The story so far: The good news is Nikole and Darklis have five of the seven items they need for the Thieves' Guild test. The bad news is it's two hours before dawn, they have no idea where to find the other two, and both of them are covered in garbage.

Nikole looks around to see if Darklis's new boyfriend is following them.

Beauregard is not in sight.

Darklis hasn't *got* a boyfriend. Sheesh. If every boy she rescued was her boyfriend she'd have a list of beaus bigger than Nikole's -- "Do you think there's a bathhouse open now?"

Nikole picks a scrap of last week's rutabaga out of her cleavage. "We should have asked Mindy."

Nikole says "I wager he's asleep now, though."

Darklis says "Well, no wizard is going to want to talk to us smelling like *this*."

Nikole looks around for someone to interrogate, blithely oblivious to Darklis's opinion of her virtue.

Darklis rubs her nose, and then strikes off southwards, without the slightest warning.

The streets are deserted, save for the occasional alleycat. It's as hushed and still as Carbuncle ever gets, and very dark. Even the streetlamps are burning low.

Nikole blinks. "Hey! Where're you going?" She follows along briskly, though.

Darklis says "Well, bathhouses are usually in the bad part of a city. So we'll go look. Maybe we'll find a wizard, too."

Nikole skips to fall into step with Darklis. "City wizards take baths?"

Darklis shoots Nikole a sideways look. "Don't country wizards?" She says this like of course she knows city wizards bathe, which is patently untrue.

Which is to say, Darklis hasn't got a clue. Not to say city wizards dont' bathe.

As you walk south, you pass the intersection of Quarter Street, and can see the Crucible off to your left. Ursula's boardinghouse is somewhere ahead.

Nikole shakes her head. "Shamans don't like running water. It washes away their magic or something. Magic lice, I reckon."

Nikole wrinkles her nose.

Nikole tosses her head toward Ursula's. "Isn't that were that one wizard is staying?"

Darklis, succinctly, says, "Ew."

Darklis squints. "I think so. Bath first. Maybe we can find a snifter at the bathhouse."

This is the professional district, such as it is. A grocer, an apothecary, and Okra's Painless Dentistry and Barber Shop (Guaranteed or Your Teeth Back!)

Nikole says "What did the alchemist say lethe was good for?"

Darklis says "Um. Either making people forget or poisoning them. I forget."

Nikole says dubiously, "I don't know why they'd want to do that at a pond."

Ursula's boardinghouse has a "Rooms To Let" sign hanging above the door. It looks slightly seedy, but prosperous enough. A light flickers dimly somewhere behind the windows.

Darklis says "So they could rob 'em? I wonder if she has a bathhouse in her boardinghouse. Do any of the writings say so?"

Nikole looks over at the sign.

The signs say "Ursula's Respectable Boarding Establishment for Single Gentlemen", "Meals Provided", and "Room to Let", respectively.

Nikole reads the signs out loud. "Nothing about baths."

Darklis says "Drat."

Darklis pokes along down the street some more.

Nikole keeps a sharp (well, grouchy) eye out for boys as she follows Darklis.

This is the furthest south you've yet been; straight ahead you can see the towers of Herb Gate, which leads southwest out of the city. Six other major streets fan out from the gate, leading back into the city in different directions.

Darklis pauses uncertainly, looking around. "We're nto supposed to go out of the quarter, are we?"

The sound of snores can be heard from somewhere, faintly.

Nikole says "That's what the masters said, aye."

Nikole looks around. "I don't see any water..."

Darklis looks around for the snorer. "We could wake whoever's snoring up and ask."

Most of the streets are completely dark by now, but the one leading straigt east from the gate has lights, as though one building is still open.

Nikole says "Let's look over there."

Darklis says "Okay."

Darklis squeaks slightly. "It's a guard! We should wake him up so he doesn't get in trouble." Helpfully, she marches towards him the dozing guard.

Nikole grabs Darklis's shoulder! "But we *want* guards to sleep!"

The guard is propped against the gate, clutching his bayonet like a teddy bear. It's sort of charming. Or would be, if he'd bathed more recently.

Darklis squacks. "What if he knows where a bathhouse is?"

Nikole hisses, "What if he tries to arrest us?"

Darklis says "For what? Being up at four in the morning?"

Nikole says "For smelling up the city?"

Darklis rolls not just her eyes but her entire head. "O*kay*. You want to go look at the place with the lights on instead?"

Nikole nods!

