Fate / Chronos

Chapter 11: The Sun King

1303 BC – Egypt

There was chaos in the streets of Egypt. Hundreds, thousands of Egyptian soldiers marched through the streets, the market, the construction sites, and people's homes. The ground shook, sand spread across the terrain as the soldiers ran. The scorching heat of the sun wore heavily on them.

Countless heralds appeared throughout the city, preaching the word of the pharaoh.

"By the order of Pharaoh Seti I, all male Israelite children are to be drowned in the Nile as punishment for rebellious intent against his excellency!"

There was no clear evidence to justify this sort of punishment. Seti I merely feared that they might become too powerful to control. However, the pharaoh's word was unquestionable and absolute.

The soldiers barged into Israelite homes and took every male child they could find. Any who resisted, trying to save their children, were executed immediately for treason.

The mothers uttered cries of lamentation. The fathers were either killed or beaten senseless for standing in the way of the soldiers or raising a hand against them.

The soldiers rounded up the children they found in groups and brought them to the Nile river where they threw them to their demise. It was a horrible sight for everyone involved. The local crocodiles devoured their free meals. The remaining dead bodies floated slowly down the stream of water on their journey toward the Mediterranean Sea, never to have a proper burial, never to be seen again.

Amidst the chaos, a lone mother, Jochebed, evaded the watchful eye of the Egyptian soldiers. She ran as fast as she could with a basket made out of wood in her arms. She knew that she could not stay hidden for much longer and that her son would be killed once she was found.

Thus, she took momentary cover amidst the high grass near the Nile's riverbank. She already knew what she had to do, but it was not an easy choice for any mother that loved her child from the bottom of her heart.

She set the basket she held onto the ground and took one last look at her baby boy as he smiled at her.

This was most likely the last time she would see his face. However, he would at least have a chance at surviving the ongoing massacre.

She picked the basket up again and set it on the water of the Nile.

"Goodbye, Moses, my son," she wept, casting him down the river.

The basket traveled some distance and successfully escaped the grasp of the soldiers.

In an ironic turn of events, the basket was discovered by the daughter of Seti I who was bathing in a secluded spot down the Nile river with her handmaidens.

She picked up the basket in the water. Once she realized that a baby was inside, she took him in and decided to raise the boy out of the kindness in her heart. He would grow up with his new brother, Ozymandias.

*******

There was silence, but not because a disaster occurred. There was peace in the land. The sand of the desert was still, the Nile's flourishing water that ran like a vein through the land was calm, and a gentle breeze blew by.

"Since when did the three of us start meeting like this again?" a feminine voice asked.

They were at a resort located at the bank of the Nile river. Ozymandias diverted his gaze from the setting sun to the source of the familiar voice with a soft smile.

A tanned woman with shoulder-length brown hair and matching eye color. She wore two Egyptian lotuses in her hair because it was her favorite flower. Her white dress slowly swayed in the passing wind.