actually asked Lisaykos to cast deep sleep on her after the meal was over.
"Will that work?" Losnana asked.
“About half of the time,” Lisaykos explained. “We don’t know why it does or does not work, but if we don’t cast the charm, poor sleep is a certainty instead of a half-chance.”
"Then please, also cast that charm on me," Losnana sighed. "A chance of some sleep would be a welcome change to what these visions are showing me."
When the company broke up, I fled back to my room, fretting that the two precognitive high priestesses were having such horrible visions. The visions were not in keeping with what I thought would happen. The Salicetans should be packing and leaving under Aylem’s compulsion. How could there be violence with a compulsion to help one another? Something was seriously wrong. I tried to stay awake, watching for Aylem to return, but I fell asleep despite my efforts.
I was surprised that it was Aylem who woke me up. She looked tired.
“I laid out riding clothes for you, Emily,” she put a beaker of tea and a plate with a cheesy onion egg roll on my side table. “As soon as you’re ready, we will leave. Come and meet me in the study when you're dressed. Bring your mantle, hat, mittens, leggings, and cloak.”
“What time is it? Where are we going?” I sat up and regretted it since it was cold outside my covers. I noticed that someone had tucked me in and moved the revised law off my bed since I fell asleep while reading one of the copies.
“It’s about half past the second bell,” she got up. “Foyuna proposed a way to evacuate Salicet despite the current actions of the Impotuan Army to prevent any of the residents from evacuating. We’re leaving for the Crystal Shrine, where I will coordinate the various garrisons and shrines as they leave for Salicet. We will start as soon as I have word from Usruldes whether the Eagles will permit us to cross their territory.”
“The Impotuan Army is at Salicet?”
“They moved to blockade the entire city after I cast the compulsion.”
“Damn,” that would explain the visions that Kamagishi and Losnana had suffered. “No time for a shower?” I asked.
“I’m afraid not,” she gave me a patient look. “A lot of things happened last night and this morning. Imstay has called up any mounted soldier or garrison guard that can be spared plus an equal number that can ride pillion as ground troops. Over 500 priestesses and priests from nine shrines are also coming. Lords Black, Gunndit, Esso, Truvos, Gampff, and Omexkel will be following with their mounted soldiers and with winter supplies for the survivors of Salicet, especially the Coyn and Chem slaves who have nothing but the clothes on their backs. Lords Surdos and Ark'kos are sending their soldiers and garrisons to reinforce the protection of the White and Fated Shrines.”
“What’s going on, Aylem?” I was shocked that Foskos was mobilizing.
“I’ll explain as we travel,” she opened the door to walk out. “It will save time.”
When I showed up in the study, Lisaykos and Aylem dressed me in my flying clothes and then Aylem scooped me up and carried me out to where Asgotl was waiting.
“Who’s taking care of the kingdom while you and Imstay are overnighting in Salicet?” I strapped myself onto Asgotl’s saddle before Aylem did it for me.
“General Lunhaydras, Lord Bobbo, and Lord Fusso haup Ark’kos,” Aylem leapt onto the saddle behind me. Asgotl leapt up, pushed off with his wings, and we were in flight.
“I’ve cast a barrier like Kamagishi likes to do, so we can keep talking,” Aylem said from behind me. “It slows us down a bit but I expect that Usruldes will take a while to find the rulers of the Eagles. He only left about a bell ago.”
“Why are the Impotuans forces blockading their own city?” I had to ask.
“Emily, I honestly do not know what their motivation is,” Aylem sighed. “When I was at the Crystal Shrine last night...”
“You stopped at the Crystal Shrine?” I was surprised.
“Yes, I wanted to see how the evacuation was progressing,” Aylem sounded patient with my interruption. “I was shocked to see Impotuan flying cavalry blockading the city’s gates and arguing with the city guards at the main gate. The docks and many of the boats had been set on fire by the Impotuan army forces. Boats already on the river were being set on fire with people in them. I’ll be honest and admit it made me so angry that I gouged my own hands.”
“Aylem,” I was shocked and concerned for her.
