I woke up with the early rays of the sun, feeling bad. Not because of some nightmare with funky-dressed zombies doing dance routines but with envy. It was a dark feeling that I kept to myself, but I was envious. Humans are petty creatures that desire what they don't have, or what was denied or taken away from them. In my case, I was watching the soft curves of the female human sleeping next to me and comtemplating sexual harassment.

It was a terrible and dark moment, I confess.

I didn't act on my dark impulses, so that's a plus? I guess not on charges of creepy staring. Unaware of my brooding negativity, Arwia's chest rose and fell as she snored softly.

'You should be glad you are (probably) going to fully recover from what happened', I told myself. Also that your clothes didn't burn, leaving you naked in that hole. Actually that was a good question. Why didn't my clothes burn? Did the temperature inside stay below the cotton self-ignition point? Below the melting point of polyester? What's the melting temperature of polyester again? Which one is higher? I felt naked and dumb without my databases. Such is the tragedy of the XXI century human being. They forsook raw knowledge for the power of indexing. I knew how to fetch the knowledge I want from a vast array of subjects, but not the knowledge itself.

Like most of the games in my devices, my brain required a network connection. And that was without getting started on social network withdrawal. At least in that introverts transmigrated to another world have an advantage. I rated close to neutral on that trait.

If you can believe standardized personality tests you do for a friend because they needed "volunteers" as their assignment. It's just like those magazine tests that tell what kind of boy you'll marry. They were all wrong.

I was totally absorbed in my random thoughts when Arwia turned around in her sleep and hugged me. All that front-facing softness I was envying? I had now a first-row seat. Karma is a bitch, I just resigned and hugged her back.

I slept like a baby. Who would've guessed.

My psychologist friend, that's who. She said I rated high on 'openness to experience' just a few degrees short of being a hedonist junkie. Is this what she meant? That I was open to these kinds of experience? I don't think so. Theresa would've... nevermind.

I woke up still tangled up with Arwia. Belle-Sunu was shaking us.

"Wake up!  Breakfast is here, come and eat."

Arwia woke up and freezed as she notices she's been hugging me. I'm hugging her too but from our position it is obvious who started. She jumped to the other side of the bed and climbed out.

"Mornin' Belle!"

I ate  my breakfast of ham and eggs and went on a stroll through the gardens to get some healthy morning sun. I was pretty bored and itching to at least summon my headphones and the iPod for some relaxing music. But I was scared of the permanent burnout. Arwia came from behind me.

"Sandra, I didn't meant to..." Her voice was wavering.

"Nah. I never took you for the grabby type but I don't mind. At least I wasn't alone."

"I..." A train of children interrupted us. They came and ran around us.

"Play with us, big sister!" Tuwazi pulled on Arwia's arm.

"Sandra, do you know of a cool game?" Belili asked.

"Actually, I do. We need to get a small coin bag filled with small peebbles. Go fetch it and I'll prepare our game."

I went to a spot next to the stables, a patch of naked earth. There I found Aristunn taking care of the horses.

"Hello, milady," He bowed.

We were in Abil-Kisu's place so I didn't mind.

"Aristunn, I want to make a game for the children, can I use that patch of dirt over there?"

"Yes, I don't see a problem," He brushed the neck of the stallion he was looking after. "These horses are all trained to handle noise, they won't mind the children playing."

"Thank you!" I nodded and went to the spot.

The game I was going to introduce them to was easy. Hopscotch. I drew the eight squares and explained the game to them. I was too weak to skip around so I used Arwia as the guinea pig. It didn't take much for them to grasp the rules and start playing. We drew another pattern because one for sixteen children was too much. And yes, even Rimush and Zuska were queued to play.

I grabbed Arwia's hand and went away before they decided to challenge me. There was only so much one could stroll through the gardens and while quite large, it wasn't huge or even had a labyrinth. I was feeling much better than yesterday. I still felt a void where my magic power gathered. It was not a physical spot, it was a general feeling like being thirsty and feeling one's body sluggish. Compared to the time I took to recover from deadly wounds, I was recovering at a snail's pace. Maybe that's what Hugh Jackman felt when he impersonated the Canadian berserker for the last time. I went for my now usual morning nap under my now favorite tree.

"Wake me up for lunch," I told Arwia and let my mind slip into dreamland.

Arwia woke me up when it was time to eat. We had lamb for lunch and it was delicious.

I felt some guilt for staying in Abil-Kisu's care this long. I thought about returning home and searched Abil-Kisu. I found him in the tent with his advisors. They seemed to be working on some paperwork.Or claywork to precise. Bookkeeping. Scrollkeeping. Urgh. They were shuffling around several wooden boards with a layer of soft clay to write their modified cuneiform. The clay could either be smoothed over allowing a rewrite or dried and cured to make a permanent record.

They seemed busy and worried so I just stood at the back of the tent until someone noticed me. It didn't take long.

