Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

“Yes that’s all I’m going to do. As you know Pardnis was badly hurt, he’ll have to have a replacement arm made or grown but that technology was mostly lost in the Cataclysm and he’s badly traumatized so he’ll need a lot of help getting over it. Let this be a lesson ...” He was looking at Breeze through the magic detector and turned white and started shaking.

“I don’t have any artifacts,” said Breeze.

The master continued looking at the other children but it was clear he’d discovered what he wanted to know but didn’t like it. “... a lesson to us. Religionism is wrong. Religionism is what caused the Cataclysm. After that, most religions agreed to be amalgamated under Trulism, an ancient religion which has always practiced tolerance, but a few, most notably Winemakerism and Nuhara, refused, claiming that their gods were better than the others. Their gods are included in the Trulist pantheon as Yoho the god of parties and sexual morality and Ahmaza the god of asteroids and peace but still many Winemakers and Nuharas refused to convert to Trulism and even tried convincing others to convert to their religion. Therefore religious conversion was outlawed or trying to persuade others to convert. Anyway, the point is that we’re all human: boy or girl; faharni or some other race; heterosexual or homosexual or whatever; homokorbarsexual or heterokorbarsexual; Trulist, Winemaker or Nuhara; hipsick or psychic; mage or ... somebody who isn’t a mage although you’re all too young to be using magic, whatever the Winemakers may say. Therefore we shouldn’t be fighting each other, is that understood? The police tell me that they think the Night Leaper is just a man with a couple of artifacts, probably not a Winemaker. Ice has told me herself that she is disgusted by the Leaper’s actions and promised that if she discovers his identity, Winemaker or not, she will do everything in her power to bring him to justice. Anyway, I’m now satisfied that none of you have brought any artifacts. I hope none of you have weapons as only Nuharas are allowed to carry knives and the one Nuhara is off sick.”

There were several sniggers at that.

“Anyway to try to avoid more religionism, I’m arranging special lessons about the various religions.”

By now he’d worked his way back to the throwing platform that served as a stage, got out a bit of paper and proceeded to give some explanation of how he intended to improve our understanding of different religions. This seemed to consist mostly of talks on the different Trulist gods and I don’t think he had any lessons on Winemakerism or Nuhara.

“I bet he’s not going to have us read the Nuhara scriptures,” I whispered to Breeze.

“Of course not,” she said, “that would make us hate Nuharas.”

I felt one of those power explosions in the master’s office.

When he’d finished, still rather shaken, the master returned to his office and I felt another explosion of power.

We got back to the classroom and were told that, to avoid arguments about where people sat, they were assigning people randomly. That’s what Kerdnan said but I was rapidly developing a suspicion that she was trying to pair people with the most unsuitable possible partners.

“My life is over!” said Giruka when she realized that she was going to be sitting with me.

She was pretty and popular but stupid. I’d never seen her at the Vineyard and I’d heard that her mother worked in the souvenir shop and she didn’t seem to have a father.

“Kerdnan! Do I have to sit with Eleprin, she’s weird and attacks people with magic!”

“No I don’t!” I said.

“She gets good marks,” said Kerdnan, “I’m hoping her brains will rub off on you.”

I don’t know why Kerdnan didn’t think it might go the other way or perhaps she didn’t care.

I was summoned to the master’s office in the early afternoon. I was surprised to find Veran and Poslit sitting with Mudar. Poslit looked at me with his magic detector.

“Now Eleprin,” said the master, “you’re not like the other Winemakers are you?”

“Everybody’s different,” I said.

“Shortly after the assembly, I was knocked unconscious in this office and my magic detector was stolen. It told me something very shocking about Breeze so I’m pretty sure you Winemakers are responsible. You could own up or tell me who it was and I’ll be lenient on you or one of the others could blame you. I’m guessing that, as you don’t live on the Vineyard, you’re not Haprihagfen, whatever that is, and you’re not from Minris, you’ll be the one they’ll sacrifice. Am I right?”

“She doesn’t have residue consistent with the use of a concussion spell,” said Poslit, “and she doesn’t have any artifacts.”

“I thought the police weren’t supposed to question me without Mum or Dad?”

“I’m questioning you,” said Mudar.

I looked at Veran and Poslit. I got a strong suspicion that this wasn’t really legal.

“Anyway, can you answer the question?” said Mudar.