No, the mansion feels abandoned

Once you've pulled your clothing back on, you motion to Iola to stay close behind as you head once again for the steps, warning her to keep quiet. You decide to risk using the small lamp, hopefully at this time of night Orestes and his henchmen will be sound asleep, and the risk of being seen is small. Besides, you are sick of creeping about in pitch blackness.

With the lamp lighting the way, you are able to move swiftly down the tower stairwell and into the balcony that looks over a great dining hall below. A row of windows to your right are almost certainly the ones you examined from the outside when you climbed Orestes' roof, and to your left you see a series of doors any one of which could lead to Orestes sleeping chambers. The first two doors are unlocked and open into the same room; a library with shelves of leather backed books with an empty fireplace at one end of the hall, and a great wooden table and padded chairs that dominate the center of the room. The room screams of old money, but sadly nothing looks like it is worth carrying around. The table is littered with half-eaten food, rumpled dining towels and an incongruous mixture of cheap pewter cups and smashed glass goblets. Your heart sinks as you see the mess, the house has been abandoned; a mess like this would never sit overnight if there were servants doing their jobs. The bar at the far wall of the room confirms your fears, each and every one of the bottles that once had filled the glasses of Athenapolis's elite lay empty on the floor, most likely drained by the very guards left behind to protect this mansion while Orestes fled for safety.

"This sucks." You tell Iola, "He's gone. The good news is I bet his guards are gone too. Well gone, or passed out drunk." The longer you examine the room, the more your fears are confirmed. An empty rack next to the bar looks like it once held a collection of expensive goblets, no doubt the absence of any candelabra or centerpiece on the table was also explained by either Orestes' planned absence or his guards opportunism.

"What do you mean 'He's gone?" Iola asks after a minute of hesitation.

"I mean Orestes is not here." You tell her as you steer her pretty bare feet away from the broken glass. "If he was, the guards would have been at their stations and not drinking his best vintages." Iola stares at you in a mixture of confusion and fear with those damn expressive eyes.

It is a look that drives some men mad with desire and you wonder that the drunk guards hadn't dragged Iola from her cage and fucked that sweetness right out of her. All you can think is that maybe the man who had brought her up to the tower room had left with Orestes and the ones left behind hadn't even realized she was up there. If you'd been one of those drunken mercenaries you'd have laid her out on this great table and stripped off her robes and fucked her for sure. As it is, you have to suppress the sudden desire you feel to lay her out on the great library table and make her scream out in surrender as you finger her tight young pussy.

"But, where could he go?" Your new-found shadow interrupts the erotic interlude. "Did he bring Airlia with him, or is she still here?" Both good questions, but ones that you can't answer any more than her.

"I don't know." You answer brusquely, "Let's go find out, but stay quiet, there might still be some of those guards around." Unconsciously your hands touch the hilts of the knives on your forearms and at your belt, only when you see Iola's eyes widen in a look of alarm do you even realize what you've done. She's probably never even seen a woman carry a knife, not to mention one who knows how to use one - oh well, she's going to grow up in a hurry. "Watch your feet on the glass." You warn her as you head for the hallway, pleased to see her obediently follow.

The next room had once been locked but the mechanism was smashed open and the double doors were slightly ajar. Anything of real value would be gone, but you might find Airlia or at least what's left of her. Of course you might find the poor girl wedged between two or three naked guardsmen who would be quite pleased to see two fresh pussies arriving to the party. Well, pleased until the blood started flowing, but if you couldn't kill them fast enough the ones who survived wouldn't be gentle with you, and Iola would continue her growing up in a hurry.