Ellyn narrows her eyes. "So you're just mad you can't actually do necromancy," she summarizes, maturely.

(Necromancy is the one thing Ellynhark can do that Gideon can't, which makes it the only thing she can reliably do better at than Gideon. This tends to cause friction, in both directions.)

She kicks Ellyn's hip, maturely.

She carefully and calmly closes the journal and sets it safely to the side before flicking a knucklebone that grows into a clawed hand mideair at Gideon's face.

Gideon is familiar with this routine, and had already set aside her book and is now trying to duck the clawed hand while lunging for Ellyn.

Studying's over, now it's time to fight. Theory is all well and good, but perfection takes practice.

Gideon has been practicing a lot. 

So has Ellynhark, of course. She's up to eight full-size constructs at once now, when they tumble out of the confines of the stacks.

" - Hey! Watch the books!" she grunts out, in between trying to bite Ellyn.

"You watch the books," she snarls back, shaking her head to try to fling the blood sweat into Gideon's face.

"I got them for you, you stupid-head!"

She freezes for an instant-

-then a blooming bone fence obscures Gideon's vision of her and she scrambles away and out of sight.

- !

Gideon stomps her feet, does not rub at her eyes, and then starts gathering together books. 

Ellyn is absolutely avoiding Gideon over the next few days.

She still finds the paper book she'd been reading - plus Gideon's, and another on wards, with Gideon's notes on them, in her cell one day after prayers. On top of the stack is another small piece of flimsy with "Stop sulking, stupid-head."

MmmmmrrrrRRRRRR. Why this.

Ellyn spends the rest of her day locked in, reading. She hides the note beneath her mattress and resolves to not think about it.

She stops actively hiding from Gideon the next day.

Gideon quietly shows up next to her the next time she's in the library. She doesn't immediately offer to show Ellyn the books she's holding. 

Ellyn doesn't immediately attack her with skeletons, so fair's fair.

She settles down next to Ellyn to read in a sullen silence. 

Yeah.

More than she deserves, really.

After a bit, Gideon nudges a small book over to Ellyn. "You're still on wards, right?"

"Mm."

She takes the book, carefully not touching Gideon.

"...Think it's an experiment record. All the numbers are making my head hurt. You're better at the actual math, so. Maybe you can get something out of it?"

"Of course I can," she huffs. "There's no way whoever wrote this was smarter than me."

She hides a tiny smile in her book. "They're nowhere close."