"Peace Through Power."
"This teaching is at the heart of Our Prophet's Message for His People. He teaches us- he commands us- to take up the sword in His Name. To strike down the enemies of Kane. The enemies of Peace."
Harun had taken up the sword when he was thirteen years old. He had killed his first man when he was fifteen. He had been so proud then, so proud and so foolish. He had imagined that he would be the hero who struck down the Prophet's foes, the holy weapon of Father Kane.
"Many righteous teachers denounced the sword. They taught that it was evil to slay your brother, and they spoke truth. Yet our Prophet, in his wisdom, saw that it was a necessary evil. With grief in his heart, he told his followers that we must kill to bring an end to bloodshed. We seek Power so that we might bring Peace."
Sister Fatima said gently, "But the followers of the Prophet are only men and women. We are Blessed by His Word, but we can falter in his service. Even as we wield the sword in the Name of Kane, we are corrupted by earthly power and greed. We forget the truths that Kane taught us."
"Brotherhood. Unity. Peace." Harun chanted the words with every other soul gathered inside the shelter. There was no unity among those who claimed to follow Kane, and peace was a distant dream, but there was brotherhood. If the Prophet looked down upon them in this moment, Harun knew that he would be proud.
"Where there is brotherhood, there is unity, and where there is unity, there is peace. We gather to mourn our dead, brothers and sisters, but we also mourn the spiritual deaths of our enemies. Those who abandoned the teachings of our Prophet, and turned away from His Light. They are apostate, lost to the Brotherhood, damned by the blood they have shed, and yet I pray that Our Prophet shall redeem his lost lambs."
He had redeemed Harun. Justice would have demanded blood for blood, life for life, but Father Kane was ever merciful. Harun longed to kill General Fadeem, to shed his blood upon the desert sands. Yet he could not wish for another soul to be denied the Prophet's Mercy after he had received it himself.
Sister Fatima said, "We take up the sword to do Kane's Holy Work, but the sword corrupts. I once stood among the mighty, in the days when the Prophet walked among us. I was proud, and I delighted in the deaths of our enemies. The soldiers of the Initiative, heretics among our own ranks...even children in the Blue Zones. I spoke the words of our Faith, but I was blind to the Prophet's teachings."
In the days after Kane's disappearance, too many of the faithful had sought someone to blame. It was impossible for the unbelievers to defeat the Brotherhood, not when the Prophet himself was guiding them to victory. Harun had known that there must be traitors among their ranks, spies and saboteurs who had turned against the Prophet's Will. Before Kane could return, it was necessary for them to destroy the enemies within.
General Faheem walked the road to damnation out of greed, but false righteousness had led them down the same path. Only Sister Fatima had saved them. It was surely the Prophet's Will that had brought her out of the desert, crippled and half-dead, speaking the Truths of Father Kane.
They had been three, and through her wisdom- Kane's wisdom- they became one. The colonel smiled at Harun, and he bowed his head in gratitude. He had named Rahi Varadkar "heretic" and "traitor" once, but his commander had forgiven him. Had chosen Disciple Harun al-Baghdadi as his own bodyguard, as a sign of trust that their union would endure.
And it had endured. For years, the Regiment had held the oasis as a sacred site, separate from the bloody power struggles of the Brotherhood. A place where those loyal to Kane could gather in peace. They had sent recruits to all of the Ten Rings and hosted peace talks between rival warlords, seeking to bring unity where there had been division. They had served the Brotherhood well.
"We stand in the wilderness," Fatima told them. "As our ancestors did before Father Kane came to them. They were outcasts, abandoned to die, but the Prophet is the Champion of the Lost, the Saviour of the Forgotten."
"Blessed is Father Kane." Their voices echoed through the storm shelter. The stone walls would shield them from the storms, but nine thousand people could not live on faith alone. They needed bread for the hungry and medicine for the sick. They needed the Brotherhood of Nod to repay their devotion to the Prophet's Cause.
