Almazur
[Sheryl: I'm not sure what it will take to find Nasir training. And I still haven't any idea how far Shadya's funds will continue to stretch. If necessary, she will exchange her services as temporary guard or body guard, for suitable training for her small ward.]
The usual mode is for the institution to take charge of the student and keep them until the "training" is complete. Nasir is sufficiently skilled already that they would, in fact, be interested in taking him in - even so young as he is (or seems to be). Nasir, however, is unwilling to leave Shadya. His face doesn't show it, but he takes Shadya's hand as the healer describes the usual practise, and as the description progresses, holds on ever more tightly. Although his body scarcely betrays it, it is clear that he does not want to learn to be a healer at this price. When asked, he says, "Ah, no, I cannot leave my mistress and her friends. They would be lost without me." And various other things; Shadya has already tried to brush him off for his own good, so he will not be particularly surprised or even offended if she does so again. The healer is confused, as it is so clear to him that this child has the gift and the calling. The healer cannot understand why the boy might be reluctant; surely his heart must sing at the chance to become what he should be. Nasir will admit this to Shadya alone, but to the healer he will make excuses of various sorts: protesting that perhaps he is not ready yet, etc., etc..
After their interview with the healer, Shadya takes Nasir away to somewhere private: perhaps they exercise their mounts and then rest under some trees. "Nasir, you are my boy now - you believe that, don't you? I want you to also believe that I want what is best for you." Before he can protest against the brush-off he must think is coming, her voice gets very stern. "Nasir, I want you to always tell me the truth whether you think I want to hear it or not; can you do that?" She pauses for his acknowledgement, then, in her more normal voice, "Now I thought you wanted to be a healer. And I think the Master Healer believes that you could be a great healer. If you really are not ready, I will not insist. But... Nasir, if I can arrange something? Arrange for you to stay with us most of the time ... somehow ... would you accept training as a healer?
"O Great Lady, know that it is even as the master said, that I can feel the call to be a healer in my heart and it sings at the thought of learning how to heal. I thought I would give anything to learn the art until I found that it would mean being parted from you. I feel that if I stay with the healers and you go on your way that I will never see you again. I am sorry, Great Lady, but I do not know what to do." With that, poor little Nasir falls to his knees, flings his arms about Shadya's leg, and bursts into tears.
For a moment Shadya is dismayed, but only for a moment. Being almost as wise as she is intelligent [Actually, Shadya may be one of the most balanced characters I've ever had, if one discounts the Strength and Comeliness scores - which enhance rather than detract], not to mention both strong and supple, Shadya bends over and lifts Nasir into her lap as she folds herself into a seating position to make a lap. [Timing. It's all in the timing. :)] She holds the boy until his sobs start to diminish and then says softly, "You are my brave manling, Nasir, and you are going to be a most excellent healer. You have saved my life; I have not forgotten. Thus do I know that Ashar wills that we are bound together. Fear not that I will let you go until you yourself wish it. If it is Ashar's will, there will be a way. I will find it, Nasir; trust me."
Nasir takes a while to quiet - perhaps letting go of some of the unhappiness that life has brought him. He quiets slowly, and when at last he is completely still, he is asleep. Shadya sits patiently while holding the sleeping Nasir. It is one of the few times she's actually had time to really look at him and wonder about his past. Her feelings are not maternal, but she can look them in the face and realize that she is growing fond of the boy.
Shadya gazes at him. He is a handsome child. In some respects, he is too perfect: more the stuff of fairy tales than of reality. His eyes are large and dark; his hair is dark and curly (and close to his head, fairly short). His skin is dark, darker by a little than the usual child of the desert, but not black. An oddity is that, in addition to being a little too 'perfect', he has a different facial structure: the basic shape of the face is more heart shaped than is usual. Not exaggeratedly so, but still more than is usual. The eyes have a touch of Fiamma's exotic shape as well.
Not for long. When he wakes he smiles up at Shadya. "O lady, I will be ever faithful to you and you have but to ask and I will tell the truth as best I k now it." His heart is light, and he cheerfully sets about whatever task Shadya sets for him.
