Neil grabbed her rump in his hands, giving her a place to rest on as they kissed and bit, their bodies moving in unison as the warm water kissed their skin. 

"I can...get used to this..." Neil between breaths. He chuckled and was about to turn the tables and send them back under to continue before a huge crash erupted from the other room. Both Neil and Calliope's heads popped up and gazed at where the sudden thunderous roar had come from, and to their surprise they saw flames licking the doorway from where they had just been. 

"Was that you?" Neil asked her, turning to look at the dark sorceress. She didn't answer at first, her eyes aimed at that direction, like she could see something other mortals could not. Neil snapped his fingers in front of her pretty face, and she wrinkled her nose and looked at him. He asked again. 

"No, but I did keep a ward in there in case we were attacked." She said, and they both pulled themselves out of the pool, naked but warm from the waters and the flowing wind from the hot desert. Neil grabbed a towel and pulled it around his waist to cover himself, even if it was a bit sensitive after the love-fest. He winced when the coarse texture went over him, but he sucked in a breath and thought of less sexual things, though Calliope not deigning to get dressed wasn't helping. The lithe woman poked her head out into the hallway, her hair now tied in a loose, wet bun. Neil joined her. 

"Was the ward supposed to explode?" He asked, wondering if they had immolated some poor servant. 

"No, it was meant to make someone trying to kill us attack a place where we were not." 

"Do you do that a lot?" 

"When I have the energy and forethought," she explained. "Not that it's always foolproof." 

Neil laughed. "Ha! Amatuers. Attacking us without even making sure we were in the room. What a bunch of dumbasses uh...whoever they were." 

"Well, it was either someone who had followed us across an endless desert, or a group of magic users in the city who don't like our presence here..." She said, tapping her chin. Neil knew the question was rhetorical. There was only one sort of group in Ragba Shahir that would or could do that. 

"The seven princes," they said together.