Fatima said, "Blessed is Father Kane. Blessed is the Teacher, the Healer, the Peacemaker. His Truth endures, and those who follow that truth follow Kane. Let us remember the Brotherhood that found us in the wilderness, and guided us to wisdom. Let us remember the Brotherhood that watched as we were cast out by a faithless warlord. There are good men and women within the Brotherhood still, but they are too few, and the mighty seek Power instead of Peace."
The door to the storm shelter swung open, and a single figure walked inside. She was a tall woman dressed in a storm suit, and as she removed her helmet Harun thought that her face seemed familiar.
Fatima said, "Be welcome within our walls, guest. Take this bread, in the Name of Kane." She gave the stranger bread, and the woman took it. The face was unquestionably familiar, but Harun could not quite remember.
"In the Name of Kane, I swear to Peace within these walls. Let this oath bind us all."
"Let this oath bind us all." Even as Harun spoke, he suddenly recalled the name. One hand went to the pistol at his side, but it was too late. A guest was sacred to Father Kane.
Colonel Varadkar rose to his feet, swaying slightly, and Harun rose to stand at his side. The colonel glared at the visitor- the guest- with barely concealed loathing, and a murmur of fear ran through the crowd.
Varadkar said, "Traitor. Heretic. Enemy of Kane. How could you bring her here, Fatima? How could you grant shelter to this traitor to our Brotherhood?"
"No traitor," Major Alicia Brown said. "General Qatar was faithful to the Prophet. Dedicated to His Vision. She was falsely accused by enemies within the Inner Circle, false servants who sought only their own advancement." She looked across the gathered masses of ragged survivors, then back at the bandaged form of the colonel. "False servants who now govern the Brotherhood in Our Prophet's absence. If Nod followed the Teachings of Kane, would any of you be here?"
Blasphemy. Treason. But while some had stood aside out of fear, and others out of greed, in the end none of their Brotherhood had come to aid them. They had abandoned them to die, just as the Initiative had abandoned their ancestors.
Fatima said, "Blessed is Father Kane, who sought Peace Through Power. For the purpose of Power is Peace. Not the false Peace of the old Initiative, which sought only the protection of the few, but the righteous Peace of the Prophet, where all of humanity shall shelter under his guidance."
"You speak the words of Father Kane, Fatima," Varadkar said. Even now, his voice was gentle. Fatima had been teacher and guide to all of them. "But the Initiative is the Prophet's enemy."
"The Initiative was the Prophet's enemy," Fatima agreed. "The Brotherhood was the Prophet's Sword, and see how we have changed. If corruption creeps in among the ranks of the Faithful, why should we be surprised when the Prophet's teachings spread among the Faithless? Should we not rejoice when our lost brothers and sisters heed His Word? Shall we not welcome them with Father Kane's own forgiveness, even as we have been forgiven?"
Harun remembered farms burning, and the shrieks of children. He remembered towns reduced to rubble, with scarecrow-thin civilians hunting through the ruins for a scrap of food. Most of all, he remembered his own terrible joy, the triumph of a man certain that he was doing the Prophet's Will.
"Blessed is Father Kane," Harun said. Varadkar turned to stare at him, a look of horrified betrayal on his face. "Even as the Initiative prepared for war, Our Prophet sought Peace. He never desired the sword."
Major Brown said. "Director Granger knows that GDI has sinned against humanity. He seeks to bind up old wounds. To make peace, even as Nod once made peace among ourselves. If the Initiative had followed his path from the beginning, if they had heeded the Teachings of Our Prophet, he never would have needed to seek Peace Through Power."
Nine thousand souls. Harun was sworn to protect them. Every instinct screamed at him to strike down the traitor, the heretic, but instead he took a step towards her, then another. Surely the Prophet would not condemn him for seeking salvation for the forgotten.
"Sanctuary," he asked. Begged, but he was beyond pride now. "A roof for our heads, and bread for our hungry. I ask for your aid, sister, in the name of brotherhood. In the Name of the Prophet."
"In the Name of Kane."