When he is calm, she will set him to the task of cleaning the horses' tack once they are back at the Inn, while she returns to the Healers Institute and asks to speak again with the headmaster. "Honoured Healer, I have talked to my ward and understand why he is unwilling to leave me. Please allow me to tell you his history so that, with understanding, you can help me to find a way for him to study while yet traveling with me."
Shadya continues, "Nasir was orphaned at a very young age. Then he was robbed and abandoned by his appointed guardian. Thereafter he was cast upon the streets and survived, Ashar alone knows how. When I found him, he was mourning a dead cat as his only friend. Somehow, he has transferred this affection to me who also am without family. Thus, by Ashar's will, I am all the family he has in the world."
"That being so, Good Healer, tell me what I can do to allow him the water his soul longs for but does not take from him the palm tree that shelters his heart?"
The healer does not seem too surprised at Nasir's history. He mumbles disapprovingly at the behavior of Nasir's guardian and nods approvingly at Shadya's actions. "Ah, Lady, it is not surprising in one so young and with such a troubled life that he is unwilling. This being so - this being so, we must know several things. Can he read and write? If not, then he must learn this in any case. [GM note: If I haven't already made this clear, reading (at least) is a basic requirement of the local religion. Not everyone reads, but even the most meager of educations will teach it] If he can already read and write, then the path is less clear. While you are here we can tutor him, but there are many things that it takes time to learn and much more study than most can fit into a year to get a proper foundation. I will have to think on it. Come back tomorrow and tell me if he can read. In the meantime, I will try to figure out what to do if he can."
Shadya thanks the healer and strides back to the Inn. Sitting down with Nasir she says, "My Valiant One, I have been much remiss. I know so much less than I ought. Would you do me the kindness of telling me more about yourself? I would know what education you have had and how you came by it. I would know of Abu and your parents and the scarred man, of those who have been good to you and those who have done you ill. But that may be too much for you to tell right now. I would know more of many things, but let us start with your schooling, whatever it has been, if you please." She devotes her full attention (or as much as a warrior can ever devote) to the boy and his answers.
"My schooling, mistress? Ah, it is poor, but I can read. I have not read much besides Il Ketib and some of the poets. I was taught by a kindly Pilgrim, who was recovering from an illness and could not go out - so I served him by fetching things for him and he paid me by teaching me how to read. He also shared his food with me, but he did not have enough for himself, so I supplemented what I could buy for him by - well - by stealing occasionally. Eventually I was nearly caught and had to leave the city. My benefactor, I think, had been well enough to go on without me for some time. But I do not know, for I could only leave him his food and what little money was left and a brief note." The lad recited from memory, "'Sand erases our footprints and none will know we have passed here.' It was a line out of one of his favourite poems. I hope he forgave me for running away."
[ Il Ketib, literally The Book. Consider that short for Il Ketib Biteh Ashar, lit. The Book Belonging to Ashar (and accept both meanings for Ashar: the god & the people.) According to my Arabic Grammar, Arabic likes to form related words on consonant triads. Thus you could start with the k-t-b triad from "book" and create a word that is related......]
Shadya recognized the poem. It was written of one who has met an old friend on the road in the desert - one he has not seen in a long time. She murmurs, "Souls that share water then vanish are nowise less dear. Ah, Nasir. And what is this city that we should be wary in ... should our travels take us thence?" The desert warrior realized that at some point the boys debt-of-thievery would have to be repaid.
"Bimah, Mistress. It is unlikely that any remember me, but I remember them and someday I will return and - and repay my debts."
[GM: The laws are clear, and harsh, but it is the responsibility of the judge in any case to see that Justice is served - even if it is not the Law. It is possible that had Nasir been caught and brought before a judge that his entire life story would have been unraveled and various injustices in it set to right. It is also possible that a judge would have decided that he was nothing more than another street rat and deserved to be an example to others. Rats rats rats. I seem to remember thinking this all through more clearly before. There's a principle I recall that's applied to rulers: that they must display all manner of virtues. This is why they have viziers - to take care of the things that are difficult with such constraints. Judges have a similar ideal, but usually do not have tasks that require viziers (unless one counts gathering evidence or witnesses). So there are good judges and bad judges, kind and harsh: one that is "kind" all the time allows crime to flourish, and so fails in his job, one that is harsh all the time will punish the undeserving and so also fail in his job.
