Ma'in, the Imperial city-state along the coast of the Arabian Sea
Lo'gan watched as Ma'in woke up slowly, from his place on Miznih's roof. He did manage to get a few hours of sleep, but had been awake for a while, as always, unable to rest again after his dream woke him up. He had dreamed of her again, and in a way, it made the preceding nightmare almost worth having. He wasn't sure at what point he had decided, but watching the sun inch up towards its place in the sky, Lo'gan had concluded that he would have to find her. Ma'in was a good place to start and even if it meant traveling the coast from city-state, to city-state, he was prepared to do it. It was frightening to be that obsessed, but Lo'gan had resolve and he was passionate if anything else. Even though it might ultimately prove to be a useless search, he had to try and he would start as soon as he could after he concluded his mission.
Unfortunately, his objective in convincing the Sultan that he needed to repeal the tariffs placed on the Bedouin trade, would not be very easy. In their wanderings the previous night, Lo'gan had heard and seen many things. His clan having steady business with another city, Lo'gan had visited Ma'in only a few times, briefly as side trips to other places. He had little experience there but he could still feel the palpable dissatisfaction on the streets and the discontent of the people.
The abundance of royal guards was strange and even though it was the Imperial city, they seemed excessive in every way. Everyone complained of the increasing taxes and the tariffs on trade and many merchants wanted to leave, only they were made to hold contracts that prevented them from doing so. As a desert dweller, Lo'gan had found that ridiculous. The essence of trade was to be mobile and the Sultan either didn't know that or didn't care. And from what Lo'gan overheard in the gambling tents and eastside alleyways, it was the latter.
Sultan Nasir was not a very well liked ruler. After the previous Sultan's untimely death, his sister, Princess Zainab, declared herself queen and assumed leadership of Arabia for her son, Nasir, who at the time was a child. It was a bad time for Arabia, but content that at least the royal bloodlines were kept intact, there was little resistance in the transition of power as the land mourned the tragic loss of a beloved Sultan and his wife.
Lo'gan knew little of that story, mostly because it happened before his birth and it somehow involved an infidelity and a suicide. That itself made people wary of speaking about the previous Sultan, lest bad luck descend on them. Lo'gan was curious about the story, but even in his own clan, it was never mentioned by Khalaf's special order for respect of the dead. He had even seen his mother, Joza, carry a peacock charm on her bracelet, the symbol of the previous queen, but she never spoke about it, and so it was a virtual mystery.
The new queen was anything but well regarded. She was cruel, vain and vindictive, and everyone silently hoped that her son would be better. Unfortunately, he wasn't and when he finally came of age, Nasir took control as Sultan and promptly proceeded to make everyone's life harder.
Under his leadership, the royal wealth began to diminish greatly. Apparently, he threw very lavish parties and squandered most of Arabia's gold on lavish gifts for himself and his aging mother without any consideration to his vast kingdom, his people or their plight. He seldom left his palace and in its walls, he ruled in absolute dictatorship without bothering to even glance at the throngs of people he was supposed to care for.
Over the years, the seemingly endless royal wealth had dwindled down to a fraction of what it once was and to maintain his affluent lifestyle, the Sultan had been steadily increasing trade taxes for years. The desert nomads were not immediately affected, but with his financial situation getting worse, Sultan Nasir just recently declared a thirty percent increase in his portion of what the Bedouin traded as well.
Lo'gan shook his head in frustration. That move just proved how inept the Sultan was and from what he had heard of the celebration he was throwing himself that very day, reasoning with him was going to be near impossible. Someone that egotistical would never care that the desert clans were going to suffer in the long run. Commerce in the coastal cities was still good, but only possible because of the families that crossed the deserts and if he didn't see that, Lo'gan did not know how he would meet his promise to his father. So much rested on him and even though he literally ached to find his girl, Lo'gan knew he had serious business to take care of first and foremost. The Jabir and countless other families were counting on them and he could not let them down.
Still watching the pink and orange sky, Lo'gan sighed when his contemplation was interrupted. The quick footsteps ascending the stone steps could belong to only one person.
"Good morning, my Jabir brother! How are you feeling?"
Lo'gan glanced at Harabi, who was shirtless and had on an even wider grin than usual. It would be a painfully long day.
"Not as well as you, I suppose."
Harabi chuckled and walked over to Lo'gan, who stood and shook the dust from his robes. His back ached a little from having slept leaning on a stone wall, but it would fade before midday. He flexed his stiff arms and grabbed his ghutra from off the floor, pinning loose strands of his coal black hair behind his ear.
"Yes, I heard. Now saying no to a beautiful girl is not normal. You are worse off than I thought."
Lo'gan shook off Harabi's hand from his shoulder and headed towards the stairwell.
"That's none of your business, Dawasir."
Harabi snorted and followed him down.
"None of my business? You are my brother and I am very, very concerned for you. This green-eyed thing has gone on long enough."
Lo'gan rolled his eyes and stomped down the stairs, eager to get off that particular conversation.
"Shut up, Dawasir, we got work to do. We have to get back to our animals and start finding the things we need. The celebration is only hours away."
Harabi squeezed by Lo'gan with a smirk. Stopping on the ground floor landing, he spun around and leaned on a door.
"Everything we need is right here."
With flourish, he opened the door to reveal a large room with an overwhelming assortment of cloths, garments and shoes. Lo'gan blinked at the assault of colors on his senses and realized they were in a store. Jewel toned fabric draped from every corner and he could even see a stack of cushions and pillows like the ones downstairs mercilessly crowding one entire wall.
His thinking was interrupted by a curse and looking over, Lo'gan saw a flurry of things being tossed in the air from a corner. It was Harabi's assailant. She peeked out from under a tangle of headpieces and smiled cheerily. She had a more traditional dress on this time, however it was still yellow.
