Lisaykos, her study at the Healing Shrine, evening 8th rot., 5th day

"Now I understand better why she has been so reluctant to talk about the gods talking to her," I leaned my head back against the armchair, rolling my beaker of tea between my hands. "I've had disturbing conversations with Emily over the last year and a half, but today was shocking."

"I agree it was disturbing, but only because it was so strange," Senlyosart frowned. "Emily is the prophet, after all. She's never going to be normal or predictable."

"The gods are talking to her a lot more than they ever talked to me," Aylem added. That spooked Senlyosart who didn't know about it. I did know that Tiki and Mugash had spoken to Aylem when she was younger. I didn't know any of the details. I also didn't know if they had spoken to her lately.

"Gods have spoken to you, Great One?" Senlyosart was a bit fish-eyed.

"Mostly when I was younger," Aylem shrugged. "Lisaykos used to discipline me by having me contemplate my misdeeds in the Well of Mugash. Every time she did so, Mugash would come to talk with me. She told me that if I ever needed to speak with her or ask for her help, all I needed to do was visit the Well, and she would come. She and Tiki counseled me not to speak of this since few would understand. Lisaykos was shocked a year and a half ago when I first told her, just like you are now, Holy One."

"And have you spoken with Mugash lately, Great One?" Senlyosart asked.

"Yes," Aylem replied and said nothing more. That surprised me. Maybe it shouldn't have since she is a special existence for the gods.

Aylem's face clouded. "I think what is shocking about Emily's talks with the gods is how ordinary she makes them sound. Part of that is because the gods do not awe Emily. She respects them and sometimes she fears them but she does not find much in them that she wants to worship. She used to say that Mugash was a god she found worthy of her awe and adoration, but lately, she's not even mentioned Mugash and I think everyone now knows why. I find myself disturbed by what Mugash did, even if it was meant to benefit me. If I were Emily, I would be unhappy too."

"She mentioned it to me, right after she discovered that Mugash slowed her recovery," I got up to refill my beaker. "Emily was upset. She was also unhappy because she determined she couldn't decline to be the prophet. She even considered killing herself as one means to get out of her current situation, because it was impossible to escape her destiny any other way."

"Surd save us," Senlyosart was appalled.

Aylem was shocked, "I didn't know that." She frowned and leaned back, studying the decorated plaster ceiling. "It's not like she can talk about her troubles with the gods because everyone she knows ends up being shocked by what she has to say. I don't think she has anyone she can confide in. She is very alone inside her own head. There is no one like her anywhere."

"Maybe this Tom person will make himself known," I said. "It's possible she'll talk with him freely, given their past together."

"Tom? Who is Tom?" Senlyosart asked.

"There is a fourth person besides Aylem, Emily, and Asgotl who has memories of Earth. His name in his previous life was Tom and he was handfasted to Emily before he died in a war," I explained. "We know he's a Coyn and that he probably runs a wagon from the holding he lives on to the markets here in Aybhas. We know he can play the divine. He left Emily a letter a season ago but didn't reveal his name or where he lives. He did say he visits the Coyn social hall here in the city in the northeast quarter, by the chapel shrine of Surd. That's all we know.

"The garrison is currently recording all the Coyn who drive wagons into Aybhas," I savored a sip of tea, "and the wraiths are gathering intelligence on all the Coyn who have acquired divines and play in the social halls. Whoever Tom is, we will find him."

"You'll have a problem with the divines," Aylem looked up with regret. "I financed the production of five hundred Coyn-sized divines from the music makers of Aybhas and Queenstown. I've had my Coyn delivery drivers with musical talent learn how to play them, so they can leave them off at the Coyn social halls and Surd Homes and give basic lessons. I gave them bonuses to do that."

"Oh, gods, Aylem," I shook my head. "What a mess."

- - -

Tom, in the east garden of the Healing Shrine, evening, 8th rot., 3rd day (while Emily, Kayseo, and Usruldes were snowed in)

I heard that Emily had returned finally. I was nervous after I left the letter for her. It took several days to find its way from the social hall to the shrine, or so I ascertained. Apparently, the letter arrived at the place where she slept a few days after the Impotuans attacked the shrine. She never saw it.

I had hoped she read it after she reappeared in Truvos if her captors allowed it. I didn't know if they were captors or not, but she never left the shrine so she might as well be a prisoner. Though I met a few folks who belonged to the Sassoo shrine who had actually talked with her in Black Falls. It seemed to them that she went where she pleased. She even had the friendship of a griffin, of all things, who allowed her to ride him. It struck me as the kind of outrageous thing Emily would do, befriending one of the notoriously arrogant griffins who wouldn't even bother to speak to a Coyn normally.

I heard the talk about her and that griffin doing dive bombing descents over Black Falls and Aybhas. All I could think of was the week we spent learning how to hang glide in La Jolla and how many times Emily landed in the drink. She's always had a daredevil hiding deep inside her.

The other tales from Black Falls were disturbing. A shrine trainee had cast the charm of discipline on Emily and she gritted her teeth through it. She chose to walk away from the conflict, and that sounds just like her. She always hated violence and face-to-face confrontation.

Then she attacked the trainee with a sling. That doesn't sound like my Emily at all. What happened to her that she would do something like that? The things you run into in life change you, but what did she encounter that could change her so drastically? Would I even recognize her at all, this new fierce Emily who has the gumption to attack a magic-wielding Cosm? Had my timid little mouse turned into a lion? Would I be able to abide such a change? I really needed to talk to her. Ever since I saw first saw her, not being able to reach her had been driving me nuts.

