Try her hand at cards

?No thanks?, Seleste replied to the heavy-set barman, turning down both of his suggestions while doing her best to avoid manifesting the insecurity which bubbled inside of her, brought on as it was by the suddenness of her journey to Tharros, and the things which the queen had said about it.

?Suit yourself girl?, the barkeep replied, and that seemed to be the end of that. Their short discussion had however caused several of the Frothy Mug?s patrons to turn their eyes at the newcomer, and Seleste had to suppress a gulp as she noticed that several men, and indeed quite a few women, were sporting bawdy grins as they looked at her.

Gathering up a little willpower by reminding herself that she overcome far greater challenges than getting through a night in the company of a bunch of horny drunkards, Seleste moved first one leg and then the other, sauntering over to the table were the card game was taking place whilst doing her best to give off an air of nonchalant self-confidence.

The men had placed their cards front-down on the table and were all gawking Seleste as she drew nearer, even if the thin man appeared a little anxious to resume the game.

Whether this was because he was less interested in her than the others or simply because he was winning and the others were losing was unknown to Seleste.

?Mind if I join you?? Seleste asked the circularly seated group of men, to which the thinnest of them hurried to respond with a ?Depends, you got any money??

That was the one question which Seleste had preferred not being asked, but she did her best to keep a straight face, and she was pretty good at bluffing if she was allowed to say so herself, while thoughts raced through her head on how to deal with the situation. She had pondered her options while walking up to the men, and she thought that she had laid out pretty clear by now.

Either she could lie about having money and make up an excuse as to why she didn?t have them on her person, or she could come clean about being penniless and try to convince the others to accept her using something else to stake.

However, if she went for some other form of compensation if she should lose, Seleste was pretty sure that that would mean that she would have to have sex with the lucky winner, or winners, which wasn?t something that she was looking forwards to.

She had already been an unwilling participant in one sexual encounter so far that night, and she was quite happy not to build on that with a second one.

Still, if she bluffed having money and ended up losing, she would probably end up having sex with at least one of them anyway, and under even less voluntary terms.

Seleste?s answer came not much more than a second after getting the question from the thin man, and just before one of the barely dressed waitresses had reached the gamblers? table.