A polished-looking man in the gold robes of Osirion's priesthood walks in. He doesn't shop; he has a notebook. He is writing down prices.

"...Ah, Cicerone?" asks the cashier. "Can I help you?"

The glass-polisher looks over his shoulder and blinks at the priest.

"I'm just looking," he says. "Though if you could step aside," he adds to the glass-polisher.

He gets out of the way, then stands there awkwardly, holding his rag.

"Maybe go in the back," the cashier says.

"I don't want to interrupt..."

"- yeah," she acknowledges.

Notes notes notes. 

"How many do you have at this price," he asks, pointing at one ring.

"We have three of those at - no, two, the other one came out slightly prettier and he priced it fifteen higher, but just fifteen. If... you need a lot of them then he takes commissions but that's marked up if you want them quickly...? Cicerone."

"How many would he take a commission for?"

She goes and has a look at a book behind the counter. "One moment, I need to do some figuring... uh, if you can wait six months for the order to finish he can do ten but I'm not authorized to book more than that since it'd delay other orders, you'd need to talk to him after he's out of the workshop for that."

Nod. "When will that be?"

"Fourteenth bells, Cicerone."

He writes down the rest of the prices in the store and leaves.

At fourteenth bells the cashier's changed shifts, and the proprietor is sitting next to window-polishing guy behind the counter near her; they're murmuring to each other very softly.

The priest comes back. 

"Cicerone," says the proprietor politely. "Isam Alnahhat, what can I do for you?"

"Good day! I'm just here to indulge my curiosity. These are spectacularly good prices."

"They'll go back up if you're ordering in bulk, paradoxically enough, I haven't got volume that good yet. But the girl wasn't sure that was what you had in mind."

"Why do this and not sell spells? You'd make three times as much for less effort."

"I''m not a wizard. Is it really three times? Who bothered to invent sticking the magic to rings at that rate?"

"Saving it up for situations where you might need a lot at once," he says, and "- then how are you making them?"

"I've only tried to explain it to jewelers before. There's a knack to it - I spent a lot of time looking at the wizard kind, too, used to make them inert to get enchanted later, they look a bit different after -"

- nod. "Do you suppose it could be taught?"

"Oh, it can, I've got an apprentice managed it for the first time last week."

" - huh! How long did that take?"

"He's worked for me coming up on a year and a half, but I poached him, the ones I got without any experience I imagine will be a bit longer about it."

"I think it might change the world quite a lot, magic items that don't need magic-users to make."