The four second-year students sit together in their common room's pillow pit, the scent of bckberries rising around them. The skylight lets in the snting rays of the setting sun, tinted pink by the colored gss.

  "So," Fianna says, lounging back against her cushion. She’s just as unfairly pretty today as ever. "Congratutions, Maeve!" She makes a little circle in the air with her silver fork. "You did it."

  Maeve ducks her head. "Thanks," she says. She lowers her fork to her slice of pie and takes a bite. "It was tough, but now there's nothing between me and kindling but a few weeks' waiting." Her smile eases wide as she settles back against the cushions and luxuriates. Her gaze wanders over to Fianna, and they share a lingering look.

  Camellia smiles a little smaller and runs a hand through her chestnut hair. Her gold hoop earrings gleam in the evening light. "Yeah, it's wonderful to see you join me." She takes a forkful of pie herself, and her gaze flicks back and forth between Ember and Fianna. "I guess that means it's time for Ember to prove herself."

  Ember gives a sharp nod and quirks her lips. "I'm ready," she says. "Ishaza's done so many control drills with me I'm almost bored to tears. I'm eager to put them to the test."

  "I hope that goes well for you." Maeve pushes up her gsses.

  Ember nods. "Thank you!" She gives Maeve a full-strength smile. "And if you ever need any help testing your control again, I'm your girl." She goes back to focusing on her pie.

  Maeve gives Ember a sideways smile. It seems to suit her face, even as cute as it is. "I'll keep that in mind."

  The four girls eat in silence for a few minutes, then Maeve gets up and puts her pte in the sink. She circles the pillow pit, brushing a casual hand through Fianna's hair on the way, and ducks into her dorm room.

  A quiet ugh tumbles from Fianna's lips, and she stuffs the st of her pie in her mouth and gets up to put her pte in the sink. Camellia's gaze follows her, then flicks back toward Ember.

  "Say, Ember," Camellia says as Fianna crosses the room. She leans in, her generous breasts squishing together in her blouse.

  "Yes?" Ember's gaze darts from Fianna’s ass to the front-row view Camellia’s offering her.

  "I think that..." Camellia leans back and inspects the remnants of her pie, picking through it with her fork. "I'd like to speak with you in your room, if that's okay?"

  Ember's eyebrows jump as a thrill of excitement runs through her. Could it be...? "Certainly," she says. She finishes off her pie and gets up, leaving her dish in the sink with the others. Then she comes back, and offers a hand to Camellia to help her rise.

  Camellia takes Ember's hand, and hands her pte to her. "Here," she says. "If you could put this in the sink for me I'll wash them when we're done." She gives Ember a thin smile, then steps over to Ember's room door and waits for her there.

  Ember catches up moments ter, and lets Camellia into her room. She crosses the small space with its cramped dressers, and sits on the double bed at its far end.

  "So," she says to Camellia. "What did you want to say?"

  Camellia tches the door behind her, then pulls out the stiff-backed chair from Ember's desk. She sits across from Ember in the middle of the small room. "I wanted to talk to you about Maeve," she says.

  "About Maeve?" Disappointment twinges in Ember's heart, and she frowns and snts her body in. "What did you want to say about her?"

  "Maeve told me that there's been... a few incidents over the st few days of you teasing her or offering sex." Camellia angles her head to one side and purses her blush-pink lips. "Is that true?"

  Ember's eyebrows jump. "Yes? I didn't realize it was something to get worked up about."

  "I mean, you were threatening to make her fail her training," Camellia says. She raises her eyebrows. "She confided to me that she almost took you up on your offer once or twice."

  "... wasn't that the training working as intended, though?" Ember pins her crossed arms over her chest. "Surely it's not right for her to pass without ever encountering real temptation."

  Camellia sheds a small sigh, tapping her fingers against one wide elbow. "I can see your perspective, but... it's impish of you, an unkindness. And that kind of habit burns in when you kindle. Impulses like that aren't the kind of thing you want magnified."

  "So you want me to stop it for my own safety?" Ember's brow crinkles. "It seems like a very small thing to worry about so much you felt you had to pull me aside. And besides, wouldn't it be better to have brought this to me before Maeve passed? It’s not like I can make her fail now."

  "I mean," Camellia can't meet Ember's gaze. "With how Fianna is... I thought it would be better to do this in private? And I didn't know until today."

  "How Fianna is?" Ember raises an eyebrow. "How's that?"

  "Oh, ah — Fianna's protective of the people she dates. I don't think Maeve's told her that you've been teasing her." Camellia cocks her head to one side, her gold earrings swaying a little. "I think she would have said something if she knew that you were trying to tempt her girlfriend into failing her control csses."

  Ember pinches the bridge of her nose and pushes down her irritation. "So you're saying that she'd be annoyed because her girlfriend might fail for entirely reasonable reasons...? I mean, I'd understand if she thought that the ban on sex was arbitrary and unfair, I think that too, but given that it was in pce..."

  Camellia discards a heavy breath. "The ban on sex was entirely reasonable. If you learn to rely on a partner, then your control will inevitably fail when you don't have access to one. The logic is simple and inescapable."

