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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7092114" data-attributes="member: 20323">[SECTION][ALIGN=LEFT]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/eb/1d/0c/eb1d0ce2dbac2a2b4a1f8d1c65366c7f.jpg[/ALIGN]His bushy eyebrows raising in bewilderment, Sheikh Ali regains his composure with all the surety of a man accustomed to ruling, though his lips remain somewhere between being pursed in anger and curling upward in wry amusement. "Prince Harun al-Assad, you took the very words from my mouth," Sheikh Ali quips upon Harun asking why his father sent him here. While Harun was barely a legitimate heir, and the younger and less respectable of Prince Tannous' sons, he was still the son of a Prince. And that made him a Prince, at least in any court that he traveled to. "Surely Prince Tannous had some reason in sending you here, besides playing pranks on my guards?"Yet the boisterous Prince could probably get away with more, as he reminds Sheikh Ali of himself in his younger years. Headstrong. Sharp-witted. Finding a way to belong, whether in the city, among desert tribes, or whatever situation he found himself in. "Black-robed raiders have devastated the overland trade routes, driving caravans to a trickle of what they once were. Many whisper they are more than mere men, jann perhaps, though it isn't known for certain. Ambush, deceit, and viciousness are their weapons. As I understand it, three years have passed since the House of Sihr (Jann of the High Desert) sent a representative bearing tribute to our Grand Caliph, praise on his name. Though I've no evidence, I believe there must be a connection. Nothing trespasses in the High Desert without the knowledge of the jann." Though the Sheikh has the decorum not to state it outright, it becomes clear why Prince Tannous sent Harun here – besides keeping him from making an embarrassment of courtly politics – to discover why tribute of the jann has not been reaching the Grand Caliph, and to rectify the situation.Returning his attention to the map and those gathered around it, Sheikh Ali listens to his daughter's account, brows furrowing as she mentions the Haras al-Sirri, the secret police which once served the wicked Sultan of Tajar. "The Haras al-Sirri? These are dangerous men, Akilah, barely controlled even in the days of the Sultan. Why now? It has been nigh 30 years since my father and his coalition overthrew the Sultan. What have these men been doing in that time? What makes you think they can be trusted?"[/SECTION]</blockquote>

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