"You're welcome." He picks up both pins and heads out front to flip the sign and put them in a display.

"Are you done for the day?"

"On a normal day I stick around for an hour poking my nose into everyone else's handiwork, but I can be done."

"Oh good! I wanted to ask if you'd like to come home with me."

"- did someone enter me in the lottery without my knowledge, or, ah -"

"That's not actually the only way in - that'd get awfully frustrating -"

"Well, I mean, there's seeing the place but there's -"

"- Isam," says Khalil, from where he's been trying to pry open a delivery box the store has just received, "can you walk me home today, I think Rabab wanted to catch a play with her cousin this evening."

"Of course I can," Isam says, "ah, sorry, your grace."

- nod. "I expect other people might want to come by and watch your work, is there a good time to send them?"

"If they want to see the whole thing, they need to plan to come a day when I'm making something fast, if they just want to watch the last moment I'm expecting to finish a piece eight days from now."

"All right, thank you. Very much."

And he leaves.

Isam pokes his nose into everyone else's work and then walks Khalil home.

He gets a trickle of various intrigued people over the course of the next few weeks, some conveying the prince's best wishes. The prince does not visit again.

It is four weeks later that the prince gets a note care of Isam's church asking for a meeting.

Sure. At Isam's church, the following evening?

That works.

Isam turns up with an opened letter, looking a touch frazzled. He's brought Khalil along. He paces.

When Merenre appears, Isam takes a deep breath and announces, "I'm being blackmailed and not in the legal way where they threaten to tell everyone that I like bad romance novels, and I'm reporting that within my forty-eight hour grace period. Fancied you might want to know."

- he nods. "It's all right. We can get it sorted out. Unless you murdered someone, then we might be able to get it sorted out but I can't make any promises."

"Didn't murder anyone. If we wind up moving to Andoran you want to buy Trilliant off me first?"

"- probably? I'd much sooner you not wind up moving to Andoran, honestly, I couldn't run Trilliant. What happened?"

"Oh, I'd expect you to flip it, I'd just be in a hurry." Deep breath. "- the forty eight hours aren't up as soon as I tell you, right? Wording wasn't unambiguous, I know I have to stop what I'm doing within the grace period but I'm going to have to go shopping and haven't yet - does it cover Khalil, he knew and the blackmailer would've been able to guess he did but isn't explicitly targeting him -"

"Immediate family, yes."

"Right. I'll buy a dress on my way home, then."

This takes him a couple of seconds. Longer, actually, than several of the attendants, who have probably seen more ridiculous situations than he has.

"- you're a woman."

"Ismat Alnahhat at your service," - she - says wryly. "Old roommate must have seen something, looked me up again recently, saw a target. Note isn't signed but we can narrow it down."

" - right, I guess we should try ordinary detective work," he says, letting his holy symbol slip out of his hand. "It's probably very good at this sort of thing. You'd rather move to Andoran than put Khalil technically in charge of the business?"

"I don't think I'll have a very good time retaining my staff, let alone hiring, do you? Perhaps I'll give it a try, but imagine trying to filter for people not being horrid to either of us while I'm swishing around."