The leather binding of the book was stiff but smooth. The book had a unique scent to it, something that Hakimi had never smelled before. It was the first time he was reading a book. He knew of them and he had seen Rayyan with the Quran when he recited scriptures for the children. The smell of the book was oddly calming.

He grabbed the cover and tried to turn the book open, only to realize how difficult it was to read a book with one hand. It kept slipping out of his lap. In the end, Hakimi settled in an awkward pose, with his legs together and the book in between. His right arm pressed down on the right corner of the book as he turned the pages with his left hand.

The book had no title or name written on it. Hakimi flipped through a few pages, frowning at first when he saw the completely foreign script scrawled across most of the pages. However, upon closer inspection, he realized that there were some things he could understand, scrawled into the space between the lines and in the margins of the pages. The characters that Rayyan had taught him.

Rayyan would sometimes hold the children back a little longer after their prayer sessions and teach them the alphabet. Hakimi never understood why. He found it a little funny, that a man as ruthless and cruel as Rayyan would take precious time out of his day and of his slaves to teach them how to read, when most of them would never have the chance to even touch a book. Then again, he was an eccentric man. Who else would hold daily prayer sessions for their own slaves? Perhaps only someone who had fooled himself into believing he was doing the right thing. Nevertheless, Rayyan was a selfish man. Hakimi knew as much. He knew his type. The two of them were not all that different.

It took some time for Hakimi to get used to reading. It was his first time, after all, and it didn’t come to him as easily as he thought it would. He had to reread several words multiple times before he figured out what they were supposed to spell and how he was actually supposed to read them. The messy handwriting did little to help in that regard. However, bit by bit, Hakimi was able to decipher the meaning of the scribblings.

Most of it didn’t really make sense without knowing what the main text of the book was saying. The comments in the margins made references to many things, ’virtues’ and ‘sins’, ’good’ and ‘evil’, and many other abstract concepts. As Hakimi continued reading, it dawned on him that a lot of these were references to Muslim teachings, certain stories and passages in the Quran. If that was the case, then this book might just be what he was looking for. He couldn’t help but be a little excited.

He was hoping that this was Rayyan’s spell book. It would contain all the knowledge he needed to cast the same spells that Rayyan did, including the one that would help him find new magistone reserves.

Hakimi kept reading, flipping the pages one at a time and scanning its contents to find something related to magistones. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the text was written in a different language and completely incomprehensible to him. These were likely the incantations of the spell itself. It made his task a lot more difficult, almost like searching for something in a haystack, except he didn’t even know what it was that he was searching for.

As time passed and no mention of magistones came up, Hakimi became more and more impatient. Nevertheless, he persisted and continued reading the book diligently.

He didn’t know how much time had passed until he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, only to see Vardan’s usual cheery face. He wanted to punch that handsome face right in the nose.

——————————————————————————————

The three boys stood in a loose circle, the lantern’s light flickering unsteadily in front of them. Vardan had pulled them aside when the midday break started and brought them to this cave to talk. The same cave Vardan and Ru Meng were chained up in.

Ru Meng eyed the two mounds of dirt in the corner uneasily. His guilt threatened to rise from inside of him again when he was reminded of what he did, even if he knew it was necessary. He was lucky that Han Yang and Hafiz volunteered to deal with the bodies because he didn’t know if he could handle it without throwing up.

“What's the problem, Vardan?” asked Hakimi, slight worry showing on his face. Vardan wouldn’t have brought them out of earshot of the other children unless it was something important.

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Vardan seemed unlike his usual self and didn’t react immediately.

“Vardan?”

Vardan lifted his head up and looked at his companions.

“Now, don’t be alarmed, but there’s something we have to prepare for,” he said in Mandarin to make sure Ru Meng could follow the conversation.

He turned to Ru Meng and said, “Back when we came back with your father, you mentioned that there might be bandits coming after you. You said one of them controls rats, correct?”

Ru Meng nodded.

“Well, there was a rat following us back then,” Vardan said with a shrug.

Neither Ru Meng or Hakimi said anything as they paused to process the information.

Vardan continued, “I killed it, but it tracked us to within fifteen minutes of our cave. There’s no guarantee that it wasn't just a wild rat, but if it wasn’t, we might be in trouble. Someone who’s determined could map out these tunnels in a matter of weeks, if not days. If we have to leave for town to resupply or to fetch my father, it will make it even easier to track us.”

