Her heartbeat thrummed gently in her ears, mingling with the low toneless music that filtered through the room.  The small room smelt faintly of ylang ylang as the diffuser charged the air with that floral scent.  She'd picked it with a careful eye, the oil was known as an antidepressant, a muscle relaxer, and an aphrodisiac in certain circles;  a little something from her Aunt's 'night operations' lessons.  The light was brighter than she'd have liked, admittedly, but certain concessions had to be made towards a clinical appearance, an oriental screen and strategically placed hanging vines failing to entirely dispel the bright tile, eggshell colored walls, and the flourescent lighting.  A narrow padded table filled the center of the room with a tall mirror set into the wall nearest the head rest so one could watch her work while lying on their stomach.<br/><br/>Shiori knelt on a hard wood platform across from the door, her hands resting atop the bare lengths of her thighs.  Her eyes were closed, full lips gently parted as she took slow meditative breaths, her straight dark hair rolling over her shoulders and falling down her back.  A short satin robe clung to the contours of her body, the curves shining under the light as the belt cinched it tightly around her waist, a generous flash of her modest cleavage apparent with her low position as her bare legs folded back underneath her.  In front of her, above her lap, roughly level with her naval, a small ball of rolling fire hovered in the air, flickering tongues of indigo snapping up from a dark plum core in a way that no flame had business doing.<br/><br/>Something was wrong.  She could hear it from the crackling in her ears, a sputtering hiss like fat falling from a roast and into a bonfire, but she couldn't place what it<em>was</em>.  Once, she'd have dismissed it as nerves, but her cousin had emphasized and reemphasized the value of instincts to what she did.  The rational mind was too often blind to things that it couldn't define, but it wasn't the only form of understanding a mind could have.  So, she turned to meditation in the quiet moments, tried to shut her thinking mind down, and to listen to her unease, hoping it would illuminate the problem.<br/><br/>The rattle of the door knob may as well have been a gunshot through the stillness of her mind.<br/><br/>With a puff, the dark flames suddenly sucked into their own core, turning inside out and leaving only a few stray embers of blackness that tugged at the light around them as it vanished.  Shiori's eyes opened, big, pale blue eyes that seemed more like tiny mirrors, too bright to seem a proper human color.  As the door openned, Shiori rose to her feet, she had a customer to attend to after all.<br/><br/>Slender fingers took the man's hand, guiding him inside as she looked up at him, an easy professional smile on her lips as the door settled quietly closed behind him again.  She looked too young to have proper certification, but the guiding hand along the small of his back drew him into the room with an ease that belied her small stature.  Really, she wouldn't be surprised if the man just assumed that she was older than she was in truth.<br/><br/>"Welcome to Heiying Massage." she said cordially, born in Emerald City herself she didn't have much in the way of an accent like some of the other girls did, "My name is Shiori and I'll be take care of you today.  Why don't you have a seat on the table and tell me what I can help you with?" she asked, patting the table for emphasis.