The Godspaces
*Sassoo! You excuse of a wind bag!* Galt exploded as the manifestation of wrath into Sassoo’s godspace. *I asked you to divert our prophet and separate her from Spot, not almost kill the two of them.*
Gertzpul in his aspect as the radiant one burned Sassoo’s vision as he appeared. “What Wrath has said, so also say I. Even that jerk Tiki agreed that the trials of the Prophet are now over.”
Sassoo coalesced and gave the two other gods a perplexed look, “I did what you asked. They will both recover fully and on the timescale you requested. All will be resolved as you wish.”
Giltak, in an evening gown with their lilac hair done up like a Gibson girl popped in, “I believe part of the problem is that Sassoo played truant and stepped outside reality so his perspective shifted.”
*You idiot!* Lightning boiled off Galt in all directions. *Do I need to force you to incarnate for a lifetime or two? This isn’t the first time you’ve lost perspective on how biological life suffers. It’s bad enough that Tiki and Mugash lost touch. We’re gods, you amateur. You’re supposed to know better.*
“You snuck out, Sassoo?” growled Mugash in her aspect as the great black feline beast Ixchel. “We agreed we would not do that without consulting first.” She was a god who was seldom angry, but Sassoo could feel the menace of her displeasure and respected it.
“Zao Jun reopened the Tavern between realities,” Sassoo explained. “I only stopped for by for a shot of the mistral. Friends, neither Spot nor Emily will take any lasting harm. I was careful. I did not think my action was outside the parameters of the request. I do not think one splay of my existence enjoying a quick drink affected my judgement.”
“So, what you are saying then is that your judgement was flawed even before you violated our agreement and snuck outside,” stated the radiant god who punishes sinners in his stentorious voice.
“I will ensure that neither Spot or Emily will suffer,” said the jaguar-shaped Mugash as she vanished from the godspace. “I will have words with you later, god of hot air.”
“Ouch!” Giltak fanned themselves and rolled their eyes. “It’s never good to get that lady angry, Sassoo. You could have done better with a little more care.”
“The Kitchen God reopened the Tavern?” the radiant one vanished and Gertzpul in his aspect as a Jizo, protector of travelers and lost souls appeared. “Come on, grumpy puss,” Gertzpul snagged Galt by the collar of his wall cloud rotation. “I think you need a break before you break something.” They both disappeared.
“All I will say for now, Sassoo Enleel,” Giltak looked down their long aristocratic nose at the god of the wind and hunt, “is that Emily’s trip home should have appropriately helpful weather, or every musical instrument on Erdos will be untunable for a century. And that’s just the beginning of what I’ll do to you. If you’ll excuse me,” Giltak vanished.
“Well, dammit,” Sassoo swore, still wondering why the rest of the gods were overreacting. He thought he had done a wonderful feat, carrying the Prophet on the wings of a storm for more than a hundred wagon-days. A few broken bones were nothing to be upset over, were they?
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The City of Kwabin, Northern Mattamesscontess, Harvest Season, 3rd rot., 10th day (East Coast Time)
The Infanta Moo’upegan was about to call her attendants to dress her for dinner when Vassu appeared. Moo’upegan fell on her face in front of Vassu, shaking in fear and desperately holding in the contents of her bladder and colon.
“The foretold time is upon you, daughter,” said the beautiful blackhaired deity. “Lowawathas will arrive in two rotations with the remains of the four Legions of Toyatastagka. The two naval fleets in the Gulf of Chipagawkpaw are no more. Of your family, only your youngest brother lives. If he refuses to reject Cragi, execute him.
“We have kept our promise with you, daughter, over Mattamukmuk. If you do our will and keep the promise you made to me over the freeing of slaves of all races, we will restore you to your ancestral throne. You will have a great work ahead of you to rebuild your realm. But first, we require you to capture the Prophet and keep her safe for a time.
“Rise, now, daughter,” Vassu said, as she knelt and touched Moo’upegan on the right hand. “You must send your Legion inland to aid your people. A great storm has destroyed many towns and holdings. Your populace needs you now.”
