Adanjar Part 5

Dusk

Rain's Hand 23rd, Eight in the Morning

Stirk, Cyrodiil 2E175

Adanjar stepped off the dock onto dry land. She was only making a momentary stop at Stirk while the ship exchanged passengers. She thought she'd look around a bit. Although the nagging hurt she felt about her mother's death had not left her, she thought it would be best to get off the ship for a while.

Adanjar walked around for a bit, did a little shopping, and started back for the boat. All of a sudden, a Khajiit woman went darting past Adanjar, followed by two Dunmer men. The woman had gone by so fast, she could hardly recognize her. But to Adanjar,  it looked as if she were wearing slave bracers. She was in Cyrodiil, where slavery was illegal. Then she saw three Imperial Guards chase after them.

Curious and confused, Adanjar began to follow them. They led her and a crowd of people to the ship in which Adanjar was to travel to Camlorn.

"Ha! We've been trying to catch you for months now. Think you're pretty clever, sneaking slaves in and out of this port every week. We know what you've been doing, we just haven't been able to get hold of you yet!" The guard said to him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," one of the Dunmer said. "This is my wife!"

"Then why does she parade around here, dressed only in what can be described as a 'slave bracer'?" The guard said, brandishing his sword in front of the two Dunmer. They gave no reply. "That's what I thought. Come on, we'll hold you until we decide what to do with you," one of the guards said. With that, two of the guards took the Dunmer away. Adanjar could clearly see now that the Khajiit woman was in fact her very own mother.

"Are you going to be okay?" the remaining guard asked her.

"Yes, I'll be fine. I stole the key from one of those men - I have it here. That's why they were chasing me; they were afraid I'd take off this bracer. I remember seeing a third Dunmer on the ship the other day," Ajirab said to the officer.

No longer able to contain her emotions, Adanjar leaped forward from among the crowd and into her mother's arms, all the while shouting, "Mother, Mother! You're alive! Alive!"

"Of course I'm alive," her mother replied. "But I thought you probably went to Arenthia and burned to death!"

"I did, but it was already destroyed when I got there." Adanjar said to her mother, wiping a tear from her eye.

Now she was beginning to feel pretty foolish. The crowd of people stared at her until the guard began shouting, "Okay, okay. Nothing to see here! Move along, move along."

"What were you thinking, running out into the night like that? You could've been killed, or worse. Do you know what kind of men lurk around at night!?" Ajirab scolded.

"Oh please. I can take care of myself. I'm an adult. I had no choice but to do what I did. Anyway that's all behind us. Let's go to Camlorn. Uncle M'nashan is there, and I'm sure he'd take us in. I was going there anyway," Adanjar told her mother with a new sense of happiness. Adanjar's mother agreed, and they set out for Camlorn that morning.

Rain's Hand 23rd, Seven in the Morning

Camlorn, High Rock

M'nashan dipped his pen in the inkwell and began to write.

Dear M'nasha,

I do not wish to trouble you, but it has been a while since my last visit. How are things at Topal Bay? I was thinking of making a visit there pretty soon. I think things in Rimmen may have settled down by now. Besides, it's not like I can't come see my own family every once in a while, right? By the way how are Ajirab and Adanjar? Last I heard young Adanjar was engaged to that nice Qa'Bakha lad. They sure grow up fast, don't they? I remember how every week, you and the family would come visit me in Rimmen. We had pretty good times.

Things here are nice. Nothing out of the ordinary. Like I said earlier, I was thinking of making a visit. If it's okay with you, how about I come down next week and stay a month or two? Anyway, it has been a while since I have heard from the family, so I thought that I'd just keep in touch.

Your Brother,  
M'nashan

M'nashan sealed the letter and put it aside. It had felt like so long since he had last seen them. And now that he only had two months to live, he wanted to spend them among friends.

Rain's Hand 24th, Four in the Morning

Windhelm, Skyrim

Skyrim was not what M'nasha had hoped for; it was cold and wet, nothing like he remembered from when he was a child. He didn't want to stay a moment longer than necessary, so he had packed his bags and booked passage on a ship bound for Camlorn the next morning.

Rain's Hand 24th, Eleven in the Morning

Alabaster, Elsweyr

Qa'Bakha had decided to stay in Alabaster the night before, and was going to leave for Arenthia this morning. The man who now lived in Adanjar's house kindly let him stay the night. The man had said that if he wanted to find Adanjar, he should probably look in Camlorn, since that was where her uncle lived.

That morning the man, whose name turned out to be Dro'Sakhari, invited Qa'Bakha to have breakfast with him. Qa'Bakha kindly accepted, not having eaten in days. They were enjoying their breakfast when there was a knock at the door. Dro'Sakhari got up from the table and answered the door. When he opened it, he found a young Khajiit lad holding a piece of parchment paper.

"Can I help you?" Dro'Sakhari asked him.

"This came through the Mages Guild yesterday, from High Rock. It said it was to be delivered here," the boy replied, handing him the paper.

Dro'Sakhari took the letter and shut the door. The letter was written to M'nasha, evidently from his brother M'nashan. "You can finish your breakfast, I have to attend to something upstairs in my study." Dro'Sakhari said to Qa'Bakha.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather be getting on. I have a good ways ahead of me. I thank you for your hospitality." Qa'Bakha said, getting up. Dro'Sakhari nodded and quietly walked upstairs.

