“The shop sits in a carved-out hold beneath Maelis's house, its narrow doorway framed with nets and half-buoy lanterns. Maelis Gold-eye Rennar lost one eye to a kraken-sucker and wears a glass gold replacement that glints like a coin—she appraises coinage by touch and tastes metal as a matter of habit. She haggles in whispers and sea-idioms, accepts rare loot or a share of a voyage in lieu of full price, and will sometimes 'lend' a small trinket to a sympathetic crew in exchange for future favors. The shop smells faintly of salt, oil, and hot metal; a carved wooden mermaid nods above the counter and a bell made from an old cannonball calls patrons in.”