"I think a touch targeting node might solve the problem. Cleaning sheets by running my hand over the bloodstains wouldn't be too bad, and might save me a lot of annoying filtering."

She hums thoughtfully, then nods. "Yeah, I think that would work. Probably see how many other assorted varieties of contaminants you can cram into the material filter while you're at it, but that should do."

"In the long term, that material filtering node could be pretty generally useful. Selecting your target is just a good ability."

Hibiscus rolls over and kisses Sable softly.

"Hmmmmm." She tilts her head. 

She kind of wants her, and she kind of doesn't. It's been three days in a row, Hya probably wants to take a break... But she's never had a chance to come out to play before... But she's completely short of tools here...

"I wonder if I want to mess around with you."

A wry smile stretches across Sable's face as she returns the kiss. "You certainly could. We had been talking about playing around with the hypnotic effects of your meditation assist ritual, too."

"Ooh. Seems fun. Let's try it."

Sable quickly unequips her armor, boots, and sword, leaving her in just her trousers and blouse. "Sure," she replies with a playful grin. "How do we start this?

"Let me see..." 

Hibiscus consults her inner ritual sense a little, de-equips her own armor, and pulls a heaping handful of dried rosemary out of her inventory. 

"I have an instinctive sense of how to do this, but I don't know how much it'll mesh with this world's rules of magic. We'll learn as we go along."

She looks at the bed. "Probably we want to do this on the floor, I'll be scattering rosemary and I expect it'll end up everywhere."

She nods and scoots off the bed, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. "I trust you to figure it out."

"Alright."

She gets off the bed and stands over Sable, the rosemary still in her hands. She activates the Ritual node, and a little of her mana flows into the rosemary in her hands. 

"Rosemary, rosemary, clarion bright,

bring my lover guile tonight, 

brighten her mind, renew her soul

make her memory swift and whole."

So chanting, Hibiscus scatters the small herbs in a loose circle around Sable, then returns with one last piece of rosemary. She gently presses open Sable's mouth and lays the last fragment on Sable's tongue, then sits cross-legged before her in the circle and takes her hands. 

"Rosemary wind, rosemary weave, 

bind her bright, make her believe

her knit of spells is light and bright;

Rosemary, give her guile tonight." 

She leans in, and very gently kisses her girlfriend. 

She returns the kiss tenderly, lingeringly, the rosemary imparting an tingly feeling that's somehow both in her tongue and in the flavor of her thoughts, then absently swallows the sprig of rosemary. Her lips feel so much more sensitive.

The world falls away a bit around her, and the ability builder opens up.

She can feel how to guide her, more with unspoken thoughts than words...

Here. See it. This node here, this node there...

(Her tongue is tangling with Sable's somewhere far away.) 

Working together, Sable and Hibiscus swiftly assemble an assistive parry passive. It feels elegant to assemble it, almost like dancing, each piece slotting gracefully into place and suggesting the next.

At the same time, the kiss continues, filling Sable with warmth and tender excitement.

It feels intricate and right, like a puzzle piece slotting into place. 

When the ability is done, Hibiscus pulls back and breathes slowly. Her whole body feels warm and flushed. She gives Sable a deeply amorous look. 

Sable gazes back at Hibiscus, some of her usual targeted tenderness showing through the vacant relaxation of the trance, attentive and ready. Quiet love flows through her.

Hibiscus folds that warmth up in her, and something in it resonates with the rosemary...

She kisses Sable again, slow, unhurried, and this time that warmth in both of them responds to the kiss, eager and brightly coiling. 

She feels stronger, somehow. More in control.

Sable flows into the kiss, warmth suffusing her completely. Something about the ritual makes it so easy to go where Hibiscus leads, so natural and intuitive.

It's a little like hypnosis, but she doesn't even need to speak the commands. She can just... will it. 

Right now she is willing that Sable be on the bed.

Getting up off the floor onto the bed feels intuitively correct, so Sable does. She lies down and smiles spacily at Hibiscus.

It's not even hard.

She kisses Sable again, and wills that she de-equip her remaining gear.

Blouse, trousers, socks, bra, and panties all vanish silently. Sable, naked now, returns the kiss languidly.

Oooooooh. 

Right now she would like Sable to feel good. Drifty, floaty, warm, enfolded...

Hibiscus kisses Sable again and starts casually stroking her hands over her exposed front, feeling her skin. She could just reach down between her legs, but she's in no hurry.

Sable wriggles out into the bed, her body loosening up even further as Hibiscus caresses her. A slow, contented, heated sigh spills from her lips.

Hibiscus deepens the kiss. 

It's all one thing. Motion of the mind and body together. This caress, that nudge, a slow dance heading in the direction of pleasure, pleasure, pleasure...

Her hands cradle Sable's thighs and ass, and she finds herself atop her, pressing down firmly, skin against skin. She unequipped her clothes at... some point.

It's a slow, continuous shimmy, like Sable's body is a liquid, spilling loosely against her lover, neither intention nor idleness, just flowing into the kiss, intuitively winding up where Hibiscus next moves her hand to caress, every muscle languid and free. Warmth and arousal bubble up within her, but do not demand a response, simply intensifying the experience.

Sable's such a good girl.

She just wants to reward her...

No sooner has she had the thought than her thigh presses in firm between Sable's legs and starts to grind firmly. 

Warm, liquid pleasure. So much of it, swelling, filling Sable up, making her feel oh so good...