Hand in Hand Together

HURRAY FOR PUEY DAY

FOR PUEY DAY, HURRAY!

The day began easily enough, we had to eat breakfast together, I wanted to sit in his lap but everyone was against that, but Puey and I figured out a way to cut the bread and eat, we just had to figure out what the other wanted and was doing, it was all very fair. There were some chores to do, biddies and fainting goats to be fed, and Puey had to lead some of the giant silkworms to the outer passages, I thought it was a wonderful day and Puey let me hold the shepherd’s staff, and we lead the plantimals out. It became a little bit more difficult later on in the day when Puey had to practice at swordsplay and the martian arts, some of the sages from the whispering mountains were present and they were wondering why I was coming along, and when I tried to explain what I had done, the warriors just looked to each other and laughed, You two glued your hands together! How is that even possible, and no matter how many times I explained that our hands were not affixed with glue, the older warriors just shrugged and chanted, How did they manage to do that? Puey told me that he still had to practice no matter what, it was part of his prowess as a warrior, and the other men were taking up their weapons and preparing to charge against him,and Puey, not wanting me to get in the way, just flung up me over his shoulders and fought one handed. Sometimes I shouted out, Left, Puey! Right! Right! He’s got an axe, as the warriors rushed at him, although I’m not sure whether I helped or distracted him, since he could already sense their presence, and I had left him one armed.
Practice was o'er, there were some other chores to do. Some of the priests were gathering at the Khatelèstan fortresses and were talking to the young men, and Puey and I came to sit down in the midst of Cousin Ìkhnos and Cousin Pàlron and some of the youths of the Khatelèstan, and the sylvan priests told me that the sermon they had to deliver was not really one intended for the ears of a young maiden like myself pèlqir prêt, riproĉdeklamado amziliz, and so I lay down my head upon Puey’s lap and closed mine eyen and did my best to fall asleep in a tiny manner, and as my body rested, and feeling faded away from my limbs and feelings, I heard that the priests were telling the story of Khiipafhifháfha the Kháfha warrior of old who knew that his Heart belonged unto the Immortals alone, and when he had been captured in a Flower Battle and bound in vines, the viceroy kings and lords told him that so famous was he that he did not have to die upon the altar, but Khiipafhifháfha refused, for one does not deny the Immortals anything at all, and so he walked up the long steps of the pyramid and lay himself down upon the table and not struggle at all as his blood became the fire of the Suns, and so it is that to this day Khiipafhifháfha is known as jhkhiîkhing átsafhar, the virtuous sacrifice. By then I was fast asleep.
I don’t think life was too difficult being bound together hand in hand, I found it remarkably easy. Sometimes Puey wanted to go left and I right, and had to decide together, or I would just yank my body in one direction and make him follow. True to my word, though, I did set about finding a way to separate ourselves just in case we should decide on such a course of action, and so we came into the workshop and Puey was quite amazed at what I had done with his Grandfather’s tools, he mewed that it had never been this clean and organized in his entire life, and I showed off some of the clepsydræ and coils and vats that I was constructing, and the various fruits of my jhpèporu, of my mad science, or at least that’s how Puey described it, QeD maw’, rikohs-ek’tal. I showed him some of the drawings upon the tàmpo chalk board, and how I had drawn us together by understanding the musical field of our skin, or at least a vibration which could be likened to music, for it was also like dance and dream.
At dinner time Puey and I had to sit upon the same bench, and Fhermáta would not let me sit in his lap although that would have been the easier course of action. Siêthiyal set the xhranátawa saw upon the table right beside her, and every few moments she took the zimischil and sharpened it a little or used it to slice some cheese or bread when a knife would have been a better tool, and she kept telling me that if I did anything to annoy her she’d come to me in the knife and start hacking my hand off, it would be the merciful thing to do. I started mentioning the story of King Xaîle Qhiikhèrkhmair of old who had only one hand, his hand of flesh was destroyed by the Dragon Prince Wthonùkite, and the King traveled outwards until he found Prince Jhwèsta who was my Father’s own jhpepòrnain, his own imperial mad scientist, and he fashioned for the king an hand made out of silver, and Xaîle of the Silver Hand was able to go out in battle and slay the Dragon Wthonùkite in a glorious battle. Siêthiyal chanted that I was more dangerous than a mad scientist and dragon put together, although I can hardly see how. Karuláta kept reaching forwards and snatching cookies from my plate, and whenever I tried to grab I was using the hand clasped into Puey’s, and he was trying to eat, and so we weren’t quite quick enough to stop the cookie grabbing. Fhermáta made me tell her my plan to dissever me from Puey, I told her all I’d need as a xhrexhméja, a keraunograph to record the lightning, and that should be sufficient enough to change the music, and she told me that tomorrow she would get one, from the Abby or from an allied clan.
I had bene a little anxious concerning our sleeping arrangements, but it seems that Fhermáta and Siêthiyal had already concocted a plan of their own, Puey was to sleep on the floor, and I was to be chained to the bed so that I couldn’t sneak out in the night and drag him with me and conduct what they characterized as rather bizarre experiments. I must admit when Fhermáta started chaining me up it was a little uncomfortable, especially since I was not being granted access to any of my tools, and several times Siêthiyal complained that it would be best just to cut off mine arm now, and we can invent a story for the Emperor later, and when Fhermáta would not relent, Siêthiyal just clomb o'er me and started thrusting the pillow of my face, but Fhermáta made her stop. It was not the most comfortable night’s sleep I e'er had, and whenever I tried to move in the chains, the rattling alerted either Fhermáta or Siêthiyal, and they were watching me all the while. The only one who got any sleep at all was Puey, but he can sleep anywhere and at anytime and has become rather enured to all matter of difficulties.
The next day the Sisters left, Fhermáta went to the Khatelèstan and Siêthiyal to the Saûqyufha and Karuláta to the Tásel and all went in search of a xhrexhméja ceraunograph, and someone even sent word to Auntie Qtìmine to look in the Abby. The day itself was pleasant enough, Puey and I did our chores together, and because I wasn’t allowed to work in the kitchen any more I had lots of free time just to spend with him at sword’s practice and in wandering in the forest, and there was no one to watch us all the day long. The only real difficult came later in the day, when Puey and I were walking about the fens, the wind was blowing about us, I was chasing after some butterflies and caterpillars and drawing Puey along with me, when we heard a scream around us, and some dinosaurs were stampeding and with them came a brontosaur dashing outwards swift and wild, it was pulling a wagon behind it and a maiden was shouting for help. At once Puey sprung through the air, and I bounced about him until he just plucked me up and flew through the air. He was quite graceful, the way that he swung about the necks of the dinosaurs and slid up and down the sides of their bodies, he came sliding about the crashing of the legs, he launched himself into the air and came slipping down their long tails, and soon came slipping outwards right unto the wagon. It was Asiréma, the reins lost, she was crying for help. The wagon was breaking apart, even as the panicked brontosauroids were crashing one against the other. I wished it could have been any other maiden aside from her, but I am not quite as lucky as Karuláta is. Asiréma looked to me and chanted how cute it was that I should come along, and I yanked at Puey’s hand to show that we were stuck together. Oh, it’s very adorable that your little sweetheart has glued her hand together, although a bit impractible it is. I made a fist with my hand in Puey’s and told her, I did not glue our hands together, I just created a new atomic bond consisting of the magnetization of our hands! It’s really very simple, I don’t understand why folk have difficulty in understand it. And second of all I am not his sweetheart, I am his one true love for ever, and when Puey and I grow up we’re going to get betrothed and married! Got it! Now leave him alone! By now the wagon crashed into splinters, Puey had to pluck both me and Asiréma up, her golden hair was flapping in my face, I don’t understand how she can get into so much trouble, can’t she possibly think ahead? Puey came leaping about the stampeding brontosaurs, he came bounding about the head of one and whispered into its ears and then bounced out to whisper unto the next and the next, and so it was that the patriarchs of the herd began to slow and run just a little slower upon their triple elbows and knees, so the bucks and does were slowing and the brontosaurlings thundering mammoth tall about me were slowing also, and Puey carried me and the Poriêriin maiden away from the dinosaurs. Puey thought it would be unchivalrous to leave Asiréma alone among the fens. I tried to slap her a couple of times, but Puey would not move his side of that hand, and he kept grabbing my other hand also. At length he came running outwards and carried us all unto iron cliffs and the ancient creag fortresses of the Poriêrii, the roofs were formed all of webs and gourds, and all of the warriors were wearing armor that looked like lobster nightmares, and ink blots given form, they were frowning and dour, the warriors as they gazed upon us, and the Elders came up to take Asiréma from Puey’s arms and bring her back within. Puey was very respectful though of this people, not quite enemy but not quite friend, a harsh people as if carven out of íya and qlùyun and qlún pumpkins ymix’d with xhyèjejo granite. The Elders swayed upwards, their clothing was rolling sand, and one came froward, I think Asiréma’s grandfather, and lifting up his hands chanted, Mighty indeed is the heir of the Sweqhàngqu, worthy of praise is Íngìkhmar’s Son. Some of the Masters of the War Clans had thought that the time of the Sweqhàngqu was waining, that they would fade away childless and lifeless here in this barren age, but we see that strength resides in your people, perhaps more than in our own. We Poriêrii have been blessed with many daughters, but the other war clans have not been blessed with young men worthy of them. One day we shall tell your Father we have seven or eight virgins to give you, beautiful maidens all fair and with aurelian hair, suitable to be concubines. The Grandfather came forward, he was leaning upon his staff, he leaned o'er to whisper towards Puey and chanted, The priests have been reading about you in the dance of the Stars. Long have you been expected. But we must be sure. We must know that the new age is coming. The Grandfather was about to turn away, but then, noticing me for the first time chanted, How charming it is that your little childhood sweetheart has managed to glue her hand to yours. Even with such a vexatious burdhen you stop a stampede and save a maiden. Commendible. He turned aside, and lifting up an hand chanted, You can tell your Father that our Clan is preparing maidens skillful at weaving, cleaning, cooking, calligraphy, dance, and song. An allience with the Poriêrii may be very fruitful indeed. And at that the warriors all turned around to surround the geron Elder, the warriors were clattering from side to side in their lobster ink blots, their armor all triangles and impaling spears, and Puey and I were left alone at the edge of the plains of flint and precious iron.
These were all portents send down from the Immortals, I knew, the way the Elders were all trying to lead Puey’s clan, the way they had signs for him, but I knew that I alone had the heart pure enough to lead him, and so I dragged him out until the fields until he picked me up and we came sailing back unto the tsàtsesan kachina of the Sweqhàngqu. The sky was darkening, an autumn storm was brewing, and Puey had to outrun the winds. When we returned hom, at the setting of the Suns, Auntie Qtìmine was seated at the table, Fhermáta and Siêthiyal and Karuláta about her, but the saw lay in Auntie’s lap, she did not wish Siêthiyal to hold it, I suppose. Auntie told Puey and me that my Great-Uncle Táto had found a xhrexhméja ceraunograph and would be delivering it tomorrow afternoon or night, and so Puey and I would only be glued together for one more day, and when tried to explain to her that we were most certainly not glued together, she just bade me to silence. Karuláta kept saying that she had the solution to the problem, and it would not involve sawing through my hand even though I surely deserved it, in her opinion, and Auntie relented, and Kàrula ran up to me and started biting my hand again and again, until Puey batted her away. Karuláta does have a strong jaw, but I think she would have succeeded in breaking my fingers or her teeth. We had soup for supper. Qtìmine did not seem in a very good mood, she was very quiet, and did not like it whenever I reached up to play with Puey’s hair. The Sisters told about their adventures, Fhermáta with the Khatelèstan and Siêthiyal with the Saûqyufha and Karuláta with the Tásel, but none of them had been able to obtain a xhrexhméja. Puey started talking about his exploits and I helped because he was particularly brave in swooping down to save that silly girl, although I don’t know what Asiréma was doing there in the first place, she hardly seems to have any common sense at all. Puey did not mention all that the Elders of the Poriêrii told him, but I described their fortresse and armor and how dour they looked. Qtìmine though kept asking about Asiréma and the daughters of that clan, and I chanted that they weren’t particularly interesting at all, in fact Puey and I never even mentioned them. The conflict with the Poriêrii has been simmering on and off for several generations, honored Qtìmine Samájhi was saying. The Sweqhàngqu have exterminated some of the allies of the Poriêrii who in turn have extirpated some of the allies of the Sweqhàngqu. Grandfather Jàkopar of happy memory had talked of marriage between the clans, although such a plan never quite came to pass. I think it would be a terrible idea, I chanted, they’re all so boring and sharp looking, who can trust them at all. Siêthiyal looked up and asked who was I to have an opinion on such a matter, but Fhermáta told her to hush and be civil. Karuláta was too busy steeling cookies from Puey’s and my plate for her to participate.
When supper was ended, I asked to help with washing the plates, but Fhermáta told me that my lifelong ban from the kitchen continued, and she didn’t want Puey in there either, one young man and a princess as clumsy as a young man were two problems too many for her nice shining kitchen, she warned me. Qtìmine came up to us and sniffed me and Puey a few times, and she chanted, As soon as the xhrexhméja comes and you two are dissolved, Puîyus, I think you need to take a bath, and this clothing most certainly needs to be washed. Princess, you still smell as roseate fresh and clean as e'er, but after all of the exertion of the last couple of days, bathing may be wise. Why can’t we take a bath now? I asked. Auntie gave me a look that I could not interpret. There’s no reason Puey and I can’t take a bath together, I chanted, and …

