The Magnaura

[AussieGiant]

A tall slender and solemn young man enters the Magnaura. He's wearing the blue silk cloak of the Saracen Mansuriyya regiment embroidered with inscriptions from the Koran. Black bands of cloth on his upper arms display his name and rank, that of an officer of one of the Sultan’s Egyptian Slave regiments. His deeply tanned face is set in a stony and unreadable expression.

That gaze falls upon a court official rapidly approaching with two burley guards in tow. The short agitated man begins speaking excitedly in rapid fire Greek, pointing to the door and gesturing for the man to leave.

With a slow even motion the Saracen Officer reaches into his red scale armoured tunic and produces a number of documents, both guards tense momentarily and even the official stops talking momentarily as a horrifying thought of violence crosses his mind.

A moment passes as the official looks at the documents held in front of him, finally he snatches the papers and begins to read. After no more than a minute he hands back the papers and hisses out a series of instructions to the young officer calmly standing before him. At last the official finishes his tirade and the young officer inclined his head in agreement and moves to the back of the room to stand against the wall and watch.