Herald of Steel

“What are you getting so worked up about, brat?” Pasha Farzah let out his slightly frustrated growl at Alexander as they sat around a table.

They had managed to meet on that very evening in a secluded part of the palace after Alexander had the others know about the message.

And it was here they seemed to disagree with the interpretation of Cambyses’s message as pronounced previously by the aged pasha.

Who was then buttressed by Lady Inayah,

“I agree with Pasha Farzah. The Tibians should lack any ability to engage in any war with us for some time. Are you sure the message said that?” She cast her doubt at the report.

But with clenched teeth, Alexander repeated,

“The message clearly said Tibias was attacking Zanzan. What do you want more? A video?”

He still could not believe they were arguing about something this basic.

The others did not understand the new word, and thought in a Thesian expression, while from the side, the Queen Mother nodded her head affirmatively at Alexander, saying

“Yes, the message indeed did.” While before pointing out, “But it did not say how they arrived at that point. Nor what the Tibias was doing.”

“Is it a siege?”

“Or is Tibias attacking the countryside?”

“Or is it engaging Zanzan’s army?”

“Without knowing this, it is very much possible that the threat will be gone before we need to do anything.”

The Queen Mother sounded very optimistic as Alexander’s army had proven itself against Djoise.

While the last person to join them in a rare showcase of responsibility- Ptolomy pointed out,

“The letter said ‘Keep us in your prayers’.”

“That clearly shows that the decisive battle is yet to occur.”

“And given Zanzan’s recent battle achievements, I do not see any reason to worry.”

Like the Queen Mother, he too was supremely confident in his tone.

And it seemed Ptolomy had decided to use this moment as a rare opportunity to display his intelligence.

“…….” Alexander stayed silent hearing this.

It seemed the others had made their decision.

And even he was swayed by them, because even to him, Tibias attacking them right now did not make sense.

And so here Lady Inayah decided to end the meeting by saying,

“Lord Alexander, let us wait a bit longer.

“You have already sent a message to Lady Cambyses just now and she will certainly write back to us with more details.”

“We can decide what to do next then.”

And three days later, a messenger bird from Zanzan did come to Adhan, proving Lady Inayah right.

The short message only read, “Our scouts have noticed 40,000 Tibians leaving the city of Thesalie.”

“Menes has moved out to meet them with 50,000 men.”

“Pray for our success.”

Thesalie was a fortress city situated at the mouth of the Cisran hills, and the gateway to Zanzan for Tibias.

Meaning, Tibias was just starting to enter Alexander’s territory, which further meant his lands were yet unscathed.

Thus this message very much soothed Alexander’s heart.

He was also very confident in Menes’s ability and given that they were up against phalanx units in hilly terrain, facing an outnumbered enemy, Alexander did not see any reason they could lose.

‘Tibias must have thought we are weak with no men to defend ourselves with,’ He could only guess that the reason for this attack was the same as Djose’s.

And after letting his allies know of this, he waited till the pilgrimage was over before he could sit down to discuss work with Ptolomy.

And this Jtamma was quite the spectacle to observe.

This three-day event revolved fully around the Life Sea, and on the first day both men and women dressed in special white robes were seen chanting special prayers led by priests and priestesses as they walked around parts of the Life Sea, exalting and praising Ramuh.

On the second day, they followed this up by bathing in the Life Sea in a very specific, ritualistic way.

Here both men and women took part in the ritualistic absolution simultaneously, and due to the sheer, white clothes they wore, soon the scenery turned very pink as the wet clothes did little to hide what was underneath it.

In fact, Alexander would say the clothes actually alleviated the scenery as by making the clothes stick to their bodies, it made their attractive bodily features more visible while also hiding the blemishes and spots on the skin.

Thus under the mild winter sun, all the women seemed to show their perky frontal assets, the deep ravines in between, and their engrossed buds, while below many revealed their thatched mounds, their creamy thighs, and tight, large flanks.

And it was not much better for the men either who let everyone see their perfect abs, their powerful thighs, and the outline of their packages.

Alexander almost got a nosebleed observing this spring scenery from all the way back from his second-story room that overlooked the sea, who obviously did not participate in this due to his different faith.

But strangely, he also noticed none of the men or women seemed too bothered by it.

And this was because bodily relations were forbidden for all three days of the pilgrimage and the people seemed pious enough to suppress such lust.

With the second day’s absolution complete, the following third day, the people honored Ramuh by making a sacrifice of either a goat, cow, or some other animal along the shore of the Life Sea, while praying and chanting from their religious scripture all the while.

And once they slaughtered the animals, the carcass would then be taken by boats further into the sea, before they would be thrown overboard.

Canonically this was done to rejuvenate the life sea, as the people of Adhania believed this was from where all life originated, and as it gave life, according to them, naturally its potency would decrease over time.

So it was only logical that new life had to be added frequency to replenish the stock.

In fact, once the drought had started, sacrifices to the life sea had increased by some magnitudes, which had only resulted in Adhania having much less livestock.

While for Alexander, after knowing the reason for the sacrifice, he could only be grateful that they did not practice human sacrifices.

Because he would not have been at all surprised if slaves, criminals, and even just regular people were sacrificed to ‘power’ the life sea.

And Alexander was not quite sure how he would have reacted if he had to ally with barbarians who committed such heinous acts.

So he certainly dodged a bullet there.

Now, what Alexander did not know was that Adhania did at one-time use to practice live human sacrifices.

And their choices would include people from all forms of life.

There would be slaves sacrificed as chattels to work for Ramuh, criminals send to him to be judged and perhaps even be redeemed, ordinary people who wished to meet the god, heroes, and war generals who wanted to join the god’s divine army, priests who wanted to become saints, and even noblemen and ladies who were drowned in the Life sea to become Ramuh’s consorts.

And they were also not killed like the animals were, using a sharp knife to give them a quick, painless death.

Instead, they would have their hands and legs bound, and heavy rocks tied, before they would be thrown overboard from boats and ships, causing them to die after two to three minutes of unimaginable agony.

With the reason for doing this being so that Ramuh received the sacrifices in the freshes condition with no bodily harm.

But this was not to say all these sacrifices would be forces.

In fact, many would volunteer.

Not the slaves obviously.

But for the others, this seemed like a shortcut to heaven.

So there were even records of fights breaking out over who got to ‘die.”

Thus before the sacrifice, all would be dressed appropriately, with the slaves not needing much work as they would in tattered rags, but everyone else would garb themselves in their finest.

The civilians in their nicest tunics, the soldiers and generals in full armor and battle gear, and the nobles in their most expensive clothes. 𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t

But this practice was eventually put to a stop by a king from a few generations ago.

This happened because once, his favorite consort wanted to sacrifice herself to become Ramuh’s consort, and the king was so smitten by her and such detested the thought of even a god laying his hands on his women, that he arbitrarily changed the customs to make the sacrifices only animals

And as for those who disagreed with him, well he sacrificed them to the Life Sea as a mockery of their protest.

‘Since you want to keep this tradition of sacrificing people, then sacrifice yourself first.” The king had famously said.

Now, after the animal sacrifices began, it soon became very population, because the amount of Legummum growing around the shores began to suddenly increase.

Which was seen as vindication by the gods of the king’s decision.

While in reality, it was because the plankton that lived in the Life Sea and gave it its pink color reproduced much quicker due to the presence of greater biomass as animals had more meat than humans.

And as their number increased, the legummum’s growth also increased with it.

These acts were conducted during the three days of the Jtaama, while at night they ate a very specific meal, performed holy dances, played music, and recited from the scriptures.

Until it finally ended.