On Monday, Ember clutches a scrap of parchment in hand as she kneels before Ishaza.

  Ishaza is as painfully hot as ever, wearing another deep v-necked number with a scattering of gold jewelry. They’re in the middle of a lesson on geography, but Ember’s gaze keeps slipping to her cleavage. Surely it would be okay to look a little more, right…?

  Taking a deep breath, Ember turns over the parchment she’s writing on and goes back to her list of pros and cons.

  It doesn’t seem to make sense for a moment, but looking at her list the logic is inescapable. She doesn’t want to stare at Ishaza’s breasts. Not really.

  She digs her nails into her thigh, and the pain clears her head a little.

  Ishaza raises an eyebrow at her.

  “Never mind,” Ember says. “Please, continue.”

  ~*~

  On Tuesday, Ember joins Fianna in the library for a discussion of her business pn.

  “Look,” Fianna says. “I know you’re pnning to do room enforcement with a paired lock mechanism using tokens, but what happens if one of your clients just walks off with the token? Those aren’t cheap, and people will forget about them. You’ve either got to enforce that they turn in the token before they leave somehow, or you need to come up with a better idea for renting the rooms. And that’s not even getting into the environment you’re trying to create on the floor — you’re not going to get there with members of the public. Are you sure you’re not trying to create some kind of private club?”

  Ember shakes her head. “No, I want it to be avaible for people more generally…”

  Fianna gives Ember a skeptical eyebrow. “You know how many people try and start pet cafes and fail? That’s a working business model, something that’s been tried and succeeds sometimes. You’re trying to do something entirely new and I don’t think you’ve actually worked out how it works in practice.”

  Ember opens her mouth to contradict Fianna, then thinks for a moment and closes her mouth. “Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. I just — I want to create this new thing, that’s the whole point.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t exist because it’s unworkable in practice.” Fianna slides the business pn back over the table towards Ember. “In your shoes, I would start with a business model that I know works. Like a brothel. It seems fundamentally confused to me that you want this pce to be a pce of business and a pce of rexation and you’re not willing to commit to having the courtesans do their actual trade there. You’re still… Thinking like a civilian, not a courtesan.”

  Ember tilts her head, and nods. “I’ll think about it,” she says. “I think you have some good points, and maybe the pn needs revising. But I still want this pce to exist.”

  Fianna nods. “Well, good luck.”

  ~*~

  On Wednesday, Ember meets with Maeve again in the common room.

  “Drill it with me,” Maeve instructs. “What are the benefits, and what are the drawbacks?”

  Ember takes out her list again, and reads each item in turn. From the benefit of pleasure to the risk of being thrown out of the program, she recites them all.

  By the end of the session, she’s put the list aside and is simply doing the recitation by memory, like it’s a poem she has to read to a client, or a history text she’s going to be quizzed on by Ishaza. Her memory has always been good, and she’s been practicing. She’s been practicing rather a lot.

  ~*~

  On Thursday, she’s before Ishaza once again. This time she’s serving tea. The list rests in the breast pocket of her dress shirt, held close like a talisman.

  Ember can feel her gaze slipping towards Ishaza’s breasts again. She steadies herself, calls up the list she’s drilled into her head again and again. It’s a grim picture.

  She remembers the sound of Ishaza’s tail rapping against the fgstones.

  Ember swallows, and directs her gaze lower.

  ~*~

  On Friday, Ember sits in Camellia’s room with her head on her knee against the bed, working her way through a history text together with her. They share small smiles back and forth as they go through the material, and after a few minutes of talking, Camellia reaches out and lets her hand trail through Ember’s hair.

  It’s nice. It stokes the heat in her a little, but it’s a pleasant kind of warmth; less insistent, more controlled. She has time. She has so much time.

  Ember turns her head and kisses Camellia’s hand, and together they go on reviewing.

  ~*~

  On Saturday, all four of the students sit together in the common room’s pillow pit.

  “So,” Maeve says with a teasing lilt in her voice. “Think you’ll make it this time?”

  Ember nods resolutely. “Yeah. I feel like I’m starting to get more control. It’s easier for me to — haul myself back from that edge, stop the rationalization before it starts.”

  Camellia raises an eyebrow. “You don’t want to do kissing practice?” A wry twist is in her lip.

  Ember shakes her head. “I do, but I know it’s a terrible idea. I want to pass, damn it. And I can hardly keep up a retionship with you if I get thrown out of the program.” She snorts out a breath and smiles. “We’ll get there together.”

  “I think you’re really going to do it,” Fianna says. “You haven’t even been trying to get up in my face about my disliking your business pn. It feels like you’re learning. I hope Ishaza sees that too.”

  Ember’s eyebrows jump. “Thank you,” she says. “I really hope so.”

  “Want to go out for bckberry pie afterwards?” Maeve asks. “I know a pce that does it well, and they might still have some bckberries in storage for the winter.”

  Ember nods. “Let’s not be hasty. But yes, if I pass. I think I could stand to get to know you all better.”

  The three other students look at each other, then look back at Ember. “I think you’re starting to get there already, honestly,” Fianna says. “This whole debacle has at least managed to break the ice a bit.” She spreads her hands. “A bit of a silver lining, I suppose.”

  Ember nods. “Yeah.” She smiles. “A bit of a silver lining.”

  ~*~

  On Sunday, Ember stands before Ishaza once more. It is a dull lecture on guild history, her worst subject. The aphrodisiac coils in her gut, wanting to force her gaze higher, to make her focus on Ishaza’s body, not her words.

  Ember ignores it, her gaze deferentially low, below Ishaza’s body. She’s drilled the consequences by heart. The thought of fantasizing about Ishaza — it calls directly to mind that terrifying moment when she thought all was lost, not so long ago. She forged that link deliberately, cast it into her mind.

  She breathes easily, moves fluidly, risks no untoward gnces. She answers every question posed to her correctly and promptly.

  She could look.

  She’s learned better.

  At the end of her history lesson, Ishaza looks seriously across at Ember.

  “You pass,” she says.

  Ember’s eyebrows jump. “— I can kindle?”

  “That is for you to decide now.” Ishaza’s tail curls into her p, and she rests one hand on its arrowhead point. She strokes it with her thumb, as if considering.

  With her other hand, she picks up a hand-sized rectangur package by her side. It is wrapped in bck silk, tied tightly in a bow.

  “A gift,” she says.

  Ember takes a deep breath. This could be anything…

  She carefully undoes the silken cloth: within is a cquered box, marbled with a white and gold pattern.

  Ember reaches in, settles her fingers against the lid, and raises it from its base.

  Within the box lies her vibrator, wholly restored.

  Ember blinks, then swallows, then looks from the box to Ishaza and back again.

  “I — I don’t understand. Aren’t these banned for students?”

  “During control training.” Ishaza raises an eyebrow. “You have completed control training. What comes next is not so much exercises as an actual struggle for control. In such a struggle, you use every tool you have to keep yourself whole, no matter if it is a crutch.”

  Ember nods sharply. “Yes, Courtesan.”

  “Try not to break it again.” Ishaza lets a small smile touch her lips.

  “Of course, Courtesan.” Ember takes a shuddery breath. Despite all her training, tears threaten to overtake her. She’d never thought that she’d see this again, that she’d destroyed it for good, that she’d lost the only connection to Lively Spark she still had forever —

  She stills her breathing, and gives Ishaza a watery smile. “Thank you.”

  Ishaza merely inclines her head. “It is no more than you deserve. You are dismissed. We will discuss Kindling tomorrow morning.”

  “Yes, Courtesan!”

  Ishaza stands, and departs, leaving Ember behind.