At this point in the story Puîyus clasped his hand o'er Éfhelìnye’s mouth.
– What happened then? – asked Aîya.
Yes, it was just getting good, Ixhúja mewed in the language of wild creatures.
– We want to know how you took a bath. –
Oh my goodness, he’s blushing now! This is what made him embarrassed in the first place! The mystery is solved, giggled Ixhúja in purrs and clicks.
Puîyus removed his hand from Éfhelìnye’s mouth and she cried out – But how we took a bath was such an interesting story! In fact, it’s the point of the entire tale! You see, this way, since our hands were affixed, I could wash Puey’s back and scrub his hair … –
Puîyus clasped his hand o'er Éfhelìnye mouth again and turning Ixhúja and Aîya coughed to say, That is the end of the story.
What’s the end of the story? asked Ixhúja.
– What happened next! – wailed Aîya. – What happened next what happened next what happened next what happened next! – she screamed.
Puîyus kept his hand across Éfhelìnye’s lips, he had rather hoped that she would just skip o'er the ending completely, in fact he was counting on it, but alas, no. He was not sure what to do now. Éfhelìnye reached up with her other hand and and taking his hand across her lips began to kiss it finger by finger. Ixhúja and Aîya leaned close to each other and whispered for a few moments, and then turning back began to shout and purr saying,Tell us the ending! Tell us the ending! Tell us the ending! Tell us the ending!
Puîyus drew away his hand, but Éfhelìnye caught it up again and kissed his fingernails. He was not entirely sure how he was going to survive this now. Ixhúja and Aîya were laughing at him now. Puîyus hid his face in his hands, he just knew that no matter how he tried not to think about it, his face was going to start shining in undulations of ruby and white, he could feel the heat creeping up about him, he could feel the color sweeping outwards and suffusing all of his face, and even though his fingers managed to hide much of his face, Ixhúja and Aîya could see the color appearing upon his brow and ear. Éfhelìnye’s face was slightly red also, and she leaned her head next to Puîyus’ neck and chanted – I don’t want to embarrass you, I won’t tell them the end of the story. –
– Tell tell tell tell tell! – cried Aîya.
You have no choice at all, Ixhúja giggled unto them clicking in a slightly clockwork manner.
– If you don’t tell, we just tell an even more fantastic rumor invented imagined fabricated about you twain the two! –
You did kiss, right?
– They were scantily clad, right down to the feathers, weren’t they? –
I know where this is going. You kissed right?
– !! – Puîyus shouted, hiding his face.
– I just tried to convince Auntie Qtìmine that it would be a good idea if maybe Puey took a bath, and she could put a sack o'er my head or blindfold or something, or maybe we could move the tub close to the door, and I could sit outside and holding up my arm, and Puey could sit in the tub. But no matter what my plan was, the honored nun just shook her head and chanted that it was just not acceptable at all. We would have to wait for tomorrow. And even though Puey never does stink, after all that is why he was hight perfumed and enchanting, tomorrow would certainly be a good night for him to have his bath. To be honest, I don’t understand why I couldn’t at least have washed his hair. I know Fhermáta usually washes it for him, but considering that our hands were still stuck together, it just would have been convenient. –
– !! – Puîyus shook his head back and forth.
– I’ll won’t tell the ending, Puey. I don’t want you to be embarrassed at all. –
Aîya started sniffling. Two of her heads looked down and began shaking. The third head began to cry large and salty tears. Ixhúja picked up Aîya and shook her back and forth a little, and purring told her princessly cousin, Now look what you’ve done, you’ve made the little Triîm weep now! How heartless!
– No heart-gizzard at all! – wailed Aîya.
She’s just a pour little brainless creature!
– Hardly e'er a thought unto me us them e'er! –
All she wants to hear is the end of the story.
– Especially if it end in pie fight, someone falling in mud, and people losing their clothing. –
– It’s prophetic that you should mention that … – Éfhelìnye began.
– MEW! – Puîyus shouted.
– I won’t say a word! – Éfhelìnye gasped.
Aîya sniffled. All three of her mouths were wriggling. Her three eyen watered. Suddenly she burst into fountains of tears. She wriggled o'er unto Puîyus and wrapped her wings around him and wailed – Just want to hear the end of the story! Want there to be happy ending for new Emperor and Empress. –
Puîyus poked up from his fingers. Aîya, seeing that she was noticed, wept all the louder. He shook his head in negation, and Aîya began crying all the harder. – Just want! Just want! Just want the Emperor and Empress to be ha-ha-ha-happy together! Lament! Lament! Woe woe woe woe woe woe! – Puîyus sniffled a little, he could not abide the thought of any living creature in pain, even if just longing to hear the end of a story. He looked up, his face still flushed with waves of apple and rose upon fields all of snow. Aîya flung herself into his lap and wept. He brushed her feathers. He could feel that his heart was melting within him and knew that he would almost certainly regret his decision.
Oh just go on, let her finish the story, Ixhúja told Puîyus in a language all of blinks and grins and nodding.
Puîyus sighed, and mewling unto her asked her, Can one trust you not to tell anyone else?
Yes, Ixhúja nodded.
– No, I we telling everyone – Aîya chanted.
No she won’t, Ixhúja growled. Slowly she reached for her weapon.
– Who I tell! Probably Emperor’s whole family already know … okay okay! I be good future time. I obey. All hail the Emperor of Earth and Ice and Fungus! –
Puîyus brushed an hand through his melancholy blue tresses, and looking to Ixhúja asked her, If beloved Éfhelìnye finish her story, can you promise not to tell one particular person?
I can promise anything, Ixhúja grinned, just as I’m a better racer and runner and fighter than you, so am I a better promise keeper. Just ask anyone.
If you should happen to come across the shade of my most revered Mother Khwofheîlya, please do not let her know.
I won’t say a word, Ixhúja grinned, but she turned to Éfhelìnye and gave her a look that meant, Khwofheîlya already knows right? And Éfhelìnye nodded, for Khwofheîlya almost certainly knew about this rather infamous incident.
Puîyus sighed and formed an khyatsaîke mudra that meant, Thy will be done.
May we just get to the incredibly embarrassing part, Ixhúja was murmuring in a language all of glances and blinks and schadenfroh giggles barely controllable.

