"Valley," he says, "I want a room where we can see and hear but not reach one another."

A human-sized spontaneous door appears behind Annisetimara, and a Tarakova-sized one appears in the trunk of the tree.

Good Valley.

Annisetimara opens her door.

There is a bedroom on the other side.

Annisetimara's half has a bed and a chest-of-drawers and a magnificently soft fluffy rug on the floor. Tarakova's half has what amounts to an enormous pillow nest. In between, there is a wall of - something, so transparent it's nearly invisible.

Tarakova steps up to the wall and taps it with a claw. It ripples like water. He presses his hand against it. It ripples again, but doesn't yield to the pressure.

He looks at Annisetimara.

"This'll do, I think."

She grins and closes her door.

"The most unwise thing I managed not to say yesterday," she says, "was tear my dress off, pin me to the ground and take me like a slave girl."

"...oh, that would've been unwise, all right," he says, leaning on the wall with both hands and watching her. "I might've done it."

"Well, I didn't," she says. She looks--a little nervous, but mostly anticipatory.

She pulls her dress off.

"I like - your smile," he says. "I liked watching you see the world for the first time. I want to fuck you and I want you to like it, I want it to be the best thing you've ever felt."

She shivers. Not in a scared way. "At some point," she says. "Not yet, but--at some point." She strips out of her shoes and loincloth, too, leaving her completely bare and in the process giving him a glimpse of her back, which is striped with green-and-yellow healing bruises.

- the bruises catch his attention.

"Hm?" she says when she straightens and notices that his attention has shifted.

He can guess where those came from and there is absolutely no good purpose served by saying this but -

"Bruises look good on you."

"--Oh.

...We could maybe experiment with that later. Under controlled circumstances."

"Yeah. I don't want to break you, I don't - I want to hurt you but I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't like being hit but if it was just pressure that might be okay," she says thoughtfully.

"Mmm."

...She bites her lip and smiles at him. "So. I'm naked."

He laughs.

He takes off his trousers. Certain features become even more visible than they were a moment ago.

She's just going to. Stare for a minute. ...It's not bad staring.

Tarakova grins at her.

...She presses a hand against the barrier. "This was such a good idea," she says faintly.

He stares down at her with his eyes half-closed. "Yes."

"Had I the--capacity--and you the delicacy, I should beg the valley to strike this down this moment," she murmurs. "But as it is I think I shall be grateful."

"There are so very many unwise things I want to do to you right now," he says. "I'd even enjoy it if I went too far. Seeing you bleed, hearing you scream, feeling you split and tear - I could snap your bones like twigs. I could fuck you to death. And I'd like it. I'd regret it afterward, but in the moment..."

"I know," she murmurs, and there is a note of fear in her voice, now, but--she does not sound deterred. "I read the books."

He has a noticeable reaction to that note of fear.

"The books don't know the half of it."