THE EMIRO'S DILEMMA

      I wandered aimlessly in the scorching Thahari desert, I had left the North after the ice had melted on the sea, to disembark first at Bazi and then at port Shendi, waiting for a caravan to cross that mysterious desert.

VARN

     Our Oasis of the Seven Palms now destroyed, I had nothing more to ask of those people who loved me despite everything, but the choice of women for me has always been a great negative adventure, I have always found careerist and unscrupulous women who behind that veil hid a devil's face, the experience of the new city built with an evil and ambitious woman named Harmony, who was waiting for the end of the construction to upset all my plans, until one day she disappeared with my baby still in her belly, and I never saw her again, even though I traveled far and wide, it was said that a ship was shipwrecked in Thassa bound for the COS archipelago, so I left for the north chasing my roots, my mother and my sister had fled to the north after the fall of Cartassa, I toured many villages to track them down but sometimes just when I was there to meet them they told me at the port that they had already left, and I continued to visit villages in the hope of finding my Mother and my sisters, and of course also my brother Orlando, who I haven't seen since we lived together in the city of Olni, he a Magistrate and I a Scribe.

CARTASSA

       Now I'm sitting here under the big tent in the Tashid oasis, I look around, I'm looking for I don't know what, I have no friends, only acquaintances from the times of Cartassa and the Silver stone oasis, with Brjiana we built the new Oasis of the seven palm trees right near the Silverstone oasis, the regent Safina assigned us a piece of her land with a pond, and together with Brjiana we started the construction, in the meantime we opened the new headquarters of the Gorean Moom, I was the editor, she was my assistant, but as I have already told you, women behind the veil hide their true nature, and with a coup she took possession of the newspaper, then got it back after her disappearance, and while we were happy at the Oasis an Opal hunter arrived with his exuberance and her youth, she fell in love with that young man and with the help of other criminals friends of hers, she managed to dethrone me by sending me into exile, and tried to send me an arrest warrant first and then an Assassin trying to eliminate me, in the meantime I had found work in a big city as a Magistrate and I issued a warrant for her arrest, unleashing my guards in search of her, which was in vain because she had disappeared into the desert, perhaps dead in some tunnel while they were looking for the Opals.

    

 

     Finally my sister Dara, I send a message with a passing merchant, saying that she lived in the city of Jasmine and that she wanted to meet me because she had a suitor and wanted my blessing as I was her guardian, I left but when I got to Jasmine they told me that she left for the Isle of Varn with her big city in search of fortune, she and her next companion Sigurd, who I still haven't understood which caste he belongs to, I left for this new city, when she arrived she was about to leave again I don't know where, she hadn't found anything that might interest her, and I stayed there for a few days, I met Sir Abi the magistrate who asked me to stay and live with them, but I had the newspaper's headquarters in Tashid and I told him for now I'm going back to Oasis then decided.

       I'm looking at the sun high in the sky which with its rays heats the stones and everything in the sand including men, I had met a woman passing through here in Tashid, a very beautiful merchant, and as usual I threw myself in head first in love asking the Pasha to woo her, but he was evasive, and she left with the caravan with her merchandise, and who knows when she will return.

     Now I'm sitting here looking around, all deserted, the inhabitants are all in their homes in the residential area, and I'm here waiting for what the future will decide for me........