Sentia, City of Kingdom of Stilyra- Early Summer 14 years AR

Jeasmin looked around as they made their way down the street cutting threw the city. She had finally found something exciting on their trip that wasn’t dangerous, the city was beautiful. Unlike everything they’d seen before, Sentia was built by a powerful empire and the brick and stone buildings with their tile roofs was proof of that. They were worn of course but that just added to the charm.

“Please tell me we’re actually stopping,” she looked to her brother and then to Jon, “at least at the market for a bit.” She knew her voice sounded pleading but gods damn she was!

“I’m with her, my ass hurts from sitting in this damn wagon for the past couple days,” Aethred chimed in, “plus we can check the guilds and see if there’s anything to do on the way.”

“Aah…” Leo seemed indecisive about it and she could tell he was running his tongue over his teeth, something he did when he was thinking. It was easier to notice now because he’d cringe slightly once he remembered that he had sharp teeth all the sudden.

“If nothing else we could see if they’ve got a bath or well at the adventurer’s guild, Aethred’s starting to smell foul,” Erin said with the mentioned young man throwing her a dirty look but dropping it after sniffing himself. Jaesmin was perfectly alright with that idea, they could all use a good scrubbing.

“Ummm, yes I guess it can’t hurt to stretch our legs for a couple hours,” Leo had finally decided, Jaesmin couldn’t help but grin. Getting clean, going shopping, a bit of exploring, and maybe an exciting contract from the guild. They had made good time getting to Sentia but the road was still long and boring other than the one run in with bandits. She hadn’t wanted a repeat of that but there was only so long you could sit in a wagon playing with children’s toys or listen to Erin and Aethred go at it. She’d suggested hunting as they camped in the wilderness one night hoping to find something like a plainswolf. All they managed to find was some hares, they tasted better than dried meat at least.

“Yes!” more than a couple of them called out at that.

“But… Adventurers guild at-”

DONG, DONG, DONG….DONG! A loud bell tolled 10 times echoing across the entire city.

“What was that?!” Andrew said, looking around in alarm. At home the only thing used to make enough noise to reach the entire village was the warning horn. They had been moving slowly through the city due to pedestrians so his comment was easily heard by the locals around them, making several laugh.

“It’s the bells, young man. Tells you the time, 10 bells,” someone walking on the side of the street informed them, “12 bells are either midday or midnight. So it’ll start again at one after 12.” They walked away chuckling as if not knowing the strange system of telling time was humorous by itself. Jaesmin wondered if they played the loud bells all night, how would anyone sleep.

“Umm…” Leo was thinking again, “It makes it easier. I was going to say mid afternoon but start heading to the adventurers guild at… two? Bells… yes, two bells.”

Jaesmin looked and made eye contact with Cara who nodded, no words needed, they’d explore together that day. Her eyes moved to Erin but she was already staring at Jaes with a questioning look. Jaes nodded, Erin smiled, and another girls day on the town was agreed to. They’d discuss exactly what they’d do later when the boys couldn’t hear.

“Two bells,” Leofrith said a while later after they’d found an ancient villa that worked as the adventurers guild. Like the one in Everton it had an enclosed yard where they could park their wagon and water the horses. They walked inside and it seemed far to grand compared to the one in Everton. Ancient brick showing through white plaster. Mosaics of people in strange clothes, others of naked people in a lovers embrace, or going at it like dogs… or riding on top of each other like riding a horse… or- Leofrith grabbed her by the shoulder and the top of the head, forcing her to look away.

Leo let her go with a look when he and the boys found the board. He almost went after her when Cara, Erin, and herself walked on but stopped when he saw their destination. They made it to a counter in the middle of the room, three receptionists stood there while one beckoned them forward with a grin.

“This place used to be a brothel centuries ago. No ones ever bothered to get rid of the artwork. A little crude but it is history now,” She smiled, this one was far different than the monotonous one in Everton, “Team and origin?”

“Ah, Badgers of the Dain and Everton,” She said as the woman marked it down in a logbook, “we were just wondering if there’s a well or something nearby to clean up.”

“Oh, I see,” she walked a bit to the side and pointed to a strange set of lines carved into the wooden counter. The lines for the most part made a bunch of squares with a line going around it all and only a few lines leading out of the perimeter line… it was a map!

