* * *
By and large, Emperor Euphrates got around to hearing about the death of Master Rababull, and of the pleas for sanctuary by his many wailing widows and concubines.
According to their general testimony, it seemed that things had been happening at a drastically accelerated pace recently with respect to the affairs of the late Master Rababull, and it was not at all to their liking, these widows of Rababull's.
One named Conabar had taken over the House of Rababull, a blood relation. Conabar's friend was the savage outlaw warlord Kadrug, an enemy of the great Emperor Euphrates.
To this, Emperor Euphrates was characteristically unresponsive. To have enemies was nothing new, and more than a few had dined on a last supper of live coals for speaking the merest word against him.
The usual complaining went on. Conabar wanted to ravish their ailing old bodies. Conabar this. Conabar that. The wailing, the screaming, the emotional invectives presented quite a spectacle. When Emperor Euphrates had just about had enough of their nonsense and was almost ready to waggle a finger and have them all sent away as the pests that they were, he heard the name of Puffat, and at mention of this he abruptly held up his left hand to forestall the womens' chatter.
Raising his bushy eyebrows quizzically, Emperor Euphrates turned to his Chief Adviser, Borla, and held out his right hand to Borla like a peasant in the heat of barter.
"Puffat?" said Emperor Euphrates. "Where before have I heard the name of one called Puffat?"
For he knew he had heard it somewhere, at least once.
Borla, a tall, thin figure who invariably appeared in royal court wearing the darkest of robes, who was fond of keeping his haggard-looking head deeply and perpetually hooded, and who was not Royal Advisor for nothing, astutely put his long left index finger straight up beside the right nostril of his long, thin, protruding nose with a heavy frown, and sniffed not once but several times, somewhat noisily and theatrically. This was not done to insult Emperor Euphrates, but to further magnify His Majesty. Noses had much to do with majesty, as any proper emperor could tell you. It was Borla's formal thinking posture.