Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

“Even we don’t know,” said Breeze.

“Why can’t you get an Old Magic expert from a sephir, even if they’re not an anav?” I asked.

“Refer to my answer to the last question,” said Ice.

“Iandris told my fortune ...” I started to say.

“Not suppose to have your fortune told,” said Irvis.

“Well she did it before I realized what she was doing and before I knew much about magic and psychic powers. Anyway, she saw something that made her freak out. Said I was kissing a man in a temple ...”

“Being a Temple Prostitute?” asked Irvis.

“I’m a Winemaker!” I said. “Perhaps I was getting married, Iandris didn’t say. Then she saw something that made her freak out.”

“Perhaps you showed your non-existent boobs,” said Irvis.

“Fortune telling’s notoriously unreliable,” said Cloud.

“Katcheyim do have some ability to foresee the future,” said Rainbow.

“Yes,” I said, “but tonight Miandri said that we had lots of predestination lines and would have very weird and eventful lives. Is there something strange about my future?”

“A lot of people who are alive now are likely to still be alive during the Prophesied Ruination,” said Ice.

“I think this was something Miandri thought was unusual,” said Breeze. “She also said that Lishrashic’s predestination line leads to us. What does that mean?”

“Don’t know,” said Ice. “It sounds like you’re going to marry him or something but I don’t think that can be right. Perhaps you’ll be with him when he dies or marry his son. What’s his son’s korbar?”

“Hipsick,” said Rainbow.

“I suppose he could have children we don’t know about or something,” said Ice.

“Or this predestination line thing is feces,” said Mountain.

“We’ve got to remember that prophecy is subject to paradox avoidance so it can’t tell you anything you can change,” said Faldren. “One objection sometimes raised to Old Magic is that it can trap you into an unpleasant future you can’t change but I don’t think anybody knows if that’s really true.”

“Prophecy can warn of things you can prepare for,” said Ice. “Anyway, Eleprin, could you try to get close to Yoldasia and her daughter, you’re close in age to the daughter ...”

“She looks several years older than me.”

“Well you’re closer than us and they’re likely to be less suspicious of you than Breeze. Don’t interfere with whatever she’s doing, just let us know.”

The next morning, I walked in through the front door of the hotel with the Benai Haprihagfen.

“Eleprin!” called Iandris’s voice.

I turned to see her waving through the door to the restaurant. I went over to her. There were four occupied tables, I think three families and Iandris’s table but I wasn’t sure. Iandris was sitting with Lishrashic, Yoldasia and Miandri. Yoldasia had a small, transparent ball of bubbling pink liquid on the table, with a tube going from it to her mouth.

“The question is,” said Yoldasia, with pink fumes coming from her mouth, “why does Lishrashic’s predestination line lead to you?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Old Magic’s unreliable, which is why it’s ...”

“We’re getting farther than the Haprihagfen did,” said Yoldasia. “You didn’t put that tether spell on him did you?”

“No. Well I could have used an artifact without knowing but so could anybody else.”

“We’ll see shall we?”

She grabbed my hand and started pulling it towards a crystal that Lishrashic was holding over a small candle on the table.

“Old Magic’s forbidden by ...” I screeched, trying to pull my hand back but she was gripping it too hard.

Yoldasia blew some pink stuff into my face. It smelt sweet and a bit like peppermint. I became tired and unable to resist. She let go of my hand but I continued holding the crystal with Lishrashic. I had no choice.

“Daiminas frugarnortari,” said Yoldasia, “why does Lishrashic’s predestination line lead to Eleprin?”

The candle under the crystal lit, presumably by magic. Instantly a number of pictures appeared in the air around us. It was weird, they didn’t really have edges, they just faded out and you couldn’t really tell how far away they were. Perhaps I shouldn’t have looked at them but I couldn’t help myself.

There was one of me and Breeze sitting on a bench, I think in the Fortress Park Conservatory. Breeze had her hair untied, had some sort of make up on her face and had a strange tube over her, pinning her arms to her sides, and her shorts were round her knees. I was wearing a dress but that was also open at the front.

There was another picture of me with Breeze and Ice in the shrine crypt. I was looking very unhappy.

Another showed me in front of the shrine crypt doors kneeling in front of Oldriac.

Another showed Lishrashic with a group of uniformed police around him.

One showed five teenages walking together in front of the Cascade Hotel at night. One was, I think a faharni boy, judging by the color of the skin on his arms. His face was so heavily made up, rather like a Love Priest, that it was hard to be sure. He was dressed in a tight, yellow shirt and short pants with blue cogwheels on them. Another was a normal looking bennis girl. There was a normal looking faharni boy. There was a faharni girl with red hair in a bun who was dressed smartly, like a business woman. The last was the most shocking. A faharni girl with short hair who was dressed in a similar way to the red haired girl. I was fairly sure that the last two were me and Breeze as teenagers.

Another picture showed three teenagers in front of some cars and buildings. There was a girl who looked like pictures I’d seen of Olaria when she was young. There was a fairly normal but rather rugged-looking, faharni boy. The last was a girl wearing a floppy hat, I think with short hair or at least there was none hanging down from under the hat. She was also wearing a tight dress that was rather low cut and showed a lot of cleavage.

There was a large group of people in an amphitheater, possibly Minris theatre, dressed in dirty, torn clothing. There was a large pile of stuff on the stage.

There was a teenage boy, who looked rather like Lishrashic, sitting next to a yellow-haired, faharni girl who looked about my age. The boy was dressed normally. The girl was wearing a sleeveless white and red robe with leaves and bones on it and heavy makeup on her face.

There was a man who I think was a Love Priest, as he was wearing a bra and had heavy makeup. His robes and tattoos had bones and leaves and he wore a crown of bones and leaves instead of an astronaut helmet. He was holding a bit of machinery, I think some sort of pump, with some wires and tubes dangling from it.

One showed a creature that I think was an ancient. It had strange projections from its head and skin like desert sand.

There was a woman I didn’t recognise. She had brown skin like a faharni but eyes like a quippa and a pointed nose like an idlan. Her hair was dark brown and curly and stuck out in all directions so I couldn’t tell if she had pointed ears like a bennis.

Yes, that’s what I suspect but I didn’t know that then.

“Now how are these significant?” asked Yoldasia.

“Big funeral,” said Miandri, “who died?”

I realized that the pile on the theatre stage was actually a large funeral pyre with several coffins on top.

“Why can’t these things be more user friendly?” asked Lishrashic.

“Paradox avoidance,” I said.

“Nonsense,” said Yoldasia, “that’s just an excuse for not being good at foreseeing the future.”

“An ancient and an Australopithecus?” said Miandri. “Totally mind blowing.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Why are you dressed like a slut?” asked Mum, who I hadn’t realized was there, pointing at the picture of the three teenagers. “I like the way you’re dressed in that one,” she pointed at the picture of the five teenagers.

“I thought that was Olaria as a teenager,” I said, realizing that I shouldn’t have used my aunt’s name. “In which case ...”

“I think that’s you with your cousins,” said Mum. “That’s you and Breeze and I don’t know the others, why are you with a male Temple Prostitute?”