“This is the adventurer’s guild, bathhouse is here,” she pointed to two parts of the map, “it’s right off the side of the main market so you shouldn’t have trouble finding it. It’s the building with the rounded roofs, you’ll understand what I mean when you get there. Anything else?” Jaesmin turned and looked at the boys who were pointing at different slips and talking with another adventurer at the wooden contract board, she just shook her head and thanked the woman with a copper. On the way out she made sure to look at every single naked mosaic she could.

‘Eat dirt Leo, I’m looking if I want... Ewww, you poop from that!’ Jaes knew what sex was as there was an entire verse of scripture dedicated to the lovers embrace and rearing children; That apparently was a very modest example, ‘Yup, kissing that’s all I’m ever going to do is kissing…. EWWW! Why lick it!’

The trio made their way through the city and found the massive market that stood in a square at the center of the city. In the middle was a massive stone archway, a monument with worn depictions of soldiers and faded paint. One could look at the tower of stone at the center and the wooden stalls surrounding it’s base and realize that the people who lived here were not the people who built it.

The market was busy and people moved about to their tasks or just milled about browsing. A few street performers could be seen juggling or doing flips near the monument, a man playing a lute reminded her of Jon and his fiddle. She still hadn’t heard it since he was told not to practice in Terra, she wondered if he was better. At the far side of the market lie a building with three long rounded arches for a roof. The receptionist was right, it was easy to spot.

“What is a bath house anyways?” Erin asked looking at Jaes for the answer.

“Ah, father said it was a building that had indoor ponds where you could swim and bathe,” She tried to recall any other details, “he spoke of one day building one in Terra after Aethr- well Jon discovered cement.”

“Do you think Terra might have looked like this one day? You know, if that night…” Cara said, looking up at the monument that rose to nearly 60 feet.

“Maybe… Father had a lot of plans for Terra. He spoke of how one day a second set of stone walls would encompass everything and those of us that lived in Terra when it was just a village would be the rich elite, founders of a great city…” Jaes faded off, thinking of her fathers dreams. Maybe one day she would be strong enough to fight back, to retake her home and build it into what her father imagined it could become. Forget that, one day she would build it bigger than even Novaria and stronger than Jorvik, everyone would know the name of the great city of Terra. A hand interlaced itself with hers and squeezed. She looked over to see Erin giving her a questionable look, Jaes just nodded and the three of them went hand in hand through the market and nearly ran the last bit of distance to the bath house.

They had to leave again once inside… they forgot to bring clean clothes to change into. After she spent some coin buying new garments from the market for her and her friends, they ran back up the steps hand in hand. There was a small fee and they turned over their pouches to be stored behind the counter, getting a small pendant with a number to wear to claim it, and were directed through a stone archway to the bathing area for women. They first entered a changing room and watched the various women in different stages of dress. They were either pulling their stuff from or putting their stuff in cubby holes built into the walls. The girls followed suit and soon Jaes was standing nude with her friends.

“UMMM… Which way now?” Cara asked, arm across her chest and her hand covering her privates. Jaes was doing the same while Erin just covered her lower parts, a small bag in her other hand. The only things Jaesmin wore was the necklace Jon gave her and the pendant needed to claim their belongings.

They looked around and spotted an archway where a few naked women had passed through and walked towards their best guest. They got some looks as they passed by and some laughs but it wasn’t mocking more light or slight pity. The older women just seemed to think the three dirty teens were funny and overly shy. No one but them seemed to care that everyone was naked. Why would they? It was only women here.

They followed a middle aged woman that Jaesmin couldn’t help at gawk at, even as the daughter of a noble who never ran the risk of starvation; she didn’t know how you could get that fat. She looked down past her small chest to her own flat stomach. A faint outline of muscle was visible under her pale skin. She didn’t know if it was from the physical strain of traveling or the bite but looking at Cara she assumed it was the latter. Cara’s stomach was flat and soft where Erin’s abs could be clearly seen due to her tall thin build, commoners diet, and years of running, playing, and working in the village.

None of them truly had a woman’s figure as they were still young and their days of travel under the summer sun had resulted in tan lines that traced out the cut of their tunics. Jaesmin followed the middle aged woman into the next room and saw her immediately walk under a place where water poured from a grate in the ceiling, she started to quickly rub any dirt off with her hands.

