The first thing I remember of when I awoke was the smell of earth and the sound of tree branches rustling in the wind. The air was a bit chilly but I was heavily covered in blankets to keep out the cold. As my vision came into focus I could see that I was in a peculiar building. In essence it was a tent, but short walls had been raised on the outside, making it more or less semi-permanent. I had been taken to the B'nai camp.

My leg and shoulder were still sore, but functional. I felt feverish, weak, and nauseous. I wanted to get up or ask for help, but I just couldn't summon the strength to. So I just turned over and dozed in and out of sleep. Some time later, I heard someone come into the tent. I turned over, expecting to see Hadassah, but instead it was some man I had never met before.

"So you're awake. Good." he said. He was somewhat tall with a powerful build, like a woodsman. His clothes were rather light in color and flowing. His hair was thick and black with a full beard. His eyes were hazel, but with a bright, piercing quality.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Avim. How are you feeling?"

"Where's Hadassah?"

A concerned look crossed his face as he stared at me, weighing his response.

"Hadassah is resting. She is not well."

I sat up, fighting back the nausea. "What do you mean? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Just lay down. She'll be fine. She isn't terribly ill, she's just not feeling well. You still need rest." he said, pushing me gently back down into my makeshift bed. "I'll tell you something else, a few things." he continued, then sighed and sat down next to the bed.

"Asking about Hadassah isn't going to do you any favors here. You are not in the City. You are in our camp, and our ways are how things happen here. What happened between the two of you... is not allowed. Hadassah knew this, but also knew that she didn't care for any of the young men here and also didn't want to wait until the migration to at least taste the relationship between man and woman. She admired you, your struggle, and your steadfast loyalty to those you care about. These were the qualities she wanted in someone, and still wants. Perhaps it is to be, and you two shall be together again. If so, however, it will be within our ways and our methods of courtship, not by just letting the two of you shack up together. You were unaware of this, and she couldn't bring herself to tell you, or to even admit it to herself. I'm sorry that this was yet another thing you were led into..."

"But I wasn't led into it." I interrupted.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"When things got started, Tahnit warned me about the two of us going against your ways. I too chose not to listen."

He closed his eyes and nodded at this. "The folly of youth." he said.

"Folly?"

He looked at me, his eyes more filled with concern than before, and at the same time seeming to pierce straight through me, and said, "Yes, folly. It was a mistake, Mishkal. This never should have happened. We are trying to find a way to fix that mistake, even possibly by allowing the two of you to marry and bringing you with us. But please, remember this: we also have just received word that the ships for our departure should arrive in little more than a week's time, and Tahnit has lost you to us. We don't know what he'll do, and we have a hundred other concerns besides your happiness to take care of. Again, I'm sorry."

“If I’m too much of a bother, perhaps I should leave then.” I said, coldly.

At this he hung his head and sighed. “Perhaps I’m not being clear, or perhaps you’re just being difficult. Probably both. We have known about you for a long time, Mishkal. You used to play with our children when you were young, and even then we were impressed with your intelligence. It has become a matter of habit for us to learn of potential friends whenever we can and remember them. When we learned that Tahnit had come across you we knew it was only a matter of time before he pulled you into this… mess. We have nothing against you, and most of us even like you. We want to help you. I want to help you. But it will be our way, which will be very different than anything you’ve known. If you’ll listen and cooperate, we’ll do everything we can for you. If not, then yes we are wasting your and our time.”

At this point, I had grown especially tired of people trying to tell me how to do things, trying to recruit me into their fold. At first the thought occurred to me that the B’Nai were the only group that had tried to help me simply out of kindness. However, with this move happening, finding out that they knew everything all along, even before Tahnit himself did, perhaps they had something up their sleeve for me as well. Perhaps they were just holding Hadassah and my future in front of me like a golden carrot leading me on. After that came despair as I realized that only yesterday I thought I had left all this kind of crap behind me. Finally I realized that I was in no condition to tough it out on my own, and I could use the B’Nai probably as much as they could use me. After all, if what this Avim was saying were true, I’d have a ticket out of this city, a place to start a new life, and the chance to be with the one person I cared about most. What did I really have to lose?

