Timestamp: 72nd of Fall 518 A.V.
Continued from: The Song Of The Wind I
Kelski had never taken a ritualistic bath. When she stepped foot into Gilthas’ bathing chamber, she was surprised. The stone walls were a warm honey brown and the beeswax candles that lined the chamber, gave it a gracious glow. Steaming water from a copper tub added to the ambience. It looked rather like magic felt. There was a mystical quality to it, something sacred perhaps, and she disrobed with abandoned and gently slide into the still steaming water. There were things to wash with – cloths and soaps – and she used them like he had described, picturing the dirt and decay and the filth of Sunberth washing from her skin, drifting away. Two steaming buckets of water sat next to the tub and she used one to rinse shampoo from her hair and after she pulled the plug in the bottom of the basin, she stood up in the draining tub and used the last of the fresh water to rinse off her body.
She toweled herself dry and stepped out of the now drained copper tub, finding more things at a vanity to use. She combed out her hair, added a perfume she liked the scent of, and slipped into the gossamer robe. There was a mirror over the vanity and it struck her how pale she looked, how unusual, even with her hair damp. It was her eyes. They were inhuman and looked a little cold, though her heart was not. Staring into the mirror, she saw that the robe revealed her whole form, but it didn’t worry her. Nudity was not Kelski’s hang-up. Skin was only skin.
Before she left, Kelski carefully snuffed all the candles one at a time. With the light falling out of the room, so too did the shadows. She missed them enormously, for they kept her constant company. But here, perhaps, was not their place. When the last candle was snuffed, Kelski quietly slipped out the door.
The Sea Eagle went to find Gils’ Master Circle. She wasn’t sure what one was, but following Gilthas’ vague directions earlier, lead her in a direction that caused her to pad barefoot down one stone corridor and past an arch that ended up in a circular room that was dominated by a circle etched into the floor. It was lined with runic writing and once she was closer, she could see the image was a serpent that was eating its own tail.
Gilthas stood there, in the center of the circle, wearing a similar robe to hers. His was black whereas hers was white. He saw her studying the symbols on the floor and nodded. “It’s an Ouroboros. This symbolizes the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction and life out of death. The ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. It also symbolizes the djed we have within us all, and the djed that fills all things.” The Eth said softly, beckoning her forward. Kelski paced ahead at his urging, but paused at the line of the serpent’s body.