lovely bitter water

"Port Ormos was a city that was built to be admired. Its golden outer layer shimmered with the arts—music flooded every corner of each street, easels were covered in paint from various artists, and bright laughter echoed from the pedestrians as the street performers danced. From the outside, it looked like the city to be: the highest standard for living.Underneath the shiny exterior was the rusted copper inner layer. The brothels at the fringes of the city, the heavy gang violence in the shadows of the alleyways, the countless pickpockets and petty crimes, the rich men that get richer and the poor men that get poorer. It was an ugly city, truly. Hell, Kaveh had literally just smuggled ten full crates of wine onto the Maudelayne himself.Kaveh thought the port was a lot like Alhaitham. On the outside, he was a charismatic scribe with enough intelligence to challenge Irminsul itself. However, Kaveh knew a different Alhaitham, the one that argued with him day and night, who couldn’t set goals higher than himself, and who was still at grips with addiction."—Or; Alhaitham was an alcoholic, and he almost relapses. Kaveh is there to intervene.