Without warning, Esok leapt in front of the door to block them from leaving. Jesus’s heart skipped a beat. He remembered what had happened to Zahra after she healed Daniel.

“Please,” Esok began. “Let us show our gratitude by sharing a meal with you. We know many hidden paths that will shorten your journey.”

That night a guinea hen was killed and fresh bread baked for the evening meal. As they sat to eat, Esok told them, “We have little to offer, but what we have is yours.”

The following day, the people gathered to wish their guests farewell. As promised, one of the villagers, a wiry man with gray hair, stepped forward to guide the travelers. He asked Jesus to where they were headed. Jesus thought for a moment and then, without consulting the others, answered, “Nazareth.”

Ruth looked up in surprise. When Tabitha and the guide walked ahead, she drew Jesus to her. Knowing that the village he had chosen lay several weeks away, she asked, “Why Nazareth?”

Keeping his pace brisk, Jesus looked into the distance and said, simply, “Because my mother lies there.”

Hearing this, Ruth observed her friend closely. Seeing his eyes mist with longing, she asked no more.

As their group traveled westward, Ruth dropped behind to consider the future.

Ever since being forced from the caves, she had been contemplating what they should do. She knew that the other Awakeners had most likely been killed, which meant that she, Jesus, and Tabitha were, perhaps, the only Sisters who remained. The most critical thing, therefore, was to find a means of preserving their knowledge and understanding of The Way. While crossing the desert, Ruth had considered several possibilities: They could return to the caves and attempt to rebuild them. They could find a new refuge. Or they could try to restart the Sisterhood in a distant land.

But she doubted if these things were possible. And she wondered, too, if the destruction of the caves had not signaled that the time for seclusion was over.

Then, just as she had been considering these things, Anna had once again become Jesus, and further possibilities had arisen.

As the men walked ahead, Ruth noticed how easily Jesus initiated conversation. It was obvious he had become fluent in the language of men during his years as a shepherd. And she could not help but marvel that a Sister could—at last—roam freely in the world.

Could not his disguise, and the freedom it afforded, play a role in the protection of The Way?

Was he not, hiding safely in the skin of his disguise, potentially the most powerful of all Awakeners?

She watched Jesus stroke the soft down along the sides of his face. His self-assurance restored.