lisa woke to sunlight streaming through the dorm window and Raven's solemn face hovering inches from hers. She nearly scread.
"Gods, Raven!" She clutched her chest. "We've talked about this. Normal people don't watch others sleep."
"I wasn't watching you sleep," Raven replied matter-of-factly. "I was waiting for you to wake up. There's a difference."
"Barely," lisa grumbled, but she couldn't stay annoyed. Not today. "What ti is it?"
"Eight-seventeen. Javir expects us at nine-thirty."
lisa stretched, her tail uncurling from around her leg where it had wrapped itself during the night. Just a few more hours and they'd be free of the mory Snare and all its complications. No more accidental glimpses into people's private monts, no more worrying about touching anyone, no more Shadow Mage hunts in royal palaces.
"Can you believe it's finally going to be over?" she asked, sitting up.
Raven's expression remained neutral, but lisa had learned to read the subtle cues—the slight softening around her eyes, the barely perceptible tilt of her head.
"I will miss certain aspects of the experience," Raven admitted. "The research potential was significant."
"Well, you've certainly put it to good use," lisa teased.
Raven reached into her uniform pocket and withdrew a small paper-wrapped package.
"I got this for you," she said, extending it with chanical precision.
"What's this?"
"Chocolate. Dark with sea salt. You ntioned liking it once."
lisa's heart lted a little.
"That's really sweet of you, Raven."
"It's practical," Raven countered. "You need to eat before the ritual."
"Sure, sure. Very practical." lisa unwrapped the chocolate, breaking off a piece and popping it into her mouth. The rich bitterness with hints of salt spread across her tongue. "Mmm, perfect."
She offered a piece to Raven, who hesitated before accepting it with careful fingers.
A mischievous idea struck lisa.
"You know," she said casually, "since this is our last day with the mory Snare active, maybe we should use it one more ti. For science."
Before Raven could respond, lisa reached out and touched her shoulder, focusing her thoughts on finding a secret mory.
The world tilted.
Raven was standing by a window in the dormitory, completely alone. Afternoon light slanted across her face as she simply... stood there. Not training, not studying, not doing anything productive. Just gazing out at the academy grounds with no particular expression on her face.
Reality snapped back, and lisa found herself staring at Raven, who looked uncharacteristically embarrassed.
"That's it?" lisa laughed. "All your secret mories are just you... being a vegetable? I was half expecting so crazy Shadow Mage ritual or at least you masturbating or sothing."
Raven's pale cheeks flushed pink.
"It's... not significant," she mumbled.
"Then why did the mory Snare show it to ? It usually reveals intimate secrets."
Raven looked away, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her uniform.
"It's embarrassing," she finally admitted. "Standing around. Doing nothing. It's inefficient. Wasteful."
lisa's laughter died off slowly as understanding dawned.
"Raven," she said softly, "were you allowed to relax? Before, I an. When you were with the Shadow Mages."
"Idleness was punished," Raven replied, her voice flat. "Every mont had a purpose. Training, missions, study. We slept when we were permitted to."
Upon hearing that, it felt like lisa finally understood. For her, doing nothing was a luxury, a chance to recharge. For Raven, it was literally a forbidden indulgence. A secret rebellion against her training.
"So when I see these mories of you just... existing," lisa said, before finishing in her thoughts:
[It's because that is a secret mont for her. She wasn't allowed to do that much.]
Raven still wasn't eting lisa's eyes.
"... God, you're too cute."
Then lisa grabbed Raven's face and kissed her hard on the mouth.
Raven stiffened in surprise before cautiously returning the kiss, her hands hovering awkwardly in the air as if unsure where to land.
---
Precisely twenty-seven minutes later, they arrived at Javir's office, Raven looking slightly rumpled but otherwise composed. Javir and Jaylin were already waiting, the mory Snare sitting on a small table in the center of the room, freed from its glass case.
"You're cutting it close," Javir comnted, raising an eyebrow at lisa's hastily buttoned shirt.
"Important pre-ritual preparations," lisa replied with a straight face.