Where was I? Oh, yes. So the next day or the next evening Great-Uncle would be returning with the xhrexhméja, the ceraunograph lightning recorder, the piece that I would need to change the music of the friction between our palms, xhmoxhràyaxúng, and the Vestal Nun Qtìmine was just completely opposed to the idea of my even being in the same room while Puey was taking his bath, she was saying that I could not be trusted, there was no rope I could not fray, no lock I could not unlatch, she chanted I was as wily and cunning as any Dragon at all, perhaps my Father the Sómpanaswaqíren Dragon Emperor had a little Dragonlette Daughter of his own. I don’t see how, but she chanted that I just liked to slip in and out of situations and have mine own way, that I flipped things upsy-turvy, that I bent all of the rules.
So that night once again Fhermáta and Siêthiyal were tying me to the bed and making me fast and secure, and I did not resist at all, but was as docile as any lambkin. Puey lay down, his hand and mine still clasped together. It was dark, the only light the smoulder of the hearth, the glimmer of firesheen upon the statues lares and penates. I waited and listened to the breathing of the three Sisters and unto Puey himself. In the middle of the night I made my move, for anticipating that I would be tied up again, I had secreted a tiny unásèqwati pin around my collar, and a tiny tniê safety pin about one sleeve, and struggling a little I was able to affix them together and slip them into a hook into the fhrùxhi brooch in my hair, the brooch which Puey had made for me, but which has broken and disappeared somewhere in our Quest to heal the Land. I set the pieces together and put them together, and as I had planned they formed a powerful lockpicking tool, and all I had to do was listening to the moving of the wheels, and the chains opened up about me, and I arose like a flower blossoming beneath the moonlight, and so tippy toeing downwards, I slipped down next to my sleeping Puey and rested my head on his chest and slept in utter peace for a little time, until Siêthiyal rolled o'er to avoid more sororal drool flowing on her from Karuláta, and Siêthiyal bumped into me and discovered that I had slipped from their trap. This time Fhermáta and Siêthiyal bound me again, and they kept asking me how I had escaped, but I just shrugged and chanted sometimes when one is asleep one can just do all manner of mischief. Fhermáta searched my pajama pockets, and found some crayons and papers, and was about to let me go, but then she found the little tool out of pins, and eyeing me she placed it upon the table away from me, and so once again, bound and still I lay. I waited for all to fall asleep again, and then I tapped my ballet slippers together. I usually sleep bhoso barefoot, for this night I made sure to keep the fhèrntol red and glass dancing slippers on, and as I shook them a little out came rolling a ball of twine with some hooks on it, and I was able to inch and wriggle it unto my fingers, since I am extremely flexible it was not too difficult to twist my legs upwards up to my bound hands, and bringing up the cord I drew out several small screwdrivers, and in a few seconds the floral chains sprang apart, and once again I slipped down and rested beside Puey and slept with my head on his chest. This time it was Karuláta who arose and shouted, Princess alert! Princess alert! She slipped the chains! She busted the pokey! All Sisters arose, their eyen were red and not a little tired from the frequent interruptions caused from looking after me, and this time Fhermáta was mumbling something about letting me stay in the Abby and let Auntie Qtìmine and the nuns look after me and see how I liked that, and now the Sisters bound me with tight rope and extra chains, and Akhlísa lay in the bed beside me, and no more tools had I left for escape. In the darkness I listened to everyone’s falling asleep. The fire died away. A few kittens and dinosaurlings were prowling in the darkness, in the cold, and rain was falling outside and dancing upon the window panes.
I whispered unto the pets. Psssst! Eiya! It’s I, Princess Éfhelìnye! I’m Puey’s beloved! Do you want to come o'er here and unchain me? Puey will be very thankful. A few kittens sprawled up to me, purred a few times, and made a bed of themselves on my lap, they were not too much of an help, but the atalesqiyìsqi ahuitzotl came sliding down the walls, and their long fingers snaked out towards me, and they grasped the rope and chain, and a few lambkins pressed their heads against me to shove me, and a couple of dinosaurlings jumped onto the bed, with their sharp talons poked the chains, and they all sprang open, and with one arm I hugged the otter-monkeys and dinosaurlettes and petted the lambkins and kissed the kittens, and chuckling to myself slipped down to the floor and slept beside Puey, my head upon his chest, and lay undisturbed until it was the first hour of the day, and when the Sisters awoke this time they were no longer even caring how I was slipping from their grasp, and moreover, the atalesqiyìsqi uakaris and dinosaurlings and lambkins were looking at the maidens askance and in a most guilty fashion, and only the kittens came leaping away without a care in the world.
If you can just manage not to get into trouble for a few hours, this entire ordeal will be behind us, Fhermáta chanted. Can you this, Éfhelìnye? I know this quite a lot to ask of you, considering that you’ve destroyed a kitchen, unleashed a killing machine, and glued yourself to my Brother in just a few days. Only the Immortals know whatelse you may have in mind. I tried to tell her that I was most certainly not glued to him, it all had to do with music, but she didn’t care, and she still wouldn’t let me help her wash the dishes.
It was dark even in the noontide, the storm was rustling all of the trees, and as autumn was already heavy upon the land, and the first few hints of winter frost come unto the branches, the leaves were falling in a great profusion. Fhermáta was pacing back and forth inside the crannog, she did not like the winter storm coming, and she kept saying that I was interfering with her plans, appearently she and Puey were supposed to be preparing to be fitted for some ritual, and nobody was bothering to tell me that it was preparation for betrothal, but I was just a guest-friend xenos, ghosti, fraizola, perzimzio, isiqattaaq, qhèsqa qwaô qyikhóxhiti fhìtqe khlót fhlàxhraneung tlhielkhùrqtie, and it was not my business to know such things. Fhermáta was getting anxious since Great-Uncle Táto was not coming in a timely manner. Abbá Íngìkhmar was busy in the fields gathering up the lambs, and Puey told me that where he should be and me with them. Fhermáta took up her cloak and rainbrella and chanted that she would leave to find Great-Uncle Táto and his ceraunograph, and that Siêthiyal and Akhlísa were supposed to look after Puey and guard him from me, but the moment Fhermáta was gone Siêthiyal and Akhlísa started chasing each other around and fighting o'er a doll, they were leaping about the furniture and knocking it o'er and clawing about the walls. Puey took my outside, in the darkning noon, leaves and snow and rain mixing all together and falling in quick and violent sheens. He came unto the pastureland, the lambs were growing afraid, but his hands were gentle and he began leading them and me into the barns, and then he turned unto the giant silkworms and the fainting goats, and he was making sure that the dinosaurs were in their stables, and we came to the place where fierce Stitlhàrkhlo, ferocious and man-eating was kept, and the velociraptor shook his head and snorted and let Puey and me petting his snout many times, the terrible lizard was always gentle around children. By now the wind was howling. Sleet frost drizzle was crashing č”ilči about us tsòthna khmisùlike khmixhrùlike khmixhruliqrùyaqa. I was already coughing from the cold. Puey was holding his cloak about us both, but the waters were arising. In the hills we heard the howling of the winds and the swaying of trees, waves all of autumn leaves flowing downwards and blanketing us, and in the music of the squall came the ululation of so many heavenly nymphs. I was already getting wet, but an idea came to me, we could stay in the workshop and dry off for a time, and Puey thought that was a good idea also, and there were also inklings and tinkerings that I wanted to show him.
The workshop was cold at first, but we builded a small fire in the bonizmiz xhòtwu, and as the light arose, it illuminated the drawings all upon the walls and upon the writing board. Puey helped me to move out several barrels and wheels and I revealed unto him my next creation, but he recoiled when he saw that it looked remarkably similar to the washing machine that I had deviced a few days earlier. Oh no, this one is completely different, it just appears similar because it uses some of the same barrels and tuifhlájhi widgets and khuplàpla gizmos and khùwawa gadgets and thingamapápel umoj, and cranking up the springs and wheels I introduced it to Puey, and the apparatus lifted up its many spiderly limbs, and from its dome arose a fountain of batter and frosting. I told Puey that I was trying to create a device to help Fhermáta in her pie baking, especially because I did not wish for her to be angry with me for ever just because I blew up the kitchen a few times, and the apparatus bowed to Puey and tipped a claw into the churning batter within taûjo and offered some to Puey. With polite but stern hand my Puey declined, perhaps he felt a little uneasy about taking food which a machine was baking in its belly. Anyway, the storm was raging, we were relatively warm and mostly dry within, and I showed Puey some of the different mechanical flowers that I was devising, and a digging machine, and a combination plough and hat, and a model for a walking roof, for sometimes one just needs a roof out in the middle of a field, and a new type of paper that was able to guess what I was about to write, although it still had many flaws to it, and when I held it up to Puey it kept squirting ink in his face. And so we looked at invention after invention, or at least model and drawing of some of the more complicated ones, the ones who final realization lies only within mine imagination, and it was rather serene within, by the crackling flames, and the music of the drizzle and snow and falling leaves outside. In fact it might have become one of my heavenliest memories were it not that every few moments the pie apparatus threw batter right at Puey, and sometimes it spat out bits of crust and chunks of dough. After a time Puey could no longer ignore the machine, I think it must be true that many machines, especially the more complex ones just have a natural understanding that Puey is quite overfain of them. Is that what you think, you little mechanical insects dwelling in my cousin’s golden tresses? Yes? I think so too, in the same way that savage dinosaurs and wild coyotes and kine and squid bears know that Puey is a feral child, and they were kneel down before him and let him ride them and speak all in the same language of grunts and barks and squeals, so too clockwork machines realize that Puey belongs to a very different world, his is of growth and nature and incense, and theirs is of calculation and wheel and oil, and neither of the worlds are quite yet to join together. The machine arose, it was squirting out fountains of dough, its limbs were folding upwards and its knife edges were grabbing chunks of batter and making them like unto snowballs and hurling them right at my Puey. This time, when Puey arose to fight, one armed indeed, he looked at me and gave me a look that meant, Why is it that when you invent these apparatus you give them knife fingers and sword arms? Even if they are meant to dwell in the kitchen, verŝajne you’re almost asking them to rebel bearsarked. I did not have an answer for him, all of the activity was just arising too swift and terrible to behold. The apparatus was spun around, batter and crust were rushing out of it, and Puey had to bat the dough away just as if he were playing Xhwongeîthe and had to swing his mallet about, only this time instead of hitting the ball, it was dough exploding in a brilliant pie fight. The machine was leaping about, its manifold legs were crawling up and down the sides of the walls, and Puey, grasping me all the while was bouncing upon the ceiling, one hand still clutching me, the other hand was swinging a sword around and jabbing and thrusting and stabbing all the while. The machine blew out wads of dough and covered my face, and when I wiped it clean with my free hand, the dough already disintergrating from touching my perfect skin, I saw that Puey had already succeeded in ripping of a limb of the machine, and the limb was running around of its own accord and independent of its host. Puey came crashing through some of my drawings and models, he was beating the pie machine down, and it was erupting just like a volcano in its growing wrath, so that towers of raw dough were splashing outwards and the dough was become like tendrils reaching outwards and wrapping themselves about Puey’s neck and slowly drawing him into the mixing bowls filled all with grinding fangs and gnawing teeth most wailent. Puey gave a tremendous shove and kicked through the barrel, disques and wheels spinning all about, the machine bouncing from side to side. Puey roared, the machine jumped upwards, or at least the skeleton of it, and it was like Puey was fighting against a skeleton drapped in endless pie explosions blossoming up and down its body, and Puey had to wrestle it down with his one free hand and strangle it down, until his fingers clasped about all of the pie holes, dough squirting outwards, now as the machine was dying, dough and oil wellmixing together, wheel crashing and dying against each other. The machine sputtered. The glassen eyen waxed dark. Puey strangled the machine a few more times just to be sure, his eyen were fierce, and even as the machine became limp and cold in his hands, he smashed it about a few more times and crushed the pieces in his hands, and gave it a few solid kicks for good measure. Then Puey turned to me and gave me a look that meant, Please stop inventing anything that can have a knife edge or possibly a mind of its own. I was quite sorry. And Puey was quite a mess, dough dripping down his hair and ears, batter besplattered upon his jerkin and sark, and mud from the storm still lying at the tips of his kilt and trousers, and if anyone were in need of changing and a bath it would be my Puey. The storm was growing e'er fiercer outside, but Puey did not wish for the machine to remain together, he gathered up the pieces and opened the door, and by now the waters were arising a couple of cubits, so that he had to carry me through the flood along with a pile of twitching claws, and knife hands grasping dough, and little wheels occasionally spitting pie batter at him just for spite, and the rain was falling, and the sleet was howling, and by the time we came to a pit, we were both drenched. Puey dumped the offending machine into the abyss, where ash and mud could claim it, and the sleet fell down all the harder, so that both of us began to cough a little. My hair was sticking unto my brow, and as Puey waded through the water, his wooden shoon were squeaking, his hair was become violet in the inundation. The crannog was far away, and the loch was flooding some of the fields, it was good that we had brought the plantimals unto their pens, but we were stuck now in the rain and growing sick from the cold. It would be faster to return to the workshop we realized, it was closer and perhaps by the fire we could wait out the storm, but to hasten unto the crannog would take longer, and both of us were sleeping. My heart, the feminine heart of Empress Pfhentókha, told me that we did not wish for Puey to be ill, so I chanted let’s return to the workshop and wait, and by the time we returned there, the sleet was so thick that I could barely see through the ice curtains. Slipping in the mud all the while, Puey shoved the door closed, the workshop was some cubits above the ground so at least the floor was dry, but both of us were wet and sticky and sneezing all the while and still stuck to each other, and we approached the fire to warm up ourselves and our conjoined hand.
Hailstones began to fall outside, and the window panes were shaking. I started sneezing with violent fneezing. Puey was shaking so hard that I thought his bones were rattling. Our clothing was dripping, and a few clods of pie crust were falling from Puey’s hair. It was then that I had my revelation. It took me a few moments to articulate it, because I kept sneezing louder and louder in my drenched condition, and when I sneezed I jerked the hand still affixed unto mine. At last I managed to tell him, Puey, as matters stand now, we are both going to grow very sick very quickly. We need to take off our outer garments and sit very close to the fire, in fact we’ll probably have to hold each other unless we want to freeze to death. Puey refused to do this, he just inched us both closer to the fire. The hail was falling down all the harder, the winds were howling, the walls were rattling, the storm was growing even more intense. He told me, we’ll just return to the crannog, we’ll be fine in there. What’s the use of doing that, we’ll still end up dragging ourselves through the door wet and bedrazzled as now? Either way, we need to be dry and warm. Now, even though we only have a single free arm each, it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to remove each other’s clothing. If we could figure out how to eat together and walk around and sleep and all the rest, we can surely figure out a single stunt like this. One again Puey refused. He mewed he was fine, even though now his face was turning blue, and since his hand was clutching mine I could feel just how cold it was against mine. I was sneezing many times and probably looked rather pathetic. Puey, we need to do something soon, otherwise we may both die, and I refuse to let that happen. We shall have many more adventures together, we shall sail again upon the cloud seas, we shall venture outwards unto dreamlands as of yet unnamed, but in order to do that, we can’t die of cold now. Anyway, would you rather have us return to the crannog and have to undress while your Sisters are watching the both of us? If we have to do something a little embarrassing, let’s do it here in private, we’ll set your jacket by the fire next to my gown, we’ll sit in your underclothing and wriggle our toes, and no one will e'er know. In fact, this will be a great secret that we can share, we can give each other a glance and say, Remember the attack of the pie machine and the sturm, and he ended up in the fanspηp together, and we held each other tight? I think it will be lovely. So I told Puey, but he just shook his head and refused.
And so wet and dripping we commensed freezing to death. After a time I thought I could no longer feel my toes and limbs. Puey was swaying from side to side, he did not look so well at all. His teeth were chattering, and no matter how we sate before the fire, we were still dripping from head fro to toe to. I was coughing, and Puey was having trouble breathing. I knew that I had to take matters into mine own hands if we were to survive, and the story that I intended for Puey was far too great for us to freeze to death now. I drew out a pin from my pocket and thrust it into my brooch, and I threw Puey upon the carpet and told him, Please don’t hate me, but I only want to save your life. Now, take your jacket off, Puey my beloved my one true love, or I’m going to start cutting it off. Puey made a valiant effort to resist me, but he was shivering all the while, and the quavering hindered me more than his resistance. I was able to remove his free sleeve and pull the jacket away to the sleeve connected to the hand affixed to mine, and I realized that the easiest course of action would be to slit the sleeve, and so one dripping garment was removed. I removed a few of his sharks in similar fashion, and as the shirts fell aside all manner of dreadful knives and glaives and sharp and dangerous pointed objects were falling out. Puey slipped his sword sheathes off himself, appearantly there was a trick to how it was all buttoned. Now as to the matter of his belt, let me tell you, I had no idea that men’s belts were so complicated. Perhaps it’s just a condition of the bauldriξ of the warrior caste aristocratic Jarjhíxhoxe, but the belt was just made up of so many compartments, and wheels and hooks were clasping about each other all the while, it was like taking apart a piece of clockwork. Puey, do you realize that your belt is like clockwork? No? Anyway, so after much trial and error I managed to take his belt apart and …

– Tee hee hee hee hah! – laughed Aiya.
He looks like he’s about to faint now, Ixhúja was purring.
– There’s not much more to tell. Puey, are you sure you’re alright? You look a little woozy – Éfhelìnye chanted.
Puîyus looked around and wished there were a place for him to hide within the egg or to escape outside of it, and especially since he were now untethered from the Starflower Princess he did not have to say right by her side, but alas the egg pod was still as small and narrow as e'er. Éfhelìnye brushed her hands on his face and chanted – I can continue the story later if you wish, perhaps when you’re asleep? No? Here, lie down next to me. Let me just wrap mine arms about your neck. Now, let’s see, we were dripping wet, and I pulled of Puey’s belt. It was not to difficult to remove his wooden shoon and the double layer of stockings he wore, not to mention his kilt and trousers. –
– Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah! – laughed Aîya.

