Ferdinand was subsequently separated from the rest of his entourage. He was moved to a new small dark, windowless cell – more accurately, an empty weapons storeroom in the "qasr" of Fez, where he could be more closely guarded. Only his physician Master Martinho was allowed to see him. The rest of the entourage remained in the palace dungeon and were assigned to hard labor, principally in the stables and roadwork, but occasionally also in the castle, where they might exchange words with Ferdinand through a crevice in the wall. Abu Zakariya raised his price to 400,000 dubloons and 400 prisoners and asked Ferdinand to inquire of it from his relatives. But the reply from Portugal, which came four months later, said it was far too much, that they could afford 50,000, but offered to dispatch the ambassador Vasco Fernandes to negotiate a comprehensive ransom, which would include the son of Salah ibn Salah, and the pair still being held in Asilah (the surviving Aviz knight Gomes da Silva and Pero Rodrigues, who was the stand-in for his father, Rodrigo Esteves). The reply infuriated Abu Zakariya, particularly the codicil that implied the son of Salah ibn Salah would have a say in the negotiations over Ferdinand. The son of Salah arrived in Fez three months later to open talks, but he was brusquely received and nothing more came of it. Ferdinand was reportedly depressed and exasperated with his relatives; at one point he refused to hear any more news from Portugal. His companions duly kept from him the news of the death of his brother John of Reguengos in 1442.