Darklis skulks past the guard, then, off towards the well-lighted room.

Nikole creeps along innocently after Darklis.

The place with the lights on is a little ways to the east, down Cardamom Street. Actually, there's only one light visible from outside, a reddish lantern hanging by the door.

Nikole looks for a sign, so she can use her skill of reading on it.

It's a fair-sized building with no windows; a bit unusual in Carbuncle. The sign above the door has crudely drawn picture of a beehive, but no words.

Nikole says "What does *this* sign mean, you reckon?"

Darklis stares up at the sign. "I donno. Maybe it's a hat house."

Nikole says "Looks like a beehive to me. We could ask, I reckon."

Darklis, dubiously, says, "A beehive? Maybe it's a bathhouse and you come out smelling sweet as honey. Let's ask."

Nikole tries the door.

It's not locked.

Nikole opens it a careful crack and peers in...

Inside it's dimly lit, but Nikole can make out a largish room with a fireplace and some seats. There are vague people-sounds about; breathing, maybe, or moving around.

Nikole whispers back over her shoulder, "Looks like a bar or something."

Darklis whispers, "Well, let's go ask about a bathhouse."

Nikole makes a face. "I don't want anyone to see me looking like this!"

Darklis makes Great Big Exasperated Eyes. "If you don't go in, you'll look like this when we get back to the academy in a couple hours."

Nikole says, "Aye. Aye." and pushes into the establishment.

Darklis follows Nikole!

Inside it's pleasantly warm after the pre-dawn chill. This _could_ be a bar, for there's a shelf of bottles in the corner, but most of the room is chairs and tables. A frowzy middle-aged blonde woman dozes in a chair by a closed door.

Nikole clears her throat.

The only other occupant of the room is a gray sleek tomcat, who leaps off a table as you step in and comes to brush around Darklis' ankles.

Darklis beams and bends down to skitch the cat between the ears.

The woman shakes herself and opens her eyes. "Welcome to the Ho- er." She peers at you benignly. "H'lo, do I know you?"

Nikole shakes her head, and crouches to rub the cat under the chin. "We're just looking for someplace to take a bath."

She blinks. "A bath."

Nikole says incredibly sappy things to the cat.

The cat purrs, and shamelessly deserts Darklis in favor of these new attentions.

Darklis looks up from the cat. Jeez, even cats like Nikole better. "Maybe? Is there a bathhouse around? We, uh. Fell in some garbage."

Nikole grins and rubs the cat along the back, murmuring to it in her own language.

The woman looks you up and down. "Yea, I c'n see that." She waves a hand at some chairs, looking sympathetic. "D'you work?"

Nikole . o O ( If I don't look at the person, I can pretend she doesn't see me covered in garbage. )

Darklis sits on the edge of a chair, looking, well, smelly. "As little as possible," she mumbles, and then is suddenly presented by a Clue. "Oh. No."

She clicks her teeth in mild disapproval. "It's a bit late to be out then, isn't it? Are you all right? Someone after you?"

Nikole says "No, no!"

Darklis shakes her head. "No, just ... is there a bathhouse nearby?"

The woman yawns, getting to her feet. "Well, no. Carbuncle d'nt go in for them things. But I c'd let you use ours, if'n you like."

Darklis brightens. "Could you? That'd be awfully nice."

She rubs sleep from her eyes. "'M Gladia."

Nikole says "Thank you very much!"

Nikole stands up, cat cradled to her bosom.

Darklis sticks her hand out, considers it, and withdraws it. "I'm Dara."

Gladia grins wryly, not missing the nuance. "This way." She opens the inner door and leads the way through.

Gladia is Darklis' hero. She follows the woman through the brothel, quite happily.

Nikole hurries after, not wanting to miss out on any of the water! "I'm Natalie. Thank you very much again."

Actually, it just looks like a small dingy hallway. At the ends is another room, which proves to contain a large tub of steaming water, pleasantly scened with herbs. Two young women are lazily soaping themselves and talking.

Darklis, for about a nanosecond, looks guilty at the idea of spoiling that nice water. Then she begins stripping.

Gladia waves a hand. "H'lp y'selves. Dn't use too much soap, please? 'ts ex'pnsive."

Nikole says "We won't!"

Darklis, once more, gratefully, says, "*Thank* you."

Nikole sets the cat down, then drops her satchel and begins piling her clothes on top of it.

She smiles at Darklis, and retreats.

The cat streaks after Gladia as the door closes, hissing.

