Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

The south part of the park was the shadiest, warmest and probably wettest, although no part was very wet. It was pretty much overgrown with Crassulas, Kalanchoes and Sedums with some Aloes and things in the mix. Criadria and Iandris had decided to come with my group. Iandris kept putting her hands to her temple and acting like she was trying to pick up something psychically. I didn’t need to do anything like that to increase my sensitivity. Rinjac had put on a pair of glasses which I’m sure was a magic detector. I started out pointing out the various plants and talking about them but I was told to concentrate on looking for the ghost. It was blue day so red’s tended to look more black and perhaps wasn’t the best conditions for looking for something.

We got to the pool, with the main path leading down into the underground chamber.

“I think we’ll take the small path over the top,” said Ubran, when we reached the water.

Just then the ghost appeared, standing in, or rather on, the water.

“At night,” said the larger ghost girl and they, or it, vanished.

“Did you see or hear that?” I asked.

“What?” asked Criadria.

“The ghost, on the water. This time she said, ‘At night.’”

“I’m psychic, how come I didn’t see it or hear it?” asked Iandris.

“I don’t know!” I said.

“You know that’s not a fair question to ask the girl,” said Rinjac.

“Well you’re a mage," said Iandris, "you answer it!”

“Not sure,” said Rinjac, taking his shoes off, “you don’t have to be psychic to see ghosts and this ghost does seem to have an affinity for pre-pubescent girls.”

“What are you doing?” asked Ubran.

“I’m going to take a close look with my magic detector.” He waded out into the water. “Where exactly did you see it?”

“A bit to the left," I said. "No other left! And a bit farther out! That’s about it!”

“There’s all sorts of magical feces from whatever this place was back well before the Cataclysm," said Rinjac, looking down at the water. "I think there was a battle fought here or something, I’m not sure anybody really knows. Anyway, I can’t see anything that stands out from the general mess.”

We met back at the west gate (we’d entered through the east one). This was similar but in a better state of repair. Breeze’s group had seen the ghost with Agave leaves sticking through the girls and they’d said, “Please help us.” Rigar’s group hadn’t seen anything.

“It looks as if we’re getting evolution,” said Ice, “or maybe seeing more conditions.”

“Or maybe the girl’s lying about seeing it,” said Ubran.

“No she wasn’t,” said Iandris.

“More likely it had something to do with Iandris being in her group,” said Poslit.

“Why should it?” asked Iandris.

“Because your husband brought Yoldasia here," said Poslit, "and it’s probably her magic which is causing the ghost!”

“What could I possibly gain from this?” asked Iandris.

“Most likely,” said Ice, “whoever put the spell on Lishrashic will hear about the ghost, which will have some special meaning to him or her so they’ll come to Minris.”

“As I’m the only out psychic in the group,” said Iandris, “you can’t verify if I’m telling the truth.”

I was fairly sure she was.

“I suggest we try again,” said Ice. “This time I’ll take the middle section, Poslit’s group take the south section and Rinjac’s group take the north section.”

So we walked through the north section with mostly cacti, Agaves, Yuccas and bromeliads. We didn’t see anything unusual.

We met back at the East Gate and neither of the other teams had found anything either.

My group proceeded to check the central section, which had quite a mixture of plants. I saw a cute cactus with very fluffy spines that I hadn’t noticed before and a couple of small flutters were having a fight or something but otherwise, nothing unusual.

We met again at the west gate and some people seemed to be getting annoyed.

“It seems that ghost sightings are limited to once a day,” said Ice.

“I’ve seen it twice today,” I said. “I saw it this morning in my room and again in the park.”

“I saw it twice yesterday,” said Rigar.

Ubran looked at me suspiciously.

“Perhaps only sightings in the park count,” said Ice, “or it counts the day as starting at sunrise or it’s every few hours rather than once a day. Also this seems to extend to the entire group, not just the person who’s seen the ghost.”

“May I point out that Eleprin doesn’t seem to be following the same pattern as the rest of us,” said Poslit.

“I’ve seen the ghost twice today as well,” said Breeze.

“We saw the ghost in the park when you saw it,” said Poslit. “Eleprin’s group didn’t see it when she did and it said something different to her.”

“I’m telling the truth!” I said.

“She is,” said Iandris.

“As Breeze also saw the ghost last night,” said Ice, “there’s one aberrant data point, which happens to involve Eleprin. Perhaps there’s a probability factor and it just happens that the less common manifestation type happened with Eleprin.”

“She was hit by that fire thing,” said Poslit.

“So was I!” said Breeze.

“I suggest that those who were with Eleprin and Rigar go round again without them and the rest of us leave the park,” said Ice. “It’s possible that it doesn’t remember who was in a group with somebody who’s seen the ghost and you’ll see it without the kids.”

“What good is this doing?” asked Ubran.

“We’re still in diagnosis mode,” said Ice. “We can’t decide if this thing’s dangerous and if so, what we can do about it, unless we have a better understanding of it. Now do we all know what we need to do?”

We left through the west gate. Ubran decided that he’d spent long enough on this and headed for home, down south to High Street with most the others. Ice decided to take a walk around the north side of the park and took me and Breeze with her.

“You’re looking for signs of interaction aren’t you?” asked Breeze.

“Partly,” said Ice. “I’m also looking for an indication of its agenda. As it is, I’m not even sure it's got one. However, it’s also possible that it’s trying to conceal its agenda. Assuming that this is part of Yoldasia’s spell, it may be targeting Eleprin because Lisrashic’s strongest predestination line leads to her or maybe that’s misdirection or deviating from the normal pattern with Eleprin is coincidence.”

“Could this be the Mechanism?” asked Breeze.

“What do you think?” asked Ice.

She wasn’t being sarcastic, she meant that as a serious question. If anybody knew what the Mechanism was doing, it would be the Vineyard magis.

“I don’t know," said Breeze. "How do you know when it’s doing something?”

“I’m not sure but I just hope you will but maybe you’re not supposed to," said Ice. "I don’t know, I don’t think anybody does. What do you make of these ruins?”

“There are associates all over the place, some very large. It’s a mess. Is this why you don’t like this park?”

“It’s more complicated than that, I can’t explain it to you until you’re initiated.”

I was rather upset that this meant that I’d probably never know but I put that in my mental file of clues to the Haprihagfen’s secret.

“Do you want me to try to change it?” asked Breeze.

“Better not. Vineyard magises have tried that in the past but concluded that it might be part of the Mechanism and left it. If you need associates, there are better places to find them, we’ll show you when you’re initiated.”