“Alright. I’ll play it your way.”

He smiled and nodded. “Good. Just rest for now. Tomorrow we’ll get you walking. If that goes well, we’ll get Chavat to work with you again, help you get your strength back.”

“Just out of curiousity, and to keep me from asking this again, when do I have a chance of seeing Hadassah?”

“If all goes well, on your wedding day.” He said and then left the tent, leaving me with my jaw on the ground. “Wedding day?!” I thought to myself. “Will that be here or in their homeland?” I flopped myself back down on the bed in frustration and winced at the soreness in my shoulder. “Why did I agree to this?” As I drifted back to sleep I decided that I’d simply play along with them until I got my strength back, and then go on my own.

The next morning Chavat came by with my breakfast.

“I thought I taught you about fending off arrows.” He said with a smile.

“I did fend off a few from someone else. I didn’t even know I was being followed let alone shot at.” I said. “Wait, what are you doing here? I thought Avim said you wouldn’t be here till later.”

“Well, after everything you’ve been through and your conversation with Avim, we thought it best if you worked with someone you already know. Besides, it’s not like I have a lot to do. Go ahead, eat. We’ll see how those muscles are doing when you’re done.”

“Chavat, can I ask you something?” I asked as I took the food he offered me.

“Yes?”

“Could you tell me what’s going on? This whole business with Tahnit, why did you agree to work with him, to teach me?”

At this he sighed. “Tahnit was an astute and ambitious businessman. Since our employment in this area is rather limited, many of our people have unfortunately had to turn to thievery. When we found out that he wanted out of the thieving business and into something else, we decided to make a merchant out of him. Together we would supply the initial investment, and with our various families branched out everywhere, we would supply the know-how. It was an uneasy alliance to begin with, because Tahnit is fiercely independent and resents having to need anyone for anything. We knew that if we told him how we did what we did, he’d branch out on his own and cut us out, which would leave us right back where we started. So we had to make him need us, which was a thorn in his side that grew deeper with each season.

“You came to play quite the important part. We had known of you as rather introverted, shy, highly intelligent, but still playful boy who had nothing against outsiders or foreigners. Because of this, we had our eye on you. Remember, we didn’t know when our time to migrate would come, and friends in this city are hard to come by. We were hoping that by staying near you, we could make an ally of you when you grew older. So when you fell ill and started having those visions, we took them very seriously. If Tahnit had gotten to you first, and placed his orders and shipments without us, it would have been the end of our business, as he would be able to buy out anyone else that we might have been able to work behind. Luckily, not only had we learned the news first, but Tahnit was so dependent on us that he couldn’t even work those shipments without us. Eventually he realized his mistake and hated us even more. So when everything went through, he assassinated Lord Blah and put himself in a position to take over the property. He may have told you that he was trying to come out of the underground. Maybe that’s how he saw it. What he was really trying to do was to get rid of us.

“It was quite a shock to him when he learned that he would be losing us instead. He tried everything he could to learn what he needed to continue without us. We couldn’t comply even then, not because we were concerned about money and supplies, but because we were in a tight spot. Usually we can keep a low profile by moving on a regular basis. Once we learned of the migration, we had to stay in this area, or else risk losing messages about our departure, or worse yet, missing the ships themselves. So we were, and still are, sitting ducks. He then gave up on the idea of ever being an independent merchant and set about using his wealth, power, and connections to actually reopen his underground operations. You came very much back into play in this. That fateful night when you delivered that message, he tested your competency, your loyalty, and any ability you might have to do what he needed. You passed all three with flying colors. You were the first in what he hoped would become a legion of thieves and strongarms. You had two problems. The first being that you are extremely moral, and if you are to ever do anything wrong you have to be convinced that it’s for the right reasons. So although he might be able to get you to do some jobs here or there, he knew he couldn’t get you to be his second in command, which is what he wanted. The second thing is that although there isn’t much that escapes you, there are so many ways that you are absolutely clueless. Although you have the most raw talent he could ever have hoped for, he would have to lie to you and lead you around almost on a leash. This bothered him, but he was willing to deal with it. He was following his own sordid lead, trying to accomplish and keep the riches and comforts he had always dreamed of. Life has consistently robbed him of his opportunities to do so. He could have gone to college and be a scholar if the new owner of that bookstore had taken him in. He could have been a merchant if he wasn’t so thirsty to shut us out. Finally, he could have been a crime lord if he could have just kept his network together and developed you into the perfect thief and devoted servant. He lost you. Now, he has nothing. We are terribly frightened. We don’t know what he’s going to do.”

