Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest
Chapter 9: Controversial Mage - part 1

I walked into the police station and told them who I was. Haprihagfen had found me clothing similar to what I’d been wearing when I’d teleported back in time. I was soon checked by a mage with a magic detector. Then Dad arrived and we were put in an interview room with a nibey cop named Nudas.

“Can you tell us what happened three nights ago?” he asked.

The teleportation training had taken five days but I’d gone back in time two days.

“Well I went to device club.”

“Yes we know about that. What happened when you got home, did you get home?”

“Yes. I saw the light on in Miandri’s window. The previous night she’d been very friendly and I thought she was now my girlfriend. I went to her room and she told me what had happened the previous night was a mistake so I left. I was really devastated by this so I went for a walk and I don’t remember much of the last couple of days.”

“You’re lying!” Nudas leaned forward and looked at me with eyes that bored into my head, rather like Miandri’s did but not at all sexy.

“He’s clearly traumatized,” said Dad waving a hand.

Fortunately I’d been briefed about what to do in this sort of situation. “I can’t explain what really happened without violating the anti-korbarism law. It also may relate to my legal problems.”

“May relate?” asked Nudas.

“It’s complicated. I’m not really sure how much I can tell you about that so I’ll have to discuss it with my lawyer.”

The cop got out a photograph and showed it to me. It was the floor of Miandri’s room, by the bed. An area of the tiles, about 40cm by 30cm had been crudely gouged out, probably by some sharp implement.

“What can you tell me about this?” he asked.

“It’s the floor of Miandri’s room,” I said. “I don’t know what caused that damage. I’ve never seen it, the damage, before.”

I realized Egrindreth must have removed my boot. I’d materialized at bit too low so the sole of my left boot had been embedded in the floor. I was told that was a very good demonstration of why I needed teleportation training. If I’d been a centimeter lower, my foot would have been embedded, not just the boot. It was true, I didn’t know what Egrindreth had used to remove the boot.

“It happened about the time of the incident.” Nudas stared at me but he hadn’t actually asked a question. “Why are the Benai Nibeyim interested in this case?”

“I didn’t know they were.”

“They’re very insistent we solve this but they don’t want us to investigate you. Miandri’s injuries, or rather the lack of them, suggests she had consensual sex shortly before a date rape spell was used on her, your father and Narblo. Why use a date rape spell if the sex was consensual?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t do it,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“We haven’t had time to test for DNA,” said Nudas, “but we have tested the blood type, common as hydrogen Aleph.”

“I’m Gimmel.”

“We know that,” said Nudas, “so we know she didn’t have sex with you. Also this doesn’t look like the work of the serial rapist. Tell the Benai Nibeyim we’re not even sure what crime or crimes were committed here. Minor property damage. Possible magical assault not causing injury. Possible sexual abuse of authority but that’s a gray area and hard to prove. If they think anything more serious was done, they really need to tell us!”

“I don’t know the Benai Nibeyim.”

“You’re free to go.”

Paxians use Semic letters for blood types. Aleph is the same as type A. Bet is type B. Gimmel is an allele that isn’t present in humans from Malchut. They refer to O as “negative” because people with this type have no antigens from this gene.

Dwendra and myself had spent five days in intense teleportation training. This was basically the standard stuff; how to teleport safely and a tour of all the places, in all known Midbar sephirot, Haprihagfen think important. Fortunately it seemed Haprihagfen who didn’t live in Midbar-Binah weren’t concerned about not helping me to please Benai Nibeyim.

Unfortunately Clindar seems to have been writing this for Haprihagfen so there’s some explanation required here.

Anavim develop teleportation ability at puberty, younger anavim are unable to do it.

Anavim have to be careful not to teleport into solid objects or liquids (including rain and blowing sand). Doing so would be fatal. They also have to be concerned about changes in altitude and latitude because of conservation of energy (law that states energy can’t be created or destroyed). If they teleport up or to nearer the equator, their body temperature falls. Teleporting down or away from the equator has the opposite effect. They can only survive a small change in body temperature.

Anavim can only carry about 7 kg of extra material with them (depending on the size of the anav, larger ones being able to carry more) and it has to be within a few cm of their body. Anavot can’t teleport when more than about seven months pregnant because their teleportation fields can’t extend into the middle of the uterus. Anavim can’t teleport things remotely, only carry things with them. The only other thing anavim can teleport is other anavim who’ve reached puberty, if they have skin contact. The other anavim must be alive but not necessarily conscious.

Large objects like stars and planets are similar and in roughly the same places in different universes but small objects generally aren’t. Although most universes have a version of Midbar, which orbits a brown dwarf that orbits a red dwarf, the surface features and atmospheric composition etc. tend to be somewhat different (not all are habitable for humans). There is some exchange of information between universes that causes genetics and languages to be similar and there’s almost always a human religion that’s effectively the same as Winemakerism. This means humans from different universes, although they tend to be different races, can interbreed and produce fertile children.

A version of a planet in a given universe is called a “sephir” (plural “sephirot”). A Midbar sephir that is known to be in the same universe as a particular Earth sephir is named “Midbar-” and then the Earth sephir’s name. For example, Clindar’s home sephir is in the same universe as the Earth sephir Binah and is therefore called Midbar-Binah. There are a few exceptions, the sephir which is in the same universe as Gerhelda-Teradriel is called Midbar-Teradriel (probably because Midbar-Gerhelda-Teradriel would be rather long).

“The police are looking for you,” said Attan, as soon as Dad and I walked in the front door.

“I know, I’ve spoken to them already.”

“Clindar! Where have you been?” asked Mum, coming out the living room and giving me a big hug. “We were worried sick about you.”

“Apparently it’s covered by the anti-korbarism law,” said Dad.

Of course Dad had been interrogating me on the drive home. I’d been told nobody was supposed to know anavim could teleport but I could cite the anti-korbarism law.

I was starting to realize I missed Dwendra. She was probably the best friend I’d ever had although I’d only spent seven days with her and would probably never see her again. She was planning to go back to her own time to marry a Yohoist priest.

“Miandri gave me the impression she wanted to be my girlfriend and then told me she didn’t and I was really upset about it and haven’t been thinking straight for a couple of days. Why did you ask that nut job here when you know about my problems?”

“We thought it would cheer you up to have a girl in the house,” said Mum, “and she has problems at home. By the way, her mother’s here.”