After walking under some dribbling cold water themselves, Erin pulled the contents of the pouch out and handed out three small bars of soap. Jaes grinned at the sight and immediately sniffed it, lilacs…. Her grin turned into a relaxed smile as they scrubbed themselves and rinsed under the water. The fat lady sniffed the air as the smell of flowers filled the room and soon stared curiously at the bars of soap in the girls hands and the resulting lather. The bars went back into the bag and they exited from the other side. Jaes noticed another small group of women enter and immediately started to sniff confusedly at the faint but pleasant scent. Scented soap hadn’t made it to Sentia it seemed.

That’s when she saw the bath, it wasn’t the bottom half of a large barrel, it was a large pool of water. The 20 or so women in it barely took up any room. Judging from the bit of vapor rising from it’s surface, it was hot. They walked to an empty spot and slowly descended into the hot water, adjusting to the increased temperature. When she was all the way in Jaes just leaned back on the underwater stone bench and sighed, closing her eyes.

“Terra could have used one of these,” Erin said from somewhere to her right, her voice sounding calm.

‘Maybe one day it will.’

*********

“Where’d they head off too?” Andrew asked, watching the girls leave. Aethred just shrugged and Leo looked ready to follow them. He’d been very protective of Jaesmin since the bandits. Jon walked over to the receptionist.

“Ah.. those girls, did they say where they were going? Their our teammates Badgers of the Dain, Everton,” He remembered the question from the previous guildhall. She just smiled a moment and nodded.

“They inquired about the bath house, poor lasses looked like they could use it,” she gave a sniff, “you could too young man.” Jon looked down at his off white tunic, sweat stains could be clearly seen.

“Bathhouse?” Aethred asked joining the conversation. Jon noted that Leo looked a bit relieved knowing where his sister was off to.

“Yes, it’s right here,” Jon looked down and oriented himself to the map. He recognized the top down map quickly as he had gained some map reading knowledge from a vision years ago, “we’re here.” She pointed to the two points, one with each hand.

“Should we go?” Andrew asked, “we could probably use a bit of cleanin’ too.”

“They going ta have tits all over the walls there?” the receptionist gave a soft smile with a twinge of falsehood to Aethred, he imagined with adventurers and the decor of the guild, the subject of artwork came up a lot.

“No young man and if you try to see any… tits…” she paused before the last word, showing clear disdain for the vulgar term used to label a part of her body, “you’re in the wrong area and the guards will have no problem giving you a beating.”

“Does that mean the right part is just a bunch of peckers swinging around?” The woman glared at Aethred while Jon and the rest of the group gave her uneasy smiles or apologetic looks. She didn’t answer and just walked away to demonstrate that she had no intention to.

“So bath house?” Jon asked after a moment of silence. The other’s nodded and they left the guild with a quick stop at the wagon to grab soap and clean clothes. They’d all bathed in the Green River a few days prior but that was just a quick scrub to get the blood off themselves. Jon had spent more time trying to get the blood off his armor he was still wearing than his own body. The quartet made it to the square and instantly put their attention on the arched monument standing in the middle.

“What’s the point of building something like that?” Aethred said looking up at the birds perched at the very top, “it’s just a big carved rock!” Jon couldn’t help but think the same thing but just looked at the other tall, elaborate buildings of stone and brick around the large square.

“They did it just because they could and others couldn’t,” Leo said.

“What just ta show people they were better than everyone else?” Aethred pondered, “Well they fucked up because they’re not around anymore! Maybe they should have put that stone ta better use, higher walls or more tile paintings showing tits.”

“How would mosaics be any better,” Leo asked quickly.

“How’s it not?” Aethred shrugged, “If you’ve got someone that doesn’t speak common, like some Elvanni or those knuckle draggers from the north, they can kind of communicate by pointing at the pictures.”

“You realize they speak common in Ederath, right?” Jon pointed out but realized his mistake after he’d said it. There were only a few languages on the isles that he knew about from his mother. Common, Elvanni, and a few smaller ones spoken by the tribes of the far north… Aethred had just referred to the latter and Jon had…

“HAH! I say knuckle draggers and you think of your own fucking kind?” Aethred laughed, Andrew and even Leo joined in. So did Jon after a moment as they made their way across the market. He’d walked right into that one. They asked a passing guard which building was the bath house, he pointed it out to them and soon they were inside. Another small fee and a pendant and they were in the changing room.

