(Part 1)

Not very long after Urdin concluded his private soul-searching session, there were three knocks at his study's door.

"Enter."

It was Mirani, smiling as she obliged. "Hello, dear. Hope I'm not in the way of anything important?"

"As if there could be anything unimportant in my years of rule. Why are you here? This is no proper place for a chat."

Mama Viper laughed sweetly at that. "This was my father's palace, and I am his daughter; his only remaining one, should I add. I may talk anywhere I'd like in it, way I see it. 'Sides, when was the last time either of us wives got the chance to talk eye to eye with you?"

"Is that so? Where is Vestra, then?"

"Attendin' to her duties, like the darn-good spouse she is--not like I'd need her permission to engage in this audience anyway. So?"

"So be it. Sit."

Here again Mirani obliged. "Any news on Mustafa?"

"I was just considering to send him some actual reinforcements, the only thing in hindrance being the advent of winter. It's a darn-long way north."

"Never the right season for campaigns anywhere," the Izurian consort observed. "All the same, battles are battles. Will you be telling him to stand fast in the meantime?"

"That's just it; I think he's waited so long for that, any delay on my part might appear self-serving. On the plus side, Mu seems to have gained himself a sturdy ally-"

"The Dragoness," Mirani cut in. "Lass no older than Zal, leadin' proper troops in battle most likely for the first time, against actual rebels fired by the dogged zeal of desperation. Could you still be so naive, you who have seen through so many campaigns yourself?"

The Amir looked up with narrowed eyes. "Are you here to mock me?"

"I'm here to provide you with good counsel, if you would listen."

"Oh?" the Amir smirked. "Now that's an offer worth considering, coming from the very last daughter of Tharion who had himself been a thorn in my side for a darn-good part of my rule. Not like the very mention of your name wouldn't have inspired a fair dose of trepidation at some places, either; you've been rumored to be quite the crafty wench, did you know that? Very well, make your case!"

"Well, just hear me out, darling," Mama Viper suggested. "Afterwards, I'll let you decide whether bloodlines could have anything to do with good stratagem.

"For years now," she went on, "you have been eyeing domains outside yours to either placate or subjugate; yet, having spent so much of your time afield, you must have realized that all external advances must inevitably come to a halt."

The Amir drummed his own fingers at the table. "Just what are you trying to say, Mira?"

"I say, dear," his second consort replied, rising from her seat, "that we are not invincible, no matter how hard you would want to drill your commanders and men, or however many resources you would want to consecrate to this end. Mustafa has to be one of the best-trained in this respect, spare me the details... and he's being put to siege right as we speak, when most lads of his age would have been content enough at playing war games! Oh, he's not even my own son, I know, but... you cannot reasonably expect to see this entire peninsula flying your colors in one lifetime, mark my words. Not even with Mu's aid, that poor kid."

Urdin pursed his own lip. "I have taken steps to augment his strength, you know that."

"By sending a regiment out right in the advent of winter?" The shock in her tone was plain. "You said it; it's a darn-long way north. Even if they force-march, which I highly doubt will be part of your actual orders to them for sanity's sake--how soon do you think it'd take before they would reach him, to then try to reinforce a city under siege?"

It was the last straw. "What would you have me do, let that city fall?!"

"If need be!" She met his glare. "A temporary setback on one city won't make your hard-won empire crumble anytime soon, insha Allah, and there shall always be the chance of recapture in much better weathers than this! Get Mu home posthaste, if his well-being is that important to you, so he could at least recuperate for the remaining length of winter in order to lead any other contingents you might care to send next. Or let him remain there, but call that regiment back and belay their orders. We may still need them."

"For what, exactly? I'd hate to see them remain immobile here, when I realize they could've been used to plug breaches in other sectors."

Sensing that she was now getting to the main point, Mirani exhaled slowly. Her lord husband was now listening to her, if still with some reluctance and perhaps doubt; but she had only one single chance to make it count.

O Allah, she prayed mentally, do aid me in this.

"I trust you need not be reminded," Mama Viper related carefully, "that there are more than one aspect to things. If there could be battles to be fought from the outside, the reverse is also true... and it has come to my attention that, indeed, we may be having a battle of the latter nature."

