Nadi al-Sahir is a sun-browned human with the compact confidence of someone who has spent a lifetime weighing stone, silk, and lies. His hands are broad and scarred, the fingertips polished smooth by metal files and carved bone handles, while his sleeves are always rolled to the elbow no matter the weather. He moves with a deliberate limping glide on wet days, then becomes startlingly quick the moment a sale or a secret is at stake. The most memorable thing about him is his mismatched presence: a severe merchant's apron stitched with gold thread over a waistcoat lined in cheerful blue river-fish patterns, as if grief and humor had agreed to share the same body.