No, the journey begins

The sun rose over the island, and the Rose Thief began its journey out of the harbour. Having returned to find her two friends sleeping in her bed, locked in a tender embrace, Joa had first enjoyed a light supper before joining them in sleeping soundly under her sheets. When she awoke just before dawn, being so accustomed to such early mornings that none of her crew-members needed to awaken her, Joa had carefully gotten out of bed, making sure not to disturb the two sleeping beauties, and she had then proceeded to prepare the ship for departure.

Standing on the open deck with one of her most trusted crew-members holding the tiller as he guided the graceful vessel out of the harbour, Joa noted that the sails were being pushed forwards by the winds. Hopefully the weather wouldn’t change for the next three days.

Grabbing the piece of hardtack which made up her breakfast, Joa bit down on it as she wondered whether Seleste and Gwendolyn had awoken yet.

The Rose Thief had already cleared the harbour and was now making its way further and further away from the island when the Queen was being prepared to look her best for another long day of ruling the small nation by a band of female servants. Sitting on a cushioned chair in an airy room which large windows that allowed the sunlight to flood into the round room and give nourishment to the many plants which were placed in it, the Queen was clad only in her sheer blue nightgown as two servant girls were providing her with a pedicure whilst another meticulously ran a comb through her glistening blonde hair.

An elderly male servant, old enough to have been with the Queen since she was a child, now entered the chamber.
“What is it?” The Queen kindly asked the wrinkled old man.
“Your Minister of Intelligence is here to see you.” The old servant replied.
A simple “Leave us” from the Queen was enough to make the female servants scamper out of the chamber, while the elderly man went off to allow Arianna to enter.
“Wait,” the Queen halted the old man, “is my Prince consort awake yet?”
“I’m told that he is up and about.” The elderly servant replied, before the Queen gently shooed him off.

Alone, the Queen thought of her husband for a moment. He was good and kind and strong, and loved her dearly, while she in turn loved him as much as she loved Arianna. Despite knowing full well that Gwendolyn wasn’t his, he had acted as if he was her father from day one, showing her the same affection as he gave to the other children of the royal family.
Promising herself to go and see him once she had heard what Arianna had to say, the Queen watched as her beautiful spymistress entered the chamber and walked towards her.

Arianna was dressed in a white dress which was simple but flawlessly sewn so that it hung lightly against her curvaceous body, and with a black sash tied around her slender waist.

“Good morning my Queen,” Arianna greeted her beloved.
“Good morning Arianna,” the Queen replied, showing none of the typical royal restraint as she eyed Arianna hungrily, “what news do you bring?”

“The ship has sailed safely, and it left the harbour several hours ago.” Arianna informed her queen.
“So there’s no going back now?” The Queen wondered, relishing the fact that it was just the two of them in the room.

“No,” Arianna replied, adding with a more intimate tone of voice: “don’t worry, our plan will work.”
“I know it will,” the Queen rose from her chair and effortlessly allowed her nightgown to slide down across her body until she stood with it bunched up around her ankles, “now come here.”

The Queen saw Arianna smile before moving towards her beautiful, naked mistress. Her husband could wait just a little while, the Queen thought to herself.

Seleste was first to awake, finding herself in an embrace with the still sleeping princess. Gently disengaging herself from the embrace, Seleste moved to sit on the side of the bed. Stretching her arms while her mind slowly accepted the fact that she was now awake and wasn’t going to go back to sleep, Seleste got up on her feet and moved over to her pack. Unlike Gwendolyn, Seleste hadn’t had the chance to equip herself with any spare clothing before the two of them had made for the harbour, so she fetched the skimpy black cotton panties that she had worn the previous day, and put them on.

Looking at Gwendolyn as she slept in the bed, Seleste acted on a whim and pulled the sheet away to reveal the princess’ naked body.