One of the girls in the water waves a foot at you. "Hey. You're new."

Nikole smiles at the other girls as she lowers herself into the water. "Gladia just let us use your bath."

Darklis climbs into the water, trying not to splash, and lets out an incredibly long sigh of relief. "'m Dara," she mumbles, between ducking under the water.

She snorts in amusement. "Softie, ain't she? I would'a charged you." She holds out the soap to Nikole. "Name's Daring."

Nikole accepts the soap gratefully and applies it enthusiastically! "I'm Natalie." She sinks beneath the water, leaving only a Nikole-shaped clot of suds.

The other girl wiggles her fingers at Darklis and smiles, silently.

Daring is blonde, with very freckled skin, and a knife scar running down one side. When she smiles you can see several teeth missing.

Darklis, to Daring, says, "I figured she would. She's nice. So are you?" She waves at the other girl, and scrubs her fingers over her face.

Daring grins. "That's my job. Haven't seen you around before; are you new to the city?" The other girl taps her on the shoulder and makes a handsign; Daring nods aside to her.

Nikole surfaces with a sploosh, water streaming from her bare brown skin and thick creamy hair. She wipes her eyes dry with one hand and smiles around generally, feeling *much* cleaner.

Darklis looks curiously at the other girl. "Deaf?" Then back to Daring, she nods. "Came in a couple days ago, both of us. Me before Natalie. She's from the country." Thus implying that Darklis isn't.

Daring sticks out a hand at Nikole, with authority. "Demure gets the soap next."

Nikole hands over the soap. "Those are interesting names."

Demure shakes her head at Darklis, and smiles. She's dark-haired, with small breasts and a cute gap-toothed smile.

While Demure scrubs herself, Daring ducks under the water to rinse her hair. "Oh, tired! Thank god it's almost dawn." She blubs contentedly.

Darklis scrubs at her arms enthusiastically, nevermind the soap. "Hullo, Demure. You just don't talk, huh? I'd have problems with that."

Nikole scrubs herself all over with her hands, not hesitating to show off any advantages she might have over these strangers. (This is all Darklis's fault.)

Daring makes a face at Darklis. "She can't. Don't talk about it."

Demure shrugs one shoulder up, fetchingly, and hands the soap to Darklis.

Darklis shrivels slightly, and shoots an apologetic look as she accepts the soap. "Thanks." Her turn to scrubscrub and disappear under the water, rubbing at horribly cut hair.

Nikole asks, completely innocently, "What do you two do?"

Nikole leans way back, almost floating on her back, to soak her hair and show off simultaneously.

Daring sprawls out her arms and legs, draping them over anyone in the way, and stretches. "Oh, I take the softies - you know, poor-golden-heart-lost-girl, and they want to tell you all their woes. Demure's better at the rough stuff."

Demure leans against Nikole, and touches her cheek questioningly.

Nikole would look embarrassed at the leg draped across her belly, except she's all melted. "Softies?" She flops her head over so she can look at Demure. "Aye?"

"She means what's your line," explains Daring.

Darklis pops up from under the water, hair streaming into her face. "Ooooh. That's *so* much nicer."

Nikole looks confused. "Line?"

Daring gives Darklis the "is she slow?" look.

Nikole frowns. She might be a barbarian, but she can tell when people are slighting her.

Darklis glances back and forth between Daring and Demure and Nikole, and grins apologetically at Daring: yeah, she's slow. "We don't work," she explains. "We're more into, um. Acquiring things. Do you by any chance know what a lethe snifter is?"

Daring blinks a couple of times. "*Oh*."

Nikole has sense enough to wait until later to make Darklis explain, but that doesn't mean she doesn't scowl.

Demure laughs, soundlessly, and splishes Nikole with water.

Both the girls shake their head. "Why'd you want one?"

Nikole sputters! "Hey!" She splooshes Demure back!

Water fight! Demure splashes Nikole some more.

Darklis, carefully, says, "We don't. Someone we know does." She giggles, and splashes Nikole. "Know any wizards?" she adds hopefully. Wizards frequent this sort of place, right?

Nikole nabs Demure by the wrist to drag her under, and then turns on Darklis! Traitor! SPLASH!

Dara laughs and helps push Darklis under. "Wizards. Only the runt, and he hasn't been around for a few days."

Nikole shakes the water out of her ears and catches up on the conversation. "Do you kow where he lives?"

Darklis bubbles and shrieks, not necessarily in that order, and comes up again streaming water and laughing.