Rather than teaming up like the girls of their group in the other room, the boys stripped and left through to the shower room as soon as they were nude. Well, Aethred stood naked and posed for a few moments like he was daring someone to look or just showing off the bit of hair he was growing on his chest before leaving. Jon was the last one to go as his armor was far harder to remove than the gambesons and tunic the others wore. After a few minutes his weapons and armor were stored in a heap of the large cubby hole he’d picked form himself. He tossed his tunic and pants over the top and after a moment threw Andrews stuff over the top of his. Their coin and weapons were at the front desk but he didn’t want anyone walking away with his chainmail. It had barely come in handy to this point, deflecting a weak slash from the last bandit he’d killed but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful next time.

Jon got a few stares from the men and boys in the changing room. Nothing untoward, they’d all been tense as soon as he walked in. A relatively tall northerner with facepaint and wearing steel armor stood out in a city where most people made their living in peaceful ways and had no use for anything more than a dagger or bootknife. He was also more muscular than those around him he noticed, even the man who was pulling out leather armor of his own to get get dressed was only toned. Jon had tone and was growing bulk. He wasn’t as grotesquely huge as the shirtless man he’d seen posing for coin in the market but no one would ever think him weak.

Compared to his friends especially. Andrew and Aethred were both a thin but had a bit of tone from an active lifestyle, Aethred shorter but in slightly better shape than Andrew. Leofrith was surprising as the young man who wished to be a knight was the least in shape of all of them. Leo had far fainter musculature and a thin layer of fat on his stomach. There was a stark difference between a well fed commoner and a well fed noble. Jon had spent his days running around, climbing, swimming, carrying heavy things for his mom, and chopping or carving wood. The small bit of time that Leo spent practicing with weapons was nothing in comparison. The proof was Jon’s larger arms, legs, pecs, strong back and defined abs. Jon felt like he’d grown a lot since leaving Terra but told himself it was from traveling and not a result of turning into a monster.

He grabbed a bar of soap and walked into the next room that smelled of lavender and honey, a quick scrub down to remove the dirt and face paint and he was in the bathing area proper. He couldn’t help but wonder how they heated the water as he stepped into it. He ended up standing for all to see his glory as an image of a cut in half building appeared in his mind. The drawn diagram showed people bathing in a similar pool while below people in collars fed furnaces that had channels for warm air to move through the sides and bottom of the bath.

“Jon get your cock in the water, no one wants to see that thing!” Aethred snapped him out of the vision. Jon made to sit down near his friends. Aethred continued at a whisper, “I’m not even going to ask what sort of vision you just got from seeing a bunch of naked men.”

“Just wondering how they heated the water,” Jon said correcting his friends assumption.

“And how do they?” Leo asked curiously running his hand through the hot water.

“Fire,” with a grin he answered.and spit out the water Aethred had splashed in his face a moment later.

***********

“Well they’re actually cleaning themselves,” Erin said pointing. Jaesmin looked up and could clearly see the broadaxe, two swords, and bow with quiver leaned against a wall behind the counter.

“Should we wait?” Cara asked looking towards the entrance of the men’s area where the rest of their team was.

“Nope!” Jaesmin said cheerfully and took her stuff from the counter and turned to walk out into the market. She’d wanted to stay in the bath and soak till she heard the two bells but after hearing the mornings 11th bell they got out. If they were going to be spending days on end sitting in the wagon or on horseback watching grass go by, they were going to enjoy the city while they could. They ran into the market and made a quick stop to buy a simple sack to keep their dirty clothes in.

“Okay, what are we doing?” Jaesmin asked, looking between the other two.

“Coins running low isn’t it?” Cara asked sheepishly. It wasn’t her coin and the group survived off Leo, Jaesmin, and to a lesser extent Jon’s coin already. They had bought a lot of stuff but with the exception of her sword, they were talking copper and silver not gold. They had plenty to spare at the moment.

“It’s plenty, we can’t say buy silk and velvet dressess but we should find something to pass the time.” Jaesmin said but really didn’t know what. She listened to the music playing in the distance and the thought of Jon’s instrument started to form an idea.

“Paint! Lets go find paint,” Erin said causing Jaes to give her an incredulous look, more paint? She must have realized and clarified, “Not facepaint but normal paint. I want to paint my shield.” she pointed to the plain wood painted green rimmed with iron on her back.

“Ooooh, can I help? I don’t have a shield… but we could paint the wagon!” Cara exclaimed. It sounded like a plan to Jaesmin. She thought about the music.

“We should buy some instruments, you’re brother left all the panflutes in Everton,” Jaes said as Cara started laughing, giving a bunch of children noise makers hadn’t gone will with Diana who was hired to watch them.

