Alexander and company sat around a small table in the garden, enjoying slices of bread, cheese, and meat, with a bowl of salad dressed in olive oil, complemented by fine wine from Pasha Muazz’s storage.
“So, how are you liking Zanzan?” Alexander asked a generic question while he slathered some butter on his bread.
“Plague,” Came Cambyses’s monotone and tired answer, as the girl took a sip of her wine.
She had her hands full with running the clinic for the past two weeks, treating the sick, and overseeing the operations, which required her to work almost fifteen to sixteen hours a day.
“Well, the good thing is that’s almost gone now. And it’s all thanks to you,” Alexander appreciatively smiled at her.
“Hope your policies work and we don’t have to deal with another one ever again,” Cambyses spookily sighed.
She never wanted to deal with what she had to deal with in the first weeks.
“It will, it will,” Alexander reassured her.
And then turned to Ophenia, “How are you liking it in Zanzan? Are you having any difficulty settling in? He asked.
“No, everything is fine. Mistress has been taking good care of us,” Ophenia sweetly replied.
“Good, that’s good,” Alexander nodded pleased.
And down with the small talk, he moved to the real topic.
“Taiyin, I assume you studied a lot of religious scripture?” Alexander looked expectantly at the beautiful woman.
Ophenia was a bit taken aback by this question.
This was not anything secretive but she failed to see its relevance in this context.
But nevertheless, she said quickly, “Yes, I was taught quite extensively.” 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥.
“Good, then I have a vacant job for you,” Alexander lightly smiled at Ophenia, who had sat up straight upon hearing there was a job Alexander wanted her to do.
“The temple of Gaia is currently in need of a sacred priestess. Are you interested?” Alexander dropped a bombshell of an offer at Ophenia’s feet.
The sacred priestess would be in charge of all the priestesses and more importantly, would be tasked with conducting the various rituals and ceremonies of the temple.
It was a supremely prestigious position, above all but the pope and the archpriest and Ophenia didn’t know even know how to respond to such an honorable offer.
Such a position was usually given to priestesses in their twilight years, those that had served the temple faithfully for decades, or to a king’s blood kin, like how Azira and Azura were made saintesses.
Ophenia never even in her dreams dared want such a position and so when this pie fell from the sky without any warning, she lost her voice momentarily.
“So, will you?” Alexander lightly asked again as he was yet to get a response.
His mild voice finally broke Opehnia out of her stupor and she quickly faced Alexander, her eyes bulging and lips shaking, “I…I don’t dare. That position belongs to mistress,” Ophenia cried.
This produced a hidden but light smirk from Cambyses.
The amount of adoration and respect a sacred priestess would get from the populace was something very hard to resist.
It would be a lie if Cambyses said she didn’t want it.
“I’m not asking Cambyses. I’m asking you. I want you to become the sacred priestess,” Alexander this time did ask but stated.
“That…” Ophenia sneakily glanced at her mistress to see her reaction but saw her only nonchalantly nibbling on her bread.
Then a moment later Cambyses let down her food and gave her approval, “I know nothing about religion or rituals. So you take it.”
“Yes, I chose you for your experience,” Alexander gave his reason.
“Then…although I’m unqualified, I humbly accept, my lord,” Ophenia then stood up and fully bowed at Alexander, finding it difficult to keep her emotions in check.
When she had come to Alexander two months ago seeking refuge, it was an act of utter desperation and the best scenario in her mind at that time was just being able to eke out a living.
She had accepted her life would be brutal from then on, with hard, back-breaking labor from dawn till dusk and with hunger, disease, and death a constant threat around every corner.
So who would have thought that not only her master would become a pasha almost overnight, but even choose her to be one of the leaders of his religion?
‘My lord is truly the divine son of Gaia, infinite in his grace and mercy,’ Ophenia cried in her heart at Alexander’s trust toward her, while warm tears of joy and gratitude streamed down her perfect face.
“Hahaha, no need to stand on ceremony, sit, sit,” Alexander lightly chuckled as he gestured for the girl to return to her seat.
“Congratulations, your grace,” Camius too greeted Ophenia on her new status, who quickly rubbed off her tears and returned a smile, “Thank you, captain Camius.”
“Our faith is still only infantile. I pray sister will work hard to spread it,” Cambyses also paid her compliments with a light smile, though she made a point not to congratulate the girl, a subtle hint that she was not pleased by the arrangement.
“Thank you, mistress. Rest assured, I will spare no effort,” Ophenia grinned a reply, not catching the hidden wordplay.
“Taiyin, you are the sacred priestess now. From now on, you have no mistress, only a master. Be mindful of your words,” Alexander lightly chided.
But although these words sounded like it was directed at Ophenia, in reality, it was a way of getting back at Cambyses.
Because even though Ophenia had missed the clues, he certainly didn’t and Alexander did not like when others questioned his appointment of people.
So, he decided to punish Cambyses a bit by stripping her of this little title.
“Yes, master,” Ophenia seriously nodded.
“Umm,” Alexander then instructed, ” I have already chosen the arch-priest, Theocles. You will meet him tomorrow. And help him write the bible that I instructed.”
“Bible? We are writing a bible?” Ophenia was both surprised and a bit confused.
It had to be noted that the religion of Gaia was not anything new or unique.
It already existed in many parts of Thesos, with thousands of temples and millions of followers, making it one of the biggest beliefs in the region and also why everyone related Alexander to it.
Ophenia had thought Alexander would just follow those scriptures with a little tweaking.
But it seemed that her master had much grander plans! The people in the city-states of Thesos were very varied in their beliefs, with hundreds of city-states believing in a myriad of pagan gods and deities, each with their own cultures and rituals.
Sometimes the differences were huge and apparent, while at other times, they were utterly inane, like one faith drinking wine from a round goblet and another from a tapered one.
This meant that many of the practices were very opaque and impenetrable and many were shared among multiple religions, which made it very hard for theologians to get any accurate information about any religion.
In fact, this job was made even more difficult as priests of one religion tended to copy or emulate another religion and after a while, that practice would be made canon, meaning the pagan religions were always evolving, growing like the branches of a tree.
And that’s why it was very hard for the Thesisans to export their religion as different missionaries would speak different things about their different gods following different editions of their scriptures, and any potential convert would find himself too overwhelmed.
Thus the faith in a particular god usually tended to stay restricted to that region, unless that region’s influence expanded primarily via conquest and the citizens of the newly conquered lands were forced to change their belief.
And this lack of depth of knowledge about a particular religion was what Alexander was looking to exploit.
Ptolomy had permitted Alexander to be able to preach and practice the religion of his choice, which Alexander claimed as the faith of Gaia, which was already prolific in Thesos.
But what Ptolomy did not permit was to allow Alexander to set up a new religion with him as a god.
And this was what Alexander was attempting to do.
Knowing the fact that no one in Adhania really knew much about the faith of Gaia, other than that it was a foreign religion, Alexander intended to create a whole new branch of that religion, one where he was divine and a godkin- the son of Gaia, with an entirely new book, rituals, and practices.
And given that Adhania’s conflicts with Cantagena were not theological but trade and territorial, with disputes mainly over trade routes and contested islands, coupled with the general ignorance, was confident in his ability to get away with inventing a new religion and passing it off as the Faith of Gaia,
Alexander also recalled that Theocles had asked no questions regarding this which clearly demonstrated that man’s IQ and Alexander remarked, ‘Looks like Theocles is better than Ophenia,’
But this also made him feel better that he had chosen his archpriest well, who was tasked with overseeing the entire temple and the faith that it wielded.