Chapter 89: Sharing
It was midnight at the Sky Piercer.
Aegis sat cross-legged on the meditation platform, trying to sync her breathing with the ambient aether while Rosanna floated nearby in those perpetually loose robes that threatened a wardrobe malfunction with every breeze. The ghost queen looked more solid tonight, more real, like someone had turned up her opacity settings.
"You’re distracted," Rosanna observed.
Aegis sighed.
"The Winter Trials are in a month."
"Liar."
"They are!"
"I meant, that’s not what’s distracting you."
Aegis opened one eye.
"How can you tell?"
"Your aether’s moving like a drunk spider trying to build a web. Something’s got you tangled up."
[Drunk spider. Even ghosts are roasting me now.]
"It’s... complicated."
"Most interesting things are. Tell me."
So Aegis did. About Darius and his engagement bullshit. About Talia’s barely controlled rage. About Serilla appearing out of nowhere and making everything twelve times more complicated just by existing.
Rosanna listened, occasionally humming or making small sounds that might have been sympathy or amusement.
"The Goldspire boy," she said when Aegis finished. "Political marriages are older than this kingdom. Your friend should remember that leadership often demands sacrifices."
"That’s depressing."
"That’s reality. Though..." Rosanna’s expression shifted, became something more personal. "Following one’s heart isn’t always wrong. I married for love, not politics. It nearly destroyed three kingdoms, but we managed."
"How is that helpful?"
"It’s not. I’m just reminiscing." She drifted closer, sitting beside Aegis despite not technically needing to sit. "The Frost girl is more interesting to me. Based on what you’ve said, she sounds rather chaotic."
"She is."
"But," Rosanna added, "at the same time, she doesn’t strike me as someone who acts randomly."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning she wants something. Perhaps from you, specifically. The question is what."
"Maybe she just thinks I’m hot."
Rosanna laughed.
"Perhaps. But pure lust rarely requires such elaborate games. She’s either playing a very long con, or she came here with nothing but Miss Vale in her sights and is now genuinely interested in you, in something beyond your... admittedly impressive physique."
[Did Rosanna just call me hot?]
Aegis grinned, before wiping the expression off her face, trying not to look so dumb.
"So what do I do?"
"Investigate. Talk to her. Find out what she wants." Rosanna stood, robes billowing dramatically. "Also, work on your aether circulation. It’s still moving like that drunk spider."
---
Professor Mirabel’s class was so boring it almost went full-circle into being exciting somehow. It was enough to make Aegis’s head spin.
[Ugh, I’m actually missing professor Loralei.]
Lune had claimed her usual corner, already three layers deep in whatever existential crisis she was painting today. Liora and Talia sat together but apart, close enough to touch but maintaining a careful distance that screamed "we’re kinda-sorta fighting but trying not to make it obvious."
Aegis had barely sat down when Serilla materialized beside her.
"You don’t look upset," Serilla whispered, her breath warm against Aegis’s ear.
"About?"
"My pursuit of dear, sweet Liora."
Aegis turned slightly, meeting those pink eyes. Serilla was squinting, just a little, like she was trying to do a math equation in her head.
"Should I be?"
"The princess certainly is."
"Well, they’re together. Liora’s not my girlfriend. Doesn’t mean I like what you’re doing either, to be clear."
"No?" Serilla shifted closer, thigh pressing against Aegis’s. "Then what is she?"
Aegis took a second.
"A friend. Who I occasionally sleep with. Along with her actual girlfriend."
Serilla’s eyebrows rose.
"How delightfully modern."
"It works for us."
"Does it? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re the third wheel in their little romance."
Aegis shrugged, keeping her face neutral, focusing on Professor Mirabel, gesticulating wildly about the emotional honesty of divine magic. Whatever that meant.
"They love each other," Aegis replied honestly. "And, they sure as hell like me. As long as they want me there, that’s good enough for me."
[Besides, I have literal RPG stats telling me they basically love me too already. And, if not? Well, I’m absolutely on my way.]
"Just there? Darling, nobody is ’just there’ when it comes to love and sex. You’re either a participant or a prop, and you don’t strike me as prop material."
"What’s your point?"
Serilla’s hand found Aegis’s thigh under the table. That got Aegis to flinch.
"My point is that sharing isn’t really my thing. It’s admittedly quite fascinating, watching you allow others to play with your toys. It seems to me you have more than the skillset to make them not do so. If you wanted, you could easily make it so the princess only ever has you on her mind. But you don’t go there. Why?"
