Cozy cuddly pets.

"All right, you can put your clothes back on and you'll look slightly suspicious at worst."

"Good." She gets out of bed and pulls her clothes on.

"You look fine." He stands up and hugs her and makes a portal to a street near her house.

She kisses him on the cheek, amused by his continued nudity in context, and goes through the portal and goes home.

She hugs everyone (including her mom!!!) and makes dinner and manages to get through the whole evening without anyone unambiguously indicating that they have any inkling she's had sex with the Emperor, although she suspects Alle suspects.

She's sound asleep when Elcisse sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night. Morning--or the dark hour right before proper morning, at any rate--finds her in the east gardens, having lost the battle against resumption of sleep.

Well that's interesting.

The Emperor sits down in the grass, several feet away from the sleeping teenager. He decides not to wake her up on purpose.

Her eyes blink open after a few minutes. She startles briefly when she sees him, but it's an "oh shit, I did not mean to fall asleep" startlement more than an "aah dangerous thing right in front of me!" startlement.

"Hi."

"Good morning. Are your parents going to be terrified over this?"

"Only if they find out."

"Okay. So what are you here for?"

"I want to do something stupid and reckless and I want your help."

He grins.

"Sure. What is it?"

"I want to be able to raise the dead. What elements did you need to do it and is there somewhere you can hide me where my family doesn't need to know about it until it's over and will you bring me back if I fail?"

"Life and Death, there's plenty of empty ocean in the world but I don't think I can come up with a reasonable non-terrifying excuse for you to vanish for thirty-two hours so you'll have to figure that part out yourself, and yes, absolutely. A failed self-dedication is a nasty way to go, I hope you realize."

"It would be worth it," she says firmly.

"Okay. Good luck."

"Thanks! I should probably sneak home sooner than later if I want to avoid getting caught."

He laughs. "Yeah. —do you mind if I tell your sister about this, I'd kind of rather not keep it a secret but I can see how you might be reluctant to have her know."

"...I would kind of rather she not know until it's over. Um. My birthday is only a little more than a month away?"

"Okay. I won't bring it up. But if she asks me straight out if I know anything about any reckless birthday-related plans of yours, I won't lie to her, either."

"Yeah that's fair."

He smiles. "Nice talking to you."

"You too!" she says, and dashes off for home.

He flops in the grass and giggles to himself.

Lyrame comes by a little later, still safely before sunrise starts.

"Good morning! Did you manage to get anyone talking about architecture?"