The first thing Shadow noticed upon stepping into the building was how warm and… wet it felt. It was like the air itself was filled with water. Shadow felt damp just standing there. She'd never felt like the air was wet before. Well, aside from when it rained, but this was different.

She was reminded of the feeling she got putting a paw over a boiling pot. A quick scan of the room saw what looked like steam escaping from behind some curtains leading to the next room back. This place was supposed to have hot water… perhaps it really was just like what she’d felt with the pot.

Shadow assumed they weren’t going to be jumping into boiling water…

Shadow looked over at Annie and considered asking about it, but to her continued frustration, she was still lacking her tablets. She really wanted them back.

They could probably go grab them after they’d cleaned up, although that didn’t really help her now. Maybe she could just shadow write? The guards all knew she was a dark mage already, as did the kids. Was there really any reason for her to continue hiding it?

Shadow considered just trying it… but decided to wait. Today had been stressful enough. She didn’t feel like taking a risk that might cause trouble just because she was a little impatient. She could ask later once they were in the bath.

She watched as Annie approached the human standing behind the counter to their left. The clerk had just finished with a couple of people, who now walked through the back curtain. The bathhouse clerk seemed a little surprised at their bloody appearance, but quickly recovered. Their current state had definitely attracted some stares from people in the street during the trip here, but thankfully the trip had been short enough that no one had said anything.

“Would you like to use the public baths, or would you like me to prepare private rooms for you?” the woman asked. “…We can also scrub your clothes, for a small bit extra.” She added.

Shadow narrowed her eyes a bit at the clerk. Public baths? She’d assumed all the baths were private, considering the nakedness taboo. Maybe it meant something different than she was thinking.

“That sounds excellent. We’ll take the private rooms, and the scrubbing for the clothes. Thank you.” Annie accepted with a small chuckle, nodding to the woman.

“You just want two rooms, correct? The child will be joining one of you?” the woman asked.

“Yes, I’ll be sharing a room with my daughter,” Annie answered.

The woman nodded, and then moved on to matters of cost.

Shadow couldn’t help but notice that Annie didn’t haggle at all when the woman mentioned a price. That seemed a little odd to her, given her haggling lesson with Jonas. Were you not supposed to haggle when getting a bath? Maybe it was because Annie had never seen the bath before. But all she really needed to do was ask to look so she could know what she was buying, right? Perhaps this was what Jonas had meant when he said Annie was bad at haggling. Shadow supposed it wasn’t really that important, though. She did wonder how much money Annie had. She always seemed to have enough for whatever they needed.

“Timothy!” The clerk yelled into the next room, once Annie had paid.

A boy came running through the curtains to the back room after a few seconds, accompanied by a wave of steam. His sleeves were rolled up and his arms looked redder than she’d expect of an average human. He was also quite wet.

He looked them over for just a second, definitely noting the state of their clothes, but not commenting on it.

“Please show this lady and her daughter to a private room, and the kind sir to another. Get their clothes scrubbed, too!” the clerk ordered.

He winced at the last bit, but didn’t complain.

“Okay, Ma.” He answered, then turned to the group. “Just follow me!” he said, beckoning them with a gesture.

They followed him back through the curtain, and Shadow actually stumbled back a bit in shock. The even wetter air in here may have been the cause, but she'd been prepared for that, having seen the steam.

What actually had her stumbling back was all the naked people in here! What happened to the taboo! The pair that had come in before them were busy slipping themselves into one of the big tubs that filled the room, all of their clothes piled up on a nearby wooden bench. There were another couple of people that seemed to be drying off with cloth sheets, and one man was busy dressing himself. There were plenty of people laying in the tubs, scrubbing themselves, and others that were standing up and rinsing themselves off with buckets.

More kids seemed to be running around hauling buckets of steaming water and adding them to the various tubs.

The point being, there was plenty of nakedness going around in here, but no one seemed to care that much. She certainly didn't mind, but this seemed to go against literally everything she'd just been learning. She definitely wanted an explanation.

She took a moment to recover, then hurried to catch back up with the group.

“Here we are, one room for the ladies! Just drop your clothes outside and I’ll get them scrubbed!” Timothy stated with a smile, opening a door off to the side although Shadow thought she could detect a small wince hidden beneath it.

“Thank you, Timothy.” Annie said, entering the room. Shadow walked in behind her.

“Just ring the little bell there if you want more water!” the boy said, pointing at a small bell on the side of the big tub that filled most of the room. He quickly turned around and led Jonas off to a different room.

As soon as the door closed, Shadow got to shadow writing.

‘Why is everyone naked!?’ Shadow asked, shooting Annie an incredulous look.

Annie seemed surprised, looking back at Shadow as she started gathering her garments.

“Oh, I didn’t think you’d care about something like that.” She said, looking a little confused.

Shadow blinked at her.

‘I don’t care! But I thought humans did! Doesn’t this break the whole being naked taboo thing?’ She asked.

