**Scene Name: "The Sea's Fury"**
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**Alexandria Harbor – August 1167**
The Mediterranean roared like a caged beast as Amalric's war galleys blockaded the port, their crimson sails bleeding into the sunset. On the Heptastadion causeway, Yusuf stood beside his uncle Shirkuh, whose left arm hung bandaged and useless—a relic of Shawar's ambush in the Nile marshes.
**Shirkuh:** (Grimacing) "They've turned the sea against us. No grain ships. No reinforcements."
**Yusuf:** "Then we make Alexandria a fortress of teeth." He pointed to the legendary Pharos Lighthouse, its beacon dark. "We control that tower, we control their fate."
A rider galloped up, mud-spattered:
**Scout:** "Frankish sappers dig trenches beyond the Gate of the Moon! Shawar's Mamluks lead them!"
**Shirkuh:** (Baring teeth) "That Fatimid viper... He poisons his own land to spite us."
Yusuf gripped his uncle's shoulder. "Rest your arm. I'll hold the walls."
Shirkuh's laugh was a dry rasp. "You sound like Nuruddin now. Go. Make them fear the Ayyub name."
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**Scene Name: "Rats and Resolve"**
**Alexandria – Western Ramparts – Midnight**
Rain slashed at the battlements as Yusuf paced before his Kurdish archers. Below, Frankish siege engines creaked—towers taller than minarets, draped in soaked oxhide.
**Kurdish Captain:** "Their rams will crack the Gate of the Moon by dawn."
**Yusuf:** "Then we greet them with *hellfire*." He turned to the garrison. "Bring every cauldron of pitch. Every barrel of naphtha!"
A boy no older than twelve scrambled up the steps, clutching a basket of stale bread.
**Boy:** "My mother sent this. She says... Allah walks with you."
Yusuf tore a loaf in half, handing part back. "Tell her we fight for her ovens. Now *run*."
As the boy vanished, a sentry shouted: "LADDERS!"
Ropes hissed through darkness. Iron grapnels bit into stone.
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**Scene Name: "The Breach"**
**Gate of the Moon – Hour Before Dawn**
Frankish knights swarmed the walls like armored ants. Yusuf hacked at a rope, sending men screaming into the abyss. Beside him, a Syrian soldier fell, an arrow in his eye.
**Templar Knight:** (Clambering over the parapet) "For the Holy Sepulchre!"
**Yusuf:** "This is Muslim land!" His blade shattered the knight's noseguard, bone crunching.
A crash shook the foundations—a battering ram pounding the gates. Yusuf vaulted onto the inner stairs.
**Yusuf:** "Pitch! NOW!"
Boiling tar rained down. Frankish shrieks pierced the storm as the naphtha ignited. The gate became a funeral pyre.
**Kurdish Captain:** "They retreat!"
**Yusuf:** (Wiping blood from his brow) "Only to return hungrier."
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**Scene Name: "The Beacon's Gambit"**
**Pharos Lighthouse – Day 17 of Siege**
Shirkuh found Yusuf in the lighthouse tower, sketching Amalric's camp on parchment. Below, Egyptian corpses bobbed in the harbor, betrayed by their own vizier.
**Shirkuh:** "You haven't slept."
**Yusuf:** "Sleep when we're dead." He pointed to the sketch. "Their supply camp here—lightly guarded. They feel safe with the sea at their backs."
**Shirkuh:** "A raid? Madness."
**Yusuf:** "Necessity. Our bread ration is down to mold. The people eat rats."
Shirkuh studied the plan. "Take thirty men. If captured, I'll deny ordering it."
**Yusuf:** "If captured, tell Nuruddin I finally understood his lessons."
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**Scene Name: "Fire in the Night"**
**Amalric's Supply Camp – Midnight**
Yusuf's raiders slithered through sewage canals, emerging behind Frankish lines. Tents sprawled like drunkards—knights snoring beside wine casks.
