In the city of Hemm on the river of Em in the colder and hillier parts of the country lived many sorcerers, and of those sorcerers the most esteemed were the diviners, and among the very greatest of those diviners was Margimore the Knowing. She could see next year\u2019s weather in a passing cloud; she could read your palm with a glance at your heel; once she had performed no less than seven acts of haruspicy using the guts of a single underfed sparrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All had been unerringly accurate. This was as it was to be, for Margimore the Knowing deserved her title. But among the many and much and myriad things she knew, there was one thing that tested her sorely, and this was thus: within the city of Hemm, she was the second-greatest diviner in matters of the sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, she could perhaps bear in the abstract. But in the real her superior was \u2013 by all rumours heard \u2013 Gortrude Greetle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Margimore the Knowing was tall, and cold, and severe, and had a chin that was strong and foreboding and eyes that looked through you and into your metaphysics. Her hair was long and braided in the most wizardly of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gortrude Greetle was short, and round in a lumpy sort of manner, and distracted, and had no chin to speak of, and when she looked at you she flitted her eyes aside as if afraid you would steal them if you got a good look at them. Her hair was frizzy and thinning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, Margimore the Knowing set forth her mandate: if she could not be the greatest diviner in all of Hemm, she could at least supplant Gortrude. Some people \u2013 according to some other people \u2013 are disgraces to their profession\u2019s name by their existence alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A pigeon set forth from the tower of Margimore the Knowing. It flew to its home roost and delivered its message, whereupon the message was burned and it was eaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Volderros the Lurk was a professional. He did not believe in evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He did, however, believe in Margimore. She had paid him several times to do several interesting and profitable things, and at all times had been very clear that she knew more about him than he\u2019d like without ever once implying she\u2019d anything about it. He appreciated her discretion as much as he resented its hold over him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though not as much as he appreciated her money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Volderros the Lurk set forth in the deepest night, which was his friend, and walked the crooked narrows of the city of Hemm, which were his siblings, and slipped into the abode of Gortrude Greetle like it was his own home \u2013 that is to say, through the window and being mindful of the potential presence of deadly and dangerous traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were none. It was a little disappointing and just a sliver ominous: if a sorcerer\u2019s home appears unguarded, it\u2019s because the guard is either so small it\u2019s invisible or so huge it\u2019s unnoticeable. But this was not the first or second or even sixteenth wizardly manse invaded by Volderros, and so he put thoughts of what he could and could not see out of his mind and slunk through the foyer (littered with elderly and dying chairs) down the hallways (laden with little desks of plants and trays of metal tools) and into the building\u2019s heart, where the outside chill was kept at farthest bay and the secrets of Gortrude\u2019s genius were certain to nestle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were no locks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were no guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But at last Volderros heard the shiffle-shuffle of careless feet and knew that the sorcerer was nearby, and with practiced ease he stepped to the nearest doorway, slipped its frame wide without so much as a creak, and vanished into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside was a cramped chamber and on its walls were ten broad shelves and on each shelf were a hundred glass jars and in each jar were a pair of eyes of various sizes and shapes and shades and glassiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ones closest were a shade of blue that reminded Volderros of his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He fled, but without screaming. He was a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day a pigeon arrived in the tower of Margimore the Knowing, informing her that her payment was unnecessary and also that Volderros the Cutter was leaving Hemm for a city less fruitful but less troubling by prying eyes. This told Margimore nothing that she did not already know by other means, but somehow made her mood even worse regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cApprentice!\u201d she snapped, and from her cauldron in the corner peered the wary and unscrupulous pale gaze of Chox the Waiting, who had been tending this brew day and night for half a week in a trance because someone had to do it and Margimore considered her time better spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, ma\u2019am?\u201d said Chox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou will go to the home of Gortrude Greetle, and you will present yourself as an apprentice in need of tutelage, and you will thus discover her secrets and bring them to me.\u201d
