Herald of Steel



Alexander stayed the three days at Agnirat mainly to rest and honor Lady Inayah's invitation.

But it was also because it took some time to unload all the gifts he had bought for Ptolomy and the court from the ships to the port and then again load them into carts to transport them to Adhan.

While in the meantime, Lady Inayah asked him to share some of his tips about how to develop her city, to which Alexander replied with some generic bits of advice, as he knew next to nothing about the city to give specialized suggestions.

And once the three days were over, and everyone was ready, the large group consisting of Alexander and his 500 bodyguards, Lady Inayah, and the royals, and Pasha Farzah with his daughter and a few thousand troops, again set off for the capital of the country Adhan.

And entered it around mid-October, only a few days before the start of the Jtaama.

When the group had approached the outskirts of the ancient city, Ptomoly had quickly sent a large delegation of soldiers and a high-ranking noble, or more specifically Pasha Farzah's fifth son Kayvan to escort Alexander and co. into the city, with the instruction to bring them to meet the king in his palace directly.

And along the way, Alexander kept his eyes peeled to see how the city he had left just a year ago was doing and found it to be almost the same as he remembered it.

Dirty, dingy, drab, and lethargic, the city, or at least the outer city seemed to have barely gotten better, with the only notable difference being that some of the inns and shops seemed to have hung colorful festoons and flags in celebrations of the pilgrimage and to attract customers.

And seeing this state of the city made Alexander have a schadenfreude kind of feeling, as a weaker Ptolomy was both a good and bad thing for him.

Good because then he could easily defy him.

And bad because it was possible such a weak king would get taken out by Amenheraft.

But that was why Alexander was here.

While the Queen Mother, who had seen how Alexander transform Zanzan, felt something needed to be done to address the sorry state of affairs.

She never minded it before as she had rarely bothered to descend her holiness into the dwellings of these urchins.

But after living in Zanzan and seeing it, her impression of that seemed to have changed.

She felt that compared to the pristine, well-planned, and structured Zanzan city, this place was clearly inferior in terms of layout and beauty, and for this proud woman, to have the 'capital of capitals' be lesser than any other city in the world, much less in her own country was unacceptable.

And then there were the people.

Whereas she had observed the people of Zanzan move with great urgency and energy, here she felt all the men and women were half asleep.

Meaning the people of Adhan worked less.

So even if she did not care how these peasants lived, she knew she had to improve some of the things here, even if it was just to make them work a bit harder.

So the intelligent woman made up her mind to talk to Ptolomy about it, while in the meantime, the long procession slowly made its way to the crowded outer city, which seemed to have gotten a bit busier due to the presence of so many pilgrims.

After a while, the escort finally crossed the outer city and once the gates to the inner city were opened and they were let through, Alexander felt he had entered a completely different world.

Gone were the narrow, dingy roads, the overcast alleyways, and that ever-present putrid stinging smell of rotting fish in the air.

Instead, they were replaced with clean, even somewhat floral air, magnificent architecture, and beautifully paved roads lined with rows and rows of rose bushes.

Alexander could easily understand how the people living here would be able to ignore the people living outside.

Because out of sight was out of mind.

And this perfectly explained the differences in their living conditions.

And this thought was many times reinforced as Alexander and his group were slowly led up the winding hill to the gate of the palace, which gave him plenty of time to observe the differences between here and the outer city.

He found that the renovations here had been immense.

In fact, it was almost as much here as it was as little there.

Any sign of damage that might have been caused by Alexander seemed to have been erased and scrubbed away, with all burnt structures apparently having been replaced and all the destroyed houses rebuilt to their former self.

No, it was even better than their former self, as almost every house Alexander could see seemed to have a fresh coat of paint.

It was pretty apparent where all the administration's time, energy, and funding went.

But in a way, this was also not wrong.

As pleasing the nobles who held all the power was clearly more important than placing the peasants.

And in that very endeavor, the inner city seemed to have given a fresh new face, with colorful flags, paintings, and even new sculptures dotting the landscapes.

All to make the annual pilgrimage as delightful and comfortable as possible for the guest who might have started for Adhan as much as six months ago.

And this effort seemed to have worked, as Alexander found this part of the city seemed to be sizzling with energy and activity, with horses, carriages, and finely dressed servants moving to and fro with haste.

Finally, after close to three hours of being escorted, the long line of armed soldiers at last approached the palace, as instantly Alexander felt a lot of curious gazes scan him from all sides, their owners all wearing lavish clothes and holding refined postures.

It seemed he was late to the party, and almost all the guests for the Jtaama had already arrived, who were all seemingly interested to see this 'barbarian' who had caused all this mess in the first place.

Alexander naturally ignored such looks and concentrated on crossing the lavish front walkway of the palace, at the very mouth of which stood Lady Inayah's father, Iyazid, the person in charge of the country's finances.

"Welcome! Welcome, Your Highness! And welcome my lords and ladies," The old man with a thin, wrinkled face and an equally thin beard greeted the group jovially, starting with the one with the highest peerage, the Queen Mother.

He still appeared quite spry for his age and could be seen running to greet the Queen Mother and the imperial princess as they descended from the carriage.

This was followed by Pasha Farzah, and ultimately Alexander himself.

"Ah! This here must be Lord…Pasha Alexander!"

"Great! Great! Welcome to Adhan!" He said after sizing him up, adding,

"I heard you were young, but truly seeing is believing! Ahh youth! We old fossils expect great things from you, hahaha!"

The old man seemed to talk very fast and very animatedly, as he then even began to pat Alexander on the shoulders during his greetings as a sign of familiarity.

The man really knew how to socialize, which was a given as he was one of the biggest merchants in the country.

While Alexander humbly bowed a bit and cordially replied, "It is an honor to finally meet you too Lord Iyazid."

"Lady Inayah speaks frequently about you. Especially about how you always wanted to meet me, but had to postpone it repeatedly due to health complications."

"So it pleases me greatly to see you in such great shape."

"Praise the Gods!"

Alexander had a pious tone at the end.

"Haha, yes. Praise the gods! Praise Ramuh!" The old man put on a wide grin at Alexander's humble attitude, as he then went to greet his daughter and then quickly invited the group inside.

"Come, come, His Majesty is waiting." He gestured the invite.

And once inside, the group was immediately led through the lavish corridors and opulent architecture to the heart of Adhania- the magnificent throne room.

Tall, grand, and imposing, it was as lavish as one could expect, being made of the best stone in exitance, decorated with the most expensive luxury one could have, and handcrafted by the finest master craftsmen Adhania had.

The granite floor was covered by a giant thick red carpet that had been intricately embroidered, from the ceiling hung numerous chandeliers each costing nearly as much as a city, and attaching the marbled pillars on either side were purple linen clothes of the highest quality.

The whole room was dripped with luxury and steeped in culture and history.

And to Alexander, it seemed the room had a unique air to it, one somber and heavy and regal.

In this special room, at the very end sat Ptomoly, on an elevated platform or dais, wearing a fabulously jeweled crown and clothed in purples, while behind was a purple curtain or baldachin that matched his garb, and he was flanked on either side by two fully armored guards.

As a bit lower to the dais were rows of nobles standing on either side of the walkway.

"Long live the king," The group brusquely covered the short carpeted distance from the throne room door to the foot of the dias, and performed a solemn bow, as Ptolomy chuckled,

"Hehe, I'm glad that you are all finally here. I was starting to get worried."