Ember's lonely footsteps echo through the grand hall as she paces towards the interview room, her notebook csped close to her body. She stops by the door and hovers, her breath coming shallow as she taps her foot against the floor. Anticipation fizzes in her gut. She casts a gaze over to the empty chairs by the door, but stays standing.

  She leafs through her business pn one more time and recommits the details to her mind. Sourcing for coffee, the design of the premises, the necessary enchantments. She brushes a strand of her scarlet hair out of her freckled face, then fiddles with the cuff of her white linen dress shirt. This has to go right. If she can just catch the guild's attention then she'll be set forever.

  The door opens, and a lic-skinned woman in a bck dress steps out into the hall. Goat horns curve backward from her head, and the slits in her gold-embroidered dress expose matching hooves at the ends of her caprine legs. Between her full breasts she wears a deep ruby pendant filigreed in gold: matching earrings fall from her shell-like ears. A long, whip-like tail trails out behind her, ending in an arrowhead point.

  Excitement catches in Ember's heart — her first look at a real guild courtesan! It's true they change! Her gaze darts down. Sure enough, the whole eborate dress is held on by a single silver brooch near her interviewer's heart. Her gaze lingers, taking in the smooth curves of her interviewer's thighs and waist, then flicks back up past her cleavage as she catches her libido getting away from her.

  The goat-horned woman inclines her head in recognition. "Ember Fallon?"

  Ember restrains her natural grin to a small smile. "That's me."

  "Ishaza Brandt. Courtesan." She offers a lic hand with bck, manicured nails.

  Ember shakes, and lets herself be escorted into the interview room. A silhouette painting of a dancer among fmes hangs behind Ishaza's mahogany desk, while atop it there's a bonsai tree, its sinuous branches heavy with scarlet flowers.

  Ishaza gestures to a low, silk-cushioned stool in a corner of the room, and Ember brings it before the desk and kneels on it, her gaze kept low. Kneeling like this makes her feel a little soft and vulnerable, but she pushes it aside. It's merely a formality.

  Ishaza sits in her silk-pillowed armchair and drums her fingers on one arm-rest. Her presence fills the whole room, impossible to ignore.

  "So," she says, forming the words precisely with her silver-painted lips. "Your proposal."

  Ember takes a calming breath and blinks away the thought of Ishaza's silver lipstick. She unfolds her notebook from her p, and offers it with both hands, ying it carefully on Ishaza's desk. "Yes, Courtesan. Here it is." She can feel her chest tighten as she offers up the work of her st year.

  Ishaza pages through Ember's red-inked, painfully-neat figures. Her eyebrows rise. "This is an ambitious pn for a girl of nineteen."

  Ember gives a clipped nod. "I know. It'll require quite an outy of resources, and it might fail. But I'm committed. I'll do this with the guild or without the guild. I just..." Her eyes stay downcast. "Think that our interests align on this."

  Ishaza flicks through more pages. "You want the courtesan's guild to construct a sex café."

  A stab of irritation goes through Ember. "It's not a sex café. No brothel services are offered. It's more like a café that offers space for people to be intimate. Like a cross between an inn with private rooms and a hangout space where you can be nude. With a friendly exterior that anyone can spend time in, even if they're not interested in sexuality right now."

  Ishaza's gaze falls on Ember. "You think you can establish a pce where sexuality is accepted casually. Something that's not a brothel or a bathhouse or even a tavern. Something new."

  "That's the hope," Ember says. "And if I'm kindled, then I'll be able to provide the necessary healing to keep things safe as well. I know it'll take a long time. Years. I'll need to be trained, I'll need to learn control — but I stand behind this pn. I've wanted a pce like this from the moment I realized I was interested in sex." She risks meeting Ishaza's gaze. "I know you get a lot of worthless hopefuls with no sense of their own sexualities or any clue what they want to do with their whole lives. I want to change the world. Please give me a chance."

  Ishaza meets Ember's gaze. Her eyes seem bottomless, the depth of years in them inhuman. "I see," she says. She closes the notebook with a firm snap.

  Anxiety stabs through Ember's chest. Ishaza's not even going to look at her business pn...?

  She keeps her head up and holds Ishaza's ancient gaze. "You've come to a decision?"

  Ishaza shakes her head. "Hardly. Generally we prefer to review candidates' personal histories, not their project pns." A glint of ruby light fshes between her heavy breasts as she adjusts her pendant, and a sudden craving to touch them flickers through Ember. "Your application said that you had slept with a truly impusible number of people, particurly at your age. How on earth did you fit twenty-seven partners into one year?"

  Ember forces down another stab of irritation. It's a reasonable question. "Most people aren't really trying," she says. She settles her hands in her p and presses her thumbs into the crooks of their opposite hands. "I slept with someone roughly every other week. Most people are just passing through my family's tavern, so it's rare for me to be able to spend time with one partner for more than a few days."

  "How have you managed your health?" One of Ishaza's thin eyebrows wings up.

  "There's a local member of the guild who does no-questions-asked healing." Ember says. Her hands stay firm and comforting in her p. "I'm a little luckier than most, but there's no reason not to, since it's barely more than a fifteen minute rite every few days."

  "What's their name?" Ishaza supports herself with both elbows on her desk, her hands csped beneath her chin. The small lean frames her ample bosom, and Ember has to pull her gaze away again.

  "Lively Spark. Liv for short. They're who I got this name from." Ember smiles at the comforting thought of her old mentor. It's been months since she st saw her, but she'll always be indebted to good old Liv.

  "Ah. So that's why you took a devotary name." Ishaza rests her hands on her desk as if a great mystery has been solved. "Did she also realign you to the physical sex you preferred?"

  A stab of fear fshes through Ember, then a flush rises to her cheeks. She thought she'd buried that deeply enough that only her family would know...

  "Yes," she admits. "I was originally a boy. I like this much better."

  "I see," Ishaza says. "That expins much." Her gaze settles on Ember’s heart for a second, before flicking back up to her face. She inclines her head. "I had wondered what Liv was getting up to..." Her lips tweak. "Well. I think that settles things." She picks up the notebook and offers it back to Ember with both hands. "Here you are."

  Ember accepts her notebook back, her throat suddenly choked with fear. "I..." She can't hold Ishaza's gaze any longer. "I'll await your decision, Courtesan."

  "There's no need to wait. You're accepted," Ishaza's voice is full and firm. "That passion of yours will take you far, and you already have a few years of guild training thanks to Liv's interference. Moreover, I'm sure you're aware of the long-term consequences of spiritual imbances. If you go unkindled you'll be lucky to only die."

  She lifts herself out of her chair and csps her hands behind her back, her whip-like tail trailing out behind her. "You must be kindled, the sooner the better. As such, it would be best if you were accepted as a te second-year student, rather than a first-year one. You will have to make up the remnants of your control training and first-year csses on your own time." Ishaza crosses her arms and looks Ember in the eye. "You're going to get more than you asked for, all at once. Try to keep up, please. The guild is investing in you, and if you go feral it'll be a great loss for all of us, not least of all you."

  Ember ducks her head in a sharp nod, and a bright grin splits her face. "I'll do my best!"

  She's going to make her dream a reality! And never mind the rest of it.