Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

“The official rules aren’t cool. You lot have really weird lines of predestination, it’s like you girls are predestination central.”

I remembered how Iandris had freaked out when she’d tried to tell my fortune. This made me wonder if it wasn’t just her or if there really was something strange about me, apart from being a nibeyah.

“Are you still using Old Magic?” asked Cloud.

“Old Magic requires burning or killing something or making an image of what you want. Hmm. Hotel nibeyah is bound to the anavah magis but you boys, it’s like you’re not really here but it’s like you’re going to do totally cosmic things, even the nibeyah.”

“She’s a chelas,” said Breeze, “but she’s equipped in a very odd way. There’s an associate bound to her body fat, I think so she can burn it to do something.”

“Yoldasia combines Old Magic with Associate Magic,” I said.

“Who did that?” asked Breeze.

“Gidlard’s equipping me but Mum’s training me. You’re going to have totally weird and eventful lives.”

“You do know I’m likely to live for a millennium or so,” said Breeze.

“I’m important,” I said. “I’ve always known I was important.”

“You’re connected to Lishrashic. How?” she was sweating and breathing heavily.

“Can’t keep burning your own fat to do Old Magic for very long,” said Breeze.

“He’s a friend of my parents and has just moved out of the hotel,” I said, “not that it’s any of your business.”

“You do know that Old Magic tends to drive you mad,” said Cloud, “and you’re a katcheyah to start with!”

“Well actually it is my business because he’s hired my Mum to break his tether spell as you couldn’t do it only you won’t let my Mum in the Vineyard so she had to send me.”

“Well if you were any good at magic,” said Breeze, “you’d know that Lishrashic’s binding isn’t attached to us.”

“We know his binding’s attached to an associate in the shrine crypt," said Miandri, "which you’re afraid to mess with so we’re looking at his predestination lines instead. You probably don’t know what those are and can’t detect them.”

“You can’t break a spell without altering it’s associate,” said Breeze, “basic magic.”

“Can this predestination line thing interfere with associates?” I asked.

“It’s probably just rubbish,” said Cloud.

“It’s not rubbish!” said Miandri.

“Perhaps we should call somebody,” said Irvis.

“I’ve only removed associates from a few artifacts,” said Breeze, “never tried removing one from a chelas but I suppose I’ll have to start some time.”

“I know when I’m not wanted,” said Miandri walking away, “but you’re being totally intolerant!”

Ice called an emergency meeting in the Beit Gadol. This was in a room on the ground floor that I’d never been in before. It felt a bit strange sitting there with all the Haprihagfen and Benai Haprihagfen, like I was one of them. However I’d been told that they wanted me there.

“Irvis has informed me that Yoldasia’s daughter,” said Ice, “well I think she’s got two, has been here, apparently using Old Magic. She said that Yoldasia is trying to use Old Magic to break the tether spell on Lishrashic. We know she’s of questionable sanity and not exactly sympathetic to us, we’ve had to ban her from the Vineyard for using Old Magic before. I think she’s jealous that we can, and always do, marry psychics while she had to marry a hipsick. Anyway, that isn’t really the issue and she should be mad at the Trulist leaders not us.”

“She divorced her first hipsick and married another one,” said Mountain.

“Like I said," Ice continued, "questionable sanity. Probably the best case scenario for us, is if she fails but doesn’t do any damage. If she succeeds but doesn’t do any damage, it will be rather embarrassing. It’s possible that she’s somehow discovered who cast the spell, for all we know she did it herself. The worst case scenario is if she changes the spells on the Vineyard, it’s part of the Mechanism and there’s no telling what might happen. Unfortunately she’s probably the only person on the planet who knows much about Old Magic. Some people think that even knowing about Old Magic is dangerous, even if you don’t use it. As a result, most information about it was destroyed, including how to identify and counter it. We don’t know where Yoldasia got her information from but we do know that her magic is consistent with what’s generally known about Old Magic and has some real power. To make matters worse, she’s also a competent Associate Magic mage and has found ways to combine Associate Magic with Old Magic. The question is what can we do to stop her? I’ve already dispatched Stone and Plentari to keep an eye on her.”

“Well obviously we could complain to the Mage Council,” said Faldren.

“So far she hasn’t actually broken any Mage Council laws,” said Ice, “not as far as we know. They may understand that she’s planning to do something potentially dangerous but I wouldn’t count on them being much help. Oddly, most people must know that Yoldasia’s mad but she seems to have some strange way of getting people in high positions to go along with her.”

“Are there any experts in other sephirot?” asked Mountain.

“Debatable but I doubt any of them are anavim,” said Ice.

“What’s the legal position?” asked River.

“Using Old Magic isn’t illegal,” said Kerdnac. “Causing property damage is but we can’t get legal representation, also Yoldasia is rumoured to have had an affair with one of Pax’s best lawyers.”

Irvis sniggered, “Affair, like a love affair.”

“She’s got really big boobs,” I said.

“Miandri’s mum dropped her pants, took off her bra and showed her boobs,” said Irvis.

“It was a love affair,” said Kerdnac. “I know you kids aren’t comfortable with that sort of thing yet but can you save the jokes until later?”

“You girls are going to grow boobs in a few years,” said Rainbow.

“Eleprin,” said Ice, “you know Lishrashic and Iandris better than the rest of us, any ideas?”

“What’s a sephir?” I asked.

“That’s a Haprihagfen secret,” said Ice, “sorry we can’t explain it to you.”

So this was the secret I was meant to discover?