Kahira Nulara
A tall and rather plain-looking half-elf, Kahira Nulara's whole face is transformed when she smiles. As the moneylender for the town of Ka-Tepi she is scrupulously fair with her transactions, recording everything in her large ledgers.
The money exchange building is built of stone and set a little back from the street, with bars set into its narrow windows and a heavy iron-bound door. It is separated from the adobe buildings surrounding it, and a guard is always present day or night.
The door opens into a small sitting room, with ottomans placed around a low table. A silver samovar of mint tea sits on a table to the side of the room. When customers enter, Kahira is summoned by the bell ringing above the door. Once she knows they are genuine customers, she insists upon sharing tea with them before starting to conduct business.
Kahira is able to exchange coins for equivalent amounts in trade bars or gems, hold deposits, or offer demand notes to securely transfer currency to other moneylenders or banks she deals with in distant lands. She is able to transfer funds to cities as far away as Bajapur. She charges a fee of between two and three percent for these services, depending on whether she knows and trusts the customer.
To transfer funds, she has pre-written parchment certificates upon which she records the amount of money, its source and destination, before she and the depositor countersign the certificate. She then uses a magical seal which rests in the palm of her hand, pressing it down over the crucial information in the certificate until it flashes. When the seal is lifted, it reveals a coloured ink outline of her seal which appears to lie within the structure of the page itself, as if it were hovering in midair before a much deeper page. Any attempt at altering the contents of the certificate will destroy the seal impression.
Deep within the building is a reinforced room containing a number of strongboxes and safety deposit boxes. This is where her ready funds and deposits are kept, and the room has many defences; some obvious, some less so.
Comments