Search for Odyssey - Ch 2
Zavanis walked down the ramp of her Bronco airship. This was her first time actually in Ishgard. The air was chilled and bits of snow rained from the sky. The ride here was unpleasant and she was more than ready to stay put for a time. Besides, she had closed up shop for just this occasion, she was going to take her time and explore this one isolated nation.
Almost immediately a local shipwright greeted her. A typical elezan male, tall and lean with a bit of a scruff to him. He bowed to her and gave her info on the protocol her. Beside him was an even taller man, he held a clipboard in hand and wore a pair of spectacles. His hair tied back into a neat ponytail and wearing a much cleaner uniform than the friendly shiphand. This man seemed more about business than introductions.
“Madam Lumireis, I presume?” he said in an unpleasant tone adjusting his glasses. Zavanis expected as much from highborn elezen. She had heard the stories and the near racist attitude they had towards outsiders.
“Yes, I’m the proprietress of Synth Workshop in the Shroud, pleasure to meet you-- ?” Putting on the fakest of smiles, pausing to ask for his name in return and offering her hand, it was only polite after all. He scoffed, holding his clipboard in front of her face not even making eye contact.
“Madam you were scheduled to arrive 45 minutes ago. You are quite… lucky they even let you dock after your tardiness.” This annoyed Zav to no end. Did this idiot businessman have any idea how hard it was to maneuver a huge chunk of metal through the beginnings of a blizzard at this time of year?
“My apologies, sir,” she began to say, to which he glanced over his clipboard and walked off towards the crates aboard her ship. “It’s just, I had no idea the sky was going to freeze over today,” she continued with a sneer on her face. He paid her no mind and began ordering the friendly elezen to pry open the crates one by one. Zav rushed over to them, hands in the air trying to stop them.
“Oi! Hey now, those are for the soldiers, not your grubby mitts!” He ordered the man to continue his assault on her cargo. Inside were piles of chainmail and weaponry. The only thing missing was the Ishgardian insignia that would be applied at a later date. While Zavanis preferred tinkering away on her machines, she was, of course, trained in both forms of smithing. Piece by piece a crew of workers inspected them, placing them back in the crates when done. This took about 10 minutes which was alarmingly quick as they were dealing with about 12 huge orders. Zav has perched herself on an empty barrel nearby as she watched over the process. She managed to calm down a bit with this little break.
The snobbish liaison beckoned to her from his post. The hyur lept from her spot and strode over to his side. He checked off a number of items from his list and turned to face her. Giving her his undivided attention for but a moment.
“By signing this you agree to trade goods with Ishgard in return for the spare parts we possess. If this is accurate, go right ahead.” His voice was surprisingly melodic and soft this time. This showed the other side of them, their finesse. Taking his pen in hand, she scribled her less than legible signature. They stared at each other for a brief time and just like that the switch flipped. Grabbing the clipboard from her grasp and turning on his heel he walked off towards another large ship that had just docked.
“What an ass.”