“I see.” I said. “What about you? Why did you get involved in all of this? If you knew he was using me, why did you agree to train me?”

At this he sighed and covered his face with his hands. He then slowly pushed them back along the sides of his head until they came together behind it.

“I… made a mistake, once. A terrible mistake. I was living with another group of the B’Nai, someplace far away from here. When I found out about the migration back, I was upset. I didn’t want to leave. I was learning ways and arts that fascinated me, some were combat, others were more domestic. Creating blends of fabrics, different types of ink and such. I was fascinated at how the slightest of insights could reinvent things that we see everyday; that we take for granted. The B’Nai way was mainly a bunch of old traditions, rules, restrictions. I could deal with it so long as I could also have other things. The thought of moving back to where the B’Nai way of life was all there was… I hated the thought. So when the ships came, I ran. I missed them on purpose.

Perhaps there really is a supreme deity that guides the fate of the B’Nai. Perhaps it’s just some universal principle that is the nature of everything. I don’t know. In any case, I violated whatever it was. I found out that although I had disowned the B’Nai teachings, they… hadn’t disowned me. As my teachers would have said, the B’Nai are my roots. From there I could grow and reach anything I cared to. When I abandoned them I had severed those roots, and became lost. The caravans that this group was sending out eventually found me. At that point, I was a penniless, worthless drunk. I came back with them and recovered. They decided that, since I was skilled with these foreign fighting arts that I’d be useful as a bodyguard, kind of a security officer. At some point Tahnit must have seen me defend one of our traders and was very interested. I turned him down at first. When I came back, I found out that this group was leaving too. Since they are in this precarious position, they asked me to do anything that Tahnit wanted, even train you. I… justified it to myself by saying that you were going to do these jobs for him anyway, at least I could teach you how to protect yourself. Perhaps even protect yourself from Tahnit if it ever came to that. I’m sorry… If it’s any consolation, you have helped me a great deal. Teaching you has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope you can come with us.”

“I hope so too” I said quietly.

“Well, let’s see if you can move at all. Stand up…” he said. Standing wasn’t that bad. Walking was painful, but manageable. Even more so after Chavat worked some sort of balm into the muscles. By the afternoon I was feeling back to normal, and anxious to start working with him again.

The next day we started training again. We worked outside, and I was able to notice the curious looks on the faces of the B’Nai. I was never sure if it was because I was an outsider, or because of the various techniques Tahnit and I were doing. There was maybe a total of about a hundred people in the camp. I was very curious in that Hadassah was not to be seen.

We developed a daily routine for almost a week. By the end of that time, I was completely recovered. Chavat and I were approached by Avim after our afternoon workout.

“We have arranged a meeting tonight with Hadassah’s father, our scholar, you and myself.” Avim said. “Chavat, you are welcome too, and in fact I think you need to be there. Come to their tent, after dinner.” He said and walked away.

“What’s this about?” I said.

“It’s a custom that the father of the bride, the scholar, the prospective groom, and two witnesses meet to discuss a potential marriage.”

“What’s all this talk about marriage anyway? I mean, we’ve lived together for a month or so, but… does that mean that we have to get married?”

