King Zamir Ali Yahbir was pacing back in forth in his palace as slaves held up messages from across his kingdom. As he was considering the messages, his son Tharin came into the room and bowed down in front of his father, as was only right since his father was King.

King Zamir chuckled and said, “Rise, Tharin and give your father a hug. It’s been too long. I trust your journey to the Parthian Empire went well.”

“It could have been better. Some of our old customers have decided they like the Paulsland perfume better, so it took a few weeks longer to sell before our caravan could make it back across the desert.”

“Don’t worry about Paulsland. I sent General Bayin with an army to conquer them. He is currently sieging their only port. According to him, it has some impressive fortifications, so he will soften it up until November or December and then actively try to breach their walls.”

Tharin was confused and asked, “Why wait so long?”

“Their planting season starts in November. He thinks that a lot of their forces will have no choice but to go back to their homes to plant crops or face famine. So until then, he is content to fire ballistae at their stone walls. It's not a big deal since the colonies can feed Bayin’s army. Once the port is captured, we can slowly make Paulsland pay for all the harbors they burned.”

“I heard rumors about that, but I dared not believe it. How bad was the damage?”

“They utterly wiped out every major port we have and several of the smaller ones.”

Tharin’s face went pale, and he asked, “Father, what are we going to do? We rely on those ports to survive.”

Zamir gave his son a look of disappointment and said, “You have been hanging around merchants too long. Although it's true many merchants have lost everything, and with their debt, they will have to sell their sons and daughters to brothels, what does that matter to us? What have I always told you about problems?”

“Problems are opportunities.”

“You know I want you to be the next King, but the last King’s son Yuhahmid has been very politically active. He has been making alliances with the other nobles, helping them increase their wealth, strengthening their armies, and overall being a nuisance. Some of the ports that were burned were the ports of his allies. Unfortunately for his allies, their ports will not be getting rebuilt anytime soon.”

“How can you make that happen?”

“First of all, I directly control or through allies control all the caravans. Any order for wood that goes through the caravans will be sent to whatever city I deem worthy. I will, of course, order wood to my cities and the cities of my allies first. There are several smaller ports that are owned by loyalists that I am going to expand. Our supporters will be better off than before they were burned down because they will need more docks since the ports that belong to Yuhahmid’s supporters are not going to be rebuilt.”

Therin gave his father a disbelieving look and asked, “How can you ensure that?”

“The same way, I ensure that all the caravans are controlled by me and my allies. I will pay some less savory people to disrupt their trade.”

“PIRACY!?”

“Yes. Every noble has pirates on their payroll. It's part of the process of growing your house. Although all of the Himyarite’s major ports were burned down, most merchant vessels were at sea when it happened. When those merchant's vessels reach port, they will be sent to the Saka Satraps, or Satavahana empire, for wood to rebuild their ports. Between all the pirates, my allies and I control, very few merchants will reach our political opponent's harbors. In a few years, your place as the next King will be more solid.”

“Father, I didn’t know you practiced such underhandedness.”

“Therin, you are too soft. I think you spent too much time around your mother and your tutors. They taught you how to read, write, and do arithmetic, but they clearly also taught you the deadly concept of honor. Honor is wonderful for a soldier or normal man, but if a noble is honorable, he will watch as his daughters are raped and his sons beheaded. Everyone wants what nobles have. I will have to think about which tutor to give you next so you understand the practical, unspoken realities of nobility.”

“What reality?”

“Our nation is protected from invasion from the North by the desert, and the sea protects us from every other direction. The only enemy that truly endangers us is the other nobles, and any opportunity to make them weaker must be taken.”

“But what about the people? If you hurt the nobles, you hurt your own people.”

Zamir grew angry and asked, “Did you talk to those Christians? Did they tell you something stupid, like every person is important because they are made in the image of God?”

Tharin turned away.

Zamir raised his hand to slap the back of his stupid son’s head because his son should already know that nobles had to act a certain way or their lives were forfeit, but before he could strike, a messenger came into the room and bowed before the King.

Zamir lowered his hand and asked, “What is it?”

“Aksum has started an invasion in Muza.”

Zamir frowned and asked the messenger, “Do you know who controls Muza?”

