Time to seduce -- oops, I mean meet -- the Archon.
To start at the beginning of The Egg of Immorality, find chapter 1
here
. To start the Thirst for Power series fresh, please look for
Enchanted
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"Can you dry us off?" Helleen asked as the last of them stepped over the edge of the bath onto the stone floor of the bathhouse.
John tilted his head and then said, "I'd rather not."
"Master likes having us wet for him," Arika teased.
John snorted a laugh before explaining, "No, I don't want to give away too much of what I can do. Well, okay, you're not wrong, Arika, but I consider that more of a side effect or a fringe benefit."
Arika beamed.
"Sounds like something Artesia would suggest," Roxanne said. "A good tactic."
"Gather your things and let's check out this warming hut Danae mentioned," John instructed.
They picked up their clothes and followed John. Danae greeted them just outside of the bath house, having seen them moving over the half wall. Artesia and Sadie stood nearby and both remained focused on looking anywhere but at their nude companions.
Danae's eyes dropped to John's swollen manhood. She hesitated, her lips parted but no words coming out. She licked them and then shook her head a little to pull herself out of her fugue. "Come, the Archon will see you but first you should make yourselves presentable."
"The drying house?" John asked while pretending she wasn't stealing glances at his cock.
"This way," Danae agreed and motioned for them to follow her. She glanced back once but her eyes went straight to John's crotch as she did so.
The drying house was as close as promised but it did require they walk part way around the bath house. They heard the conversation and laughter of other people bathing but they were far enough away to only catch glimpses of a few heads over the half wall as they passed.
The drying house was made of stone and had a flat stone roof, like all of the public buildings they'd seen so far. There were stones missing in places, leaving small holes for air to slip through. As they passed closer they could feel the warm air blowing out of the holes.
John studied the vents and then turned to ask Danae a question. She was openly staring at his cock. "This is amazing," John said.
"Yes, it is," she said and then jerked her eyes up to his.
"How do you make the wind, is it magical?"
"What? Oh, no, we have some architects that have a greater understanding of buildings and air flow than I ever could. In a way, I suppose it is magical, but they insist it's natural."
John nodded. "Well, I look forward to seeing it!"
Danae opened the door. A blast of warm air ruffled her hair and dress. She smiled and gestured. "Please, help yourselves to anything you need inside."
"Thank you," John said and stepped through the door first. Artesia stuck her head in, looked around, and then backed out. "I'll wait out here again."
"As will I," Sadie said without looking first.
Arika, Helleen, and Roxanne stepped in and cooed at the added warmth and the gentle air current in the room. John was already studying a hole in the floor in the middle of the room that was covered by a metal grate. Warm air blew through it and went up to a fan that hung suspended from the ceiling, turning the blades and spreading the warmth throughout the room.
"This is wonderful!" Helleen said while studying a shelf full of combs, brushes, and corked vials full of liquids.
Roxanne and Helleen quickly set to work drying their wet hair over the grate and running combs through it to pull out any snarls. Arika found a spot nearby where the warm air tickled her skin and she spread her legs and arms to let it dry the water from her skin. She rolled her head back and forth and used a trick of her magical nature to absorb her hair back into her head. Her skin took on a leathery look for a moment, but her hair returned in a heartbeat and grew back out to its full lustrous length.
John barely paid attention to them. He was studying the grate, fan, and the strategically placed holes in the walls. They were all higher on the walls, allowing the hottest air to escape. There were no holes at the bottom of the wall, but he'd seen vents outside at the base.
He returned his attention to the doorway. They'd stepped up to enter the drying house. The vents he'd seen outside would be in the floor. He hadn't felt heat from those either.
"I don't understand, why isn't there any smoke?" Roxanne asked after she was content her brown hair was dry.
"There's no smell at all to it," Helleen agreed and squinted to peer through the grate. "What's down there, I wonder?"
"The heat from a fire rises more than it spreads out," John said as he fit the pieces together. "They have something down there that provides warmth. Vents from the outside provide fresh air and it gets warmed down there, then that rises up to here."
"How's that even possible?" Roxanne asked.
"Master says it is so it must be," Arika stated.
John glanced at the buxom blond and offered her a faint smile. Her blind obedience didn't sit right with him but now wasn't the time to address it.
"Oh, this smells nice," Helleen said as she popped the corks on a vial and sniffed it. "This one too!"
John chuckled. "Don't overdo it," he warned them. "I don't think it would benefit us to meet their archon smelling like a brothel."
"We're not whores, My Lord," Roxanne said. "Whores won't do what I will for you."
Helleen snorted. "Maybe not, but they'd at least be able to sit on their bottom without it hurting."
Roxanne gawked at her sister.
John strapped his dagger to his thigh and pulled his robe over his head now that the warm air had dried him. He pulled his boots on and gathered his spear that he'd been using as a staff. He turned to note that the women were going to take a few minutes longer.
Helleen winked at her twin and said to Arika, "Come here, Arika, I'll show you perfumes."
Arika looked to John. "Master?"
John nodded. "Go ahead. I'll be outside. Don't take long."
John opened the door and stepped through to find Danae, Artesia, and Sadie were where he'd left them but they were talking to one another. Their conversation died as John stepped up to them.
"Please, don't let me interrupt," he said.
Danae looked disappointed to see John had dressed. Sadie seemed relieved.
"Just idle talk, Lord John," Artesia said. "We learned that the Archon found this island and created Mygela from a simple hut she made. Others came, drawn here by visions and happenstance over the years until it is today what you see."
John looked around. His infernal abilities let him see in the dark as well as if it were a well lit day. "This must have taken many years, it's quite an accomplishment," John said. "Especially in a region considered wild and untamed. We've not seen any civilization for some time now, but we came overland from the south east."
"You braved the wilds?" Danae asked. "You truly are a skilled and dangerous band!"
"My companions are the best of the best," John said.
"Skills and talent such as these would be very welcome here," Danae said and then pressed her lips together and blushed. "I'm sorry, I say too much. I think people such as you would be welcomed here, but it is for the Archon to say."
The door opened to the warming house. Arika and the twins emerged, their hair dry and combed and their bodies dressed. John and Danae both did a double take when he noticed that Roxanne and Helleen wore their gladiatorial armor.
Calling it armor was a joke though. Roxanne wore sandals with vertical straps that ran up her legs and beneath her short skirt made of overlapping metal scales. The straps of the sandals were joined every few inches by horizontal straps, keeping them in place but serving little actual protection. Roxanne's outfit showed off her tall, lean, and muscled body. She wore no top, using her bare chest to distract her enemies in combat.
