Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

“You used an Old Magic spell to look at the future of one of the girls Lishrashic is accused of trying to rape?”

“A combined Old Magic and associate magic spell, yes.”

“And this showed that she is in fact being used as a prostitute by ...”

“No.”

The lawyer looked at his small, hand held computer, which he probably had his notes on. “Didn’t this spell show the girl in question, in fact both girls, with a Temple Prostitute?”

“Apparently.”

“Apparently?”

“The girls were older than they are now, teenagers. They also seemed to be in Minris and there were two other, unidentified, teenagers with them along with a male prostitute of Derlgar. That makes no sense, it may not have been litteral. I’m not comfortable concluding that this means that they are or will become Temple Prostitutes.”

“There was another picture of this girl dressed like a prostitute.”

“She was dressed in a sexy way. Again this was clearly in the future when she was a teenager or young adult. Her clothing wasn’t consistent with a Temple Prostitute and she didn’t have the same sort of heavy make up. She could have been a rather smart street prostitute or a respectable girl who was just making herself look attractive. As it’s a few years in the future, fashion might have changed by then.”

“Iandris had previously told this girl’s fortune and seen her as a Temple Prostitute?”

“I didn’t know that at this time.”

“But that is the case?”

“So I’m told, I didn’t witness this event, and with this form of fortune telling only the person casting it can really see anything anyway. I was just told about it.”

“Doesn’t this prove that she is a prostitute?”

“Images from fortune telling spells are often symbolic. As I understand it, what Iandris actually saw was the girl kissing a man in a temple. She may have been getting married or visiting a temple with her boyfriend or husband.”

“Isn’t she rather young for that?”

“Presumably this is something that will happen in the future.”

“You advised Lishrashic to molest the girls?”

“No. I told him to do something similar to what he’d do if he was able to leave Minris but can’t do here.”

“In other words, use a Temple Prostitute?”

“I didn’t know that’s how he’d interpret my instructions.”

“You provided him with an Old Magic artifact that... was rather specific to one of the victims.”

“I didn’t know how he’d use it.”

“Stop this line of questioning!” said the judge sternly.

Perhaps I should have said that she was also a nibeyah.

“Do you think that the Vineyard should be forced to have Temple Prostitutes?” asked the defense lawyer.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because that would violate religious freedom but I also don’t believe that Trulism should have Temple Prostitutes. I believe everybody should be allowed to refuse sex and choose sexual partners from whoever’s willing to have sex with them. All prostitution is wrong! If Trulists want to continue prostitution rituals with adult volunteers that may be a different matter but it may be hard to determine who’s a real volunteer and who’s being forced into it.”

“How is a man supposed to satisfy his urges?”

“If he can’t find somebody willing to have sex with him, there is such a thing as mastabation! It’s free and harmless and even an idiot can do it!”

There were a number of chuckles from the audience at that.

One of the prosecution team came to our row and indicated that they’d want me and Breeze to testify.

Breeze was called first and I wasn’t allowed to hear what she had to say.

A long sac like dress, similar to what strict Nuhara women wear, was put over me, it covered me completely, including my face, so nobody would recognize me. There was also a device to alter my voice. Then I was led to the stand.

“Now you’re the other of the girls who Lishrashic and his wife were caught molesting?” asked the defense lawyer.

“Yes.”

“Are you a Temple Prostitute?”

“No.”

“Does the Vineyard have any Temple Prostitutes?”

“No.”

He then proceeded to ask me about Iandris’s fortune telling spell and Yoldasia’s revelation spell and I just told him that I didn’t know what they meant.

“Don’t Haprihagfen give girls to their men?”

I was rather feeling that the dress was pointless as there were only two Winemaker girls in the village.

“I don’t understand the question.”

“What happens in a Haprihagfen initiation?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have Haprihagfen ever touched you?”

“Yes.”

This got some gasps from the audience.

“Can you make these questions more specific?” asked the judge.

“Have Haprihagfen ever touched your private places?”

“No.”

“Did Ice ever say anything about Haprihagfen girls loosing their virginity?”

“Yes.”

“When does this happen?”

“When they’re twelve or older.”

“How does this happen?”

“A man puts his thing in the girl’s thing.”

“What man?”

“A sleg, I think. The girl can choose which one but he must agree and she can convert a ben goyim and he will become the girl’s husband.”

The lawyer was clearly feeling uncomfortable about this. I realized that “ben goyim” meant “anav son of non-anavim” but I don’t think many people knew that.

“What girls does this apply to?”

“Just Haprihagfen.”

“What about other Winemaker girls?”

“I think they can marry any unmarried Winemaker man who wants to marry them and a psychic girl can marry a psychic man. I don’t think they can marry Haprihagfen, they’re only allowed to marry each other but some other people can join and will then be allowed to marry Haprihagfen.”

“So Haprihagfen takes normal children and makes them marry their members?”

I thought about that, only anavim could join Haprihagfen so this literally wasn’t true. I’d been told to refuse to answer any questions that revealed my identity or required revealing people’s korbarim or if they were magi or if Breeze was a magis or anybody else was not the Vineyard magis. Therefore I said, “I think I’m not allowed to answer that because of the anti-korbarism law.”

“How does this relate to ...”

“No more questioning along that line!” said the judge, sternly.

“I think it’s important to understand how the Vineyard treats children,” said the lawyer.

“I think all you need to establish is that the accused had some reason to believe these girls were effectively Temple Prostitutes,” said the judge. “We also know that they were virgins when examined after the attack so they clearly can’t have been used as prostitutes prior to that.”

“Perhaps they were just expected to perform oral or anal sex,” said the lawyer.

“Witness! Has a man ever put his penis in your mouth or bottom?” the judge asked, looking at me sternly.

“No,” I said. “That’s really gross!”

There were a few sniggers from the audience.