It was still the middle of the night, though Adrielle felt fully rested. Her head felt the clearest it had felt since she had been captured, and she felt like learning what she could from Morgana's other servants. Perhaps a few of them were still up. Was there a better time than the present?
She got up from her bed and wandered around the hallways looking for whoever might be up. Walking around, she quickly noticed the impulse to cover her naked body had subsided a little. Her arms swung naturally at her sides as she walked, just as they used to before. Maybe she was finally getting used to walking around without clothes. First, she quietly checked Morgana's chamber, but found it empty. Damn! She had hoped Morgana might be asleep, but no matter. There were plenty of useful questions she could ask in the sorceress' presence without sounding suspicious.
After turning a few corners, she heard the sound of voices. She followed them to some of the larger windows that overlook the courtyard. She leaned out the window and looked down.
Even in the dark, the courtyard was breathtaking! There were torches burning brightly, casting a warm orange glow on everything. There were trees, gardens, and sculptures, and the nude people lounging around made it look like a scene from a painting, perhaps a tribute to the Garden of Eden itself!
The courtyard seemed to have two levels. The far side of the courtyard was raised about ten or fifteen feet above the nearer side. The upper level housed most of the larger fruit trees, while two parallel staircases along either side of the courtyard led down to the lower level beneath her. On the side of the wall between these staircases was a giant stone face, a caricature of a bearded old man, or maybe a devil. It was hard to tell in the dim light if those spikes were supposed to be horns or just tufts of hair. Out of its comically gaping mouth poured a generous stream of water which emptied into the pool of that took up most of the lower level. It was the Roman bath that Cateline had mentioned!
A stone walkway continued on from the staircases and enclosed three sides of the bath. On the rest of the lower level was a grassy lawn shaded by trees that grew around the perimeter of the courtyard up against the walls.
Most of the courtyard's occupants were sitting in the bath. A trio of them was engaged in an orgy in one corner. There were two women and a man. The man and one of the women seemed to be double penetrating the second women between them. Even the woman? How? The water covered up everything below their waists, though she recalled Gwendolyn telling her one of Morgana's spells could make a woman grow a man's parts. That was a curiosity she decided would be best left unsatisfied.
On the opposite side of the pool was a couple, probably Cateline and Guarin, simply sitting with their arms over each other's shoulders. Cateline had her head resting peacefully on Guarin's muscular shoulder while he lovingly stroked her hair. Adrielle let out a happy laugh. It was funny. In the middle of a castle full of perpetual nudity, sexual debauchery, and sorcery, these two still found time for simple romance. She was really starting to like those two!
Up on the balcony above the stone face there was a semi-circle of stone benches overlooking the bath. On the middle bench she could see Morgana and Gwendolyn lounging next to each other. A third woman had her face buried between Gwendolyn's partially spread legs, though Gwendolyn seemed to be simply conversing with the sorceress, paying no mind whatsoever to the woman servicing her.
She was able to find her way through the castles twisting hallways and into the courtyard. She had managed to enter by the lower level not far behind Cateline and Guarin. Perfect! Just who she wanted to talk to. She looked up to the balcony overlooking the pool. Morgana had a perfect vantage over the lower level, but thankfully didn't seem to notice her newest serving girl's arrival. She would have preferred to converse without Morgana watching over her, but to suddenly back away now would look more suspicious than casually carrying on with her business. That was one of the things that had made her such a successful assassin. It was so much easier to hide your intentions than to hide your presence. Act unassuming and you will rarely be questioned.
She made her way to the pool and approached her new friends, Guarin and Cateline. They were speaking softly, whispering gently into each other's ears. It wasn't a romantic sort of soft, but rather a 'not wanting to be heard' kind of soft. They didn't seem to have noticed her yet. Maybe she could listen in for a moment.
"They're always so mean to her," Cateline whispered into Guarin's ear. "I've seen you be mean to her, too."
"You think? I don't really talk to her much," replied Guarin, sounding defensive.
"That's mostly
how
you're mean to her. I know you aren't trying to be mean."
"She doesn't talk to me, either. Or anyone, really."
"You you could try. You know, ask her if she's all right."
Who were they talking about? By now Adrielle had reached the edge of the bath. Again, she had to act unassuming, and she had listened long enough. "Guarin and Cateline, did I remember that right?"
They both jumped, looking startled and just a little guilty.
"Oh, Adrielle!" Cateline exclaimed, sounding relieved. "It's just you. Sorry about that, and yes, you did get that right."
"Please, climb in!" Guarin offered with a gesture.
Adrielle took an uncertain glance at the trio on the far end of the bath. She wasn't excited about bathing in the same water that people were currently having sex in, but she climbed in anyway. She made sure to climb in on Cateline's side. With these two likely being the only monogamous couple in Morgana's castle, she didn't want to commit some faux pas by sitting down naked next to Cateline's husband. It was probably nothing to worry about seeing as nobody wore clothes here anyway, but better safe than sorry.
She had been expecting the water to be cool like the night air around her. To her surprise, she found it was pleasantly warm.
"Oh, wow! This feels good!" Adrielle gasped with audible pleasure and surprise.
"Yes," Cateline agreed. "Morgana says the enchantments she put on this bath are her masterwork!"
"Really? More so than being able to produce food out of thin air? Or making people invulnerable to injury?"
"No, it's not the most practical of her enchantments, but she says it was the most difficult enchantment for her to perfect. If you ask her about it, she'll tell you it took her fifty years to make the spell work, and another hundred of tweaking with it until she was happy with it! The water always stays warm and perfectly clear, and it will pull the dirt right from under your fingernails and leave your skin as soft as an infant's. And no matter how dirty you might be before jumping in, the water never seems to get dirty itself."
"And no matter what people do in it," Guarin added.
"I see, then that must be why you have no problem being in this water with, well, that going on in it," she said, gesturing to the trio. Guarin and Cateline chuckled.
"Yep, precisely." Guarin agreed. "Any mess you make in here seems to vanish without a trace."
"Which is fortunate, considering that's mostly what people use this bath for," said Cateline.
"I haven't tried taking a shit in here yet to test that theory..."
"Guarin, disgusting!"
"What? I said I
haven't
