3
AFTER WRESTLING in full sunlight, the house seemed cool. Strange how one’s perspective could change.
It was almost time for the late afternoon break, traditionally the time of day where people officially stopped work and came inside to deal with family matters. And Asha’s household was highly regimented and traditional. You were not supposed to turn up at the table unwashed, especially if you had been working outside, so I ducked into the bathroom after Veyada had used it.
The bathroom, too, was very traditional. In line with the scarcity of water in Athyl, the “bath” part was just a stone bowl that barely held a bucket’s worth of water, which was refilled from a spigot in the wall. There would be a water tank behind that wall, also a part of the mechanism to keep the house cool.
The
