Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest

Mum made a big show in the hall of how worried she'd been and how much she'd missed me. She asked what we'd like to drink and then went to get it while we went into the living room. Dad and Attan came with us and we found Yoldasia and a young, faharni nibey with a gas ball who I didn't recognise waiting for us. We all sat down.

"I wast not expecting thou to be-eth here," said Dwendra, crossly.

This was actually a lie, we'd visioned the place before we came.

"I don't remember inviting you," said Yoldasia.

"I got a message that you wanted to see me," I said to Dad. "You didn't say anything about Yoldasia and ..."

"My son, Screld," said Yoldasia.

"Hi," said Screld, who was staring at Dwendra but she was almost certainly the first glildac anavah he'd ever seen.

"The main issue I'm here for," said Yoldasia, "is that you really should have somebody to look after you, somebody from Benai Nibeyim."

This suggested that Buxnir and his friends weren't communicating with Yoldasia.

"That wasn't mentioned at the last meeting I was at," I said, "and I know you haven't had your leadership meeting yet."

"That was before you dissapeared, again!"

"You can't change a contract unilaterally," said Dad.

"I think somebody should make sure they're all right," said Mum, bringing the drinks.

"Thou tried to assasinateth me in Targrath?" said Dwendra.

"That was officially ruled a magic accident," said Yoldasia.

"So people must have been mistaken about it being a terrorist attack," said Mum.

"It wert an assassination madeth to appeareth as a terrorist attack," said Dwendra, "which wast officially ruled a magic accident so as not to promoteth anti-Nuhara hatred. Thou art quiet aware of that."

"If that's true," said Yoldasia. "It was a decision made by low ranking members and not sanctioned by the main leaders. Sorry."

Mum gave Yoldasia a horrified look.

"Is this a good time to gloat about knowing that Dwendra was Sixteen?" asked Attan.

"You do realize that, excluding Dwendra, there's only one Benai Nibeyim who can travel with us?" I asked.

"You think I'm going to let you have our anavah?" asked Yoldasia very crossly. "After what you did to Miandri?"

"I didn't do much to her," I said. "The problem was another of your leaders did!"

"It's still no! I've brought Screld, he's not really interested in Old Magic and he's about your age."

"You know what the problem is and why he can't accompany us most the time," I said. "Nothing I or anybody else can do about it."

"What are you talking about?" asked Attan.

"I thought you just used that thing on odd occations," said Yoldasia.

"We use it often enough to prevent most people from traveling with us."

"I'm not really comfortable about that," said Mum.

"I still don't know what you're talking about," said Attan.

"Why the hurry?" asked Yoldasia. "It's the school holidays, you don't have jobs, what have you got to do that requiers you to rush everywhere?"

"I art training Clindar," said Dwendra. "I art the only person who hath experienced pre-Cataclysm priestly activities."

"What?" said Attan.

"The others couldn't use the thing, well your thing," said Yoldasia.

"The others started their training as babes in arms!" said Dwendra. "I hath seventeen years catching up to do!"

"Training for what?" asked Attan.

Dwendra and Yoldasia stared at each other while Screld stared at Dwendra's breasts. Her breasts were larger than average but smaller than Yoldasia's and Miandri's so I wasn't sure why this was such a novelty for him. I guessed his father was a breast man but he wasn't interested in biological relatives.

"You wish to join our organization but won't follow our demands," said Yoldasia.

"I wast a member of thou's organization but thou hath changed greatly since. I hath not decided if I wisheth to restoreth our relationship. Thou's making of unreasonable demands art not helping thou's case!"

"It's Clindar we wish to monitor, not you."

"The same objections apply," I said. "Only one of you can use the thing and you're trying to impose a change of the agreement. I don't even know if you have the authority to do this."

"Of course I have the authority!" said Yoldasia.

"Actually thou hath not," said Dwendra. "An agreement made with leaders of more than one division canst only be changed by all leaders of those divisions."

"Yoldasia," said Dad, "I'm not sure if you have any authority at all in this situation and at best your position is legally tenuous."

"Do you think it's OK to have Clindar and Dwendra running around wherever they've been using the thing?" asked Mum.

"I wouldst rather Benai Nibeyim didst not knoweth my whereabouts most the time," said Dwendra.

"Do you think you could try checking in with us like every day or so to tell us you're all right?" asked Dad.

"You do seem to atract trouble," said Attan, "and of ridiculous types like magic accidents!"

"Could Screld even do much if they got into some serious trouble?" asked Dad.

"He is a mage," said Yoldasia.

"We could probably use the thing to escape," I said, "but we wouldn't be able to take Screld with us so he'd be a liability."

"It would seem that just having them let us know if they're OK would probably be the best compromise," said Dad.

Yoldasia looked at him, clearly unhappy (I don't think I've ever seen her happy) but I don't think she could think of a better idea. "I suppose that's the best we can do for the time being."

"Right," said Dad. "Now I want to talk to Clinder in my office."