Heydar was pleased that Abbas had arrived first as he had a favour to ask him. "I'm pleased my sister is preparing for marriage, its long overdue. Naturally we shall all be attending, I couldn't miss my little sisters wedding." He was just about to suggest them having a seat in the adjoining office when Mahdi arrived along with his two children. "Its a pleasure to meet you." Heydar extended a hand. "Golzar perhaps you, Amir and Assad should head down to the stables, check our camel for the Trophy race is in good shape. Afroditi will you go with them." The Princess stood and ushered the younger royals out and headed down to where Majestic Grace, the Soter Stables prize camel was being prepared. A boy aged no older than Golzar and Amir was busy grooming it and upon seeing the royals snapped smartly to attention.
"Your Highnesses" he bowed. "I am Parvez, humbled to be the groom of His Majesties stables" In truth the Soters had very little direct day to day input to the stables, instead just funding it but expecting big results. The results often came because the family could afford the best, finest breeding stock, state of the art training facilities and medics.
"Carry on Parvez. We're just here to see how the girls doing" Afroditi patted the Camel's side. "Do you have camel racing back home?" the Princess asked the two guests. "Its ok you can pet her."
Back upstairs Heydar turned to his first wife "Chyrssa I need a quick word about the upcoming wedding with Emperor Abbas. Please ensure Prince (OOC - Or whatever the title is) Mahdi is comfortable."
"Of course" Chyrssa guided Mahdi outside to the balcony. Silver platters of fresh fruit and various other snacks lined a table by the door. The seats were more like armchairs than the plastic stadium seats that the grandstand beneath them had and each chair was made of leather with the Soter family crest embossed into them, Chyrssa sat down and indicated Mahdi should join her. "I'm sorry my husband has wedding business to attend to, its something we're looking forward to. The formal connection of the two families who have been friends for such a long time." Haniyah appeared with a small silver teapot and poured a strong mint tea for each of them before sitting at the opposite side of Mahdi making an effective Mahdi sandwich between the two Queens. "So I understand the Queen was busy? Nothing major I hope. We do hope she'll be invited to the wedding it'll be nice to see more nations of our neighbourhood coming together."
In the small office Heydar indicated for Abbas to take one of the two chairs before pulling his own round so that the desk was not between them. "What I have to ask is delicate. Its two favours in effect....please feel free to say no but I would appreciate your discretion on both." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Forgive me I'm no scientist." he stumbled awkwardly trying to pronounce some scientific term, "or as I prefer to call it Living Cement. Its that stuff you may have read about where our scientists have tried making a runway by spraying a biological agent on normal soil or even sand. I'd like a testing ground to show the stuff works. I'd therefore like to gift a few barrels of the stuff to you. Additionally I think its time that you see support from us how you have supported us. Therefore I know you have cultivated a close relationship with the Bene Gesserit. I understand they have captured several KDF aircraft but I imagine they don't control any proper runways. If perhaps you believe the Living Cement is effective you may wish to pass some to the.....what do they call themselves....Truthspeakers?"
"Now as for the second favour it will sound a little odd.....well more odd. The issues between myself and Clysperis. Its part of a game. I bear the Pharoah no ill will, she is merely a useful tool. I needed a way of getting the Cultists of our nation behind me, she provided the ammunition. Next I needed to show that we are not swayed by the opinions of others, once again she provided that ammunition with her criticism of our Iwi debt resolution. Both these things have helped bring our people behind us, something a new King needs to do. Now while I'm not about to turn around and change all of this I'm not someone who wishes to see Midaranye destabilised I realise the Pharoah needs to retain power. As such I may have a little solution that may be beneficial. I have read that you have troops in Clysperis and I assume your helping out on the ground. Those troops will need resupplying. If some of your supply drops where to land on enemy positions that would be an extremely sad thing, especially if those supplies happened to be mortar units. You see when our forces withdrew from the Iwi several thousand pieces of equipment were abandoned and I have it on good authority the Maori still use them. We however have updated or equipment yet retained some for training and nostalgia purposes. What I'd like to do is box some of these up and include some mortar shells, badly made mortar shells, ones likely to explode while still in the mortar itself. As I see it you're likely to see issues with the rebels having casualties, they'll begin to distrust their own supply lines and it'll also look like the Maori are sneaking weapons into Midaranye. Now I would prefer this operation to not be known until a date in the future I determine. A time when I no longer need the Pharoah as a foil, at that point I will need a person able to confirm what we've done. If you wish to not do this I perfectly understand. I'm investigating other avenues."
Heydar sat back and waited for Abbas response.