  "That sounds like a problem for people who can't get partners easily," Ember says. "Not that the school seems to be teaching anything about that. It's all etiquette, history, reasons not to have sex — I swear, this is the most sexless courtesan training program in the world."

  Camellia gives Ember a deeply unimpressed look. "It's only been a few days. How would you know what the bulk of the material looks like?"

  Ember taps her fingers on her freckled upper arm. "Yes, fine, I hear you. I assume we'll get to it. But I don't think this conversation is going anywhere productive. Let's table this for now and come back to it after I've gone through my own control training, alright?"

  Camellia's blush-pink lips quirk up. "I think that's reasonable. I'll make sure to inform Maeve of your opinions on how control training should best be performed."

  Ember dips her chin in concession. "Of course." She fshes her eyebrows at Camellia, gets up, and opens the door for her. "See you tomorrow."

  "See you tomorrow," Camellia replies. She gets up and goes.

  ~*~

  Light dapples on Ember's face from the courtyard garden's maple trees as she picks up the teapot. Her knees strain against the scarlet silk pillow, and she fights back an unseemly exhation.

  Ishaza sits cross-legged opposite her, her long tail curled around a pillow with a fringe of gold embroidery, her hands settled low in her p. She wears a low-cut dress with a pattern of turquoise waves today, with matching jewelry in silver. A gilded enamel teacup and saucer y arranged before her.

  Ember steadies the teapot and inclines it just so many degrees, pouring a long stream of amber tea into Ishaza's cup; then she sets the teapot down without so much as a click and adds a small measure of cream. Last but not least is a single sugar cube, delicately retrieved with its own tiny pair of tongs.

  "You're irritated," Ishaza observes.

  Ember winces. "Was it that obvious?" She keeps her gaze firmly on the enamel cup.

  "No," Ishaza says. “Nonetheless. Why?"

  "I..." She adjusts her butterfly hairpin. 'Because Camellia is getting up in her business' won't go over well. "No reason, really. I just want to be on with my studies, I suppose."

  Ishaza's lips twitch. "Of course." She reaches into the inner breast pocket of her dress and withdraws a small packet of pink powder, which she taps out into the teacup before her. "Then it would be best if you were to drink this."

  Ember keeps her gaze deferentially lowered. "Of course, Courtesan." She picks up the teacup with three fingers on its curving handle, and takes a measured sip. It has the heat of ginger and the light citrus of lemongrass, with a sharp astringent aftertaste not fully masked by the herbal blend. It's disgusting, but she forces herself to swallow.

  "The whole cup, please." Ishaza's gaze feels like a heavy weight on her.

  Ember lowers the cup and lets the tea settle in her belly. She can feel shivery warmth spreading outwards from her core already. Her gaze wanders from the teacup to appreciate the shapely curves of Ishaza's thighs and waist before she pulls it back.

  She pauses three seconds, then takes a second sip. Better to be slow and get it all down than have her stomach rebel halfway through. Sip by sip, she drains the cup down to the dregs, then tips it up to swallow them too.

  The heat and need radiating through Ember's body only redoubles with each draught, and finally peaks as an intense hollow craving centered deep in her sex. Her hand trembles as she ys the teacup back down. One gnce sears the image of Ishaza's breasts into her brain, framed ever so teasingly by her tourmaline pendant.

  Ember looks up at Ishaza. The need in her pulses with her heartbeat, every breath and motion calling forth the hunger for more sensation. She can feel the tightness of her underwear against her groin, the soft press of thigh against thigh in the kneeling pose.

  Ishaza simply sits and waits, her face impassive. She taps her thumbs lightly against each other.

  Ember finds her thoughts fixating on Ishaza's silver lipstick, the curve of her cheek, the tightness of her jaw. She could reach out and touch her across the table. Caress her. Take a firm grip on one of those curving horns...

  Ember pulls her thoughts away and jerks her gaze downward past Ishaza's breasts. Her breathing comes harder and she balls her hands in her p as she tries to suppress the image of Ishaza on her knees before her. An eon passes, then another. The need between her legs craves to be filled in a primal, animal way that threatens to swamp her thoughts.

  Her breath catches in her throat, then rushes in a burst, then catches again. Slowly, she fights it back under her control, falling back on her training to take slow, even breaths. Focusing on her breath pushes the imagery away a little. She welds her jaw shut and breathes even slower through her nose.

  Ishaza's slim fingers, trailing through her hair —

  She makes a strangled noise and squashes the thought. Back to breathing. Focus on breathing.

  Eon after eon pass, until —

  "That's enough for our lesson today," Ishaza says. "It will take regur doses over several days for the preparation to reach full effect. Be here promptly at this time tomorrow. And, of course, no partnered sexual activity."

  "Yes, Courtesan." Ember bows her head, stands, and gives a sloppy curtsey. The image of Ishaza's cleavage lingers, along with the craving that needs sating. She needs her wand. She needs her wand now.

  She turns, and hastens away to the safety of her private room.