Ishaza breathes peacefully and softly, her head lying back against the headrest of her comfortable leather chair. 

She sure isn't going to be giving any quest hooks right now.

Fortunately, Crin is just coming down the stairs now. 

She looks across the room at the sleeping Ishaza and still-awake Resti and a slight smirk comes to her face.

The Crin returns! Huzzah! This means she doesn't have to awkwardly figure out something to do.

She waves, but doesn't say anything out loud, reluctant to wake Ishaza.

Crin tilts her head, then silently beckons to Alethia to join her on the staircase up.

She will ascend and join the Crin on the staircase!

No, silly voice in her brain, now is not the time to remember the way Ishaza teased Crin about bringing Alethia up to her bedroom.

Crin leads her up with that lingering smile of hers, her footfalls light on the staircase. 

And they emerge into a frankly palatial bedroom, with wide glass windows shrouded by heavy curtains. It's lit with Hysh crystal, as her guest room was, though the crystals here are larger and more potent. The bed is vast and pillowy and soft, and seems to have silk sheets. There's a second door over on the side of the room, which has heavy iron banding on it and an expensive-looking lock. 

The staircase continues upward. 

"Well," Crin murmurs. "This is awkward. I don't have a chair in here since I'm used to using the office. We could go up to the tower-top? Or perch on the bed. I'd rather not go retrieve the chair from the office just for security reasons."

They are IN THE BEDROOM!

Quiet, voice of silliness. She will be very embarassed if she assumes something incorrectly. And she's a girl, now, Crin will not be assuming that if she does want to do something it's entirely Alethia's responsibility to divine hints or else just go for it herself. Girls are allowed to be shy, it's okay.

Also Crin did not in fact invite her up for that, see, she mentioned the towertop.

(She has not in fact missed that Crin and Ishaza are flirting with her, but that doesn't mean any particular instance of being in a bedroom together is occurring for That Reason.)

The towertop would also mean she wasn't so distracted by being In A Bedroom.

If Crin's interested she'll still be interested later if this is a Hint and Alethia misses it, and if she isn't Alethia will not in fact be interested herself, so she's not risking anything if she says-

"The towertop would give us quite a view. We could enjoy the benefits of vampirism and not have to worry about the cold. And maybe even get a chance to see a few stars, if the clouds part."

"The stars are lovely to see. I actually have a small telescope on the roof - it's ostensibly for security and signaling but in practice I use it to look at the stars more often. They're one of my joys." 

She leads the way up the staircase, pausing at a heavy trapdoor to offer the back of her hand to a small sliver of light. When it doesn't smoke, she opens the trapdoor and emerges onto the tower-top. 

As the sun sets in the west it dyes the clouds a brilliant crimson. The evening air is cold but not uncomfortable for a vampire, even at this altitude. 

From the towertop, you can see for miles over the forests and dells, Crin's fief sprawling out below.

It's beautiful. She was right. Greyer, perhaps, than most views of the countryside, but beautiful nonetheless. And with the sun setting, even that lack of color is ameliorated.

"This view is really validating my life choices."

"There are some few advantages to being Lady of a fief."

She takes a deep breath and looks out over the view some more, watching the colours slowly change as the sun sets.

"Oh? Perhaps I should try it someda- aaand wait that sounds like I just decided to attempt towertheft from my kind host. I have not decided this. Your tower is safe from my depredations, rendering me safe from your assuredly swift retribution."

Crin giggles. 

"If you want your own tower I think we might be able to arrange that. With enough effort."

"Hmm. I think I don't want a tower so much as this view. So I suppose want a tower if and only if it turns out that this is somehow a wise strategic option, or else because we end up so absurdly wealthy we can just do it on a whim. I expect that in lieu of either of those, I shall simply have to ungraciously impinge upon your towertop view. I hope you have it in your heart to forgive me this."

She likes Crin. Making her laugh is nice, she wants to do lots of it. In her view this most recent attempt isn't the most likely to be successful, but she is trying regardless!

"I'm happy to share my towertop view with you, just as I'm happy to share my tower and my library with you. There are a few lingering things, still... but at that point they're the kind of things I share with few even of my own. Things that are dangerous to know." 

Crin looks out at the setting sun, then back at Alethia. "It wasn't so different when I first met Ishaza," she says. "There was this - recognition - that she would make me more myself, more whole. And I feel the same way about you. It would be an honor to have you as an ally, secrets or no secrets."

She blinks. That's- one of the most flattering things she's ever had someone say to her.

"Thank you. I think know what you're talking about. It's- I've never felt it before, myself, for people I actually met, rather than just their books."

She could have met them, probably, if she hadn't been so shy. But she had been, and so it took until she went to another universe before she met people who- were that way.

"But- it's mutual. There's- something there in you, something I can see- virtues I try to hold tight to, ones I want to embody so very much."

The- the conscious awareness of the value of every person she carries herself with, the deliberateness of that awareness- she admires it. Even more because it seems- a thing that she holds to because she wants to, because it's important to her, rather than something that came- completely naturally. Like it's a place she faltered in in the past, before building it into a strength. There's something familiar in that.

"Well enough, then. Secrets can come in time; for now, you're free to use my library and guest room. When you start getting a plan together for what to do with your life here, let me know. I'll support you in anything reasonable."

That's incredibly good to hear and she feels so happy to have met Crin and Ishaza. She should say something appropriately heartfelt in response. But what actually comes out of her mouth is-

"So my plan to create a breed of thirty foot tall giant wolves will go unsupported?"

Crin cracks up. 

"I'm sorry, Alethia, it's just not in the budget this year. I know you had your heart set on it."

"Have you not considered the proportional relationship between wolf goodness and size? We could reach yet unheard of amounts of wolf goodness! And consider the fluff levels! Surely the budget has some stretch in it! Surely you could not be so cruel as to deny the world Even Gianter Fluffy Wolf."

Crin affects a troubled look. "I'm sorry, but the fluff concentration from a projected thirty foot tall wolf is expected to be lethal at thirty paces. You'd never be able to hug it properly. Some things just aren't meant to be."