"Yes, we did."

"You know... If you put the first three letters of your first and last names together, you get 'SexPal.' There might be a bit of nominative determinism going on here."

She laughs, startled. "Maybe so! You'll have to tell Angerona that one, she'll get a kick out of it."

"Will do."

"See you around then, Ninth."

She nods. "See you later."

(Back to studying for her and Ellyn?)

As long as she's not going to be too distracted by thoughts of what she missed.

She's got the best girl right in front of her, so no worries on that front. 

Excellent.

Quick kiss!

Kiss!

"Maybe I should go along next time," she says. "Just to supervise."

Wiggle! "You absolutely should."

"You can put on a show for me."

"Your wish is my command, my macabre monarch."

"Lovely."

And on that cheery note, back to their studies.

They should get most of the Lab Five theorem down today or tomorrow, maybe another few to study the Lab Six theorems and get Palamedes to walk them through psychometry basics... (Gideon takes some time during this to talk to the Fourth teens - she does keep training them, and she'll even help them with the early Labs if they want, but she has a pretty serious sit down talk about how they should wait a few years before attempting Lyctorhood, if they'll attempt at all - for one, they don't want to have eternally regenerating acne for the next myriad; and for two, they'll be able to benefit from the other necromancers having already fixed and then tested their fixes for their own ascensions.)

Then Lab Seven after? 

Lab Seven.

This one involves... flowers. One mostly-dead bush of roses with only a single live-but-wilting bloom, and one single cut bloom, trapped with its stem under a bell jar, perfectly preserved at the height of its beauty.

Using the thanergy of the dying bush to revive, preserve, and then freeze the rose - like a more permanent but non-dynamic version of the chalice from Lab Three - seems obvious but also almost too simple. Perhaps an eternal death-life loop on the bush itself - ? Tie in the Third's research on Resurrection theory... And the chalice, too, which had a more active loop than what the preserved rose here is under...

Ellyn pokes at the bush. Not much left here to work with. They'd have to half-Resurrect it to get enough to work with.

A good dry run for full Resurrection, though, which might be necessary for perfecting Lyctorhood. (And, she privately thinks but doesn't voice yet, for helping Tamerlane.)

Well. No point in doing it the easy way.

That's the spirit! 

"Weren't you just telling the Sixth the other day to do things the easy way and get your help with the trials?"

"That's not the easy way! That's the 'avoiding pointless reduplication of effort' way; no one's figured out yet how to Resurrect a bush, so it'll be a totally new technique."

"Whatever you say, sweetheart."