Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest
Judging Sixteen - part 5

There was another pause and Ice said, “The only thing left is that the Benai Nibeyim delegation ask that we arrange another meeting in about a month, to give them time to select new leaders. I’m not sure that’s really negotiable.”

Dwendra and myself looked at each other.

“Where and when would this meeting be?” I asked.

“Let’s say we let you know when we’ve sorted out our leadership problems and discussed the issues you’ve brought up,” said Quandat. “You will be checking with your home regularly?”

“I suppose I can do,” I said, “assuming the police finish with it.”

“I want to say something,” said Mum. “I was told it was important to have an anav and different people told me either he should only have sex with a psychic virgin or that he shouldn’t have sex with anybody or that he should have sex with Miandri but then he shouldn’t after she lost her virginity. Nobody ever said anything about him marrying this walking genetic engineering lab!” she pointed angrily at Dwendra.

“Korbarist and religionist!” said Dwendra.

“Are you just registering your unhappiness,” asked Ice, “or do you have some suggestion or argument?”

Mum looked very annoyed. “Never mind!”

Walking genetic engineering lab is a reference to some genetic engineering that was so disastrous it caused heavy legal restriction on such activity and ingrained hostility towards it in the culture which still persisted in this period. This is why Benai Nibeyim were using a complicated and inefficient selective breeding method to breed anavim. This phrase has come to mean a serious disaster, somebody who has very serious problems.

“Are you coming with me now?” asked Mum, looking at her watch.

“No,” I said, “we’ve got something else to do here. I don’t see why I should waste my time in the car for two days.”

Dwendra and myself were walking towards the shrine.

“Can I have a word in private?” asked Mum.

I walked with Mum away from Dwendra for about 100 meters.

“You’re not marrying that weirdo!” said Mum. “I don’t care if she’s really Nuhar Zorg’s wife or is deluded or somehow managed to convince those others with a ridiculous lie! Either way she’s a genetic engineering disaster!”

“I’ve heard some people have mothers who support them.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“Have you ever tried to help me in your entire life?”

“I carried you inside me for ...”

“I was just a job you did for Benai Nibeyim! Do you even care about me! You’re not advising me to do what you think’s best for me, you’re just being korbarist!”

I turned and walked back to Dwendra.

I got back to Dwendra to replace her standing with Buxnir.

“My associates and myself have purchased a run down housing complex in the Trulist quarter of Rendamar,” he said. “We’re quietly populating it with Winemakers, many of them magi or underground Winemakers who are officially Trulists or both. We’re planning to use this to slowly erode Nuhara control. I’d like to suggest you come and take a look some time.”

“Well possibly,” I said.

“This mayst be helpful unto us,” said Dwendra.

“So how do we replace this place?” I asked.

“It’s called, Temple View Heights. You can replace it marked on any map. My people will be expecting you, I don’t think any other faharni anav accompanied by a glildac anavah will be showing up there.”

As we walked through the trees and vines to the shrine, everything looked very dramatic in red day.

A lot of people, many of them hipsickim but also a lot of nibeyim, were praying in the shrine. This consisted of a lot of rocks in circles to act as seats. To one side was the pile of dirt and rocks, with steps leading up to it, which served as the altar. Against the cliff, behind the alter, were the strange metal doors to the shrine crypt.

“Wilt this merely make those feelings we’ve had since Kledris temple worse?” asked Dwendra.

“I don’t know but I think we have to do this.”

We prayed to have our beliefs clarified. Then we went to the doors and put our hands against them.

Suddenly the shrine crypt doors disappeared and I found myself among olive trees. Looking up I saw a yellow sun with no sign of sapphires.

“What does it take to convince you two?” asked a man I didn’t recognize but I think he was a faharni. “You’ve asked Old Magic, a Scripturist priestess, a Scripturist hereditary high priestess, the avatar of a Trulist goddess, Yohoist priests, a boy from the Malchut universe, the leaders of Benai Nibeyim and they all basically said the same thing.”

I considered that.

“Who are you?” asked Dwendra.

I had a very spooky feeling about this.

“What do you need?”

“They were all bad really,” said Dwendra. “I mean the Old Magic and things.”

“Were they? The Old Magic tells the truth, well bits of it, it just tends to be hard to understand. The Benai Nibeyim leaders, yeah definitely dodgy but the important thing is to ask yourself how they went so wrong. The avatar didn’t say what you expected and that priestess and the hereditary priestess honestly do their best to serve Yoho. I think you know what the Yohoist priests got wrong and Tom told you what he honestly believes.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Dwendra.

“You know.” Then he said to me, “You know you’re not me, don’t you?”

“Of course,” I said.

“Good, now remember that and you will do great things. You know what you need to do, well most of it. In the court,” he pointed at Dwendra, “don’t teleport until the smiling man calls upon his god.” Then he pointed at me and said, “Don’t teleport until afterwards.”

Before I could ask, “after what?” we were back at the gates of crypt.

“That wast strange,” said Dwendra.

After a bit of discussion we determined we’d both experienced the same thing.

“I know what we needeth to doeth but there seemeth to be two main options,” said Dwendra.

“There are people we can discuss it with.”