And the Taurons smashed and burned the temple to the ground. We wept and mourned the loss of our sole worship site, the spiritual center of our people. And when Yeshua beat back the Taurons who had stretched themselves too thin, they refused to let us rebuild our temple. – The Torment, Chapter 2 Verse 3-5

The four days it took to get to the capital were tense, but not terrible. The war party executed any monsters that dare showed their face around us. Unfortunately, I got no XP, but I was able to get all my zeal back. Each morning, the men drilled by sparring with one another. Shalin, Hector and I all joined, and we learned some more. Their fighting style was quite different, much more aggressive. They used almost no defensive techniques. Blocking, parrying, and dodging was only done to stop the worst of damage, like blows that would kill you instantly. Instead, their technique was all about overpowering your enemy, either by strength or devastating speed. Hector took to this style of fighting very well, and the men offered to take Hector into their party. Hector declined, however, in one of the first times I heard him speak.

“No.” His voice was deep and guttural. Shalin tried to smooth over his one-word answer, but they were shocked they even got that.

The war party took it fine. They liked Hector. They also liked Shalin. Maybe a little too much. Hector and I watched her closely, never letting her out of our sight. Grimshaw talked privately with their leader, whose name was Talia, and after their discussion she stated that no one was to touch her. They obeyed.

Similar protection was not given to me. I was young and had no hair, which the Yeshuans seemed to find attractive. But my status in their minds as a half-saint made me dangerous. This stopped all but one of the men in the war party from hitting on me directly. This man was named Loh, and he made sure he was always around me. Because of this, Grimshaw kept his eyes on me too, However, Loh was not trying to force me into any uncomfortable situations, he was trying to woo me. He brought me flowers that he thought were pretty and once a stone that could be used as a weapon but was also somewhat exceptional looking.

The other men made fun of Loh for this, but he gruffly dismissed them. He seemed to genuinely like me. Or at least he liked my looks since he never got to know the real me. I couldn’t decide if it was cute or creepy. He was roughly double my age and, well, he was a man. I have found some men attractive before, and I never really considered if I would end up with a male or female. But for every man I found to be attractive, I found three times more women. And Loh? He was too far on the masculine scale for me- smelly, unclean, gruff, menacing, and dangerous. I let him down gently, telling him that I was engaged to a woman who would was waiting for me in Solom. That slowed him down but didn’t fully stop him.

It was through Loh, however, that I learned a very strange custom amongst the Yeshuans. He handed me a knife one night. He bared his throat and said, very ceremoniously: “If I am worthless to you, strike me now so I may die so that I may slumber and feel nothing.” I was taken aback. What was he asking me to do? Grimshaw happened to be near and took me to the side.

“Yeshuans kill one another if they can get away with it and if they desire it. What he is doing is giving you the chance to kill him without violating the law. He is trying to gauge your interest in him. Don’t kill him, you see, and he has some worth in your eyes. Kill him, and he dies- he goes to sleep forever, and you have done nothing wrong. Yeshuans do this to their family, friends, and peers they must work with. Everyone of them did this to each other in the war party. It shows the entire party that they all have worth to one another. It strengthens their bond. But they also do it to potential lovers. Give the knife back and state that he has worth, but that all men have worth and a soul.”

I went back to the Yeshuan, who still bared his neck at me. I could tell he was trying to hear what we were discussing, though, and he also looked… excited by this process. I handed him the knife back and stated as ceremoniously as he did “You have worth, but all men and women have worth and a soul in the eyes of God”. He was happy with the response, if a little disappointed and confused.

I learned to both pity and admire the Yeshuans over those four days. To hear that they put so little value on their own life and the lives of everyone they meet was depressing. They were not a people who had no belief in God. In those cases, atheists would behave as their personality would want them to, and they might even value life more since there was nothing in their eyes after death. No, these were a people who believed that there was a God and even a God who so loved his people that he sent his son to die for them, to save their souls. Except all that was for a different, select group of people that were saved, not them. God, in their eyes, placed no value in them. He did not love them or even care for them. He was indifferent and uncaring at best and saw them as a tool to serve someone with an actual soul at worst.

Despite all this, however, the Yeshuans had developed a culture where they put their own worth into the people they live with and care about. They confirmed this worth regularly and they selected their families, creating their own unique circle of friends and family.

Family, to them, was something you gained in adulthood. Children were property of the state and law forbade killing, injuring, raping or otherwise hurting children and pregnant women explicitly. The law was even so harsh as to punish anyone who did nothing to stop the death or injury of children and pregnant women. But this did not mean the child or woman had worth. They were just a protected status, made so to ensure the future of the Yeshuan Nation, culture and religion. Parents sometimes did develop love and affection for their children, but not always. So as an adult you got to choose who cared for you and loved you.

It was a strange society at best, and when I got to the capital, named Yeshuan City, I discovered just how odd it really was.

Yeshuan City was not very large- it was about the size of a middling city in Tauron. Yeshuan City was the capital because it was in the central part of the country, not because of its size. It was far enough away from the borders of Solom and Taurus to be safe. Technically, Hal”Tal, once the capital of Solom and the holy city of the Gar’shan was Yeshua’s largest city. But the people in Hal’Tal were largely Gar’shan and Yeshuan control over Solom was tenuous at best.

Yeshuans were dangerous enemies. Their lack of belief of their own worth made them attack without a thought to their own lives. They were bloodthirsty and a Yeshuan battlefield a was gory sight indeed. They fought without restraint and that made them deadly beyond belief. But their numbers were low, as death came easy for them. If the Gar’shan joined forces and fought off the Yeshuans together, they could free Solom easily… but the cost and the repercussions made it almost not worth it.

