Ever since the rise of the Kingdom of France to the world stage, relations between it and the rest of the world had been strange. The initial rise of the French Queen seemed to set the stage for a massive European war, as revanchist French monarchs with a great skill for war so often did, however after securing her borders the lack of any provocative action was surprising to the Athenian Federation. Even more surprising was when only weeks later while Athens was fighting to safe its citizens the French were there together with the Poles. Finally even in the Byzantine League France had shown itself a promising partner. With all of these events transpiring the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had begun setting the stage for a bilateral meeting, first on lower levels and eventually moving up with the eventual goal of bringing about a bilateral alliance. Athens still wanted France to join the Byzantine League in the longterm but something was needed in the shortterm. While things were still deemed too sensitive for the Empress and Queen to meet directly, one of the many similarities appeared to be the great trust both monarchs placed in their siblings. With that in mind the second best kind of meeting had been arranged. A meeting between the Dauphine of France and the Crown Princess of Macedon. Valletta had been chosen as the site of the momentous occassion, being located roughly between the two countries and due to only recently shifting from military governorship to regular rule still highly discrete it was perfect for such a meeting. After all for now press was not a welcome guest.
As Elena Amalia sat in the front of the Hellenic Air Force ACJ TwoTwenty (Usually used by Air Force generals which provided the perfect cover to hide the Princess’ presence, rather than the usual A380 the Imperial family would use) she looked over all the files her sister had given her to prepare for the summit ahead of her. The Kingdom of France was certainly an interesting country, in many ways having reverted to the feudal era it mysteriously still managed to bring about a functional state. And certainly one more stable than the warring period that immediately preceded it and saw France lose its centuries-held dominion over Europe. After the plane landed at King Philip IV International Airport (recently renamed by the new Maltese Princess in honour of Elena’s father), Elena Amalia would be escorted outside by the Imperial Guard and transferred into an armoured car immediately which would take them the final stretch of the trip to The Palace.
While The Palace might have lacked some of the excess of the Imperial Palace or the Palace of Versailles, it definitely still had plenty of luxury and was in many ways more secure than either of those. One of the advantages of being built on an island that spent most of its history being sieged or conquerred by one regional power or another. As the car stopped well within the security perimeter where no press was allowed Princess Nora and her Serene Guard would stand ready to welcome Elena Amalia.
“Nora!” The latter spoke excitedly as she got out of her car and approached her childhood friend. “Lena!” Nora replied as she embraced the Greek imperial. “It is so good to see you, the Maltese sun really suits you” She added after she let go of Elena again.
“Not as much as it suits you, you look like one of the goddesses.” Elena said before turning to business, time for fun was available later. “Have you heard from the French yet?”
“The Serene Guard has just informed me that one of their patrols has made contact with the plane carrying the Dauphine. She should be here within one to two hours”
“Excellent, let’s go inside then so we can wait for our guest”
