The hot iron balls sizzled as Ashlynn lowered them into the deep marble pool, producing low clouds of steam before they sank to the bottom of the pool, where the water around them hissed and bubbled.
The pool was large, and even adding ten large iron balls from the hearth could only raise the temperature of the pool from tepid to mildly warm, but Ashlynn wasn't looking for a luxurious soak in a muscle-melting hot bath. She wanted a chance to do something simple and normal with Nyrielle, to bathe and wash each other's hair, but both women knew that they could only delay the inevitable for so long.
Soon, Ashlynn would need to emerge from her sanctuary in Nyrielle's room and face the things that she had learned. But right now, as she slid into the warm water of the pool and allowed herself to drift just beneath the surface, everything still felt fuzzy and distant enough that she could think her way through what would come next.
