Elfborn: The Quest

Other Side of the Coin

Captain Hasan Manad Fadid smiled as he leaned against the railing. It was always good to see the docks of Jer Alin after a tour of duty out on the waters of the Meridian. He shifted his uniform tunic slightly, it's fitted silk and airy Nubian cotton keeping out both the heat of the day and the sticky humidity that plagued the coastal cities of Algers, called Mauretania by the Romis, his homeland.

A homeland now being threatened by an invasion force from the lands north of the Meridian. The dapper captain frowned at that thought, barely resisting the impulse to reach up and tug on his neatly trimmed mustache, a nervous habit of his whenever he found something disturbing him. The Alliance's spies had no trouble discovering the invasion plans, called 'the Quest' by those that were promoting it, an attempt to drive the Naraban people from their homes in the ancient land of Ebrahin. All in the name of an obscure religion called 'Ristusianity', which apparently had its birth in Ebrahin during the time of the Romis Empire.

Hasan shook his head at that. Ebrahin, the crossroads of the ancient lands, had been the site of not a few battles. Not only between the indigenous peoples of the land, the now-exiled Ebrahim, the Casadim and the peoples of the Palistimin Confederacy, to name just three, but the larger Manadim Alliance, the Romis Empire and the Presusian Empire all had the chance to spill blood on the sands of Ebrahin. It was indeed a place of war and death, an odd location for a birthplace of a religion. The Prophet Manad himself had avoided the crossroads in his time, choosing instead to live in the more southern lands of ancient Presusia, the birthplace of the desert civilizations of today, though he visited its holy places during his Ascension.

'Lacking the Prophet's courage, I wouldn't visit the place today, if I had a choice,' Hasan thought as he looked to starboard as the port of Nakanir passed by, its docks serving the great fortress of el Tamir, which sat on the bluff overlooking the Meridian for tens of kilometres in every direction. Somewhere in that beautiful jumble of Humanity was his two wives, Ismina and Kadja and his eleven children. He would do everything within his power to ensure they were safe, including slaughtering every Evindelian that might step foot on his beloved desert land of Algers.

"Sir?" a male voice asked with a respectful tone and, breaking from his reverie, Hasan looked up to find his first officer, Commander Amir Jabah, standing at attention at the ladder that led to the foredeck, where Hasan had been standing.

"Ah, Commander Amir." He smiled, pushing aside his earlier thoughts to embrace a happy expression. The Prophet had always taught that a man should not wear his worries on his face like a mask, to trouble his brother, but to keep them buried deep within where only Allah could receive them.

"You have news for me?"

"Indeed, my captain." Amir smiled, a handsome man hailing from Algers's capital city of Wadi Anatoum. He had joined the navy at an early age, as had his father before him and his father's father. The sea ran deep within the Jabah family and, as soon as he had reached the age of Ascension, he too had joined. Hasan had found him a more than capable officer, both in day to day duties as well as under fire and was glad to have the man serving with him.

"The pilot has come aboard from Nakanir Seti to steer us into moorage." Hasan's eyes immediately swung around to face the naval port visible directly in front of them as his first officer continued his report.

"So I would put us and the Tiger's Claw into dock in about fifteen minutes."

"Ah, and good news at that, commander." Hasan turned to smile at Amir. "I haven't seen my family in almost two weeks, as the Claw has been hunting pirates along the south shore of the Meridian. It will be good to be with them again."

"Yes, sir." Amir also smiled. He too had family waiting for him in Nakanir, though he didn't talk about them much.

"The pilot also brought aboard news that Admiral Gabba-Amil is in port and awaits your report of the eastern coasts."