Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance
The Mystery Begins - Part 1

“You want to be team leaders don’t you?” asked Rainbow.

It was about three ten cycles after we’d moved to Minris, near the summer solstice, the sapphires were shining for longer each day so it was the hottest part of the year. It was too hot to do much during the day and many visitors had come to get away from the heat and humidity near the sea. It was on the night of the big meteor shower. It happened every eleven orbits of Aleph. This time the shower would peak in the early hours of the first day of the light cycle so it would be black night. The meteors were supposedly debris from a comet which had been crashed into Midbar to thicken the atmosphere when humans first arrived. Lots of people went to the Vineyard to see it and the hotel was full. Of course I went to the Vineyard that night. Mum had stayed at the hotel, helping to man the reception desk. There was going to be a feast in the red night. I was standing with Dad, Lishrashic, Iandris and Breeze. Most people were wearing the robes of whatever god or goddess they worshipped. Iandris and Lishrashic were in Astrigis robes with bones and leaves. For once, Iandris was wearing a harness but it only emphasized how thin she was. The rest of us were in Winemaker robes with grapes, stars and fish (unlike Trulist Yoho robes which have wine bottles and people cuddling each other).

Rainbow (who was dressed in a fancier version of the old fashioned dress the Haprihagfen normally wore) handed me and Breeze toy space helmets.

“Going to play at being Tianamet?” asked Iandris.

“We don’t believe in Tianamet,” said Rainbow. “The game is that you’re marooned on a planet and you’ve got to find parts for the spaceship which have been hidden with booby traps. These helmets contain detectors that can find the parts and help you with the booby traps.”

“You mean magic detectors?” asked Iandris.

“Well, simplified ones because we don’t want the kids knowing who the magi are. These just detect the spaceship parts and booby traps.”

I put my helmet on. I could see all the associates and bindings on Rainbow and Breeze, as well as all the ones in the trees and vines of the Vineyard. When I’d first found out about it, I’d asked why Breeze had associates and bindings but Cloud and Irvis didn’t and was told that it was to keep her safe as she was the only girl born on the Vineyard in a hundred years. I’d got the distinct impression that this wasn’t true.

Dad was trying to peer into another helmet. Then Rainbow gave it to Breeze.

We gathered our teams as we feasted on mostly fruit and fish. The feast was held in the picnic area, with cyan mage lights floating over the tables (presumably so people could tell the color of the fruit they were eating). There was quite a variety of fruit; olives, figs, pomegranates, prickly pears, dragon fruit, citrus, cactus strawberries, fat grapes and, of course, grapes; mostly preserved from the last harvest. I think the idea was to get rid of it before the next harvest.

[Translation note: ‘Prickly pears’ refers to fruit of cacti of the genus Opuntia. This name is used rather than “Indian figs” as that would imply a knowledge of India, which these people don’t have. The fact that “Indian” here refers, erroneously, to Native Americans, doesn’t invalidate this reasoning.]

“Hey Stone!” shouted Breeze at one point.

Her and Cloud ran off and jumped around a young man who looked like an older version of Cloud but was dressed in Winemaker robes rather than the robes of Haprihagen. I’d heard that Breeze and Cloud had an older brother named Stone who’d left the Vineyard. He also had the same feeling of power I got from Haprihagfen. He was accompanied by an extraordinary young woman. She had the dark skin of the idlan. It was hard to determine the color of her hair because it was unusually shinny and reflected the light of Aleph and the mage lights to look like fire flowing down her head. She had unusually large, yellow eyes that occasionally flashed green when the mage lights caught them the right way. Her breasts and hips seemed too big for her waste and her arms, legs and neck were too long for her body. She also had the feeling of power and was dressed in Winemaker robes. She had to be a minion!

Irvis was sitting opposite me at the same table. He looked at Stone and his friend but seemed more interested in Iandris, who was sitting beside me.

“Winemakers are always claiming the moral high ground but that would never be tolerated at Bremplar temple,” whispered Iandris.

“What?” I asked.

Breeze, Cloud, Stone and the strange woman had been joined by River and Kerdac who were Breeze, Cloud and Stone’s parents. Stone seemed to be introducing the strange woman to them.

“Can’t you see what’s happening?” asked Iandris.

I looked around. There were lots of people, many I didn’t recognise. A number of the visitors, wearing Winemaker robes, had that strong feeling of power. There were a number of non-faharnis, some of them rather odd looking. I flipped the helmet’s visor down. Stone and the strange woman both had a few associates bound to them but all the adult Haprihagfen I knew had many. “No.”

“Are those two Breeze’s parents?” asked Iandirs, whispering but clearly a bit shocked.

“Yes,” I said. “I don’t understand what the problem is?”

“They’re doing something illegal. Is it illegal or just contrary to Trulist teaching?”

“I don’t know. If it’s contrary to Trulist teaching, well we’re not Trulists.”

“Yes, well this is a very good demonstration of why this is wrong!”

“There are very few things Trulists are strict about,” said Irvis.

“I am what you think,” Iandris said to Irvis. “You’ve figured it out haven’t you?”

Irvis turned red, noticeable in spite of the lighting and his dark skin, and went to talk to Breeze, Cloud and their group.

I realized that Irvis, like me, got a strange feeling from Iandris.

I went and joined Breeze.

Stone’s friend was named Plentari. She said she was from Uratan but I felt there was something wrong with this. Although her skin was a similar color, she didn’t seem much like Criadria. It took me a while to figure out that, while Criadria spoke Faharni with a noticeable accent, Plentari spoke fluent Faharni like a Paxian. Then so did Faldren but he’d lived in Pax for a long time.

“Shouldn’t you choose your teams?” asked River.

Me, Breeze, Cloud and Irvis put on our helmets and went to find team members for the game.

I led my team to the roof of the main building. We were searching the north section, basically from the car park to the river, and this afforded a good view. The roof was more-or-less flat with a low wall around it. My team consisted of: me; Tenenet; Iandris; Narim who I now knew was a boy but he was small for his age and looked like a girl; two boys I didn’t know who were dressed in the robes of Gildeshda; and Rainbow (who was acting as advisor).

“Is this OK?” asked Tenenet.

“I’ll tell you if you’re doing something wrong,” said Rainbow.

We went to the north side, overlooking the north side of the Vineyard and the lights of Minris town could be seen on the other side of the river. With the visor down, I could see that there were associates all over the Vineyard. I’d been told that the one I was looking for was small and very bright red. Most were blue or green and the red ones looked ghostly. I could also see that there were many associates bound to the bridge and a bunch of them in one of the shops between the bridge and the Cascade hotel. I suspected that this was the magic shop but couldn’t really tell from here.

“Let me try!” said Narim. “I’m going to be a mage when I grow up!”

He often claimed this. I didn’t feel any unusual power from him and, as far as I knew, he had no magic training. Looking at him with the visor down, I could see that he had no associates bound to him.

“I’m important!” I said.

“No,” said River. “There are reasons we’re only letting Winemakers use the helmets.”

“You’re teaching her magic!” hissed Iandris.

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