Women are sneaky. This is one of their advantages, both in social conflict and in survival situations. Or so the assumption goes. However, the new stealthcraft instructor is teaching skills that are not as far-removed from combat as they ought to be, to be properly feminine. Julos has nothing against this herself, but that's what the controversy is about.

It would be pretty plausible, actually, for a bear-scare like the one 'Christa' is claiming, to motivate a girl to sign up with Miss Lavich for that very reason.

Eventually, everyone has their herbs cataloged and prepared, and girls start leaving the solarium in ones and twos. Annabelle finishes somewhere in the middle, and amuses herself pondering what sort of boy Christa might date while she waits for Christa to finish too.

Well, Aire thinks she has something to discuss with Annabelle after they get home! Multiple somethings, actually, given those musings in her head about boys.

What else do they have anything else planned today, if anything?

It suddenly occurs to Aire that Christa likely had some place she was recording her schedule and plans. She seemed like that type of girl. Well, something to check when she gets back to the flat.

They won't be going home for a while, actually? They've got all day to learn and practice and neither of them are accomplished enough to slack off. They've still got a lot of progress to make before they can try for a Certification, so going home right after the lesson would just be lazy! Nigh unthinkable! They're here to get their money's worth and Library Gemini is so much prettier than their flat.

Also, one of the dance cohorts is rehearsing something new in the south wing today, and that might be fun to watch if they do need a break. But for now, books! They don't call this place Library Gemini for nothing. Now that they have detailed stats on all the herbs they collected, they can go look up and chart out which recipes they have sufficient potencies for!

The stacks and the lounge are spacious and well lit, with plenty of little nooks and corners where two girls might have a private conversation while reading in comfort.

Books! Aire is, in fact, very pleased about this! The more information the better.

And all the while, she'll be in the middle of the library, well-positioned to listen for any interesting thoughts in passers by. So far this place is on the inside what it looks like on the outside, but some faint instinct from before she was locked away whispers that things are rarely so simple. Does she hear anything to validate that instinct?

While she reads and listens, she finds herself feeling somewhat distracted. It's not enough to noticeably impinge on her will, but the her desire to do to someone else what she did to Christa is slowly growing. Would anyone notice if Annabelle decided to drop out and spend all her time fucking herself silly? No, no, that's not the best path here, and so it is not the one she will take.

She hears a few Sisters here and there worrying to various degrees about their work. They're allowed to attempt Certification at any time, but the trials are expensive even for the nobility. You get your deposit back if you pass, but that just means the tests are as difficult as possible without starving the Empire of useful personnel.

Every so often, Aire will notice someone who's mind is shielded, like that one girl from the caravan. There isn't an obvious pattern, among those she can't read, at least not one that she can see immediately. Although, here's a girl she can read, who is thinking about one of the shielded girls, remembering heat and desire and soft lips and rolling waves of pleasure. Coincidence?

Annabelle finishes a calculation, smiles, then stretches in her chair. She gives her friend and roommate a curious look. "Christa? What is it?"

Oh, she rather hopes that isn't a coincidence.

"Oh, um. I'm doing really well on not hearing you, but. Someone just thought something naughty."

She wiggles slightly in her seat, attempting to give off some of the air of a flustered and slightly aroused innocent.

"Naughty?! You shouldn't tell me that..."

Annabelle fidgets.

"I meant, you've been looking at me like you want to talk about something?"

“I didn’t tell you who! There’s loads of people in here!”

Obviously she can’t tell the girl she was thinking about breaking her mind. What’s the thing that Christa would most likely have been thinking about? Well, Christa liked girls, so there’s an obvious way for her to be reacting to Annabelle’s earlier thoughts.

“It’s. Um. Some of the thoughts you had about me before. Were. Nice. It’s nice that you think I’m pretty. That’s part of why I don’t mind.”

"Oh."

Annabelle blushes and smiles. A complement like that shouldn't make her feel all warm and fluttery inside, but it does anyway. Christa has been acting weird all day, almost like-

"Christa..."

She can't say it out loud, she can't, but thankfully she doesn't have to.

Annabelle was so embarrassed by her own sudden inappropriate urges that it hadn't even occurred to her that Christa might have been... Annabelle's mind is now stuck on the possibility that Christa has those kinds of deviant urges herself? Commonly? It, it kind of seems like she might? See, all of these memories of Christa getting flustered around other girls in a way that in retrospect is kind of suspicious?

Aire hesitates for a short while, and then ducks her head down behind her hair and nods slightly.

As she does, she allows her arousal to grow slightly and lust aura to unfurl. Enough to make sure that Annabelle's reaction to that is lust, rather than anything less useful to Aire.

Annabelle's blush deepens dramatically.

Christa has been lusting after me. All along? Did I just not notice?