By the time I had reduced Puey to his undershirt he was a frozen Pueycicle just shivering, and I rubbed his chest and and drew us as close to the fire as we could get, but I was still dripping wet also, and fneezing all the while, so I turned to Puey and told him, You’re going to have to help me take my clothing off too. I have trouble reaching the buttons down my back, if you can just unbutton them for me, then we can cut me out of my snowhite gown. Puey unbuttoned the first latch and then …

Thump! Aîya and Ixhúja looked around and found that Puîyus had fainted before them. Éfhelìnye rolled him o'er and set his head in her lap and played with his silvery blue tresses. – I knew the story was going to be too much for him. You two convinced him to let me tell it, but perhaps I should have refused. –
– Hah hah hah hah hah hah! – laughed Aîya.
– Tee hee hee hee hee! – giggled Ixhúja. Then what happened?
– This happened! –
– ?? –
– Puey unbuttoned my top button and then fainted. And let me tell you, having one’s hand affixed to a fainted person while one is struggling out of a gown is quite a precarious situation. I tried to revive him, but when he finally awoke and I had my outer cloak halfway off, and he could see a patch of my shoulder, he just fainted again. Perhaps it was easiest to let him be, I slipped off my rubescent and glass ballet slippers, and took of my outer gown and my blouses until I was in just my slip, and I huddled close next to him and wished that we had a blanket. But at least our clothing could dry, and as soon as the storm passed we could dress again and slip into the house and nobody would be the wiser. Then again, perhaps Fhermáta might notice that both of us had clothing managed at the conjoined sleeve, she could be a bit of a twór detective when she was in pursuit of her goals. After a time though Puey revived, and all about him he heard the rushing of the storm and the crackling of the fire, and when he noticed that I was huddled up beside him he looked up and noticed that we were both quite scantily clad before the fire. He decided to keep his eyen closed at least, but I didn’t mind at all, I don’t feel embarrassed now and I didn’t then. How can I be shamed before Puey my beloved, the lad of whom I have been dreaming all of the nights of my life, my one true love, the boy of my dreams. I did not wish to embarrass him any further though, so while his eyen were shut I wrapped my free arm around him told him stories. I told him stories about knights brave and true who ride off to defend princesses fair about dragons, and he stopped shivering when I started weaving such a story together, his favorites involve dragons and princesses and ravens also. I don’t remember the tales, I was just making them up as I went along and invented them in passing, but inevitably they involved a quest, the knight was adrift upon the waves of fate, the princess was beautiful beyond all reckoning, the Dragon was arising, vast and terrible, snow and flame cracklent from its wings, and a great battle always lay at the end, and the knight prevailed and held up the princess and they kissed and all was well in the land as he carried her off upon his noble dinosaur stead to be married in the healed kingdom. And as I held him and told him stories, the fire faded and we fell asleep in the growing storm.
When we awoke we noticed that the fire was dead and the skies were dark, the workshop swimming in shadows. I crawled up upon Puey’s chest and began kissing him, it seemed as if it had been days since I had had a proper kiss, since Qtìmine and Fhermáta and Siêthiyal were guarding me all the while, but now that we were completely alone there was nothing to stop me. Puey tried to push me away, but I still found his lips, they were perfumed and sweet as usual, and in kissing him I felt warm again for the first time since the storm. The wind was howling a little in the rattling windows, and as I kissed Puey again and again he kept trying to tell me something, something about how the storm had died away, the drizzle and rain were gone, but I didn’t care, I just wanted my kisses, he was trying to tell me that we should don our clothing now, surely it was dry, but I chanted let’s just stay here and kiss for a couple of moments before returning, my lips found his, I thought he was trying to hug me, but he kept tapping my back, and I could feel that he was tracing out gestures and lroîxhmo cheremes which I could read just from the feel of it, and he was telling me, But several people are approaching us right now! We must get dressed! But I chanted, Just kiss me, my Puey, we can worry about them later, life is far too short to worry about every little detail. I wasn’t worrying about the inventions of mine that were less than perfect, why should I be overconcerned with steeling a few kisses in the dark? I think I made the right choice.
The door swung open, someone was holding a painted lantern. I could hear Fhermáta shouting, There’re inside! They must have gotten caught in the storm and taken refuge within. Then came the sound of rustling robes and keys, and long angular legs, and quite a familiar voice was saying, It took some doing but I obtained a xhrexhméja keraunograph for my divine Princess Éfhelìnye. I wonder what experiment she’s conducting now, the Emperor’s concubine failed to mention it! Great-Uncle Táto was chuckling to himself, I could hear that he was leaning to Fhermáta and saying, Why I remember the day I brought her her first alchemy set, she was quite clever with it, performing all of the experiments and devising many of her own. I wonder what marvels she has in store for us now. He took a few steps into the workshop, he set the recorder down, it was large and heavy by the sound of it, Fhermáta slipped up beside him, and swinging the painted lanthorn right towards us revealed me and Puey in our underclothes beside the fire, our clothing lying and drying by the hearth, and I was still leaning o'er Puey and planting a big kiss on his lips. I’d like to say I’m surprised, Fhermáta muttered with clenched, but frankly I’m not. What what? What what? asked Great-Uncle Táto, and when he saw me, I’m afraid that Great-Uncle gasped, and both of his spectacles shattered, long cracks reaching down through the prism. He staggered backwards as if struck and clutched his heart and cried out Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!
Wait wait, I chanted, there’s a perfectly reasonable and logical explaination, and when I tried to pull away from me, I ended up dragging him along with him, I had forgotten that we were still affixed. My Great-Uncle waddled a little, his voice grown raspy, and he muttered, If the Emperor finds out about this, if Kàrijoi learns of this, if my beloved Lord should discover that the daughter of his virgin bride dared to touch a lad, dared to kiss one, oh oh oh oh oh, the Emperor can never forgive me, no no no no no, doom upon us all, ah ah ah ah ah, there will be war without end, there will be extinction unto us all. And at that he staggered and began falling out the door.
What’s this? Came the voice of Auntie Qtìmine. Honored Jhakúpa, are you well? She was holding him by the wing. Puey and I inside were frantic. I’ve discovered that it’s actually very difficult to get dressed in an hurry when one is bone chill and only has a single spare hand, and Puey was still blushing at the idea of having to dress me, and somehow he was getting me in my dress backwards, and I could not even figure out how his sarks were supposed to work in the cold and darkness, while Fhermáta glared at us with her painted lanthorn. Fhermáta turned around and told her Aunt, Don’t come inside!
Jhakúpa, we’ll get the priest to see you, you’ve been strick with something, Auntie was saying, but then leaping into the workshop and ducking about the drawings and models, she chanted, Why can’t I come inside? Has someone else been hurt? Puîyus, are you inside? Why aren’t you answering me, I thought that Fhérma … great Ancestors in the Undergloom! I hope my blessed Sister among the Ancestors isn’t watching you now!
Puey was trying to squeeze me backwards into my gown. We were cold and wet and just trying not to die of freezing! I tried to explain, but Qtìmine’s eyen were swimming, partially in judgement, and partially concerned with a princess with knees almost visible beneath her slip and Puîyus with arms partially visible. Just like Íngìkhmar, just like Íngìkhmar in the last generation, Auntie was muttering to herself, although I don’t quite know what she meant by that. I think she on the verge of fainting right now, but behind us came another voice and the sound of a staff, an old man saying, Xhwókh! Xhwókh! Where is my Granddaughter? Where is my precious and dear little Éfhelìnye? I’ve heard she’s been conducting all sorts of experiments.
Grandfather Thiêfhilos, Auntie Qtìmine chanted. She pointed to Fhermáta and chanted, You keep him from entering! Do it! I will not let him see his pupil and Grandchild … oh my Puîyus, just like Íngìkhmar all o'er again, it’s like the Immortals have some strange and cyclical sense of humor. Fhermáta, keep him out, or I’ll punish you to the same degree as these two, you are the oldest Sister, responsible for both the guest-friend, and your addle-brained Brother. Qtìmine glared at Puey and me as we tried to dress, and she chanted, This is our contract. You get dressed now, you get your hands unglued now, we keep this hushed up from both your Grandfather Pátifhar and Abbá Íngìkhmar, and we never speak of this again, and nobody gets punished. If the revered Regent Sylvan or the good Sieur Knight find out, I’m sending one of you packing right back to the Emperor never to leave his harem again, and the other one can go live with the Poriêrii for all I care. And have I failed to mentioned that the Poriêrii bake not cakes! Or pies! Or muffins! Gasp! Gasp! Gaspped my Puey to think of a fate worse than death. Oh, and Fhermáta will not be bringing you any either. I did not have the heart to remind Auntie that Puey and I were most certainly not glued together, but I think the complex reaction was probably not relevant unto her.
Grandfather Pátifhar was on the steps and helping Great-Uncle Táto up, he trying to get him to breathe easier, and Fhermáta kept ducking through the door and saying, It will just be a moment. Éfhelìnye has spilled some of the khwènot tetrodotoxin fugu that Puey had collected from àraka falcons and jhyìsqri birds, and Puey wants to clean up the mess before you enter. Fhermáta was so calm saying it, that I almost believed her myself. Puey and I get dressed very quickly, although most of our clothing was inside out and possibly upside down, but we had not a moment to spare. At least I had all of the calculations in my head and did not have to think of them too much, and although the initial euphoria of the creation of this adhesing music, this creative frenzy born of fasting and last of sleep, although it was all gone, I knew enough to change the music. I cranked up the wheels of the xhrexhméja ceraunograph, and the storm about us was still strong enough, that some lightning was branching in the dark clouds, and flickers were splashing downwards unto the levin machinery below, the wheels were glowing, the light swirling in a shaft, and as I drew my hand and Puey’s clasped together into the light growing, I asked Puey to hum a tune, something that reminded him of me.
Grandfather Pátifhar was helping Great-Uncle Táto upwards, and columns of light were falling upon the workshop. Fhermáta was finding it harder to keep them all from entering again, and Táto was reaching into his vest kanásyo čaleko for another set of prismatic spectacles. The ceraunograph zum zum zum buzzed into lightlife. The beams were sparkling. The inventions within the workshop were all lifting up their hands and wheels, the models and papers all coming unto life, the various claws and barrels and devices almost floating upwards in the grand epiphany. Grandfather Pátifhar drew himself within, and at the last moment Puey panicked, I think he yanked his hand just a little to quickly from mine, and a slight burn mark appeared on the side of his palm and quickly faded away. Grandpa looked around, all of the inventions were floating around, devices whirling about, and opening up their glassen eyen, bits of juke box and wax cylinder and coil, he blinked a few times and chanted How very impressive. However, my children, I think that the storm is returning, we should all retire into the crannog for the night, lest we be caught cold and wet in the rain.
Great-Uncle Táto waddled within and gasped, Please tell me they’re decently dressed now! Oh, my heart! My heart! Pátifhar was about to ask Great-Uncle what he meant, but Táto was still staggering around and gasping. Puey thrust his hands into his inside out pockets, and so he received the slight line upon his hand, from the lightning crackling from the xhrexhméja, but I think the line is fading in time, it was just an heat stroke. Outside came the sound of snorting and rustling, and Abbá Íngìkhmar swung down from his saddle, feircesome Stitlhàrkhlo outside, and shuffling up the steps of the workshop looked around and asked, Am I missing anything?
No, chanted Auntie Qtìmine, We have to go inside, chanted Grandfather Pátifhar, Most certainly not, chanted Fhermáta, Oh my heart! Gasped Great-Uncle Táto, and Puey and I just shook our heads. Íngìkhmar turned to leave and chanted, The storm is returning, winter cannot be far behind. Children, it’s time for you to sleep. I need to talk to the adults about the Poriêrii, their Elders having me pestering me with a rather interesting proposal. So the ceraunograph fell silent, the Grandfather Jàkopar’s workshop grew cold and dark, and as we all left it, for the first time in three days my hand was free of Puey’s. But neither of us, after this time, quite felt comfortable walking with free hands, and so of our own accord we held the same hand together, grasping it tight, and returned to the crannog before the coming storm.
But before we went to bed, Siêthiyal and Karuláta ran up to us, and Siêthiyal just smirked, and Karuláta chanted, Why is your clothing upside down and inside out? Fhérma! Fhérma! Why is their clothing upside out and inside down! Fhérma! FHÉRMA! I’m asking you something! It’s not important, chanted Fhermáta. Their hands have been dissevered at last. We can finally get a decent’s night rest. The storm is coming with the night, and we haven’t much time. Autumn fades away, and we must prepare for the betrothal feast. But why is their clothing inside out? Karuláta kept gasping and running about me and Puey. Oh, this is all Éfha’s doing, isn’t it? I think she’s the trickiest of us all, I think that she’s Raven’s tricky spirit in Princess form. At least though she has a good heart, the same heart that the Empress had.
Come along, everyone. Time for bed, Fhermáta was saying. Princess, I think I speek for my Sisters when I tell you that none of us have gotten a lot of sleep, so if you want to play any of your games tonight we’re not going to stop you. But I just shook my head and told her, I think tonight just rest. I can feel the storm’s gathering also. The Dreamtime is become the warstorm. Innocence and extinction are arising to fight one another, I can feel it in the winds, the conflict is not just of armies and principalities, it is of soul and might, it is the very nature of the alchemy of realty. Nothing is in balance. Everything falls into the abyss. The storm is unleashed, and one cannot even guess what may lie within its eclipse. So I took Fhermáta’s hand and slept in the guestroom set aside for me, and I did not stir at all during the night, and Puey slept in his own room with the kittens and ducklings and lambkins, and the sleet and rain did war outside, ice crackling upon the mud, here in the last of days before Winter was arising to claim Jaràqtu for its own, and was not sure that my heart would suffice to save us all.