Annie thought for a second.

“Well, yes, I suppose it does. I admit I found it surprising myself the first time I needed to use baths like this. I’m still not entirely comfortable doing such myself, thus the private rooms, even if it is somewhat wasteful.” She explained.

Shadow kept staring at her.

‘But… what? Why is it okay here and not in other places?’ she asked.

“Hmm... I suppose it’s because you can’t very well keep your clothes on while cleaning yourself. Some exceptions must be made. Now come on, get undressed, and let’s wash up.” Annie instructed.

The explanation made sense without really making sense. It seemed insane to her that it would be absolutely fine for her to be clothes-less in front of people in one room, and then completely unacceptable as soon as she walked into another. For that matter, they obviously could build private baths, but apparently, the taboo took a second seat to the difficulty of doing that? If they could just decide not to follow the taboo sometimes, why couldn't they put the taboo on hold if someone needed to change their clothes? That would be more convenient, right? She would certainly prefer that.

Shadow threw up her paws in resignation, shaking her head.

The whole thing had just started making sense, too, but now there were weird exceptions. It felt like she was never going to completely understand this culture stuff.

She started working her clothes off with a sigh.

---

Before long, Shadow and Annie were in the big tub. Annie was busy scrubbing her down with a soaped brush. The soap was scented! Shadow was of mixed feelings about it. On the one paw, she didn’t like smelling strongly of anything, on the other, it had a really interesting scent, which smelled way better than the town in general. She’d decided to like it, at least for as long as they were in the town.

Shadow was greatly enjoying the hot water. At first, it felt like it might burn her, but she got used to it quickly. At first, she'd been having fun dunking her head under and trying to swim around in the tub (which, while big, was not quite big enough for that), reveling in the unique feel of the hot water on her scales. Annie quickly put a stop to that, though, as she'd been spilling water over the edges.

So she'd settled down, and Annie had gotten in and washed her off. She could feel the tension seeping out of her as she soaked and the cleaning continued.

“Hold your breath.” Annie said, before dumping a bucket of hot water over her soapy head. She’d been lying there with her eyes closed as Annie scrubbed off her face.

“Alright, that's it. You're all clean now,” Annie said, moving on to scrubbing herself.

‘Thanks, Mom.’ Shadow wrote, checking herself over. She definitely felt much better with all the blood and dirt rinsed off. She would swear that she felt cleaner than she ever had, really. Hot water seemed to work better than cold. Or perhaps the soap here was better. Hard to say. Unfortunately, all the scrubbing had thoroughly removed her wax coating. Her scales were still shining a little since they were wet, but she’d need to have more wax applied after they were finished with the bath.

“So. I was thinking we could visit the magistorium after this, to find some more spells for you to practice. I was planning to wait until we got to Glossa, but I think you would benefit from having some less lethal options in your arsenal as soon as possible,” Annie suggested.

Shadow looked at her, stunned for a moment before breaking out into a grin.

‘Yes! That sounds great!’ Shadow wrote excitedly.

She was wondering when she’d get to learn more magic. Apparently, the time was now!

She still needed to get her tablets though, or maybe...

‘Mom, can I use my darkness spell to talk in public now? A lot of people already know I’m a dark mage at this point,’ she asked, looking at her mom hopefully.

Annie stopped washing for a second as she thought about it.

“It’s… really up to you. The fact that many people think poorly about those that practice dark magic hasn’t changed. You’ll be working at a significant disadvantage if you’re introducing yourself using a spell associated with something people hate, or at least mistrust. It could hurt your chances of making a good impression.” Annie explained.

Shadow thought back to the guard, Fredric, that had gotten so hostile when she'd asked him a question with her shadow writing. She supposed that was the same kind of thing she'd run into talking with anyone.

“Not everyone feels that way, but many do. In a large town like this, I don't expect it would be particularly terrible for you. Most people don't want to anger a mage of any sort. They would treat you differently though, and may be less than friendly with you.”

Annie paused for a second, considering something.

“You’ll also probably get ripped off a lot more. Mages tend to be rich compared to the common person, and people try to charge them more in turn. That happens a lot with me, whenever word gets out, and I’m a light mage. I can only imagine it’s even worse for dark mages.” She posited.

Shadow slowly nodded, considering all of that. Getting her tablets back was still for the best when talking to new people. She could still resort to shadow writing in public if she was just talking with her family, or Kirrik. She didn’t have to make a good impression on every passerby, she supposed. Although maybe she should still try to, just in case word got around? She was pretty distinctive.

Well, if she wasn't going to be using shadow-writing, that meant she needed to get her tablets back.

‘Can we go and find my tablets before we go to the magistorium?‘ she asked. As much as she wanted to learn some more magic, she wanted her ability to talk to people back more.

“Oh! Yes, of course. We can definitely do that.” Annie agreed.

Shadow smiled at her and then closed her eyes and settled back down into the water, thinking about what kind of spells she might be able to learn.