At this Chavat looked at me and said, “Come with me. Back to the tent.” He looked around carefully as we went back and entered the tent. Once inside he whispered, “We aren’t supposed to talk about this. It’s not against you, but to keep this from prying ears that don’t need to know.”

“Know what?” I whispered back.

“Mishkal… Hadassah’s pregnant.”

The blood completely left my head when he said that, and I staggered backward towards the bed. I leaned against it and then bent forward, trying to keep from fainting.

“What?!” I said.

“Shhh… Look, you’re in good with a lot of people here, but there are some who don’t trust you. We have laws against spreading rumors, but people still do anyway. No one needs this right now, but it breaks my heart to not tell you.”

There was a long pause. Just when I thought I was free, it turned out that I wasn’t. Now there really was no choice but to go with them and to go along with them.

“Look,” Chavat continued, “it’s going to be time for dinner soon, and we’ll be meeting everyone right afterwards. Let’s see about getting you some clothes.”

I walked with him to the tent where he was staying. I was completely in a daze. Chavat’s tent was a bizarre mixture. On the one hand, there were numerous weapons, some of them quite strange, and on the other was an absolute plethora of clothes and fabrics. Between the two, there was barely room in the tent for a bed.

“Here’s something you might find interesting, though not for tonight.” He said. He pulled out what looked like a black, heavily pleated skirt. Only on close inspection was I able to see that there were individual legs. He then produced two tunics, one a light grey, the other black. Both had sleeves that could probably hold three or four of my arms and button on the side to a short collar. Then he pulled out a rather complex looking cloak with equally large sleeves, a hood, and an assortment of folds and pockets.

“For what you’ve been trained for, I couldn’t think of better clothes.”

They all did look rather interesting, but Chavat’s timing was less than good. If we had done this the day before, it might have even been fun.

“And for tonight?”

He frowned. “Yes, well, here’s some more conventional pants… here’s something good; a white silk tunic. The cloak will work. I’ll let you get changed.”

I remember somewhat getting dressed, I remember not being hungry and eating somewhat mechanically. I vaguely remember the meeting. I remember looking into the eye’s of Hadassah’s father and seeing that he knew that I knew. The scholar that was there was asking me if I would learn and adopt their ways, teach them to my children, take care of Hadassah. No one else spoke. Avim looked somewhat disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm, Hadassah’s father looked somewhat angry and at the same time concerned. Chavat appeared almost as spacey as I did. When the scholar was done, and I had agreed to everything he asked me, it was declared a match. I signed my name on a piece of paper I couldn’t understand and left.

I was angry. Angry that no one had told me before tonight, but also that all of this marriage business went on without Hadassah present; as if she couldn’t decide her own fate. I wondered what other sorts of things would I have to “go along with” when I left with them. I meandered on my own back to the tent. The clothes that Chavat had picked out for me were there. Which was funny, because I didn’t remember coming back here. My old things were in a pile at a corner of the tent. Curiously, I went to check them out.

My bow, quiver, sword, blackjack, lockpicks, all of them were there. My old clothes completely crusted over with blood were there too. I decided I’d look back through that journal of Tahnit’s that I had taken. I found my pack, but it seemed strangely flimsy. My stomach started churning as I opened it; the book was gone!

Hurriedly I ran out of the tent back towards where the meeting took place. I found Chavat and Hadassah’s father talking on the way there.

“I have to see Hadassah now!” I shouted.

“But you cannot.” Her father said. “I thought Avim and you had discussed…”

“It’s not about that!” I interrupted. “Look, when I left Tahnit I took one of his journals with me. The most important one about how he found me, took the lordship, all of that. It’s missing! Do you have it?” I said looking at him.

“Mishkal, no he doesn’t.” Chavat said. “I’m the one who carried you back. I took that pack off your unconscious body myself. It was empty, you didn’t have it.”

“Oh no…” I said.

“What?” Hadassah’s father asked.

“That means it fell out when I was escaping from Ramirez!”