Gaheris wanders in search of old friends, enterprising merchants, and those in pursuit of weird and wonderful magics. 

He's had an idea he's wanted made for a long time, and has even drawn up some rudimentary schematics for it. With his jewel thief's knowledge, he'll know where to start sourcing the pearls he will need. They don't need to be real, but they do need to be lightweight and regular.

And ideally pretty. He's still an elf, after all. 

Pearls, real pearls, are brought here from the Pearl Cities in the far southwest, carried laboriously overland. Gaheris has glimpsed the pearl-divers before, when he first left the capital, hanging off boats with their pearl-baskets and loincloths and lengths of barnacled rope in the stark spring sun. It's a dangerous life. The best pearls are gleaned from the very depths; they're called blood pearls, sometimes, for rumour has it that the divers bleed when they reach those deepest depths. 

But that is far indeed from here, and so pearls are expensive. They're asking for 100gp, for the sort he needs; he might be able to get it down a bit, or come up with something...

Listen, fellas. He knows them; they know him. He's been working the city longer than they've been alive. He knows times have changed, but currency hasn't - and the best currency of all is the one that isn't taxed, if they catch his drift. 

If they're interested in being friends, he already has some fingers in some halwa with some other jewel vendors. All it takes is a decent price on the pearls. 

He'd better be going somewhere with this. This is a city of truths, however terrible. One does not lightly break faith here. 

But very well. He can get them down to 70gp. 

Naturally he'll exchange some details with the vendors to make good on his promise and make his way with the pearls. Now to find someone to actually enchant them... 

That would mean dealing with the Madrasa, where Gaheris has less experience. Much less experience. Sometimes strange and shady agents buy and order weird and sundry things from across the world, the wine of rare trees and the ashes of burned heretics from the far west; otherwise, it is a gentle mystery. 

Well, there's very little to gain from idling around. He'll do the usual asking around, seeing who might be likely to be able to help or point him in the direction of someone who can. 

The Most Eminent Madrasa of Qadib is not in the habit of entertaining strangers who show up asking to bother their scholars. 

...But he does have friends here. He's pushing it. But someone has a friend whose wife says she knows of a woman rumoured to be a sorceress of great skill, who has sometimes been said to share a little magic, with the desperate or the pious or the charming or the very, very wealthy.

As far as he can tell just from the usual asking around, it's that or try to get in good with the Madrasa, however that works.

Gaheris is only very charming, but it's his most reliable weapon. He is sure he can charm the pants off anyone - actually has, very often.

He searches for the woman. 

She is called Amani. 

Her manse is set on a dark outcropping, skulking away from the city. As he approaches, his bones seem to ache; the columns and arches have a depressing weight to them, a size and proportion unlike the rest of the city. 

Her door swings open before he reaches it, revealing a beautiful girl of maiden age. Her shining eyes are so rimmed with kohl that they seem sunken in her head, her breast and shoulders covered in a light veil that in the candlelight looks slick and black, and which gathers in a strange bunch in front of her chest. Her arms and legs and feet and midriff are bare, and lovely. 

A strange scent hangs in the air. Lavender, peppermint, natron. Cold and sharp, and an odd whiff of something he almost recognises.

She is alone. No relatives, no friends, no servants. 

"Peace upon you," she says to him meekly. 

"And upon you," he returns respectfully, casting a brief look at her beautiful figure. She's not like any wizard he's seen before. She seems more like a priestess than anything else.

"I wish to seek your guidance, madam. I have need of a skilled spellcaster to shape a magical item of my own design."