Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

I put my hands on the doors. Some sort of energy flowed into my body and I felt strange bits of things; people, places, ideas, words. I could never remember any of them afterwards. Still the doors didn’t move and I had no idea how to open them.

“Perhaps we need to get onto the altar,” Lishrashic said.

He guided me up the steps and onto the earthen mound. I felt really uncomfortable about this, like walking over a grave but far worse. He turned to face me and put his hands on my shoulders.

“Now there’s a special thing you can do to get the attention of gods.”

I’d much rather Yoho ignored me!

Just then I felt a power explosion, like when Rainbow had arrived at the visitor centre. I’d felt these many times since, mostly in the Vineyard, and still didn’t know what they were. This one was behind me.

“What the ..!” Lishrashic said, letting go of me.

I turned round to see something that looked like a man. It was taller than most men and was covered in black fur, wearing only shorts. He had the same sort of power I felt from Haprihagfen, had to be a minion!

“What are you doing?” the minion asked.

I fell to my hands and knees.

“Fornicating Streculic you te ...” Lishrashic said, before falling over.

“Don’t bow down to me!” said the minion crouching down and putting his hand under my chin and turning my head up to look into his eyes. He smelt of strange spices and herbs. “Yoho is the only real God and I’m not him. Don’t worry, your friend will recover.” He put his hands under my armpits and stood up, pulling me up to my feet. “What were you doing?”

“Lishrashic, my friend, wanted me to open these doors.”

“Why?”

“He said he wanted to show me something.”

“What?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you open these doors?”

“I don’t think so. Lishrashic seemed to think I could.”

“There are many artifacts behind these doors, most of them ancient and mysterious. It’s likely that one of them is the relic but nobody knows for sure. Certainly many of them are dangerous. You should never go in here unless a Haprihagfen tells you to. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Lishrashic can’t leave Minris because of a spell. I think he’s bound to an associate around here somewhere.”

“You’re rather young to be a mage.”

“I’m not a mage.”

“So how could you break the spell?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can.”

“Now go back to your friends! I’ll take care of Lishrashic. Don’t tell anybody about this, they won’t believe you.”

I didn’t have to be told twice, I jumped off the altar and ran north, towards the Mokom Goyai, and into the trees. I had to slow down because there was hardly any light to see by but I knew the path.

After a while, I ran into Iandris.

“It’s all right,” she said. “It’s something women like us have to go through. You understand don’t you? It’s a way to serve the gods. It’s what makes you important.”

I didn’t understand but I wasn’t sure I wanted to discuss it with her.

“Just don’t tell anybody. They won’t understand. You’re really important now!”

She followed me, which was good as she had a lantern, as I went back to the main building.

"Are you all right?" asked Breeze as I climbed back under my sheet on the roof.

Everybody else seemed to be asleep so I whispered to Breeze about what had happened with Lishrashic but I didn't mention that I was trying to find the Haprihagfen's secret.

"You can't open those doors," she said, when I got to that part.

"Apparently not."

I missed out the bit about being worried about not being a real Winemaker. When I got to the minion she said, "They're from sephir Kledris."

"Where?"

"I don't know where it is, I've only heard of it."

"He had the same feeling I get from Haprihagfen. Benai Haprihagfen are similar but weaker."

"You're weaker than Cloud and Irvis. I've never met another girl Benai Haprihagfen, Bat Haprihagfen I suppose that would be, so I don't know what they feel like."

"You're similar to Cloud and Irvis, just more, girly."

"You know you can't feel magic, only magises can detect magic without a magic detector."

"I felt something when I touched those doors."

I was looking up at the white flashes on Bet and a meteor shot across it. I could feel Breeze thinking though.

"I'm not psychic," I said.

I finished the story.

"So you're telling me although two people told you not to?" said Breeze.

"I'm good at keeping secrets but I don't know what to do. What if somebody asks?"

"Lie."

"What if a mind reader asks?"

"Is that likely?"

"Is Iandris a mind reader? Well I suppose she knows. What about Cloud or Irvis?"

"Yes Iandris is a mind reader. Well a psychic. I'm not supposed to tell you who the psychics are but I think you already know."

"I'm not psychic!" I didn't ask her how she knew who the psychics were because I already knew. "I still don't know what to tell a mind reader who asks about what just happened."

There was a long pause as some more meteors flew across Bet's face. I started to think Breeze had gone to sleep.

"Tell them that you went out to look at some Selenicereus flowers, there are a few out now although it's still winter, think of it as acting, not trying to fool them. If that fails, tell them you saw a minion knock out Lishrashic, they'll never believe that."

"Yoho is the enemy of all other gods," said Breeze, after a while. "When man was first created, the first god to fight Yoho was Streculic, the god of knowledge and lies. The second was Astrigis, the god of horticulture and famine. Ever since, Yoho has had a particular hatred for Streculic and Astrigis. Now Lishrashic, an Astrigis worshipper, is bound to an associate in the shrine crypt. It's one of a complicated arrangement of associates with many bindings. He's a hipsick. He's not a mage, not even a chelas, so what did he think he could achieve by getting into the shrine crypt?"

"I've no idea," I whispered. "He may have thought I could do something because I'm a Winemaker."

"Just being a Winemaker wouldn't help much even if ... Perhaps whoever put the spell on Lishrashic gave him some instructions. He didn't have any artifacts earlier and Iandris only had a divination bag, those things don't even work, they just provide a random pattern that a psychic can interpret and the interpretation tends to be influenced by the psychic's powers. Throwing normal dice would be just as good. Anyway, I can't help feeling that this is bad, a lot worse than it looks, and there will be trouble."