Then, the god of the waters was gone. Moo’upegan found she could breathe once again. The twenty-four year old Infanta sat back on her heels until her heart stopped racing. Then she stood and called for her servants to dress her.
At twenty and a half hands tall, Moo’upegan towered over her attendants, even the mages and clergy of Cragi. Her face would have been pleasant but unremarkable except for the startling appearance of her eyes. One was pink and the other teal. Her father, the now deceased Emperor, had called them unlucky eyes because they were the colors of Vassu, whose name was not allowed to be uttered in Mattamesscontess.
Her father had sent her to Kwabin, the farthest city of the Empire, eight years ago. It was a polite form of exile for his contrary daughter, who questioned everything and everyone. She had the bad habit of fair dealing, even if it inconvenienced the nobility or clergy. Her father appointed her as governor of the northern province on the coast of the Endless Sea. He said it was to prevent her brother, the imperial heir, from removing her permanently. Everyone knew that was just an excuse to get her out of the capital and prevent her from growing a faction.
Educated, talented magically, and charismatic, Moo’upegan had had intentions of building a faction and taking the throne. Then, after she had seen the corpse of the dead kraken Cragi on the Isle of Three Pine, Vassu visited her for the first time when she was eighteen.
“I will give you the throne you desire if you follow me,” Vassu promised her then. “Hide your intent to reject the false worship of the dead kraken whose corpse I left for all to see on the Isle of the Three Pines. Bide you time. Make no moves politically. Gather no faction. Turn away those who would urge you to plot for the throne. Pretend to be harmless. Live a life of leisure. Silently build a network of informants. Befriend the virtuous. And wait for the day that I tell you it is time.”
Vassu visited her two more times, to give her counsel and to warn her to prepare for the day the gods would do away with slavery.
“We will send a prophet, one from the least of all the races,” Vassu said on the second visit. “Among the Coyn, she will be smaller and weaker than the rest. Do not judge her by appearance alone, for while she lives, she will be the deadliest and most dangerous living creature on Erdos.”
Moo’upegan fastened her cape brooches and adjusted her headress. She strode from her dressing chamber down the corridor to her dining chamber. “Bring me General Gowatonk and First Advisor Nomogeekaw. I must speak to them without delay. A great storm has devastated the interior of the province and we must provide aid.”
Finally, she thought, her time had arrived. She looked forward to meeting this prophet. She was intrigued by the prospect that a mere Coyn could be a danger to any Cosm.
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Aylem, the Crystal Shrine, Harvest Season, 3rd rot., before dawn of the 10th day (Foskos Time)
*Wake up, Aylem! Wake up!*
“Shut up, Kamagishi, I’m sleeping. Get out of my dream.” I thought it was odd that Kamagishi was trying to wake me up while I was decorating my overnight carriage on the train to Glasgow as the nursery for my twins.
*Dammit, don’t kick me out. Wake up, you idiot. Something’s wrong. You’ve got to find Emily and Spot, and we need your mindcasting. Wake up!*
Stolen novel; please report.
“Go away. I’m busy, Kamagishi.” I needed to evict the Gurnsey cow that decided to walk down the middle of the carriage, pushing aside the swinging cradles I had just hung up. I wondered how long it would be until the next stop, which would be in Lancaster. I could evict the cow in Lancaster.
*AYLEM, WAKE UP! Ow, that’s hurt. Get up Aylem. I’m not Fassex. I can’t push much more than this. I need you.*
“Kamagishi is right, dearest,” Mugash said, dressed in a conductor’s uniform as she walked through the cow, took my ticket, and punched it. “You will awaken, now.”
My eyes opened. My bedroom in the Crystal Shrine was dark. I was sleeping on my left side to minimize the discomfort of my pregnant body. My back hurt, though that was an everyday thing at this stage of my pregnancy.
*You’re finally awake,* Kamagishi mindcasted at me. I was startled that she was really trying to wake me. Did Mugash just visit me to help wake me?
