Chapter 236: Chapter 236: Crossroads

Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad

The Caliph of the Abbasids stood upon the highest balcony of the Palace of the Green Dome. Below him, the vast city pulsed with its usual life, merchants shouting prices in the spice souks, the call to prayer rising from a hundred minarets, the distant clatter of camel caravans arriving from the east.

Yet today the usual rhythm felt wrong, as though the entire world held its breath.