Up at sunrise before anybody else, Khalifa had a hot bath in the smaller pool cresting the silvered roots of the great [Akovanga] tree. Children began to wake as she slithered in the bluish water, the bits of magic metals underground and native to the Bonelands making the water glow in a dreamy mist, and the kids didn't mind seeing a tan, naked woman swimming in the public eye.
If anything, what attracted the gazes of the earlybirds more was the mural of scars she seemed to have stemmed all over her body. Tattoos of a very untimid past. Khalifa swam for a while. And without the cover of her veils, everyone waking in the great Skoatl Mountains could peek at her pink scar on the otherwise enchanting face and nude slippery picture of beauty she was.
Rafel was one of the early birds.
