“Knowing what everyone else has in mind is probably the greatest boon and bane that a ruler could possess.” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the First Elmaiya Empire.

“May peace be upon you, friends from far away lands,” said the half-dwarven man with a slight bow towards the three. The master of the house acted the merchant he was, as if he was just greeting some business partners. To be fair, that was all the three of them would be, unless they showed him otherwise. It was not like every foreign visitor to the trading house would be a traveling agent of the Death’s Hand. “I am Farouq zem Nasril, master of this local branch of my ancestor’s trading house. How may my humble business be of assistance?”

“May peace be upon you, good master,” replied Kino in the local manner. Then she changed tack as she made a couple specific hand gestures before the man. Most people who saw those gestures likely mistook them for some sort of foreign greeting. However, people affiliated with the Death’s Hand would recognize it as an identifier. That the person performing the gestures was one of their own.

Naturally, the generations of agents hidden in all the other countries were made aware of the method of identification as well.

“Ahh, I see that miladies are here on official business then. It is my pleasure to offer the hospitality of my humble establishment to your every need,” said Farouq immediately with eyes that glinted with excitement upon noticing the gestures. “I must admit to some excitement, as it has been a while since anyone had come over to this cesspit of a nation.”

“That bad, huh?” asked Eilonwy with some curiosity from her seat beside Kino. “Then again, we did get accosted by some old bastard and the walk to here was like, half a dozen blocks at most,” she added. “Don’t worry, though. I just beat them up, they’re alive and in no danger of dying.”

“It is as you say, young lady,” replied Farouq with a sigh. “This place is honestly so bad that we take turns being in charge over this branch, as nobody wanted to remain here for too long. This year just happened to be my turn,” he explained. “It’s a pretty horrible place all around. The way they treat their women like objects is appalling enough, but they just had to keep the tradition of slave trade as well.”

“Yuck,” replied Eilonwy with her sentiments vehemently expressed in that single word. “I thought that there haven’t been many places that still stuck to those ways after the dwarves rose to power.”

“Most nations had dropped such practices due to pressure from the Caliphate and other nations, yes, but some of the dogged traditionalists persisted in their ways. Even in many nations where they had banned slavery, a black market for slaves would generally still be present, as old habits die hard. The slave traders from here made their fortune that way.”

“I guess some people would just do anything, no matter how abhorrent, for profits,” said Kino with a sigh as she listened to Farouq. “Say, Master Farouq, would we cause you any trouble with that altercation earlier? I have a feeling that the old man wouldn’t take it quietly.”

“Ah, pay no heed to the matter. Our trading house is quite well connected here in Oajib,” replied Farouq with a somewhat lopsided grin visible even through his thick, bushy beard. “And by that I mean that just about any officials who are connected to the mercantile world and are important enough have been eating bribes out of our hands. They know better than to antagonize us. Unless you happen to beat up the Sultan himself, I doubt it will be any trouble at all.”

Just as Farouq said that, a knock sounded on the door and one of the store’s clerks walked in and reported something in whispers to him before leaving with a polite bow.

“Speak of the devil,” said Farouq. “The patrol’s here already, pretty quick, but I guess you did beat those people up pretty close by,” he added with a hearty guffaw. “Would you like to come along and bear witness to what I said just now?”

“Certainly,” replied Eilonwy as the others nodded along with her.

They walked towards the main floor of the trading house where someone who appeared to be a local constable – with several burly guards accompanying him – was being entertained by the store’s clerks. The constable and his men turned their eyes towards Aideen’s trio the moment they came into sight, but when they noticed them walking next to Farouq and chatting with him in a friendly manner, the look in their eyes changed immediately.

“Constable Hamid, my good man, what brought you here on this too-hot midday?” greeted Farouq with a friendly gesture of opened arms towards the constable.

“Good Master zem Nasril, may peace be upon you,” replied the constable as he enveloped Farouq in a hug which was returned, followed by bumping their noses against each other’s forehead.. It seemed to be a common way of greeting in the region. “We just received word from Bey Masudrah that he and his men were assaulted near here and that the perpetrators supposedly headed to your fine establishment just earlier.”

“Why, old Mansour must be getting his head addled by this heat! I told him not to keep wearing those stuffy turbans all the time last time I ran across him!” replied Farouq confidently. What nobody other than Aideen’s trio who stood behind him noticed was that while they chatted, Farouq had discreetly slipped a small storage ring into the constable’s hand. “His age must be getting to him too, the poor sod.”

“I am in agreement, good Master. It is truly a pity that age had addled one of the Sultan’s finest servants so,” replied the constable as he discreetly pocketed the storage ring with a smile. “I am just doing my responsibilities, as you surely could understand. Many thanks for your cooperation, good Master, and may no more misunderstandings like this take place in the future.”