She is a boiling cauldron of conflicting emotions and her heart is pounding and thinking about this is terrifying but...

Annabelle shivers.

...something inside her is still pleased, is hungry. Not that she has any idea what to do with this revelation.

"Maybe when we get home today. We can. Talk?"

She bites her lip in a way that very strongly suggests that she's thinking of doing more than just talking.

"A-About what?"

Annabelle knows about-what but something in her hungers to hear Christa say it.

Hmm, what euphemisms would a girl like Christa use in this situation?

“About. Um. Maybe. Sharing a bed? And perhaps using that bed for slightly inappropriate purposes.”

By the end she’s trailing off into mumbles.

"What kind of, of inappropriate... purposes?" Annabelle asks breathlessly.

Aire bites her lip.

“We could kiss? Or. Um. Anythingelseyouwanttodotome.”

Annabelle's mind fills with images of kissing Christa.

It's so, so wrong, but also... so, so thrilling. Exciting. It shouldn't be, but it is.

"Kiss," Annabelle squeaks. "Oh gods."

Oh goodness, that innocence is delicious, she can't wait-

No. Composure. Mental composure too, even.

Well, that's rather a lower lewdness quotient than Aire was expecting. 

Fortunately Aire was paying enough attention to her face this time to make sure her sudden spike of desire wasn't visually apparent to Annabelle.

She lets out a giddy-sounding giggle.

Annabelle starts giggling in turn and can't stop for a few minutes. They can sit in mutual giggly gay panic for a while.

Eventually, though, they do both have work to do, even if there's no one who's job it is to make sure they're actually doing it.

They both have lab-time bought and paid for, and they need that time to start experimenting with their herbs. Annabelle's thoughts reveal that they'll have to split their stock between brewing practice of public recipes (results of which they can sell) and figuring out something new. To pass the Certification, an Alchemist has to invent a novel potion from scratch. It doesn't have to be a useful potion, but it does have to be stable and drinkable.

Annabelle fails to keep her mind entirely on her work, constantly inundated with images of her and Christa laying in bed kissing, laying the bath together kissing.

As they clean up and leave the lab to get dinner, Annabelle doesn't even notice one of the mind-shielded girls giving her and Christa piercing, speculative glances.

While Annabelle and Aire giggle, Aire recognizes a slight feeling of, fondness? What?

Muzzily, through an almost dream, Christa recognizes that sound. And that face.

Oh, Annabelle! Friend!

Huh. Aire was under the impression she’d done more damage to her pet’s mind than that, but if, even in her semiconscious state, she is recognizing things often, and that earlier thing with the pastries isn’t a fluke, odds are she was wrong about how this worked. Apparently non-her people are oddly configured enough that they can forget their own names temporarily in the moment, and then sleep it off? Maybe she’s the same way? Odd.

Well, this does mean she can keep doing her favorite thing in the world with one person, over and over again. This is the second best news she's ever received, after sweet little Christa telling her she'd agreed to let her out.

Hours later, while Annabelle might not notice that stare, Aire does. Oh, that staring girl is mind-shielded, that's interesting. Perhaps there is some grand power only wieldable by women who fuck other women, and that power is mind-shields? After all, Aire has mind-shielding, and she fucks other women.

No, no, don’t jump to conclusions. How would that even work?

Did Aire notice anything different about the girl besides her shielding? Equipment showing what other things she was learning, recognition of who she was in Annabelle's mind, anything like that?

The staring girl isn't one of the Sisters working in the lab. She appears to have been waiting for one of those girls, but is herself dressed in a different variation of the red and silver uniform, this one more of a leotard with a short pleated skirt. (Ambient thoughts will clue Aire in on this being how the dance classes dress.)

The girl she was waiting for is not herself shielded but... is totally gay. She's checking out the shielded girl, fully aware of her own desire, though it is furtive and guilty. The readable girl is thinking about a promise the shielded girl made to 'help' her with her 'problem', her mind highly unsettled about what that means.

They also cross paths with the geology teacher. His mind is shielded.

Also also, the park around Library Gemini is dotted with couples enjoying the evening, few of them thinking anything interesting, but one or two of the boys also have shielded minds.

Well, from the look of that it seems like Aire isn’t the only one taking advantage of all of this lovely innocence.

The geology teacher is shielded. Possibly bad news. Christa liked him for reasons Annabelle apparently didn’t know, and she can’t learn any of what Christa would already know from his thoughts if she can’t read them. There’s a decent chance that there’s information there that Aire needs to know.

Well, apparently Christa’s mind is more intact than she’d thought. She could always let her recover enough to ask questions. She’d need to do that anyway, if she wanted to take Christa from a sane, thinking individual and reduce her to an unthinking thing consumed by her own lusts all over again.