“The shrine is still standing and no one was hurt,” she rushed to reassure me but she sounded nervous. “Regardless, I would not mind using a little anger on some Impotuan flying cavalry,” she growled. “I am curious as to what I will see when we get to the Crystal Shrine.”
“What is it that Foyuna came up with to evacuate the city despite the Impotuan Army on the doorstep?”
“A lost magic that apparently wasn’t lost to the Crystal Shrine,” Aylem explained. “It’s called the charm of stopped time, which is an inaccurate name since it doesn’t stop time. To an observer inside the charm, it looks like time stands still for people outside of the charm. In reality, I think it must be that othgonal, orthgonal, whatever you were calling time that’s at right angles to the time direction we’re normally traveling.”
“Orthogonal,” I said, “it’s orthogonal. It’s the same root as in the word orthorhombic, which is the adjective for three-dimensional rectangular shapes with all right angles at all the corners."
“Whatever,” Aylem sighed. I swear I heard her roll her eyes at me. She must have heard the thought because she laughed.
“So this lost magic,” I wanted to confirm what I think Aylem had described, “you can cast it on someone and it looks like time now stands still for those not affected by the charm, yes?”
“That’s right.”
“So those affected by the charm can keep doing stuff which the rest of the world stands still?”
“Yes.”
“And those outside of the charm, they can’t see or observe what the people inside the charm are doing while the charm lasts? It must appear like a lot of stuff just happens instantly, yes?”
“Exactly. If all the Salicetans have the charm cast on them, they can walk out of the city, build a camp, and even go fishing for a week if it lasts that long, and what an observer would see would be the populace disappearing and reappearing instantly somewhere else, complete with new homes or tents or whatever.”
“Wow,” I contemplated the implications, “a genuine time loop that can act on space. But Aylem, I don’t get it. Why did Foyuna come up with this? It’s not like the Foskan shrines have anything to do with Galt’s desire to destroy a city in another country.”
“Well, it seems like the Convocation disagrees with you. They met by mindcasting this morning, courtesy of Fassex, Lisaykos, and myself. I'll let Foyuna explain it to you. She's quite eloquent about why."
Aylem didn’t continue because Asgotl had started his descent to enter one of the openings in the dome of the ancient Crystal Shrine. The roof of the dome was covered with flying mounts.
The insides of the dome were full of people. They ran to the sides of the chamber to give Asgotl room to land. As Aylem unstrapped and jumped off, Foyuna came running up wearing flying clothes. It was the first time I had ever seen her in flying clothes.
Foyuna walked up to me, bowed an obeisance, and looked at me with sympathy and sorrow. Then she hugged me while I was still strapped into the saddle, “Great One, I’m so sorry this happened. This must be horrible for you.”
I let her hug me. Indeed, it was more like I couldn’t stop her from hugging me. Foyuna is a sweet lady, but she is also a very big sweet lady and I was lost inside her arms.
"Holy One," I kept to a formal address since so many people were present, "it's a bit dark in here."
Foyuna instantly got my point and laughed. She released me from my temporary cage of night inside her embrace, and looked at me with a smile, “ready?”
“What?”
“All heed!” Foyuna turned her head to look at the crowd gathered under the dome. I recognized Imstay, Lords Gunndit, Truvos and Esso, High Priestesses Kamagishi, Sutsusum, Moxsef, Ashansalt, and Raoleer. From the coats, several garrison captains were present plus several soldiers from the forces of the Lord Holders. I saw more facing colors than I could identify.
This crowd of around a hundred Cosm all dropped to their knees to do obeisance. It took my breath away. Foyuna spoke for them all, “May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great Ones.”
My state of astoundment was profound. Aylem bumped me with her elbow and whispered, “you’re senior, Em. You need to respond.”
I took a deep breath and let it out, “and also upon all of you, good people. Please rise and be at your ease.” I hoped my voice carried.
Foyuna regained her feet, “now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” She smiled at me with sympathy.
“I’ll never get used to this,” I protested. “I should never have asked to have my speech restored.” I started undoing the straps on the saddle. Aylem and Foyuna laughed.
“Isn’t there some way I can permanently delegate the speaking bits to you, Aylem, on the obeisances? You’re so much better at it than I am.”
