The Cat Who Knew How to Cry

APPENDIX 1: SURPRISING FACTS ON "JUST REBIRTH"

We all remember a couple months ago when members of this religious sect barricaded themselves in Shallow Waters (the complex of waterlogged rooms that provides fresh blindfish and rock worms to the five surrounding districts) and demolished the entrance to the only tunnel that connects it to the Wooly Caves. These acolytes of Just Rebirth, according to their religion, rejected the temptations of our crazy little world so that, in accordance with their teachings, they might build an ideal society... And today, Red Abyss will tell you what came of it.

The doctrine of Just Rebirth teaches that after death, every being will undergo the Ultimate Judgment, where it will be decided whether it had merited the honor of being reborn, or whether it must be weeded out.

At first, this "culling" meant total destruction of the soul, but the ecclesiastics of the religion, once in Laennes, found they could not deny that souls are indestructible, and so they adjusted their dogma in a major way. Now they define the "culling" as the souls of dead sinners being "stuffed" into plants and animals. The belief is that once they find themselves in these "unintelligent shells," they will be deprived of the opportunity to do evil. The most notorious violators of the Divine Law of Ultimate Judgment will actually be "packed" into rocks and... furniture.

What people won't believe in the Infinite nowadays! Here in Laennes we've long ago determined that choosing a religion is the private affair of each creature. But even for those among us who are very tolerant, it's hard to listen to preachers of Just Rebirth without smiling. Just think—you live right under Veindor the Merciful's nose and still believe that he would suffer some kind of god punishing his subjects by stuffing souls into the bodies of mushrooms and dogs! But we, dear ladies and gentlemen of the Abyss, have lost sight of the fact that Veindor had long since averted his gaze from our fabulous Laennes. As his priests like to joke, the Abyss falls right in the Merciful's blind spot. And we, it turns out, have to reap the fruits of his neglect of his duties!

When adherents of Just Rebirth holed up in Shallow Waters, the ex-wife and children of one of our colleagues were with them. (He has asked to remain nameless, so we'll call him F.) Alas, F did not find out about that fact right away, but only after two months of searching. F was concerned, of course, but it became crystal clear soon after finding them that neither dismantling the obstruction nor getting into Shallow Waters some other way were feasible. The mages he'd hired only threw up their hands. And so F decided to hire an Eale telepath to get in touch with his family.

Following is the account of telepath Shellizan an Al Emenayit:

I made contact with his wife relatively quickly. She was your run-of-the-mill fanatic, mad with the idea of her many enemies getting what was coming to them after death. There were no problems finding the client's daughter, either. She was frightened, but alive. The son, however... Something unimaginable was happening with his mind. It's hard to explain. It was as if it had been torn to shreds and then squeezed, pressed, like Nalarites compress water into a sphere. Unnatural... I've never seen such a thing before. I wondered if the kid's mind might have been taken over by some parasite, and I decided to check it out. I looked into his mother's memory and found out that the boy was dead!

As punishment for an attempt to contact his father, he had been sent to collect rock worms, and while doing so he fell off a cliff and broke his neck. The cultists cremated him in a Larshev stream of fire, and the question arose, what was a child's soul doing in the Abyss in such an unholy form? I'm not qualified to answer such questions, which is why I had to engage the services of a Veindor priest. Inon looked into the matter... and flipped his tail from what he saw. Someone had put the boy's soul into a worm! In a worm, may my whiskers fall out...

The news of what happened spread quickly throughout Briaellar, eventually reaching the ears of the Merciful's priests in Elidan.

At the current time all five rulers of the cult of "Just Rebirth" have been taken into custody, and its many members removed from Shallow Waters. Soul healers from Briaellar, Elidan and the Serpent's Eye are getting the boy the necessary aid.

Imlae an Briaellar, a priestess of Alasais, shared her impressions with us:

I've worked with si'alae for many years now—creatures of Alaean soul born in a non-Alaean body, and who later, by the will of Alasais, acquire their lawful tail and ears. Throughout the entire non-Alaen part of their lives, the souls of si'alae experience extreme discomfort, which naturally manifests itself in unpleasant ways. Even after becoming cats of Alasais, it takes a while for them to come into their own... I've seen much, and yet it's hard for me to imagine what kind of monster you have to be to do something so despicable with a soul as what went on here!

It's still unclear what force stood behind the Just Rebirth cultists. But the priests of Veindor are counting on "tracking this maniac down" by using the ever-present connection between a deity and its servants.

We'll find him, one of the priests of the Merciful assured us. And he'll be punished accordingly, just like any other being or force that dares to use rebirth as a punishment for sins and meddle in the great circulation of souls in the Infinite.

Curiously enough, such statements do not resonate with some creatures of the Elder races. It is why our colleague Althea Rumor is prepared to argue for hours with the priests of the Merciful, defending the right of beings to decide for themselves what will happen to their souls after death.

Yes, I'm ready! she assured us boldly. I don't understand what's so awful about beings getting a new embodiment according to their beliefs. If a creature has sincerely believed it deserved a posthumous penalty for some action or another and went ahead and did it anyway, then let it get what it deserves! That's its right, after all. And the gods—they just help realize the desires of their subjects. And no one ought to harass them for it. They're gods for the purpose of bringing to life the convictions of the Infinite's inhabitants!

For a long time, the priests of the Merciful declined to comment on Lady Rumor's words, deeming answering such allegations beneath them. But we were persistent. If that's our attitude, sooner or later we'll end up trading souls like sacks of potatoes! commended a certain Mr. K, who shall remain anonymous.

No one is asking you to reduce the soul to the level of a potato, Althea counters. But if we destroy the classification and soul distribution systems that have existed in other worlds for thousands of years—when a deceased creature ends up in some 'afterlife' which corresponds to the beliefs they held and acted upon during their lifetime—we're robbing that world of its uniqueness, tearing away the very fabric of its culture. To say nothing of restricting the individual beings' freedom... For many of them, I'm sorry to say it, we would be prompting them to do evil. I've heard numerous cases of emigrants admitting they radically changed their ways once they found out that some sort of judgment awaited them after death. Changed for the better, that is.

Once again, the presence of this type of distribution system gives a weighty kick to religious hypocrites. You know that sort of vile moralizers, parading their righteousness around and denouncing the vices of others, while behind closed doors they do Liare knows what! They preach asceticism, and on the donations of parishioners atoning for their sins, they build themselves a forty-room mansion! Welcome to the acid bath!

Of course, shoving souls into mice and rats, or sending them to a world where they'll be eternally subject to meaningless torment is not the best policy. And the attempts by certain powers to play similar tricks on beings who weren't even followers of their doctrine and never gave anyone the right to judge them, or children who haven't yet had the opportunity to make a conscious choice, are particularly detestable. No one's arguing that. But destroying the familiar foundations of worlds in which the vast majority of the population supports them—that's just barbarism! Even when it is done in order that souls are not withdrawn from 'the great circulation of souls in the Infinite.'

We can try looking for some middle ground! Maybe creatures can remain in their... deserved embodiment for a certain period of time. Or, for example, until this new embodiment, whether wondrous or horrible, perishes. We can find a solution... if we try, that is.

RL No. 4