"Well, I'm very glad you're here."

Isam grins. "So am I."

The food is delicious. He thinks of more details he's curious about - how did Isam pick the place where he apprenticed? Was it immediately obvious he was notably good at it? Is he notably good at jewelry or just the business side? Where'd he get the idea of hiring women?

"I shopped around for a place that'd let me keep a cut of anything I sold, once I had more than one offer based on my sketches. Khalil was holding down a job, but it was dock work and he wasn't doing very well at it even considering - I had to write down all the steps of getting a box off a boat on his arm every morning - and we were squeezed in with too many of his co-workers in a place with rats, but I got a necklace moved right after he let me work in diamond, and that was food for both of us for a month and it was all uphill from there."

"I think it was obvious, and I guess some of the shops I asked at thought so too."

"I'm good at jewelry too, I think that mattered for getting it to turn magic. Less instinct and more hard work, though, it's not something I can just be clever at, I have to actually put things together all day long."

"It's always seemed obvious to me. Even Abadar hires some of them, doesn't He? And if there's only a third as many suited, judging by His assessment, well, there are more than three other jewelry shops out there, not hiring them. I get first pickings and I still do even when everyone can see exactly what I'm doing."

"Is Khalil unwell? Dock work's - not complicated."

Isam looks firmly at his fish. "It's not about how complicated it is. Crossing the street and knocking at the neighbors' is not complicated either. Some days are better than others."

"Have you tried magic items? They can help a lot with complex logic, intuition, that kind of thing."

"He isn't stupid, your grace."

"I'm sorry. I didn't intend an insult. I wear one."

"I do too. He's borrowed it before but we knew in advance it wouldn't help. When he was a kid our grandfather thought it was seizures but it isn't that either -" He shakes his head. "I understand it fine but for anyone I'm not paying to look after him explaining is more trouble than it's usually worth. Does it matter to you?"

"Only in the sense that people and what they are able to do matters to me. I had more business questions if you'd rather not get into it."

"Whatever it is that lets people take what they need to do next and turn that into actually doing it doesn't work for him. I don't know why. Some days he can't figure out how to get out of bed without prompts." He spears a leaf of his side salad. "And our parents think he's faking it to be lazy but with instructions written on his arm and a foreman with half a soul to his name he'd do fourteen hours a day hauling things to keep us fed and housed. And now he doesn't have to."

"Huh. I'm glad. - if you'd like I could tell your parents that I don't think he's faking it."

"I don't think that's called for. They don't know I have money now, you see, and I'd rather keep it that way."

Nod.

"You had more questions about Trilliant?"

Has he thought about how affordable magic jewelry would affect the market for other products? He could place bets in those industries and get a lot of money, or sell the tip to someone who knows how to do that stuff.

"Isn't it a bit late for that now? I didn't know in advance I was going to get it to work. Anyone keeping tabs on the market may've noticed what I'm up to already."

"The rumor I heard was that they were probably deficient and sure to stop working, actually, but once people are persuaded that's not so it'll be too late if it isn't yet."

"Well. Buzz is buzz. I wouldn't know where to sell a tip."

"Do you have reason to think you'll be able to make any magic items wizards can't?"

"Well, they could learn it the same way I did, couldn't they? I might invent something they haven't, so far I've been copycatting, but I don't know about something they couldn't do."

"Do you have any idea how you might aim for specific effects, if you weren't copying?"

"An inkling, why, have something in mind?"

"At their current price point magic items are designed for militaries, the elite and their bodyguards, and adventurers, spell development's focused on things they need. If magic items are going to be accessible to average people they're going to want completely different things, right - things addressing fatigue, repetitive stress injuries - cure spells are disappointing for that - house cleaning, mending - there's not much market for a ring of Prestidigitation at 1000 gold because no one with that kind of spending money does their own mending, but if it were 100 it'd be a wedding present and a good investment, as one."