historical

"Well, if you don't mind, I like the solitude of Samu," Anu stated with a smile on his face.

Shamash and the rest nodded and a golden gate appeared out of thin air and opened itself.

Marduk and Shamash bowed to Anu before they left through the gate with Alex and Hermes following behind.

Beyond the door, they found themselves back at the hall where Alex and Marduk fought earlier. When they were all here, the gate dissipated into thin air.

However, they weren't the only ones in this hall.

Alex perceived three people, two men, and one woman.

One of the men had wings while the other one held a ceramic pot filled with water in his hand.

The woman, on the other hand, wore bronze armor and had a sheathed sword wrapped to one side of her belt, while strands of wheat wrapped around the other side.

'She resembles Athena....and...Aphrodite?' Thought Alex.

When the three saw them, the man with the wings said, "I wouldn't have expected Shamash, of all of us, to speak to Heavenly Father."

Shamash sighed and stated, "It wasn't of my volition, Enlil, it is thanks to this Olympian."

Enlil stared at Alex with a semblance of intrigue and then said, "No matter, I guess we are all moving back to Babylon."

The woman next to Enlil said, "The role of king fits you Shamash, you are the most impartial and fair of us."

"Ishtar...I cannot comprehend why we spent so much time, fighting."

The man with the pot of water replied, "Just as the cycle of water continues, the cycle of our violence could have been everlasting."

"Ea.....On that note, have you released the flow of the rivers back to Babylon?" Shamash asked Ea.

Ea replied, "Yes, the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates shall come in some time."

Hermes suddenly interjected, "Umm, can we go now?"

The band of deities all looked at him, and Shamash nodded, "Under the commands of Sky Father, Olympus shall be welcome here anytime. Move freely."

Following that, they bid their goodbyes to the pantheon and left through the chariot.

"There's still some sun left, we should be able to move somewhere else," Alex stated as he saw the bright rays of the sun.

Hermes nodded and said, "We should be able to reach Ctesiphon by dusk."

"We're entering the domains of the Parthians, though? Do you remember what Yazid said?" Alex wondered.

Yazid has informed them that the Parthians had an extremely hostile attitude against Yunanites and often massacred them.

"Hmmm, we'll manage, if not, we'll try to keep a low-profile." Hermes chuckled.

'Keep a low profile? We look nothing alike anyone here, Hermes.' Alex kept this remark to himself.

They kept on flying northeast until the sun was fully west and the chariot slowed down.

They landed on a plain with sparse vegetation.

"I think the city is still quite far, let's fly then." Hermes declared.

He put his palm over his eyes like he was searching for something in the distance, and then wings appeared on his back, which he flapped and slowly hovered over the treeline.

Alex followed suit, and they swiftly flew in the northeast direction they were previously in.

It was getting a bit dark, but their eyesight allowed for clear vision even in the pitch-black dusk.

After a very long time of constant flying, they finally saw the marks of civilization.

Lights flickered in the distance, and the cacophony of humans was audible even from the distance.

Alex and Hermes landed and removed their wings, choosing to instead walk for the rest of the duration of the trip.

As they approached the city, however, they perceived an extremely strange phenomenon.

If Alex concentrated his eyesight, he could see various whiffs of smoke all moving in a single direction, at the exact same speed and order.

"Are those Jinn?" Alex nervously asked Hermes.

Hermes said, "Definitely not. Jinn and Daemon always have humanoid shapes."

'I see...these 'creatures' look like...jellyfish..'

It was quite eerie, but even as they walked in a perpendicular direction towards the city, none of the 'jellyfish' had any reaction and just kept on moving in unison.

It seemed they were not malevolent creatures but simply a creepy phenomenon of the night.

The two moved past that and entered the city.

A being sandstone palace was visible in the distance, and the city built itself around it.

Even though most of the streets were quite dim, many people moved about and a lot of them entered into brightly lit buildings that looked like restaurants or communal spaces.

The duo tried to find an inn but was unsuccessful.

Without warning, the two heard some people shouting, "Guards! There are Yunanites!"

'Uh oh...' Alex felt like that scream was somehow targeted at them.

In fact, the two suddenly perceived a few armed men charging at them.

They could very well beat up the hostile guards, but they wanted to find somewhere to stay in the city, so attracting this much attention was out of the question.

The two entered a tight alley and ran past the guards

*Sigh*

The two thought they were safe in the narrow alleys, but it seemed the guards took a detour and found them.

"You there! Halt!"

With some frankly, incredible parkour moves, they climbed up the walls and jumped on the roofs of the buildings to escape sight.

This continued until only the screams of the guards and the sound of footsteps were left.

Alex went down to the ground level in a small alley after realizing they were no longer followed and Hermes did the same.

*Creak*

At the sound of a creaking door, Alex and Hermes got ready to start their escape again.

However, it wasn't the guards, but a woman who entered their sight.

"What's with all of the noise?" She then looked at them and made an 'oh' sound.

"Behrouz! Would you come here!?"

When she said that, a man also came at the door and looked at them, and then he nodded and spoke, "You're Yunanites escaping the guards, aren't you?"

Alex nodded.

"Come on in, it's safe in my home." The man invited them to his house.

Alex and Hermes gave each other a look and shrugged. They entered the small house and followed the two to a small living hall.

Candles fully illuminated the place, and three people were already seated around a table.

The three looked at them and exclaimed in Koine Greek, "Oy, are you merchants too?!"

They looked like Greek people and stood out compared to the local population.

The couple who greeted them in, however, had an appearance reminiscent of the people here. They sat next to the Greeks and the man said, "I'm Behrouz, this is my wife Esfir. We sometimes offer passing Yunanites shelter here, so make yourselves at home."

The two lightly bowed and said, "Thank you."

Alex was a bit curious, "Sir, isn't it dangerous for you to help us, though?"

Behrouz sighed and informed them, "My mother was a Yunanite, they brutally executed her. I don't want that to happen to anyone."

Alex got goosebumps at the story.

Behrouz continued, "It's a mess, the political situation ever since Arsak killed Seleucus has been terrible, and even Yunanite merchants coming back from the east are not an exception to this massacre."

The three Greeks suddenly spoke up, "We were on the road back from Samarkand, and when we entered Ctesiphon, they almost caught up to us, but miraculously, Sir Behrouz allowed us to stay here."

One of them then asked, "Do I know you? You look familiar."

He was speaking of Hermes.

Alex chuckled and tugged at Hermes. The latter shook his head and said, "Absolutely not, we don't know each other."

Esfir then told them, "What are you two waiting for? Sit and eat with us."

"Ah...thank you." Alex immediately accepted like the glutton he was.

The meal was chicken with rice.

Alex savored every bite and noticed that the rice formed a hard, crispy crust that was unexpectedly delicious.

The chicken was fragrant and moist, and a few unknown spices elevated the flavor.

"What's the crust on the rice?" Alex asked them.

Behrouz replied with great pride, "Do you like it? It's Tah Dig, an essential part of every rice dish."

He nodded and asked another question, "And what do you use to spice the chicken? It's extremely delicious."

This time, Esfir answered him with a bright smile on her face.

"We grow a lot of saffron, so we use that, we also get a lot of asafetida from the east, so we also use that to flavor the chicken."

After the meal, they thanked the couple for their generosity and they invited them to spend a night in their home.

The two didn't have anywhere to stay, thus they reluctantly accepted.

However, as they were about to go to sleep, Alex abruptly had a bad premonition.

'Must be the lack of sleep....' He concluded and closed his eyes.