The Gandohese loved their hot baths, using either naturally occurring hot springs or water brought in from the mountains and reheated with boilers. There was a whole culture built around it. Different springs were said to have different curative properties and people of means would go from one corner of the country to another in search of certain baths.

The purpose of the bath itself was to soak and relax. You actually had to wash your body in a separate area before entering to keep the water relatively clean. Open-air baths like this one were intended to enhance the relaxing effect with natural vistas or, in this case, a view of a meticulously tended garden.

Lord Masahiro, the deputy foreign minister, moved in close to Root, leaned in and asked, "How are you enjoying the view, Cerner Mahtin?"

He was not, of course, talking about the trees and the flowers. The Gandohese, you see, had a custom of mixed bathing, so the males and the females of the delegation were 'enjoying' what the Gandohese called 'hadaka no tsukiai' or 'naked fellowship'. Some members of the party took to it better than others.

Azuki was of course Gandohese herself and had no sense of shame about being seen naked. Captain Tsai looked uncomfortable while trying to maintain an aloof air about her. Lieutenant Juliard was beet red and Anne was clearly forcing herself to appear more above it than she was. Among the military members, only the officers were permitted to join the civilians of rank in their bath, so Sir Willem and Miss Duveau, who were posing as enlisted, were excluded from this experience.

The Gandohese, male and female alike, seemed rather appreciative of the exotic quality the Byrandians brought, particularly Anne. None of the Gandohese ladies had an athletic build like she did, so she drew more eyes than she probably would've liked. Root was trying not to let his own eyes rest on her too much, thinking of how the King would have his balls for billiards. If he had to look in any one direction, it was generally toward Azuki. Although she was regularly scanning the area, constantly seeking out danger even in a place like this, she tended to be looking his way more often than not, too.

While she had barely aged a day since the Benefide Expedition, Root certainly wasn't the same man he was eleven years ago. What was it like for her to look on him now? Was it disappointing?

Why was Root even concerned with what she thought of him? Yes, there had been an attraction between them eleven years ago, but that was a long time back. Plus, he was a married man. He really didn't need to be thinking about what other women thought about him.

For the most part, the women stayed on one side and the men stayed on the other. While you could definitely see the opportunity for it, any funny business in the bath was seen as exceedingly rude. Look but don't touch. Root could think of a number of establishments he would frequent back in the day with that rule... and quite a few others without it.

Despite this general unwritten policy of separation of the sexes, Root saw Azuki coming across to him, setting herself down between him and Lord Masahiro.

Azuki had her hair pinned up, albeit in a different style than when she was in uniform. It looked like she used a pair of chopsticks to hold up her hair. It was a cute look, to be honest. Interestingly enough, Lord Masahiro's eyes seemed to be drawn to the back of her neck rather than more obvious places.

They had been warned of that before. Some people could soak for hours while those with more fragile constitutions would be lucky to last ten minutes. At very least, Root didn't want to be one of the first ones to get out. They did have cold-water baths to cool you down in order to take another soak. He could probably use the cold-water bath for more reasons than one about now.

Lord Masahiro began speaking to Azuki in Gandohese, kicking off a brief conversation. Root didn't know hardly any Gandohese, but he could sense enough of the nuance to tell the cold, formal nature of her replies. She didn't even look him in the eye, but the Gandohese did have different ideas about eye contact.

He felt someone brush up against him. It was Anne.

Only looking at her out of the corner of his eye, he said in a low voice, "Precisely what in the hell do you think you're doing?"

Though not as red as Lieutenant Juliard, Anne was rather flushed and Root didn't figure it was just on account of the heat. She looked away to distract from where her attention really was. Root felt her fingers uncertainly touch his leg. Before they could creep any farther, he took hold of her hand.

She didn't say anything, acting like nothing happened. She tried guiding his hand toward her, but he let go. He was expecting her to make another go at it, but she didn't try it again. Then he felt a different hand on his other side slowly stroke his thigh.

He was supposed to say something about it not being appropriate period. Why did he make it sound like there was an invitation open for later?

