📌 Previously in Chapter 19:
Zayd uncovered a large-scale trade scam involving noble families and foreign agents. His intelligence, silence, and skill earned him hidden allies—and more enemies. But now, after six years, it was time to return home.
📍 Scene: Village of Al-Qarah – Early Morning
The village had barely changed. The same mud-brick walls, olive trees lining the stream, and the smell of baked bread from old Umm Fatimah's house. But the boy who left had become something far greater.
ZAYD IBN SULEIMAN, now 20 years old, walked with calm purpose. His thobe was plain but freshly stitched, and the falcon NIMR circled above before landing softly on his shoulder.
Children stared. Elders whispered.
He reached his old courtyard—and the moment the gate creaked open—
UMMI (Mother) (running to him, weeping):
"Zayd… ya ibni… you've become a man."
FATHER (quietly proud):
"A man of your word, mashallah."
Zayd kissed their hands, his voice steady but thick with emotion.
ZAYD:
"I'm home, Abi… Ummi. And I didn't just return. I brought back knowledge, skill, and purpose."
📍 Scene Change: The Cousin Appears
A young man leapt from a hay cart nearby, half-tripping on his robe.
COUSIN ABDUL-QADIR (QADIR) (grinning):
"So, the hero returns! I was beginning to think you'd joined the caliph's court and forgotten your little cousin!"
ZAYD (laughs):
"How could I? I knew I'd need someone to talk too much while I do the thinking."
QADIR (mock offended):
"Talking is thinking. Ask any gossiping auntie!"
They embraced warmly. Qadir was the same age as Zayd — spirited, fast-talking, but full of heart. The perfect partner for the road ahead.
📍 Scene Change: Quiet Family Dinner – Evening
The family gathered for a warm meal. Zayd explained only fragments of his journey.
ZAYD (seriously):
"I learned more than trade. I learned how empires rise… and how they rot. I saw talent wasted, and fools in power. But here, with the right hands… we'll rise again."
FATHER:
"Do you have a plan?"
ZAYD:
"Yes. It starts with something small — a shop. Me and Qadir. Just the two of us, for now."
QADIR (already chewing dates):
"Three! Don't forget Nimr — he gets more attention than either of us."
📍 Scene Change: Empty Stall Beside the Mosque – Next Day
Zayd and Qadir stood before a dusty, half-crumbled stall beside the village mosque.
QADIR (doubtfully):
"This is the shop? It's smaller than Aunt Fatimah's chicken coop."
ZAYD:
"It's not the space. It's what we do with it."
Zayd knelt, tracing the stones, inspecting the roof, testing the wood.
ZAYD (thinking aloud):
"We'll need to reinforce the beams, repaint the front, and install a locked storage. I'll write to a carpenter I met in Basra. He owes me a favor."
QADIR:
"You have carpenters on call? What are you, a merchant or a war general?"
ZAYD (smiling):
"Both."
🔚 Closing Narration:
Zayd ibn Suleiman had returned to his roots — not as a boy dreaming of gold, but as a man with blueprints in his mind and fire in his blood.
And beside him, the laughter of a cousin, the eyes of a falcon, and the empty shell of a shop that would one day be legend.
🔜 Next in Chapter 21:
Zayd and Qadir begin rebuilding the shop. Zayd uses old contacts to source fine goods. But when their first customer arrives, it's not to buy — it's to spy