Player: Mark B
Rank: Knight1) (Rank 1)
Religion: Islam (known heretic)
Email: ali_omar_al_malik@albion.chaosdeathfish.com

The first son of Sultan Tariq Faisal Al-Malik, Prince Ali Omar Al-Malik is heir to the Sultanate of Sabha, a small kingdom of mountains and oases on the edges of the Saharan desert (modern day Libya), on the treacherous land route to central Africa.

A renowned and talented Alchemist, Prince Ali's researches at the Invisible College have shown remarkable faculty, especially since it is rumoured that he had never studied any Alchemy before beginning his studies at the College. Whether he earned the enmity of the alumni of the La Valetta School of Magic before or after he was supposedly imprisoned there is a matter of quiet conjecture. He has recently been appointed to the rank of Professor in the Alchemy Faculty.

Prince Ali is known to be a devout Muslim, if there can be such a thing.

From the Office of the Grand Master of the La Valette College of Magics and Medicine

This College has long held itself aloof from petty politics, studiously neutral in the affairs of the nobility and the Order of St. John. In recent years the Island of Malta has experienced events more significant than any of these affairs. In the last decade alone we have seen the chaos of Ottoman conquest, the expulsion of the Order of St. John, the assertion of stewardship by Albion, the dreadful inquisition that spread across the isle and then finally the full incorporation of Malta into the Kingdom of Albion. In these last few years of relative peace and growing prosperity it has become clear that the just rule of Albion will last.

It therefore is clear to the Grand Master and Faculty of this College that it behooves us to improve our ties with our sister academic institutions in the Archipelago of Albion. The Dean of the Invisible College, Prince Ali Omar Al-Malik has graciously allowed that he is willing to act as a liaison between the La Valette College and those of the University of Oxford, as well as the Invisible College.

Quietly circulated a few days prior to the much more public announcement of insitutional cooperation.

A re-examination of the academic records of the Baron Mandrake and Prince Ali Omar Al-Malik have indicated that the decision to discontinue their education at the College may have been in error. The Grand Master of the La Valette College of Magics and Medicine is therefore pleased to award both these scholars Honorary Degrees in the Alchemical Arts in recognition of their exemplary achievements in that field.

The Holy Cities are left behind now, Medina and Mecca sinking into the East even as the sun sinks into the West. The caravan of the Sultan of Sabha is by no means the largest and most important to leave those cities in the last week, for it is the duty of every Muslim who can afford to do so to visit at least once in their lives, and so Mecca is filled with those Allah has rewarded in life. Nonetheless the servants and guards and royal family of Sabha are a considerable number as they take the hard-packed road to the port of Jiddah.

Prince Ali has forgotten the heat of the day near his homeland and the relief as the coolness of evening begins to take the warmth out of the air but before night brings with it the cold. Or not forgotten perhaps, but the memories have become only words, have lost the savour of experience. He has spent so many years in exile in Albion that the dryness of the air is a constant surprise, the difference in the colour of the blue which paints the sky without cloud or mist is astonishing every morning.

There are other things to be savoured on the journey too. His father is older now, new lines have furrowed his brows, and although Ali would not say such a thing to the Sultan they seem to have ruled in wisdom too. Perhaps it is the actions of a dutiful son that have softened his heart and swept away his paranoia; the rallying of his friends in Albion to the defence of the Sultanate when the demons swept ancient Cairo away, and the aid he has not stinted since then. Perhaps it is the approaching certainty of mortality, for a man seeks his heirs in such circumstances, and worries less about being supplanted.

Whatever the truth this pilgrimage has brought him closer to Allah and his father. He will return to Sabha for the first time in a decade, and his father shall present him to the people and the court in pride and love. How very different to his departure.

Prince Ali Omar Al-Malik of Sabha uncorks a barrel of water whose journey from Albion has gone carefully disguised. The thirsty dessert of Arabia swallows the waters of the Fountain of Youth as Ali smiles on.

There are other routes to the same goal, for even the new lesser price is too great.

The caravan passes on as Prince Ali strides back to his father eager to speak further. To make up so much lost time.