Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest
Chapter 24: Sick Girl - part 1

Dwendra wasn’t thrilled with the idea of attending the Midsummer Festival but for me it was a family tradition and I thought it would be another opportunity for my old family and new family to get to know each other better. Besides Mum had clearly said I should attend and I couldn’t think of a good reason not to. The Festival was officially commemorating the marriage between Rholdaz, the god of sun and rain, and Clarmiria, the goddess of plants and harvest, hence Dwendra’s objections, but nobody much cared about that perhaps because both their Holy Sites were in the desert.

The festival was held in the temple grounds so we were planning to materialize in the toilets, as we had when we’d dealt with Miandri, and meet outside. The bottom of the steps, outside the toilets, was a popular meeting place and where Mum had asked me to meet the rest of the family. I teleported first, because the girls were having trouble replaceing an empty women’s cubical. It was white day, which also made everything seem more cheerful and friendly. Colorful lanterns had been strung between the lamp posts on either side of the steps leading to the front of the temple, a number of colorful stalls had been set up on the plaza at the top and lively music could be heard playing. A lot of people were going up, mostly dressed in particularly colorful shirts or dresses. Some more were standing near the bottom of the steps or seated on the steps, presumably waiting for people.

I looked around and saw Preldin sitting on the steps. She looked at me in horror.

“I thought Attan was coming!” she said.

Just then I felt a materialization from the women’s toilets and Preldin glanced towards them.

“I think the rest of the family are coming,” I said.

I could feel an anavah coming towards me and felt another materialization.

“Didn’t somebody speak to you about how you feel about me?” I asked.

“I don’t want to talk about that!”

“Glildac girl?” said a voice from behind me.

“Faharni girl,” said Dwendra’s voice.

I looked round to see Dwendra outside the toilets walking towards me. I felt a third materialization from the toilets.

“Oh feces you’re still alive!” said a faharni hipsickah I didn’t recognize. “I thought you were killed in that magic accident in Targrath! That would have been totally fornicating cool with me, served you fornicating right!”

“Do I know you?” I asked.

“I’m Jedris’s sister! Why did he have to die and not fornicating you?”

I noticed a faharni, teenage hipsick standing next to her, looking confused. I guessed he was her date as another brother would have had stronger feelings about this.

“If it makes you feel any better,” I said, “my lawyer got decapitated, the judge wound up in a coma and my fiance got some cuts.”

“It doesn’t make me any fornicating better!” she screamed, pummeling on my chest. “Oh yes! Thanks to you we’ve all got to fornicating change schools and not date anybody in the one we go to!”

“It wasn’t my fault the trial got heard by a geriatric judge with serious sexual hang ups who only heard about half the case before giving a verdict when seriously wounded before falling into a coma!”

Now she was just screaming, “Why him and not you!” over and over. Her boyfriend was standing awkwardly, unsure what to do. I was thinking about putting my hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

By now Egrindreth and Vrenloa had come out of the toilet.

“This ist not helping,” said Dwendra gently.

“And you’re fornicating fornicating the fornicating faeces!” screamed Jedris’s sister, swinging a punch at Dwendra.

“Now is this really necessary?” asked a large, young, faharni hipsick, pushing Jedris’s sister and myself apart.

“My brother’s dead,” shouted Jedris’s sister, “and his friends are dead and this bit of bloody diarrhea's still alive!”

“You don’t even know me,” I said. “You just believed the bad things your brother, who didn’t like me, told you.”

“Nobody fornicating likes you!”

“I do,” said Dwendra.

“So do I,” said Egrindreth.

“And me,” said Vrenloa.

“You’ve got three fornicating girlfriends!”

“I’m his sister!” said Egrindreth.

“I’m her best friend,” said Vrenloa.

“They’re all ...” said Preldin.

“How did your brother die?” asked the unfamiliar hipsick. He was tall and heavily built with a round face, a bird tattooed on one cheek and a flutter on the other.

“Him and his friends were playing with artifacts and there was a magic accident,” said the boyfriend.

“How is that this boy’s fault?” asked the unfamiliar man.

“It just is!” screamed Jedris’s sister. “And why the fornication have there been so many magic accidents lately!”

“I can understand your feelings of loss,” said the unfamiliar hipsick, “but I really think you need to calm down and try to overcome your irrational hatred. How is this helping?”

“The gods will punish you fornicating bit of illegitimate afterbirth!” Jedris’s sister yelled as she started walking up the steps with her boyfriend following.

“Who was that?” asked Egrindreth.

“The sister of one of that rape gang we killed,” replied Dwendra in Semic.

“That was awkward,” said the unfamiliar faharni. “I’m Ildias and this is my little sister Zonlaria.” He indicated a young woman who was seated on the steps.

Zonlaria certainly shared her brothers rather rugged appearance. She looked as if something had gouged out most her left cheek and part of her jaw and she had a large tattoo of flowers over that area. There was something oddly familiar about her but as she spoke with a local accent, I may just have seen her around. She was holding a small, fluffy dog.

“Ow doggy!” said Vrenloa, who went and fussed the dog.

I introduced my group, including Preldin who I said was my brother’s friend.

We sat around chatting with Preldin, Zonlaria and Ildias for a while. The girls were particularly taken with Zonlaria’s dog, who was named Cren and said perhaps we should get one. I pointed out there were cats in Temple View Heights, along with a couple of large dogs. I also thought perhaps we should wait until things were a bit more settled.

Then my parents and Attan arrived, along with Screld. They weren’t exactly pleased to see Dwendra, Egrindreth and Vrenloa. Mum seemed far more taken with Zonlaria and Ildias.

We went round the festival seeing all the main attractions. Ildias and Zonlaria, came with us, along with Cren, as the people they were supposed to be meeting hadn’t turned up. I thought it odd that Zonlaria clung onto her brother’s shoulder all the time, holding Cren in her other arm or placing him on her shoulder. Dwendra complained that some of the attractions were rather overtly Trulist. Oddly Ildias agreed (he and his sister didn’t look or act like Nuharas and had tattoos, which Winemakers normally don’t). Being raised a Trulist, I hadn’t really noticed the religious issues before but I could see their point.