Capital
I don't know much about it, but it looks amazing.
As we approached the city, it became apparent to us. There were a lot of people who had insignias. Capital might have overshot its recruitment program. They were being flooded by hopefuls.
With the crowd comes misery. Food is overpriced, there is no place to stay, and the capital stinks of scat.
A chance to become immortal is too tempting to pass on. So, people are tempted into coming and staying even though they are in an uncomfortable situation.
We made our way through the city. People were tired of these people coming to their city; any observant person could tell by their faces that they would rather not have suffered all this terribleness.
We stood in line for the recruitment office.
"Name, hometown, insignia."
The decrepid-looking official didn't even bother to look up. Asenath and I gave him our insignias and shooed us away after giving us our wooden identifications.
"Go register in the temple outside of the city."
He leaned forward, warning us.
"Don't stay in the city if you don't want to be robbed. All the inns are full, and if you sleep in the streets, you are easy pickings for thieves. If you have a friend here, you can ask if you can stay in their house. Otherwise, I recommend you pitch tents near the Nyllee. You can register your mortal friend as a mortal warrior too, if you want. We have a program for that too. You can register her over there."
He pointed toward another line in the distance.
We registered Salma too. She wanted to join as a priest bodyguard. These organizations are accommodating to friend groups. The more individuals in the lower strata of the army trust and love each other, the fewer problems they will have down the line, I reckon.
There was no point in dilly-dallying. We made our way to the temple outside of the city. We had taken the man's word to heart. After registering at the temple, we went our way to the merchant's guild and showed them my merchant's guild insignia. I wonder if the old merchant is the man of his word. We might not get anything for the insignia we carried all this time.
The insigna was legit. We were treated like good friends among the employees of the old man's company. A woman named Umayma among the employees requested that we stay with her. The security situation in the capital has devolved with the influx of people, and a single woman like her feels unsafe in this situation. When we stay with her, we are protecting her, and she provides shelter for us. The insignia we have indicates that we are trustworthy. A profitable give-and-take where everyone is satisfied.
***
There is a glint in Umayma's eyes. She is excited by the fact that she gets to live with people again. She has been feeling lonely. I can tell. She gets to have a free group of friends.
We moved in with her. She has a fun little house with a flowery garden. The old woman always smiles when she sees us. How nice.
The temple affords library tokens to individuals who know how to read. This library token allows people to have access to the hall of monoliths, where meditation arts under each god are displayed. We are expected to learn a meditation art and get powerful for the sake of the pharoh.
The number of recruits is too great for master-disciple relationships. I hope Naika can help me with that. There is no ascending when I don't know what I'm doing. Naika had told me that since I was a conduit to Apep, I was at risk of having my conduit status clash with the intricacies of the meditations. I approached the librarian and requested help.
"A conduit to Apep, you say? Hmm. Sorry to hear that. It's a shame that it's Apep you are a conduit to. Apep is the anathema of the gods. Your best bet is to try the chief god, Amon-Ra. He has been battling Apep since time immemorial. A lesser-known fact about that is that the meditation art Amon-Ra provided for us contains a lot of inspiration from Apep's own divine being. Amon-Ra's, therefore, is the meditation art most likely to fit you."
I made my way to Amon-Ra's monolith. It's gigantic size makes me feel like an ant. I can feel something stirring inside me. I feel my vision going dark. A trance. A vision.
Two gods are locked in combat. From the dark sid, Apep. From the light comes Amon-Ra.
I can feel the energy from the monolith digging channels through me and the energy from within me manipulating the process differently from how it is described in the monolith. Gods Apep and Ra are figting inside my very self. It's painful and chaotic. My breath quickens. I can hear my heartbeat. Along with that, I can feel my arcane heart forming into a shape that is most alien. I can see it with my energy sense. It's an extra sense that is distinct from the five senses. It registers things, but it's different from all the other senses in the way sight is different from hearing. It's as if I have been blind all my life, and I feel like I've opened my eyes for the first time. It's distressing, to say the least.
A voice laughs in the back of my head.
"I love it. To spite me, you have tried to learn the meditation art of that hawk. I can respect a hate like that. Boy, the meditation art I've given you, practice it well. Otherwise, you will get nowhere. My blood is proud, and it will accept nothing that might besmirch me. It will spite you for practicing foreign arts."
It's Apep's consciousness talking to me. It's the fraction of the fraction of the fraction. It's more like a guideline for what Apep stands for than for who God Apep actually is. I'm talking to a mirror image of a mirror image. The priests are warned about developing prophetic delusions because of their interactions with vestiges of gods. The actual great gods are far beyond what any of us could imagine. We are talking to a mere glyphmanced copy with set answers. That, however, is no less terrifying. Even these terribly minuscule versions are capable of bringing me to my knees in a cold sweat.
The Apep's art of meditation is carved deep in my arcane heart. I can feel it; I can read it with my spiritual sense.
We are encouraged to practice for a month. Using our monthly practice, the temple will determine the quality of our arcane hearts. Those with high speeds of accumulation will be designated as high-quality, and those with slow improvements will be designated as low-quality. They will be employed according to their quality. A person with a high quality arcane heart is far more useful than ten people with low quality arcane hearts. That's to be expected. No one wants to invest in a person and get fewer returns with the same resources consumed. It just makes sense why they do what they do.
If I want to get closer to becoming an eternal being, I need to finance my way to the top myself. That starts with working for Pharaoh's army for some years. I'm completely fine with that.
The next stop in the temple is the glyphmancy center. This place has rows of tattoo artists inking people. The tatoos are glyphs for standardized spells. The aspiring priest would choose spells from among the selection and would be able to cast them instantly, given that their energy reserves are sufficient. I skipped the tattooing part by showing my ability to shift my skin. Instead, I was given a list of glyphs to memorize.
We re-grouped at home. I learned that Asenath chose Bastet as her patron goddess. The reason was, and I quote: "Kitty!"
There are innate spells that are engraved in the art of meditation. Bastet provides a strong sense of smell and swiftness. When a priestess activates her innate spell, it speeds her up to an incredible degree. Which is no doubt useful on the battlefield. She, without knowing anything, has made a good choice.
We've been told that we were going to form an army and wait for the planes to dimension-shift. A hexagon is going to appear, and a hexagon neighboring us will disappear. We don't know what's in the incoming hexagon. And we need to be prepared. The way to be prepared is with an army. Hence the recruitment and all the fuss.
I've talked with Salma, Naika, and Asenath. They all said they were willing to enlist, and they weren't doing it solely for me. That made me feel better, since people who love you often do foolish things for you. They have the choice to work in every other line of work. Salma is a warrior by trade, and Naika and Asenath are chasing eternity just like me.