“No, you can’t,” Aylem said with a smile. “You have higher precedence.”
“I’m just a little person,” I pointed out, “with a little voice. It doesn’t carry far. You’re a big person, Aylem, with a big confident voice used to public speaking. I think the more suitable voice should be responding to obeisances.”
“No, no sale, little one,” Aylem offered me a hand down. “You’re the main act and I’m just the sidekick.”
“Say what?” I erupted at her. “If you sneezed, Aylem, I’d get knocked over by the wind gust. There’s no way you’re anyone’s sidekick, girlfriend.”
Asgotl broke out into the funny sniggering noise he makes when laughing.
“Ah, the griffin is amused,” Aylem remarked dryly as she lifted me down. Without asking, Aylem and Foyuna stripped me of my flying gear, which disappeared into the arms of a waiting shrine priestess.
“I suggest that I take care of the next few obeisances for the three of us,” Asgotl suggested. “That will take care of the two of you bickering over who should do the replies. I think all three of us should reply on a rotating basis. It will get people used to hearing the obeisance response from both a Coyn and a Mount.”
“That’s a clever idea,” Foyuna looked up at Asgotl. “I like that. It will be good for people to get a response from a Mount as well as a Coyn.”
“I can live with that,” I added.
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Aylem looked like she had swallowed something rancid, “We’ll see about that.”
“It’s two-to-one, Aylem,” Asgotl quipped, “you lose.”
It looked like Aylem had something more to say but was cut off when Foyuna knelt in front of me, “I’d like to carry you, Great One. There are so many people here that I worry about a mishap. You’re hard to see in a crowd.”
"Only if you tell me why you arranged all of this," I was earnest in wanting to know. I didn't understand why Foskos was getting involved in Galt's snit fit at Salicet. "I don’t really understand why.”
“Funny,” Foyuna frowned as she picked me up and settled me on her right shoulder, wrapping her right hand around my knees to keep me steady, “Aylem said almost the same thing last night. Does this feel secure?”
“No,” I said honestly. She was so much taller than Wolkayrs, whose shoulders I often rode on, but her shoulder wasn’t as broad.
“How about this?” she moved her right arm up to hold my shoulder and clasped my knees with her left hand. “Now grab my right arm to brace yourself.” I did and felt a lot more steady.
"This is much better, Holy One," I looked around. The view was exhilarating. It must be nice to be this tall all the time.
“So, as I reminded Aylem last night,” Foyuna started talking as she navigated the crowd on her way toward the Great Crystal, “the business of the gods is the business of the shrines. Galt wants Salicet destroyed in retribution for the destruction of his shrine and library and the injury to his clergy. That is very much a matter affecting the shrines. So you interceded with Galt with the aid of Erhonsay to save many tens of thousands of lives despite the inevitable destruction of the city, but now there’s an army preventing a chosen prophet from carrying out this divinely-granted act of mercy. As a high priestess, how can I not respond to this impediment to the will of the prophet? All my sisters in the Convocation share this point of view. It is that simple, Great One.”
I was gobsmacked by her explanation. The reverence and respect that Cosm held for their gods were beyond my understanding.
“Because we can act, Great One, then we must act,” Foyuna reached for my side and gently put me down in the chair at the recorder’s table next to the Throne of Judgment. The seat had two comfortable cushions and one on the back. Foyuna had prepared for me again. “We can not allow your intercession to save all those lives be wasted. Like you pointed out in your Scripture of the Trial, not to act rightly when you have the opportunity to do so is a form of acting wrongly.”
“My scripture of what?" Right now I was gobsmacked squared.
“The Scripture of the Trial,” Foyuna sat next to me. “The trial of the dreadful Oyseray. Oh, there’s so much in that new scripture. Every time I read it, I see something new in it.”
Aylem took her seat on the throne, “Foyuna can rival Kamagishi in scholarship, Em, especially for scriptural scholarship. She's a lot better at scriptures than I will ever be."
“You still haven’t mastered the shrines and all of what we do, have you?” Foyuna gave me a kind and understanding look. “The Crystal Shrine is also the repository for all scripture since it is the first shrine ever built.”