“Instruments? Why? None of us know how to play them.” Erin said thinking about the idea.

“We’ll learn!” Jaes said and smirked at Erin, “We’ll find you something loud so you can play it in Aethred’s ear every time he says something stupid.”

“Hehehe, we’ll all end up deaf,” Cara inputted but added, “Oh I want a harp or one of those… thumb things?” she mimicked holding something in her hand and flicking her thumbs down.

“A kalimba?”

“Yes, that!” she seemed excited at the idea. They started walking through the market looking for any signs of paint or instruments. Jaes just wondered what she should get. A reed flute or some sort of horn? She’d know it when she found it.

It didn’t take long to find both targets of their quarry. The paint they remembered the location of and would either buy it when they left or make the boys carry it if they found them among the stalls. The musical instruments were found close to the base of the arching monument and the group of girls walked into the large area of the stall.

Different types of lutes, harps, drums, horns, flutes, and instruments that Jaes didn’t know filled the space. They looked through the items and Cara was the first to pick one out. The soft chimes of the kalimba graced Jaesmin’s ears as Cara ran her thumb across the metal strips to test them. Jaesmin’s attention was drawn to a small rounded lute that they soon learned was called a cittern. She lazily plucked the strings listening to each note and changing the position of her fingers on the neck when the vendor told her too. The note changed based on where she held it. Jaesmin couldn’t help but smile, this was perfect!

Erin just walked around the collection of instruments inspecting each one. She didn’t seem to know what she wanted.

“Do you have anything loud and obnoxious?” Erin asked the vendor who was surprised at the strange question, “Something for a friend.”

“Well, I do have this thing. I’ll give you a good price on it if you take it off my hands today. No one seems to want it,” He picked up a strange cloth bagged instrument and tucked it under his arm. Pipes ran up over his shoulder while two went down, “Something I bought from the far north.”

He placed one pipe in his mouth and started blowing. Jaesmin watched the cloth sack inflate wondering how it was supposed to produce any sound much less music. She got her answer when the man put his fingers on the flute looking pipe and squeezed the sack with his arm. He struggled with holidng it and likely didn’t know how to actually play the instrument but he was right. The sound was loud, obnoxious, but still a little bit beautiful. It was better than the sound of dying cats from Jon’s bowed instrument that looked a little bit like a lute. The man stopped and told them the price, one silver.He really did want to get that out of his stall.

“It’s fucking perfect!” Erin exclaimed, accepting the instrument. Jaesmin suddenly realized the drawback of her plan to entertain themselves on the road, it was going to get loud and annoying. She smiled and started to laugh.

**********

“The fuck is that noise?” Aethred asked as they got back to the Adventurer’s Guild. They’d stayed in the bath for a while and left to find a room with wooden benches and heated rocks that you poured water over. The steam room was pretty relaxing. They just joked around and talked with the other patrons until the sound of one bell came through the walls. After that they wandered the market trying to find something to do. The road had been boring so they searched around and found some blacksmith puzzles, snares for trapping when they camped overnight, and Jon bought an armful of wood scraps. It wasn’t enough for most things but he could carve and shape it into toys or game pieces. They didn’t need them but it’d pass time. They also bought thin wood that could bend easily and a large amount of canvas to give the ones in the back some shade.

The noise Aethred mentioned was a strange wailing whine coming from the courtyard where they’d left their wagon and horses. It didn’t sound like a person but Jon didn’t know what it was. They approached their wagon to find Erin sitting on top of their stuff ignoring glares and yells to ‘knock it off’ as she played a strange instrument. Near her Jaesmin strummed her cittern and Cara’s thumbs flicked away on a Kalimba.

“We found a way to make the wagon ride more interesting!” Erin proudly announced taking the pipe out of her mouth. Unlike a flute or any other type of instrument you blew into it didn’t stop making noise until the bag under her arm was deflated.

Jon looked over at his friends by his side. Leo looked concerned and highly annoyed. Aethred looked at him and went to whisper something in Jaesmin’s ear. He returned after she handed him something with a grin spread wide looking at Leofrith, he tugged Andrew by the arm and the two ran off, turning in the street towards the market.

“Jon get up here and pull out your dying cat thing,” Jaesmin called out and Erin started blowing into the pipe to inflate the bag. He looked over at Leofrith and patted him on the shoulder.

“May as well, with that thing Erin has we’re going to get chased out of the city anyways,” he laughed and crawled up into the wagon to dig out his fiddle.