It was I who created you, who loved you and guided you. It is I who is the Lord your God, and you shall love none of the others besides Me. The Creations, Chapter 2, verses 6 - 9

The first few days on the road was not exactly an adventure. In fact, it was downright shitty. The rain was a constant, terrible companion. It slowed us down, as did I since I needed to rest often. On the first three days we were lucky if we got 20 kilometers down. It was miserable. We travelled north out of Ocasia on the main road and slept in a tent that was packed in my supplies. The tent was of superior quality and kept the rain out. Travel on the roads were safe from bandits and would be until we entered Yeshua, not that we would enter Yeshua on the road.

The northernmost town that was not a border city was Bull’s Head. That would be the last time we use the roads. Being a free Gar’shan was a detriment near the borders. They didn’t want us to leave the country and join the freedom fighters that raided border towns. As much as Yeshuans and Gar’shan disliked each other, they hated Taurus more. So they sometimes banded together in parties to attack the border.

But for now, we kept to the roads and stayed in the tent. Each day I got a little stronger and we kept to a pattern. I would wake up after sunrise and exercise under Grimshaw’s watchful eyes. The we would eat breakfast- usually jerky or hardtack- and start walking for about 12 km. Then we would have lunch and Grimshaw would teach me the finer points of The Creation and The Histories. Or he would teach me about life in Solom. Then we would walk about 8-10 km more and stop for the day. I would meditate after dinner for 2 hours and then go to sleep. It made for a long, exhausting day.

My meditations on Tal’Lat were sometimes deep, other times frustrating. I tried not to push it, to let it come naturally. I spent a lot of time thinking about God’s creation and us being His children. I thought about His singleness. I also thought about how He was a jealous god. He did not allow worship of other deities. Teachers hinted that there were possibly other gods, but God Himself was first and the only worthy of the name. They got this from a single line that seems to mention other gods.

At first, I thought this was proof of God, the Father being our only godly father and a father being the single father of a child. But I questioned that in my meditations. A child might have a single biological father, but that biological father might or might not be the actual father in the child’s eyes. This was true especially in our slave culture. A father might be sold or otherwise separated from his family at a child’s young age. He might cling to another person as a father.

I then thought the thing that connected God, the Father and all fathers was masculinity. I mean, a father was always male, was he not? Then I thought about Gar’shan men who became women and shorn their own hair as a symbolic change. It too happened to Gar’shan women who would grow their hair out to symbolically become a man. This was explicitly allowed in the scriptures and that step was the only formal step needed to change one’s own gender. Could these people not be a Father at one point in their lives and in the eyes of their children?

The more I thought of Tal’Lat, the less I was certain. Nothing seemed to encompass every situation, yet there still was Tal’Lat. God seemed to cover all those situations and more. God was everything, and it was only in the singular name of Tal’Lat did God limit himself. God was not the mother, nor was he a sibling nor was he a child. He called himself Lat- Father. Why had he chosen to limit himself in this way? What point was He trying to make? The more I thought about it the more I questioned everything.

My first revelation seemed to say I was in the right direction, applying a concept to father- protector. God protected us, and a person who considered himself a father should be willing to protect their child from harm. That should be a basic qualifier, should it not? And it seemed it was. I had stumbled upon it, but it seemingly was correct.

So, what other concept surrounding Tal’Lat did God Himself see as universal? This nagging question vexed me, because every other quality did not work if I questioned it enough. You could argue a fact to the point it was gibberish and not truth at all. Sort of like how you can say a simple word over and over until it becomes a sound and loses its meaning temporarily.

I explained some of this to Grimshaw and he chuckled. “You already sound like a Nomenclaturist,” and that was all he would say on the matter. He did periodically ask me questions that might be suggestive of thinking about Tal’Lat another way, except he wouldn’t come at it directly.

“Do you consider Master Palion your father?”

I cringed at the concept. A father does not treat a son like a slave, no matter how nicely it was couched behind soft words and kind gestures.

“Tal’lat, no!” I responded with my voice raised in shock.

“Then why do you keep his name?”

“It’s the only last name I have ever had!”

“It’s a slave name.”

“That does not mean he is my father!”

“Then why keep it? Why not take your father’s last name?”

“Because he is a Palion too, so maybe I did take it?” I said, thinking. I dismissed the concept. He was a Palion no more than I was. It was a slave name, a mark of ownership. Suddenly I hated that name. Grimshaw could see it on my face.

“Keep it for now. In Tauron it has a use. But do not worry, we will discover what your last name is. For recently freed Gar’shan it is a thing of discovery, of choosing. You choose your family; it is not chosen by someone else.” I never wondered about how free Gar’shan selected their last names- or was it given? I asked.

“Free Gar’shan take the mother’s last name as a middle name and our father’s mother’s last name as the last name. It is one reason why you must remember your lineages all the way through the generations back to a known offspring of Gary and Shana. Who is that for you?”

“Treena.” I said instantly, knowing the answer from childhood. My mother had told me this a million times.

“Ahh, The prideful one. A moderate amount pride is a good thing to have, and I am sure that she left that in you. Do not worry, you will find a family to choose a last name from. And do not fear, if you choose to keep your father as your father in your mind eye, we will discover a last name for him as well, since it is lost due to the Taurons.”

If I choose to keep my father as my father in my mind’s eye. That was something to meditate on. Choosing your father…

On the fourth day of walking, we got to Bull’s head. It was a smallish town, much smaller than Ocasia. We stayed the night with the local teacher, Teacher Kingsley, who was both saddened and happy to see a new teacher. She was much younger than Grimshaw. Her hair was pure gold, though stubbly short, and her eyes were a pale blue that was almost white. She had a slight smile that was rarely seen behind her serious demeanor. She told me her Class- she was a Crusader. She stayed close to the north in case she ever needed to fight for the freedom fighters or after finding the prophesied young Immortal. Despite that, she tended to her community of slaves as kindly and as seriously as Grimshaw had.