"Well, I'm better off in that regard than I was a year ago," I was just a bit defensive. "For example, I could probably run the kingdom-wide administrations of the Shrines of Mugash and Sassoo in my sleep by now. And I know the workings at the Shrine of Giltak so well that I even know where Raoleer hides her secret stash of bog berry candies that her healers don’t want her eating.”
“I heard that!” a yelp of protest erupted from Roaleer, who was taking a seat on the bench on the other side of Aylem. The other high priestesses present followed.
“Holy Raoleer,” Aylem went full-ice queen in a blink, “the Blessed Lisaykos will be most unhappy if she must treat you for sugar kidney disease a third time.”
Roaleer looked like a little kid caught in the cookie far.
“Wait,” I held up a hand, “Raoleer, are you frequently thirsty, have to go to the necessary a lot, and have sweet-smelling urine?”
“Yes,” Roaleer looked suddenly uncertain.
“Oh crap,” this concerned me. The slightly-pudgy mekaner Raoleer was working on type 2 diabetes. I suspected the type 1 diabetics died unless the healers knew to grow new islets of Langerhans. I would need to ask about this. "Holy One, you must give up your candies, forever. You will kill yourself early if you keep up eating high-glycemic index carbohydrates. Oh gods, is Huhoti here?”
“I am, Great One,” Huhoti’s voice approached from behind me.
“Revered One,” I turned in my chair to look up at my favorite metal worker, “the Holy Raoleer hides her bog berry candies in the ceiling of her bathing chamber, inside the access panel to the piping that feeds her hot water tank. Remove them when you get home. I’ll draw up a list of things she should and should not eat.”
“Emily?” Aylem gave me a concerned look, not using honorifics.
“Roaleer,” I ignored Aylem for a moment, “have you ever had an ulcer or big abscess in one of your feet?”
“Three years ago, Great One,” Roaleer was looking more and more knocked off kilter.
“From the symptoms, I think Raoleer has diabetes,” I looked at Aylem. I know I looked concerned.
“But I found a way to fix diabetes, Emily,” Aylem stated, frowning. “This is the sugar kidney disease. It’s different.”
I held up both hands, “There are two kinds of diabetes. They both cause blood sugar levels that are too high, which is what kills a person. The first is the failure of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas to produce enough insulin and the other is caused by the insensitivity of insulin receptors in the organs and muscles to the presence of insulin, but they both are characterized by high blood sugar.
“By the time I was an adult, we gave the second kind the name of type 2 diabetes. It usually starts in middle age and can be mediated through changing diet and habits. When all of this is over, we need to take Raoleer down to the shrine and sit down with Lisaykos. Maybe you can figure out how to fix the insulin resistance that’s behind type 2 diabetes. If not, it can still be helped by changing her diet and habits. Some plant extracts can help too.”
Aylem was still frowning. Then she gave me a wry look, silently mouthed, “You did it again,” and rolled her eyes. She leaned forward and squeezed Roaleer’s hand, “don't worry dear heart. Emily will figure it out." Aylem leaned a little closer and whispered, “Did you really keep the stash of candies after Lisaykos told you to stop eating them so much?”
Roaleer was blushing and nodded her head.
“Ah,” Aylem squeezed her hand again, smiled sadly, and shook her head as she straightened up.
Roaleer looked up to see Huhoti behind me, arms folded and glowering at her shrine superior. She looked down again and blushed deeper. If it wasn’t about being ill, I would have been amused.
“Don’t give her too hard of a time, Revered One,” I looked up and back at Huhoti.
Huhoti hissed at me, “She promised me she had stopped snacking on the sweet stuff. She’s such a little kid at times.”
I found myself shaking my head. Raoleer did suffer from an excess of exuberance, something I had some knowledge of myself.
While we had been talking, most everyone had taken a seat on the circle of benches or were standing behind them so they could see the Great Crystal. Aylem folded her hands in her lap and tranced. A picture of the main gates of Salicet formed inside the crystal.
“Most of the people here have never seen the Great Crystal or have seen it used before,” Foyuna whispered to me. As she did, Imstay wandered up to the table and then sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of Foyuna.
