"Today, your old world has ended... all paths have been obliterated... all routes erased... all your days have vanished... and nothing remains for you but to drown." — "Why did British cannons strike the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay’s citadel in Alexandria?" — "Because they remember, while you forget. How sorrowful! We have met before, Hassan. But your memory was wiped clean... You will return... and when you do, your pain will stretch beyond every sea. You are Hassan, and you are the *Majthoub*—the mystic wanderer. Do you realize this? They are one and the same person. Yet, your true self has not been revealed to you—and that is for the best. I recognized you from the letters of the Venetian merchant that I carry." — Hassan gazed long at the citadel, then asked, "Who built this fortress?" — "It was built by a man who once controlled all the routes—until someone else discovered a new path, rendering his own route obsolete. How can you not remember? The Portuguese sailed around Africa to bypass the Egyptian route... then came a Frenchman envisioning a new, shorter, faster path—one that would make all other routes worthless. And do you know where he found this path? In Egypt. The British objected to the route, claiming it would never succeed—yet it did... and it cut thousands of miles off the journey to India. What were the British to do? The sea route was fast, yet it lay on land not their own, built by others. The path... is the ultimate goal... always." — He repeated: "The path is the goal. Not debts, nor protection... nor..."