Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance
Old Magic - Part 1

I was sitting in the lobby and me and Vritan were doing each other’s homework. Well I didn’t actually get homework so I’d just asked Vritan to write an essay on mageses so Breeze and me could laugh at the her ignorance. Vritan’s homework was on calculating taxes, so that was basically just sums.

The door opened and two rather strange people entered. One was a woman who looked about a hundred, with the biggest breasts I’ve ever seen, and the other looked about fifteen as she was nearly as tall as a grown up and already had noticeable breasts. They were both yellow haired faharnis, so I suspected they were related. What was really odd was that the older woman was a nibeyah, the first I’d met since I’d learnt to recognise korbarim, and the girl was a katcheyah. I’d read up on how korbarim were inherited because it bothered me that Trulists didn’t let psychics marry each other to reduce the number of psychics but Mum and Dad were both hipsickim. Well it was rather complicated, involving probabilities, but hipsickim normally had hipsick children whoever the other parent was but some hipsick couples had a chance of producing a psychic child (or even more than one). From what I remembered, two nibeyim couldn’t have a katchey child but a nibey (or nibeyah) and a hipsick (or hipsickah) could. If the nibeyah was a Trulist, her husband would have to be a hipsick.

The girl ran up to the desk, holding two suitcases, spun around smiling the most stunning display of big, white teeth I’ve ever seen and staring with big, grey eyes. “Ta da! The great mage Yoldasia and her beautiful daughter and apprentice Miandri make their spectacular entrance! I believe we have reservations!”

“Calm down Miandri!” said the older woman who was presumably Yoldasia.

“I’m Eleprin and I’m important and I’m going to be a mage.”

Yoldasia approached the desc more slowly as Miandri looked at our computer screens.

“There have been multiple Vineyard magises alive at the same time in the past,” she said, pointing at Vritan’s computer, “but now, well there’s probably just one who’s eight years old.” She stared at me with eyes that seemed to see into my soul. “You may know her. The Vineyard magis is always female, always an anavah! The other magises are always nibeyim but can be either sex.”

Vritan gave Miandri a cross look and said, “Well genius, anavim are very rare, I doubt there are any in Minris and the same goes for magises. I’ve lived in this town all my life and I’ve never met either.”

“Would you know?” asked Miandri.

“Just give me the contract and don’t mind my daughter,” said Yoldasia.

Vritan printed off the contract from Yoldasia’s reservation and had her sign it while Miandri looked at her computer, “You know you’re making the normal mistake of assuming that all magic is associate magic.”

“Well it’s beginner school homework,” said Vritan.

“Beginner schools don’t have homework,” said Miandri. She looked at me and said, “You know if you want to be a mage, you really should do your own magic homework.”

“I do her magic homework,” I said, pointing at Vritan. “Also other types of magic are forbidden.”

“Only according to outdated Yohoist teaching.”

All I knew about Yohoism was that it was an extinct religion, from which Winemakerism and Nuhara were derived.

“They’re also forbidden in Winemaker teaching,” I said, knowing this to be true.

“Well we’re Trulists,” said Yoldasia, “so we’re allowed to use Old Magic. Is one of you going to help us with our bags.”

“I suppose I’ll have to do that,” said Vritan.

The next night it was the Fruit Festival, when the Winemakers celebrate the end of the fruit harvest. Being day two of the light cycle, it was black night from sapphire dark until midnight.

This time Mum came with me and Dad stayed at the hotel. The other kids from school seemed very nervous and didn’t want anything to do with the Winemaker kids. There weren’t many tourists this time, although Stone and Plentari were there.

“We’ve heard that the mage Yoldasia is staying at the Cascade,” said Ice.

I don’t know how she knew. Well I’d told Breeze and the others but didn’t think it official Winemaker business.

“That’s right,” said Mum. “Her daughter’s with her but I think she should be in school.”

“She’s her apprentice as well as her daughter,” I said.

“Just keep an eye on her, well them,” said Ice. “She combines associate magic, that’s the type of magic we and all other magi use, with Old Magic. Old Magic was forbidden in ancient times, and consequently rarely used, because it’s dangerous and unreliable. Also Yoldasia is known for doing questionable things and a lot of people think she’s a bit nuts.”

“Her daughter’s a bit nuts too,” I said. “She's so nutty I think she might be a katcheyah but I’m not supposed to say things like that but you know that only psychics can distinguish between korbarim.”

“Yes that’s right,” said Mum, not really sure what to make of that.

“So just be on the lookout for any trouble they may cause,” said Ice.

“We keep our clients’ affairs confidential as long as they’re legal,” said Mum, she looked at me and added, “don’t we?”

The other children went home fairly early and left me and the Benai Haprihagfen playing Fetmish on one of the picnic tables. You think Fetmish is hard to play, you try playing against anavim! I think it was improving my mind reading even if I was down to three yellow states, a blue planet and two forts. Mum had gone home as she has trouble even remembering the rules and had been knocked out very quickly when she’d tried putting a plaza on one of my pink asteroids and got clobbered by a hider.

“Is that in the rules?” she’d asked.

We assured her that it was. She'd said that she'd had things to do and went home.

Anyway, Cloud had just thrown twelve and used a red nut to put a pyramid on one of Breeze’s stars, when I heard a vaguely familiar voice, “And the line of predestination leads to ...”

I turned to see Miandri holding a rod with a candle dangling in a transparent cup on a gold chain from the end.

“... oh Eleprin and a young anavah!”

“This is Miandri,” I said.

Miandri blew out the candle and put the rod and chain into her pocket hastily. “Let me guess, the new Vineyard magis.”

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Old Magic isn’t allowed here,” said Cloud.

“You’ve got a mage light hovering over your game. I always play without the planets and asteroids and hiders and all the pieces moving the same way, it makes things so much easier.”

“Then it would effectively become a game of chance,” said Cloud.

“Mage lights are associate magic,” said Breeze, “we don’t use Old Magic.”

“Typical anavah,” said Miandri, “hung up on rules! Nibeyot are just as bad. You couldn’t break Lishrashic’s teather spell, could you?”

“I don’t discuss work with people I don’t know,” said Breeze.

“I didn’t tell her,” I said.

“About what?” asked Cloud.

“About anything.”

“The question is,” said Miandri, “why does Lishrashic’s line of predestination lead to you?”

“Are you related to Iandris?” asked Irvis.

[Translator’s note: you may have noticed that the names Iandris and Miandri are similar. They’re both variants of an Old Faharni word meaning “fertile” which was also the name of a legendary heroin. There’s a groundless old wives’ tale that yellow haired girls are good lovers but infertile, that’s probably why variants of this name have been given to two yellow-haired women and it’s probably a pure coincidence that they’re both katcheyot.]

“Everybody’s related," said Miandri, "all things are connected, you just have to understand how? Astrigis is the god of horticulture and this is a vineyard. Cool eh?”

I was fast coming to suspect that Miandri was madder than Iandris.

“Do you want to join in?” asked Cloud. “We can deal you in on north azimuth with the standard entry trajectory but you’ll have to play by the official rules.”

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