Ryon smiled at Elann’s words, eventually slouching back in his chair after grabbing another cup of ale as his sister made rounds to collect all the plates, save for their father’s. Viktor was nearly done as it was, but they just left him alone to finish at his own pace. Aimee drained the water in the basin and let it go down to the pipe into the system under the house before replugging the hole at the bottom then calling upon fresh water from the system above. She was doing this while Elann said her thank yous. Viktor looked up from his dwindling plate and nodded before waving his fork in goodbye. Ryon uttered a “you too” as he waved, and Aimee looked over her shoulder to say goodbye as well.

“Aimee,” Noah called over the now clattering dishes, “is there water in the basin?”

The she-wolf pulled the stick holding her hair in a bun out and shook out the length of it, setting the stick off onto the counter. She called back with an affirmation, allowing Noah to walk the rest of the distance between the dining table and the archway leading to the main hall with Elann at his side. As they got into the hall the fire from the hearth greeted them with its dry hot air and crackling sounds.

Noah pointed across the hall towards the bathroom. There were three doors lined up across the hall from them. “The sliding doors is the bathroom. If you have to pee, you can use the door next to it. The toilet’s in there,” he informed her. Before Noah slipped away upstairs he gave her a lasting kiss on her temple.

Once through the sliding doors Elann would be greeted by a dimly lit opening following the doors being slid shut. Going straight, she would come to a corner on her right that she would turn revealing the large, empty soaking tub. It was made of dark wood and embedded into the stone in the corner of the room. Inside the tub, the wood had been smoothed out and at the very bottom was a hold needing to be plugged that would drain the tub back into the underground water system. To the tub’s right was something resembling a closed hutch but the smell of burning wood was apparent in the air. If she opened the top shelf of the hutch she’d see the reservoir of water being held in a basin. Under it, separated by something like a grate, was the fire that was heating it. In the room was a collection of shelves holding various oils and waxy bars of sweet, musky, or herbal smelling scents. Hanging near the tub were various brushes and on another smaller shelf over the tub were a few sponges. A sweet and floral smell was in the air, clearly residual from Aimee’s bath.

After a relatively short time the sliding doors would sound again, once as they were opened, then twice as they were closed. A small wooden latch sounded as Noah locked the door behind him. He revealed himself from the corner carrying only Elann’s nightgown and the three towels requested, of which he hung up near the corner he rounded.

His eyes went over the area in his telltale observatory way, his eyes flicking like they did from each thing in the room while his head slowly swiveled until a full sweep of the room had been done. 

“They got a new tub,” he pointed out softly. 
The light was dim yet warm, the candles lit on the perimeter of the room doing their jobs in providing minimal light to keep a bath relaxing. The only window in the room had been covered by a curtain, so there was no moon or starlight streaming through. Noah stripped off his shirt, letting it drop to the floor before he kicked it off to the side.

“You can light more of the candles if you want,” he told her before moving towards the tub and plugging the bottom. He then moved towards the heated basin held within the hutch-like-structure. Noah reached for the collapsed spout at the side and opened it up to lead to the tub. Pulling on a small slat on the hutch, the hot water came streaming out down the spout before falling into the bottom of the tub.

He let the hot water run for a time before eventually calling upon cooler water to mingle with the hot. He sat on the edge of the tub facing the room, looking to see what Elann was doing since his attention hadn’t been on her all that much.