The Sublime Porte is a governing body of the Ottoman Empire, embodied in the Padisha and his wife, the Sultan. They are given to political manoeuvre and to the work of intelligence, the better to hold their grip and their influence upon the empire. The Sublime Porte has set a company of individuals — assets cultivated by Osman Hamdi Bey — to the capture of a Skilled Assassin sent by Kavalan Pasha, their charge being to mark the assassin's tactical position without disturbing the operation already laid.
At a certain meeting the Sultan produced a scroll contrived to wipe all memory of the trio's encounter from the assassin's mind, and so preserve the integrity of the work. The company was given to understand that the Sultan may command formidable magic, for she had appeared within their shared dreams — a sign of some connexion to their present circumstances. The trio are to follow such leads as concern the assassin and other matters besides, threading all the while the tangled politics the Sublime Porte governs.
More recently, a company known as The Party has emerged, dedicated to the protection of Mustafa Pasha, Vizier-i Aezam-i Azam, from a plot of assassination laid by Hamit the Quartz of Damascus. They work out of Yedikule Fortress, where they set a snare to take Hamit alive and to wipe his memory of the encounter with a memory-erasing scroll. The Party's strategy ran to the fortifying of the fortress, the recruiting of allies, and the setting of divers traps for its defence. Some day's labour they spent in preparing Yedikule Fortress, contriving a decoy plan that disguised the true Vizier as a common prisoner and set a decoy in the Royal Cell; and they kept the prisoner's true identity from the Mansur Enforcers, the better to guard against leaks.
During the assault, Hamit and his crew came to blows, and casualties fell amongst the hired guards. The Party's defences numbered veteran fighters hidden away as prisoners, and such traps as a sleep-gas grenade and a falling net. For all their preparations, the attackers cleared several rooms and took their hurts, and the confrontation grew chaotic. In the end Hamit was captured, and his memory wiped away before a diplomatic meeting at which his death was orchestrated by Kavalan.