Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest

At one point Dad asked Rilletteecket about double marriage. She knew nothing about it.

"That's really an underground Winemaker thing," said Yoldasia. "They're officially Trulists but they're really Winemakers. To get round the Trulist law against psychics marrying each other, they arrange for a hipsick couple to pretend to be married to a psychic couple. Of course this tends to produce psychic children, which I think is what they want."

I wondered how she knew about that but it was likely Miandri had learnt about this from her.

"I was hoping to hear about it from somebody who isn't closely associated with Miandri," said Dad. "Get more than one opinion."

"Well, obviously it's something that's kept secret," said Yoldasia. "I only know about it because I've been close to a few underground Winemakers. I don't know where you can get information without becoming an underground Winemaker."

Of course all the females had to go to the toilet in a group, leaving the males at the table.

"How did Preldin and Jabna know that you and Dwendra were connected with Gillandi?" asked Attan.

"I don't know," I said, trying to sound as if I didn't care about this. In reality I was concerned that Preldin was just becoming conscious of her powers but didn't understand them and was talking about them to people she shouldn't. I wasn't sure about Jabna, she seemed more use to her powers but she could still be in denial about it.

"Maybe they have some subtle smell from using the thing," said Screld.

"What is this thing?" asked Attan.

"Never mind," said Dad. "There are reasons why you're not supposed to know about it."

Shortly after that Mum and Yoldasia returned.

"The girls didn't want us hearing what they're planning to do to our sons," said Mum, crossly. "Attan you're not marrying Gillandi!"

"I only danced with her!" said Attan. "I hardly know her and she's Dwendra's friend so she's probably a weirdo."

"That's precisely why we didn't want you to know she's Dwendra's friend!" I said, looking crossly at Yoldasia.

"I think Gillandi was trying to annoy Preldin," said Yoldasia, "and has no intention of marrying Attan."

A few minutes later Preldin came back looking upset. "Those girls are weird and scary!"

"They're just from different cultures," I said, hoping she wouldn't start going on about how she could tell what korbar they were.

"What should we do when we've finished eating?" asked Yoldasia.

Then Dwendra, Rilletteecket and Jabna arrived. Jabna looked contemptuous but then she had all evening.

"Sorry," said Dwendra, "we wert merely joking."

"No you weren't!" said Preldin. "You didn't mean quiet what you were saying but you were trying to, what's the word where you say one thing but mean something else?"

"Suggest," I said, "imply, insinuate."

"Something like that," said Preldin.

Then we looked at the games and decided what to play. Some of them were quizz based and we decided to avoid those because Dwendra and Rilletteecket rather lacked general knowledge (at least of this time and universe). There was one quiz that was science and math based, that's universal so Dwendra and Rilletteecket would be able to do it but Mum and Attan didn't want to do that. There was a notorious game of Fetmish which had reputably been going for years but we thought that would take too long and Mum hated the game. We went through an obstacle race (Attan won). Then we decided to play Bombardment. In case you're not familiar with this, there's a pit filled with various soft objects with several pedestals. One member of each team stands on one of the pedestals while the others take soft objects from the pit and through them at members of the other team who are standing on other pedestals. The last team to have their member fall off their pedestal wins. There are usually several rounds with scores being kept but there are variations on the scoring method.

"There are ten of us," said Mum. "That means we can have two teams of five or five teams of two. How about me and Latchmir on one team, Clindar and Attan on one, Yoldasia and Screld, and Preldin with Jabna and Dwendra with Gillandi?"

"May I suggest you and Latchmire," said Yoldasia, "Clindar with Attan, me with Preldin, Screld with Jabna and ... no I don't think it's fair to have Dwendra and Gillandi together."

"How about me with Dwendra," I said, "Mum and Dad, Attan with Preldin, Screld with Jabna and, I supposed Yoldasia with Gillandi?"

"We could have our family vs. the rest," said Dad.

"There are only four of us," said Mum.

"I was including Dwendra in our family," said Dad.

"No!" said Mum.

"We could have boys against girls," said Preldin, "but a girl has to be an honorary boy."

"I'll drop out," said Jabna, "this is a stupid game! Then you can have three teams of three."

"Can we have a word?" Mum asked Jabna.

"I can make my own decisions!" said Jabna.

Mum took her by the arm and dragged her away.

"Why did you ask?" asked Jabna.

I couldn't hear what they were saying but I could see them and it was clear that Mum was insisting on something that Jabna didn't like.

"When did Jabna become our sister?" I asked Attan.

"She's supposed to be my chaperone," said Preldin. "I think she's upset because she thinks I've got a boyfriend and she hasn't."

"A chaperone who canst be distracted by a boy of average height with facial hair," said Dwendra.

"Would somebody like to explain this to me," said Dad. "I'm really getting fed up with being left out everything!"

"I don't understand this," I said.

"I know how you feel," Preldin said to Dad.

"I have that problem too," said Attan. "It doesn't help that people keep putting date rape spells on me whenever I find out something."

Mum and Jabna returned with Jabna looking upset and grouchier than ever.

"How about this," said Mum. "Me with Yoldasia, Latchmir with Dwendra, Attan with Preldin, Gillandri with Screld and Jabna with Clindar."

"I want to be with Dwendra," I said.

"It's just a game!" said Mum.

We started with Rilletteecket, Dad, Mum, Jabna and Preldin on the pedestals. I threw things at Mum and knocked her off quickly. Jabna and Preldin didn't last much longer. Dad was clearly using magic or psychokinesis to deflect things and Rilletteecket started doing likewise so I started using magic to make them go straight and faster. Dwendra and myself combined our efforts to knock Dad off his pedestal.

After that things became chaotic with everybody throwing things at everybody, with the magi using magic.

We played a couple of games after that, which both involved throwing things at targets. Attan was annoyed that Dwendra and myself beat him. Then we went to the dance floor.

"You still got that weird girlfriend?" asked Velden who was sitting beside the dance floor with Wiandra.

"Do you mean the blond or the brunette?" I asked.

"Art thee friends of Clindar?" asked Dwendra, pulling herself to me.

Velden gave us a rather quizzical look. I didn't know how well she could use her powers and Dwendra was probably the first anavah she'd ever met.

"I guess that answers that question," said Wiandra.

"What happened to Narblo?" asked Velden. "I was told he'd disappeared."

"He had a personal matter to attend to," said Yoldasia.

I got the distinct feeling that she found this an awkward question.

Now they were doing more romantic type dances. Preldin didn't want to dance with anybody and Mum insisted that I dance with Jabna.

"I'm not doing that weird stuff you were doing with Dwendra," said Jabna.

"OK."

She wasn't a very good dancer, as I'd expected for a nibeyah. She looked at me contemptuously.

"Is my mother trying to get me to date you?" I asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell you that but I've got a reputation to protect and this isn't helping!"

"Not my idea, I've got a great fiance but Mum doesn't like her." I shouted to Dwendra, who was dancing with Screld, "Want to switch partners?"

Dwendra got to me in a couple of somersaults, leaving Screld somewhere in the crowd. I caught her.

"Screld's free now," said Dwendra.

"He's shorter than me with no facial hair!" said Jabna. "But you're welcome to this weirdo!"

When we finished dancing Preldin looked upset and confused.

Rilletteecket, Dwendra and myself headed for our new home using "the thing" rather than going home, the old one, with the others.