Daring shakes her head. "He's a longwinded one, blah blah fighting demons enchanting gems blah blah. If y'ask me, he's never had more than ten gold to rub together in his life."

Darklis, with a bit of a grin, says, "So long as he's got something else to rub."

Demure has been sneaking up behind Nikole during this conversation, and goes SPLOOSH! Then she shakes her head meaningfully at Daring.

The other girl translates, "He should've been here tonight, but he wasn't. Why, you want to talk to him?"

Nikole squeals in soggy surprise!

Daring smirks at Darklis, aside. "Not much, actually."

Nikole shakes her head violently, water flying from her long thick hair in an indiscriminate spray!

Darklis giggles. "We'd like to if we could. You donno where he lives, huh?"

Daring shakes her head. "Not the thing to ask, even if we cared. Mm." She thinks a minute. "He didn't look too good, last time. Been drinking the cheap stuff."

Nikole folds her arms under her round breasts thoughtfully. "Do you know his right name?"

Darklis pushes her wet shaggy hair out of her face. "Ursula said her wizard drank a lot."

Daring squeaks at the splash of water, and wipes her face; Demure does the same silently, and then turns to float on her back. You can see a crude tattoo of a scaled creature winding around her breasts and down her belly, to coil around one leg.

Nikole says "Aye. Although a lot of them do, I hear."

Daring makes a face. "Um...Werd? Wirled?"

Nikole blinks surprised at the tattoo; where she comes from, that's a warrior thing.

Demure stretches out her hands and mimes a stiffening corpse, then makes a cross with her fingers at Nikole.

Nikole says "To keep away demons?"

Daring blinks in confusion at Demure; Demure blinks in confusion at Nikole.

Darklis nods. "Werle, that was Ursula's wizard."

Daring is still staring at Demure. "Um, yeah, that was the name."

Demure shakes her head in frustration, and mimes drowning again.

Nikole looks at Daring, who seems good at interpreting this stuff.

"Oh!" Daring wrinkles her nose. "She thinks he's dead. Dem, your work's getting to you."

Demure wrinkles her nose back at Daring, and goes back to lazy floating.

Darklis squeaks. "Dead would be ... " Well. Not bad. They could just chop off a finger. "Maybe we should go look for him, Nat. Are you clean?"

There's a knock at the door.

Nikole splooshes up out of the water like a young and slightly overweight nereid and sits on the edge of the tub, squeezing water out of her hair. "A lot more than I was a little ago!"

Daring rolls her eyes. "Yah, coming!" She stands up in the tub, streaming with water.

Nikole eeps and slips back into the water, keeping her hair out of it with her hands.

Demure flips her legs over the side of the tub deftly, and reaches for a towel.

Darklis looks despairingly at her clothes, as she climbs out. "I don't suppose there's any extra clothes we could buy for a few coppers."

Daring laughs, as she climbs out. "You wouldn't want 'em, believe me."

Nikole climbs back out of the tub, since no one is coming in, and grabs a towel which she applies vigorously to her hair.

Darklis toes her icky clothing. "Like I want these?"

Demure finger-combs her hair, shakes off the last of the water, and starts to walk out, still nude. Before reaching the door, she turns back to Nikole and touches her nose, then makes a walking motion with two fingers.

Nikole blinks and looks to Daring. "What?"

Daring's finger-combing her own hair. "She says, walk around the south streets. Maybe you'll see him."

Nikole says "Oh! Thank you!"

Nikole picks up her shirt gingerly with two fingers. "I reckon we could wash them?"

Demure smiles, bends to pick up something from the bench by the door, slings it over one shoulder - it's a whip - and walks out.

Nikole blinks surprisedly at the whip.

Darklis watches Demure go, and grins. "I kinda like her." She pokes at the clothes again, and sighs. "I guess. They won't dry fast, though, but it's better than smelling."

Daring looks dubious. "Not here, really. You don't want to be here when the boss comes back. Don't get Gladia in trouble."

She waves a hand at you and strolls out the door.

Nikole says "We wouldn't!"

Nikole gives up and puts her clothes back on. Yuck.

Nikole sticks to her white cotten shirt somewhat embarrassingly, but it's a little better than walking around naked.

Nikole says "Let's go before we cause any trouble."

Nikole looks around for people lying in wait to laugh at her, before asking Darklis, "But what *is* this place?"

Darklis shakes her clothes out as best she can, before putting them back on. "It's a brothel."