"A war in our own borders, eh... What kind of forces will we be facing? Dissidents?"

Tharion's last daughter nodded. "Slanderers; double-dealers; wormy apples from among your own courtiers. I have come to know that some of these had been in contact with some nobles suspected of running an extortion ring within this very city-"

"Extortion ring, you say?" Indignation now streaked Urdin's countenance. "Why had Yasnar not told me anything about this? How long has this been allowed to go on? Whatever the heck had the basiras been doing?!"

"The vazir knows you have more demanding issues to solve than bothering to keep track of individual courtiers' names... almost as well as I do," Mira offered, without adding that she had once had a hand in ensuring that such an information would not have reached the Amir's ears. "In any case, the bird is out, I'm sure Yasnar will be grateful for that much. As for the basiras, you need not point an accusing finger on them; there are still upright ones afield, naturally--but as things stand, they clearly shall need just a little more push in combating this specter. I intend to provide just such a push, but I would need your royal sanction else they'd think order is lost. Fair?"

"Yasnar has men he could rely on still," the Amir argued. "Why would he bother coming to you specifically for aid?"

"Who else but myself might have dared to tell you this and walk out alive? Oh, he might well have reported that himself for all I care, but had he also asked to join forces with me specifically then, I wonder, would you have allowed him to?"

This gave Urdin pause. "How would I know which of those apples are wormy?"

"Happens I have their names. With this in mind, that very same egghead had begun to approach yours truly for talks on just how to quash such displays of vice... but, like any other dutiful official, he's waiting for your go-ahead, as am I. Will you now deign to give it, dear?"

Were I talking with Ves, we'd likely still be wasting our breaths on which side Mu ought to have handled first between the turncoats and supposed-unbelievers, Urdin conceded mentally, and not without a healthy pinch of relief.

"How soon are your talks planned to begin?" he asked aloud.

"In three days' time," came the reply. "Zal also said she wanted to take quite a few lessons from the vazir, such that she's been pesterin' to be allowed to be in Yasnar's care for that length o' time. I agreed privately; how about you?"

"Oh, let her; might learn some graces from that fellow yet, the girl. In the meantime, good luck on your attempts to dismantle said extortion ring, as well as any and all other such displays of vice. Spare no effort in putting them in their damn-proper place! Need more help, you need only ask."

Mirani nodded in appreciation--quite the rarity. "I pray Mustafa too shall be able to hold his grounds, alongside this Dragoness or what-have-you."

"May Allah Grant that it be so! To that end... yes, I think Mu'd have to redouble his efforts once again without that regiment. I'll send him a letter to that effect, though you must also acknowledge the possible shame of his having to fall back from his very first proper station as a wali; lesser men might not have chosen to live through that. If this brewing rebellion you mentioned be true, we'd need every force we can get. Only after that shall we rush to aid him."

Mama Viper smiled. "He's not so foolish as to worry about titles in the face of real strategic moves, I gather... but so be it, I shall face that storm when it comes. May Allah Reward us well."

***

Having been informed of her father's go-ahead with the operation, Azalea now prepared to do her part in it: being a good 'guest'. Once more she reached out, but this time it was Zaeed she managed to come across.

"Ah, yes," this courtier nodded, "I have heard of such plans and agree in principle. The vazir shall, I imagine, prove to be a much-needed mentor figure for you, Princess, with due respect..."

"That's what everyone's been blurtin' out," Zalea cut in, "and I been itchin' to find out if that's indeed the case. Does that geezer say when he'd be all set to take me in at all?"

"At the vazir's behest, a chamber is being prepared to accommodate you," Zaeed related. "I and Mardan are appointed to watch over your transfer there in not-so-distant time."

"When?" the princess pressed. "Dad's acquiesced; I don't imagine it'll be very long now 'fore that egghead n' I'll see face to face."

"Patience. I assure you, we are doing our best to be ready at the proper moment," the peon replied. "I'll be sure to relate this encounter to the vazir and see if he might not feel inclined to welcome you sooner."

"That ya do."

