See, this one didn't come so out of nowhere! She can actually respond to it reasonably instead of stammering and changing the subject. Wonder of wonders, it's like she has experience flirting before, or something.

"Ah huh. Will it help if I make impressed 'oooing' sounds and maybe do a bit of swooning?"

"If that's what you're into. I was just thinking I'd get those same looks you were giving me earlier and this time I'd be able to actually follow up on them and maybe sweet talk you into sleeping with me."

Sendhei giggles at the forwardness.

Saevetei giggles too! And also turns a bit pink.

"Damn, you saw those? I was uh. Trying to be subtle."

"So I am perhaps being a bit more forward than I normally would, you see."

    Sendhei's eyebrows raise so high they would be hidden in his hair if he had more of it. "Are you, now."

"A bit," he replies, grinning. "I said a bit."

Snort.

"Well I'm not against the idea," says Saevetei in a way that implies that she is totally down for sex, "but I am absolutely not fucking anyone with dead, beheaded animals watching, I'm sorry but it is just the opposite of arousing."

Sendhei explodes in laughter while Taharqi raises both eyebrows and runs a hand along the skin where his hair would be. "That was not where I expected the objection would have been."

    "You two could always go outside."

"I was also expecting you to want to invite yourself."

    "That seems rude."

"Never stopped you."

"I was just going to cover any animal heads with my outer robe, but I suppose outside would still be an improvement." Pause. "Oh, no, sand. Nevermind. Regardless, I think I should probably keep it to just one bed partner at a time for now. All of my sexual experience is from the dream world, and I expect sex to work a bit differently between the two."

"The dream what now."

"Oh. Uh - there's a soul repository in my world; the dream world. The living that are attached to it go to it when they're asleep, and the dead that are attached to it stick around there and can chat with the living or each other. Or, in this case, fuck. And if someone makes a body for them, they can be brought back, and this is how we do resurrection. If we don't have a soul to shove into an empty body, then you just have a mindless shell that needs help just to breathe. Among other things."

"Why is sex there different?"

"So a lot of things there are different? Things are sort of, mm. Convenient and dream-like and floaty? Not very focused on the physical nature of things, more on impressions and feelings. I know at least one person that hates it and couldn't wait to get out."

"So basically you are not used to sex with solid people," Taharqi summarises. "That sounds fun."

    "Should I go drape a blanket over the rhino?" wonders Sendhei.

"I am not used to sex with solid people!" agrees Saevetei, laughing. "The rhino? Do you have a beheaded dead rhino staring at you as you sleep."

"I am from a people of hunters!" he replies indignantly. "Hunt trophies are very common and respectable!"

"Intellectually I'm fine with that as long as the beast's death was quick and merciful! Emotionally, though, you're talking to a person that is accustomed just talking to disembodied souls. Empty bodies freak me out! Especially if they're staring!"

"It tried to maul me and nearly killed Lucky. I had to set up camp and nurse her back to health for a week and then she was still out of proper commission for a month. It was not very quick or merciful."

"Well, okay, quick and merciful is the goal but sometimes it's hard to manage. You didn't purposefully torture it to death out of a sense of vengeance? ... And I'm sorry about Lucky, I'm glad she's okay."

"Oh, no, of course I would not do that. It's just an animal, it does what animals do." Pause. "Well. Exiled Lands animals, at least, who are admittedly more violent than I was used to before."

She snorts, relaxing a little. She didn't super want to get into an argument about animal rights! Hooray, she's so glad she doesn't.

"Yeah, see. That." It's her turn to pause. "Oh! You know what I should do. I can't link you two to the dream world without understanding your bracelets better, because magical responsibility something something, but I can link Lucky. And your other animals. I probably won't be able to make them bodies for a while yet, but they would be retrievable."

"Animals have souls?" This seems to disturb Sendhei.

"... yes," says Saevetei, blankly. "Why would humans be special? We're animals too, just very clever ones."

He can't really think of a reply to that so he just takes a sip of his juice with furrowed eyebrows. Taharqi, on the other hand, is curious. "How about plants? And bugs? And demons?"

"We don't classify plants and most bugs as having souls precisely, we'd classify them both as having spirits of varying strength, but it's essentially the same sort of thing? Just very simple. It's hard to say how much internal experience they have. The divide between soul and spirit is the sort of thing magical nerds get into heated debates about. And I don't know what demons are, so I couldn't tell you."

"Creatures from the Outer Dark, or corrupted by it," Taharqi answers. "I am... not sure what the Outer Dark is, I'm sure you were about to ask, but the priests I have met all agree that creatures from there do not have souls." He points up at the enormous head of the stone creature hung on a wall. "I think rocknoses are demons."

“Huh. Well. I suppose that’s another thing for me to investigate. I’ve never seen that thing before. Though its decapitated head isn’t very useful for figuring out the state of its soul, sorry.”