– And that’s it, that’s the entire tell of it all – Princess Éfhelìnye chanted. – I told you there was no big or epic story about that mark, it’s not even a proper scar, it’s just an embarrassing experiment that got a little beyond my control. –
– I liked it – chanted Aîya. – Funny. –
Anything that involves embarrassing Puîyos is something I enjoy, Ixhúja told her cousin in a few blinks.
Éfhelìnye looked upwards through the transparent dome of the egg and wondered saying – And yet that seems so far away, even though it was but a couple of hours ago in the dying of the afternoon of the worlds. But Fhermáta and Great-Uncle Táto were still with us upon these life-giving dreamlands, and War was just a rumor born upon the breezes, and everything about us was fresh and wonderful and good. – And Princess Éfhelìnye sighed to remember such a thing, and listened to the beating of her own dragon heart.

An Empress' Heart

Happy Puey Day Eve! The Celebration is already begun. Let the joyous tidings go forth throughout all of the Dreamtime, the Land of Story! Puey Day is nigh hand! Tomorrow is Puey Day!

It’s a very simple story; there is not much to tell at all. It was the fifth hour of the day, when all of the Suns were passing their zenith and beginning their long trek down through the concourses of the heavens. I was dwelling with the warrior clan of the Sweqhàngqu upon the fields that had been held by their ancestors for at least three thousand generations, and I was living in the crannog with Abbá Íngìkhmar and Fhermáta and Siêthiyal and Karuláta and my Puey and various other cousins and elders who came and stayed with us for a time, for the Sweqhàngqu are kin to the Khatelèstan and the Tásel and even more distally related unto other clans and other families, and so there was never a shortage of Elders about us. Grandfather Pátifhar was staying in the Abby of Saint Kàtriqan along with the priests and hieromonachs and scribes, and there dwelt Auntie Qtìmine along with the other vestal virgins who are my Father’s concubines. I was very happy living with the Sweqhàngqu and Puey’s Sisters were all very eager to make me part of their family. Karuláta let me do all of her chores, she’s give me baskets filled with seed and meal to feed the chickens and the fainting goats, and she’d yank my sleeve and draw me up the ramps to the bedrooms and tell me that I had to make all of the beds and beat out all of the curtains while she sate down and ate chocolates and watched. Siêthiyal told me that if I were really good and gave her all the bead coins and toys that I found that she’d let me see Puey from time to time, and Siêthiyal was nice enough to take me to Fhermáta’s room, and there we found some of the boxes she had hidden and her hope chest, and Siêthiyal let me use some of my tooks to prick the locks open for her. When Siêthiyal took out all the items from the chests she chanted that it was like we were having a real adventure, that we were pirates together, and she’d take a little note and get me to sign it to leave in the chest, she chanted that Fhermáta would find it funny when she discovered that I was the one to figure out how to unlock her puzzle. And Fhermáta spent her time trying to teach me all of the fun household chores. She began by showing me how to wash the dishes, but she had to stand o'er me because sometimes when the dishes became so incredibly sudsly they’d slip out of my fingers and break into pieces. Eventually she only let me crub the dishes that were too big to break, but then I had a fantastic idea, and late at night I came up with my greatest invention e'er, it was a clockwork device would do all of the dish washing for me. In some of the back barns there was an old workshop which had belonged to Grandfather Jàkopar Khmàntro who had taken great delight in the craft and painting of things, and this workshop was a marvel, filled with chisels and tools of all sizes, paints and ornaments, all different types of materials in wood, stone, jade, glass, piles of bones, stands to carve out polygons, and barrels filled with wheel and spring and coil. The Sweqhàngqu Siblings just used the workhouse for arts and crafts, for making masques and painting out chess boards and items like that, but I spent a few days completely organizing the place, setting all of the screws in the right drawers, cleaning out the desk and sweeping the floor and alphabetizing the paints, so that even blindfolded one could find all of the materials, in fact I found more bits of statue and toy and machinery there than the Sweqhàngqu knew, and I gave all the toys to Siêthiyal so that Puey would still continue to love me. And so after Fhermáta tried to teach me how to wash dishes without breaking them, that night I snuck out of Siêthiyal’s bed and crept away into the workshop an set my hand to creating a dishwashing marvel. I upended the barrels, I spilt out wheels and springs, and I created a little machine whose body was a barrel, but from the bottom out sprang out some spinning arachnid legs, and he had a couple of strong arms to hold the dishes, and some smaller arms tipped in spounges, but what was most amazing was that the inside of the barrel was just filled with water, and the apparatus could set dishes inside of himself and just gyrate around, and I had little tubes inside that created suds, and some pipes arose almost like a tree in the middle and out came spraying fountains of lye soap. I was quite proud of my invention, and when he wound up all of his springs, it arose to life, and I gestured it to follow me, and it waddled upon the ground, and as it moved water and soap came swishing right out of it, and it was gurgling with soap-phin all the while, and I lead it unto the crannog and the kitchens in the very back that were perched above the face of the loch, and I showed it the qhòtru drains and sinks vatagolöpik, and I ladled out water for it and brought it out a batch of dishes, and I showed it how to wash the dishes, and the apparatus was just humming unto itself in glee and I set on the table and kicked my legs back and forth, and soon it was washing of its own accord. I was very tired from my demiourgic creative works, and it was very late, it was deep into the Seventh Hour of the Day when no child should be be awake save for writing difficult passages in one’s manuscript, and so I bad the apparatus to continue washing dishes throughout the night, and I smiled to myself thinking of how pleased Fhermáta would be in the dawntide to see the work of my hands. So I patted the machine on its head and snuck off into the halls and up the ramp, it occurred to me that since the rest of the household was asleep I could slip into Puey’s room and watch him sleeping, now that his Sisters weren’t watching me, because, for some reason they told me they were keeping a watch on me, I was not trustworthy they say around their Brother, although I don’t understand why. I came to Puîyus’ room and found that someone had installed a new lock on the door, I fidled with it for a few moments but then realized that it would be easier just to shift the door off of its hinges, and taking out a few of my tools and setting them in place at the joints I did just that, and the door slipped up and I slipped inside, but I had only taken a few steps into Puey’s room when out of the darkness a blanket was thrown o'er me, and Fhermáta wrapped her arms about me and told me that she was wise to my antics and that I had to go straight to bed, and she pulled my by arms arms, and she was hardly gentle at all, and she practically threw me into Siêthiyal’s lóng·shuain, and locked the door behind me and commanded me for to sleep. And so as I lay down and closed my eyen I thanked my Khyòmli Solar Ancestors that I had created a machine which would delight and surprise Fhermáta in the dawn, for I knew just how happy she would be to find the kitchen completely scrubbed.
I awoke some time in the darkness before the dawn as I am wont to do. Siêthiyal was still asleep, I don’t understand how someone can sleep all during the night, especially when there are Moons and comets and Stars dancing in the heavens. I slipped out from her bed and picked the lock that kept me within, and found that all of the crannog was silent. Before Puîyus’ room I could see that someone had set thte door back on its hindges, and that some dinosaurlings and kittens were standing guard to protect him, but when I approached the kittens just purred and the dinosaurlettes ran up and licked my fingers. I listened to the lock, I could hear the sweet sounds of sleep within, and then it occurred to me that the way the door had been latched remained me of some frequencies that one hears with the ringing of a khikhákha merrythought, a wishbone, a sound ringing, and I tapped the lock a few times, and all of the wheels chimed in sympathetic response, and the door swung open. I could see Puey lying in bed beneath his patchwork quilt, he was so beautiful lying there, his hair a sea of cærulea waving about him, and my heart filled with love and I knew I just had to tippy toe towards him to kiss him, but I made it only a few steps before the rug beneath me rushed aside, and a golden net fell about me, and ropes were lashing upwards, and I sung high in the air, and beneath me came walking Fhermáta and Akhlísa giggling all the while, pointing and poking each other. I did not like this at all. I called out to Puey, and he sprang open wide awake at once, both hands were grasping swords, fire and steel were in his eyen, and I began to cry as I thrashed around in the net suspended high in the air. Fhermáta and Akhlísa were shouting and blaming each other, until Akhlísa began to weep. Puîyus set his swords down and took a knife to cut me down, and by now Siêthiyal was running into the room and wondering what was happening, and all three of the Sisters were shouting and blaming each other, and Puîyus was walking upon the ceiling to let me go. The Suns were arising in the windows, the second hour of the day was begun, the window was aglow agold. Puîyus was cutting the first of the bands, the Sisters’ argument arose to a crescendo, and booming up through the door came Abbá Íngìkhmar, his beard and tresses swirling a little like storm clouds, and behind him smacking their lips and leaning on their canes were some of the Elders. The Sisters stopped poking each other long enough to smile and pretend that they weren’t arguing. Puîyus cut down the ropes and I fell into his arms. Abbá looked at us and the nodding to the Elders told us, I’m going to have you stay at the Abby today, your honored Aunt Qtìmine can teach you maidens how to be proper and quiet Sisters, and your Grandfather Pátifhar can teach you to be an obedient Son.
Just then came the sound of crashing within the kitchen. The Sisters looked to each other but none of them knew what was happening. Several more sounds of bursting plate came from the kitchens. The Elders and and Íngìkhmar looked down and noticed a growing pool of sudsy water arising about their bedroom slippers. For some reason the Elders looked to me, then Íngìkhmar, then the Sisters one two three, and then even Puey. The room rocked a little from the echo of the first explosion. I wondered whether I should have put so many extra springs in my invention. Don’t worry, I know how to fix it, I told them, and I ran to a window, flung it open, and slipped downstairs into the kitchen faster than the rest could hope to run down the halls and down the ramp, the Elders tripping o'er dinosaurlings and kittens, the Sisters screaming all the while, and Puîyus stayed and paused to comb his hair a little, he doesn’t like to be seen unkempt. I must say though the kitchen was extremely clean, what was left of it. My rather troubled apparatus had cleaned all of the dishes and cups and pots and knives and sporks and chorks and chopsticks, it then dried them and washed them twice, and when it grew bored with the pots it began smashing them into smaller pieces to be washed individually and then it glewed them back together, and it washed the cabinets and tables and walls so hard that the paint was splashing downwards, it was crubbing the pebbles right off of the floor, it was throwing the chairs around because they were in its way, it set the drapes on fire because they were too dirty, and it started punching wholes into the wall so the sunlight could admire the cleanliness. By the time I slipped into the kitchen the soapy water was about as high as I am tall, and I was afraid because I don’t know how to swim, but the apparatus was smashing everything about it, its many limbs were scrubbing pots and throwing them aside, its hands covered in sponges were ripping down the walls, its fountain turned and splashed me with waves, and every few moments it reached into its barrel and yanked out a part of itself and threw it as an explosion against the walls and floor. I had no choice but to wade in after it, the machine was bearsarked and spun untowards me with baleful and glass eyen. I fell into the water many times and kept swallowing soap, I felt sick, but at last I made it to the center, where the machine was arising in waves of soap, I grabbed it and started to unwind some of its coils, but that only made it angry, the machine yanked me upwards, it must have thought that I was a plate, it pressed its sponges and hands about me and poured baths of soap all o'er me, it was scrubbing my face and arms and drying me at the same time. I was drowning as it thrust me into the waters and yanked me out again and smacked me around with far too many limbs, and when its arms opened up and revealed tips all of knives, I was beginning to think that perhaps this invention was not my greatest idea.
