Shield or Blade

Shield or Blade was a visual representation of one of Bayek's genetic memories, relived by Layla Hassan in 2018 through the Portable Animus HR-8.
==Description==
None can cheat the weighing, or so Bayek believes. Until the blind Oracle Nena tells him of a corrupted soul trying to enter the Duat.
==Dialogue==
Outside the Hall of Knowing, Bayek met a woman who called for him.
*Nena: You have come, champion of Thoth.
Bayek approached the woman who closed her eyes.
*Nena: Can you feel it? A monstrous shade is at the gate. It threatens to devour us.
*Bayek: I feel... nothing.
*Nena: A heart. Blackened, fetid, so loathsome and heavy. It must have deceived the scales.
*Bayek: No... but the weighting cannot be cheated. All must stand before the judgement of Osiris.
*Nena: The corruption comes here, it will defile the world, blight the wheat that makes our bread. Poison the wine we drink. You must stop it, Bayek of Siwa.
*Bayek: How do you know my name?
*Nena: Your Ren was whispered by Thoth, the knowing one. He breathed it in my ear.
*Bayek: What is the god's will?
*Nena: There is a ritual, dark and heretical. Unearthed in the time of the Son of the Aten and locked away in the Hall of Knowing. You must bring it to me.
Bayek entered the Hall of Knowing, looking through the scriptures in the hall. He first read a scripture on a table.
*Bayek: A woman's prayer to Iset to make her unfaithful husband return to her.
He came across a number of scrolls on a shelf.
Bayek approached another side of the hall, reading another scripture on a table.
*Bayek: Healing rituals and spells.
He read another scroll on a nearby shelf.
Bayek approached another corner and read a scroll on the table.
*Bayek: Harvest prayers. A farmer asking the Pharaoh for bountiful crops.
He read another scroll on a shelf.
Bayek approached a locked door.
*Bayek: The forbidden scripts are behind, there must be another way in.
Bayek looked as a ball of light went into the next room through an opening at the top. He scaled up the wall and entered through the opening. As he scaled down, he read another scroll.
*Bayek: The hymn to the Aten, the heresy of the Pharaoh's father.
Bayek proceeded further into a room, reading another scroll on a shelf.
*Bayek: These texts, they reek of forbidden scriptures.
He read a letter from Nefertiti to Akhenaten.
*Bayek: Nefertiti's letters to Akhenaten about the founding of their .
Behind a sculpture, Bayek recovered the scrolls mentioned by Nena.
*Bayek: This is it... A ritual that perverts the weighing ceremony? By the gods, no...
Bayek made his way out of the hall.
*Bayek: This is dark heka indeed, I hope the Oracle understands the pact she makes.
He returned to Nena.
*Nena: It is a perversion of the Book of Breathing, intended to annihilate a man's Ka.
*Bayek: This cannot be Thoth's wish? To defy Anubis the counter of hearts?
*Nena: It is true this ritual is forbidden, sacrilege. But we must not let the poison seep through the veil.
*Bayek: What would you have me do?
*Nena: See with my eyes.
Nena opened her eyes, displaying a white iris. Bayek displayed the same white irides as she did, then departed to collect the items for the ritual.
Bayek talked to Nena before collecting the items.
*Nena: We must hurry, it may already be too late.
After collecting the final item needed for the ritual, Nena's voice rang in his head.
*Nena: Return to me where the Duat begins.
Bayek returned to Nena near the entrance to the Duat.
*Bayek: I have the things for the ritual. But... is there no other way? To destroy a man's ka is...
*Nena: Do you know how this one tricked Osiris? How they avoided the devourer ? By using the heart of an innocent, a child. I do not have to tell you what that means, Bayek.
*Bayek: Then let us begin.
Bayek initiated the ritual by placing the ingredients into a brazier.
*Nena: The warriors of the Jackal will try to stop us. Do not let them.
Nena began the ritual, while Bayek stood by to defend her from the Anubis guardians.
*Nena: I invoke you, Lord of Silence. Give us your heka and your nekhakha. I invoke you, Devourer, soul-sucker, punisher. For we seek to banish an unclean soul from this realm. May your name die. May your body decay. You shall be turned back from heaven and earth, your soul will never stand before Osiris. Thy soul destroyed, thy body destroyed, thy ka destroyed. Am-k ari her em reth xesef neter. Am-k ari her em reth xesef neter. Am-k ari her em reth xesef neter!
More warriors of Anubis arrived.
*Nena: Anubis is angry! Still they come.
Bayek defeated more of them.
*Nena: The Jackal understands! His guardians will not oppose us much longer.
Bayek defeated the last of the guardians as Nena finished her ritual.
*Nena: May you enter the afterlife with your enemy.
A portal appeared, with Lucius Septimius, a member of the Order of the Ancients, passing through.
*Bayek: Septimius! No, you will not corrupt the field of reeds as you corrupted me. Apep, devourer come!
Bayek confronted the soul of Septimius wielding the essence of darkness. A cloud of darkness engulfed both Bayek and Septimius as they both cried in pain. The cloud eventually consumed Septimius before disappearing, leaving Bayek no worse for wear. Nena spoke to Bayek.
*Nena: These demons, the souls you take? They will not deny you passage. Be at peace. Your heart is heavy no more.
Later, Bayek spoke to Nena once more, freed of the guilt that plagued his heart and manifested in the ordeal.
*Nena: Thank you living one, you have stopped a great injustice. Anubis will welcome you when your time comes. May you live forever beneath the imperishable stars.
==Outcome==
Bayek helped Nena to conduct a ritual to banish one's soul from crossing to the afterlife, later revealed to be a member of the Order of the Ancients, Lucius Septimius. He was rewarded with the Servant of Amun outfit.
==References==
*Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Curse of the Pharaohs
Category:Memories of Bayek
Category:Memories relived using the Animus HR-8