Love is a gentle thing

Habib will wait. He knows it's pointless, after all, Cora will only be born two thousand years in the future on a completely different continent but he'll wait.

Not for her return, he know that that'll be fruitless. The cubus let her father and her go back to her time but never back again. Her purpose was done, she saved the timeline, it will all happen like she remembered.

Habib asked her once, what will happen. He wasn't sure when exactly, somewhere in the recent past, somewhere where the night sky looked so familiar to the one he knows.

"I don't think I can tell you", she said.

"Why?"

"Because-", she stopped. Her gaze was upon the night sky. "Wow."

Habib doesn't understand the word, he sometimes didn't understand Cora at all, even if her Aramaic was fluent, she spoke in a strange accent, one that doesn't exist yet.

"What is it?", he asked.

"It's just...I never saw the stars like that."

He looked up. They were shining, the heroes of the past.

"They always looked like that for me", he said.

"Mhhh....Doc Brown would've prolly bitten me in the ass...but I guess I can tell you some things from the far future."

Habib wanted to ask who this 'Doc Brown' is but he had more important questions at his tongue.

"Will my people ever be free?", he asked. "Will the romans ever leave? Do we..."

He paused. "Do we ever be in peace? "

Cora took time answering. Habib couldn't see her due to the lack of light but he knew how she looked like at that moment: forehead curled, nose twitching, tongue biting.

Habib already got scared. Scared of her answer, scared that the history he knew would repeat, will repeat.

"The romans will go", she said eventually. "Their empire will long be gone in my time."

Habib's heart sunk. "And my people?"

Silence again. "I don't think I should tell you."

"Why?"

"It'll only hurt you."

"I want to be hurt. Please tell me, Cora, I can take the truth."

Habib lied or well, he kind of did. His heart was beating like crazy, anxiety crawled over his face. He didn't want to hear about what suffering his descendants will have to endure but he needed to; he needed it like a trapped wolf needing its teeth, like a half dead man in the desert needs a dagger.

She sighed. Cora should have known by now that his skull is hard and that it will try to split her wall of silence.

"What is freedom, in your definition?", she asked instead.

"Well freedom is-"

Habib tried looking at the horizon, tried to imagine the sun going up and shining blood red instead of silver.

"Freedom is no slavery."

"No slavery? If you're not a slave, then you're free?"

He curled his own forehead. "I suppose."

"Then your people will be free. Slavery is illegal in most countries in my time."

A stone fell out of Habib's heart, it felt so much lighter than before. They will be slaves again, there's no doubt in his mind. They were slaves before and some people think they should be again, it would only be a matter of time when the others will win.

But it won't last forever, his head repeats over and over again. Things will change and they will be better, they will br free.

Still, a part of Habib's mind wasn't satisfied yet. He knew Cora wouldn't tell him everything. The way she knows that he gets his way, he knows that she would try everything in her power to keep him from being hurt.

"Will my people ever be in peace, Cora?"

"Well, what is peace for you, Habib?"

For whatever reason, this was harder to think about than freedom. He often thought about freedom, like they all do, especially his people, but about peace?

The greeks say there is no true peace, never a permanent one. There is bloodshedding, fighting war and there is war, where everyone is supposed to pretend like there is none.

Habib thought about dead babies, slaughtered because they happened to be born by a wrong family in a wrong kingdom. He thought about carrying heavy stuff miles at length because some guy who was born better told him to.

The urge to rip out the grass overwhelmed him and he already held it in his fingers when he stopped. The grass did nothing at all; he too was born in a wrong family in a wrong kingdom.

Habib let go off the grass. "Peace is being like grass; free, unbothered, not scared. Could we be grass in the future, Cora?"

"No", she answered quickly. Not a drop of doubt seemed to have crossed her mind. "I'm sorry, Habib, you know I could never lie to you and you said you could handle the truth, so here's the truth."

To say that Habib was surprised, was a lie. His peole never got rest, not in the past, not in the present, it wasn't hard to imagine a future where they were chased around and killed again. It really wasn't.

Surprised was the wrong use for his emotions, disappointment was a more suitable discription. Habib knew it would happen, eventually, but he didn't expect it to be so much of a known fact. That they, his people, would always be in chains, even if they weren't made out of metal.

"But hey", Cora said. "I'm a die hard Back To The Future fan but maybe they were wrong. Maybe you can change the future."

"Isn't that exactly what we're trying to do? Preventing Hreel from changing the past?"

Cora chucked. "Yeah, well, we stop him because he kidnapped my dad and uses a time machine. Your case is different. You'll stay in your time and can be like, an activist. Nothing supernatural."

Habib often thought about that interaction, especially after Cora went home. He wasn't sure if he, an average child, would be able to change anything. But he'll try.

He'll try for a different world than the one Cora knows. A world, where his people are at peace too.

He knows that this all won't happen in his lifetime but Habib is patient. The father of his father turned roughly seventy five years old, add or take a few additional years. If he'll get only half of that, Habib can lay a foundation for a better world.

And upon that? Habib will wait.