[center][h3][color=#bdb76b]Keirthanil[/color][/h3][/center]
[hr]

Keirthanil retained his pleasant disposition even as the Argonian...[i]smiled[/i] at him.

He had no real clue what its gender was. He knew from studies and observations that [i]certain[/i] members of female portion of the species had pseudo-breasts, a rare biological skeuomorphic adaptation to help them fit in with the other intelligent, bipedal races of Tamriel, as dictated by the Hist. This one lacked such projections, but that didn't necessarily mean that it [i]wasn't[/i] female; the Altmer had long learned to assume male and correct himself if necessary, as he had already done.

At least the voice seemed more likely to be masculine, a point of obvious familiarity he could rely on to facilitate his intentional hiding of his disgust at the lizard's expression.

[color=#bdb76b]"Guards, like most men, hold distaste for [i]anything[/i] they don't understand. It's unsurprising that an Argonian reading a book would alarm them—I doubt they'd even look long enough to see [i]what[/i] you're reading."[/color] Much as they'd devoted even more focus to his species than his occupation...it was the height of foolishness, but in some ways it was a useful foolishness. [color=#bdb76b]"Are you a conjurer, then? I expect that the majority of what you focus on selling is armamancy scrolls, then. I can't imagine the guards would be inclined to let you sell any atronachs, assuming they could read enough to see what your work was about."[/color]

He looked down at the table, perusing over some of the half-finished scrolls that the Argonian had arrayed before him. Taking a break from writing, most likely. Something to suit the short-sighted nature of how he'd described his business, anyways; appreciation for the arcane could be fostered through his own skill and his offerings, not reliance on a good library and hopeful curiosity on the part of the locals. That he would blame slow business on the lack of a library, and spend time at his front reading rather than working...

[color=#bdb76b]"May I see some of your finished scrolls?"[/color]

He did not expect anything of particularly great quality; the unfinished scrolls already had what seemed glaring errors to his eyes, so he expected that the finished scrolls, while functional, likely contained similar problems. If the conjurer's skill was as he expected, then there would likely be an even faster, easier way to achieve his goals in this conversation.

[color=#bdb76b][i]Ah, if only I'd managed to take some of those old Psijic tomes with me...telepathy could be useful here. No matter, though, I'm sure the Telvanni girl can handle herself.[/i][/color]