Aislinn walked down the hall from her room, deep in thought. So many things had shaken and rattled her since leaving home. Just as many things had steadied her and brought her back from the brink of the abyss. The latter things were not 'things' at all, but the people she had in her life. From the simple offers of help in the most mundane of tasks, the bits of quiet conversation (even gossip), to the requests for advice and help with all manner of situations, it all helped bring her back closer to her normal self. She wasn't sure she could properly convey her gratitude to them all.

So deep in thought, she didn't notice anyone in the bath when she walked in. It wasn't until she closed the door, doffed the robe and slippers and turned to the tub that she saw Yasminna. She jumped, inhaling sharply in surprise. Then she let out the breath with a laugh.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Yasminna. I honestly didn't see you," she said. "Too far away in my mind, I guess." The priestess hesitated a moment before continuing. "I know we've not had a lot of privacy since our travels began. If you'd like to enjoy some of it, then I can come back later," she offered sincerely.

"Not at all," Minna said, gesturing with lazy grace at the swirling steam. "I have missed having intimate moments with you at least as much as I have missed privacy. And if your skin feels as... grimy, I think is the word, as mine did before I got in here, I know you will want to start soaking almost immediately."

"Blessed Mother, yes," the blonde sighed fervently.

The observant Sundaryan watched with lazy interest as her friend smiled and sunk into the hot water, Yahim's lecherous thoughts lingering in the back of her mind, but with little force to confuse her now. "I believe that is the first time since shortly after we left the Oracle that I have seen you without that green ribbon in your hair, my friend."

Aislinn chuckled softly, eyes twinkling. The color rose slightly in her cheeks, but that could have been the hot water. "It has been a constant accessory, hasn't it? I suppose it works as a reminder on a couple of different levels for me. I didn't realize I might need the reminders, myself until recently."

Dark brows flickered in puzzlement. "A reminder of what, Aislinn?"

The priestess sighed and sank deeper into the tub, letting her pale hair drift in the water. "That, despite my apparent parentage, I am a human woman. That, despite my calling as a Child of Mathern, I am a human woman. Since the battle with the slavers, everyone has seemed more comfortable dealing with the Priestess than the woman... including me," she said, adding the last admission softly. "Might be more a matter of perception in my own mind, though."

Minna nodded, that minimal movement all she wished to allow to disturb the physical bliss of the moment. "It may well be. I have watched you vacillate between the two as if they were mutually exclusive. It seems to me, that they should not be. I would easily admit that I lack the experience to have an informed opinion on the matter, though." Her soft
giggle curled up with tendrils of steam. "I am no one's priestess -- only a princess, and a spy."

Her companion laughed as well. "I'm sure, if you had to, you could play one, though. Convincingly," she said sincerely. Then she sighed. "I don't know, Minna. Janus and Giacomo said much the same thing. I've always thought I've done a good job not segregating the woman from the priestess. But I guess if three of my good friends have seen me doing it, it must be the case. Our good bard said the ribbon was to remind others of the woman within the priestess, but he may have been reminding me, and just trying not to put more stress on my over-taxed mind at that point," she shrugged.

"You have had a few disconcerting revelations of late," Yasminna agreed, opening her eyes to gaze at her pale-haired friend soberly. "You are like a juggler who was just learning to manage the balls she had in the air when someone in the audience suddenly tossed a live chicken into the mix."

They both giggled at the absurdity of the simile. "I know you well enough to be confident that you will learn to manage the chicken too -- it will just take time, and practice. And some patience from those of us who believe in you."

"I've appreciated the support, believe me," the other woman said, warm gratitude in her voice. "I was thinking before I came in here that I wouldn't ever be able to properly tell you all how much that's meant to me," she smiled and reached over to grasp the slender princess's hand. "I know we've all received a few hard blows in the Oracle's cave. Though you seem to be handling yours well. Are you, really?" she asked. The question might have been one a priestess would ask, but the tone and the expression told Yasminna it was asked simply by her friend, who happened to be a priestess.

The dark-skinned woman smiled, and squeezed that hand. "I am," she replied. "It was hardly a `blow' at all for me, really -- more like an affirmation. A direction. A purpose." She smiled, and the expression was uncharacteristically shy. "I have a real role to play in all this, a way to serve not just Sundarya, but all the peoples of the West. Learning that put all the pieces inside me back together which had been scattering since I left Char. This is no small thing, what has been asked of us," she concluded, "but we will see it through, somehow. Together."