"Hello Lo'gan. Heard about your problem. I'm so, so sorry."
Lo'gan tightened his jaw and looked at Harabi, who just shrugged, cleared his throat and quickly went to the girl's side.
"Umm, you misunderstood, Miznih. Now why don't you go get some food, we can find what we need."
The girl straightened out with hands on her hips. Her smile vanished instantly and Lo'gan thought, `here we go'.
"I am not a serving girl and this is my store, if you……"
Harabi grinned and wrapped his arms around her. She still looked pissed, but let herself get kissed. Lo'gan grimaced at their inability to keep it in private and started thumbing through squares of folded fabric on the tables all around him. Most garment merchants were not wealthy enough to have a house for their store. Insane or not, the girl in yellow must have been pretty well off to be able to afford one. Then again, running a hidden brothel downstairs helped considerably. Without even looking at them, Lo'gan asked out loud.
"Do you know what it is that we need this for?"
Miznih broke away from Harabi's lips with some effort and grinned.
"I'm not going to tell anyone."
"That's not what I'm worried about. We need high quality robes."
Lo'gan dropped what he was examining, turned to the couple and hopped onto one of the tables. To Harabi's dismay, Miznih scampered away from his embrace and walked over to Lo'gan in a flutter.
"I have the perfect thing! Harabi, be a lamb and fetch me that box up there."
"Miznih!"
"Just go, it's right there."
Lo'gan saw the excitement in the girl's eyes as she hustled her lover across the room and wondered what exactly women found so appealing in clothes. Enjoying the defeated look on Harabi's face, Lo'gan smirked as he dejectedly began to climb a wall display full of fabric bolts to reach a wooden box on the highest shelf.
"You know, Lo'gan, you could help me."
Lo'gan crossed his arms.
"I'm fine."
Harabi snorted and took the last step to finally reach the box. Dropping it to Miznih below, he then began his climb down. Regrettably, his bare foot slipped on a scrap of fabric when he was halfway down and he fell hard on the floor.
"Owwww!"
Lo'gan raised an eyebrow at the ungraceful thump, but just looked back at Miznih, who was already opening the wooden box with more gusto than he thought possible. She was tossing things here and there and speaking too fast for him to understand what she was saying, but he liked what he saw. There were three complete robes, all black with different colored trimmings. His eyes immediately went to the one lined in silver cord thread. He knew nothing of the fabrics that the girl was rambling on about, but he took the one that caught his eye and tossed it over his shoulder. Without even asking, he jumped off the table, opened the purse that was tucked in his sash and dropped almost fifteen coins in the girl's hands. Finally silenced, Miznih stared at them with a smile growing on her face.
"Will that be enough?"
"Umm, sure. More than enough!"
Limping over to the table, Harabi's eyes widened at the amount.
"Hey, that's my money too!"
Lo'gan ignored him and threw one of the black robes at the Dawasir without even looking at him.
"You'll need shoes too. I have some very fine slippers."
Lo'gan looked down at his dusty leather sandals and agreed.
"Alright."
Miznih jumped up excitedly and ran off again to dig through more things. Still limping, Harabi grabbed Lo'gan's arm before he could follow.
"They aren't worth `that' much. You overpaid her!"
Lo'gan shrugged him off.
"We have enough, plus she deserves a bonus for putting up with you, Dawasir."
With that, Lo'gan walked off and Harabi hobbled after him.
"W-what? Wait, wait!"
When Lo'gan reached Miznih, she already had the slippers. She lifted them up for Lo'gan to see and pouted when she saw his reaction.
"What is it?"
Lo'gan poked at the black satin shoes.
"Are those men's slippers?"
"Of course."
"They have curly toes."
Miznih giggled.
"Of course they do. Now take them and go change. You can use the room at the end. I'll have breakfast and water taken to you in just a moment after I open up the store."
Lo'gan took the hated slippers and added them to his pile of things. Harabi looked at Miznih in growing annoyance.
"You wouldn't get `my' breakfast."
Miznih smirked and crossed her arms.
"That's because you were demanding and rude. Isn't that right, Lo'gan?"
"Yup, demanding."
Harabi stopped rubbing his head and gaped at Lo'gan. Turning to Lo'gan, Miznih continued her conversation and promptly ignored Harabi.
"I'll have your animals brought to my pen, where were you staying?"
"Good Fortune lodging. It's in the south quarter. We have two camels and two horses. They'll need to be watered beforehand."
Miznih nodded and began pulling the bolts that secured the wide double doors to her establishment. Harabi had given up hobbling around after her and settled in front of a polished brass mirror, checking his head for injury and throwing hurtful glances towards Miznih.
"I know where that is, my servant will go and fetch them. He is very trustworthy and you are welcomed to stay here until necessary."
"Thank you. You are very generous."
Miznih smiled cheerily at him and Harabi snorted. Already halfway out the back door, Lo'gan added over his shoulder.
"Oh, and he thought I overpaid you as well."
Lo'gan walked out quickly, not needed to see them to have known the look on each of their faces. Before he reached the staircase, he heard the thump that he knew was the door bolt being thrown at the Dawasir and the crash that followed. Closing his door quickly, he dropped his new robes on the cot and began undressing with a smile. Even through the door, he could hear the yelling. Three weeks of torture and in the end, the Dawasir had gotten his due. The fact that it was at the hands of his own woman, made it even funnier.
Lo'gan laughed out loud as he took off his clothes. The last thing he had wanted to do was spend a day in the presence of rich nobility and their grandiose shows of wealth, but he had to. Of course he had another incentive. His search would continue and maybe, just maybe, he would find her there.
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