Without showing the slightest change in expression, looking out toward the garden, Azuki took his hand and put it on her own thigh. Unlike with Anne's attempt just a moment ago, he didn't pull away right then.

He should have pulled away, but a stupid part of him thought it would hurt her feelings. Was that all? He knew better. He had willpower enough not to do anything more but not enough to reject the gesture outright, so his hand stayed there.

Despite all her training, there was a very feminine softness to her. The fuzzy memories of her warming him with her body when she found him half-dead in the snow came creeping back. Even though he had been dating Trish at the time, he wasn't able to resist the temptation. Azuki only stopped him because of the situation. She definitely seemed open to the idea under better circumstances. Eleven years and that interest hadn't waned. The only way she could be more direct was if she tried mounting him then and there.

Amid all these complicated feelings mixing around inside him, Root got a new surprise when Captain Tsai wedged herself between him and Azuki, pinning his arm against the wall with her back. His hand was stuck resting on her hip. About the only way this would be worse was if it were General Adeen instead.

She then let him free his arm. If she started trying to fool around with him, though, he swore he was going to run away screaming.

Next it was Lieutenant Juliard's turn to come over, submerged like a submarine until she got to the other side and huddled close to Anne.

An impressed Lord Masahiro said, "You are lucky man, Cerner Mahtin. We say men with power attract women like moths to flame. Maybe you are Emperor of Birandia. Ha ha ha!"

Root saw that he was getting looks for having four women clustered around him. Moths to a flame, huh? He felt like he was the one that was going to get burned.

Thankfully, the awkward situation was brought to an end when Lieutenant Juliard fainted. A mild panic followed as they dragged her out of the water to bring her back around, only the sight of a bunch of naked people around her was apparently too much for her and she passed right out again.

Anne and Azuki carried her off so that she could get some air in the adjoining lounge room. Naturally, they offered her the courtesy of dressing her first. Upon emerging from the bath, you changed into a light cotton robe, so the task of quickly dressing a person with the consistency of a wet noodle was not so difficult.

By the time Root got to the lounge room, Lieutenant Juliard was stretched out on the floor by the door to the patio with her head on Anne's lap. Lucky duck.

Azuki showed up not long thereafter with little bottles of chilled milk. She placed three on the table near Anne and then offered one to Root.

The milk had a rather sharp taste to it, almost like liquid cheese. Even so, drinking something cold after being slow-boiled was nice. A nice beer probably would've been even better.

Root needed to put a pin in this before it went on any further. Deep down, did he really want to reject her advances? Not at all, but he was a married man. He couldn't. He shouldn't.

Before he could come up with something to say, Azuki spoke up again, saying, "I want to get some air. Will you walk with me, Mr. Root?"

Surely there was no harm in walking. It might actually make it easier for him to sort things out with her.

The patio was about two meters wide and encompassed the entire building, something of an outdoor corridor. From the patio you could look out to the courtyard. It was considered part of the indoors, so you could still wear the indoor slippers, but if you actually wanted to step off the patio into the courtyard, there were a few sets of wooden sandals that were helpfully provided.

The Gandohese seemed to have different shoes for every occasion. Indoor shoes, outdoor shoes, my shoes, your shoes, even shoes for the WC. Business must have been good for shoemakers here.

Azuki chose to step out into the courtyard and Root followed her. There was a cobblestone path that made the circuit around a small pond. The path was close to the edge of the water so you could get a better look at the fish swimming inside. You couldn't really see them this late, but they were this brilliant orange and white. A stylized image of these fish was on the Gandohese flag, so the fish had to be significant to them.

At first Root was going to just dismiss it as local folklore, but then he thought of the Abominations and realized there might be something to it.

That was an unexpectedly poetic sentiment coming from her. Was reading into it a mistake? Surely she said it for a reason.

She held up her hand to stop him, the curt gesture of the hunter and scout. Her eyes were fixed on one of the gardeners. She spoke to him in Gandohese, short, harsh. The gardener replied good-naturedly, but even without understanding a word of it, Root sensed ill-concealed deflection. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he picked up on the danger, but his reaction was too slow. The handle of the gardener's tool was revealed to be a blowpipe. He took aim at Root, but Azuki pushed him back into the pond before the dart could stick him.

