Age: 16
Location: Mosul — Merchant Guild, Library, and Community
📍 Scene: Merchant Guild Hall — Early Morning
ZAYD IBN SULEIMAN sat cross-legged beside a pile of old shipping manifests, translating them from Turkish to Arabic. USTADH FARUQ stood nearby, observing silently as Zayd murmured the translations under his breath.
USTADH FARUQ (quietly):
"You've taken to language faster than most scribes."
ZAYD:
"If I can speak to a Turk, read with a Jew, argue with a Persian, and trade with an Arab… I'll never lack a friend—or an edge."
Faruq gave a rare nod of approval.
USTADH FARUQ:
"And you'll rarely be cheated."
📍 Scene Change: Armenian Quarter – Afternoon
Zayd spent his afternoon walking through Mosul's diverse quarters. He listened and learned. He picked up Armenian trade expressions. He watched Jewish goldsmiths negotiate metal prices and even shared tea with a Syrian monk who sold olives.
He began keeping a private notebook, filled with phrases, customs, and trade habits of every community. He titled it in Arabic:
"Languages of the Crescent: Notes on Men, Trade, and Secrets."
📍 Scene Change: Library — Night
Zayd lit a lantern and opened a thick Hebrew scroll on commodity exchange rates. He took notes, practiced reading aloud, and matched terms with Arabic equivalents.
NIMR, his eagle, rested by the open window, blinking into the breeze.
ZAYD (thinking aloud):
"Gold may rise in Hilla, but dates fall in Basra. Coins may lie, but movement tells truth."
He began plotting these changes in small charts he drew by hand, inventing his own tracking system.
📍 Scene Change: Market Alley — Two Days Later
While observing a street auction of Uzbek wool, Zayd quietly approached a young Kurdish apprentice who was struggling with Arabic numbers.
ZAYD (softly):
"Switch the ٥ and the ٧. You've reversed them."
The boy looked up in surprise.
APPRENTICE:
"Are you a scribe?"
ZAYD (smiling):
"No. But I was poor once too. That's the only school that teaches without rest."
The apprentice grinned, grateful.
📍 Scene Change: Merchant Guild Roof — That Night
Zayd sat alone again under the stars. Nimr perched beside him.
His notes were spread before him. Maps of trade lines. Wordlists in five languages. Price charts from ports he hadn't yet seen.
ZAYD (softly, to himself):
"I still have much to learn. But I am no longer learning blindly."
He closed his notebook with care.
📍 Closing Narration
At sixteen, Zayd was not yet powerful. He owned no land. His name was whispered only in small circles.
But he was becoming something more dangerous than a prince or a warrior.
He was becoming prepared.
Every word he learned, every silence he listened to, every lie he uncovered in a ledger — it all sharpened him.
Not for war.
But for dominion.
End of Chapter 10