Tipping the Scale

A History of Lies (2/3)

As she followed Crystal into the bathing house, Lidea was stunned by the array of colors that overwhelmed her senses. In stark contrast to the faded colors that dominated the city, the inside of the bathhouse was covered completely by colorful tiles. None of them seemed to be the exact same, leading Lidea to think that they had to be handmade. Or magic made, maybe.

It almost made her feel dizzy and she averted her eyes to the pool that dominated the center of the room. A steady stream of fresh water came from a pipe in the wall and Lidea assumed that a similar pipe removed water from it towards the river below, causing a constant gentle flow within the bathe itself. She had seen a similar setup before in her childhood home, although it had been far smaller in scale.

Crystal stepped up to the pool and lowered herself to touch the water, wrinkling her nose in disapproval. Standing up again, she looked at Lidea as she seemed to consider something.

"I forgot that our local heater hasn't woken up yet. I would have loved to let you relax and soak, but I fear that this will have to be a quick rinse."

Lidea furrowed her brow at the strange way in which she had remarked on the heating system but paid it no further mind as she assumed it to be a strange translation of her foreign tongue.

"I will be all right, Crystal."

"You say that, but I wouldn't forgive myself if you would get a cold, because I let you wash yourself in cold water."

She found her concerns endearing but wasn't too worried. Lidea had washed herself in natural streams plenty of times and knew her body wouldn't get sick from a quick dip. In any way, the thought of warm water near her skin revolted her. The heat of the flames still too fresh a memory.

Crystal seemed to debate herself but finally conceded as she started to roll up her pants and sleeves. As more of her skin was revealed, Lidea could see more of the crystals dotted around her legs and arms. She wondered if they ever bothered the woman. Lidea could only imagine how uncomfortable it would be to lie on them. But then again, maybe she was used to it.

While she was thinking, Crystal had moved to kneel next to a mortar and pestle that Lidea hadn't noticed before. She assumed it had already been here as she didn't think it would have fitted in the bag that the healer had brought with her. Lidea looked on with fascination as she pulled a bundle of herbs from her bag and tossed them into the mortar. As she commenced grinding them, the air was filled with a subtle hint of lavender.

"Are you making a kind of soap?"

She gently lowered herself down to sit next to the healer, glad to give her body some rest. It was frustrating how much stamina she seemed to have lost.

"A scented oil to be exact."

Lidea couldn't help raising her eyebrows. The last time she heard the word 'scented oil' was when her sister had bought a whole range of them for her birthday. Claiming that they made her skin feel as soft as a feather and that her flame at the time would notice it. Lidea was sure that he would as well, as her sister had put so much of the stuff on that you could smell her coming from across the house.

"Don't you have bars of soap here?"

Crystal stopped what she was doing to look at Lidea, or more specifically at her hair. Shaking her head, she grabbed a bottle of oil out of her bag and started adding it slowly to her mixture.

"Soap will get the dirt out but will dry out the knots even more. To save that hair of yours, we will need oil and lots of it."

Lidea hadn't thought of her hair since she had been imprisoned. She tried to run her fingers through it and frowned as she didn't manage to penetrate the dense mats that had formed through the weeks. A tinge of sadness filled her at how damaged it was, but she waved that emotionally driven response away for a more pragmatic one. Hair grows. There was no reason for her to be upset.