c.1100s BC

IT WAS DEEP AND BELLOWING. the drums of war had already began to rattle through the sand covered streets of the town of saka. people were rushing around, gathering last belongings in a frantic haze, while the sight of raiders across the nile dividing them loomed ever closer. the western half of saka had already fallen, the bodies littering its streets so great that they were visible across the waters.

a woman no less than perhaps her late twenties, clad in light armour and linen fabrics, was attempting to push a younger girl towards the desert away from the village. "run, tamoni. run as far as you can and don't look back"

 "sekhani, i cannot leave you!" the young one screamed, tears streaming down her face as the warrior shoved a packed sack into her trembling arms.
"but you must. go, head for khemenu in the south and then to asyut, it'll be safer there. just keep following the river"

but no matter what, tamoni would not let go of sekhani's waist as she held her tight. sekhani, too worried for her own good, embraced the girl beneath her before gently pushing her away towards her neighbour's open arms. they were the last to be heading out of the village and away from the oncoming warriors, and the stress was aparant in their faces as their gaze swivelled between the pair before them and the expanse of desert behind the town heading south to khemenu.

"go, i will see you again, little bird" and with that, sekhani turned her back to her only tie left in the mortal world.

the last words spoken to tamoni would repeat through the warrior's mind. no sense of finality, just a command. and now, the woman was ruthless as she cut down the oncoming attackers with the fury of a thousand suns.

she would fight for tamoni, she would fight for her village of saka. she would fight in the name of the god who commanded her hands with strength and her mind with knowledge, and her heart with the ever looming sense of death. 

though tired and in a red-ridden haze, her voice called out to the few fighters left as a means of hope, for it was her role as a khaldun to lead the people of saka no matter her own state. the blood of others was seeping into the white linen of her tunic and schenti, beneath the leather straps of armour that protected her torso. 

but fate was not on her side that battle, for an arrow pierced her shoulder as she turned her back to protect another saka warrior, followed by the blade of a khopesh hacking into the side of her tattered torso.

pushed to the ground and left to struggle to the open stone archway of a door, with an attempt to avoid the gaze of the attackers, sekhani khaldun collapsed into the stone floors of the building inside.

and all she could see was blood covering the sandstone beneath her before she succumbed to the darkness.

"shai has other plans for you, dear child. "

a deep voice echoed in khani's ears, forcing the fatigued fighter to open her eyes in her bloodied state. her gaze rose to a dark figure standing above her. it seemed to have been a handful of hours since the war drums were sounded, for the moonlight that now seeped into the empty and desolate building did nothing to light the figure's face. "besides, it would be a shame for you to bleed out over my own temple. " 

the figure spoke the truth, it seemed. from her limited eyesight, the supposed archway she had pushed herself past indeed led to the small temple that her community had built to honour their patron god. so, if this figure was to be trusted, the tall figure that stood above her was anpu, the jackal headed god. 

"i suppose i have entered the duat, and you are simply taunting me, great jackal" sekhani let out a chuckle of delusional disbelief, albeit with little effort and a strain of her voice.
"i am not, mortal," the light finally fell on his voice, the long snout and pointed ears now clearer than before as he knelt beside the dying warrior. he was tall, even when kneeling besides her, perhaps seven or eight foot when standing. "shai had commanded that you would accomplish great things in a life past this current one. and i do not believe you can accomplish those while decaying in my own temple. "

his hand lifted with what seemed to be a bladed staff ━ perhaps a polearm or base of a flail of somekind, the reflection of moonlight bouncing off of the carved metal ━ and pressed it into the center of sekhani's torso.
a faint golden light, accompanied by the sound of rushing sand, flew out into the air as if it was a ripple on the water's surface as it made contact with her body. the light bounced off of the darkened stones around them, alighting the area albeit briefly. the searing pain in sekhani's side drew back into a quiet pulse, a dullness, and the arrow in her shoulder seemed to dissipate into sand that ran down her body.

with open eyes, and a lot more energy than before, the warrior opened her eyes wide as she acknowledged the literal god in the room with curious eyes, his figure stood towering over her once more. "i thought the gods were not allowed to change fate. do you intend to fight fate itself, anubis?"

"i never said your fate was to die here, sekhani. what can i say, i have a soft spot for mortals. " he spoke, standing to his full height once more, as he peered out into the now silent village, the sight of bodies littering the moonlit streets. "besides, i have a job for you. "

APOLLO SPEAKS
slightly rewrote the prologue!
hopefully its a bit better visually
described now <3