*Please, get to the Great Crystal,* Kamagishi pleaded. I could feel she was in pain from overusing her mind magic. *Aylem, you need to find Spot and Emily, and arrange their rescue.*
“Huh?” I sat up. This must be a real emergency. What had happened? Was Kamagishi really mindcasting me from Is’syal? She wasn’t someone known for long-distance mindcasting. Why didn’t she try to reach out to Fassex? Then I remembered that Fassex was in Suapsepso, helping to prep the Sanguine Shrine of Mugash for the return of the Holy Mieth.
*Emily and Spot are caught in a storm,* Kamagishi kept pushing her message at me. *They are about to be or have just been hurt. They need rescue, Aylem. Use the Great Crystal and find them. Then, find a way to get them help.*
*Let me take over, dear heart,* I followed her thought back to her and took over the conversation. *When we are done talking, I will send someone from the Mugash chapel shine to help with the magic overuse backlash. Now tell me what you know, and just think it, woman. I will do the work of listening.*
*I wasn’t even sure I could reach you but I was desperate,* Kamagishi replied, pain shading her response. *If you had not woken, I was ready to send up to the citadel to start the mindcasting relay to alert you. I woke only a few moment ago with a strong vision of Emily and Spot taking shelter at the base of a small cliff along a river, in rolling hills where the leaves are just starting to turn. The storm has or will come in fast. The wind is so strong that the trees in my foresight are flattened for more than twenty wagon-days in a west-to-east line about a wagon-day wide. The feeling of the vision is that it just happened or is happening right now. There’s a tree that’s crushed one of Spot’s wings and both his front legs, and Emily was picked up by the wind and blown away.*
*Where is she?* I asked.
Kamagishi’s distress was palatable, *I don’t know. I can’t see her anywhere.*
I reached out and dropped Kamagishi into sleep. I had never done anything like this before over a long distance but I knew that I had the power. Now, at least Kamagishi would have the measure of what a monster I was. Letting someone know, even someone as loyal as Kamagishi, frightened me.
I’m sure they hypothesized as to what I could do, but seldom did I show anyone the true extent of what that was. Would I lose my tentative friendship with Kamagishi over this? Would she now recoil from me in feat? I now regretted that I had dropped her back to sleep.
What was done, was done. I had too much to do to spend time dwelling on my foolishness. I reached out to the duty officer at the citadel and asked her to send a healer as soon as possible to the Fated Shrine to treat Kamagishi’s backlash pain. Once that was done, I woke my Cosm attendants and High Priestess Foyuna. Then I put on my house coat and slips and returned to my lounge in front of the Great Crystal.
I did not wait for anyone else to arrive. I sat down and extended my sight through the strange power of the mineral lattice to amplify my clairvoyance. Out across the Blue Mountains, the Naver Plains, the Asharimga Mountains, and the rolling downs of Jutu to the headwaters of the continent-spanning Stem River. The path of the storm pointed the way with smashed trees flattened along a straight line for tens of wagon-days. If I had not seen it with my own farsight, I would not have believed a storm could wreck such havoc. I wondered if the bad weather had spawned one of those monster tornadoes I used to read about in the American South that wiped out entire towns.
Soon, I found him, the poor injured Spot. He was a black speck on a pale green and brown speckled background of destruction, crushed beneath a tree. But where was Emily? I could not see Emily anywhere. After a moment, I paused my search for her and made a trial of something I had never tried before.
I stood up to place my hands of the Great Crystal and I inserted my consciousness fully into it. Then, I reached halfway across the world to cast stasis on Spot, so he would not die before help reached him. I would need to refresh the stasis at intervals, but for now, the progression of his life was paused. He would not die so long as I could reach him — and I had just proven to myself that I could. This was one of the few times in my life I was actually happy that I was an overpowered freak.
Having stabilized poor Spot, I started a search for mages with mounts. Spot would need a flying litter big enough for his wingspan. Six to eight eagles would be the right number to manage his transportation to healing mages. Did I need to contact our people in Mattamukmuk, or could I appeal to mages who might be closer? I would need to find those mages first.
