The first Ironbeard caravan arrived at Yohan's southern gate on the seventh day of the cold season with twelve wagons, fourteen dwarven guards, two commercial assistants, and Durrek Stonepick riding the lead wagon with the composure of a man who had been looking forward to this particular morning for several months.
The gate log noted the caravan's arrival, composition, and declared cargo with the thoroughness that Vess applied to everything. The declared cargo was six categories: high-temperature alloy ingots, void-seal compound in the sealed containers that the dwarven process required for transport stability, precision grinding implements, geological survey maps for three eastern ore vein systems, dwarven tool-steel in bar stock, and one category listed as miscellaneous commercial samples.
Vess wrote all of this down and then looked at Durrek.
"The void-seal compound," Vess said. "The sealed containers. What is the appropriate storage protocol?"
