About this story
Your father and the rebellion's agents then send you toward Alexandria not as a claimant but as a wandering astrologer, with the choice of a vial of poison folded into your robe, should persuasion fail. The chapter ends at the city gate, a festival token in your hand and Cleopatra's procession promised for tomorrow.
How it opens
Temple lamps turned the painted columns of Abouthis into a forest without night.
AmenemhatHarmachis, Egypt remembers kings even when Alexandria forgets their blood.
Your father placed both hands upon the hidden genealogy he had guarded since your birth.
AtouaI held him first and saw the royal mark no Roman decree can erase.
AtouaOutside this temple, every villager knows you only as a priest's son.
AmenemhatThe Nile carries Egyptian grain toward a court that bargains with Rome.