"Though in some ways, we're not even sure what it is we're supposed to do, except... stop the storm," Aislinn frowned slightly. "Back at the Vale, Tob said that his job was to help keep Tech-Loch from getting Li with child, but... I don't think that's what the lich wants, anymore," she said. "People are assuming that, but I can't understand why he'd want a living bride and be happy that her life would be a long one. I've always understood that the undead hate the living."

Long, pale fingers played in the water, creating little ripples in their wake. "If we could get one straight answer from someone, I'd like to know how we're supposed to stop this storm so we can just do it, you know?"

"I have the feeling we shall be gathering pieces to the full picture for this puzzle for some time yet," she agreed. "We have so little to go on just now, and speculating from insufficient information is a fool's errand, at best." Yasminna took Aislinn's hand again and pulled her over close, shivering a little at the touch of that fair skin against her own, but covering it as she helped the lovely woman settle in front, where Yasminna could assist her in washing that beautiful blonde hair.

It startled Aislinn a moment and curiosity surfaced in her expression, but she allowed her friend to guide her. She smiled when it became clear what Minna wanted her to do and settled in quietly.

"So do not borrow trouble, please," she urged quietly, pouring warm water carefully over her head. "I know it is difficult, given what you do know now, but try, Aislinn. Do not allow your thoughts to linger in the places fear dwells. If you do, you will be emotionally exhausted before we ever learn the truth -- or what we are permitted to know of it."

"I... but ...." the priestess began, trying to form her excuses into words. She failed when the logic and practicality sunk into her brain. She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "You're right, of course. I'm trying to shake myself out of old habits but it's difficult to do. Most of those habits won't serve me in this task," she said and snorted softly, chuckling. "Like I can quit being a busybody and a matchmaker overnight."

Yasminna tsked, but chuckled too. "There are better uses for your training and talents," she said, the smile curling around the words. Her eyes marveled at how water merely deepened the color of Aislinn's hair without darkening it. "Perhaps this is all Mathern's way of reminding you of that. Leave the matchmaking to the old women in the villages -- a much more important task has been put in your hands.

"And speaking of important, you have a decision to make of some importance, right now," she grinned. "Rose, or lilac?" Her dripping hand gestured toward the fragrant oils that could be added to the lathering hair soap.

"Oh, a matter of great importance, indeed," Aislinn said seriously, tickling a dainty Sundaryan foot in the bargain. Yasminna squealed and jerked her foot away, breaking down into giggles with her friend in the aftermath. "Rose, I think. Not that I expect anyone to notice... but that's not the point, is it?" she laughed.

"No, it is not the point!" Yasminna was still giggling, but she noted that brief flash of irritation that caused her to want to push the blonde woman's head under the water and hold it there for a minute or so. One way to learn to focus on what is important, she noted to herself wryly.

Aislinn sighed in pleasure as Minna's deft fingers started working the oil and soap into her hair. "I was talking with Li the other day and I mentioned how much I wanted to spend time on the little luxuries of being a woman," she said. "Smelling nice, wearing a dress, dressing up the hair, things like that. But, I saw a lovely dress in the wardrobe in my room and I'm not sure I want to wear it after all. Shying away from it, as it were."

"For Ysyleth's sake -- do you want it, or do you not? This seems a safe enough place to indulge," Minna said, remembering the kalasiris and accompanying garb in her own wardrobe. "The residents here seem to understand what our roles are in the world outside of our quest, though I am a bit surprised you didn't find the formal vestments of your order there, rather than just a dress."

"I have a special robe to wear on holidays and for things like performing weddings and naming ceremonies," Aislinn replied. She knew she was being skittish and unreasonable and just as frustrating as Li-eira in some ways, which only irked her. "But other than that, the only vestement we need is this, in some form," she said and touched the silver crescent moon glistening on it's chain.

"I know I'm being wishy-washy and frustrating," Aislinn continued with a laugh and a shake of her head. "It's frustrating me, too that I'm second-guessing myself. Part of it is me still trying to find good footing again in my spiritual foundation. And part of it I'm not sure whether I'm reading Giacomo correctly or not," she added with a soft sigh. "As I told Li, a ribbon, a song and a promise of a dance aren't necessarily precurors to anything more." She turned around to look at her friend, needing Minna's more objective perceptions... sisters and girlfriends have supported each other in like manner since the dawn of time. "What do you think?"

"I think Giacomo seems like a decent enough man, but he has a wanderer's soul, my friend," Yasminna said, releasing Aislinn's hair reluctantly to return her gaze steadily. "He wouldn't hurt you intentionally, but neither his feet nor his heart will stay long in any one place." She reached up to caress that fair, lovely cheek. "He would be a fool to refuse anything you offered him. Just guard you your own heart well. I do not wish to carve his out for the offense of breaking yours."

