"Yes, well, it's really all one problem, isn't it?" Kumi sighs. "Let's go over it again, see if anyone's moved on their positions."

"I want the front room to be useful for Nap Stack and for doing mass healing," Rose says. "We're a good-aligned temple, we should be providing healing services. Make a proper shrine of it, or else everyone's going to mistake us for just another Calistrian brothel. We need to show that we're different. That means services, theology classes, the whole nine yards."

"Rose has a point, but I think it is most important that this temple be a place where people can be... comfortable. Not a place where they must listen to sermons or deal with large crowds of people. It should be quiet. Full of beautiful things. A relaxing place. A joyous place. Somewhere that you can just... be, for a while, and leave your cares behind. I do not want the business or worship aspects to prevent someone from finding real joy."

"Both of you have points, but I must stress that we're all clerics of a goddess of sexuality and that the entire reason we arranged to lease this building rather than another was so that we could have a proper courtesan's guild license. The whole point was to outcompete the slave-based brothels at the docks with superior service and help the area become more safe. And we have a large loan that we need to pay off somehow, so there is going to need to be some kind of business here in order to make back that money."

"Yes, I'm not arguing that we shouldn't be a brothel. But there has to be some way to make it clear that this is a house of worship and not just whores."

"I must admit that I am still a little confused as to the purpose. Rose has said that it is for... sexual pleasure, as a service... but there has been almost no discussion of acquiring the proper implements for sex."

"We need to get the place up to standards before we think about sex toys. We won't get any customers no matter how expensive our sex toys if we can't clean the place and make it look attractive. Speaking of which, we need to speak to the Arcanamirium and get some junior wizards in here to prestidigitate the smoke in the carpets and walls away."

"By sex toys, you mean... daggers, whips...?"

Ah. Right.

"I think your definition of sex and my definition of sex may be strongly different. Please explain what activities you mean by sex."

"It is - the things I do, the designs - that is sex. We've - you asked me if I wanted to cut my design into you, you said it was meaningful. That - In Nidal that is sex."

Kumi blinks. 

... "Oh." 

So that's why she said it was good to see how she bore pain. She'd written that off as merely another piece of Nidalese propaganda. Apparently that went deeper than she thought. 

"- are we in a relationship?"

"I - what?" Ember frowns. "Yes, we are both priestesses of the same goddess...?" 

" - outside Nidal if you have sex with someone generally there are - courtship rituals around that, and you become attached for some time -" 

" - I would bear suffering for you, if that is what you mean."

"We really need to talk through all this properly. But alright, I will take that in the spirit it is intended. I'm going to - try to refrain from assuming that you're assuming -" 

She presses her hand over her right cheek and jowl and rubs the side of her muzzle. "Ugh. Okay, so - there is a set of things that are generally regarded as sex outside Nidal, generally involving gentle touches between the legs and on the breasts, for women. I would say "sensitive areas" but I know that you hear something completely different when I say that. I mean sensitive in a way that's pleasurable, like when I pet your hair. You try to cause so much pleasure for the person that it overwhelms them and they have a - release. I think you know the sense of - overwhelmingness - from what you have done with me and in your past but usually it's been pain for you. Sex among people who are not from Nidal is about pleasure instead. And I - given what you've said so far I deeply suspect you've been deliberately injured in the areas I'm describing so that touching them is not pleasurable. But it is pleasurable for most people." 

Ember's eyebrows slowly rise. 

"I think I have a small understanding, yes. For me sex is about... overwhelming the person who is receiving pain... But those areas can be involved, yes. You are correct that I do not experience touch in those areas as pleasurable. This different kind of sex is still an important thing for non-nidalese people? I had not expected there to be a - pleasure-based alternative."

"This is such an important thing to our goddess that it's one of her core domains - kink, the variety of pleasurable things that can be done during sex. I know we haven't really discussed that part of her catechism yet, I've been avoiding the subject because, uh, I had absolutely no idea what your experience was and didn't want to bring up something that could be very painful to you emotionally - but it is important that you know that you are missing an important part of the mortal experience -" 

Rose coughs. "Uh, Kumi -"

Kumi pauses in her explanation. "Yes?"

"I'm not interested in sex, as far as I can tell. It's part of why Lilian liked me, I wasn't going to ask her for the same kinds of things her clients did. It's not a universal thing."

"I - nonetheless, Ember hasn't had the chance to try it." 

Ember frowns. 

"If it is as you say..." She crosses her arms. "I think I would like to try this alternative."

Oh great, now she's blushing. Ember and Rose together have completely knocked her off her game and she's going down a complete tangent. 

"Then I recommend that you see the church of Sarenrae and receive whatever treatment is necessary to heal your injuries in such areas, and then, um - we can talk about it. It... I think it is important that you understand this, as a Cleric of Sunaira. So I would... encourage you to try."

Ember just nods.

"Returning to the matter at hand..."

"Er, yes."

Kumi tries to recall what she was saying before she was completely knocked off track.