“Yuhahmid.”

“So you interrupted my time with my son to tell me about another noble’s city getting invaded. That could have waited until morning.” Zamir turned to one of his guards and said, “Behead this man and sell his family into slavery. Remind the other messengers when it’s appropriate to interrupt me and when it's not.”

The King ignored the man as he begged for mercy, but Tharin was moved to compassion, “Father, that message was important.”

“That message could wait. Every messenger should know that I am political rivals with Yahahmid, and so anything happening to their territory can wait until I find time to meet them.”

“But Father, what if Aksum gets a foothold in our territory.”

“Son, you are not looking at the big picture. Yahahmid has to react to this invasion immediately. He can not wait. It will cost him time, energy, and men. If he is able to fight off the invasion without the help of the Himyarite army, then he will look strong, but he will lose thousands of men. If he is unable to fight them off, then he will look weak. I am not going to do a thing until he faces Aksum in battle. He knows this, all the nobles know this, and the messenger should have known it.”

“So you are going to do nothing while Aksum invades.”

“No. Currently, the army is spread out all over Himyarite to help deal with the panic of all the harbors getting burned. In truth, the army is spread out to cities that are ruled by houses that are allied with us. And those that are not allied with us have a very small contingent of the army there just so I can say I sent soldiers to help. The nobles will see through it, but the people are stupid and won't understand the games the nobles have to play with their lives. I am going to recall the army to the capital, and then if Yuhahmid succeeds, I will ask him why he demanded the army and the nobles for a problem he could handle for himself. If he fails, I will ask why he didn’t wait for the army. Either way, he loses.”

“And what if Aksum invades the city and uses it as a foothold for an invasion of our entire nation?”

“Then over a hundred thousand Aksum men will die.” Zamir paused for a moment, his displeasure shown all over his face, then said, “For the next couple of years, you will be tutored by one of our generals. You should not be this worried, especially when the answer to your question is so obvious. Aksum is a mountain nation. They are used to colder climates in the hills of Aksum. They will struggle with the heat of our desert, which will allow our men to rout them in any prolonged battle. Even if that wasn’t so, they will have difficulty moving so many of their men through the mountains of their nation to their harbors before bringing them to Himyarite. They are going to move their soldiers much slower than we will. If we need to, we can have eighty thousand veteran troops and four hundred thousand conscripts in three months retaking Muza. We just have to wait for Yahahmid to fail.”

“But Father, what if after all that they are able to hold onto Muza? It’s a coastal city, after all. If they fill it with troops, they can constantly resupply it.”

“Then we will just have to hire mercenaries to fight for us. Our cities are still rich with gold, silver, frankincense, and myrrh. Compared to us, Aksum is poor. Even if they were able to hold off our army in battle, they will never be able to hold off all the mercenary armies we can hire. Besides, you are not looking at the opportunities. With any luck, Yahahmid will die in battle, but even if he doesn’t, his standing will go down among the nobles. Our standing will increase as merchant ships from the colonies start bringing back cheap wood. We don’t want to bring back that wood too quickly, though. Let them pay the high price for Satavahana wood before we supply them with cheap wood from the colonies. Let them learn to appreciate it before we give it to them.”

Tharin’s father continued, “On the merchant side of things, since our ports are burned down, and we have an army invading us, we will be able to raise the price of frankincense and myrrh. With this invasion, some people will panic buy, despite the Paulsland perfume. And in a few short months, we will have control of the Paulsland perfume, which will bring in even more profits. So son, repeat the phrase I love so much.”

“Every problem is an opportunity.”

“Someday, when you realize how true that statement is, I will give you real responsibility, but until then, I have to find some tutors to get some of your stupid ideas out of your head. Especially the idea of honor.”

Unfortunately for Zamir, he would not find out about Alexander’s conquest of the Himyarite colonies for many more weeks, and the merchants that bought the Paulsland perfume formula still had several months before their perfume was ready. Those merchants just didn’t realize that Paulsland's “traitors” were selling the formula to every merchant they could find. King Zamir was about to have some problems where he would have a very difficult time finding opportunities. Sometimes problems have to age like a fine wine before they are ready.