Like Azuki said, the water was shallow, maybe only about fifteen centimeters or so. The bed was rock and he was thankful that his rusty combatives training kicked in so that he fell without hitting his head.

While he was getting back on his feet, Azuki charged at the gardener, taking one of the sticks out of her hair and jabbing it in the man's eye. The gardener recoiled, shrieking in pain, when Azuki seized him by the head and smashed him into a nearby stone lantern. If that wasn't enough to finish the job, she picked up the top of the lantern and dropped it on his head. There would be no getting up from that one.

The lights started going out in the building and outside the lanterns were being extinguished one after another. There were more of them and they were moving in. A deep dread Root hadn't felt in years sank in the pit of his stomach like a lead weight. There were more important things at stake here than just his own safety.

Azuki threw off her robe, taking the shape of a white tiger as she bounded back into the building. Root kicked off his sandals and ran after her. He didn't have any weapons on him, but he'd figure something out.

When he got to the lounge, it was a bloodbath. There were some thirty people when Root and Azuki stepped out and nearly half of them were wounded or dead. The attackers came from inside the building, so the people closest to the interior doors had been the first to get it. Captain Tsai was using an upturned table as a shield along with Anne and Lieutenant Juliard. Anne was frozen in shock, wide-eyed, with a bleeding hand.

Root went to her first, shouting, "Anne! Are you alright!? Are you hurt!?"

Anne held up her hand, stammering, "R-r-root..."

There was broken glass in her hand. A quick glance and Root saw the body of the nearest attacker with a broken bottle in his leg. Anne at least had the presence of mind at first to try to defend herself, then Azuki must have come in to finish him off.

Root took her hand and plucked out all the glass fragments he could find. He then took the sash off her robe and bound up her hand. It was better than nothing to stop the bleeding until she could get proper treatment. She was so out of it, she didn't even react to him taking the sash. If he were a proper gentleman, he would've used his own, but he didn't need the robe flapping around for what he was about to do.

He peeked over the table to get a scan of the room. On the right, Azuki had taken out two others and was going after a third. On the left, two attackers were struggling with three men using a table between them. Root figured they could use the help more than Azuki.

As he was going, he heard Anne cry, "Root! Don't leave me!"

He didn't have time to turn back. He moved in behind the three men and threw his weight at the table, driving the attackers back. As they stumbled backwards, they tripped on the table behind them. The tables didn't have much weight to them, so sandwiching the attackers between the two tables wasn't going to accomplish much.

Root saw the body of one of the attackers with his own knife sticking in his guts, the work of that Lieutenant Lee Captain Tsai was talking about, presumably.

He went to the dead attacker, yanked out the knife, then thrust it into the neck of the nearest attacker under the table. Before Root could go around to the other one, the remaining attacker slipped out and immediately slashed at one of the men who had been holding him down. Root couldn't see if he'd been cut, but the man tumbled back into the other two, leaving them in one big tangled, vulnerable knot on the floor.

Before the attacker could take advantage of this opening, Root kicked the table, hitting the attacker in the shin and taking him off balance. Root then flipped the table on him and while he was busy pushing the table away, Root moved in and stabbed him in the ribs around the lung. The attacker tried slashing at Root, but he managed to block it. However, as he was holding back the attacker, the attacker turned the knife around and stabbed Root in the arm. Root responded by pulling his knife out of the attacker's chest and stabbing him again, this time in the neck.

The attacker gurgled something in Gandohese before succumbing to blood loss and slumping down in death. Root looked at the knife sticking in his arm and felt a little light-headed. If he pulled it out, he might bleed out before help could arrive. How much longer until that team Captain Tsai was talking about would come?

Trying to control his breathing so he wouldn't pass out, Root surveyed the room for any other threats. It looked like all the attackers were dead, but who all had they lost? Azuki approached him, her mouth and paws red with blood. She transformed back into human form and the blood was still sticking to her. She spat out some of the blood in her mouth, then looked at Root's arm.

