He stays there for a minute, not moving away but not making things any easier for her or reacting very much to what she's doing, just snuggling her gently.

"All right, I'm going to get going."

"No fa~air," Kirche whines again, but she lets him up with a contented sigh. "I'll have you writhing in ecstasy under me some day, I swear it! Now," she clumsily picks up the leather case containing the Book, "take this token of my affection and use it well, hm?"

"I will." and he takes it and goes.

Half an hour later, once again freshly bathed, he taps on Scyelen's door.

Scyelen opens the door and gives him an inquisitive, hopeful look.

"Got it." He has the Book with him and holds it up. "Did you want to talk, or are you on your way to bed?"

Oh good, getting the Book wasn't unexpectedly complicated. They're lucky Kirche even had it with her.

"Um, are we leaving at first light tomorrow?"

"If you're willing, I'll be up."

"I should probably go to sleep, then."

"All right. See you then."

And in the morning, he's at her door again, bright and early.

And she is up and awake but not looking like she slept any better than usual.

She greets him and goes with him to check out another school carriage for the trip to Mott's manor.

And they can be on their way.

Snuggle?

Scyelen is always happy to snuggle any of the few people she doesn't have to feel guilty about touching.

Snuggles are good.

"So, did you want to talk about last night? We don't have to."

"Hm? I don't know. What did you want to talk about last night?"

"Well, you seemed confused about why I was doing it."

"You mean... why you were giving in to Kirche's, um, flirting, so that she'd give you the Book? No... that..." she blushes, "makes perfect sense..."

"All right. I did want to say - a lot of the things I've been talking about - they'll sound like rules, and they are, kind of, but they're not rules the way 'don't rob a bank' is a rule, they're rules the way 'don't eat that, it'll make you sick' is a rule. That's why I keep saying that you should be careful, instead of saying that you just shouldn't do things; maybe you'll try it and find out that for you, it doesn't make you sick, or that it only gives you a little stomachache and you like it enough to do it anyway sometimes, or maybe it will make you very sick, and you won't know until you try it. I've tried enough things that I have a pretty good idea of what I should and shouldn't be doing with myself, even when that's not the same as the advice I'd give to someone who hasn't tried much of anything yet."

"Oh."

That does put some of the things Raafi has told her into a clearer context, "but... you. Really didn't. Want to do that with Kirche? So, why is...?" Scyelen shake her head. "I don't know how to say it."

"I really didn't. But I wanted Siesta to be okay, and I knew it wouldn't bother me very much - it really is different when it's something you're choosing to do even though you don't really want to, instead of something that's just happening to you, for most people. It's not completely safe, but it's not scary like not having a choice is."

"...it, still kind of sounds like you're contradicting yourself..." Scyelen admits shyly.

"How so?"

Scyelen can only make a small inarticulate noise in response.

"It just... seems to me like... ordinary sex... is the least scary thing someone who, could do anything to m-someone, could choose to do." Blush squirm. "But you said it was... you implied that one ought trade... stopping that... for stopping every other abuse. All the time. For everyone. No matter what. Like one should be... willing to die before they'd be willing to... do what you did with Kirche."

"-ah. Sex that they aren't choosing to have isn't ordinary sex, for most people. And it might not be the very worst thing but it's usually pretty close, even if the only difference is that they didn't have a choice about it. And it's - part of the problem is that it's not always obvious right away how badly it hurts someone? Sometimes it is, but sometimes they'll seem like they're fine but they'll have problems later that people who've never been through something like that don't usually have, like being scared or sad all the time, even when there's no reason to be."

"I'm scared and sad all the time even when there's no reason to be," Scyelen points out in a self-conscious mumble.