“Great Aylem,” Imstay intoned in a formal-sounding voice, “may I please see all five gates into Salicet?”
“This is the main gate, which faces south as you probably already know," Aylem said in a terse voice. "It looks like the flying cavalry has taken over the gate and forced the city garrison away from the walls. The same seems to have happened at the customs gate to the east, between the main gate and the river. The scene shifted to the other gate, which faced southeast. Inside the gate was a long line of carts and wagons, all loaded with supplies and furniture and families. The line stretched into the city.
People from the wagons had set up their cookstoves on their tailgates or on the side of the road to make meals while they waited. A nervous line of city guards separated the scowling Impotuan cavalry soldiers from a crowd of angry men and women, including knots of halfhairs and silverhairs who had clumped together talking and fingering their crystals.
“This is the southwest gate,” Ayelm shifted the view in the crystal. The scene looked similar except the wagons and the people looked more affluent and the number of halfhairs and silverhairs was greater.
“The watergate has been destroyed,” Aylem moved the scene to what remained of the waterfront, “burned along with all the docks. The Impotuan army has pulled down the warehouses and business buildings to create a barrier of rubble between the citizens and the remains of the river landings.” The crystal showed great mounds of rubble like the cityscapes of Germany at the end of the Second World War. Some of the rubble was burning or smoldering. Perched on top of the unburnt rubble piles were flying cavalry mounted on eagles looking down on milling sullen Salicetans, preventing them from crossing the ruins to the river.
At the edge of the rubble zone, a handful of healers in their working clothes appeared, carrying bodies in blankets which they laid out in the empty ruined streets as a long line of wrapped corpses. They cast stasis and said a prayer. An Impotuan officer came running to catch the healers as they walked away from their grim task.
'Stop, stop. I order you to halt," the woman officer shouted, running after the healers.
The tallest of the healers stopped and turned and looked down at the officer. “I have wounded to tend to. Speak quickly, soldier.”
“That’s Priestess Eszeldess,” High Priestess Losnana stated, looking startled. “She used to run the healers’ chapel hospital in Salicet before she was demoted. The Empress ordered her defrocked four years ago. She disappeared after that. She must have been hiding in the city.”
“It looks like she has taken some sort of command now,” Imstay remarked.
“You!” The officer unsheathed her sword. “You are under arrest, fugitive from the Empire.”
“Surely you are mistaken,” Eszeldess smiled and folded her hand over a crystalline ring on her other hand. “I am just a simple healer laying out the dead until we can build their pyres to send them to Gertzpul, nothing more.”
“Yes,” the glassy-eyed officer repeated, “I was mistaken. You are just a simple healer laying out the dead.”
“Thank you, Leftenant,” Eszeldess nodded politely. “Please allow us to return to our duties.”
“Of course, you may return to your duties, priestesses,” the officer sheathed her sword and bowed. Then she turned and returned to her soldiers.
“The other healers must have been hiding her from the authorities,” Losnana concluded. “She is a resolute woman and has great mind magic, as you just saw, to cast compulsion on another silverhair.”
“The northeast of the city has been cut off by more rubble and by earthwork magic,” Aylem once again shifted the view in the Great Crystal. “The walls here are low and the destroyed slave markets were outside the gate to the north, which is downwind of the city.”
The crystal showed where the line of flying cavalry continued to the north where the walls ended at the riverside cliff face of the mountain ridge the city was built upon. Aylem continued panning the view across the ridge to where the rest of the Impotuan force had set up camp on the ground of the ruined palace. It appeared that the army had displaced work crews who were rebuilding the burnt-out structure.
“Stop! Stop! Great One,” Losnana stood up, excited, “can you go back to that officer in the gilt armor? That’s Arkaline Ugi, the Imperial Heir. Can we eavesdrop? We might learn something.”
“Certainly, Holy One,” Aylem smiled malevolently.
Lady Arkaline looked like she had just gotten off her eagle, the preferred mount in Impotu. Her visor was up on her sallet and the front piece of her gorget was hanging open by its side hinge. She was looking annoyed at the richly-armored woman who was talking to her, walking alongside as Arkaline stomped forward to wherever her destination was.
