Kiss!

Though they should possibly move from kissing each other to studying together...

But they can still snuggle, right?

Of course! 

Perfect.

It is.

(Lu... Increasingly just loves Dani, she thinks. It's been a while since she got this fond of someone this quickly - possibly since she met El.)

(It's good she's finding nice things for herself.)

(Wouldn't have expected the Scholomance to introduce them to anything nice.)

(Dani, the Sutras, Jialin... Maybe their luck's turning.)

(Maybe so...)

Over the next few days, nothing seems to contradict this overtly. Shinta manages the auction with aplomb, and collates the bids coming in for the alliance to review.

And then one afternoon, when Lu and El are setting up to do some work in an otherwise-unoccupied workshop, Chengsu enters behind them, looking a little confused.

Luthien is also confused! "Do you need something?" she asks, wary.

"...That was going to be my question. I got a message asking to meet you two."

"We didn't send-"

And then, abruptly, all three girls are tugged elsewhere.

She stumbles, but keeps her feet.

They're now in one of the lower stairwells, a few steps down from a hole that's been opened in the wall. A group of masked people (seniors, by their size) block the way up. One of them tosses an object down the hole.

"You've got about sixty seconds before that goes off. Try to clear some of them out before you die." And then the group of seniors disappears, yanked away.

" - Fuck - "

She has spells for summoning things, and she got a decent enough look at that - anchor? - crap most of these aren't fast -

"They'll have had to tag us. Check pockets, belts, shoes, back-" Chengsu says, starting to pat herself down. "Hair, too, good place to hide."

What luck that she has a spell for getting naked very quickly - and that just leaves them their hair - and they can check each other for anything odd -

Fuck fuck fuck El is definitely going to be killing some people- She finds a bead in her hair. "Got it," she announces.

Chengsu takes it and tosses it down the hole. They find another bead on Luthien and that gets disposed of too. Chengsu doesn't find anything on her and and is getting increasingly anxious- Then the pile of her clothes disappears.

...Whoops. Possibly they should've kicked things apart? But - 

"Do you still have your magic items?" she asks, glancing around. (Like, importantly, her power sharer, and anything she can use to contact Shanghai.)

"The critical ones. I will contact Xunyu."

" - We need to get this hole patched." There's already very suspicious sounds floating up the shaft.