Jason Weiser

Tunis was majority Muslim and ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and religion wasn't really a topic he could broach with any friends.

Also, it made the stuff with the maidservant even more of an issue, because an interfaith relationship, especially between a Muslim maidservant and a European Christian Pedro, would not have been allowed, and probably would have drawn unwanted attention to Ren.

Unfortunately, we are not told why Wren initially abandoned his faith, not to get too into the weeds here, but if a Christian, quote, turned renegade, converted, and moved to Muslim lands, they probably wouldn't be under the same legal restrictions as people who were professed Christians living in Muslim lands, who could live, but they were very much second-class citizens.

where they had to live in certain parts of the city, possibly wear certain clothes, their legal testimony wasn't worth as much, they had fewer protections, and they had to demonstrate pretty frequently that they were not equal to the Muslim population in the city.

This protected but secondary legal status sounds bad, until you look at the treatment of Muslims in Europe during the same time, and then it sounds amazing.

It's even possible that Ren wasn't some adventurer who went to those lands seeking riches, but could have been someone who just converted to escape enslavement.

Regardless, here, talking through things with Danya, and inspired by her example and forgiveness, Ren realized that he wanted to live up to that ideal.

Danya was the only person who knew Ren's plans.

Maybe because she was his only true friend.

Also mainly because, according to the law,

He could technically be executed for apostasy if anyone knew he was going back.

So one morning, the household awoke to empty halls and an even emptier vault.

Ren and Danya had sailed away in the night.

Dunya stood on the deck of her ship.

Her own ship.

Already disappearing over the horizon, Ren remained on his own deck, waving a final, exuberant goodbye to the woman who had changed his life.

He was on his way to Rome, where he would build a shrine with half of the riches he had made in Tunis, and there he would spend the remainder of his days in prayer and penance.

despite her protests the other half of his money stayed with dunya she used it to buy a ship and hire a crew and now knew that she could go anywhere in the world but there was only one place she wanted to go she tucked her hair under her hat and shouted a command for the crew

Weathered beyond their age, the couple crouched at the grave.

Is she there?