"Ah! Lady Rinaldi!" Abil-Kisu shouted in his usual soft and friendly voice, "Please approach, you don't need to be shy. We are having a small problem here, but what can I do for you?"

Everyone stopped and stared at me. It was awkward. "It is nothing important, it can wait. What happened, is that something I can help with?"

"Someone robbed two of our business last night. We are trying to see what was stolen and calculate our losses."

That was bad. It only reinforced my drive to move back home. And leaving the place alone wouldn't be good, as someone might be tempted to move in and take over. But I couldn't not offer my services.

"Can I help you with anything?" The men surrounding Abil-Kisu all paused to stare at me. The merchant lord smiled and chortled. "Oh, ho ho! Lady Rinaldi is a person of many talents, indeed. Jasper, please give her the inventory statements you already checked. See if she reaches the same conclusions as you do."

Jasper, the aide that was on his right side tensed up then opened up a grin. I felt it was both a test and a challenge and I mentally rolled up my sleeves. Time to put those credits of "Economics for Life/Social Sciences I and II" to good use.

They opened up a spot next to Jasper for me, and he put some scrolls aside for me. I browsed them. Inventory, reports of purchase and sales, etc. It seemed organized but it wasn't organized enough. They were steps away from a proper double-entry system. I could see they had separate accounts but they weren't synchronized or even related to one another.

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"Can I have three clay tablets, please?"

I drew the T for the separate accounts and dove into the numbers to organize the ledger. It wasn't too hard because as I told, they were on the brink of discovering the system. Jasper kept watching me like a hawk. Once I finished the calculations, I handed him the tablets.

Jasper gets the numbers and runs through his own scrolls. Then he nods. "Master, they match. The miss reached the same conclusions as I did."

I wasn't hoping to upstage him and actually felt relieved that our accounting matched. I don't think anyone incompetent can enter Abil-Kisu's service and even if they did, stay long enough to reach any position.

"See?" Abil-Kisu clapped Jasper's back and exulted. "The lady may have obtained her permits through judicial means, but she has everything a good trader must have. My eyes didn't fool me. And even though she reached the same conclusion as you did, Jasper, she used a fourth of the time."

"Abil-Kisu is too kind. I just studied a very broad range of subjects in my world. Economics was one of them. I'm in no way a good trader, I operated my slave business for one day and it went bankrupt."

"banq-roopt?" He asked. Phonetically, I mean.

No banks to bank-rupt, I guess.

"When a business goes bad and loses too much money and then goes out of business."

"Oh," He smiles. "You broke."

Yeah, I guess there was that too. Jasper leaned closer. Sensing he wanted to speak, I turned to face him. Then I backed off away from the table to avoid turning my back to Abil-Kisu.

"Milady. Why did you leave all these gaps in the tablet? Isn't it wasteful of space?"

"It's because I needed to see the transactions at a glance, so I left every one aligned. It's easier to make sure that every line add up. If I were doing the books, then I would code the transactions to know they are part of the same group and use all the space. Also, the T accounts are made this way so it is easier to separate the debits from the credits."

I showed him the sides for debits and credits.

"Why are you recording the purchase of goods as a debit?" Jasper asked, skeptical.

"Oh. That's because economicists like to play with their words. Let me remember what my teacher told me when I asked him this same question... It is all about the flow of value. In all transactions, the value goes from one account to another. This line here," I pointed to the cash account, "Represents when the business spends money. And the goods that entered the warehouse represent the value that entered, so it is on the other side. So this side is value leaving the account, and this side is value entering the account. Since every transaction affects two accounts, you can use the balance of the accounts to make sure you didn't make a mistake in the recording of the transactions.

"And splitting them in several accounts allows you to know how much in each category you have at a glance. See here, the business lost this many gold shekels because of the thieves."

I showed them the "thief damage" expense account debits.

I knew I'd won Jasper over when he leaned over and burned the clay with his eyes. "Could you explain that to me again?"

I went through the whole basic theory of double-entry with him all over again. Then we did together the ledger for the second business that was raided. I was terrified by how much money Abil-Kisu lost. It was almost half of what he paid for the merchant's assets back then. In fact, I suspected some of these business were, for a brief time, mine.

Absorbed in the accounting and sharing of knowledge, the afternoon slipped by.

"Well, look at the time!" Abil-Kisu stretched. "Let's stop for today. Lady Rinaldi, I am most grateful for your help. You saved us an entire day of work. Now we can send our men to hunt these thieves."

Men as in thugs. He read my concern and smiled.

"Milady, that's part of the cost of doing business. You see, if it was food they stole, I would look the other way. But they stole luxury goods. No good to eat or keep one's warm at night, are they? No. This was a petty theft that made use of the chaos to profit. So I'll send my men to find the thieves. One day earlier, easier to find them, yes? And then, I'll bring them to the new magistrate."

In what condition, I wondered. It was none of my business though.

