Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

A few minutes later, the clouds swirled over us, it got very dark and huge raindrops pounded on us. Most the kids were dancing around, this was a novelty to them.

“Rain in Minris is heavy but it only lasts a few minutes,” said Cloud.

“In Grishnarl thunder storms don’t last long,” I agreed.

I didn’t know about Grishnarl but I was guessing it was the same as Ermish.

I was getting cold and was already soacked to the skin.

Then the teachers started running round shouting, “School’s over for the day! Go home!”

Me, Breeze, Cloud, Irvis, Narim and Rigar headed for the Cascade Hotel. Rigar, of course, lived at the other end of town so he was coming to the Cascade. I’m not sure why Narim was tagging along.

Torrents of water were spurting from the drain holes in the upper story rooms.

We came to the steps down to the outside door to our apartment (the fastest way to get in) but found that there was about 30 cm of water in the bottom and Dad was sticking a long, flexible rod into the water.

“Go in the front way!” he shouted. “Our apartment will flood if you open the door!”

We got round the front of the hotel. It was now nearly as dark as black night with just a few blue flickers where the sapphires should have been. The street lights had come on but weren’t helping much. The rain was so heavy that we couldn’t see very far and was sweeping in waves across the road and car park, which was about as far as we could see.

“It’s getting close,” said Breeze, looking east.

“I thought it was here,” I said.

“No, not quite yet.”

“I thought the storm was the bad thing.”

“No, I think the bad thing’s causing the storm.”

“I can’t detect anything,” said Narim.

Just then there was a huge flash of lightning.

“Let’s get inside,” said Cloud.

The foyer was more crowded than I’d ever seen, mostly with people who were soaking wet.

“More drowned rats!” said Criadria, who was behind the counter with Vritan. “Go to your apartment and get dry! Your mother’s there.”

In our apartment there were some bags and plastic sheeting against the bottom of the back door but there was still a puddle just inside it.

Mum gave the boys towels but, of course, didn’t have any spare boy’s clothing.

Me and Breeze went to my room, dried and started changing into dry clothes.

“It’s getting very close,” said Breeze. “Got swimming costumes?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll change into them, we’ll have to go out again!”

“How long?” I asked. “Perhaps we can put them under other clothes and get warmed up before we have to go back outside.”

We were having hot drinks and Narim was saying what a great mage he was. Breeze, Cloud and Irvis tried to argue with him but Breeze couldn’t say that she was a magis and she was clearly being distracted by the bad thing which was coming. Mum was quite impressed with Narim’s knowledge of magic.

“You won’t let me learn magic,” I said.

“Well Narim’s clearly got a gift for it,” said Mum.

“How do you know I don’t?”

“You’re normal.”

“We have proper magi to train us,” said Cloud. “Narim just reads books.”

“I’m working on a new book now,” said Narim. “Intermediate Magic by Tuvardin Pins.”

“It must be an old book as the author has a family name,” I said.

Breeze screamed, looking roughly south, towards the car park. “It’s nearly here!”

“What is?” asked Mum

I downed the last of my drink and me and Breeze stripped down to our swimming costumes.

“What’s happening?” asked Mum.

“She’s been taught to detect evil magic,” said Cloud. “And there’s some coming.”

“Well don’t go and meet it!” said Mum.

“Got to!” said Breeze.

“I don’t detect anything,” said Narim.

We ran out into the parking lot, which was pretty nearly full, just as a small bus pulled in. This wasn’t the sort that transports the public. This was the sort that wealthy people and organisations use to transport a lot of people or stuff (the Vineyard had one which they mostly seemed to use for trips to Taunbrit). This one was painted with leaves, fruit, flowers and skeletons so it had to belong to an Astrigis worshipper. There were no spaces for the bus to park, in fact a couple of vehicles were already parked so they blocked others. The bus stopped near the hotel entrance and a door opened, revealing a nibeyah dressed in acolyte robes; with leaves and bones, obviously of Astrigis; and wearing a visor, which I was fairly sure was a magic detector.

Breeze ran up to the acolyte and said, “You’ve got a very dangerous artifact in there! It’s causing the storm! Did you get it from a Holy Site?”

The acolyte clearly wasn’t in a good mood. She looked at Breeze with an expression of pure horror. “Do you want everybody knowing what you are?”

“No, but ..!”

“Get the most powerful magi you can get here quickly, they probably won’t listen to me! They have powerful magi in the Vineyard but you probably know that.”

“Can I borrow your bike?” asked Breeze.

“Yes but it’s locked up and I don’t have the key ...”

“Don’t need it!” said Breeze. “You get Rinjac! Tell him that I think somebody’s taken the relic from a Holy Site.”

I ran through the rain to the magic shop. I just about glimpsed Breeze cycling along the road, with some difficulty due to the wind. I hoped she’d be all right but remembered that she was nearly indestructible.

I walked through the door of the magic shop.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” said a man’s deep voice. “I’m not your father.”

“But the DNA!” said the voice of a younger man.

“Rinjac!” I shouted at the top of my voice.

“I’m your father’s clone!”

The quippa girl looked at me.

“There’s an emergency!” I shouted.

“I don’t understand,” said the young man.

“Where’s your friend?” asked the girl.

“We were part of a illegal reproductive biology program,” said the deep voiced man.

Rinjac burst in through the door at the back.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” said a woman’s voice. “I lied about the experiment!”

“But how ...” said the deep voiced man before Rinjac switched off the computer.

“I thought the internet was out,” said Rinjac.

“This is an old one I downloaded to watch between new ones,” said the girl.

“Now what’s this ..?” Rinjac asked.

“Breeze think’s somebody’s taken a relic from a Holy Site,” I said. “They’ve got it in the Cascade’s car park!”

Rinjac looked at me, horrified. “I’ll assume that she’s got a better idea about such things than most people.” He started rummaging through a draw under the counter and found something. “I don’t get much use for this here. Let’s go and see!”

Rinjac had got an artifact which repelled rain so we ran to the car park with a dry area around us.

A car had come into the car park and parked behind the bus so it couldn’t get out. Now the female acolyte mage and a male acolyte were arguing with another man in the rain.

Rinjac got out a magic detector as we approached. “I really don’t like the look of that.”

“Fornicate this!” said the unfamiliar man. He was a faharni hipsic and dressed in an expensive looking suit. “It can’t rain for long! I need to use a washroom!”

With that he pushed the male acolyte aside and started marching to the hotel.

“We can’t be here!” shouted the male acolyte, running after him.

“You’re taking the artifact back to where it came from?” asked Rinjac.

“No, we’ve got to go to another hotel,” said the female acolyte. “Who are you?”

“I own the local magic shop,” said Rinjac. “I’m a level three mage and I don’t like the look of that artifact you’ve got in there. I’m told the young Vineyard magis thinks it’s a relic.”

“It’s a moot fornicating point if we can’t move that car! Edrina’s menstrual blood!”

Another car came into the parking lot and stopped behind the first.

“You can park on the road you know,” I said as three people got out the car and ran towards the hotel.

“We need to get out now!” shouted the acolyte.

“Sorry!” said the man from the car as he ran past.