“Bandits are coming for us? Why didn’t you tell us that earlier?” said Hakimi with a frown.

“There wasn’t a good time to talk about it. I wanted you two to get some rest and besides, it could have just been a normal rat. It looked like a normal rat to me,” Vardan explained feebly.

“Shit!” Hakimi cursed and started pacing around impatiently. For something like this to happen when they were already dealing with a mountain of problems was devastating. They didn’t even get any time to rest!

A bandit raid was a big deal. There were plenty of desperate people in the Nameless Town who were willing to resort to violence to get by. To be able to make a stable living out of robbing other people usually meant that you were very good at killing people.

At the end of the day, they were just a bunch of defenseless kids. They were not entirely harmless, of course, but it was a miracle they had even survived their first ordeal. Expecting them to fend off bandits was madness.

Ru Meng hung his head in shame. He was the one who wanted to go save his father. If it wasn’t for him, the boys wouldn’t be in danger once again. Hakimi turned around to glare at him, but he forgot whatever insults he had when he saw Ru Meng's expression. Instead, he just let out a deep sigh.

Vardan stepped in to try and calm everyone down.

“It’s nobody’s fault, alright? Ru Meng, we agreed to save your father from the very start. Regardless of how things turned out, if we want to run our own mines, we will have to face bandits eventually. This is just keeping us on our toes.”

“So what do you propose we do?” asked Hakimi.

“That is what I wanted to discuss. Between the three of us, Han Yang, Hafiz and Osman, we should be able to figure something out. Chen Jin and Liao Hua left behind a few weapons we could use, and we have Ru Meng’s magic.”

“The enemy knows magic too. And this time, they are gonna be prepared while we hardly know anything about them.”

“There are a few things we can do to slow them down.”

“Well, slowing them down isn’t going to work! They might be expecting an ambush as well, so we can’t count on surprise being on our side.”

“Taking a fight in our territory is the best chance we are going to have.”

“Even our best chance is going to be slim. If we let the bandits track us here, it’s over. We can't fight them. Not while protecting all the other children.”

While the two of them were arguing about the best course of action, they slowly slipped back to using Malay, which they were both more comfortable speaking.

It didn’t matter to Ru Meng though, because he wasn’t listening to them. He felt responsible for the predicament they were facing. From somewhere deep within him, he found the strength to shove his fear and guilt aside. He wracked his brain trying to search for a solution. He tried to recall everything from his fight with the bandits, but he found that he hardly remembered anything. There were three men, one who could control rats, the leader. He didn’t know anything about the other two.

How could he beat them? With magic? Ru Meng knew what it was like to fight another magic user now. The fight with Rayyan had been exceedingly difficult, even when everything was in their favor. He saw how strong Fang Chen Yu was and what abominable sorcery his henchman was capable of. A properly equipped adult who knew magic and was prepared to fight would be, without a doubt, an incredible threat.

If they had a way of making themselves stronger, they might be able to defend themselves. He had to think of something. This was his fault, after all. He was the one who brought his father back to the cave.

Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind.

“Vardan, Hakimi, I might have an idea,” said Ru Meng, more confidently than usual, “We need to find some way to fight the bandits, correct? What if we had someone who knew how to fight? They could help us fight the bandits. Teach us how to fight them.”

Vardan and Hakimi turned and looked at him curiously. They hadn’t expected Ru Meng to come up with an idea, much less something like that.

“Where would we find someone like that, Ru Meng?” asked Vardan.

Ru Meng blurted out the answer immediately, “My father! My father knows how to fight. He taught me magic. He taught me how to hunt. He taught me how to set traps and use a carving knife. Once he recovers, we can ask him to help us.”

Vardan and Hakimi exchanged looks, with Hakimi looking particularly skeptical.

As if on cue, Chu Wen suddenly shuffled timidly into the cave. Everyone turned to look at him as he said, “Erm…Ru Meng, your father…he just woke up.”

Without a word, Ru Meng dashed out of the cave and left the two boys behind.

Vardan tapped Hakimi on the arm and said, “Come on.”

Hakimi let out a sigh before he followed Vardan and went after Ru Meng.