Suddenly Puîyus was there, he stomped the floor, and all of the waters and soap parted at his command, and came splashing out of the holes in the kitchen. The machine veered around, it was clutching me, and the machine had instinctive knowledge that Puey did not like it on principal, I think many machines are able to sense that. Plus when my Puey bound upwards, swung the golden net around to catch it, and then thrust his sword right through the machine’s face, there could be no doubt unto his attitude. I must say when Puey came to rescue me, his hair was particularly blue and lustrious, it really is a beautiful jacinth wave, his tresses melancholy blue. Puey swung upwards, he thrust his sword into the machine several more times, but the apparatus was still grabbing me by the throat and holding me into the soap water, drowning and washing me at the same time. Puey pulled up the machine, even as it growled and began slashing at him from side to side, and with his bare hands he ripped it apart, gallons of soap and wheels pouring out around it, knife hands trying to gut him all the while. I was splashing downwards, at this point I was barely aware of what was happening, I had swallowed so much water. Somehow Puey managed to wrestle and tear apart the machine, but just when he thought that victory was already achieved, the outer carapace of the machine exploded and revealed within it a smaller device formed all of limbs and claws, and it sprang upwards like an atelesqiyìsqi otter-monkey swinging ambau kaureka waitoreke from side to side, it jumped upwards and grabbed me by the collar and began clammering up the sides of the walls. I must tell you, Ixhúja and Aîya, I don’t quite remember building that particular aspect to the apparatus, although I have found that sometimes my maŝinoj are able to take unto themselves properties which I had never envision’d. Perhaps that is the way with all machines, or maybe even Children, they do not become exactly what their Parents had thought. The angly washing machine was bouncing upwards and clasping me close unto it even as it was washing and struggling against my Puey, and by now Íngìkhmar and some of the warriors were wading in the waters and throwing spears and javelins, although they had to be careful to strike the apparatus and not me. Pew flung himself up through the foam. The machine caused wall to explode, and it flung itself into the loch, and clasping me in its jaws swam as quickly as possible. Then began quite an epic swim, perhaps the greatest of all swims conducted between man and machine. My Puey was swifter indeed, and at his paddling the waves were arising to lend speed unto him, and dashing about him arose orcs and dolphins twittering all the while and sporting and following and chasing after me. The machine though was cunning, its knives were cutting through the air, paddles of water arising. Thrice dear Puey arose against the machine and thrust his knife into its glassen eyen and joints, and the machine belched out spumes of soap against him, and reaching into its shell drew out some broken dishes and tried to slash open Puey’s beautiful face, but Puey wrestled and swam and ripped off more limbs of the device, but not enough to destroy it or release me, and the machine just laughed and poured out more suds untowards him. At last the machine came bouncing outwards, it swung upwards out of the waves, and squirting ink and oil at Puey, it came leaping outwards towards some trees, I was still held, almost strangled and drowned by now in its grasp, the machine came bounding up the tree like some strange arachnid shadow, and just as my Puey flew through the branches, the machine pulled out some spinning arms tipped in sqèyo helmbardes, the tips glistening like impalent spear and battle-axe, and the machine chopped against leaf and branch, and Puey winced in pain and anger to think of anyone daring to do harm to a tree. For Puey so loves trees, although not nearly as much as he loves me, his very favorite Princess. Íngìkhmar’s Son spun up through the air, he kicked aside at the knives and axe and ripped apart the limbs of the machine, and wrestling it about in a titanic struggle, he began biting through the gears, he ripped the machine apart with his teeth and smashed out all of the mainsprings, until it broke apart in his grasp, and he stomped the pieces and crushed them in his hands and gathered them up into a pile and set them on fire and buried them in dust, and all the while was holding me in his arms, for I was still sore afraid and not a little tired from being dragged and washed and almost drowned. And so we rested together in the shade of the trees, and I cried a little as he held me, and Puey told me that sometimes he was tempted to go to his Grandfather’s workshop and burn it down just to keep me from creating my wacky machines, although he would never do that, it would dishonor his Ancestors, plus he loved to draw and paint in there, and he would never do anything that would make me unhappy, like ask me not to make art with my small white hands. But still he was quite concerned and was carrying me when the warriors came riding out upon giraffe and ostridge, and the warriors were searching the shore and forest for any mad wheels and gears to be gathered and destroyed, an an acolyte who was staying with the Khatelèstan was taking incense and thurible and blessing the earth lest any taint of the Tánin be left upon it, the Automata that grasp for the souls denied unto them. Puey carried me back to Fhermáta and she dried me up and dressed me in a bright and new white dress she had made for me, for I’ve only worn white all of the days of my life, though in the crystalline shine prismatic of it sometimes my dresses can become pink and red and all of the colors of the iridule, and I was still shivering from fright and excitement by the time of the third hour, when the Sisters too me to the Khatelèstan fortress for breakfast, while Íngìkhmar and Sathnòrja set about repairing the kitchen which I had accidently damaged, although only to a minor degree. Puey was dredging out the waters, he got some of his fishes and serpents to help in drying the kitchen, and the Elders were gathering up the plates which the machine had not broken or only cracked to a minor degree. So I ate with the Sisters among the Khatelèstan, and Auntie Qtìmine came for us made us pancakes, and I cried a few times because I though that everyone was angry that I had once again ruined the kitchen.
Today I’m going to take you maidens with me to the Abby, and while we pick berries we’re going to discuss what it means to become a responsible young woman, Auntie Qtìmine was telling us. Puîyus is going to stay with Paloîta and Khrùkhtii, for Grandfather Pátifhar will be teaching them about being young men, and about the priesthood and of serving the people and ancestors. It was time to leave, for some reason though Siêthiyal and Kàrula kept giggling and looking at me, until Siêthiyal chanted, Now Princess Qlenólakh was not nearly as much trouble as you are. Oh, we all liked Qlenólakh, she was pretty and exotic, her eyen almost violet, her hair a long and lustrious green, her baring was just so graceful, so elegant. Oh she was definitely a young lady, Siêthiyal was saying, not a child princess at all. I always did think that Puey liked her the most of all of the Princesses that he rescued. So, where is Qlenólakh now? I’m going to send her a message by raven today. And Karuláta just giggled and chanted, Don’t be so mean, Éfhelìnye is sitting right next to you. But Qlènofhar never destroyed our kitchens, now did she, Siêthiyal asked. Say, how many times do you think Puey and Qlenólakh kissed? An hundred times? Two hundred times? Per diem? Qlenólakh, being older and more grown up, I’m sure she was an expert kisser, not like sudsy here with her hairwire machines. Please, don’t me mean, Karuláta hushed. I don’t care if she hears me, Siêthiyal chanted. All I’m saying is that by the time Puey was armed at seven winters of age, he was already rescuing Princesses and saving maidens from monsters, at seven he was getting more kisses, and better ones too then this eastron ninny here, that’s all I’m saying. And Qlenólakh never blew up a room! Fhermáta was getting up and saying, Abbá will have the kitchen repaired soon, we’re a warrior people, don’t you think we’ve had walls and towers knocked down before and set them back up again? I think that’s what Grandfather Jàkopar did all day, when he wasn’t fighting, he just set things back up. Fhermáta put her arms around me, even as I buried my face in my hands and cried again, but she tried to sooth me and tell me that it wasn’t my fault.
We traveled to the Abby, although Siêthiyal and Karuláta kept comparing me to Princess Qlenólakh, and I did not like hearing about that at all, appearently Qlenólakh had a more conventional upbringing, and was skilled at music, and a bit less eccentric than I am. I tried to remain calm as he rode in the wain behind a triceratops, although we had a bit of excitement when a few raving jár some skunk squid bears came leaping out of the woods and were chasing a maiden, and Puey came spinning out of the wagon to save her, the jár nanuq were screaming, their björn reeds rustling from side to side, their tendrils reaching out to a fair maiden, and since the wild skunk beowulves would not heeding Puey’s hest, he had to punch them and wrestle them down, and saved he the fair zave. Apparently he knew her, her name was Asiréma of the Poriêrii clan, and he had saved her before. Now Ixhúja and Aîya, the Poriêrii and the Sweqhàngqu have been not quite enemies but not quite allies for many hundreds of generations, and had only fought together in the Great War for it was tlhámòtining xauQírenàtejikh, war for the honor of the beloved Emperor, and all men were banded together as ēoreds of brothers, but that was eleven years ago, in the twilight of the Golden Age, in the last days of my Mother. Anyway, Puey had saved Asiréma before, and I didn’t know it, but there was some talk among the Elders that in order to heal the rift between the Sweqhàngqu and the Poriêrii, that this Asiréma should be given to him as a concubine in the years to come, but nobody consulted me on this idea, I don’t know why the Elders didn’t ask for my opinion. Who can understand adult units, they’re just inscrutable sometimes? Puey wrestled down the squid bears and save the maiden, and Asiréma, can you believe it, she flings her arms about him and kisses him on the forehead, she kissed my Puey on his brow, she didn’t even care what I thought, and Siêthiyal was making some comment about how Puey likes to save golden tressed maidens because he likes them best. I was very angry, I was grinding my teeth together, how dare the maiden touch my Puey! I should slap her on general principle! I should beat her to the ground! I’m going to tear her throat out and strangle her with her own intestines, that stupid girl! I was just about to leap out of the wagon and start teaching her a lesson she would not soon forget, but I don’t know, something about the way that I was grinding my teeth and shoving Fhermáta away, and grabbing a rope from the wagon must have alerted the Sweqhàngqu Sisters to the subtly of my most excellent plan, for all three Sisters arose and held me down and kept my still, until Asiréma finished daring to put her lips to my Puey’s brow, it was really the most disgusting thing I’ve e'er seen, and then Puey being the consummate virtuous warrior, the knight in training, told us that we should escort her home, and I chanted no, let her stay in the forest with the wild beasts, but Fhermáta and Siêthiyal and Karuláta chanted that we had to protect her. Asiréma told us she had some relatives staying at the Abby, so it was settled, and Puey picked her up and set her next to me, and he clammered out to ride the triceratops, its great legs shuffling from side to side, all of the leaves glistening autumnal about us. I did not like sitting next to Asiréma. She was pretty and tall, taller than I am, and her hair was spun gold, and she called me little Sister and chanted that I was young and cute and a good playmate for Puey. Thrice I almost jump off the bench to grab her by the neck, I was just curious to see what would happen if while I strangled her I thrust her head into the spinning spokes of the wheel, I’m just curious. But Fhermáta and Siêthiyal were holding my hand the entire time, and Karuláta was sitting in Asiréma’s lap and playing with her hair, and the Sisters kept looking at me and eyeing me as if I can’t be trusted for some reason.
I just hate it when other maidens kiss my Puey, I just want to rip their faces off. Nothing gets me angrier. Why don’t the rest of the billion, billion worlds understand that Puey is mine, all mine, only mine, mine for all eternity, and nobody else’s? It’s a fairly simple teaching.
We came to the abby, and out came running the elders of the Poriêrii family, they were so thankful that their granddaughter was safe, and Asiréma of course has to kiss my Puey on his brow, have I mentioned that my blood was boiling at this point, I just wanted to have her ribs crushed by some passing mastadon, or maybe some acid poured about her perfect hair and face. Puey was all bashful and told them that it was nothing, and Fhermáta had to translate. I looked around the entrance of the Abby and found some pretty scurrying rocks, at this point Siêthiyal had forgotten me, and I started sharpening the scurrying rocks with some tùtqu flint nηfgab nηfnηm that I keep with me, and I was calculating how difficult it would be to bash out Asiréma’s brains with the scurrying rocks, but Siêthiyal caught me up and began dragging me through the door and away from the stupid maiden, I mean if she had any brains at all she wouldn’t be touching my Puey at all, so I would be doing her a favor, and just look at her, she’s touching Puey’s hand, she’s touching Puey’s hand, that’s it, she’s dead, she’s completely dead, I will track her down in the night I will …