"I wonder, sometimes," Aislinn answered. "He's a baron's son. Perhaps the wanderer isn't so much his nature, as something forced on him?" she asked. "But it could have become his nature, depending on how long he's been
wandering," she acknowledged with a nod. "I'm not looking for forever, Minna. I'm not as naive as Li-eira seems to be. Someday... if we all survive this, I do want a husband and family but given the nature of what's before us... the love and friendship we develop between the seven of us and whoever joins us may well be the bits of brightness that save us, in some ways."

A flickering half-smile teased at the corners of the Sundaryan girl's mouth. "I could not agree more. And you are far wiser than I, lovely Aislinn. Take what happiness Giacomo offers, and give him in return what you can. Just -- no regrets, yes? Promise me."

"I will never regret the friendships, love and family I've found with all of you," Aislinn promised with fervent sincerity. "And Giacomo cannot break my heart if I don't regret loving him in the first place," she smiled. "So he's in no danger of losing his to your knife. Though I could hope that the pain that action would cause me would stay your hand." She reached up and clasped Minna's hand in hers and squeezed gently.

Her dark eyes widened in a moment's startled realization -- truly, even if Giacomo were to beat her, rape her and rob her blind, Aislinn still would value his life and grieve if it were taken. Yasminna chuckled ruefully. "I take your point and will respect the tenets of your faith in this matter," she said, giving that slender hand a soft squeeze back before retrieving her own to reach for the hair soap again. "Someday you will teach me how to love so unconditionally. My heart does not seem to be so large."

The priestess chuckled. "I don't think it's something one adult can teach another," she said, taking the hair soap from Minna's hand and guiding the Sundaryan to sit in front of her, this time. "I don't have children of my own, but I've delivered quite a few into this world. And holding those little bundles, I've come to understand that kind of pure love. I'm not perfect, Mathern knows. I get envious and jealous and my heart has been broken more than once in my life."

Aislinn started massaging the hair soap into her friend's hair. The touch was as gentle and competent as any mother's, but underlying that was a sensual stroking of a woman who enjoyed what she was doing and enjoyed the company.

Yasminna sighed in sybaritic delight, obviously enjoying it as well. No one had done this for her since Ibrahil... and she didn't want to think about him, not in proximity to the topic of broken hearts. "The only real referent I have for that is what I feel for my sister, Azhra. Well, all my sisters, I suppose, though I love them all differently." Ibrahil's dark, enigmatic face swam to the surface of her memory, again. "I have never... loved... a man in that way."

Her voice was hesitant, which was very un-Yasminna-like. "There was a man, in Char... he and I were intimate... I was -- I am -- very fond of him... in the end, I think he was fonder of me though." She sighed again, this one much sadder. "I think I broke his heart, Aislinn. I did not intend... but my intentions did not count for much, in the end."

"He may have wanted more than you could give," Aislinn nodded. "It does happen sometimes. But it's not your fault, Minna," she continued gently. "You can't force love. You can't force it away from you once you start feeling it, nor can you force yourself to feel it when it's not there. If you do, it only ends in emotional disaster somewhere down the line. This man will heal and find another love, as you will, if you allow yourself to," she said, and Minna could hear the grin in her voice. "Is he very good looking, this man?" she asked with a giggle.

Yasminna chortled, happy for her friend's lightened mood and still enjoying the touch of her hands, very much so. "He is not pretty, like Giacomo and Janus. Handsome, certainly -- darkly so." She shivered a little. "Intensely so. Sleek and lean, like the hunting jaguars in the southern jungles. In his arms, I could stop thinking, for a time..."

She snorted softly, pulling her mind and body back from those memories firmly. "We spent as much time fighting as we did getting along. He was very stubborn, convinced he was not only right, but the absolute center of the universe and could not understand why I did not act as if I were convinced of it, too."

"And that, for you, is your sister," the priestess said with a chuckle. "Or Sundarya as a whole. It fluctuates a little with you, but I think your sister wins out more often than not."

"My sister is Sundarya," she replied softly. "It... defies easy explanation, but when you meet her, and spend any time with her at all, you know it is true."

Aislinn carefully rinsed Minna's hair. "I know I'm being nosy and you can tell me to jump out a window if you want, but... was he your first?" Aislinn picked up a soft cloth, lathered it up with soap and proceeded to wash her friend's back with the same touch she used on her hair.