\u201cYes, ma\u2019am,\u201d said Chox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd finish that brew first.\u201d
\u201cYes ma\u2019am,\u201d said Chox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Margimore knew that Chox had already finished the brew six hours ago and was avoiding further tasks with it. Chox knew that Margimore knew this. Margimore knew that Chox knew that Margimore knew this, but did NOT know that Chox knew that Margimore knew that Chox knew that Margimore knew this. And Chox knew it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chox was a very cunning apprentice. She could see both sides of anything with a mere glance of one eye, and she had two eyes, both as pale as an underfed leech. Neither were very impressed with what she beheld at the door of Gortrude Greetle: the greatest diviner in Hemm was fussing at her doorstep, failing to shoo a raccoon from her trash and failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGit!\u201d she shouted. The raccoon didn\u2019t even bother to sneer at her, distracted as it was the trash can it was elbow-deep inside. \u201cGit!\u201d repeated Gortrude, this time flapping her hands. \u201cGit!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have come to the abode of Gortrude Greetle, greatest diviner among all in the city, and I plead entry to seek apprenticeship so that I might learn from her unfathomable wisdom,\u201d said Chox the Waiting with an admirably straight face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh? Oh yes, sure, certainly, why not, yes yes yes,\u201d said Gortrude, wasting Chox\u2019s time by looking at her ear instead of her expression. \u201cSuper, fantastic, just wonderful. Tell me, do you mind if I run a few tests first?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf course not,\u201d said Chox the Waiting, who had faced no fewer than six trials to gain entry to the tower of Margimore, and six more before she was worthy of meeting her and undergoing the last six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMarvelous, just marvelous. Come on in and let\u2019s take a look at you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Chox was led inside as a guest and brought to the very innermost sanctum of Gortrude\u2019s abode without one jot of suspicion apparent or evident, and placed in a chair of surpassing comfort and admirable suppleness such that Chox was brought near to sleep even before Gortrude pressed a hidden switch on it that tipped it back at a most relaxing angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook up, please, and try not to blink too much,\u201d said Gortrude, and as Chox followed these directions a most alarmingly stinging substance was deposited in her eyeball. She bore it without flinching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGreat,\u201d said Gortrude. \u201cNow just wait a moment, and I\u2019ll get the rest ready-\u201d and as the sorcerer said this Chox blinked, and when her eyes opened again the world was out of focus and bright, so that the dim laboratory she sat in was filled with the glare of a sunless midsummer day on the water, and she couldn\u2019t so much as count her own fingers without squinting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She could, however, see simultaneously way too much and very little of the gigantic metal mask that Gortrude Greetle was bringing towards her face. Its many many many eyes glistened like a spider\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chox the Waiting had taken eighteen trials to apprentice herself to Margimore the Knowing. Chox knew herself and her strengths. She was both patient and cunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLOOK BEHIND YOU!\u201d said Chox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gortrude did this, and when she looked up, the comfortable chair was empty and Chox was halfway to the city gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Margimore the Knowing knew that Chox was never coming back \u2013 about four minutes before Chox decided to flee \u2013 she swore six oaths so powerful that the air at her desk darkened and splintered, and that gave her an idea, and that idea moved her hand, and before she had weighed her options and made her plans she had opened the deepest drawer of her desk and cracked the most devious lock that held it shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside was a tiny box that would kill anyone but her to open, and she opened it, and inside was a thing that was a little older than matter.