"The premise of your analysis is wrong, that’s why. Liora, Talia, Scarlett, everyone, they aren’t toys. They’re people. And tying people down isn’t my thing."
"How interesting. We’re both terrible at traditional relationships."
"Is that what you’re trying to achieve? A relationship with Liora?"
"God, no." Serilla giggled. Aegis looked over at her, surprised. "I don’t do relationships. Too messy. Too many feelings. Too much compromise."
"Then what do you want?"
"Right now? To see how far I can push before something breaks."
"That’s not an answer."
"It’s the only one you’re getting today."
From there, they sat in comfortable silence for a moment, watching Lune paint what looked like Aegis getting eaten by a metaphorical representation of academic pressure. Or maybe it was just a dragon. Hard to tell with Lune.
"You know," Serilla said eventually, "I expected more resistance from you."
"To what?"
"This. Me. The general chaos I bring."
"I’ve got enough chaos in my life. What’s a little more?"
"I can see why Liora likes you."
Across the room, Aegis caught Talia’s eye. The princess looked ready to commit several crimes, possibly simultaneously.
Class wound down with Mirabel assigning them to various forms of prayer to master for next week. Students packed up, chattering about their plans, their projects, their complete inability to understand what the professor wanted.
Serilla stood, stretched in a way that made several students walk into furniture, and then did something that made the entire room stop.
She walked over to Liora, cupped her face with both hands, and kissed her.
Not a peck. Not a friendly goodbye. A full, deep, tongue-definitely-involved kiss that went on long enough for someone to drop their paintbrush.
When she pulled back, Liora looked dazed. Pink. Possibly having an out-of-body experience.
"See you later, sweetheart," Serilla said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
Then she walked out, leaving devastation in her wake.
Talia’s murderous aura could have powered a small city.
"That was something," Aegis said, sliding over to where Talia stood vibrating with rage. "You might wanna save the part where you murder her for after you’ve graduated, though."
"She did that on purpose. The kiss. The timing. The fucking audacity."
"Probably."
"Definitely." Talia’s hands clenched and unclenched. "I could freeze her. Just a little. Just her tongue. Break it off... See how she likes kissing then."
"That’s a very specific revenge fantasy."
"I’ve had time to think about it."
Liora finally remembered how to move and stumbled over to them, still looking shell-shocked.
"I didn’t... she just..."
"We saw," Talia said, voice arctic.
"I didn’t kiss her back!"
"Your tongue says otherwise."
"That’s not—I was surprised!"
"For thirty seconds?"
"It wasn’t thirty seconds!"
"I counted."
Aegis stepped between them before someone threw a spell.
"Okay, everyone take a breath. Liora, you got ambushed. Talia, she’s obviously trying to get under your skin. Don’t let her win."
"She already won," Talia muttered. "She got exactly the reaction she wanted."
---
That evening, Aegis found herself in the library, supposedly studying for Strategic Thinking but actually staring at the same page for twenty minutes while her brain played the day’s events on loop.
Sophie appeared, as she did, with Vera trailing behind looking perpetually bored.
"You look constipated," Sophie announced.
"Thanks. Really needed that assessment."
"Emotional constipation," Vera clarified. "The face you make when you’re overthinking everything."
"I don’t overthink."
"You’ve been staring at that book upside down for ten minutes."
Aegis looked down. The book was, in fact, upside down.
[Fuck.]
"It’s about that pink-haired girl, isn’t it?" Sophie said, sitting on the table because chairs were apparently beneath her. "The one who made out with Liora?"
"How did you—"
"Everyone’s talking about it. Someone actually started taking bets on who’s going to snap first, you or Talia."
"What are the odds?"
"Three to one on Talia," Vera supplied. "She has a history of violence. You, on the other hand, have a history of fucking."
Sophie nodded sagely.
"She’s right. Even back at the farm, your solution to everything was either charming someone or putting your dick in them."
"That’s not—" Aegis paused. Thought about it. "Okay, that’s fairly accurate."
"So what’s the plan? Seduce Serilla into submission?"
"I don’t think she does submission."
"Everyone does submission if you’re creative enough," Vera said, examining her nails.
[Damn. That’s a take.]
In any case, starting today, there was one month until the Winter Trials.
[This is fine. Everything is fine.]
The book remained upside down.