As it later developed, Yasnar was just as eager to take stock of this particular visitor. That same evening, just after dinner, this princess was quietly told that Mardan had been waiting for her; in his company, and with hardly any further questions, she then went to her prepared chamber. It also did not escape this princess's notice that Mardan then halted at its threshold, and dared only to beckon inside, where a lone turbaned figure was standing with its back to the young visitor.

The long-awaited 'play-host' session had commenced in earnest.

(Part 2)

"Princess Azalea," the figure said, still without turning, almost immediately after the sound of his visitor closing the door.

"Vazir Yasnar," came the surprisingly-polite reply. "Surely you have not forgotten your manners? Is this how you would insist to speak to a royal scion: by having your stooped back turned on her?"

"We have met before," this egghead asserted, "and at that time I referred to you as a 'squirt'."

"Only by my request. I make no such now."

"The fact that you're the one visiting me now, means that you would want something only I possess; therefore, no readjustments to that end are going to be needed. Again, I bid you welcome."

Zalea smiled in quiet admiration. "Pleasure's mine."

At his own time, the vazir finally turned to regard the princess, revealing an aged but still sufficiently-firm countenance framed in a mixture of a white turban, and beard and goatee of similar hue.

"Twenty years has this Amir been reigning," he remarked. "I had been by his side that entire time, and am going to be in my sixty-second year in another turn of the moon, if indeed I shall be destined to live that long. Just how many summers have you seen, dear?"

"Fourteen."

"Not so much older than that Dragoness lass up north," he chuckled, a short wheeze, "and you of all people dared to speak to me on manners! By rights you should be kissing my hands as any well-mannered grandkid should... but, since you're never exactly that refined nor are blood of mine, I forgive it."

"I don't come all that way just to be chided, ya know that!"

"I do! Yet how often have you had such gentle corrections before, pray tell me? Mirani's not the type to give them easily; have you not been enjoying this change of pace, nay, even craving for it, deep down?"

Azalea's seething silence spoke volumes.

"Why. Am. I. Here?!" she blasted soon after. "It better not start with freakin'-'once upon a time'..!"

The vazir moved to one side of the room, keeping his hands wrung behind the back. "First things first. Do you still recall what happened three years ago, Squirt?"

The princess scoffed at that, crossing her arms. "Would that I forget. Mustafa almost got wasted; what of it?"

"That's about all you were taught to believe, isn't it?" he looked at her quizzically. "To remember those only with more direct consequences to your lines, hence the claim of significance... And what do you think happened right after that?"

"By morning, Mu implored Dad for justice 'gainst those catspaws' backers," Zalea replied, trying to recollect events. "Dad readily obliged, and sent out orders to march... Where, I can't quite put it."

Yasnar nodded at the recollection. "They had hailed from House Azam, a fellow contender against the Izurian Empire of decades gone by; and as you might have come to learn, one den cannot long be inhabited by two tigers. Urdin's eagerness to put them off the board was pardonable, though not so much his ways of achieving it."

"Why? What did he do?"

"That march order was to Azam's capital, then known as Melvir. Its garrison had refused to meet our forces in open battle; certainly not against the same forces that had, a few years previously, given that of the Empire's a darn-good thrashing on the Badra Plains, even when outnumbered three to one. In fact, just as Urdin was ordering his legions to pitch tents alongside a then-Sergeant Idris, the Melvirans had seen it fit to send him envoys--to the effect that they had overthrown their leader who had sanctioned Mu's disposal in the first place; please, could our present Amir not reconsider?"

Zalea looked up with a start at this. "But then... You can't mean..!"

The vazir nodded somberly.

"In sending out said envoys and with their foul-willed leader now disposed of," he resumed, "the Melvirans believed themselves to essentially have surrendered even before the siege could commence in earnest... but commence it did, out of your father's sheer unwillingness to believe in such an easy way out without the added possibility of a ruse. Ten days, it had gone on for... until Sergeant Idris managed to get through with his proposal to, Exalted Be Allah, please cease this madness!" Azalea noticed her host's expression was quite unforgiving as he reached this point in his recount, and for once she dared not interrupt. "To this second offer, using quite a fair amount of wits and threats, Urdin had finally relented-"

"But the damage had been done," the princess offered, trying her best to keep the tone mild despite herself, "and even today, some in that city might still hate Dad for having used force on a politically-blameless place."