It had no name, but she called it by one anyway, and it came from the black opal she\u2019d trapped it within and listened with impossible patience as she gave instruction, and then it left, and before the sun had sunk another fraction lower in the evening sky it was at the doorstep of Gortrude Greetle, or rather under it. It was a creature of promiscuous omnipresence: wherever there lay a shadow of any size, it could fit its entire self within, though it was a bit bigger than the planet. It pranced underneath a passing rat in the gutter; skipped to the side of a crossbar in a pane of glass, then trickled down into the underside of an ugly overstuffed armchair and thusly it invaded Gotrude\u2019s demesne in the time before Margimore could blink once after giving it instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before her second blink, all the exterior of the house was known to it. It invaded the chambers and the cupboards and the kitchen and the cellar and the attic and the library; it slid between every page of every book, rolled over each stone and plank and bag and box; explored the cracks inside each cranny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And just as Margimore\u2019s eyes began to flicker for the third time, it made its way into the very heart of Gortrude Greetle\u2019s lair, where she sat at a desk and slouched over something insignificantly solid, twiddling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There. That was the last of the things that it did not know. It would know it, and it would return it, and it would be free, for Margimore the Knowing was unaware of what she did NOT know and did not realize that it was to be truly unbound after this task was accomplished, and even less aware of those consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a very small planet it found itself immersed in. It would take but a little squeeze to get the juice out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But as it flowed towards the desk and the heedless form of its target, Gortrude straightened from her hunch and made certain motions and from the tangled matter of her laboratory bench emitted a light so thin and bright and impossibly pure that the spirit discovered, experienced, and was overwhelmed by terror all at once in a moment of utter devastation. It fled wailing to the seven winds and came to Margimore on bended limb begging to be hidden away in its opal once more where the terrible light would not find it, and so once again she was left with nothing but a headful of hate and a mouth itching for a fouler curse than the several she had already spilled for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stewed there, staring moodily at her bookcase, then pointed a finger at the form dusting it. \u201cYou.\u201d
\u201cMe, ma\u2019am?\u201d asked the servant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou will go to the dwelling of Gortrude Greetle and make yourself available to her as a servant, and bid her examine your sightlessness, and thus you will discover her secrets and return them to me,\u201d said Margimore the Knowing. \u201cAnd you\u2019re going to do this because I\u2019m taking the light out of your eyes and will not give them back until you\u2019re done.\u201d
\u201cWhat, ma\u2019am?\u201d asked the servant, but Margimore had already whistled and pointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd what\u2019s your name? Sorry, I know I asked before, but I was writing and I\u2019m an awful multitasker.\u201d
\u201cMorsly,\u201d said Morsly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gortrude Greetle, the greatest diviner in all of the city of Hemm, nodded and cursed as her ink blotted on the page. \u201cShit. Sorry, sorry. I\u2019ll be just a moment. There. Sorry. Morlsy the what?\u201d
\u201cMa\u2019am?\u201d
\u201cEveryone in Hemm is So-and-so the so-and-so, aren\u2019t they?\u201d
\u201cThe Duster, ma\u2019am,\u201d said Morsly, who hadn\u2019t gotten to where she was by disagreeing with her employers. Then again, she hadn\u2019t gotten to the state she was in by disagreeing with her employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFantastic, fantastic. I have to warn you though, you\u2019ll be earning that title a little lot around here \u2013 why, the number of jars I have to keep clean alone is, well And your vision is\u2026?\u201d
\u201cGone entirely, ma\u2019am. I can still work though. I\u2019ll pay for the spellery.\u201d
\u201cOh no no no, no goodness no. Examining something like this is its own reward. If you\u2019ll follow me, please \u2013 here, this way, this way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Morsly was led down creaking halls that smelled like tea and dust and a hint of formaldehyde and placed in the most comfortable chair she\u2019d ever known \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook up, please\u201d
– where something unpleasantly stinging was drizzled into her eyes like oil on bread. It tingled and fuzzed at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook left now. Right. Down. Up again. Hmm. Well, it\u2019s definitely nothing material. We\u2019ll need to check more comprehensively. Hold still, please \u2013 got to put the lenses against your face.\u201d
Cold metal brushed against Morsly\u2019s nose and cheekbones, and something began to click rhythmically. \u201cHmm. Hmm. How\u2019s your precognition these days, Morsly?\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ve never had any, ma\u2019am.\u201d
\u201cYes, that makes sense. Well, your second sight\u2019s retina is well in place then. Can you please repeat after me-\u201d and here she spoke some words that did not enter Morsly\u2019s ears and turned her tongue to eels when she repeated them even as she was asked, unprompted. \u201cAlright, your third eye is unobstructed – no signs of a membrane. Hmm. Let\u2019s try the strong light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there was a moment\u2019s more clacking and crackling nearby, and then \u2013 shock of shock – Morsly could see something. Just a little something, a faint blur, but it was enough to bring her to near-tears with relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh, that\u2019s interesting,\u201d said Gortrude. \u201cYou can see the laser?\u201d
