One of Abdul's soldiers flung a grenade into the Iberian formation, but it deflected off of a shield and fell back into Abdul's ranks, and killed many men. But the hole was filled by more of the endless river. "Maşallah!", cried out Ali, who was awaiting the inevitable with an unsheathed sabre, to his daughter, thankful to his gods for such a gift, even if small. But his daughter wasn't there. "Fatima!", he exclaimed with sudden distraught amidst the clutter, but it made his cries inaudible. A soldier from Abdul's ranks who yelled something in Hellenic threw an object into the Iberian formation, but this time it wasn't a grenade, it was an incendiary cocktail that shattered on impact on a shield and engulfed the Iberian that was holding it with flames, and set fire to the sand under him. Seth's formation was forced to withdraw a few steps. "She must have gone for the casket", thought Ali, ominously. The casket was at the end of the cave, and he ran towards there. His men, who were supporting the Iberian formation from behind them, thought that their emir had lost courage and fled, and they shattered. A gap was starting to open in the disciplined Iberian formation.
At the end of the cave, Fatima stood next to the open chest. The chest was filled with artefacts. Some of them were glowing. She was holding one of them, which resembled a flute, or was adapted into a flute by Tuareg carvers. "No!", exclaimed Ali at the top of his lungs when he saw her. She blew into the flute and no sound came out. But the ground shook. "You will curse us all!", said Ali, who wanted to stop her. But at the same time that basic, visceral survival instinct urged him not to. "You will..." His will faltered in the middle of the sentence. He just stood there motionless, and his men that had followed him now arrived and grouped around him to witness Fatima's great sin and sacrifice. But they didn't know it was sin and sacrifice: they knew little about how to use an active artefact, and of the consequences. Such knowledge was reserved to the nobility and priesthood, and kept strictly secret.
801 AS, Akhisar, Planet Crete.
"Emir!", bowed a messenger before Ali's father, Emir Ali, who was ruling at the time. He was sitting on the many soft pillows of the royal diwan. "Something... has happened". A servant brought in a chest from the royal treasury, which was full of artefacts. "When did they start to... glow?", asked the puzzled emir. "This morning, emir. By the stars, we didn't do anything!" "Bring me the great imam!", he ordered.
Emir Küçük (The Younger) Ali remembered his father Ali as a stubborn traditionalist. He listened to the imams about everything. But to Küçük Ali, artefacts weren't items to be revered, but used. He knew each had a purpose. His interest and laic experimentation on artefacts was a passion, and also somewhat of a public secret: everyone rumoured about it, yet Küçük Ali would still go out of his way to hide it. But on that day he was seriously confronted about it by his father. And yet, he remembered, with pain, it was also the day when he convinced his father to be more open to innovation. A couple of years ago he had tried to use an artefact which looked like it was supposed to power something, as a battery for a Correo freighter, though failed. But that morning the freighter activated and started levitating on its own. It seemed like if Akhisar's issue of power supply was suddenly solved.
Believing that they were divine relics that gave extraordinary powers to those that were close, the royal family started wearing active artefacts as jewellery. And they did give extraordinary powers: the one that Küçük Ali wore made him a champion racer and an expert chess player. His father wore a number of artefacts and had them integrated into the crown as well: and these sometimes allowed him to peek into the minds of those that he spoke with eye to eye for a protracted time - and perhaps exert a little influence too. A very useful ability for a monarch. The only side-effect, it seemed, was a faint pink glow from the eyes.
In 803 Emir Ali died of cancer. He had tumours on every place on his body where he wore an artefact. In 804 his favourite wife also passed away. Küçük Ali survived, but as he discovered later, Fatima, who was born in the year when the artefacts activated, was the only child he could father. The use of the artefact had rendered him barren. When he succeeded the throne, his first ferman was to ban all artefact usage and to keep them all under lock - destroying them, as feared by the imams who greatly treasured the items, would bring the wrath of otherworldly forces and an even worse calamity.
It was all because he thought it wise to play with the divine. Tradition and religion won in Küçük Ali, over innovation and reason.
No sound could be heard from the flute, yet the ground shook and the sand ruffled. It seemed that, when the right frequency was hit, the cave served as a magnifier. Great noise suddenly erupted outside: a stone appeared to have exploded by itself, and shredded the surrounding Abdul's soldiers with shrapnel. And then the next one. And then the sands lifted as if in a sandstorm without wind, to disorient everyone who was outside of the cave. Sporadic inexplicable screams and noise were heard from the outside. The few of Abdul's soldiers that had managed to occupy the cave entrance found themselves between Seth's men and inexplicable chaos outside, and they laid down their weapons and surrendered. And then Fatima stopped playing.
After the sand had settled, the wadi was filled with many of Abdul's soldiers, some of whom were gruesomely torn to pieces by inexplicable forces. Every paşa that led them was dead or dying - and most of them seemed to have snake bites on their skin. But the army that was sent was numerous and many still survived - though they were shocked and leaderless. They too laid down their arms, and pledged their service to Emir Ali, who seemed to have "the blessing of the stars and the ancient prophetess" behind him.
"What have you done...", the emir rebuked his daughter, but quietly, devoid of the will to oppose, his focus drawn by the miraculous victory. His men around him cheered and muffled everything he could say.