‘The problem, of course, was that each person is only givenone body. To have a second, we had to take it from another person.At first, we only took bodies from convicted criminals awaitingexecution. Then through research we found a way to exist outsidethe body without being sent to the world of the dead. This meantthat we could travel from body to body at will. It didn’t take toolong before many of our members got addicted to living otherpeople’s lives and experiences rather than their own.’
‘My job as healer was to administer help to any member of thesociety in need, but I found that while their spirit was sturdy itwas their minds that were weak. In due course, many forgot theirstudies and began controlling people’s lives by possessing theirhosts rather than cohabitating with them. In doing so they wentdown the path of cruelty and depravity where many of them dwelltoday.’
‘One day several years ago, I realized how abhorrent theMentarin Society had become. The bad outnumbered the good, so Ifled in the body of an animal. I roamed the world for more than ayear until I came upon the Hidden Ones. They were controlled by aLeader who was possessed by a vicious cruel Mentarin and they weretorturing Rosanllea.’
‘I killed the Mentarin and possessed the Leader and forced himto reform his ways and introduced the philosophical teachings ofLord Pellum to help bind the people together. Later the Leader waskilled and Rosanllea offered herself for cohabitation. Weintroduced the concept of electing a leader from among the peopleand they chose Bengorrin. We moved here and have spent considerableeffort in fortifying the place. The people now are happy andsecure.’
‘Why are you telling us this?’ asked Miranda, now much more incontrol of herself.
‘Because you two are the first people in centuries to stand upto the Mentarin. You offer hope and the time for change is welloverdue. You must also be aware that there is a problem in thisland. The Elendari rarely have children and the Trixies’ childrenare horribly disfigured.’
‘Do you know what causes the infertility and mutations?’ askedAquitain.
‘No.’ replied Thevenin. ‘I wish we did as we might be able todo something about it.’
‘Could it be something to do with the factory.’ askedMiranda.
‘Possibly.’ replied Thevenin.
‘There were some horrendous magical experiments carried outthere but nothing that could possibly affect the whole populationof Elendari or Trixie people located hundreds of leaguesaway.’
‘Were the Elendari here before the Mentarin.’ askedAquitain.
Thevenin wasquiet for a few seconds as if weighing up his response.
‘No one was here before the Mentarin; all the people, theanimals and the plants have been introduced by them over the lastthousand years.’
‘So they have been building their own world.’ saidMiranda.
Even Rosanlleaand Bengorrin were shocked at this disclosure.
‘You’ve never mentioned that before.’ saidBengorrin.
‘Well it never seemed overly important.’ said Thevenin, ‘Afterall you’ve all been here an awfully long time and it’s onlyrecently that you’ve had any problems.’
‘So it could be something that they’ve introduced in the lastfew decades that’s causing the fertility and mutation problems?’suggested Miranda.
‘Possibly.’ said Thevenin thoughtfully.
‘There has been a continual program of introduction of newplants and animals to the land. While many Mentarin have becomedepraved beasts there are still a few who have dedicated theirlives to developing this world. The Lord of the Mentarin himself isone of them.’
‘So why has Borse not controlled the unruly Mentarin?’ askedAquitain.
‘I’ve thought about that a lot. Some of us petitioned him todo something, but he didn’t act. So I don’t know the answer to thatquestion.’
‘Where does Borse normally live?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Where does the wind live? Borse is everywhere and nowhere.’replied Thevenin.
‘So he’s become a deity.’ said Aquitain.
‘No. He’s a Power that is for sure. Perhaps he is seekingdivinity but none that I know believe he’s there yet. Certainlynone that I know worship him although most fear him.’
‘How many Mentarin are there?’ asked Aquitain.
‘In this world, perhaps two hundred and on other worlds,another two hundred.’ said Thevenin. ‘There are also two to threethousand slaves here as well.’
‘And all of the Mentarin are or were mind wizards?’ queriedAquitain.
‘Originally all were mind wizards then the supply dried up.The religions outlawed the study of mind magic so we then began totake in ordinary Archwizards. It is there that I think we made themistake. They were the first to be corrupted.’
Aquitain askedmany questions and found that Thevenin answered the generalquestions quite candidly, but more specific questions like how tokill Mentarin or what was the Cadalthian, he dodged. It was obviousthat even though he had left the Mentarin he still felt obligatedto keep some important facts secret.
In truth,Aquitain had to admire the Mentarin. They were a large group ofmind wizards like himself, who had joined together to study andcarry out research on a range of topics. He had to admit that ifsomeone had approached him to join the group near the end of hislife, it would be hard to resist.
The realproblem was that they had become arrogant to the extreme,eventually believing that they were above all other people and assuch could do as they wished. By controlling royalty and leadersthey could manipulate whole countries, even worlds. Perhaps thiswas why the religious groups in Panmagica persecuted mind wizards?They knew about them and tried to eliminate them before they couldbecome a problem. He wondered how much Granddad knew about theMentarin? Perhaps that is why he and Melanie had been sosheltered.
A guard withsome urgent problem interrupted their discussions. Bengorrin wasgone for only a minute or two and came back smiling.
‘We will have to interrupt this meeting for the moment. Itseems we have unwanted visitors. You have asked a good number ofquestions but curiously not asked why our settlement has itsunusual name. You are about to find out. One of our scouts hasdetected what appears to be a patrol of Elendari about six strong.In the past we might have
