The brothel employees and quite a few clients, including Bast, sat in a large room with a long serving table down the middle and several smaller, circular tables on either side. There were about one hundred people, roughly the same number as in the Church of Hangmen, all with plates piled with roof-grown vegetables and fruits, homemade bread and butter, and spiced kangaroo. Or snake. It was probably best I didn't know.

Laughter and relaxed chatter filled the space. Some women ...