Yes

“I think that we might,” Joa decided, with neither Seleste nor Gwendolyn protesting her decision, the two of them both looking forward to spend more time with Aldric, “if for no other reason than that it might be a good idea to get out of town for a little while.”

“Heh, we’ve been here a couple of hours and we’re already pursued by the law,” Gwendolyn cut in, her voice betraying the fact that she didn’t know whether to be worried or excited.

“Don’t worry,” Seleste humorously soothed the younger of her two lovers, “you’ll get quite used to it pretty soon.”

“Speaking of which,” Joa raised her voice a little to quiet her two companions, “we can’t leave the city straight away, so we’ll need somewhere to spend the night.”

“And from your voice I guess that you’ve got a suggestion?” Amalric asked, adjusting his loincloth a little as his cock swelled in reaction to Joa’s presence.

“Not in a park, that much is certain,” Joa decided, feeling that her nipples had reached a state where they mirrored Seleste’s and Gwendolyn’s, “but I have an old friend who owns an inn.”

“Why didn’t we go there straight away?” Seleste wondered.

“His inn is located in the farthest part of the city seen from the seaside; he had enough of it I guess.”

“Right next to the wall?” Amalric asked, “it’ll mean that we’ll have to spend less time leaving the city in daylight.”

“Yes,” Joa agreed, “although I doubt that we’re the most wanted men and women in the city, I think a bit more than a bar-brawl is needed to claim that title.”

“I’d think so, yes,” Amalric agreed with a smile, “then I guess it’s settled.”

“It would appear so,” Joa nodded her head and returned Amalric’s warm smile, “shall we go?”

“Lead the way!” Gwendolyn allowed herself a little enthusiasm, feeling hot from the knowledge that Aldric was watching her as she spoke, and Joa soon followed her command by leading the group out of the park.

Doing their best to seem like ordinary visitors, the group exited the park in the other direction from where they had come and walked down the streets of Tharros, with Seleste and Gwendolyn in particular marvelling at the city’s commerce, which went on even after the day had turned into evening.

“That seems a bit foolish,” Gwendolyn said just as the group had passed a stand selling books, “putting a fortune out on the streets like that.”

“Not really, the printer means that books are pretty cheap.” Joa told her, only then realising that Gwendolyn would have no idea of what a printer was?

Predictably, a confused “A printer?” came from Gwendolyn in response to Joa’s explanation.

“It’s a machine that prints books,” Joa began, understanding that her explanation would have to be a bit more in-depth for Gwendolyn and Seleste to understand, “it uses templates of letters cut into metal cubes and presses them against a page so that they’re stuck onto it.”

“What?” Seleste asked, knowing that a book was ordinarily a huge investment of time and money, with scholars often spending several months just copying one book. That meant that books were often a nice prize for a thief to find, and Seleste had traded quite a few of them to fences over the years.

“You put ink over the templates, and then they press the ink onto the paper,” Joa explained further, feeling as though her knowledge of how the process worked was starting to run thin.

“Why hasn’t anyone brought it to the island?” Seleste wondered.

“The island?” Now Amalric cut in, and the confusion within the party was becoming complete.

“We can discuss it later,” Joa’s voice was getting a little strained, and the others picked up on this and held in their further questions.

The group reached their destination unmolested by guardsmen, and Joa led the way as they entered the sturdy-looking two-story stone building which sported a sign stating “The Sailor’s Boot” with Gwendolyn and Seleste noticing the towering silhouette of the city walls a few hundred yards off in the distance.

“Seleste!” The man behind the small counter in the nicely furnished foyer that the group had entered called out, and came out onto the floor to greet them.
“Hello Brutus.” Seleste greeted the man as the two of them shared a quick embrace.
Seleste noticed that Brutus looked every bit the old sailor, appearing to be in his late forties or early fifties, with greying black hair and a face that looked as though it had been weathered by many years out to sea.

Again Seleste was made to marvel as she noticed that Brutus lacked his left hand, it having been replaced by a metal hook. But unlike the similar replacements for lost hands that Seleste had previously seen, this one was equipped with a tin metal bar which was roughly as long as the hook itself, and which moved up and down almost like a thumb.

“Brutus, meet my friends,” Joa said, and then introduced her four companions to the man, who greeted them all before asking Joa whether or not she wanted a room.
“I’ll gladly let you spend the night here, though I’ve only got three rooms to spare, so some of you’ll have to share,” Brutus told them, with Joa nodding her head and responding that that would be fine.

Ten minutes later, Gwendolyn and Seleste were in the double-room where they were to spend the night, with Gwendolyn reclining on one of the beds, they had no intentions of utilising both of them, and Seleste was standing by the window which faced the walls.
“So, what do you think?” Seleste asked, having noticed that Gwen had looked at Aldric with the same sort of glint in her eye as she had.

“I guess that you’ve got options to the high elder’s daughter now,” Amalric told Aldric, laughing at how red his baby-brother’s cheeks got in response to this.

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