Neferi scrubbed herself clean with greater gusto than normal, more than was strictly needed to wash the cum off her blue skin. Her mood brightened a bit when the conversation shifted to herbalism. "The alchemical crafts are a hobby of mine," she said with a touch of pride. "Let me show you!"<br/><br/>And she proceeded to do just that, working with Munira to deftly cook up samples of alchemical glue, alchemical solvent, deodorant (deodorizing agent), incense, and soothe syrup.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Neferi Results</div><div class="spoiler_body">11 Heal and 44 Alchemy (inspiration used for both)<br/></div></div><br/><br/>"Well... you might have to get very creative to use these in a massage," Neferi admitted, as she realized that her concoctions were more suited to dungeon-delving than a massage parlor, "but any recipes you want to share, I'll be happy to learn!"<br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Massage Results</div><div class="spoiler_body">18 in Perform (Sex) with no ranks, using inspiration.<br/></div></div><br/><br/>Neferi felt like a piece of meat on display at the butcher's as she was displayed along with her sister and the rest of the girls to potential customers. Still, she resolved to put a smile on her face and make the best of it, for the sake of earning gold and paying off her debt as soon as possible. Yet when her first client mentioned the sea to her, the pang of homesickness for the city of Glass struck like a dagger in her heart, and she had to bow her head demurely and pretend to be too shy to speak, lest the tears welling in her eyes and the lump in her throat betray her. Why had she and Munira ever thought it a good idea to leave? In her state, it was a small miracle that she manged to get him off to his satisfaction.<br/><br/>She made up a little white lie for the second man, pretending to be someone else, which made it a little easier to distance herself from the act and her own emotions. "Of course I'm not a mermaid, have you ever seen a mermaid with legs like these?" she put on what she thought was her most sultry voice, sliding one thigh over the other. "But," she lowered her voice as if sharing a secret, "don't tell anyone, but my mother was a mermaid who fell in love with a man..."<br/><br/>"Come back tomorrow and bring a fish... a live one! No dead fishes... and maybe you'll find out whether I can talk to them," she winked at the end, sending him off after his happy ending.<br/><br/>Neferi was slightly relieved when ponytail settled for a platonic massage. "I'm not complaining but... you do know what sort of 'massage parlor' this is, right?" she had to ask out of curiosity, cats be damned.<br/><br/>The fourth customer... he was as exotic to Neferi as she was to him, though she wasn't the one stooping so low as to buy sexual favors from exotics down on their luck with no other choice. She even thought him to be a very skinny dwarf at first, what with his beard at all, but the ears finally settled the matter... she thought, she still wasn't completely sure. Certainly he was hairy enough for a dwarf! She had to force herself not to laugh when he managed to light his hair instead of his pipe, and then not to turn her nose up at the acrid smell of singed hair and tobacco.<br/><br/>Finally finished, Neferi returned to the room she shared with Munira with relief. Before she entered she composed herself and wiped her eyes clean of any traces of tears remaining. She needed to be strong for her sister's sake!<br/><br/>"I'm back," she yawned. "Are you al-" she cut herself short, frowning at the ridiculousness of the question she had been about ot ask. Of course things weren't alright; they were still trapped here. "How did it go? Did anyone... was anyone too rough?"<br/><br/>She read the letter together with Munira, "Lunch with Lista and the others sounds good, I don't see why not."  She had been idealistic and naive with Lady Awan earlier, but now that reality was staring her in the face, at this rate she wasn't going anywhere with her debt. There had to be a way to earn more gold, and the more experienced girls might just know how.