"Yes," she says with a small smile. "I think I would."

About an hour later...

The soon-to-be temple is in the middle of having its walls and floor presitidigitated clean by a team of laundry wizards when the knock comes on Kumi's door. 

"Come in," she calls distractedly.

Ember enters, Rose trailing along behind her.

Kumi looks up. "Who are - Wait. Ember?"

She nods, swallowing a lump in her throat.

"You look beautiful," Kumi says. "I was expecting to see you with a new set of scars..."

She runs a hand through her hair. "... It's good to see you. Are you here about the matter we discussed this morning?"

She simply nods. 

It's a big step, trying something pleasurable deliberately, but... She trusts Kumi and Rose. If they think this is important, she'll go along with it.

"We'll need real privacy. Rose, can you take over directing the contractors for me here while I take Ember back to my old room in your apartment?"

"Of course." Rose nods sharply. "Good luck, you two."

She pauses. "Also, there's no bed there anymore, you moved it, remember? But I don't mind at all if you use mine for this."

"Oh, yes." Kumi looks over at the very same bed which had been moved, now sitting through a door in her back office. "It's been such a mess managing everything that it completely slipped my mind. Thank you, Rose."

"It's nothing. Go learn together."

Kumi nods, and heads out of her office, leading Ember on behind her. 

"Back to the apartment," she says. "Sorry for making you crisscross the city like this."

"It is alright. There is much to see and do in Absalom. I am still getting used to it."

Her teeth aren't sharp anymore either, when she looks. She bets Ember's pinkies are back too, but she's not going to be so crass as to check. 

"Did you share lunch with Rose?"

"Yes. It was... an experience. I am still learning Absalom food. I think it is better."

They pass out of the brothel-under-repair as workmen board up the hole in the floor again and an Arcanamirium apprentice slowly sweeps Prestidigitation along the deep soot stains on the walls. 

Kumi falls in step with Ember. 

She can just imagine what that would have been like for Ember. Her first meal of solid food in fifteen years that wasn't seasoned with agony. 

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"I am learning." Ember smiles.

Jossie Slimfin calls out to them as they pass. "Kumi! I've got new stock in. Anything you'd like to buy?"

The gills on her neck flare a little as she gestures to her collection of bright, glinting objects.

Kumi looks over at Ember.

"I think we have something more important to do," Ember says. "Later."

Kumi nods, and the pair walk on.

At the end of Besmarra's Boardwalk they hail a camel cab, and from there they ride on into the city.

Ember is quiet for most of the ride, but eventually... 

"My teeth always used to twinge whenever I set my jaw. The stumps of my fingers, whenever I flexed my hands. I accepted it as the way things were. Reminders that pain is eternal. But now I am in no pain when I speak, no pain when I grasp. I can eat meat and hard cheese, and more..."

She looks out at the bustling market of the Coins, with all its hundred kinds of vendors and people. 

"I have been lied to and crippled for all my life. It is - too big to feel all at once. But it is there, now. I am beginning to grasp the shape of what was done to me. And it makes me deeply, deeply angry."

"I think that is natural. What was done to you was cruel and wrong. It is correct to be angry about it. The question is what you do with that anger."

Ember nods, and lapses into silence again.