Role

Chapter 4

The men who had killed his father, while somewhat detached, were not
inherently cruel, and so they had little desire to murder Kasir as well.
Instead, they bound him hand and foot, drug him out the city's south gate
and dumped him by the side of the Caravan Road. Perhaps someone would
have mercy on him, they thought. Regardless, he was no longer their
problem. Luckily for Kasir, the right person came along.

The old woman who happened to spot him was a seeress of sorts, attached
to one of the many tribes of nomads who wander the Arraille. Unlike most
others, though, who prayed to the animist spirits of the desert or the
ancients of Thar-Eris, this woman was a disciple of the Great Huntress.
The desert cat, who stalks the dunes in search of the wicked.

In truth, she followed the goddess Baerinika, though that name would
have been foreign to her. Whereas Baerinika is typically associated with
a Jaguar in more civilized regions, the emblem of the "Great Huntress" was
the puma, or mountain lion. Instead of opposing evil on a global scale,
the Huntress was primarily viewed as the enemy of the "winged devils"
(Talishidar) and "unholy ones" (Scions), which, together, comprised the
tribe's chief predators and symbols of evil.

So it was that this particular woman possessed a certain measure of
compassion and took it upon herself to see Kasir restored to health.
Being nothing if not practical, however, the tribe's expected Kasir to
repay his debt. So, once he was well, with no place to go, he stayed on
as a sort of indentured servant until such time as his debt was deemed
repaid. The tribe was fair but demanding, and the work was hard. Caring
for livestock was a far cry from cheating spoiled nobles in the market.

His time with the tribe was humbling for Kasir, but in an entirely
positive way. The loss of his father, processing through his grief, the
wisdom of the seeress and the tonic of good, hard, work all served to undo
the years of "training" he had received in Hamsah Mu'tazz. Rather than
resent his low station in the tribe, he was instead grateful for the mercy
he had been shown. Rather than sustaining himself through manipulation
and trickery, he came to understand the value of honesty, humility, and
service.