Yasminna nodded, arching her back so that the cloth could dig into every pore. "My first, and only," she confessed quietly. "I was released from certain obligations of my station when I was accepted into Il Nasriya, one of which was the expectancy of making a state marriage." The last word ended in a quiet groan while the spy reveled in having her back truly clean at last.

"Imperial princesses are expected to go as virgins to their marriage beds," she said, finally managing to find words to go on. "It was anticipated that, given the risks and requirements of the profession, I might not be able to do that. Rather than see me tried for treason for deeds I could not otherwise have avoided, Azhra quit the state's claim upon my person. I am now free to marry, or not, as I choose... and to take lovers. To be candid, Ibrahil was all I could manage on that score -- and even then, it did not end well."

Aislinn listened quietly, nodding. "Wise of your sister. I hope I get the opportunity to meet her one day," she said with a smile. "As for Ibrahil, it was your first relationship," she said, rinsing Minna's back. "Sometimes they can end well but most of the time they don't. In our first adult relationships, we're still trying to find our footing in our adult lives. Therefore, most of those first relationships tend not to last. Obviously, mine didn't," she chuckled and started washing her own pale limbs while they talked.

Yasminna nodded, but again turned Aislinn about so she could scrub her back, in turn. "Thank you. I had not previously thought of it that way. The only type of relationship I had ever considered, to that point, was something long-term, like a marriage. I have never really had any other examples." She shook her head, thinking much more rapidly than she was speaking while lather ran down the fair skin under her hands in frothy masses.

"Still, it is a good thing that men are not attracted to me in droves, as they are to you and Li-eira, because I obviously have no understanding in how to handle them at all."

"Droves? Me?" Aislinn laughed, the sound slightly muffled as she leaned forward, giving her friend room to work. "I don't know that I suffer from that affliction. I don't recall a time when men were almost pushing and shoving trying to get close to me. Boys, yes, and that was a long time ago." She chuckled again through a sigh of pleasure at having her back scrubbed.

"As for handling men... I'm fairly certain I don't have a full understanding, either. And I know they don't have a full understanding of us," she laughed again. "I confess that I know more men like Tob than I do men like Giacomo. But I'm willing to learn," she grinned.

"Men like Giacomo were all too common in my sister's court," the dark-skinned woman chortled. "Noble, refined, well-educated, well-mannered. You could do worse, my friend, even if it is just a passing fancy."

She didn't voice the other end of that thought, that men like Tob were unheard of -- seemed an obvious corollary to draw. "I will pray to Ysyleth that she grant your request -- if that is what will bring you some happiness then I shall do all I can to see it come to pass."

"Thank you," her blonde friend smiled over her shoulder as the suds were rinsed away. "And perhaps we can help each other. You can perhaps give me some understanding when I need it, of Giacomo and I can do the same with Tob," she grinned, eyes twinkling at some knowledge she had.

Her friend's expression, in contrast, was uncomprehendingly blank. "Tob?"

"Well, certainly not Coren," Aislinn snorted softly, laughing. "Yes, Tob." She turned around to face her friend and shook her head. "You've really not noticed?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "Grant you, it's not glaringly obvious or anything and Janus understands his heart-brother better than any of us, and he's the one that asked me about it, first. But, yes... there's something there for him, though whether it might go beyond attraction, I have no idea. He certainly appreciated you the night we all got drug out of bed."

"Tob?"

As if suddenly aware she was repeating herself, Yasminna took a deep breath and shook her head. It felt like coming out of a daze. "He...I... Wait." She shook her head again, pieces of something she hadn't understood were falling into place at last. "Aislinn there must be some mistake. Tob...! is only comfortable with me when I am Yahim--"

Then why did he use your given name at the Oracle? You saw him looking at you. You did.

"--and cannot fathom a woman doing what he thinks of as `man's work'--"

But he swore his life to you, bound himself to your mission, to see you return to Sundarya again...

"--he has barely even spoken to me since we left the Vale, even on watch--!"

The man never uses words where actions will do. You know that, Minna.

She fell over backward into the hot water, seated, eyes glazed and disbelieving.

"Tob?"

Aislinn watched and listened as the young princess tried coming up with excuses. She also saw the sharp Sundaryan mind shoot them down silently Calmly, Aislinn rinsed out the washcloth and set it on the side of the tub. "Yes, Tob," she said seriously, with a nod. "If the man talks to anyone other than Janus, he talks to you," she pointed out. "Whether it's to argue, or to try learning each other's way of sneaking around. Open your eyes, Minna... or better... open your heart and mind to the possibilities."