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Hello and welcome to meet us pod
episode six. I'm your host de

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metus. I'm sorry for the delay
in this episode, I hope to be

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able to get back on a regular
release schedule from here on

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out. I've been getting some
really great submissions and for

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all of you that have submitted
stories and haven't gotten

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response yet, I will be getting
back with you this week. I have

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fallen behind. We have some new
theme music for me this pod.

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It's called into the unknown and
it comes to us courtesy of pod

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Sprite. You can check out more
of odd sprites work over at odd

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sprite.com which is linked in
the show notes. Please stay

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tuned after the story to hear
about how you can help us keep

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the show going and growing. Our
story for this episode is

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raising words by Stewart see
Baker? Stewart see Baker is an

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academic librarian I coolest and
speculative fiction writer is

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fiction and poetry has appeared
in Cosmos modern Haiku, and

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flash fiction online among other
magazines. Stewart was born in

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England has spent time in South
Carolina, Japan and California

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and now lives in Western Oregon
with his wife and two sons.

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Although if anyone asks, he'll
say he's from the internet. His

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website is info mansi.net
Stewart also has novelette

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called the Abbott's garden on
Amazon. I'll put a link in the

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show notes if you'd like to
check that out. The story will

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be read to us by Lauren Burwell.
You may recognize her voice she

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played the part of Lynda in
Episode Five is dead guy

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walking. Lauren has been
dabbling in voiceover narration

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work for the past two years. You
can find more of Lauren

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Burrell's.
narration@librivox.org As

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always, her Librivox page will
be linked in the show notes.

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Without further ado, here's our
story.

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Raising words by Stewart see
Baker. After we entombed my

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father, he transformed into a
giant bird of purest white, and

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burst forth from the earth all
holy and clean. My mother and

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her co wives my sisters, my
cousins, all followed as he

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soared majestic and terrible,
filled with beauty away to the

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east and the sea. I alone are
the women in that place stood

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watching the rest ran through
the plane and brush pushing past

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the sharp bamboo which must have
cut their feet like soars. They

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ran through the wave and spray
unmindful of the cold wetness,

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which wrap their robes about
them like black ocean weeds. As

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they ran, they sang their high
pitch nasal voices rising and

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rhythmic bursts of ritual limit
to the commie my father had

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become I alone saying no songs.
I alone remembered. When I was

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very young I used to beg my
father to take me hunting.

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though even then he was stern he
would always relent the sun

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glinting through his jet black
hair as he grinned our secret

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grin and set me in the bow of
the sky reaching Black Oak at

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the forest edge. I love the
burst of activities as courtier

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swarmed around reading horses
and bows. The shouts ringing out

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in the crispness of the early
spring air. But I love more than

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way my father sat perfectly
still astride his own horse, his

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own bow held loosely in his lap.
He would chant the ritual

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blessing slowly, with a godlike
calm. I used to sit in the Oak

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for hours and listen to the
distance the Romina bowstrings

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reveling in the idea that all
things were connected. And the

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idea that my father connected
them, when he slayed the

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Warlords of the Komodo tribe. My
father received a new name

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Yamato Takeru. They called him
as he died, Yamato brave. When

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he returned, he had changed. He
no longer hunted, no longer held

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his bow. Instead, he practiced
swordsmanship he stood waist

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deep in the Kenai River, drawing
and slicing and drawing and

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thrusting over and over and over
again, with a sword we learned

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he had received from his aunt,
the High Priestess at Issei. He

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did not come to my mother or her
co wives a single time before

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leaving again at the emperor is
ordered to pacify the peoples of

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the East. A part of him I
thought, a part of my past, was

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dead and gone forever. My mother
cried for days, and I was filled

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with an unease of a world on
strong. We heard tales of his

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further exploits this Yamato
Takeru, who had been my father,

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he smashed savages, argued with
commie and gods, and struck them

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all down to the dead land of
Yomi if they did not submit, my

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mother and her co wives received
reports daily, tracking his

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progress with a mix of hope and
trepidation. From the bowels of

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the yoke where I sat alone once
again, I could find no trace at

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former times, you will marry the
inverse first grandson in raised

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my chance of ruling. Those were
my father's first words to me

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when he returned my cousin, I
stated it flat and unflinching,

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ignoring my mother's grasp. Yes,
my father said, the thrones air.

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And if I will not, my father
laughed a sound sudden and sharp

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like an arrow striking would you
would raise words On Me Girl, I

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have killed kami and burned to
the ground hold tribes of

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stinking rebels. I have
subjugated the rivers and the

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seas, and bent the messengers of
gods to serve my own will. If

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you refuse, I have other
daughters. Any of them can

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easily become my eldest.

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I set my teeth and raise my
chin. As you say, my lord

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father, keeping my words to
myself, but that night I went

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once more to the forest. I did
not stop as I usually did at the

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foot of the oak, but walked
further than I ever had before

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into the untouched wilderness of
the deep forest. I walked until

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the canopy closed overhead, then
opened again to reveal the

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eternal patterns of the heavenly
River. The air was rich with a

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smell of houmous and rot. I came
to a mystery spring in there I

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stopped and missed the dim
shapes of pines and rocks, and

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the silent blue distant stars
reflected on its surface. A

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white bore, as big as a war
horse rose from the waters, its

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eyes and focused. Its form
shifted as it walked, lop size,

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bulges of life forming on its
body and sluicing away into the

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air with each step. A commie
it's now close enough that I

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could feel its breath on my
skin, even in deep it spoke.

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Woman child, it said, What do
you seek? The words echoed in my

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skull with the sound and thunder
of trees falling. I do not

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reply, I do not dare. Woman
child. Do you seek justice? No,

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I, woman child, do you seek
vengeance? No, I do you seek? It

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paused, JAWS opening slightly.
Death My father died already.

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What I seek is your father's
death. It will come again. If

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that is what you seek. My breath
set like a stone in my stomach.

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My throat burn like fire be
scarred a rasp, I order you stop

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I wanted leave this place woman
child, the kami said or what you

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say you do not seek will come to
you. Then it turned back towards

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the spring. And as it did so
slowly melted upwards into the

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mist. I walked through the
forests for long enough to count

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a lifetime. I lived off
mushrooms and berries, drinking

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from polluted streams whose
water chilled my throat and

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aching belly. When I last found
my way back to the Yamato. I

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knew I was told that a half moon
had passed my mother ran to me

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her hair in disarray and her
robes disordered. Her eyes puffy

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and red. Think the white plane
of heaven. She have sobbed

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collapsing against me. I thought
we had lost you too. So it was

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that I learned my father had
been struck dead by Mount buki

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by massive white commie in the
shape of a bore. While I

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wandered lost in the forest, as
my father's commie vanishes

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towards the sea and the wailing
of my mother and her co wise

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fades from hearing. I stepped
from the shadow of my father's

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new built whom faces empty grave
and speak. Raising words one

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final time. I will remember you
as you were I say and not as you

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became daily will I erase your
divinity ever chronically in

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your early mortal life until
your godly wrath is not but

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legend. I will tell all who
listen, have order and calm.

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Then I turn I do not look back
at the fields and the cliffs in

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the mountains and the oceans of
my homeland. I turn and face the

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sun and I leave that barren
place and search a fertile

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Grail.

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Meatless pod runs on donations
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don't change it or sell it.
We'll see you next time folks,

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and it won't take five weeks
this time. I promise