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Part 72: Where All Journeys Grow

Chapter 72: Training

V2.0 – 10/11/2025

“Caleb?” A soft woman’s voice whispered to me. “Caleb? It’s time to wake up now.”

I stirred and pulled the covers tighter around me. I opened my eyes and immediately shut them against the bright lights of the room. I felt a small hand touch my shoulder.

“Caleb?” Freya said again.

“What time is it?” I croaked, my voice struggling to wake.

“5:45am. I’ve collected your breakfast and laid out your clothes.

I rolled back over to look up at her. She was an incredibly beautiful woman. She was smiling at me softly. She brushed a strand of hair from her face that had come loose from her tight braid. She wore a dark blue robe tied at her slender waist. It was the typical outfit of the servants of this place.

“Wow.” I said, “You look beautiful.” Her face flushed slightly at my attention. She turned away and went about straightening the room.

I had to get up and get ready. I only had 45 minutes to be dressed, eat, and get to the classroom to meet Jason. I stretched my arms and bent forward to stretch my back. Freya had laid my clothes out toward the end of the bed. I stood, collected them, and walked into the bathroom. Within 15 minutes I had showered and finished my putting myself together. Freya had selected a pair of sturdy tan military-looking pants, a simply white cotton t-shirt, and a tactical vest lined with pockets from the closet. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked like some para-military soldier. It was strange to see myself looking so… dangerous. I gave myself a shrug and left the bathroom.

At the table in one corner of the room sat a tray of breakfast foods and a pot of something that steamed. I walked over and sat down.

“Have you eaten?” I asked Freya as she bent down to collect another piece of my oil and wine drenched suit from the floor where I had discarded them the night before.

“I have.” She answered.

“OK.” I said.

I glanced at my phone and saw that I now had 20 minutes. I ate quickly and sipped the hot tea. I hated tea. I’d have to search for coffee later. No time to worry about that now.

I stood from the table and walked towards the door.

“Thanks for waking me, for laying out the clothes, and for the food.” I said.

“It’s my job here.” She replied with a small smile.

I opened the door and turned to her to ask, “Will you be ok today? Do you know what you’re supposed to be doing?”

She nodded and told me, “Aaron filled me in on what’s expected of me here as we were traveling back here from the city.”

“Ah.” I said with a smile, “Well, I’ll see you later then.”

She nodded and gave me a mock curtsy.

I left the room and hurried through the compound to the classroom. I entered just short of 6:30am to find Jason already there.

“Good morning.” I said as I walked up to his desk.

“Morning. Take a seat.” He replied.

I sat in one of the closest chairs on the front row.

Jason laid out our day’s schedule for me. I would study languages, finance, and other classroom stuff in the mornings. After lunch I would be training with others out in the courtyard to learn firearms, military tactics, among whatever else Mr. Zaryan felt I needed to learn. After the formal evening dinner, I would spend time doing chores about the compound.

The day flew by. Jason began teaching me four different languages, finance, and threw in whatever else he felt he could teach me. I tried to listen and learn as quickly as possible. Whatever God had in mind for my being here I wanted to show myself to be a worker approved.

Lunch was a simple affair. I ate some local cuisine with the guards in the guard’s mess hall then found myself learning to shoot guns. I questioned my need for such training but didn’t fight it. I hoped I wouldn’t be asked to kill anyone.

The afternoon went by as quickly as the morning had. The formal evening meal, which I would discover to be the routine, thankfully went by without incident. After dinner I was put to work on various projects around the compound.

This is how my days went for the next eight months without fail. Time passed. It seemed that as each day past, the calling to go to climb a mountain faded into the background of my new life.

Freya and I quickly became good friends. I put up boundaries for us to keep anything from happening that would compromise her or my faith. She respected and kept them. Despite that I could tell that our fondness for each other was growing. I tried to keep my heart in check. I explained to her my life and how I had found myself here. She listened and asked so many thoughtful questions about God, His leading, and the Dark One. I shared my faith with her, but she didn’t seem to be ready to take it all to heart yet so I continued to just care for her as best I could.

Jason was a fantastic teacher. I learned the four languages quickly, which surprised me. Before I knew it I could speak Arabic and Hebrew conversationally pretty well. I learned that “Egyptian” took two forms in the modern world: Modern Standard Arabic, used formally and Modern Colloquial Arabic was the everyday spoken language filled with slang, regional vocabulary, etc. The similarities between Arabic and “Egyptian” made learning both easier for me.

Hebrew was much more difficult to grasp but over time it slowly began to sink in.

Jason was fluent in 14 languages and his aptitude for learning them enabled him to be a remarkable language teacher. I wasn’t the only one in the language lessons he taught. Freya joined us after the first week, as Aaron thought that it should be part of her training as well.

I was being transformed into a capable marksman, soldier, and survivalists as well. My muscles firmed up from the training. I was trained in martial arts and various strategies and tactics. It struck me that Mr. Zaryan was so confident in my inability to escape that training me as a guard wasn’t a threat to him. He knew my faith and how it would cause me to act.

I questioned God on the military training, but God’s response was basically: “Learn all you can.” And so I did.

Aaron, being Mr. Zaryan’s chief of staff, oversaw all my training and kept a close eye on my progress.

And so life went on… the sun would rise each day then I would eat and get dressed then go about my rigorous schedule.

Rinse and repeat.

Before I knew it, I had been the property of Mr. Zaryan for over a year. I no longer resembled the man who had given everything away to listen and obey God and since the rooftop encounter with Jesus I had had no further spiritual experiences. God was always present, but I found little time to engage Him nor even consider spiritual things so busy my life had become.

Wake.

Dress.

Eat.

Train.

And on and on it went.

One year passed and then the next and then the next.

In the winter of the fifth year of our captivity, Freya and I were married with Mr. Zaryan’s delighted approval. Despite our new circumstances, our lives remained basically the same as a married couple. We resided in the same room. We went about our days the same. Freya had become the light of my captivity, and she told me often of how I had become the same for her. I never expected to find love along the journey, but here it was, and I gladly welcomed it.

Shortly after we were married, Freya accepted Jesus as her savior. I did my best to disciple her in her faith as best as I could. It was a joy to watch her relationship with God grow.

In our sixth year of captivity, Freya had our first child: a little, life-filled boy. We named him Joseph. It seemed a fitting name seeing as he had been born to us in captivity. We transformed Freya’s little old room into a nursery for the boy.

Over the years my training had slowly come to an end. I had become fluent in five languages. I had become a hardened soldier. Mr. Zaryan, seeing that I wouldn’t kill for him, assigned me the task of managing both his personal security and the security of His compound. I took on the responsibility of managing guard schedules, hiring, firing, and such while Mr. Zaryan was home and then traveling with him all over the world seeing to his private security needs.

On the frequent trips, I missed both Freya and my little boy terribly. It gave me comfort that they were safe at the compound. Mr. Zaryan had few enemies, nonetheless he maintained high security both at home and abroad.

Then, in the summer of my seventh year of my captivity in Egypt, everything changed…

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