This is the story of Aryabod - an ordinary shipment of spices originating in the Subcontinent who is about to embark on an extraordinary adventure.

Aryabod starts the day like any other, sitting in a warehouse outside of Goa. They have been here for a week or two now, waiting to be picked up by whoever will be trading them.

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, four men sneak into the warehouse. Under the cover of darkness they make a deal to buy Aryabod and many of his friends before whisking them away onto their ships. They sail all night, wishing to avoid the Portuguese and their onerous taxes, or worse, their cannons.

A week is spent on the cramped, smelly boat (Aryabod nearly gets seasick!) before they stop for supplies in Karachi. Here Aryabod is introduced to some new friends, including some fancy rugs, pottery, and other exotic-type gifts.

Another few days is spent sailing to Muscat, where some of Aryabod's friends leave and other new friends arrive. The same thing happens in Aden and Jeddah before eventually coming to a stop in Suez, a city in the Mamluk Sultinate. Here, Aryabod and the rest of his friends are offloaded and sorted by Mamluk traders.

"wahid lilbunduqiat , wahid li'ahd. wahid lilbundqiat , wahid li'ahd."

"One for Venice, one for anyone. One for Venice, one for anyone."

They were sorting Aryabod! Hooray! Aryabod gets thrown into the pile where 50% of spices are reserved for the Republic of Venice, and begins the next leg of their journey, eventually arriving in the beautiful city of Alexandria. It is very loud here, between the shouting of merchants selling their wares and a flurry of construction workers building Venice's newest walled traed district, but Aryabod can see one merchant eyeing him and his other Spice friends very greedily. It is Speranzio Grimani, son of the politician Antonio Grimani, and himself one of the most wealthy and influential traders in Venice. He shows the trader his merchant papers to prove that he is Venetian, and walks away having purchased the man's entire supply, including Aryabod!

Once onboard Grimani's ship, Aryabod is the property of a merchant with favored trade status in both the Mamluk Sultinate and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, as a Venetian merchant, Grimani would fear no pirate, as the Republic had made an agreement with the Barbarossa Brothers that they would not attack Venetian merchant vessels. This meant that Aryabod and Grimani were free to go on a fantastic adventure to many different Venetian trade cities to do business, including:

• Larnaca, the primary port on Venetian Cyprus;

• Chania, the primary port on Venetian Candia, where Aryabod got to see builders hard at work on another grand Venetian arsenal;

• Naxos, where it seemed that Ottomans and Venetians were free to be whoever they wished, and trade just the same;

• Corfu, where Aryabod was dazzled by the wealth of the many nobles running the island;

• Kotor, where the city's famous defenses were being made to look brand new;

• Ravenna, where trade had seemed to blossom at the end of the wars in Central Italy;

And finally Venice herself, the Queen of the Adriatic. It was here that Aryabod would finally get to be sold, and go off into the wold to make delicious food for whoever was to purchase them!

"HEY YOU!" cried a gruff German man, pointing at Grimani, "HOW MUCH FOR THESE HERE SPICES?"

"90 florins per shipment, sir," he replied.

"NINETY FLORINS?! WOW, PRICES REALLY HAVE GONE UP RECENTLY. WELL, FERDINAND DOES NEED THESE SPICES - NEXT WEEK IS CURRY WEEK!"

And just like that, Aryabod was sent off into the world, destined it seemed to bring flavor to the food of this Ferdinand fellow. Luckily many of his spice friends would be with them - it seems Ferdinand loves to eat!