"I'm grateful to help. You sheltered us, it was the least I could do."

He shook his head. "The profit I'll have selling Madam Nanna's enchanted light orbs that were charged by your magic the day before yesterday is more than enough to pay for the expenses your household incurred tenfold," He chortled. "I shipped them with the riders going to the capital already. The lesson you taught Jasper today is worth..." He turned to the accountant, "how much do you think it will save us in a year, Jasper?"

"How should I know, fool?" He roared back at his boss in a good-spirited way. "If we can do the accounting work of a day in a couple hours and make sure it is correct, we won't suffer as many losses. Maybe two dozen gold mina."

I wonder what would happen if Abil-Kisu had access to spreadsheet software. He might take over the world.

"And there you have it, milady. It seems I am the one in your debt again!" He laughed. "But now, clean that up. You are dismissed for the day. Stay here with me, milady. Dinner will be served soon."

I sat there with him and watched as the scribes and clerks took the scrolls and clay tablets. Jasper then held the clerk by the arm.

"These three, send them to the kiln. These are very important and I want them fired and glazed with the upmost care. If they break, someone is going to--"

It was getting dangerous so I interrupted him.

"Master Jasper, I can make another if it breaks. Please don't hurt anyone. I am sure he understood your meaning."

The clerk nodded. Jasper relented. "Very well. Honorable Abil-Kisu, I wish you a good dinner."

They went away and I was left alone with Abil-Kisu and four guards.

"While dinner is not served, please tell me a story from your world, yes? One of a merchant or a trader, if possible?"

I thought for a while and then found the perfect story. "Of course. For the honorable Abil-Kisu, I have the perfect story. Can we call everyone earlier so I tell it before we eat?"

"Of course. Patutu," He clapped his hands and one of the guards answered, "Please inform everyone that we will have entertainment before dinner and they are to come here as fast as possible."

We waited for a quarter of hour. Abil-Kisu told me news of the city. How the people that lost their houses to the fires are settling in the abandoned buildings. How the city is mounting an offensive to drive away, kill, or capture the remnants of Marduk's army. Of fast riders sent everywhere to spread the news of Marduk's defeat. How he convinced the Enshi to take the credit for himself and leave me out of it.

The children and the adults entered the tent and the small talk time was over.

I stood up and moved to the middle of the tent. Then I paused, took a deep breath and recalled the Bard's story, as enacted by De Niro and Irons. Without the religious and ethinical themes. There was some flaming of the play on the light of modern ethical tensions, but I think that suppressing these themes blocks the audience from debating them and understanding why they are bad.

We don't fight prejudice with denial but enlightment.

My audience in another world, however, could do without.

"Welcome, everyone, gentlemen, ladies, boys, and girls of all ages. Tonight I'll tell you a tale of greed and mercy, of love and hate.

"It all began in the beautiful city of Venice, where boats sailed through the canals amidst the houses. There we find a noble merchant, Antonio, that always looked up to his friends. His kin and a nobleman, Bassanio, was in love with the fair lady Portia of Belmont. But he needed thirty gold mina to pay for the festivities and a gift to the lady, a bejewelled ring most treasured.

"Lady portia was rich, virtuous and fair woman, orphaned by her father's early demise..."

And the story goes on, of the greedy moneylender's revenge, of the struggles of the fair and honest merchant, tragedy-struck, for the sake of his dearest friend, of the lady that disguises as a man to deliver her speech. I had to remove two verses because I had an agreement with Tarhun.

> The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

> It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

> Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

> It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

> 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

> The throned monarch better than his crown;

> His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

> The attribute to awe and majesty,

> Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

> But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

> It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

>

>

> Therefore, moneylender,

> Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

> That, in the course of justice, none of us

> Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

> And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

> The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much

> To mitigate the justice of thy plea;

> Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice

> Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

And in the end the moneylender's desire to take the pound of flesh from Antonio's heart, and the intervention by disguised Portia that the contract states no blood. Then the scene where Portia confronts Bassanio about her ring.

The story ends I earn a stnanding ovation. Unlike double-entry accounting, it was something well-known in this world as there were roaming minstrels.

I had identified Antonio with Abil-Kisu as it would cost me nothing to flatter the host. What I wasn't expecting would be to whom Bassanio, Shylock and Portia were likened to. It gave me a bitter aftertaste, for Shilock's children, in this version, hadn't eloped but taken under Portia's wing. It would be good if this world's Bassanio was a real Bassanio but the jury was still out on that.

I would suck at crossdressing. Shoulders not broad enough.

I took my seat next to Nanna and two removed from the host as it was proper and dinner was served. Some big bird, not as big as Dime's mate. Deliciously seasoned and cooked. I ate like a Shonen protagonist.

Brandon was truant. I learned later that a soldier came to let me know that he wouldn't be available during the next few days. Peacekeeping or something like that.

Without another choice, I summoned both Belle-Sunu and Arwia to keep me company at night.