The first thing I saw upon nearing Yeshuan City was the palace. It was an impressive, if domineering, sight to see. It had dozens of black spires that looked like a child clumping wet sand at a beach. There were twisting columns and domes and walkways between the spires both on the ground and in the air. It wasn’t pretty, but it was grand. It cast a long shadow on the city and easily took a third of the land dedicated to the city.

The city itself was between a fork of a river, taking the land south of the north river and north of the south river, right where the two rivers touched. We crossed one of many bridges over the Yeshuan River to get into the city. Upon entering the city proper, we passed by guards who waved us in- this was obviously because we were with the war party. When it was time to split up, the war party left us in good cheer and went their own way. This was not the last I saw of them, though, and before they left Loh ran to me and put a coin purse in my hand and told me to buy something pretty. I blushed but he ran off before I could refuse the money. Hector actually laughed at this. It was the first time I ever heard him laugh, and I was not happy to hear it at my expense.

I pocketed the money, and we all went to the Gar’shan quarter. Teacher Grimshaw led us to one of the teacher’s houses, a large building that held the living quarters of a teacher, but also held the worship space for Gar’shan and a space for Gar’shan children to learn to read and write. It also served as a hospital of sorts. It was similar to Teacher Grimshaw’s house but it was much bigger. And the Gar’shan who visited were free. They could come and go as they pleased, worship as they liked and learn what they wanted. I envied them a little, but I also saw their living conditions.

The Gar’shan quarter was made up of around 5000 Gar’shan. It was densely populated, and the buildings looked run down and grimy. It wasn’t that the Gar’shan didn’t care for their property- they obviously did. Different apartment buildings had flowers and other small items of decoration to differentiate itself from its neighbors. There were just so many people packed together, and they obviously did not have a lot of money to afford substantially improving the buildings they lived at.

There were murmurs wherever I went. I was either a faithless Gar’shan, a rarity in free lands, or a new teacher which was even scarcer. People didn’t know which. Some spat at me, while others moved out of my way with deference. It was weird and humiliating. I could not wait to grow my hair back and have braids that told everyone I met who and what I was. To have no hair was either epicene or effeminate, faithless or a sign of power. It all was determined by the viewer.

Once we entered the Teacher’s house- more a large communal gathering site than anything, we were introduced to the local teacher.

“Teacher Grimshaw! Welcome! I haven’t seen you in years!” A Gar’shan teacher walked up to Teacher Grimshaw and hugged him with great emotion. Teacher Grimshaw returned the happiness of the embrace.

“Teacher Hawthorne! Since when did you preside over here? What a pleasant surprise! Its been 3 decades, since we last met back in school.” Teacher Hawthorne left the embrace and looked at the three of us.

“Who do we have here?” He looked at us, his gaze staying a little longer on me.

“This is Shalin and her friend Hector. They are newly freed. I found them trying to escape an especially harsh master- one that I will have to let the school know about.”

Teacher Hawthorne grimaced. Apparently, their master had to be awfully bad if it got to the level of needing to meet with the school over it. Which, of course, Master Unther was.

“Well, we rarely see newly freed men and women here. You are welcome to stay with us if you want, I will set up a home for you to stay in and people to acclimate you, if that is what you wish.

Hector and Shalin looked at each other, unsure of what they should say. They had a choice of what to do, and choices were confusing when you never got to make them before. “Umm, I do not know. I guess I- we- will have to see. Teacher Grimshaw what do you think we should do?”

Teacher Grimshaw smiled at Shalin. “We shall see, I will discuss your options with you tonight so you and Hector can make an informed decision.”

“And who is this?” Teacher Hawthorne motioned to me, curious and a little hopeful.

“This is Teacher Palion. As you can see, he only recently passed the test, and it was my duty to escort him to the school.”

“Wonderful! Welcome to the ranks. I hear in Taurus it is considered a bad thing to pass the test. And in a way it is, but it is also a reason to celebrate over here in Yeshuan and in Solom.”

Teacher Hawthorne smiled at me. A good thing, he said. I thought about it. I had always heard that passing the test was a bad thing, a drain on the slaves and deadly. I had passed the deadly part, and the drain to the slave community was considerable, but it also was in the past. I had a lot of responsibility to carry on my shoulders, yes, but I supposed it could be a good thing. I did like the whole ‘getting more power’ part of the deal. And knowing for a fact that I would live at least a century longer, without old age or disease to worry about was nice.

I smiled back at him and nodded slowly. “Hello Teacher Hawthorne. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Well, you 4 will at least be staying a couple of days at least. I expect to be able to feed you and have you stay here. All of you can use some fattening up, and some of you need a bath. You will stay at least until midweek for the day of worship.” I blushed at the bath part, as did Shalin.

Teacher Hawthorne then went into a tornado of action. He had us take our outer clothing off to wash and sent us to a bath, Shalin went to a private one. He then started getting together a feast for us and left us in our bath in a huff.

The bath was warm and relaxing, though I had to immediately replace the water, since I had been rubbing dirt on myself for the last 5 days to be less attractive to Loh and the war party. A bath was a luxury I rarely had since Master Palion had us wash in the river. As I was laying there, I gently fell into a deep sleep, only to be rudely awakened by Hector an hour later. Hector woke me up with a kick and pointed at a fresh set of clothes.

I went downstairs and saw a lavish amount of food on the table and over a dozen people sitting around the table. There was boar and fruits and honey and vinegar sauces over select cuts of a chicken and a load of other good things to eat. I had never seen a Gar’shan feast before and I happily sat down and dug in.

There was not much talking in the beginning part of the meal as we were all eating, though I noticed others looking at the 4 of us eating so quickly and so much and smiling at our hunger. Teacher Hawthorne kept piling food on our plates, and we kept eating until we were almost bursting.

“Now that you are full,” Teacher Hawthorne said when we were slowing down “it is time to talk.”