**Kurdish Lieutenant:** "The siege engines first?"
**Yusuf:** "No. Their grain stores. Starve the beast."
They doused sacks of wheat with naphtha. A sentry stirred:
**Sentry:** "Qui vive?"
Yusuf's dagger found his throat.
**Yusuf:** "LIGHT IT!"
Flames roared skyward, swallowing tents. Frankish knights stumbled blind into each other.
**Amalric:** (Rushing from his pavilion) "SALAHUDDIN! I'LL FEED YOUR HEART TO DOGS!"
Yusuf shot the king's horse instead, vanishing into smoke.
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**Scene Name: "The Cost of Mercy"**
**Alexandria – Hospital Ward – Next Dawn**
Yusuf limped into the hospital—a converted mosque reeking of vinegar and gangrene. A Frankish prisoner, barely fifteen, trembled on a cot, his leg butchered by a Syrian axe.
**Boy:** "Please... kill me."
Yusuf knelt, pressing water to his lips. "What's your name?"
**Boy:** "Henri... of Provence."
**Yusuf:** "Henri. Look at me. Your king abandoned you. Mine won't."
He nodded to the surgeon. "Save the leg."
Shirkuh stormed in. "You risked thirty men for a raid? And now you tend their wounded?"
**Yusuf:** "You taught me: mercy belongs to the victor."
**Shirkuh:** (Grabbing his arm) "Mercy? That boy would slit your throat if healed!"
**Yusuf:** "Then let him try. I'll beat him again."
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**Scene Name: "The Final Tide"**
**Eastern Harbor – Day 40 of Siege**
Amalric's fleet rammed the sea walls. Greek Fire—stolen from Byzantine allies—splattered the towers. Stone melted like wax.
**Kurdish Captain:** "The Gate of Hercules is gone! Mamluks inside the city!"
**Yusuf:** "Form a shield wall at the Serapeum! Archers on rooftops!"
He led the countercharge, fighting backward through alleys. A Mamluk curved sword sliced his thigh. Yusuf fell, vision blurring—until Shirkuh's axe cleaved the attacker's skull.
**Shirkuh:** "UP, NEPHEW! AYYUBS DIE ON THEIR FEET!"
They stood back-to-back as the tide of steel closed in.
**Yusuf:** "The lighthouse... if we lose it—"
**Shirkuh:** "We won't." He bellowed to his guard: "TO THE PHAROS! HOLD THE BEACON!"
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**Scene Name: "Bargaining With Vultures"**
**Pharos Lighthouse – Dusk**
Amalric's herald approached under a white flag. The king's terms were etched in arrogance:
>*"Yield Alexandria. Walk away barefoot. Or we butcher every soul."*
Shirkuh spat. "We'll drown you in your own blood first."
**Yusuf:** (Quietly) "Uncle. Look."
He pointed to the city below. Children scuttled like starved rats. Soldiers gnawed on leather shields.
**Yusuf:** "We've bled them enough. Withdraw now... and we return stronger."
**Shirkuh:** (Eyes burning) "You ask me to surrender?"
**Yusuf:** "I ask you to *survive*. Nuruddin needs us alive to unite Egypt."
Shirkuh crumpled the terms. To the herald:
**"Tell Amalric: we leave at dawn. But harm one Alexandrian... and I'll mount Shawar's head on these walls."**
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**Scene Name: "The Last Light"**
**Alexandria – Dawn Departure**
As the Syrian column marched out, Yusuf lingered at the shattered Gate of the Moon. An old woman pressed a clay amulet into his hand—an ankh entwined with a crescent.
**Woman:** "You kept your word. You defended us."
**Yusuf:** "Not well enough."
**Woman:** "You will return."
Shirkuh mounted his horse, his wounded arm stiff.
**Shirkuh:** "You fought like a lion. But lions need prides. Remember these people. They are why we'll conquer Egypt."
Yusuf glanced back at the Pharos. Its beacon flickered to life—a defiant star against the retreating dark.
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