"Even despite said city's rechristening to 'Ardis', yes," her host agreed. "Sergeant Idris, in contrast, once word about his deeds became known, had been uniformly acclaimed by the newly-minted Ardisians, earning the appellation 'Preserver of Azam' despite the Amir's obvious chagrin. In fact, the city's adopted name itself might be taken as a form of honoring your cousin's memory."

Azalea chewed her own lower lip. "I can see that... but, I don't suppose this has any relations with the siege Mu is bein' a target of as we speak?"

"Oh, but it does: one event could be, and in this case had been, linked to so many others, reasons notwithstanding," came the vazir's no-less-alarming response. "The present rebels' leader, Wali Vasmir, had come from that same city, according to my sources... and I would wager he must have started his daring venture partly with the understanding that he was acting against the son of his city's defamer, hence this oh-so-protracted operation. Urdin might not have realized this, but should Nasria fall..."

"That'd spell Mu's doom." This princess, for once, was thoroughly terrified--somewhat worsened by her host's lack of immediate counter-argument to such a prospect. "Dad knew, though! That's why he's decided to send reinforcements..."

"Deciding on something and actually acting it out are often not the same thing, Princess," the vazir observed, finally ceasing to wring his own hands together. "Let's hope he remembers to dispatch them. For now, though," Yasnar stared down at her, "the best we can do is to observe developments... and please, for your own sake, make no attempt to leave here and relate this new bit about Vasmir to anyone just yet, alright? Your mother and I have an agreement, already in force before this new fact had even come to light. With hindsight, I might also claim that it shall remain so in spite of it. Do I make myself clear, Squirt?"

Zalea flushed. "Had it been anyone but you saying that, I'd have burst out this instant to alert 'em regardless!"

"No, you would wish not," came the quizzical reply, "'cause my agents would not have been the only ones out in force, prowling 'round as we speak for easy meat. Trust me on this, would you? Mirani would've expected that too, if with far less grace."

"Screw her."

***

Even as Azalea was being quietly conducted to the chamber prepared under the vazir's auspices, her younger brothers were still in the dining room for some time after that day's dinner had been declared concluded. These young princes were mulling over their first day of respective trainings--Rashid alternating between bow and thrown daggers, and Dastra with his preferred weapon: the spear.

"My instructor Raidan didn't look anywhere too happy today, though," Dastra confided, nowhere too amused himself. "Somethin' 'bout not being allowed north as part of his regiment to finally meet Akhi, on lands where--that peon dared to claim--chances of martyrdom abound. Tried reminding him that tutoring one of such a warrior's own brothers would still be somethin' worth speaking of, but... dang it, didn't seem to go down very well."

"Well," his remaining brother observed, chuckling, "at least he's still willing enough to train you."

"He should be," the princeling pointed out, "for otherwise he'd be braving Mom's displeasure. Boy, would she have wrecked him then!"

"Mirani's no longer that kind of person, Das, nor should you begin to be," Rashid reminded him. "I can sense it, can you not? She's made peace with your true sister, and it might not be too long 'fore the vazir too shall be part of her game."

"Nah, Big Bro, he's way too smart for that," Das smiled back. "I gather they shall spar as equals... but to what end?"

Rashid shrugged playfully. "Ask her."

"Say, Big Bro," the other prince leaned forward, "for too-darn long we ain't gotten a single letter from Cousin Id, and it won't be 'til the day after tomorrow that we'll be training again. Think it'd be fine if we should ask Big Sis Lei to go with us to Id's place?"

"May have to check with her, but it should be fine. 'Sides, I had been to Id's place with Zalea once; so guess what, I'll regard tomorrow as a day off for a well-deserved rest. 'Tis your turn now to pay your respects."

"Oh, be it so."

(Part 3)

If members of the Amir's household were not being in their best spirits owing to the news that one of them was being besieged leagues away alongside heathens, Courtier Razin's situation too could not be said to have had a far smoother run.