I began my search, looking at holdings and villages and little towns in easternmost Jutu, but before I could find anyone, my belly clenched with a sharp pain. I felt the lightening as my babies shifted downward toward the birth canal and the trickle of fluid that became a gush as my water broke.
“No, no, no, no, no! This can’t be happening,” I cried as I swayed on my feet. Foyuna picked me up and laid me down on my lounge.
“What did you do, Aylem?” Foyuna asked, concern for me etched in her face. “You lit up the Great Crystal and the entire dome. Now you’re going into labor early. I have just called the Shrine’s healers and Lyappis is coming. You know the rules. No more using magic until you’ve delivered.”
“No, wait,” I panted. “One last thing, then I’ll stop.”
“Aylem, no! Your babies!” Foyuna admonished.
I ignored her and mindcasted to the west.
*Ud! Help me! I need you!* I sent my thoughts to the Fenlands.
In an instant that felt like a year, Ud was in my mind and knew what I knew.
*It is two days hence, child,* Ud said with her usual kindness, *and I have kept the stasis active since speaking with you. I will bring Spot to where he can heal.*
*Can you find Emily?* I asked but felt Ud sigh.
*I can. I have. I won’t. She is and is not found. Another is chosen for her. Erhonsay will keep her promise to Galt so do not fret for the little one, who will bring home a present for the mother of your senior. The girls are lovely, Jane. Remember to tell me their names when the Restful Shrine of Surd sends the oracle of their naming.*
With that enigmatic tease, Ud broke off the mindcasting. I could tell she was time slipping again.
Lyappis came at a run. I was astonished at how fast the old lady could run. She had a healing gown on already, prepared for the mess of childbirth.
“It’s early but not too early for your water to break. Is it just pressure or back pain, or have you had a contraction yet?” Lyappis placed her hand on my stomach and started her evaluation.
“Yes, I think so but it was a short one,” I tried to smile. “I think I might have overdone some long distance magic.”
“Yes, the light from the Great Crystal was seen as far as Aybhas,” Lyappis sounded vexed with me. “The Blessed Lisaykos will be here before dawn with a small garrison of healers and all the things we need for two premature births.” She finished her scan of me. “Labor has indeed started early. The babies are underweight but otherwise healthy. Their lungs will be able to function without help, which is the biggest of the worries for early ones. Just what in the name of Mugash were you doing, young lady, to cause labor to start early?” The old lady nailed me with a grandmotherly glare of disapproval.
“Spot is badly injured so I cast stasis on him,” I tried to explain. “I have asked Ud to take over for me so I can concentrate on going into labor.”
“Spot? But Spot is flying back from the east coast, across the continent,” Foyuna frowned at me and Lyappis joined her.
“I’d love to change out of these clothes now that they are soiled,” I pleaded with a smile, “and maybe take a bath before the contractions get too frequent. It will take more than two or three bells for the cervix to dialate.”
“What has happened with Spot, Aylem?” Lyappis drilled into me with her eyes.
“He and Emily were caught in a bad storm. Kamagishi woke me up to tell me. A tree fell on Spot.”
“My daughter in Is’syal woke you up?” Lyappis’ eyes grew wide.
“Yes, with a terrible foresight.”
“And you cast stasis on Spot, who is on the other side of the world?”
“Yes, dear heart.”
“Now, you just asked Ud to fill in for you with this rescue at a distance?”
“That is indeed what I did just a moment ago. I will be a good mother about to deliver and stop using my magic now that the protective barrier is fading with the breaking of the amniotic sac.”
“What about Emily?” Foyuna asked the question I was dreading.
“I’m sorry, Foyuna dearest, but I don’t know what has happened to Emily, and Ud wouldn’t give me a straight answer when I asked after our little prophet. I believe the gods have something planned for her.”
“A tree fell on Spot. Emily is once again missing. You just lit up the Great Crystal and cast stasis on someone on the other side of the world, and then passed the business of rescue to a spider monster who lives even farther away?” Lyappis closed her eyes and shook her head, “I’m getting too old for this.”