At this point Puîyus interrupted the story. Aîya had been keeping a steady drumbeat throughout all of the tell, her belly resounding in little twinkling tintinnabulations, her triple wings clapping together, but now that Éfhelìnye was growing a bit angry, and sparkles of fire were appearing in her eyen, Aîya’s wings fell silent, her limbs became still, and she looked from side to side in quietescent consternation. Ixhúja cleared her throat and coughed.
Puîyus clasped his hands together and made a sign as if to say, Perhaps you should rest at this point, beloved Éfhelìnye.
I think all four of us being trapped in so small an egg almost exasperates our craziness, our latent eccentric behavior, Ixhúja was saying, as she played with golden hair.
– I’m not tired at all – Éfhelìnye. – I want to finish my story. –
Perhaps you should rest and calm down a little, though, Ixhúja was saying. Do you want want to rest and lean on me and hold my hand, I know you’re a far cuddlier person than I am and like that sort of thing.
– I told you, I’m not tired! Let’s continue with the story. I don’t understand why Asiréma and all the other golden haired maidens are always cooing and swooning about my Puey, brave and knightly and perfectly beautiful, my herpetologist beloved, my sqánga cryptozoölogist cryptolacustribestiologist dracontologist Puey! These other maidens are so shameful, such blockheads, I just want to punch them down one by one by one! – Éfhelìnye was making little fists with her hands and punching the air.
My dearest Cousin, I’m sure the flavicomous maids meant no harm at all … Ixhúja was beginning in her purring, but Éfhelìnye just bound upwards and starting kicking the shadows of the egg ship and cried out – As far as I’m concerned, any maiden who dares to look at my Puey, to say his name, even to think about him has to answer to me! I’ll take a kitchen knife and cut her nose off, I’ll tie a rope about her jaw and have her skull cloven, I’ll have her ripped apart by mine own wild velociraptors, Puey is mine for all time, do I just have to put golden chains about his neck and enscribe my name upon it to make a lesson unto all of the other virgins of the Land, mine mine mine mine mine! Hic! Hic! Hic! Hic! – Éfhelìnye’s face was growing slightly pink, as she was having trouble breathing.
– Shhh shhh shhh shhh – Ixhúja chanted, and she wrapped her arms around Éfhelìnye and rubbed her back in an attempt to sooth her, and Puîyus tapped her back, because he knew that sometimes when she had trouble breathing it happed for someone to hold her that way. Éfhelìnye was gasping a little and shaking, but then after a while she grew a little bit more calm, and she tried to shove away the memory of the older and threatening menandroi who always seemed to be looking at her beloved Puîyus, the boy of her dreams.
My dearest cousin Éfha, Ixhúja began with some squeals and purrs, in a language that she was devising as she mewed, I don’t think you need to worry too much about my twin Brother Puîyos’ heart, it has never been in danger of being taken away from you. And second of all, let me add that I would be rather suspicious of any unmarried damsel who did not feel a little affection for Puîyos, so strong and brave and handsome.
– And why is that? – Éfhelìnye sniffled.
If anymaid not feel a little love for Puîyos, she is probably not a vrizoil, but a clockweyth Automaton. To love Puîyos is to be mortal. It also sheweth that one hath exquisite taste.
– Is that supposed to make me feel better? –
I think the time for you to start being crazy and overprotective is when you have a nest of your own, and your many Sons start bringing home strange Princesses whom you have not yet approved. But of Puîyos, I would not worry about him.
– These other maidens just make me so angry, I just want them all to go away. I know what I must do, if I should become Moon Empress I shall just have to start marrying off all of the other Princesses, I can’t have all of these other maidens bothering me all the time. –
What’s the rest of the story?
– I smacked Asiréma. –
Éfha!
– No I didn’t. I thought about it. Auntie Qtìmine took us into the jìlququ ensilage of the Abby, and in the vineyard I helped the Sisters pick berries, and Asiréma helped us, and I had to carry the basket while that owlhoot prated about her clan and their fortresses where gourds grow from the ceiling and how thankful she was that my Puey had saved her and that when I grow up I’ll probably still be little and cute, but she was all tall and grown up. –
– We return to the tell now – chanted Aîya as she slipped upon her back, her wings beginning to clap together, and she played out the drumbeat upon her belly boom ting ting ting BOOM! Boom ting ting ting BOOM!

Auntie Qtìmine, Khwofheîlya’s Sister, the daughter of Khangisqrírles, is very beautiful, a virgin dressed all in shining white, the corset she was wearing was all of gold, silver was shining through her sleeves and dress, white gloves she wore, and a golden veil lay upon the top of her hair. Her tresses reached all the way down to her waist, they were long and flowing coils of gold, and jewels were ywoven within them. She was holding a basket and picking the berries, and whenever Karuláta pricked her finger on a thorn, Auntie Qtìmine was there to heal the wound, and whenver the basket grew too heavy for me and I began to fall down because of the weight, she came froward to help me carry it. Asiréma could only help for a little time, because her grandparents were at the abby and she had to go and visit them for meditation services. I only saw Puey just a little bit, for Grandfather Pátifhar was taking him and Paloîta and Khrùkhtii away. Didn’t you spend that time in silence and meditation, Pew? You had to rub robes against your wrists? I’m glad I’m female and don’t have to hurt my flesh that way in order to please the Immortals who cannot die. In fact, Auntie Qtìmine was talking to us about how we would one day have to become responsible young women and help to run households when we came of age.
When the Immortals left Khmèlte Qthemlipuyùlkha the Halls of Thought, they came unto the Void which became the Dreamtime and they began to sing and dance it into existence, and everything became spheres of music, whence arose the Ocean Deep and the billion, billion worlds. And in the earliest of days the Immortals were not entirely sure of how to craft the worlds, how the plantimals should be formed, how hills and whispering mountains and flowers should bloom, and so it was that when they began to breathe Mortals into being that some of them they made agamites with a single gender, for the Immortals are all perfect and complete amongst themselves, and among others they made them tri-sexual for the Immortals are always trinities of three comflicted and yet perfectly balanced forces, but when they formed Khriîno and Pfhentókha, the Father and Mother of the Færie Folk, they made them male and female, to be like unto the Sun and the Moon. For although the Immortals are not male or female, they are not alpha or beta or gamma, they are not ærself, and yet indeed they are the very purity of masculine and feminine, of the three sexes, of the single sex, they are the idea made manifest. And therefore when folk such as the Traîkhiim of Xakhpàlqe speak of the Immortals, they use one set of conceptual metaphor, they speak of oneness, of unitas, when the Qhíng and Qlùfhem speak of the Immortals they constantly speak of triskelia and threes, but when we speak of Immortals, we talk of doubles, of twins, of male on one hand and female on the other.
All four of your are growing older, you are coming to the end of your childhood and in a few years will be honorable women. Fhermáta and Karuláta, you both are already promised unto marriage, so the Elders with the approval of the Ancestors have approved it, Fhermáta, your fate was approved by your birth parents when you were about two winters of age, and Kàrula, we knew how you would end up when you were only a few hours old. The Elders are still contemplating what shall become of you, Siêthiyal, but when we are able to secure your Brother’s position, you will be safe because of him, the Sister of a Clan Chieftain. Divine Princess, daughter of the Holy Emperor my lord and husband, I know that your Father empyreal and graceful has some great plan for you which I cannot even possibly hope to guess. All four of you may well be headed to marriage, Siêthiyal we may give you to the Son of a Chieftain, Karuláta you may be a concubine, a younger Sister to Fhermáta, and Éfhelìnye your Father may already have begun his symphony which will end when the priest places your hand in the palm of your husband, and the two become one. And since you are becoming older, and soon may be betrothed unto a young man, I think it time for me to tell all of you the secret about womanhood. Come and sit around me, my damsels, and listen.
Lord Khriîno the first man dwelt along in Xhámiwiil alone with the wild plantimals, and with the Fathers of the Qhíng and the Fishermen of the Kháfha, and the Three Brothers of the Aûm Qlùfhim and Thùlwus and Khesáfha the oldest brother, as well are the forebears of all the other folk, even Akhàkhma the Onomatothete who from his own body grew the generations of the Traîkhiim. And among all of the wild beasts and trees and fields, among all of the first Ancestors of the Real People, there was none who was suitable as friend and partner and beloved helpmeet unto Khriîno the first of the Færie. The Immortals wondered at this, and so they bade Qhalúxha the Father of Dragons to take Khriîno on a journey, and they traveled long beneath the light of Sànum the Holy Tree, and when Khriîno lay down to sleep, his dreams were open unto the Dragons and they saw that he was missing something. The Immortals wondered whether they should open up Khriîno and take our his spleen and so make a partner for him filled with passion, or take our his spine and make a friend filled with emotion, or perhaps his brain and make a helpmeet brimming with intelligence, but in the end the Immortals thought and danced and sang, and the wild creatures and the parents of the Real People thought that it would be best if Khriîno heart were removed and a bride formed from his heart. And so the Immortals made their decision. Divine Raven came forth, his wings were holding the obsidian knife of sacrifice, and Our Heart Raven removed the bleeding pulsating heart from Khriîno, and from the heart Pfhentókha was made. And when Khriîno awoke he was greeted by a bride dressed all in flowing shadows, and he knew that his heart was no longer his own but rested within his wife. So the Immortals married the couple in the iridescence of the Tree of Light, and they became the first Emperor and Empress, the Parents of the Land, and from their marriage all culture, all government, all civilization is sprung.
How thankful you should be, my virgins, that you have a woman’s heart, but what a grave responsibility you have, to hold someone else’ heart inside you. The love of a mother and wife, of a concubine and daughter, that is pure and perfect love. A mother cannot harm her children, a wife cannot betray her lord and husband. Her heart must remain true, her heart is the Northron Star of her husband and he will follow it. Women are therefore unsuitable for tasks of warfare and governance, for their manner is too rarified. Throughout the many worlds we see vestal virgins in the temples, we know that they can never betray the Emperor, their hearts belong to him. When enemies sit together to negotiate truce, the wives and daughters can serve food for their own clan and for the enemies, for we know that the women are incapable of preparing the food in a way that could harm a person. When a maiden falls in love she always falls in love with a single man and will never love anyone else for as long as she lives, and when an husband dies, sometimes the wife will die, like your Grandmother Xhàtrajhil, and sometimes she may stay and linger, like your Grandmother Tàltiin, but when the wife dies, and if the husband survive, he is never whole again. You have never known your Father Íngìkhmar when he was happy and had a living heart, and none of you are old enough to remember the age of peace which Emperor Kàrijoi beneficient and beautiful bestowed as he blessed all of the worlds. A woman’s heart is more precious than sugar and iron and jewels. Guard that heart. Because men have not an whole heart, they have not hearts of their own, of the upper classes they are permitted to take more than one wife and concubine, sometimes a man needs more than one woman to guide him. And these sister-wives must learn to love each other and be as siblings and run the household together. But what is most important to remember, my children, is to keep your heart locked and perfumed, for if a woman is uncareful, her heart can lead a man to his doom, for nothing is stronger than two hearts beating together unto the same music.
So Auntie Qtìmine was telling me and Fhermáta and Siêthiyal and Karuláta, so she was teaching us the secret of womanhood, and the heart of Pfhentókha the Mother of all of the Xhámi.