Nasir did, in fact, break the Law. Clearly he knows that, too. That he wishes to atone for it (and that he seems to think of it as some sort of "loan" or "advance") indicates that he is a good and proper Ashar. His circumstances at the time would probably have convinced a judge that Nasir did hot deserve to be treated as a thief: in fact, he might have been shipped off to a community like the one Shadya grew up in, particularly if his talent for healing was noticed (or if the story of his father's sword came out - that would have resulted in him being shipped off to become a warrior and that would have been trouble.)]
Shadya replies, "It is well that you feel that way and, Ashar willing, it will be so." She sighs, "'Twould seem we are amassing a list of places to return to once this quest is ended: Bimah, Shamar, the scar-faced one and the shop at Almazur, and ... at some point I would know more of you people, Nasir. Did your parents ever mention their tribe? I must assume your tribe knows naught of you, else your guardian would never have dared do what was done to you." Musingly, "Assuming, of course, that your people had family yet living ... and were not two foundlings -- as am I -- known only to each other. Your father's sword is evidence against that, I wot."
"Ah, Mistress, my troubles should not be your troubles. I..." he pauses for a moment, his head bowed, and looks up again, "but I thank you. You must know I will serve you faithfully unto death and beyond." His earnestness is almost comic, but Shadya probably doesn't see that....
Nasir answers, "Kin? I suppose I must, but none stepped forward: I was too young to remember anything of friends or family unless they made themselves known to me. Poor Abu was another creature of the street when I met him, but somehow he reminded me of my family. In his own way he took care of me: he brought me birds and, well, I convinced him he could keep the mice and rats for himself." Nasir grows quiet, remembering his cat friend.
Shadya allows him some moments to remember his friend. Gently she asks, "Nasir, you have made my troubles yours, despite warning and urging. How, then can yours not be mine? If, by Ashar's will, we should walk into Bimah and you be taken by the watch for your deeds, should I not claim you as mine and do what is needful to see that justice alone is done? The law of the desert is clear: you have taken shelter in my tent, by my word, and I must and shall defend you against all trouble." She smiles. "Nonetheless, my little one, we are not in Bimah and we shall not borrow trouble beforetimes. I am on quest, and that, by Ashar's will, is that. What comes after - for good or ill, time will tell." Her eyes crinkle in amusement, "Let us be off to sup. And still no mice and rats, I will venture to say."
And so Shadya will return to the Healer the following day per their appointment, to report that Nasir does, indeed, read and write. Nasir will study at the school while the Party remains in town. When we leave, he will take away a book [Galen?] and a list of teachers available elsewhere.
Silly Aside re: Nasir
[Sheryl: I am in a very weird mood. I have decided that Nasir is a shape-shifted baby dragon (about 50 years old, say) who doesn't know that he is a dragon. Probably a gold dragon, 'cause he's so sweet. Maybe even a dragon prince! And the sword is the key to his parent's horde. It'll be full of good magic items.
A dragon who heals !!?!
We're so taken up with the one prince we know is enchanted that there could be any number of other enchantments under our noses that we'd never notice.
No?
Well, maybe Nasir is just a half-elven, half-hobbit avatar of one of the lost gods. (We found one of 'em in a deseert, why not another? Maybe the Ashar think deserts are appropriate punishments for unruly godlings....) And he will recognize Lierra as a gateway to the Heart of Karnak and have a horrible time when Shadya goes off to fight on the Other Side.]
Aside re: Shadya's Veil
[Sheryl: I've been meaning to make a totally unrelated point: I do not believe that either Nasir or Orlando have yet seen Shadya's face. Yes, Nasir is young enough that a woman in her home probably would not veil against him ... but Shadya knows that Orlando - whatever his size! - is not that young. Besides, there has not been a great deal of "home space" for the group since they got together. Basically, as long as Shadya is in control of the fact, Shadya remains veiled unless I specifically say otherwise.
GM: Hm. Yes, I believe you have been quite careful, so few would know her face. Certainly not Orlando or Nasir. Nasir considers this to be the natural state of things, but Orlando is probably curious - merely too well bred to try to steal a look.]
"Nasir" copyright 1996 S.Knowles & C.Ebert. The contents of this site are copyright 2004 Sheryl A. Knowles unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.