Nikole blinks. "A what?" Funny how no one ever mentioned that word when they were teaching their little sister Carbunclese.

"A -- " Darklis stops, stares at Nikole, and giggles. "A brothel. Those girls are whores. People pay to have sex with them."

Nikole says "Oh!"

Nikole says "*That's* what the men were talking about, then."

Nikole looks *much* enlightened.

Darklis pulls the door open and peeks out. "What men?"

The dingy hallway is empty. There are a couple of doors on either side, and the door at the end leading back to the entrance room. One of the side doors is slightly ajar.

Nikole says "Cousins and such, the ones who come to the city for the drive."

Darklis ahs. "Well, c'mon." She tip-toes down the hallway.

Nikole follows, whispering, "I just reckoned city girls were all like Kattalin."

Darklis whispers, "Who's Kattalin?" and peeks into the main room. Don't want to get Gladia in trouble, cutting through here.

Nikole peers under Darklis' chin.

As you pass the door, you can hear Reynard's voice saying, "So after I knocked out the priest..." and Daring's voice saying, "Mm-hmm."

The main room is still empty. Gladia's gone, and so is the cat.

Darklis straightens WAY UP at Rey's voice, and glares balefully at the door.

Nikole's brain goes click click click. "Reynard has to *pay* to get girls!"

Nikole says "And lie, but all boys do that."

Nikole smirks, and pushes Darklis into the main room.

Darklis oofs and staggers out.

Nikole says "Let's go!"

Darklis says "I'm going!"

Outside it's cold! Particularly if one's clothes are damp.

Nikole shivers!

It's also dewy and damp, as the sun thinks about rising but decides not to yet. The streets are still deserted.

Darklis suggests, "Take the south streets around back to Ursula's?"

Nikole wraps up in her mantle. "Aye. Maybe we'll be lucky and he'll be drunk."

Ursula's would be back west to the crossroads and north. On the other hand, there are all these streets stretching east and south you haven't been on yet...

Darklis, cheerfully, says, "Or dead."

Nikole says "I'm not mucking with any dead wizards!"

Nikole says "They have *curses*."

Nikole looks around. "Demure said south, right?"

Darklis nods.

Darklis says "So try south?"

The street you're on stretches east and west. Back at the crossroads you saw one other street going southeast, and more running northeast and north.

Nikole points to the southeastern street. "Let's try over that way for a bit."

Darklis shivers a bit, and nods. "Okay. Quick, so we warm up."

Nikole swings her mantle off her shoulders and holds it out to Darklis.

Darklis shakes her head. "I'm ok. But c'mon, let's move."

Nikole wraps the mantle around herself again and follows Darklis on the double.

The southeast street is, well, dangerous. It looks like the kind of places young cute girls would be set upon by bad men. If bad men woke up this early in the morning, which they don't.

Nikole keeps an eye out for wizards who have been set upon by bad men.

The buildings are all boarded and shuttered, and very dirty; noone's ever thought to clean them or pick up the garbage. Here and there there's a picture-sign, but no words.

Darklis keeps an eye out for anything that looks like it might jump out and bite them!

The air is filled with the reek of garbage, and something even more cloying and unpleasant. Several somethings.

Nikole wrinkles her nose, and keeps one hand on her knife.

After a minute, Darklis is able to recognize the most prominent of the smells. Dead things. Old dead things. Dead things in bad shape left in the heat for too long.

Darklis wrinkles her entire face and hunches her shoulders. "If he's dead, he's starting to stink," she says unhappily, and tries to both look for the dead things and not look at them.

Nikole looks increasingly nervous. "Maybe we should go look back at Ursula's."

Darklis holds her breath. "Well, we're here now."

Once you start looking, the source of the stink is pretty obvious. There's a low broad stone building ahead and to the right, with a cross painted smearily on the door. Behind it is the river, and behind that is the southern city wall.

Nikole does not look at all pleased to be here. "Aye."

Nikole says "What's that?"

Darklis wrinkles her nose. "It's a charnel house. If he's dead he might be in there. Probably is."

Nikole says "Like a tomb?"

Darklis shakes her head. "No, more like a ... dumping place for dead bodies. If nobody's paid for them to be buried."

Nikole says "City folk don't have families?"

Darklis shrugs. "Lots of 'em don't. Beggars and thieves and streetwalkers and ... " She goes on with this list for a while.

Nikole looks much more appalled than when she heard about the brothel.

To be continued...