There's no such thing as debt with the whores at home, that isn't how it works at all with us; like everyone on a ship is one crew, that is how it is in the brothel. One of the younger women there before I left was my first. We were friends, she was nervous, I was nervous, if that can be believed. [Some firsts she shared on the docks, in the taverns, or with her thief friends, but some things seemed safer under her mother's roof. There's always that safety for her, knowing she can always go back and be welcomed.] If I had wished to take that path they would have taught me but she taught me all the other things that people never think you can learn in a brothel.

I...I confess that I still find it very hard to think of it as sinful when what my mother still does is considered to be healing. To be with a Bride is to be embraced by the sea, to be healed, to be comforted; even with a consort - that is what the whores call themselves, consorts to refer to the gender or genders they prefer to lie with, it makes it simpler for all parties - when they do not need to provide the same healing, to be with someone? How is it sinful? We were given a body to feel alive, I have always felt so alive and connected. Loved. [There's a moment of pause, careful consideration as she tips her head to think about a few instances in the past. Not hurts, more selfishness on the part of others and she shrugs.] I think some of your Chantry mothers and sisters are the ones who are in need of it the most.