Lillia gave the girl a note to take to the guild. It was a request for them to bring our belongings here. I wondered if they would do that for just anyone, but they did know full well that she was the crown princess. It probably wasn’t going to be a problem. After that was settled, we all decided to head up to our rooms to check them out and settled on meeting up back downstairs for dinner in an hour’s time.

My room was small, but nicely furnished and comfortable. I sat down on the bed when a thought flashed through my mind. Celine, I should really check up on her while I was alone and had the chance. I called out her name and she appeared before me almost immediately.

“Master! I thought you’d forgotten about me.” She said throwing herself on me and almost knocking me back.

“I’m sorry this was the first chance that I got.”

“You know, I’m starving. Can I?” She asked licking her lips.

“You can, but it has to be something quick. We don’t have time to do everything.”

“But…”

“I’m sorry, I have to go downstairs soon. I should have time later.”

“Okay.”

Celine wasted no time in undoing my fly and after a few moments of rustling around inside my boxers she was hungrily sucking on my dick. I was already hit with the strong sense of lust from her powers and remembering just how good she was at this, when there was a knock at my door. Celine didn’t stop what she was doing for a moment, carrying on regardless. I activated “appraisal” to check who it was. It was Altria.

“Shit… Celine, you’re going to have to stop now.” I said quietly.

She didn’t stop.

“Theo, it’s me Altria.” She said knocking once more.

“One second.”

I placed my hands on Celine’s head and gently pulled her off my dick. She resisted for a moment, but then gave in and looked at me in surprise.

“What’s the matter?” She asked.

“You need to stop now. Someone is here to see me.” I told her under my breath.

“But…” She complained.

“Please you need to hide again.”

“Urgh Okay.”

Finally, Celine disappeared, and I quickly sorted myself out and answered the door to Altria.

“What were you doing in here?” Altria asked as soon as the door was opened.

“Oh, you know… I was just cleaning up a bit.”

“Really? It didn’t sound like that and you look a little flushed… You look like I interrupted you halfway through.”

“I don’t know what you mean. Anyway, come inside.”

Altria stepped in and a closed the door behind.

“I’m surprised that you feel the need to do that for yourself.” She said as she looked around the room.

“I wasn’t.”

“You know you can always come to me if you’re feeling that pent up.” Altria said drawing herself closer to me. “But unfortunately, not now. You need to be back downstairs in a little while, and I need to get going.”

“Hold you’re going somewhere and not coming down for dinner?”

“Yes, so I’ll need you to cover for me.”

“Okay… What do you want me to say?”

“Just tell the others that I decided to pay my mother another visit. Just as an extra precaution I’d prefer it if no one else knew where I was going or what I’m doing.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Yes, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I’m going to see my contact tonight. I think we’ll be able to get our hands on your relic. If I do, I’ll send for you. Just make sure you don’t get tied up with the others and are able to leave.”

“Really? You think you’ll be able to get it tonight?”

“Yes, if everything goes to plan that is. I’m not sure what happened, the last time I spoke to them they seemed to be stalling me. Then I heard from them this morning and it sounded as if they were ready to go. I don’t know what happened, but it’s good news for you.”

I had a pretty good idea what had happened. Altria’s mother had intervened, the contact was clearly waiting for the okay from Olentri after she had checked me out.

“That is. If I have that it’s going to be such a weight lifted off my shoulders!”

“Yes, you won’t have to worry about someone killing you out of the blue. Well, not without them having to face you I mean.”

“I know.”

Even though I knew there was a good chance this was going to happen, I had no idea things were going to move so fast and I could barely contain my excitement.

“Look you’re going to have to calm down a bit before you go downstairs. If you go looking like that, the others are going to know something happened.”

“Right.” I tried to wipe the smile off my face.

“Better… I’m going to head out now, you should go down and wait for the others.”

“Okay.”

I went to open the door but turned back when I realised that Altria wasn’t following me.

“You aren’t coming down as well?”

“No, I’ll leave from here.” She said heading towards the window.”

“You’re going to jump out?”

“Yes.”

Altria opened the window and after glancing left and right to check the coast was clear jumped down. She landed almost silently on the ledge below, before jumping down to street level. Then she casually walked down the street as if it was nothing. I watched her until she passed out of sight, then closed the window. It had been some time since I had come upstairs, Altria was right, I should head back down to meet the others.

“I’m sorry Celine, I’ll be back later, and we can finish up I promise.”

“But I’m starving…” Celine complained after rematerialising.

“I know, but if we continue now there’s the chance someone else will interrupt us. I still don’t want them finding you, not yet.”

“Okay, but please don’t be too long.”

“I’ll try to be as quick as possible.”

Celine vanished once again, and I left the room to go back down to the bar. The place was still empty, just the same couple of regulars were still sat there drinking. I took a seat at one of the empty tables and waited for Serin, Siofra and Lillia to join me. I was only there for a couple of minutes at most, I hadn’t even decided what to drink when they came down. Lillia came rushing over.

“Have you seen Altria? She wasn’t in her room.”

“Oh, didn’t she tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“She’s gone to see her mother. She told me on her way out. I thought she’d already spoke with you about it.”

“No, she didn’t say a word. That girl…”

“Calm down Lillia. It doesn’t matter does it. As long as she’s back before you want to head back there won’t be a problem will there.” Siofra said patting Lillia on the back as she joined the table.

“I suppose… It would've been nice if she’d said something to me though.”

“I think she decided last minute. It was just lucky I was here when she was on her way out.” I explained.

 “I’m sure she would've waited for someone else to come down if Theo wasn’t here. I don’t think she would've left without telling anyone.” Serin said as she joined the table.

“I don’t know, she has a habit of doing whatever she wants.” Lillia grumbled.

The remaining four of us were now all sat and waiting to order food. Lillia still didn’t seem that pleased about Altria heading out on her own without consulting her, but at least it seemed that she believed she had gone to her mother's.

While the others were looking over the menu, I was wondering what would happen once I finally got my hands on the relic. All I knew for sure was that I would probably keep it between Altria and me, at least until we were away from the capital. There were so many eyes on us here only the slightest slip up would lead to it being discovered. Even once we were back in Dunshelm I thought about keeping knowledge of it to a minimum. The thing was, only letting some of the party in on the secret could lead to trouble further down the line. Especially if Lillia was left out of the loop.

We stayed in the bar for dinner and for drinks afterwards. The entire time I was a little concerned that Altria would soon contact me asking to join her. After a couple of hours had passed, I finally gave in and decided to head back up to my room. As luck would have the rest of the group joined me in heading upstairs. I was relieved I wouldn’t need to sneak out through my window like Altria had done earlier. I knew it wouldn’t be a smooth affair, if I could manage it all. Now all I had to worry about was making it out of the inn without bumping into any of the girls when the time came to leave.