From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [KQ] Maleiu [Shunned Center]: Clouding Men's Minds, Supplemental
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 13:50:56 GMT

ADMIN: Unaccountably, 'Raelf failed to attend to Maleiu in his post of a few
days ago, "Clouding Men's Minds".  Said post only showed up at my site about
yesterday, so here is the Maleiu addition, for completeness...also since
Hutch is suffering from news deaf-muteness right now.

((Maleiu.  A slight fog here--dark and insidious.))

Something was twisting Maleiu's memories without him noticing.

Maleiu stood before the tribe of Nariawah, and Loiu pronounced his sentence.
"Thou shalt walk all the shores of the world before thou canst return to this
tribe," he said.  But his gaze was not on Maleiu.  He was looking with his
chief's benevolence to where Lyono stood giggling in Karu's embrace...

In Fairyland, they walked through the Hall of Eyes, and the Kelsie explained
how to focus in on a particular eye.  Maleiu focused on Lyono, and saw...and
saw her in Karu's embrace, in the throes of passion, declaiming her love for
him in gasping shouts...and somehow, she looked up at him and sneered...

In the Bazaar in Rameshan, being sold as slaves.  Maleiu is bought by the
servant of a Rameshander living in Generica, and later watches as the rest are
bought by Juhlavi bes-Pelmaj.  Mistletoe sighs in relief and leans back into
Ornigan's arms, apparently glad not to be separated from the mage...

On the docks of Generica, Maleiu watches as they debark from a ship, Mistletoe
and Ornigan, hand in hand.  He steps forward to declare his love, and Mistletoe
turns and embraces Ornigan passionately, their lips locked in a kiss.  Ornigan
sees him and shrugs gloatingly.

Later, Maleiu, alone with Mistletoe.  "I love you," he says.

"Don't make me laugh," she responds.  "A soulless piece of meat like you?  I
don't believe that you have emotions.  You're all muscle, all warrior, but no
man.  You're worthless," she sneers.

Maleiu, at the end of his quest, returns to the village.  "I have walked all
the shores of the world, and thus I return to the tribe of Nariawah," he
declaims.  Nobody pays any attention.  Lyono is still with Karu, and holds a
child in her arms.  Sacrilege for a priestess, but nobody notices.  Nobody
looks with the slightest interest on Maleiu, either.  When he stops Loiu and
presents himself, the chief shrugs him off.

"Who cares what you did?  You honestly thought that you could do that?  I don't
believe you did.  Where is your proof?  It hardly matters, though.  Go or stay.
Just stay away from my daughter."

Wait, he said.  How can I remember those things if they have not happened yet?
Mistletoe has not come to Generica.  And I have certainly not returned to
Nariawah after walking all the shores of the world.  And when I looked in the
Hall of Eyes, I saw that Lyono was still devoted to me.  And even if she was
with Karu, so what?  I love Mistletoe now, and perhaps she loves me, too.  In
the Bazaar in Rameshan, she was stricken when she found we were to be
separated.  He fought down the feeling of helplessness that had been rising in
his gut, and replaced it with a warrior's courage.

Out of the coner of his eye he saw a shadowy form like that of 'Raelf.  Good,
he thought.  A warrior as skilled in the arts of magic as I am in physical
combat, and perhaps more.  The feeling of helplessness was gone now, and the
black-skinned warrior walked with a light step, barely noticing the mind-
twisting architecture surrounding him.

--
---Alfvaen(Canadian SF Quasi-Activist)
"I'm a few bricks short of a load, but a full load always hurt my back."
   ---Barenaked Ladies
Current Album--Enya:Watermark
Current Read--Evelyn Waugh:The Loved One