Leaving Karand
Several hours outside of Valenca, Sirene and Julia casually walked down a road. They were nearly a week from the nearest port, and so Sirene was planning a route that would let them rest at an inn every day. In response to this, Julia was already complaining.
"Why can't you just use your time stop to take us right to this Port Nautitus?" Julia moaned.
"Because it's not a time stop, Julia." Sirene said, whistling as they walked down the road. They were on the edge of a meadow, with a slightly menacing forest on the other side. "It merely slows down the flow of time. I can't cross a continent in an instant with it."
"Well that's no fun." Julia said with a pout.
"Reality rarely is." Sirene said with a laugh. "You're lucky though, you'll only experience half the days."
"A fair point!" Julia admitted. "I do wish I could speak with Tanya directly, though."
"That's why we're heading for the Eternal Library." Sirene explained. This much was true, it had knowledge that had been outright illegal in the Republic. However, she also had to get out of reach of the Shadow Court. Natsuki sniffed out the spell in mere hours and he would have undone it, and separated her from her Mistress.
"Oh?"
"I'm hoping to find... illegal knowledge there." Sirene said with a mischievous grin.
---
Several hours and 3 changes of form later, Sirene and Julia were at the first inn of the journey out of Karand. A plain building on the side of the road, it wasn't even near any other settlements, and stood alone next to a field. Sitting in the dining area, Julia grimaced at the bowl of stew placed in front of her.
"Don't look at it like that." Sirene said, forgoing any table manners and just picking up the bowl and drinking the stew right out of the bowl.
"What even is this meat?" Julia asked, staring at it.
"Just eat it, lily-liver." Sirene said, burping.
After the dinner which Julia ate under protest, Sirene and Julia retired to the room Sirene had purchased for the night. Julia was dismayed when Sirene opened the door and there was only one bed.
"I had kind of been hoping for my own bed, you know." Julia said.
Sirene smirked. She couldn't wait to be snuggled up against her Mistress, and hoped she wanted to play in the morning. She could already see Tanya's naked body in her mind, and had to keep herself from making it obvious as to why there was only one bed.
"Ahem." Sirene said, clearing her throat. "It draws less suspicion if I'm renting single bed rooms."
"How so?" Julia demanded, hands on her hips.
"You don't get it?" Sirene asked, raising an eyebrow. "From the outside, it makes us look like lovers."