Chapter 448 Compromises

"Do you think that I look good?" Della asked, pulling on one of her dreadlocks that now had some jeweled rings in it.

"Yes, you look amazing!" I said with a smile and then kissed her before opening the portal. We stepped through; the guards were all waiting at the Queen's door, and then all stepped back from the door as the portal closed.

"Queen Melrose! Della and the Cat God have returned!" One of the guardswomen called, and the door to the Queen's room opened to reveal her in a light blue bathing suit with a tied cloth skirt and a smile.

"It is about time! I was about to go looking for you two!" She said happily and then looked at Della with surprise. "Well, don't you look pretty?"

"Thank you, my Queen!" Della said, but she looked like she wanted to hide.

Both Queen Melrose and Della looked wonderful, but the Queen did fill out her top a bit better, so I took an arm of each and opened a new portal to the inn.

"I wanted to bring the innkeeper with us. Last time I was here, Della and I had come here looking for Xena, but I ended up having some fun with her," I said as I stepped through the portal.

The inn on the other side was fairly busy, but every woman that was there went quiet as their Queen, Melrose, and Della came through the portal after me.

The innkeeper was standing behind the bar, and she blinked at us with surprise.

"Ah! Welcome back! And it looks like we even have a god here this time," Lani said, and everyone else in the room nodded in agreement.

I walked up to the bar and gave her a smile. "Good afternoon. We were thinking of going to a beach to relax on; do you think that you might want to come to join us? I have a pretty big group coming."

Lani nodded with a smile and then grabbed her beach clothing from behind the bar. "Of course! It will be nice to get out of here for a bit."

"Hold on there! Why don't you join us for a meal first? I am still waiting on the rest of the women to get ready over on my end of things, so we have some time to have a bite to eat and drink before we go," I suggested, and Lani nodded, then looked at both with people in it, then at the Queen.

"That sounds good. Just give me a minute, and I will get the girls to clear the Queen's table," Lani said as she put the clothing back behind the bar. She motioned for one of her girls to do as she said, but then I turned to Melrose.

"You are a frequent visitor here?" I asked curiously, looking around at all the women who had gone back to what they were doing.

"Yes, Lani makes the best fish in the city, so we come here often for lunch after getting back from fishing," Melrose explained as two barmaids came out and cleared out of the table that had been mentioned.

"Well, let's go sit down then," I said with a smile, and the group of us found our way to the table that was now cleared.

Once we were settled in and had ordered food, Lani joined us, taking the seat next to me. She looked over at me before speaking.

"You know, there are rumors going around town about you," she said, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

I shrugged and gave her a small smile. "What sort of rumors?"

Lani leaned forward and dropped her voice so only we could hear.

"That the Cat God is looking for a new Human Goddess," she said, and everyone else at the table gasped.

"How did you know that?" Della asked, looking as surprised as Melrose.

Lani shrugged and took a bite of her fish. "I hear a lot through the Vine and from the women talking; it is part of my job. But really, what do you think? How are you going to pick?"

"I am hoping to throw three festivals over the next little while. Each of them will have competitions to narrow down the selection, then we will have a final round of competitions. I should be able to narrow down someone from them to take Tallia's place," I explained, and then the women nodded.

"That should work out nicely. I wish you the best of luck, but I might have to try my luck," Lani said, then finished off her food before excusing herself to get changed for the beach.

"So, I haven't really got a chance to talk about this, but what do you think of the Easterners? Not as people, I mean, about how they sleep so much?" I asked, and Della scoffed, but I put a finger up to keep her quiet. I already knew how she felt about them.

"That is a curious question. As a Queen, it is troubling to have people complain about the stores being closed, but I don't know what to do about it. If we try to force them to do anything, they will just leave to live in tents. From what I understand, most of them don't even like living in Bramma. The moisture in the air makes them irritable on the best of days. That is part of the reason why most Peekaan don't like them. We get back from being up very early and working on the open sea, and the girls find that most of the shops are closed. I don't really understand, but I think that is what has really driven our two people apart," Melrose explained, and I nodded.

"What do they do during the morning?" I asked curiously.

"That is the thing; they all get up at the same time as us to open shops for the girls in the morning," Melrose explained, and I frowned.

"Really? If you guys are having trouble keeping them up, then you should have some Peekaan's working shops in the mornings and then have them close up after everyone's gone out to sea. What is the point in having everyone standing around for six hours if they are going to pass out after?" I asked, and Della put up her hand to stop me.

"Just what do you think our people do?! We are the ones that fish and bring home the food for them!" Della snapped, and I shrugged.