The Maahes of the narrowing river. Mari-Nuba was a Nubian watcher from the kingdom of Makuria, and she took the mantle just before the world changed. In 639, an Arab army entered Egypt. In 642, and again in 652, it marched south against Dongola, and was turned back.
She held a house in the Makurian capital, and for decades she kept a single door open: a narrow river line between the south and the north, passing through a kingdom that had just signed a treaty with the greatest power in the world. The treaty promised peace and a yearly exchange of goods. The Pride read it as a chance. Under its cover, her couriers could move the Pride's people, jars and messages up and down the Nile without ever being stopped.
It was the last time the Nile would be the Pride's main road. Mari-Nuba knew it, and she spent the rest of her 49 years preparing the Pride for what came after.
What she left behind: the Quiet Line, the treaty-shielded river route that kept the Pride alive.