“I am glad you lived through the test, Vin. We had someone pass a few years ago but died in the transition.” I lowered my eyes, she sounded sad and frustrated when she said it. “Are you as healthy as you were before the test yet?” she asked, noticing that I barely had stubbled hair. It was obvious it was so recent.

“Today I feel as if I had just gained my strength back.” I said proudly.

“Good, tomorrow we will have to hike off the roads. Being seen north of Bull’s Head could be deadly. I will go over the map with Grimshaw. He will lead the way. I will come with you for about for around 80 kilometers until we get you safely across the border. We will kill any Tauron that comes in our path if it comes to that. And I am better suited than each of you for that task.” Her voice sounded deadly, and I knew how dangerous she could be. I was glad she was on our side.

The next morning, during exercise, I got a welcome message:

You have gained a point in the Hardiness attribute! Good Job!

I quickly looked at my character sheet and noticed the increase. I then realized that I could afford to increase hardiness from 0 to 1, as it was cheaper than increasing it from -1 to 0. I purchased it immediately. I now was at a 1 in stamina and my Brawns average turned to -.33. One more increase in any of the Brawn attributes would increase my health to 5!

I told this to Teacher Grimshaw and he said it was a good strategy. He said I should focus next on strength training. I groaned, thinking about how my muscles would hurt even more after that.

We left shortly after sunup and my exercise and walked off the road. The terrain was slightly wooded, but also hilly. I knew this would be no fun.

We hiked for about 10 hours only periodically stopping for rest or drink, and I noticed that I had a much easier time keeping up. We didn’t need to frequently rest. The ability to use XP was miraculous. I went from barely able to walk for more than 2 or 3 kilometers at a time at a slow pace, to keeping up a brisk hike over hilly terrain for hours at a time.

We stopped in the early afternoon. “We need to get used to hiking at night. The monsters are more dangerous, but any people we come across will be at camp. We can kill them in their sleep, or we can skirt around them.” She said this coldly, her voice as frosty as her eyes.

I shivered, but I started to take it as a fact that I was no longer a slave who must stay good until the time came. For me, the time has already come. I would protect my own freedom until my death. My mediation that night was extra difficult, and I felt I got nowhere. We went to sleep early, and I was awakened when the sun had set.

Hiking at night was a different experience. It was easy to trip over roots in the ground, and sometimes I thought I lost the two teachers in front of me. I had to be more aware of my surroundings to avoid injury. But the light of the crescent moon helped a little. Teacher Kingsley quietly told us she saw firelight in the distance. She said we were to skirt around it while she went ahead.

After she left, I whispered to Grimshaw, “she is going to kill them, the people around the firelight, isn’t she?”

He waited a little while and responded “yes. Most likely. If they are Tauron. They might be slave hunters looking to capture freed Gar’shan who are freedom fighters, or to kill Yeshuan raiders. Either way, that does not support our cause. Now quiet, follow me.”

We skirted around the campsite, but it didn’t stop me from hearing a distant scream. I shuddered. Life had always been dark and frankly miserable, even under a good master, but this was something else entirely. Freedom had a price, and this was it. The freedom to make decisions about your own life, to determine your own future. I felt the weight of it now for the first time. I had been just going with the flow, following the next steps that were laid out before me. Here, now, that seemed to change.

After about 15 minutes of hiking and thinking. “I want to help the next time,” I said quietly, so quietly I was not sure if I was heard.

“Good,” said a voice behind me. I jumped but held in a stifled scream. It was Kingsley. “Next time you might have to. Let’s stop for a moment”. We huddled, and Kingsley told us what she had learned.

“There are three patrols out here. That camp was just the first one- there were 4 people in that one. The other two have caught a few Gar’shan trying to escape. One of the patrols has the slaves. They are coming back now and not too far from here. We need to free them. Here, I got these for you.” She passed out 3 cloaks and hoods, one to each of us. They were the color of night and could help me hide in the dark. I noticed it had some wetness on it and blanched- it was probably blood. I put the cloak on anyway, and we went into the night.

It was even harder to stay near the teachers now since I could barely see them with their cloaks on. I relied more on sound. I realized they were not making very much sound at all, while I sounded like a herd of elephants. Teacher Grimshaw pantomimed how to walked a little more quietly. Slower, using the balls of my feet, avoiding branches and leaved on the ground. I tried, and it was a little better.

You have learned the new skill Stealth!

After that, I sounded better. It was then that I saw the patrol, through the lightly wooded trees. We crept up closer. There were three Gar’shan, bound in chains that were nailed to a tree. The chains were so tight they couldn’t sit down properly and were uncomfortably crouched. There were two older men in their late 20s and one girl my age. They all had bruises and cuts, and one looked badly wounded. Because they weren’t awakened like we, the Teachers are, their cuts would take a long time to heal, some of them needing medical attention. The girl was the least beaten, but her eyes looked down cast and she looked like she was tired and beaten down. My heart went out to all three of them. Though they had disobeyed The Torment, they did not deserve to be treated like they had been. They had just wanted to be free.

Two of the Taurons were keeping watch, while it looked like the other four were sleeping. They were cloaked in similar, dark cloaks to the ones we wore. They didn’t wear official Tauron uniforms, so they must just be slave hunters and the like. Maybe local militia that fought for their own lands and safety. I saw Kingsley withdraw her sword and slowly position herself behind one of the men and slice his throats. The gurgling was loud enough to grab the attention of the other one on watch. He screamed. The other four woke up, swords in hands, while Grimshaw rushed ahead and used a dagger to disembowel the one who had screamed.

My first fight had started and I had no idea what to do.