Editing Rising in the West/Toben (section)

===Exaltation===
When Toben first met Sheller the Accountant in the jungles of the East, the notion that one might one day impersonate the other must have been utterly unthinkable. There was Toben, a primitive in a loincloth, a desperate traveler without a destination, whose only knowledge of civilization was a childhood dream that had ended in fire, next to the very model of a civilized man. Sheller the Accountant had a Guild position waiting for him in Nexus, and though his caravan had fallen to the hazards of the jungle, he never for a moment doubted that he would be there to accept it, because Creation had an order to it; it was a machine. An infectious idea, as Toben would find out, although had he known how dangerous it could become, he might never have offered to guide Sheller out of the jungle.<br>

There came a day not long after that offer had been accepted that Toben and his friends found themselves hiding from a Guild slaving party. This was by no means an unusual situation. Since no one from their band of refugees had been taken in years, it had even become a sort of game. Toben found himself looking forward to showing Sheller the tricks of misleading and escaping trackers- a small exchange for the knowledge Sheller had given him regarding the nature of civilized business- but Sheller's reaction upon seeing the slavers shocked everyone involved. He ran toward them, and tried to argue.<br>

Now, had Sheller still been wearing his fine clothing, and had he been clean, what happened next might have gone differently, but Sheller was a man who didn't believe that the order of Creation could be broken by something as petty as appearance. It may have been the strength of that conviction that kept the refugees from running just then, something that might have saved them. Instead, the result was most of Toben's friends in chains, and Sheller the Accountant murdered for showing defiance.<br>


It was some time later that Toben came up with his utterly insane plan. The few remaining free friends he had told him that it was insane, but Toben wouldn't be dissuaded, so they had to let him try it. The first part of the plan was to obtain a set of civilized clothing-- accomplished simply enough by tracking down the remains of Sheller's caravan. The next part involved traveling to Nexus, claiming to be Sheller, and accepting his job. This, of course, could never possibly have worked. Toben barely understood furniture, let alone how to manage the assets of an intercontinental conglomerate. And yet, somehow, against all of the rules by which the world was supposed to operate, it did just that. It worked for more than a year.<br>

Toben had never really dared to hope for more than a chance to join his captive friends wherever they had been taken, but he didn't fail to take advantage his miraculous situation. He proceeded to steal an enormous amount of money from the Guild. He learned how to move money away from the Guild's accounts without affecting it's bottom line; he sold his bosses on fictitious investments; occasionally, he just pocketed coins. When he had enough, he found his friends and bought them.<br>

Of course, it wasn't a simple as that. "Sheller" had aroused all kinds of suspicions, and when he finally made his move, there were powerful men waiting with interest. Toben's joyous reunion with his friends quickly turned into a long overdue desperate flight for freedom. But his luck persisted. The last he ever saw of them was waving from the decks of five different ships as Guild employees searched the docks behind them.<br>

It was just after those ships pulled away from the Nexus docks, with every one of his formerly captive friends aboard, and himself headed for the far West on a ship built by a Solar, that Toben Shen exalted. <br>