The Breaking — Chapter 4

One warm summer evening, your attendants arrive to take me to the bath earlier than usual. They bathe me, anoint me in rose-scented oil, apply kohl to my eyes and rouge to my lips. They cover the awkward length of my hair with a wrap of silk, then dress me in a white linen chiton so sheer that nothing is left to imagination. I gaze down at myself. Ethereal, draped in gauzy fabric, I could be a spirit from the Underworld.