Divine Fire Burning Curse
The silence was broken by a stifled scream.
At dawn, the light of the sky in Thebes had not yet completely dispelled the shadow of the temple, and the night watchman in charge of guarding the fire well rushed out of the cellar, his face as pale as paper, as if he had seen the judge of the underworld.
His loss of composure alarmed the entire Temple of Amun. Soon, several senior priests surrounded the high priest Amenhotep and walked into the cellar where the warmth of last night's ceremony still remained.
Inside the cellar, the air was filled with a strange burnt smell.
The sacred fire well had long since gone out, leaving only a pile of gray ashes.
However, in that seemingly ordinary pile of ashes, on a few remaining corners of parchment scrolls that had not been completely burned, there were rows of strange wedge-like symbols imprinted - that was the secret code of the Hittites!
A priest who was well versed in ancient writing leaned over and carefully picked up a piece of debris with golden tweezers. After just one look, he was struck by lightning, his voice trembling with fear: "High Priest... this... this is a curse!"
Everyone's attention was instantly focused.
On the charred parchment scroll, the Hittite code was extremely hideous.
Even more chilling was the fact that a line of charred black ink, scorched by the intense heat, appeared on the solid stone walls of the well, like a verdict written by the gods themselves: "The two kings rebelled against the gods, and a river of blood will be their sacrifice."
For a moment, the air in the cellar seemed to freeze.
Every word was like a poisoned dagger, precisely stabbing the most sensitive nerve of the new dynasty.
The two kings naturally refer to Ramses and Ding Wei.
Rebelling against God directly denies the legitimacy of their rule.
The sacrifice of a river of blood foreshadows a catastrophic catastrophe that will affect the whole of Egypt!
"Seal this place!" Amenhotep's voice broke the silence, majestic and solemn, without a trace of emotion.
"If even a single word of what happened today is leaked, it will be considered blasphemy!"
The priests were silent and quickly carried out the order.
Amenhotep stood alone by the fire well, his deep gaze sweeping over the charred prophecy, his face so gloomy that water seemed to drip out of it.
He knew that this was no divine revelation, but a carefully planned conspiracy.
Some people want to use theocracy, the sharpest knife, to overthrow the royal power.
The news was not completely locked after all.
That night, a dark shadow scurried through the corridors of the temple as nimbly as a cat and stuffed a hard object wrapped in linen into the hands of a palace maid.
The maid did not dare to delay and immediately presented it to Ding Wei.
When the package was opened, it was the fragment of the parchment scroll with Hittite cipher text.
Along with it was a piece of papyrus, on which was written the beautiful and hurried handwriting of a priestess of Isis: "Someone wants to use the name of God to kill the king."
Under the candlelight, Ding Wei's face was calm as water, but her eyes were as sharp as an eagle.
Her knowledge of Hittite writing far surpassed that of anyone else of her time.
Her fingertips gently brushed across the rough fragments. Not only did she recognize the well-known phrase "Two Kings Against the Gods," but she also pieced together a more vicious and specific message from the several broken symbols—"The King...died under the red moon."
Red moon!
Ding Wei's pupils suddenly contracted.
The vision of the Nile River has not yet completely subsided, and this prophecy seems to be a footnote tailor-made for this natural disaster.
The Hittite envoys and the Egyptian insider worked together to set up a perfect frame-up.
First, they used chemical substances to create the "River of Blood" divine punishment, and then forged oracles to shift all the blame onto the "Twin Kings".
There is only one purpose - to shake the people's hearts and assassinate the Pharaoh!
She did not immediately look for Ramses, nor did she panic and look for the traitor.
Because she knew that on the enemy's carefully arranged chessboard, any conventional response would be passive.
The more nervous you are and the more you investigate, the more guilty you appear, which only confirms the claim of "divine punishment."
When Ramses found her in the study, he saw her leisurely sketching something on papyrus.
"Something happened." Ramses' voice was low, and it was obvious that he had heard the news as well.
"Over there at the temple..."
"I know."
Ding Wei raised her head and pushed the sketch in her hand in front of him: "Besides, I know how to do it."
Ramses looked at the sketch with a frown on his face.
It was the design drawing of a temporary platform, and the location was the square in front of the palace.
"You want to... hold the ceremony publicly?"
He couldn't believe it.
"There are rumors going around now. If we make that thing public, wouldn't that just add fuel to the fire?"
"Quite the contrary."
Ding Wei stood up, walked to his side, and looked at him with burning eyes.
"Ramesses, fear is a contagious plague. If we remain silent and allow rumors to grow in the darkness, they will eventually devour all the people's trust in us. But if we bring it into the light and face it in front of everyone, we can turn this curse against us into a miracle that proves that we are blessed by God!"
Her voice was filled with unquestionable power: "The enemy wants to use the divine fire to forge a prophecy. We will use a true 'fire purification ceremony' to tell everyone that the divine fire is not burning Egypt's future, but the evil spell that intends to destroy Egypt! We are the gods' true choice!"
Ramses stared at her, his initial doubts turning into a light in his eyes that grew brighter and brighter.
He saw the confidence and wisdom in her eyes that could turn the tide.
