Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest

“Utnisdian’s.”

“What?”

“He’s the leader, he’s smart. He had Miandri bring her here. Is it true about her and Narblo? That must have really urinated you!”

I had no recollection of Miandri ever talking to Utnisdian and I didn’t even know if she knew who he was. He almost certainly knew who she was, probably the most attractive girl at school who hadn’t had sex with him.

“What about the other rapes?” I asked.

“We were just messing with you?”

“What! How is raping girls just messing with me?”

“We raped all the ones you liked and they thought you’d done it. It was hysterical!”

“Why did you do it?” I asked, finding it hard to control my anger so I could read his mind.

“We’ve really urinated you haven’t we?” he smirked. “Ow!” He rolled up clutching his stomach.

“Why did you do it?”

“No need to use pain magic. How did you get that anyway?”

“Why did you do it!”

“It was Utnisdian’s, idea but it was brilliant.”

“Give me a very good reason not to kill you!”

“We’re friends.”

“No we’re not! We never have been!”

“We shouldst maketh it looketh like an accident this time,” said Dwendra.

“It’s illegal!” said Sned. “This time?”

“Yohoist scripture doth sayeth a society that tolerates rape gangs shalt be severely punished!”

“Well the Nuharas are still living in Rendamar,” said Sned.

“Let me clarify this,” I said. “You’ve been raping girls who I like making everybody think I was the real rapist and stopping me from fornicating them, you’re probably being protected by Benai Nibeyim and you just tried to rape the best friend I’ve ever had. If I let you go, you’ll probably just rape more girls and perhaps find another way to do something bad to my best friend. If I erase you’re short term memories, well that’s probably not going to help either. If I report it to the police, well Benai Nibeyim will probably make sure you get off. That really just leaves killing you or is there some better option?”

“It was just a bit of fun, none of that complicated stuff with Bennis Nibey.”

At that point I decided he’d outlived his usefulness and knocked him out with a subtle spell.

“Wake up this one!” I said, pointing at Utnisdian.

“Er, what,” said Utnisdian, propping himself up and looking around. “Ah, Clindar, I know this looks bad but let’s think about it.”

“Did you think of this rape thing yourself?” I asked.

“I think you’re overreacting a bit. Did you knock us out …”

“Answer the question!”

“We can be your friends, help you get a girl. Arrr!” He’d been getting up but he fell, clearly in a lot of pain, I think because Dwendra had hit him with an offensive spell. “No need for ...”

“Answer the question!”

“It was Master Kiard.”

“What!”

“He said he’d give us higher grades if we raped girls you liked. Now can we stop with the magic torture because ...”

“Did he tell you to rape Dwendra?”

“Who?”

“Her!” I pointed to Dwendra.

“Yeah. Said it would be really funny because she’s a glildac and we’d probably never get a chance to get another one.”

“Did you arrange for Miandri to bring her here?”

“No, Kiard did that.”

“I think I’ve heard enough!” I said. I knocked him out with the same spell I’d used on Sned.

“I’ve got those broken devices we couldn’t sell,” said Dwendra, holding them up. “They’ve got associates bound to them.”

I put Utnisian’s ring on his finger and we arrange the others so they were all holding that hand. Then we scattered the broken devices around and both used some rather messy destructive spells to kill the illegitimate biowaste. We also fused their hands and the magic ring together.

“Shouldst we killeth their leader?” asked Dwendra.

I considered that. “This looks like a magic accident,” I said. “You know, doing something stupid with an artifact and some devices but it would be harder to explain Kiard. Besides he’s in the court now so he’ll see for himself that we’re there. Anyway, I suggest we get away from here before people come.”

The defense lawyer argued the only alternative to not dealing with the bullying by exclusion (although he claimed this wasn’t really what was happening) was to basically have me rape a girl, or probably several girls. They also pointed out there was a temple with prostitutes in the town.

“The prosecution might argue psychics can’t use prostitutes as most of them are psychic and psychics aren’t allowed to have sex with each other. Of course this means in order for the plaintiff to have sex, he needs a girl who isn’t psychic but is also willing to have sex with him. Where is he going to find such a girl? I think this proves bringing in a girl of his own korbar to be his willing partner really isn’t an option as the only girls willing to have sex with him would violate Trulist religious laws.”

At this juncture, Traivanin came into the court and looked around.

“Can I help you?” asked the judge, a bit sarcastically.

“There’s been an incident that involves the plaintiff of this case and, I believe, the female sitting with him and I think the defendant,” he looked over at Kiard. “How long has she been here?”

“For about three hours,” said the judge.

Traivanin came up the steps and looked at Dwendra. “I’ll have to talk to you two later.” Then he went over to Kiard and said something to him. Then he said loudly, “Continue!”

With that he left. Kiard really looked very unhappy.

“Now,” said the judge looking serious, “it would seem this case hinges on the right of children to be protected from bullying, the right of girls to choose their own sexual partners and the authority of religious groups to dictate the sexual behavior of their followers not to mention the authority of schools to control the sexual behavior of their students. I think these are very important issues which are beyond the power of this court so I must refer it to the national court.”

“Sorry,” said a man I didn’t recognize. “In that case I must submit a notice of interest in this case.”

“Who are you?” asked the Judge. “I know who you are but who are you representing?”

“Minris school board, your honor.”

“And Minris school board has an interest in this case because?”

“They’ve invested a considerable amount of money in preventing a certain religious group from taking legal action against them. If this case is elevated to national level, it may be argued some of the lawsuits in question should be raised to national level and that would allow them to proceed, very possibly bankrupting my client’s town and causing considerable problems due to the hearing of old cases.”

“I don’t see I have any option but to elevate this case to the national court. You can argue your case with them.”

“Excuse me,” said the defendant’s lawyer, “one of my client’s has just received some bad news so can this be postponed to a later date?”

“Is there really anything to postpone?” asked the judge. “This case is clearly too important for this court so I’m elevating it to federal level.”

As we were leaving the court, Traivanin stopped us, although he seemed more interested in me.

“Excuse me,” he said, “I’m afraid we have a couple of cases which both seem to involve you, so I’d like a few words in private.”

“I’ll have to insist on being present to advice him,” said Dad.

Traivanin clearly wasn’t happy about this but agreed. Then he stopped Kiard and asked him to wait.

We found a small room that seemed to be left over from before the Cataclysm and no longer served a purpose. We were in the lower part of the courthouse which predated the Cataclysm and had some strange design elements.