35ish

Mede wiped the sweat out of her eyes as she stood in Relni’s garden. Just across the path, she could see Tsuda bent over, pulling weeds out of the soft earth. Her white hair shone in the sunlight, and her brown skin sparkled with small breads of perspiration as she worked. Something in her seemed to have changed over the past few days; in fact, Mede thought, she seemed different after the night in the cold ocean waves. She seemed older somehow, almost as if she stood taller. The sadness that had accompanied her friend since the day that they reached back into their memories seemed to have been transformed into a sort of solemnity; Tsuda never spoke of the memories now, but her eyes had a distant look, as if she were forever looking back into the past.
“Mede, I have been thinking.” Tsuda’s voice was slightly muffled by the vines that stood between her and Mede. “I do not think that I can ever go back to Mei while the monks still inhabit our islands. I want to go deeper into the central islands. I have heard that there are still Astaldi there who resist the dominance of the Temaltans and I want to join them.”
“You know what I think of the resistance groups. They are too violent, they make themselves as bad as their oppressors. The only thing that you will find among the central islands is hatred and fear.” Mede spoke quietly, tying a fallen vine to a wooden support.
“I am not going to run again, Mede. I have spent nearly three lives being pursued by these monks, and I am not going to stand for it anymore. I will rid myself of them, and if I can prevent them from doing the same things to others, so much the better.”
For a few minutes, the only sounds to be heard in the garden were the rustling of leaves, and the buzzing of insects. Finally, Mede spoke quietly, “I will go with you.”
Tsuda’s head snapped around as she said, “You what? You can’t go with me, it would go against everything that you believe in. You would either begin to fight and betray your own conscience, or you would refuse to fight and get yourself killed. No, you’re going to stay here.”
Mede shook her head, and straightened up, groaning slightly as the muscles in her back protested. “We have been friends for two lifetimes, and I do not think that this is an accident. I think that we should stay together, and if you will not stay here with me, then I will go with you. Besides,” she grinned. “Even freedom fighters need someone to stay behind in the camp and cook.”
Tsuda sat back on her heels, and spoke quietly. “And what about Judak, Mede? Will he be able to find you there? Would he be happy to see you as one of the camp?”
Sudden tears pricked Mede eyelids, but she blinked them back. She could not speak for the lump in her throat.
“Please, Mede, I beg you. Stay here, or go to Selni, or some other place where you and Judak can live happily together. Have lots of fat babies. Name one of them after me,” Tsuda laughed. “Jut don’t try to follow me.”
“I told you what I would do, and I intend to do it. If your love of me will not keep you here, then my love of you spurs me on to follow you. If Judak is meant to find me, he will. And yes, we will name one of our daughters after you!”

Tsuda woke silently in the middle of the night. With a quick glance outside to check the progresson of the moons, she quietly took a handful of fruit from the garden, and a small jug of water. She folded up the skirts than Relni had kindly lent her, and left them on the bed. She quietly wrapped her old sea-ragged skirt around her waist, and walked out into the night.

As she rounded the corner of the street, a voice spoke from the shadowy street. “I thought you might try to sneak out without telling me.” Mede stepped forward into the light, the coldness of Lotha turning her ginger hair almost as pale as Tsuda’s. She too wore the clothing that she had worn when they escaped from the garden on Mei.
“I told you, it is not going to be a place for you, Mede. You should stay here.” Tsuda could not meet her friend’s eyes, and looked down the road.
“And it is a place for you?” Mede was almost in tears as she grabbe dTsuda’s shoulders and shook her. “You will lose your life or your soul if go, possibly both. But understand, if nothing I do will keep you here, then I will go with you, and nothing you do will stop me.”
“Do as you will, then! “ Tsuda whispered as loudly as she dared. “But I will not be held responislbe for your neck.”
The two set off down the road to the beach, neither willing to look at the other. “Do you have a boat?” Mede asked as she felt the loose sand begin to crunch under her feet.
“I had one bracelet left from the party. I traded it to someone for a coracle. I hope it will hold two.” She ducked behind a thick copse of trees, and dragged the little boat out onto the sand. It looked worn, but durable, and Mede didn’t see any obvious leaks or holes. The two women pushed the coracle out into the waves, and carefully climbed in. Tsuda had put a wooden paddle in the floor of the coracle, and quickly picked it up and began paddling, heading out to the current again. She kept her eyes on the horizon, trying to set a course; Mede lay on her back and looked up into the night sky.