We finished listening to Auntie Qtìmine’s story and we brought the berries unto the kitchens of the abby, and we helped the eunuchs and vestal virgins there, although Auntie would not let me do too much work there, she let me carry the baskets, but she would not let me wash the berries or go near any knives at all, in fact they didn’t even want me near the aqitòkhti spúnóg nūspōg spurtles, although I grabbed some spoons and tapped them together to play with them. And night was falling, and Grandfather Pátifhar was returning with my Puey and Paloîta and Khrùkhtii, and I don’t know what he was teaching the lads, but they all looked rather tired. Are you allowed to tell me? Oh? He made you jog for a few miles? Serving the people involves tantivying and galumphing quite a bit. The suns were setting, it was getting late, and Auntie wanted us to stay with her rather than return in the darkness, especially since we didn’t know whether Abbá and his comrades-in-arms were finished with the kitchen, so we came into the temple for vesper services.
Grandfather Pátifhar was at the altar, and his acolytes Khrùkhtii and Paloîta were near him. Smoke and incense were arising. I was seated with the Sisters and Auntie, but Puey was not with us, where was he? Auntie whispered and told me that the arborescent priests told Puey that he had been very brave to fight the sudsing machine and told him that he could kneel with them, so Puey was on the other side of the temple. Why, that’s just intolerable, I want to sit with him. Auntie told me to be still and quiet and sit with her. But I wanted to be with Puey! I haven’t seen him since breakfast, and why may I not sit with the priests! Or maybe the priests can sit with us, just so that Puey is beside me. Auntie kept telling me to pipe down and be still. Qtìmine turned, I think she was telling Fhermáta to keep an eye on me, but when Qtìmine looked back I was gone. Already I was at the other side of the temple, I pushed aside a couple of acolytes and sate down next to Puey. For some reason Qtìmine rushe right towards me, she was a swirl of white and gold, she yanked me right out of the pew and practically dragged me back to my place, and telling me that I had to behave. I crossed mine arms and schemed. I waited for the lighting of the incense, it was beginning to billow and coil, and in the flash of silver, I slipped out again and made it about halfway across the temple before Qtìmine caught me up and pinched me by the ear and dragged me back. This was getting to be intolerable, and it didn’t help that Fhermáta was clasping my hand now. Finally Grandfather Pátifhar was taking up the book and walking through the smoke. The acolytes in the quire were singing. I knew it was my chance, with my free hand I pinched Siêthiyal and Karuláta as fast as I could, and the Sisters looked to each other and thinking the other had touched them, began poking and punching each other. Fhermáta and Qtìmine leaned o'er to stop the growing quarrel, and I slipped out amongst them all, and disappeared in the smoke. By the time Qtìmine found me I was sitting in Puey’s lap, and she dragged me out and carried me away and told me that it was not appropriate for me to be sitting in his lap, although I can’t imagine why, and I only kissed him a few times, the way she grew angry one would think that I had been doing something wrong. I’m just doing what my heart tells me to do, the heart that I inherited from Pfhentókha the Empress my first Ancestress. Adults can be so confusing sometimes.
For dinner Siêthiyal and Kàrula demanded that we have pancakes again. I wasn’t very hungry and just mushed up the batter and syrup. Auntie Qtìmine would not even let me sit next to Puey at the table, in fact the priess were reading aloud from their books and speaking about battles that were fought long ago, great Saints and Viceroy kings and martyrs. Some of the pàrtel reverand curates were playing drum and nose fife, and yes Aîya I’m sure they borrowed the idea of drumming from your folk, and I’m afraid to tell you that indeed they did stick the flutes into their noses, that’s the only way we Xhámi can play it with the purity of our breath. And after that we went unto Auntie Qtìmine’s quarters, and she let us play a little, but when it was time to sleep, I had to sleep in the same bed as the vestal virgin, and my Puey and his Sisters slept in the next room. I had trouble sleeping, I kept thinking about the apparatus I had created from the materials and tools left by Grandfather Jàkopar Khmàntro, I thought about how Puey had saved me, I remembered Asiréma as she was batting her eyen and cooing at Puey, and I thought about the story of how Empress Pfhentókha had her beloved’s heart within her. And then it all became clear. It’s not just obviously true that Puey is mine and mine alone for all time, but his heart is in me, I have to guide him, lead him, it is my task to lead him to Paradise. I have to take care of him in the same way the he would take care of and rescue me from the chaotic machine I had builded and which for some reason had become toψy-turvy. So I did what any loving Princess would do for her warrior hero beloved, I decided to conduct an experiment upon him. Yes, Ixhúja, just a very simple and honorable experiment, I had to do something, I love him far too much to let his heart be taken by other maidens who don’t love him with the same possessive love that I have. So I waited for Qtìmine to be completely still and asleep, and then I hugged and kissed her a few times, she’s very kind to me and quite loving, but I don’t think she understands how I feel about Puey, always trying to keep me apart from him. I slipped out of bed and rummaging into my day clothing pulling out some of my tools, and found some keys that I had modified and some long piping extentions and somw fhwàqhu surgical instruments, it was easy to slip into the guest room, and there I found Íngìkhmar’s Son fast asleep, his Sisters all about him, and Karuláta was drooling all upon her pillow and partially on Siêthiyal and partially on Puey himself, and I found Puey’s hand upon the sheet, it was his left hand, and taking my surgical tools I scraped a bit of the skin and blood from the wounds he had sustained that day from defending me, I had some sheets of glass with me, I took samples of his fingernail also, and some flicks of blood, I knew I would need a good variety for my experiment. It came to pass though that as I held a fhwaqhùnthe above Puey’s hand and scraped at his thumb, that Fhermáta awoke, and as with a single mind so did Siêthiyal, aig wiping drool away from herself, and the Sisters just blinked at me. I’m just conducting an experiment, don’t tell me you don’t conduct alchemical experiments upon each other sqàke ngongmey. Fhermáta clasped her hand o'er Siêthiyal’s mouth to keep her from shouting, they did not feel like awakening Qtìmine, and when they had calmed down a little, the Sisters grabbed me by the collar and my tools and threw me out of the room, and no matter how many times in the night I tried to sneak back in, the Sisters were awake on the other side of the door and kept the way shut. But I had enough xhìxhro, enough samples for now, so I went unto the other room and set up some phials and my alchemy sets, and began to study Puey’s skin and nails.
No, Ixhúja, the mark on his hand did not come from my scraping, I was very careful not to harm him in the least. No, I don’t that’s dangerous at all. No, Ixhúja, I haven’t been experimenting on your in your sleep, I’ve only experimented on Puey. I don’t know, Ixhúja, who can guess what the future holds, perhaps when I have children of mine own I’ll experiment on them. It all depends on what my heart tells me.
I fiddled through the night with the samples of blood and skin and nail until I fell asleep and almost knocked o'er the dishes, but sometime during the darkness before the dawn Auntie Qtìmine arose and found me and carried me back to bed, and when I awoke I found that Auntie was at dawnbreak prayers, and that the rest of the Sweqhàngqu were with her, I had slept in a little, so late had I spent in my experimentation. The next day we stayed in the Abby just in the morn, we returned to the crannog of the Sweqhàngqu and the elders were swarming around like emmets, and Fhermáta ran off unto the kitchens in the forefront and looked within and inspected it, she wanted the kitchen to meet her own exasperating demands, she walked about the tables and the drain and the windows and curtain, and finding it all good let the rest of us come within, or at least she let Siêthiyal and Akhlísa come within. Fhermáta stood upon the threshold before I could come within, she bade me get a piece of wood and some paint, and told me what my chore was, and so she first me to paint:

Xhekhrajafhuxhlixhei’ eixhrejor khnúyàlyir
khloròsusu teiqhaxhwoeyèpwo Sweqhàngqu
qir oâqe khornaxhnalwayáxe xhroe
Stélaring Éfhelìnye!
With respect know ye that
Princess Éfhelìnye is outcast
From the Sweqhàngqu’s kitchens
For the rest of the extent of her life.

And so she took the sign and hung it on the door and told me to go away.
I ran away to the workshop of Grandfather Jàkopar, I didn’t care any more about the kitchen or helping out with household tasks, I was now on a sacred mission to save Puey’s heart from the wiles of all of the other maidens out there who don’t have his best interests at heart. I spent all the day putting together my machines, turning the springs, seting all of the clockweyth all together, soon I had the pumps rolling, I set samples of Puey’s skin and nail upon the bits of glass and examined them with lense and glass, my heart was shaking within me, I just knew that I had to discover a way to remind Puey that he was mine and mine own for ever and only mine. I looked at his cells, the shining, the movement, and it reminded me of a dance spinning around, almost at the edge of my consciousness.
I worked throughout the day and into the night. Sometimes Siêthiyal and Karuláta would come up to me and bring me food, but I refused all sustainence, all rest, so enthused was in in the act of creation. I was investigating the actual phenomena that makes life flow within the cells, I’ve wonderd for so long who it was that flowers and forests function, let alone beasts and people, what about clockwork and natural weather, how did energy turn and blossom. None have been able to quench my curiosity about these matters, even though I have asked sylvan priests and the wise and the sages, I’ve poured through books of linguistics and natural philosophy, when I was still a little maiden Great-Uncle Táto brought me my first alchemy set and I worked upon all of the experiments in the book that he gave me, and I annotated and wrote upon all of the pages, but it only made me more curious all the while. Darkness fell. The heavens were crackling about me. I did not care. Fhermáta finally came to the workshop and told me that I had to go to bed, but I just took up a piece of wood and wrote upon it, Khaûlrapor aîFhermáta, Go away, Fhermáta! I had no desire to think of her, to have her interrupting my perfect thought. I thought about skin and horrors and death, I was writing upon the walls my mathmatics of how the spirit works. I wondered around about the workshop, I let my thoughts flutter about me of their own accord, I thought about hair and eyen, I thought of how bones are knit together, I thought about Puey’s petal cheek and his flowing melancholy blue hair, I thought about the waves of causality that flow through the body. At some point I fainted, I’m not sure when, but when I awoke again I was within the crannog, and wrapped up in a blanket. Fhermáta was bringing me soup. Siêthiyal and Karuláta were looking at me. Fhermáta set the bowl down and the spoon and bade me to eat, I asked where Puey was, she told me he was busy, I told her I refused to eat until I saw him, she told me I’d have to wait. He’d better not be rescuing other maidens, I told her. She took a spoon and tried to force soup into my mouth, but I ran away from her, I shoved aside the table and soup and flung open the window and threw myself outside, and when I returned to the workshop I barred all the doors, and I’m a bit more clever in devising locks for keeping the Sisters out than they are in keeping me away from Puey.
I fasted and worked. I was no longer aware of my hands and limbs. My thoughts were turned to the way that flash works, as I examined the samples again and again, I knew that I would be unable to discover the secrets of life which had eluded the wisest and best of the worlds since the time of the shining of the Tree, but still my thoughts groped and reached and fell through an abyss of darkness until arising to the realization that indeed I do have Pfhentókha’s heart, and this heart beats with its own music, and music part of the tapestry of all of creation. We can hear our hearts with our waking ears, but in our dreams perhaps we can hear the music of the spheres also the Qyál. And so I opened up my machines and looked at the cells and examined them for harmonics, for melody and tune and I knew that I could transcribe the music in terms of chemistry. I set all my vats alive and began pouring potions within, and all of the clockwork was churning. It would be beautiful, like two magnets drawn together, like the balance of the Sun and the Moon, the utter gravitation of the worlds, and I was thankful that I had a woman’s heart and so could guide my Puey. At last I had my chemicals and my machines. It was night once again. I was very dizzy. I might have swooned a few more times, I’m not entirely sure, the next few hours were a blur. I remember having a jar filled with liquid and some gurgling machines. I walked by moonlight, dancing came I, all of the crannog was asleep, and easily I unlocked the door of Puey’s somnambular accommodacioun, I found him fast asleep. I might have been laughing at this point, I cannot say. His Sisters were sleeping about him in a futile attempt to hide him from me. I found his left hand. I think I was humming, I’m not sure, I was humming an equation of fractals colliding, I’m afraid I don’t quite remember all of the equations right now, the next time I go for a couple of days without food and sleep I may be able to envision it again. I applied the solution to Puey’s left hand, and I turned on the machine, and understood the music of his cells, and it all made perfect scents to me. Oh one day the priest shall clasp our hands together and we shall be one flesh, I was saying, as my machines were sputtering into light, fountains of lightning crackling about them. But for the moment, we shall have to be content just to hold hands.
I think it was at this point that the Sisters awoke. By all the Ancestors, what do you think you’re doing this time! Fhermáta cried. I always knew she was trouble, from the beginning, Siêthiyal chanted. I’ve been eating your desserts for you, Éfhelìnye, little Karuláta chanted. Would you mind disappearing for a few more days, we’re having cake this coming night and I want your share? I clasped my hand into Puey’s, he awoke, the machines were glistening, and in the excitement of it all, I know this time I chanted, Now I can guide you for ever, now you shall truly be mine all mine and no one else’s, and I collapsed in a faint.
When I awoke at first I was not entirely sure whether it had worked, but when I moved my right hand I found that it was still holding Puey’s. Success! I laughed in purest joy. Now, Puey, we shall be holding hands for the rest of your lives! Never again shall we be separated! You have to go where I lead, isn’t this wonderful? For some reason Fhermáta was shaking her head. Siêthiyal was bringing a saw. Akhlísa was laughing. Puey tried to scratch his head, and I ended up rubbing his brow. I can’t believe you glue’d your hands together, Fhermáta chanted, you have an hole in your head, do you know that? First of all, this is not glue, I tried to explain, it’s an überglue perhaps, it’s a bond formed by the harmonics of our flesh made into a single music, there is a physical conduit between our hands so that our skin can continue to grow and be nourished but we’re not glue’d together, it’s far more complex than that, so I was trying to explain unto her. You sure look glued together, Fhermáta chanted. It’s worked all to well, try and separate yourselves. But I don’t want to be separated, I want to be with Puey for ever and for ever, why can’t everyone understand that? You didn’t think this through, did you, she asked. Oh yes I did, I left one of Puey’s hands open so he can fight with his sword and be all heroic, and I have an hand free, look, this makes perfect sense. Anyway, whenever we go to the zócalo maĥīrum, and the chariots and wagons and dinosaurs are thundering in all directions, you or an adult are always saying that I have to hold someone’s hand because I can’t be trusted to cross the pathway by myself without stopping to sniff flowers or play with catterpillers and chase putterbutterflies, at least this way I have someone an helpmeet always attached to me. And now we can be together for ever. Siêthiyal brought the saw and drew it towards my wrist and chanted, Do you want to hold her down for me while I saw throught? Should we knock her out first, I’m not in the mood for all this screaming so early in the day. Puey forbade them from sawing through my wrist, but he did tell me that we would have to be separated. At least give this a chance, I told him. We concocted a compromise, I would start working on a xhrètsengu formula to dissolve the chemical balance between us and change the harmonics of the music, but I would lead him through the day with my heart.