It had proven particularly bothersome to try to persuade remaining members of his gang of double-dealers, schemers and blackmailers, that their cause was still feasible following Mama Viper's subtle but palpable self-dissociation from them: Aldeer, hitherto known to be this courtier's right-hand man, already was having second thoughts about remaining in such a team. If more of such displays were not discouraged soon, Razin was painfully aware that he might have to shelf his long-coveted aspirations entirely.

So try to discourage it he did.

"Every man's true test of resolve, Aldeer," this courtier conceded, "shall begin the moment things start to get tough; you know this. We've come this far, done away with some of the vazir's better-placed prattlers, even rigged up mutually-beneficial working relationships with Fatan and other like-minded nobles--and, pray recall, they have not failed our trust. So many sparks just waiting to explode! Why this soft-pedaling now?"

"And just what would make it explode, pray tell me?" Aldeer retorted. "Some of that old-timer's agents had been removed, true, but in the grander scheme of things they are at best expendable. Not 'til we get rid of the vazir himself, shall this kind of game be considered over. Now that the likes of Mirani had seen it proper to back out, who will undertake to take him on? You?"

"Oh, I would if I have to, and I may... but you see, it may not have to come to that."

Aldeer blinked. "How..?"

"Never forget, we have all been learning a trick or two under that wench's proverbial wings," Razin asserted, "and we know she would almost always prefer subterfuge to raw force... so we'll try that too, as a proper first step."

"What exactly do you have in mind?"

At this Razin smirked, tapping his colleague on the shoulder with such confidence, Aldeer had few other options than starting to admire him.

"A whisper campaign," this courtier replied. "As luck would have it, I do know of some secrets of the sort that Mira would not have been so careless to unveil without due recriminations. Played with enough candor this could well be our ace, with no blood spilled but hers and that of the vazir! With those two no longer in the way, the rest would fall to place far quicker than when that turncloak Mirani was still one of us... but in order to greet a windfall on that scale, we'd still need to prepare. Are you with me?"

"I'm not sure," was Aldeer's blunt reply. "If it's just the vazir I'd understand, but why Mirani too? Have you not thought of Prince Dastra?"

"Change of plans," Razin confided. "Think 'bout it: Mirani had turned her back on our cause. Ought we still espouse the weak-willed son to such a turncoat for our future ruler? He's not likely to sit that throne for very long anyway, wouldn't you think?"

"Weak-willed or otherwise, the prince is still an Izurian scion," Aldeer pointed out. "His is the proper bloodline--such is the case we've been making to our backers!"

"Nor is bloodline the proper cornerstone to build a reign on, I've been thinking," Mama Viper's erstwhile right-hand man explained, "else that of King Tharion would have endured despite everything. No! The proper basis for any reign is strength..."--here Razin put up his clenched fist for emphasis--"...and support. The first I believe we now have, no thanks to the tricks we've learned from that wench. For the latter, well, here too we owe Mira, particularly for the agents she'd positioned--most of whom under my guidance. If we can somehow repurpose them towards our new purpose of creating a new independence faction, would you still be willing to back me in such a cause?"

This gave Aldeer pause, as this courtier began to realize the fickle nature of the double-game he had agreed to play this whole time.

Privately, he had agreed to join Razin's bandwagon due to the latter's professing to help resuscitate the venerable Izurian legacy under Mirani, who herself was a true daughter from that family... yet now, with Mirani out, this same scoundrel would actually dare to employ everything that they had learned against the very hand that had helped feed them!

Even if independence could somehow be achieved against Urdin's battle-tested legions, what guarantee would he, Aldeer, have to not fall to this usurper's blade next?

All the same, to oppose Razin right away would likely mean instant demise, under the circumstances.

"Be it so!" Aldeer moved to grasp his counterpart's hand in apparent earnestness. "Independence would mean a step closer to renown we so deserve... plus, we still have Fatan's endorsement, and so many others like him. What shall our first target be?"

Razin smirked. "Do away with Dastra. Plan we must, plan we shall; but with that simpleminded stripling gone, even the fork-tongued Mirani shall be so much easier to cripple in her turn."

"And... the other one?"

"Azalea? More likely to spark discontent than snuff it," the new mastermind observed. "Little more than a pest, in baser terms. Everyone shall feel a bit better without her around."

"She knows you," Aldeer offered, with some hope.

"Her last mistake."