Yes, avoiding and denying will only make you look weak. Only by covering it and crushing it with a more powerful attitude and a grander scene can the conspiracy be completely smashed!
"Okay!" He slammed the table, determined, "I'll do as you say!"
Three days later, the square in front of the palace was crowded with people.
Almost all the people of Thebes came out of the city. They gathered here with awe, curiosity and anxiety, waiting for a ceremony that would determine the fate of the dynasty.
On the high platform, the high priest Amenhotep was wearing the most solemn sacrificial robe and had a solemn expression.
He personally took out the carefully guarded parchment fragments from the golden box and held them high so that everyone could see the ominous symbol.
A suppressed gasp was heard in the square.
"An evil curse that seeks to tarnish the glory of the two kings and shake the foundations of Upper and Lower Egypt."
Amenhotep's voice echoed throughout the square through the priests' voices.
"But the light of Amun shines everywhere! Today, he will send down a pure fire to burn away all evil!"
After saying that, he threw the fragments into the burning holy fire basin in the center of the platform!
At the moment the fragment touched the flame, a miracle happened!
The originally golden-red flame suddenly gushed upwards and strangely split into two streams, one red as blood, the other blue as the sea, intertwining and swirling, rising into the sky!
"Miracle! It's a miracle!" The crowd burst into thunderous exclamations and kneeling in worship.
They don't understand the principles behind this, they only see the inexplicable magnificent scene before their eyes, which is enough to prove that the gods are really paying attention to this place!
On the other side of the platform, Ding Wei stood beside Ramses, with a barely perceptible smile on her lips.
No one knew that she had already ordered people to mix a carefully proportioned special medicinal powder containing copper salts into the fuel of the sacred fire.
Under high temperature, the metal salts produce a flame color reaction, creating this pseudo-miracle of "red and blue colors".
She stepped forward, her clear, resonant voice drowning out the clamor of the crowd: "Behold! This is God's response! Evil cannot triumph over good, and the conspiracy is reduced to ashes in the holy fire! The red flame symbolizes Pharaoh's resolve to protect his land! The blue flame symbolizes the queen's compassion, nourishing the people! This fire will never be extinguished, just as the hearts of the two kings remain unbroken. Egypt's glory will endure forever!"
"Long live the two kings! Long live Egypt!"
The crowd was completely excited.
Fear was replaced by enthusiasm, and doubt was drowned by admiration.
Even Queen Nefertir, who had been watching quietly behind the gauze curtain in the royal seat, nodded slightly, almost imperceptibly, with a hint of complex approval in her eyes.
After the ceremony, Amenhotep summoned Dinwi privately to the temple's quiet room.
He did not sit down, but stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes as deep as an ancient well, as if he could see through people's hearts.
"You know, the true divine punishment is never fire or water."
Ding Wei met his gaze calmly and replied calmly, "I know. It's the human heart."
"If you knew that, why did you use an illusion to deceive them?"
"That's why." Ding Wei's voice did not retreat at all.
"I must guide people's hearts toward goodness and light, rather than allowing them to be driven and enslaved by the fear of the unknown. High Priest, the foundation of faith is hope, not fear."
Amenhotep was silent.
He stared at the queen from another world for a long time. Beneath her young and beautiful face was a depth and courage that did not match her age.
Finally, he sighed deeply, as if he had made a difficult decision.
"The temple will not remain silent forever...but this time, I choose to wait and see between the two kings."
This was an unprecedented concession of theocracy to royal power.
Not surrender, but a prudent acquiescence.
Ding Wei knew that she had won the most precious time and space for herself and Ramses.
That night, the moonlight was like water.
Ding Wei and Ramses walked side by side along the Nile River.
The river shone silver in the moonlight, the ominous reddish hue of the day almost invisible.
"If, I mean if."
Ramses suddenly stopped and asked softly, "If there really are gods watching us from heaven, what would they think of what we did today?"
Ding Wei tilted her head, the evening breeze blowing her hair. Her smile looked particularly moving under the moonlight. "If gods really exist, they will only bless those who dare to shoulder the fate of all people. We didn't lie. We simply told them a greater truth in a way they could understand."
He stared at her profile, as if to engrave this moment in his heart forever, and whispered, "You always make me believe that even God is willing to make way for us."
Before he finished speaking, neither of them noticed that in a hidden river bend far downstream, an inconspicuous small boat was quietly approaching the shore.
A skinny man dressed in the attire of a Hittite envoy's personal attendant cautiously handed a brand new secret letter to a secret agent from Seti's palace.
The transaction was completed quickly and the two disappeared into the night.
Not far away, on the second floor of Seti's mansion, a figure stood in the shadow of the columns, taking in all of this.
The moonlight outlines his resolute figure, but cannot illuminate his dim eyes.
An open crisis was resolved, but the underground undercurrent became even more turbulent.
Ding Wei knew that this victory was only temporary. If she wanted to completely stabilize people's hearts, she had to transform the enthusiasm brought about by the "miracle" into real support for the royal power.
A bolder plan had already taken shape in her mind.
The afterglow of the celebration is still there, and it is the best time to press on with your victory.
A seemingly perfect victory is like a drop of boiling oil thrown into an undercurrent, about to detonate a deeper surge.
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