"We were only here but briefly, yet it feels like the end of a long quest," Munira had said when they returned to their hotel.<br/><br/>"It's just the beginning of the end. Now we can<em>really</em>get started!" Neferi laid back on the bed for a few seconds but sat up again, too excited to stay still despite being a bit tired. A knock on the door cut short her train of thought. "No, I didn't get room service, did you?" she said in response to Munira's question.<br/><br/>Then Francisco called out from the other side of the door, and Neferi shrugged<em>I have no idea either</em>as Munira went to answer it. She wasn't particularly worried when the talk of repayment started. "Of course we don't have the money right now, that's why we took out the loan in the first place. But we'll pay it back in installments, as agreed in the contract."<br/><br/>So when Francisco announced that he had sold their debt to a third party, Neferi was shocked. She snatched up the contract and scrutinized the wording of that clause again. The right to sell a debt to a professional debt collector if the debtor was in arrears wasn't unheard of, but she hadn't expected it to kick in as long as the payments were made in full and on time. But in the Kelish legalese she found out that they had been tricked, and there was nothing to prevent the unscrupulous moneylender from exercising his legal rights.<br/><br/>Neferi had already clenched her fist before she caught herself in time to avoid doing anything rash, and if this had been the city of Glass she would have struck the man for his insolence already. But this wasn't her home city, and he had already proven himself better able to play the legal game than her. Munira put on a brave face as she negotiated with the slimy scum, but Neferi didn't trust herself not to say something angry and foolish that would make their situation worse while Franciso was holding all the cards. She fumed silently, glaring daggers at him. If looks could kill, he would be a pink smear on the floor.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>It wasn't as though Neferi had never imagined being in a place like Lady Awan's Massage Parlor, but she had never thought that she would be here as a masseuse instead of a client. Though there was something about the working girls' skimpy attire, and the perfumed scent in the air, that didn't sit quite right with her. She had to admire Munira for being able to keep up a diplomatic facade, because she herself was still plenty worked up over Francisco's unexpected low blow.<br/><br/>The truth was revealed soon enough; a horrific realization dawned on Neferi when she saw the "masseuses" "massaging" their clients. The "Massage Parlor" was just a fancy front for a whorehouse! Not even in her darkest nightmares had the proud marid entertained the thought of being in one, on either side of the transaction. She was the firstborn of al-Samara,<em>not</em>some cheap piece of meat to be rented by the hour. The law be damned to the Nine Hells, but Neferi was going to draw the line here.<br/><br/>"No." Neferi slammed her hand on the desk hard enough to make the candy jar rattle. "This is going too far! Selling a massage is fine; selling our bodies is not." She looked straight into Lady Awan's eyes, "With all due respect, 'Lady' Awan, if you think a piece of vellum gives you that right over us, then you've thought wrong."