Nasty business, but business

Alexis resisted the urge to bow in response this time, opting to return his gesture instead.

“Alexis.”
she offered plainly, morbidly amused at herself that she couldn’t even bring herself to come up with a fake name. No spy material, clearly. But just as clearly it didn’t really matter.

She raised her cup and returned his toast cordially, taking a tentative sip of this supposed best wine of central Arcadia. Even being far from a wine connoisseur, she could tell this was quite some steps up from what one got usually offered. A bit wasted on her, in truth.

In the meantime she tried to classify Izil‘s introduction. Sept, she was relatively sure, would be the name of his, well, clan? Though it also might be applying to a place, like the oasis she visited. Maybe they just belonged to certain clans, or something along the lines. So, apparently, this one was the son to a clan leader. That would probably indeed equal a noble in these parts. It seemed to come with a certain degree of wealth at least.

She pensively rolled around the cup in her hand, wondering what this man actually wanted from her. Mere curiosity? Hopefully.

“So you are on the trade side of things? Is that a talent of yours specifically or something your Sept thrives on in general?”

Alexis did not fault him for seeing opportunity in the warfare to come. Nasty business, as he said, but business indeed. There were sure to be plenty of profiteers back in Ostiarium, heck, back in Helias, as well.
Pretty much where mercenaries earned their living, not to forget, even though she felt she had somewhat drifted away from that role by now.

In the end, as far as she was concerned, there was little moral high ground to be had in a war. At it’s core, always interests clashing and aligning. Always.