Page 6 of Immortals and Ink

Alexis was halfway through his second cup when the man with the upside-down book spoke without turning his head.

"That was well handled with the olives. He has another cousin who repairs teeth, and they make good money off foreigners with that trick. Welcome to Galata, stranger."

He spoke a slightly archaic Greek, as if he had learned it in a palace library rather than a marketplace.

Well, what do we have here? Alexis turned his cup in his fingers.

"Thank you," he said in the same Greek. "Though I wasn't aware I was being watched so closely."

"You’re always being watched in this city. It's one of our more tedious customs."

"Venice is the same," Alexis said and sipped his coffee.

"Not so. Venice examines a man's purse. We examine his palate," the man chuckled softly. "It is a better test."

Alexis allowed himself a small smile. "It's certainly a more delicious one."

The man turned a page of the upside-down codex. He still hadn't looked up. "How long are you in the city?"

"Not long."

"A shame. I was going to suggest you try the bakery not far from here, the one with the blue door, but the bread there is best at the end of the day when the last batch comes out."

Alexis hummed. "Perhaps I'll look into it during another visit."

"Perhaps." The man finally raised his eyes from the codex and met his. They were the color of old honey that had begun to darken in the jar, and behind the warm, amused courtesy of a scholar exchanging pleasantries with a stranger in a breakfast room, there was something else.

Magic and recognition bounced between them. Alexis had just stumbled across his first true magician in decades, and his trip became infinitely more complicated.

"You're a long way from home," the man said, still in the same conversational tone, as though they were talking about the weather.

"So are you," Alexis replied.

"I've been here a little while. May I ask your business in our great city?"

"You may ask, and I might even tell you that it is bookish in nature."

"Bookish." The man turned another page. "A good business for a man with clever hands and a good mind. The Library is closed to you, of course. The Patriarch doesn't permit foreign visitors."

"I wasn't planning to visit during business hours," Alexis admitted before eating another mouthful of bread.

There was a single beat of silence, and then the quietest, driest laugh Alexis had heard in a long time.

"I see." The man closed the codex and set it down, and Alexis saw now that the codex had not been upside down at all but had been written in a cipher of different sigils. That was an entirely different problem and a far more curious one.

"Would you care to take tea with me? Not here. A little way up the hill. The morning is still young, and I confess I'm curious about a man who travels from far away in a boat with no cargo to visit a library."

Alexis set his coffee down and considered the danger of following this man anywhere.

Be slow with your knife, Alexis, Nereus's warning rang through him. He sighed internally, knowing this was undoubtedly what she had seen. She could have just told him, but where would the fun in that be?

"I would like that. What is your name?" he asked.

"Arslan. And yours?"

"Alexis."

"Well met." Arslan inclined his head. "Please. Finish your coffee. There's no hurry, and the city isn't going anywhere."