Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

I got home, tired but happy, the next morning. White day had started. I’d fallen asleep watching the meteors. The incident with Lishrashic had already become dream like to me and I thought I could forget about it. I found two men and a woman I didn’t recognise in our apartment. They were sitting with Mum, who looked worried.

“Ah here you are!” said the older man. “I’m detective Veran of the Minris police department. I’d like to know where you were last night?”

“Remember what I told you about the police,” said Mum.

She’d told me to tell them the same lies I told everybody else.

“I was at the Vineyard,” I said, no need to lie about that but I knew this was about Lishrashic.

“Actually I’m just their magic consultant,” said the younger, and scruffier, man.

I felt power from him similar to that of the Winemakers but more pleasant and weaker, about as powerful as Iandris but different. I’d often got similar feelings from other people but I only got it with a small proportion of people.

The magic consultant came up to me and said, “This is just a test, it won’t hurt you.”

He held up a bit of glass. There were faint flashes of light and I was fairly sure it was a magic detector.

“She has some residual magic,” the scruffy man said, “but considering that she’s a Winemaker and was at the Vineyard last night, I don’t think that proves anything.”

“Did you see anything unusual?” asked the smarter man.

“Something that doesn’t normally happen at the Vineyard,” said the unfamiliar woman.

“We had a big party with lots of fruit and some fish and played astronauts trying to find spaceship parts and when we’d got them, lots of magic fireworks went off, I came second and then in black night, we lay on our backs on the roof of the big house and watched the meteors shoot across the sky until I fell asleep but I don’t think I slept much.”

“Did you see Lishrashic there?” asked Veran.

“Oh yes, Iandris was there as well. I think they had a bit too much to drink. They dragged me off at one point to see some Selenicereus flowers but I’ve seen them before, they’re the cacti dragon fruit grow on although they’re different from the cacti that dragon fruit grow on on the plain because that sort find it too cold to grow here.”

“All right!” said the smart man, rolling his eyes. “Have any magic fireworks gone off near you?”

“Narim set off a booby trap, he was on my team, I tried to warn him about it because I was wearing the space helmet. Then I was in the spaceship when the magic fireworks went off.”

“I think this is consistent with the magic residue on her,” said the scruffy man. “It’s not consistent with the residue on the victim.”

“Have you ever seen a minion at the Vinyard?” asked the smart man.

I thought about that and said, “No.”

I suppose that was true, I’d seen lots.

“What about the relic?”

“I don’t know what it looks like.”

“Do you know what a relic is?” asked the woman.

“Oh yes, it’s a part of the starship that brought humans to Midbar, every Holy Site has one and if it’s removed or destroyed everybody will die.”

“I consider that a corrupted file myself,” said Veran, “but as far as we know, nobody has ever done that and I don’t think many people are willing to risk it so we don’t know for sure. For whatever reason our ancient ancestors didn’t think we should know exactly what the relics were or where they were located on each Holy Site. I take it you don’t know what the relic is at the Vineyard.”

“I’ve heard that it’s in the filtration plant or the shrine,” I said.

“That’s what most people think,” said Veran. “I thought being a Winemaker, you might have a better idea. Anyway, this man, Lishrashic, was found hurt near the Vineyard this morning. You understand that violence ...”

“Fighting,” said the woman.

“... fighting,” said Veran, “isn’t allowed on a Holy Site, partly because it might destroy the relic, I think, so this is fairly serious. He had a lot of alcohol ...”

“He’d had too much wine to drink,” said the woman.

“... but he also had a fair bit of magic residue on him.”

“Consistent with a concussion spell,” said the scruffy man.

“A spell that makes you go to sleep,” said the woman, “and forget things that have happened in the last few hours. He still knows who he is and how to read and stuff but he can’t remember most of yesterday, including what happened to him.”

“The Winemakers say he may have encountered a minion or the relic,” said Veran.

I was a little surprised that the Haprihagfen were saying that, or perhaps he meant other Winemakers.

“Which I think is unlikely but I can’t disprove it,” said the scruffy man.

Veran stared at me for a while and I stared back.

“Well I think we’ve learnt what we can here,” said Veran.

After they’d left, Mum asked, “What really happened?”

“What I told them although I’ve seen lots of minions so that might be what hurt Lishrashic but they’ve never hurt me. That man, the one who did magic, what is he?”

“He said he’s a magic teacher at the local adolescent school,” said Mum. “I suppose he must be a mage.”

“Do all magi feel like that?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Mum.

“I got a feeling from him like from the Haprihagfen but not as strong. Some of the Haprihagfen are magi. If he’s a mage, the Haprihagfen must be magises.”

“Only magises can detect magic without a magic detector," said Mum, "and there are very few of them. I think less than there are Haprihagfen and I think it’s highly unlikely that you’re a magis. Anyway, you remember what I told you about saying that you thought people were minions and things.”

“Yes, I was only telling you.”

“Good, remember that sort of thing can get you into trouble.”