\u201cYes,\u201d said Morsly. \u201cMa\u2019am. Yes.\u201d
Scribbling and fussing noises. \u201cInteresting. It seems the light\u2019s gone out of your eyes \u2013 never seen that before. Have you run afoul of any sort of sorcery recently?\u201d
\u201cMy last employer was a sorcerer,\u201d said Morsly carefully, \u201cbut I never touched their work.\u201d
\u201cHuh. Very bad luck then. Anyways, I think I have something here that might help. Let\u2019s bring back the lenses.\u201d
Cool metal again, but warmer now, still touched with the lingering traces of her body heat. Click. Click. Click. CliBRIGHT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAh!\u201d
\u201cOh, that did it! Dimmer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPlease.\u201d
This time she was ready for it; but it still left red marks on the back of her eyes. Red marks. She could see them. She could see the light. She could even see the slightly horrible metal mask in front of her face she was looking through, and Gortrude Greetle behind it, watching carefully with her watery little eyes. They were wide with joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGot it! The sunblack lenses should do you just fine. I\u2019ll give you a frame and you can take the set – I\u2019ve got loads to spare, made a good dozen during the last eclipse back when I worked in Klorsimore. Stake out a sheet of obsidian right before the umbra hits and BAM, bakes that sunlight right in, black-hot. They\u2019ll be good for at least a century. Now, there is one thing I really must caution you: do NOT let anyone else wear these. You need the light to see, but someone whose eyes already have their own, it could – well. Just never let anyone else wear them, alright? Maybe don\u2019t even let them hold them. Or touch them. Actually I tell you what, I\u2019ll give you a case with a lock on it, is that okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Morsly. She could see every wrinkle and hair on Gortrude\u2019s weak, flabby chin and she wanted to kiss all of them. \u201cThank you. Thank you very much.\u201d
\u201cOh it\u2019s nothing, really. This was wonderful to help with. Eyes are my life. Always loved them. If you want to repay me, I can show you around the storage on your way out – I\u2019ve got hundreds in there, even got a couple from a WHALE, I kid you not. Fascinating organs.\u201d
She did. They were. And some hours later, when Morsly had one foot out the door and one on the stoop, she hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would still very much like to work here,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut there is one thing I have not been truthful with: I am currently employed elsewhere.\u201d
\u201cOh, that\u2019s a shame-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBUT,\u201d said Morsly firmly, \u201cI am certain she will permit me my leave when I explain things to her. I will see you again tomorrow morning, ma\u2019am.\u201d
\u201cJust Gortrude is fine, it\u2019s fine. And no rush, and no worries. Don\u2019t take any risks on my account.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the second piece of advice Morsly received from Gortrude Greetle that she did not follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Margimore the Knowing\u2019s study door was open and unlocked, as it always was. She knew who was coming and what to do about it, as always. And if it was a bit of a surprise to have her servant return so quickly, not one day after she\u2019d dismissed her on her mission, well, she could keep that pleasantness to herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been to the workplace of Gortrude Greetle, ma\u2019am,\u201d said Morsly. \u201cMay I have the light of my eyes back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know,\u201d said Margimore the Knowing, and \u201cmaybe later. Tell me everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe examined my eyes, and she showed me her secrets, ma\u2019am,\u201d said Morsly. \u201cMay I have the light of my eyes back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGood,\u201d said Margimore the Knowing. \u201cNot yet. Describe them to me.\u201d
\u201cA serum for the eyes that tingles. A metal mask with little lenses. A bright light that even I could see. And these glasses.\u201d And she held up a small and study case and popped its lock open. \u201cMay I have the light of my eyes back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot ever again if you continue with such impertinence,\u201d said Margimore imperiously. \u201cNow let me see.\u201d And so Morsly gave them, and she took them, and she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that instant Margimore the Knowing saw very little at all, which was odd for someone who now possessed an extra set of eyesockets in the back of her skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dusting wasn\u2019t so bad, really \u2013 Gortrude was just short enough that reaching the backs of the shelves had been troublesome for her. And when Morsly was done cleaning she would memorize them by name and type and sort them, then go and read the books in the library, and in the evenings she practiced with the devices under Gotrude\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an interesting feeling, to wake up in the morning and realize that within the city of Hemm, she was the second-greatest diviner in matters of the sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And someday, maybe she\u2019d be even more than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the city of Hemm on the river of Em in the colder and hillier parts of the country lived many sorcerers, and of those sorcerers the most esteemed were the diviners, and among the very greatest of those diviners was Margimore the Knowing. She could see next year\u2019s weather in a passing cloud; she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2917,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions\/2917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}