Laughing, James nods his head in agreement, “You got that right. I wish nothing but the best for both of you.”

“Thank you,” he replies.

“I don’t know if I ever expressed my thanks for the fair treatment you gave Miko when he was part of your team in the mines,” he says.

“Well, I’ve always believed that if you treat someone with respect and fairly, they’ll work harder for you,” he explains.

“I’ve found that to be true, too,” he tells him.

“I must be off,” Essin says to him. “Can’t afford to make a bad impression with the master of the house.”

“Good luck, Essin” James says as he begins to walk away.

“You too, James,” Essin replies.

Leaving Essin behind, he proceeds down the hallway and admires the hanging tapestries on the way to the stairs leading down to where his room is located. Down the stairs, he turns to the right and comes to his room which is the third doorway from the stairs. He finds that Jiron has already left, probably to find another serving girl to spend time with. Leaving the room, he continues down the hallway past his room in search of him. Jiron often takes the serving girls to the inner atrium at the end of the hallway, where he says the plants growing there helps to ‘get them in the mood’.

The atrium is roughly forty feet by sixty feet with an open ceiling that allows the sun, and at times the rain, to fall upon the many plants growing there. Three benches are placed along the cobblestone walkways that meander their way amongst the plants. It’s on one of those benches that he finds Jiron sitting and talking with Nate’s sister, Miriam.

“…that’s when we took off and left the soldiers far behind,” he says to her.