"Maybe," she says dryly. "Or maybe he overcharges everyone, or maybe it's just you; we'd have to observe some other transaction to see."

This is dangerous, this is really genuinely dangerous, but Carissa Sevar, these days, is fearless; the worst thing that can happen by her values is nothing on this trip going wrong.

The devil's eyes linger on the artifact crown of this woman, as seems to be the make of Hell; who replied to him in Infernal, who perhaps has bought fair form of some Hellish fleshcrafter, who seems to have absolutely no fear of him at all.  Even her surly tiefling attendant is equipped surpassingly well, though without any artifacts of her own.

"Have you need of some little service while you are in this City, perhaps?" the devil inquires smoothly.

Odds it's a trap or a game of some kind - what is she talking about odds. Of course it is. "My business here is so secret that I will speak of it to no one who hasn't sworn me confidentiality, on not just what I'm buying and what I'm paying but of every matter they learn in the course of our transaction."

"And if I promised confidentiality from all the inhabitants of this city, but not from my superiors in Hell?"

"No deal."

"Fascinating.  I hope it's not a problem if I report this discussion to my superiors?"

"As they please."

"Is there a name, then, under which I should report of this matter?"

"Carissa Sevar, Dispater's. Should I have yours, in case some future business of mine on the Material could use it?"

There's no sign he recognizes her name.  "Barbulbumalphas, of the Platform of Searing Irons in Stygia."

The devil turns from her, and exits the store without further speech.

The noble Efreeti (that is a 'Malik' of Efreet, in their own tongue) has been watching all this with an aloof expression, like a father watching the squabbling of two children, neither of them his own -

- well, until she claims to be Dispater's, and then, possibly, his face twitches a little.

"Your business here?" he inquires in Infernal, in a voice that sounds like heated brass feels to the touch.

"Well, do you agree to swear to confidentiality, about the content of our negotiation and anything that might be learned in the course of it?"

"I can so swear, if you intend to make a purchase here."

Yay!!!!!!!! She's going to have so much magical bling -

- when she dies.

Her face is not expressive, obviously. "I do so intend."

"Then so long as your intent proves true, I swear to keep secret the content of our negotiation and all that I learn from you in the course of it, save what I must answer to officers of our city to prove to them that I obeyed our city's laws."

"If we are unable to arrive at a purchase agreement, the confidentiality must still hold."

Tarnish receives a message back from Ri-Dul, relayed of Keltham, who can't be in the Telepathic Bond because of Mind Blank.

"It must also apply to anything you learn from me, whether by speech or by purporting to read me.  It applies to anything you may have already learned or guessed from watching us.  All that passes within this store, as we now occupy, while we occupy and occupied it, is of the negotiation.  Your servant will also swear and must be sent out during the remaining proceedings.  You represent that you neither know nor suspect of others listening to us.  You may swear to the officers of the city no more than that you have obeyed the city's law."

The Malik's eyes narrow, and from his throat comes a brazen laugh.  "Stringent conditions indeed, if I may not report on what I've already learned and what a devil already knows.  Do you, perhaps, offer me some token of payment, to cover the event where we do not arrive at a purchase agreement after all?"

"No. I desire to reach an agreement, and expect to, but I won't pay if we don't."

He stares at her in silence for a full six rounds, weighing the probable value of being able to tell other Efreet the bare facts so far, as she didn't seem particularly eager to conceal from that devil who was eager to do her service; the crown on her head, Dispater's name; the loss to his pride and the effect on future bargaining if he concedes this much; the possible loss of profit if he scares off this customer.

...what decides him, in the end, is the number of other shops in the City of Brass; it would be all too easy for her to leave.

YES well that's what HAPPENS when you institute price floors in the most naive possible way, without actually doing any of the further coordination steps that would let you act as an ACTUAL monopoly!  You get excess entry until all of the excess profits are being dissipated by the seeking of that excess profit, and buyers are doing sellers an implicit favor which gives buyers more negotiating power that they'll use on unregulated side frills!

"I accept," he says, and swears to her conditions.  His servant does likewise and then leaves.

Great! She wants allll the ioun stones and she wants to pay in Wish diamonds.