Although she surely knew far more about treating wounds than he did, Root nevertheless felt compelled to say "Leave it. Leave it until I can get to a doc. If we live that long."

Root managed a weak smile, but his attention quickly returned to their current situation. They had multiple casualties, an unknown number of hostiles still out there and with four doors inside and out, their location was terribly unsecure.

She looked around before deciding on a particular Gandohese official. He recoiled when she first approached him, a fairly natural reaction to a naked woman covered in blood you'd just seen ripping out the throats of trained killers as a tiger. Her questions were curt and direct, unlike the detached formality she showed with Lord Masahiro before.

She returned to Root and told him, "This is an old-style lodge and was not made to be secure. It is protected by Oniwaban."

She pointed to one of the dead attackers.

So the security forces were behind this attack. Things just kept getting better and better.

She went back to the official and asked, then told Root, "He says we would be like rats in a sack, that it is just what they would want."

Root had to think of something. There were wounded to consider as well. Some of them couldn't be moved easily and abandoning them wouldn't go over well.

An idea came to him. It wasn't a great one, but it was probably the best they could do under the circumstances.

Azuki repeated what he said in Gandohese and a mix of able-bodied individuals closed all eight of the doors.

The pairs of doors slid open toward each other, so jamming the rail would prevent the doors from opening. Of course, the walls and the doors were so thin that the attackers could just burst through if they wanted, but at least it would slow them down a bit.

Once they had done that, Root said, "Now take the other tables and make a diamond. We'll take cover here. If you can fight, find something you can use for a weapon. If you know first aid, do what you can for the wounded. If you can't do either of those things, stay the hell outta the way and keep your damn head down."

There was twenty-six of them left. Twelve were wounded to varying degrees, Root included. The wounded who could be moved into their little makeshift fort were brought over, but three of them were too bad off.

Root was having trouble staying conscious. Azuki was crouched at the edge of one table poised to attack. Anne was on the other side of him, clutching at her robe with her uninjured hand to hold it shut.

No doubt she was looking at the knife stuck in his arm when she said, "Oh, God, Root..."

Azuki closed her eyes to focus and said, "Four from the hallway. Four from outside."

Azuki alone had taken out four of the last eight. This time Root didn't think he was going to be much good, though. His legs felt like rubber. He'd probably pass right out if he tried springing up. He looked at the knife in his arm. If it came down to it, he could use that to defend Anne, but that'd be it for him. So long as she was saved, though, it wouldn't be such a bad trade.

Even as she was focusing on the incoming enemy, Azuki said, "You stay here, Mr. Root. Leave them to me."

Root's pride made him want to object, but his body was singing a different tune. It was all he could do just to stay awake.

A violent attempt to open the interior doors to their left was thwarted thanks to the obstruction. There was another go at the next two doors. As Root figured, their next move was to just bust through. Azuki transformed and pounced on one before he could even recover his footing. Someone threw a milk bottle at one coming in from the right, hitting him square in the face. A Gandohese man who had taken a knife from the previous set of attackers let out a shout as he bounded over the table and stabbed the stunned attacker in the gut. Both that attacker and the one who came in further down stabbed him right back. The one being gut-stabbed jammed his knife in the man's temple while the other one went for a lung.

They pushed the stricken man aside and were about to make for the survivors when a pair of blue streaks of light obliterated their heads, leaving only a charred ruin as their bodies awkwardly topped over. Two of the exterior doors were kicked in and four sleek black figures wielding equally sleek black rifles swept in. Seeing them, the tiger-Azuki snarled. One of them took aim at her when Captain Tsai shouted something. The figure lowered his rifle and one of the others had a brief exchange with the Captain. In the meantime, Azuki reverted to her human form.

A new set of four white-clad figures entered. One of them was holding some sort of device in his hand, going over the room and then giving orders to the other three, who quickly went to work on the wounded.

It looked like they were saved. Now Root could do that passing out he'd been meaning to do.