Fragments of memory drift back to Ember. Being picked up, effortlessly as if she were a sack of potatoes. Being slung over a shoulder. Being pced, gently, on something soft.

  She opens her eyes, and the rose-tinted light of the windows of the new dormitories stabs her vision. She’s lying on something lumpy and slightly squishy — oh, she’s in the sandbag pit at the new dormitories.

  “Ugh…” She reaches up and rubs her face, pushing aside the bnket she’s wrapped in. She feels awful. Her stomach is a hollow pit, her back and shoulders ache, and her head is foggy and filled with cotton-wool.

  “You’re awake.” Ishaza’s crisp voice washes over her.

  Ember blinks, and sits up hastily. Ishaza sits across from her on the far side of the bowl of sandbags, legs crossed at the knee, wearing a simple cotton shift rather than her usual eborate dress and jewelry. It’s a shame, really; it’s much less fttering than her usual attire.

  “Please expin how you decided to sleep outside completely nude when there’s frost on the ground.” Ishaza meets Ember’s gaze levelly.

  Ember swallows hard. “I…” She ducks her head and fights her way through the fog in her head, trying to string two thoughts together. “It… seemed to be the safest pce to practice the technique some more, without risking cracking bricks or disturbing the other students. I didn’t intend to fall asleep. Isn’t it safe? I thought kindled bodies were almost immune to anything to do with how hot or cold they are.”

  Ishaza shakes her head. “In general, you are correct… so long as the kindled soul is conscious. In sleep or unconsciousness one becomes as vulnerable as any other human, at least at this early stage in your transformations. A subtlety that perhaps was not communicated to you in the past two months. Nonetheless, I think you would normally have better common sense than that.”

  Ember hugs the bnket around herself closer and nods. She takes a long breath, then steadies her voice and looks Ishaza in the eyes. “Understood, Courtesan,” she says. “I —” She hesitates, then presses on. “I don’t really regret it that much, though. I got a lot of practice in. And to be frank, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

  Ishaza chuckles. “Indeed. The early days of kindling can be like that. Nonetheless, you endangered yourself needlessly. Pay more attention to your surroundings. And I must warn you, the path you are proceeding down leads to some of the stranger outcomes that can occur. There’s worth to be gained in the direction of maximizing pleasure, but more than one Courtesan has ended up locked in eternal orgasm thanks to decisions made too rashly.” She looks down at her bck nails and taps her thumb against each nail in turn on her right hand. “I can’t fault you for searching in this direction, but you are showing a degree of enthusiasm for your newfound senses uncommon among aspirants, and showing light firesign as a result. This is one of the directions that can end in ferality, if your desire for pleasure swamps everything else in your life. Be more cautious.”

  “Firesign?” Ember shakes her head, trying to clear it. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Glowing nails, eyes, heart, and sex,” Ishaza patiently expins. “Yours is not so advanced, being only a dull red… But with more indulgence, it’ll strengthen till it glows star-white. Beyond that point, the body starts to break down as the kindled becomes more fire than flesh. This does not generally kill the aspirant, understand, but the attendant mental changes…” Ishaza spreads her hands. “But this is all some distance away, still. Take your time.” She picks up a ceramic pte from by her side, and proffers a trio of muffins on it. “You missed breakfast. You must be starving.”

  Ember’s gaze falls to the muffins, and she extends a hand from her bnket to accept the pte; then she takes a muffin and stuffs it into her mouth in a trio of fast bites. The taste of blueberries and lemon explodes across her pate, more intense than she’s used to — fuck, food is so good too now —

  Ishaza watches impassively as Ember wolfs down the second muffin. By the third muffin, Ember’s feeling a bit more self-conscious at being watched, and manages to eat it a little more slowly and carefully, taking time to savor it.

  Ishaza nods thoughtfully. “Now,” she says. “I believe Maeve and Fianna have gotten into another argument, so I must leave you for now. I would recommend talking about your night with Camellia at your earliest convenience. She could use your support.” She stands. “And please, try not to ruin your new bnket. They’re less expensive than they used to be, but they’re still not precisely cheap.”

  Ember nods, and takes a slow breath. “Where’s Camellia?”

  Ishaza gestures to the hallway to the dormitories. “In her room.” And with that st remark, she departs down the hall in the direction of a pair of raised voices coming from outside.

  With nothing better to do but obey her teacher’s order, Ember gets up and heads down the hall towards Camellia’s room, still wrapped in her soft bnket.

  Camellia is waiting for Ember in her room, wearing a simplified version of the student uniform — a pin bck skirt and a white dress shirt. She has her knees up in front of her in bed and is reading what looks to be a bad romance novel. Behind her, a pillow rests between her newly-developing wings. They’re the full length of her body, though as of yet skeletal: her pinions are still growing in, each feather looking to be a full hand long at least when they’re finished growing.

  Ember looks at Camellia and her mouth drops open. All this happened in the few short hours while she was outside working on her technique? Clearly she’s been underestimating how fast these changes can happen.

  “Camellia?” Her face is still the one she knew, though Camellia’s once-blue eyes have now turned gold and her chestnut hair is turning to dark brown feathers.

  Camellia looks up, and a relieved smile comes to her face. “Ember! You woke up. I was really worried…” She ducks her head, puts a steel bookmark into her book, and sets it aside on a small table that’s been brought into the room. Now that Ember thinks about it, it seems the bed’s had its sandbags repced with an actual mattress as well. “Please be careful, I have special permission from Ishaza to have fmmable items in my room and if you burn anything I’m going to lose that privilege.”

  Ember takes a deep breath, and nods. Camellia… Seems to sit a little straighter, now. Her growing-in wings look natural on her, like they were a part of her body that should have been there all along. She’s intimidatingly hot to approach now, honestly, with those gorgeous, if skeletal, wings framing her like a portrait.

  Nonetheless, Ember crosses the room to Camellia’s bedside and sits next to her.

  “So…” Ember ducks her head. “How are you… liking the wings?”

  “I was really worried for a little while that I was going to turn into a bird completely, but I don’t seem to be shrinking at all, and I still have my arms,” Camellia replies. “Ishaza says the change looks like it’ll be stable in the long term and that there’s not much to do but learn to live with it. She did say that I’ll probably be able to fly with them, so that’s — wonderful, honestly — but I missed you. I… could have used someone to hug.” She smiles sadly. “Come here?”

  Ember presses in and hugs Camellia, careful of her growing-in wings. A little heat simmers in her sex at the gentle touch. “It’s alright,” she says. “I’m here now.”

  Camellia ys her head on Ember’s shoulder and lets out a harsh sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, you are.” She squeezes Ember back, then lets go again. “Thank you. That really helps.”

  “Anything for you,” Ember says, then blinks. She didn’t expect to say that — she guesses her inhibitions are down still a bit.

  Camellia just ughs, though, and gives her a warm smile. “Charmer.” She ducks her head and kisses the back of Ember’s hand, and Ember flushes and pulls her hand away as a surge of intense arousal burns through her. Fuck, if she’s willing to kiss her there where else could she kiss —

  “H-hey —”

  “Oh?” Camellia raises an eyebrow. “You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

  Ember takes a deep breath, feeling the hollow craving deep inside her rise. It’s not that she can’t take it, it’s that her pussy has just decided that she needs to fuck Camellia right fucking now.

  “Camellia,” Ember says. “I want to pin you down and fuck you senseless. Any objections?”

  Camellia ughs again, and pulls Ember in close. “I would like nothing more.”