Until recently, there had been no way for a Coyn to even reach the main Mugash shrine. Coyn were forbidden to enter the buildings of the complex. There was a separate chapel shrine hospital just for Coyn by the north gate into the city and another special facility for the care of flying mounts at the garrison. Only Cosm could enter the main shrine.

At the end of the growing season, the High Priestess of Mugash set aside a part of the gardens next to the main shrine building and opened them for just Coyn seven days each rotation. Garrison guards patrolled the newly built pathway into the gardens to keep other Cosm away and to make sure the Coyn behaved. Whoever did the landscaping put in Coyn-sized benches. That shocked me since Cosm were never this thoughtful toward Coyn. There was even a bench where I could see what was said to be Emily's bedroom window far above me.

So there I was, standing under the branches of a big pine tree in the pouring rain with my guitar in an oilcloth bag on my back, looking up at the window. There was no way a serenade would work in the pouring rain. That window must have been more than 50 yards above me. Even if she were near the window, she would never hear me in this downpour. What a fool's errand my visit had been but I wanted to see her and talk to her that much.

I went back to the social hall to see the gal at the bar who handled the local barter market and traded a square of linen for some paper. I had my pen and ink with me and wrote a quick letter. I had to leave in the morning to head back home, but I could at least leave a note saying I was here again and that I would be back.

I made an oilcloth wrapper for it and ran down to the Sassoo post station. I paid my one bronze to have the letter sent through the mail. Then I ran back to the garden. On a whim, I added some graffiti to the bench nearest Emily's window, writing the first line of One is the loneliest number in ink with my finger and then running away before anyone could see or catch me.

- - -

Lisaykos, first-floor reception room at the Healing Shrine, evening 8th rot., 6th day

"Is there any other business before we adjourn for the day?" I asked my staff sitting at the table. I liked to finish with the daily meeting before half past the fifth bell so I had time to do rounds. Aylem, substituting for Wolkayrs, was about to stop the paper recording scroll she was experimenting with when Scholar Attendant Yaskilm cleared his throat and looked to catch my eye. He was my clerk who handled the shrine's mail and shipments.

"Great One, I brought this up from the missives sorting room," he got up from his chair, walked up, and handed me a small oilcloth-wrapped packet. "The clerk in charge of sorting messages brought this to me right before the meeting, which is when it was sorted. It was left in the basket for the Sassoo post. We don't know when it was left other than within the last five days. The trainees working the mail this rotation didn't realize the basket must be emptied every day, so it didn't come down to sorting until this morning."

I unwrapped the oilcloth to reveal a small square folded envelope made of scrap-grade paper around a single page of writing. I almost knocked my beaker of tea over when I saw the inscription: "To Emily, from Tom." The letter inside was written in Latin letters. I handed it to Aylem.

"Should we be reading Emily's mail?" Aylem frowned.

"They are both mentioned in the prophecy," I pointed out. "His letters are Convocation business."

"So, the rumored prophecy really exists?" the Revered Twipdray inquired.

"The Convocation would never have accepted Emily as a prophet without the Prophecy of the Great Breaking and a few others too," Aylem remarked.

"This matter does not leave this room," I ordered. "We need to find the person who wrote this and not scare him away. Emily wants to find him."

"Why would he be scared?" the Revered Galpahkos asked.

"Because he's a Coyn," Aylem replied, "which means someone owns him, and he's trying to reach someone of exalted standing who lives in a shrine where Coyn are forbidden to go."

"Perhaps that is the right way to keep things," remarked Kosuep, the woman in charge of the grounds and gardens belonging to the shrine. "Some Coyn has already defaced one of the new benches we built. They shouldn't be allowed on the grounds because they don't treasure the beauty of their surroundings. It's not like they're educated or know how to appreciate the finer things."

"What was defaced?" This I hadn't heard. Kosuep had not mentioned this in any of the daily meetings.

"Some Coyn painted fake black letters on the back of the bench closest to the south wing ground entrance," Kosuep curled her lip in distaste. She was very vain about the beauty of the gardens. "They'll be cleaned up tomorrow."

"Fake letters?" I prodded.

"They look like letters or symbols of some sort, but they ain't Fosk."

Aylem and I looked at each other.

"I'll be right back," she put the letter on the table and exited the room at a jog. My staff looked at each other, wondering what was really going on. Curious, no one moved from the table until Aylem returned a few moments later.

"It says," she sat down, "one is the loneliest number. It has to be more Earth poetry. Attendant Kosuep, please do not clean up this writing."

"Anything to do with this affair, whether it's letters or benches in the garden or anything else, is not to go beyond this room," I commanded. "If any of this leaks, the miscreant will be dealt with by me." I dropped the temperature in the room to emphasize what I said.

As the staff left, Aylem and I stayed seated. "What does it say?" I was dying of curiosity.

Aylem read the letter out loud: "Emily, I didn't see anyone in the windows, and it was pouring rain, so today was not the day to serenade you from the garden. I am not sure when I will be back in Aybhas, but I will try again the next time I'm in town. Love you, Tom."

"We can check the gate records against when it rained," I suggested.

"Dear heart, it's been raining for the last four days."

"Blarg."