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It seems pretty wasteful, considering that you would never be comfortable keeping water in those casks again, but if you have to choose between your safety and two or three baby barrels that father probably … okay, almost certainly did not pay for, then you are going to choose your safety, every single time. Of course, it is one thing to say that you are going to drain the bathtub into the empty casks, it is another thing entirely to actually do it. Eventually you do manage though, somehow without making a complete mess in the process.
As you are collecting yourself after setting the tub back down in its spot, you hear Giotto and his baby brothers ring in the sixth hour. The official curfew for Lepers has ended, and those that have work outside of the Midden are being let out into the city. The sound spurs you on, and you rush over to the corner where you and father keep the sundries to grab a fork with a handle thin enough that you could use it as a stirring rod and some earthenware cups. Six of them, two for each of the three attempts that you should get at Remediating yourself before the Strangeness that has not been sequestered away inside of you becomes inured.
On your way back to the tub, you grab another flask, this one still filled with the water that you boiled two days ago. Then, with great trepidation, you reach into your pockets and bring out the purses of sea salt. Grimacing, you place several hearty pinches of salt at the bottom of each of the cups, and then you use the filled flask to pour as much water as you possibly can into all of the earthenware. After setting the cups down on the floor, you kneel over them and very carefully stir the water to dissolve the salt while spilling as little of the water as possible. Once you have prepared enough of the solution, you grab two more casks and a kitchen rag. Using as little water as possible, as well as the rag and what little soap you have left, you do your best to clean the bathtub.
When you are as satisfied as you ever are going to be, you use the rag the sop up as much of the water and the soap as you can, then you place it on top of the casks containing the soiled bathwater. You rinse the tub, again using as little water as possible, and once you can see that the water is coming up clean enough, you allow yourself to just dump the water onto the floorboards, allowing it to fall to the bottom of the belltower. With the tub clean, you pour the water remaining in the two casks into the tub, and then you start adding salt. By the time that you are satisfied that the bath is salty enough, you have blown through one of your purses of salt. You turn the stained canvas inside out, to make sure that you have gotten everything, then you set the empty purse aside.
You move the cups close enough to the bath so you can reach them once you are inside, and then there is nothing left to do but actually get into the bath. Completely clothed this time.
