Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest
The Grotto - part 4

A young hipsick ran to the front and knelt before Narblo. “I volunteer to be Grand Merchant. I repent of trying to kill the psychics, it wasn’t my idea but I knew about it and did nothing to stop it.”

“So we have our new Grand Merchant!” said Narblo.

I felt some anavim materialize high above but tried not to look in that direction.

“Now we need to be nicer to the Haprihagfen. Clindar can be an acolyte in Laraget temple. A defiled hipsickah is no consort for an avatar so Sixteen can marry me ...”

I don’t know how he expected to persuade the Laraget temple authorities to let me do anything.

Dwendra pulled the bag from her pocket. It was made of transparent polymer and contained a bit of blood stained fabric cut from her wedding dress. “I art no longer a virgin!”

“Perhaps you could marry Miandri,” I said, worried he’d call his beam weapon down onto Dwendra. “You took her virginity.”

Two more anavim materialized on the stage but I was too fixated on Narblo to look to see who.

“No I didn’t!” shouted Narblo. “She lost her virginity to her-step father long ago!”

“What!” exclaimed Yoldasia. She was furious and shocked but I wasn’t sure if this was because she didn’t know this or because she hadn’t expected Narblo to bring the issue up.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know! The mother always fornicating knows! You agreed not to execute me for keeping that fornicating secret but that’s fornicating moot now!”

Yoldasia took a long suck on her smoke ball and I was pretty sure she was contemplating using Old Magic. That meant at least Yoldasia had known Narblo believed Garis had fornicated Miandri.

“I heard there was another avatar here!” said Breeze, who was one of the anavim who’d just materialized. Her clothing was torn and she had several minor injuries, which was worrying as she was nearly indestructible. “I equipped Aublelma and Mildras so I know they have interesting associates.”

“I’m the new avatar of Yoho,” said Narblo. “You must be the new Vineyard magis. I expect my associates are different from the other avatars.”

I noticed the other anav who’d just arrived was Tom. He was naked from the waste up, also with some minor cuts and bruises, and had just thrown Vardnan off the stage. Ice was helping Quandat off the stage. Buxnir had already gone. I pushed the new Grand Merchant off. Dwendra got the idea and jumped off the other side from me.

“But you must know what the other avatars told me,” said Breeze.

“That you would be another of my wives,” said Narblo.

This guy really had a sex addiction!

I jumped off the stage and squelched in the floor of the dry lake, not as dry as I’d expected. Most people seemed to have got the idea to leave and I saw a crowd near the door. I considered teleporting but I thought that might alert Narblo or whoever was working with him to what was happening as other psychics could detect dematerializations and materializations even if they didn’t know what they were.

“Really,” said Breeze, “so you believe in polygamy?”

I noticed Ice crouching down and went to her, thinking she needed help.

“Only for me,” said Narblo, “because I’m Yoho’s new avatar.”

“Last time I was here this floor was rock hard,” Ice said quietly in Semic, “encrusted with nitrate crystals. What does this smell like, my nose isn’t as good as it was?”

She held out her hand with some dirt in it.

“Yoho obeys his own laws!” said Yoldasia, who was still on the stage in spite of the fact Tom was trying to get her off.

I gave the dirt a sniff. “Some sort of hydrocarbon, I think with some sort of alcohol or ether or something mixed in.”

“Withdraw slowly but hold my hand!” said Ice.

“I do obey Yoho’s laws,” said Narblo, “but there are special ones for me!”

Ice and myself started walking toward Dwendra who was slowly retreating towards the wall.

There was a scream from the stage. I turned to see Tom had spread his wings and was flying off the stage with Yoldasia.

“I may be small,” said Breeze, “but I’m still ...”

There were some screams from near the entrance. There was an explosion from above and debris started falling onto the stage. Breeze dematerialized. Narblo started screaming obscenities. Tom crashed into the floor with Yoldasia under him. Then fires broke out in various places on the dry lake bed and spread rapidly and there were hideous screams. I grabbed Dwendra, still holding Ice’s hand and she teleported with us as flames shot towards us.

We dropped several meters onto the roof of a building, still in the mountains. There were white street lights around the building and I could see enough to tell we were in a mountain village.

“What’s happened to the emergency team?” asked Ice.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“It can’t be good," said Ice, "Tom and Breeze were in it, they’re hard to hurt and we saw what a state they’re in.”

“Who the fornication are you?” asked a man who’d been standing on the roof, drinking from a cup. He looked up to see where we’d come from but presumably only saw the stars and Bet.

“Emergency!” said Ice. “We need breathing apparatus! Now!”

“We can’t just give out ...”

“Can you teleport?” asked Ice.

“Don’t be ...” he looked up again.

“People are dying!” said Ice. “We need breathing equipment for them! Pronto!”

I thought we should be able to use time travel but then if we hung around we might learn something we’d like to change. Also I was fairly sure the man didn’t know we could travel through time.

We went down into the building, which was clearly a fire station, rummaged around and found some breathing masks, the sort that should protect you from smoke.

“This all you’ve got!” screamed Ice at the confused fireman.

“Yes we ...”

“You can carry three,” Ice said to me. “Dwendra you can only carry two. Now upstairs!”

We went back up to the roof.

“Put one on!” said Ice.

Dwendra and myself put our magic detectors on first. They were the sort with two lenses and arms that went over your ears.

“If Tom gets knocked out, you can teleport him to safety. Otherwise only bother saving the magi, that’s probably all the nibeyim, because they can protect themselves from fire but need to breath.”

“We’ve got magic detectors,” I said.

“Ah good,” said Ice. “The hipsickim and katcheyim are probably doomed. Now get back! Just after we left. Higher altitude but I don’t think the cold will be a problem!”

As she took my hand, I realized all the anavim apart from Tom were also magi.