Jaylin snorted.
"Yeah, I bet."
"Let's focus," Javir said, gesturing them toward the table. "The ritual is simple but requires complete concentration. We'll form a circle around the mory Snare, each place a hand on it simultaneously, and acknowledge the mories we've seen. This should sever the connections and end the artifact's influence."
"Acknowledge how?" Jaylin asked nervously. "Do we have to, like, describe them out loud?"
"Gods, I hope not," lisa muttered, thinking of so of the things she'd witnessed.
"Just a ntal acknowledgnt," Javir assured them. "Though speaking aloud may help focus your thoughts."
"Before we do this," Jaylin said, fidgeting with the sleeve of her robe, "can I just say that so of the stuff I saw... I didn't an to. It just happened."
She was looking directly at lisa, who suddenly realized what she ant.
"Wait, how many mories have you seen of my mom?" lisa asked, her eyes widening. "Is that why you've been acting so weird around her?"
Jaylin's face went crimson.
"I-I wouldn't say 'weird,' exactly—"
"Oh gods," lisa groaned, covering her face. "I don't even want to know. Let's just do the ritual and never speak of this again."
"Agreed," Javir said firmly. "Places, everyone."
They ford a circle around the table, each positioning a hand above the bronze disc. Javir began a soft chant in an ancient language, the words flowing like water.
"Now," she commanded.
Their hands descended simultaneously onto the cold tal.
The world didn't just tilt—it spun wildly, fracturing into a kaleidoscope of mories.
Margaret bent over a table, listair pounding into her from behind.
Armia's massive cock buried deep in Isabella's ass.
Queen Aria touching herself in the dark, whispering lisa's na.
Raven standing alone by a window, allowing herself a mont of peace.
Jaylin accidentally walking in on Javir changing clothes, then staring a mont too long.
The mories flickered faster and faster, bleeding into one another, until suddenly—
Silence. Stillness.
lisa blinked, finding herself back in Javir's office. The mory Snare sat inert on the table, its bronze surface now dull and ordinary-looking.
"Did it work?" Jaylin asked, her voice shaky.
Javir released a long breath.
"I believe so. The connection feels severed." She turned to lisa. "Touch ."
lisa reached out hesitantly, placing her hand on Javir's arm. Nothing happened. No mory transfer, no visions, just ordinary contact.
"It worked," she confird, relief washing over her.
They all sat in silence for a mont, processing the experience.
"So..." Jaylin finally said, "anyone else see Queen Aria masturbating to lisa, or was that just ?"
"JAYLIN!" lisa shrieked.
"What? I thought we were acknowledging mories! That one was pretty morable!"
"I also observed this mory," Raven stated matter-of-factly, "though the queen's technique seed suboptimal."
"Can we please," Javir interrupted, pinching the bridge of her nose, "focus on the important part? The ritual worked. The mory Snare is deactivated."
"Right, yes, that's the main thing," lisa agreed quickly, desperate to change the subject. "What do we do with it now?"
"I'll return it to the library archives," Javir said, carefully wrapping the disc in a cloth. "Ms. Milly has prepared a special storage box with additional sealing spells. With luck, it will remain dormant for another century."
"Good," Jaylin said firmly. "That thing caused enough trouble."
Yet as they filed out of Javir's office, lisa couldn't help feeling a hint of nostalgia. The mory Snare had been dangerous, invasive, and ethically questionable—but it had also shown her sides of people she'd never have seen otherwise.
She glanced at Raven, who walked silently beside her.
"Any regrets?" she asked softly.
Raven considered this for a mont.
"No," she replied. "The data collection was valuable, but the privacy violations were... uncomfortable."
"Yeah," lisa agreed. "Though I might miss seeing the queen's secret fantasies about ."
"You don't need the mory Snare for that," Raven pointed out. "She looks at you the sa way Jaylin looks at your mother."
"WHAT?"
From behind them, Jaylin made a strangled noise.
The mory Snare was gone, but so information, it seed, was here to stay.
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