Dro'Sakhari sat down at his desk, grabbed a piece of paper and began writing.

Dear Sir,

I believe you intended this message to be sent to M'nasha. M'nasha no longer lives here. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but M'nasha has moved to Windhelm, Skyrim. Ajirab and Adanjar have run off somewhere. I do not like to be the one to give you this disturbing news, but it seems as if the family has broken up.

Again I am sorry for this inconvenience.

From Dro'Sakhari

 

Rain's Hand 24th, Noon

Camlorn, High Rock

M'nashan opened his door to find Ajirab and Adanjar on his doorstep. He was quite surprised to see them. "What are you two doing here? Where is M'nasha?"

Adanjar looked at her mother distressfully. Ajirab blurted out, "He'll be here. He wanted to stay behind, to make sure the house would be okay. We wanted to surprise you!"

"Well, you certainly did that! Adanjar, how you've grown since I last saw you! You must be four feet taller!" he exclaimed. Adanjar slightly smiled at him. M'nashan invited them inside, and they accepted.

"We decided to come visit for a few weeks," Ajirab said, sitting down.

"Well, I certainly have no objection to that. Did you get my letter? Oh, I suppose you wouldn't have had time to." M'nashan said cheerily.

"Would you like something to eat?" he asked. They nodded enthusiastically. Ajirab and Adanjar were so hungry they could hardly contain themselves. All Adanjar had had to eat was the food in Rimmen, and that had been days ago. Ajirab had had some very disgusting slop onboard the slave ship.

That night Adanjar and Ajirab ate heartily, and slept soundly.

Rain's Hand 25th, Ten in the Morning

Camlorn, High Rock

M'nasha knocked vigorously on his brother's door. The door opened and to reveal Ajirab, staring him right in the face.


"Who is it, Ajirab?" M'nashan called out.

"Nobody, they have the wrong house," she said as she slammed the door. M'nasha knocked even harder this time.

"Are you sure?" M'nashan asked her, as he opened the door for himself. There was an angry-faced M'nasha staring at him. "Well, if it isn't M'nasha! My brother! I tell you it's been so long! How could you mistake your own husband for someone else, Ajirab?" M'nashan said, just as cheery as ever.

"Yes, Ajirab, how could you not remember your very own husband?" M'nasha asked her, gritting his teeth.

M'nashan invited him in for lunch. Just as they were sitting down, there came another knock at the door. M'nashan stepped away from the table to answer it.

"What are you doing here?!" Ajirab whispered angrily.

"What am I doing here? This is my brother's house! What are you doing here?!" he whispered back to her. At this time Adanjar walked sleepily downstairs and into the kitchen where the "silent" argument was taking place.

"Father!" Adanjar shouted. For a moment M'nasha forgot his quarrel with Ajirab and embraced his daughter, with tears running down his eyes.

M'nashan returned to the table with a piece of paper in his hand and a confused look on his face. "You broke up?" he said in confusion.

"Well, I wouldn't say 'broke up'. Let's just say most of the family abandoned me," M'nasha said.

"Then what are you doing here? Together?" M'nashan asked, not quite getting what was going on.

If M'nashan weren't already confused enough, a third knock at the door came. He stepped away to answer it, and just as soon came back with Qa'Bakha standing beside him.

"Qa'Bakha!" Adanjar shouted, leaping into his arms. "I thought you had burned to death!" she said to him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, looking at her longingly.

"The fire, Arenthia burned to the ground. But that doesn't matter, what matters is that you're alive and you're here!" she said, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Now, I honestly have no idea what's going here, except that a good marriage has been split apart. Now, I've known you two ever since you were engaged. I've never met two happier people. I don't know what it is you're fighting about, but can't you just make amends?" he said, looking at Ajirab and M'nasha.

M'nasha looked at Ajirab and said, "Ajirab, honey, I'm sorry I gambled away everything. I still love you. I can understand if you don't want to be with me, but I just want to let you know that if you want to start over, I'd be willing to give up gambling."

Ajirab thought this over for a minute and finally said, "I guess we could give it another try. But you'll have to promise me, no more gambling."

"I promise." M'nasha said to her proudly.

Adanjar burst into tears. Her life was coming back together at last. Just when she thought things couldn't get any better, Qa'Bakha turned to her and said, "Adanjar, I asked you to marry me before. And you said no, because you didn't want to leave your parents. Well, considering I have no home in Arenthia to go to, I would like to stay here and take you as my wife. Your parents can live here too, it's not like they have anywhere to go either. What do you say, Adanjar?"

Adanjar looked at Qa'Bakha, then her parents, and her uncle and said, "I'd love to."

And so Adanjar and Qa'Bakha were married the Twenty-Seventh of Rain's Hand. They rented out a house next to M'nashan's house, where Adanjar's parents stayed until they could get back onto their feet.

Three Years Later

Adanjar laid in bed, nursing her newborn baby. M'nashan had passed away, and left his home and belongings to M'nasha and Ajirab. And the steady patter of the rain sent Adanjar and Anjari to sleep. Thunder rumbled overhead and the wind blew the trees back and forth into the night.

The End