"...appearances of real divine action, Mightiness. If we don’t open the gates, there is a very real chance that everyone here will die, including us.”
"Emly is a Foskan tool, Holy One. This has to be a Foskan ploy," Arkaline growled. "You've not had anything new to say since last night and I do not wish to hear anything more out of you. Your scouts have found nothing at all to the west? I can't believe that. Maybe the Foskans have circled from another direction. Have you investigated that at all?"
“My scouts have gone in all directions, Mightiness,” the High Priestess replied. “There is nothing. Not a single Foskan. Just farms, loggers in the forest to the west, and traders on the towpath of the river.”
“Where is the trap?” Arkaline muttered. “Is this a diversion? Are we being fooled to come here while the Foskan attack another city or fortress?”
“Mightiness, the magic that was cast here yesterday was very real and very powerful. A compulsion on an entire city, including its silverhairs, is humanly impossible. This is divine-level magic. If this was a mage-cast magic, then it was the work of tens of mages. You can’t hide that many mages.”
“Don’t forget the Foskans have the lost magic of invisibility,” Arkaline snarled. “Dammit, they have us reacting to them instead of the other way around.”
Imstay broke out laughing, “such sweet music to my ears. Holy Losnana, who is the High Priestess talking with the Imperial Heir?”
“That’s Ilsabess of Erhonsay, Mighty One,” Losnana had sat back down. “Be wary of her. She is brilliant. She may be the smartest of the high priestesses in Impotu.”
“Noted,” Imstay nodded. “So that’s Ilsabess, who ran the flawless invasion of Jutu.”
“I guess we now know why the Impotuan flying cavalry blockaded the city,” I remarked. “Arkaline thinks Foskos is staging an attack. Methinks the Imperial Heir has little belief or respect for Galt. What a dreadful woman.”
“Too bad her actions have dragged Foskos into this mess,” Imstay sighed. “It would have been better if not a single Foskan uniform showed...what?” Imstay frowned and pulled out a crystal on a chain around his neck. Then he tranced. After a moment, he returned to normal. He removed the chain, got up, and handed the crystal to the Queen, "can you project this into the Great Crystal?”
“What?” Aylem took Imstay’s crystal and frowned at it. Then she tranced. After a moment, she laughed. “Oh, I believe I can establish a direct connection,” Aylem smiled. She dropped back into a trance and the Great Crystal lit up to show Lord Usruldes standing next to an eagle.
Imstay stepped aside to stand just behind and to the side of the Throne of Judgment, “Can you hear me, Lord Usruldes?”
“I can, my king,” Usruldes bowed. “May I present Lugasha, Mother of Nesters?”
“Greetings, Lugasha, Mother of Nesters,” Aylem nodded her head, “I am Aylem, Queen of Foskos.”
“And I am Imstay, King of Foskos,” Imstay bowed.
“Where is the Prophet?” Lugasha demanded.
“That’s me,” I tried to sit up straighter.
“Let me widen the view,” Aylem looked at me. “Can you see her now, Lugasha?”
“Yes," Lugasha's head tilted as she studied me through the crystal with one eye, "yes, I see the eyes of Galt in you, little Prophet. Tell me in your own words what you intended before the Impotuan cavalry blockaded their city?"
"Galt wants Salicet destroyed as a punishment. Erhonsay helped me intercede with Galt to allow all living creatures to flee before that happens," I had the description down to two sentences by now. Salicet is scheduled for destruction tomorrow afternoon."
“No army? No trick to bait the Impotuans?”
"Lugasha, I intended to achieve this with just me and Aylem Nonkin. Just the two of us. That's all it will take to destroy the city," I replied in an unenthusiastic voice.
Lugasha glared at me as only an eagle could and then blinked, “No, you are not lying. I see that now.” Her huge head nodded. “Emly, Friend of all Eagles, we will help you achieve your goal. I understand the magic of stopping time exists and that Foskans can cast it, yes?”
“That is correct, Mother of Nesters,” Aylem responded.
“Then, friends, I have a plan and a proposal for you,” Lugasha replied. “I propose you stage a miracle while my aeries attack Kipgapshergar, where the Empress is residing while her palace in Salicet is rebuilt.”