千—; The night was young and the bathhouse lively, but Sen had sneaked away from both Lin and her clients to stand at the base of the stairs leading down from the sleeping quarters she shared with a dozen or more of the female staff. Something about the perfume made her throat feel raw and she couldn't bear to stand at the side of any tub. All of the scents--from plum blossom to sage--mixed in a vile plume above the banquet hall and lefter her feeling both drowsy and ill. ~BlessedByTheRiver
♋—; Incense—sharp and sour, cutting through his consciousness and clouding his senses with sweet lies laid thickly over salted skin to mask the true stench of sin beneath. It made him sick…so sick that he needed air, air far fresher than the world surrounding the bath house could provide…but it would have to do, for the sake of the shackles that weighed him down to the river’s bed beneath.
Sandaled soles sought the stairway that would lead to his salvation—the roof, if only for a few fleeting moments of solitude and breath——
——Her. "…Sen…..what are you doing? You should be upstairs.”
His tone was curt…yet smooth as the rushing river.