When the man left, I asked Aisha.
"What's this [Mercy of Manat] that he spoke of?"
Aisha answered with resentment.
"All non-believers who died without converting to the faith or subjugated by faith will be suffering in smokeless fire for eternity. When non-believers get subjugated and humiliated, they are shown Manat's mercy. They get to go to the promised land as believers, servants, and slaves."
Ignorant fucking savages. They think they are doing good deeds, pillaging and killing. At times like this, I'm reminded of the graces of the pantheon. Real gods, the gods of the Nylle, require actual good deeds and virtuous lives to bestow their blessings upon believers.
Salma knows that, in the best-case scenario, her father will be enslaved. In the worst-case scenario, he will be made an example of. There is nothing we can do. We are only three people.
The only hope for that town is the priest. When a priest is in his temple, he is close to his glyphs. That means mortals are no match for a man seeking eternity, as long as he has glyphs he can channel his power through.
Mortals have methods to achieve their goals. They could simply prevent the priest from sleeping through repeated harassment, and when he becomes exhausted, they can break into the temple and take whatever they desire.
The temple had already lit the bacon. There was a pillar of light rising from the sky. Whichever town lights the bacon is supposed to receive help from the neighboring towns' army.
Now, it's a race against time, with the Quraysh tribe at a disadvantage. If the priest manages to hold out, the Quraysh tribe will be ousted by the reinforcements.
My village is safe from Quraysh. It's closer to the merchant's road; therefore, security is good. Otherwise, I would have to ride back and pick them up so they could run away from the danger.
Salma got up and dusted off her clothes.
"I apologize, Salma. I had to act that way for us to survive."
She nodded, understanding.
"The person who came was a person from the Quraysh tribe. That means the invaders are victorious and comfortable enough to search for stragglers. We will leave by dawn. There is nothing for us here anymore."
Salma's eyes were filled with grief.
"Don't be so hopeless. Your father survived skirmishes, if his occupation is anything to go by. He might survive this one too."
She hugged my neck and started crying. I'm a human being too. I have emotions. So I rubbed her back so she could cry her heart out.
"Uwaa. He's going to die! They are going to kill him."
She needs to let it all out. Damn, she is an ugly crier.
"Stay strong, Salma. You will get through this."
Aisha, too, approached us and rubbed her back. She laid her head on our shoulders, hugging us both.
"It'll all be alright. I believe that."
We stayed like that for a while. After she was done, there was a long, uncomfortable silence. I walked up to her travel sack and took out her whetstone. Then I gave it to her. She looked at me and then at the whetstone. She probably understood what I was trying to say when I gave it to her.
She started to sharpen her short sword while staring down at the burning town. Her eyes are blazing with vengeance.
All of a sudden, the Quraysh tribe scattered in all directions. A cloud of dust was approaching from a different direction. It is most likely reinforcements.
We watched as the cavalry reached the town and decided to make the trip down ourselves.
I turned to Salma.
" Prepare yourself for the worst."
Her face turned pale white when I said that. Her pupils widened, and her hair stood up on her arms. She, however, was determined to face whatever was waiting for her in that town.
When we rode in, the smell of the burning meat assaulted our noses. The reinforcements were in the same situation as us. These were nothing short of atrocities.
There were heads placed on pikes just outside of the attack range of the priest. Its purpose was to break the morale of the defenders.
Most of the townspeople failed to reach the temple. That meant the Quraysh got what they wanted. Slaves, goods, and riches. With the town granaries dwindling, they will be easier to attack every time. A starving population is easy pickings.
They never aimed to hold the territory. They killed men, hauled women away, and robbed everything.
The temple and its vicinity were unharmed. The priest did a good job protecting his domain.
There were a lot of people who took refuge in the temple. We made our way there to see if Salma's father had survived.
When we entered the temple, we were met with moaning, bandaged people. The mercenaries and the guardsmen were all injured, big and small.
We found Salma's father. He had a nasty gash on his cheek. He got really angry when he saw Salma. He slapped her.
He blurted, "I told you to leave the town. Why didn't you listen to me?" with his swollen face, drizzling salvia down his chin.
Salma had no answer. She could only take the scolding.
Meanwhile, I asked the old merchant about what had happened.
" Well, when you warned us, I decided to move my wares into the basement of the temple. Wares that include grain and golden sand.
Thanks to the grain, we didn't starve during the siege. And thanks to the golden sand, defenses were operational even when the priest slept."
I glanced outside and pulled the old merchant's attention to a particularly gruesome scene.
"The guard captain is dead. The Quraysh called this town the town of whores because they sold their security out for something as trivial as a bribe. "
The old merchant lifted his chin with pride.
"I'm the one who didn't let the guard captain into the temple. I partially avenged my son."
The old man's eyes were shining with a glint of insanity.
" You've saved our lives. You could have just left instead of warning us. I'm eternally grateful to you, Nazhotep."
I don't think they did that much of a good job. "Quraysh won for all intents and purposes. They kidnapped people, from which they will profit off of randoms. If randoms aren't paid, they will profit off of slave sales, not to mention all the coins and goods they stole. The reinforcements will not be here forever. Since the guards are eliminated, this town is ripe for the picking."
The old merchant put his hand on my shoulder, his tired eyes tell a million tales.
"This is a punishment from the gods, lad. We are getting punished for shirking our diligence. If we had proper guards, if we merchants pushed for security in the town councils, this wouldn't have happened. Now Quraysh grows fat on our blood and our wealth."
I nodded.
He opened my hand and placed some golden coins in it.
"I want you to use this on your travels, friend. You have been a great friend to me, and I want you to become the priest that you want to be. I want to visit you in the capital sometime if you would have me. "
He rummaged through his belongings and gave me an insignia.
" This is my insignia. You can use it in the merchant association to get a stipend from me. A good merchant doesn't put all his eggs in one basket. So, though I might've lost my wares in this expedition, it hardly dents my wealth. You are allowed to pull twice the pay of a manual worker per month until you become a full-fledged priest. Getting one's life saved is no simple thing. The favor has to be repaid post haste."
"I appreciate it," I answer.
He lifted his head and said:
"Now if you'll excuse me, I will have to join the prayers for the mass grave."
***
We collected corpses from houses and piled them up in a ditch. Once pretty and energetic people were now bloated and purple. The priest drew glyphs on the ground and filled them with his golden sands.
The glyphs shone and fell upon the corpses. Corpses began to rot at a visible rate.
While all this was happening, the priest was reciting prayers to Anubis.
"May the gods accept these people into their wheat fields for all eternity. Amon."
Sounds of wailing could be heard from all around. Most people here have lost someone precious to them. That included Salma. Her cousin was dead. He was shot in the jaw with an arrow. The arrowhead got stuck in there.
After allowing my companions two days of grace period, we decided to keep moving. The Nylle proper was not too far away. Once we reached it, we could follow the river upwards until we reached the capital. We could use our spears to fish and wash ourselves in the water.