7.22 – Not Averse to the Idea
After tracking down the nearest servant and requesting that her door be fixed—offering a simple explanation of 'Elodie' to the instantly-understanding woman—Rosalie headed for Astrid's room. While she was an honored guest, she hadn't been put in the royal wing itself. Rather, a different section of the estate reserved for esteed visitors. The sa place Zoey and Delta had been initially thrown, and which Sabina and Aria were still staying in.
Astrid was thankfully inside, so Rosalie wouldn't need to hunt her down. The door swung open, but it wasn't a fully dressed—much less armored and alert—Astrid that t her. Instead, it was a softer-looking, bleary-eyed, hair-mussed Astrid wearing baggy pajamas. Her facial war paint was worn and smudged. Did she not clean it off at night?
She had woken recently. Was Astrid soone who slept in when she had the chance? Rosalie wouldn't have assud so. The dostic sight took her aback more than she thought it would. Thus far, they'd interacted almost entirely as professionals—which had been the source of her self-doubt on whether she was the best person to check in on her.
When Astrid saw who her visitor was, her green eyes widened and the sleepiness wiped away in an instant. "Lady d'Celestin? What are you—" She cleared her throat, straightening her posture out. "You need sothing from ?"
"No, no. Just ca to see if you'd like to join at the training facility. I didn't expect to find you, ah, indisposed."
Astrid hesitated. "Went to bed late. Took ti to … fall asleep."
"Ah. Yes. That's reasonable, considering everything. It was a long shard, too."
Astrid paused, then grimaced slightly. "She told you." She shook her head. "Of course she did. Teammates. Lovers. Don't know why I—never mind."
Rosalie glanced down the hallway at the word 'lovers', and Astrid winced when she noticed.
"Sorry. Is secret, I know."
"It's fine. If you'd like to keep resting, I understand yesterday was a long day. I rely thought you'd … wish to speak? Perfectly reasonable if not," she hurriedly tacked on.
"No, no. Can join." She rubbed an eye and glanced at an open window, wincing slightly at the bright light. "Is later than I thought. Didn't an to sleep this long. Give ten?"
"Of course."
The Harkvalen warrior erged ten minutes later, as promised, in a much more familiar form: in fur-and-leather armor, war paint renewed, no longer sleepy or soft-looking. The contrast between the two images made Rosalie, without intending to, look at her differently.
They made their way to the training facility and into a private room. Conversation stayed professional; they discussed yesterday's shard and what their training goals were for today. Other idle topics too, like how Elodie had made her re-appearance, and that Astrid should expect a run-in with her—perhaps even an interrogation, seeing how Astrid was Rosalie's teammate. Even Astrid had heard rumors about the eldest d'Celestin sister, and Rosalie confird most of them.
Elodie didn't have a negative reputation, but mostly because her sheer prodigy outweighed her less appealing traits. A person who abandoned their duty wasn't well loved by the public, but the public respected their protectors—and Elodie was shaping up to be a prominent one. Already, she was sixth advancent, one of the youngest in known history, and should war co from the Striders or elsewhere, she would be no small asset.
Not that war seed likely; borders had stabilized in the past two decades. If Father or the Muse—the Guildmaster of the Striders, Celia Harrowgate—hit ninth advancent, thus shifting the power balance, that might change, but that didn't seem likely in the near future. Or far future. Ninth advancent was sothing of legend.
However professional the conversation stayed through the trip to the facility and through their first spar, there was a plain undercurrent to their responses and behavior. It wasn't just how Astrid would randomly flush; Rosalie too found herself inordinately embarrassed whenever her thoughts strayed to the upcoming discussion. Zoey had said she and Astrid had similar temperants, and that was true in so regards. Astrid, though she was confident and blunt, clearly didn't view sex with the sa level of casualness that Delta did. Even Maddy had been more open, for all she probably blushed the most out of them.
And Rosalie's view on sex hadn't changed much. Yes, her two girlfriends might be pumling her into an incoherent ss every night, but she still found the idea rather scandalous whenever she thought about it. A part of her couldn't believe she'd ended up in this sort of relationship. So, frequency of intimacy aside, Rosalie considered herself fairly reserved. Similar to Astrid.
Since they were in private, and an appropriate amount of ti had passed—jumping straight into it had seed awkward to her senses—Rosalie ought to broach the real reason she'd co and found Astrid. Yet try as she might, she failed to find a proper segue. Or more accurately, work up the nerve.
Unsurprisingly, it was Astrid, the blunt one, who did so. Honestly, it spoke to how flustered Astrid was that it took as long as it did. Rosalie was fairly certain Astrid was the type of woman to run into anything head-first.
"We should talk."
The statent ca at the end of their second spar, after they finished catching their breaths from the frantic exchange.
"Ah." Rosalie leaned on her spear, appraising Astrid with a blank face. "I suppose we should."
Despite that, neither of them said anything. Since Astrid had done Rosalie the favor of spearheading the topic, she continued.
"I hope you can forgive the deceit. We intended to tell you, but we wanted to wait until we had a grasp on your personality first. In case it would be imdiately obvious you wouldn't … find the idea anable."
Astrid waved a hand dismissively. "Is fine. That part didn't bother ." She paused, and an eyebrow went up. "Think I find idea anable, do you?"
Rosalie flushed. She supposed that was the implication of her words. "That you might co to terms with it, rather. I'm not saying anything about how you might view … any of this. But so people would be—imdiately put off. And you don't seem to find it that objectionable."
Astrid grunted. There was another beat of silence.
Rosalie breathed in. "I would like to clarify that the only requirent, so to say, is that you're willing to be around and witness so, ah, potentially strange scenarios. You need not participate yourself, if that isn't where your inclinations lie."
Astrid tilted her head, clearly surprised by that claim. "But her skills wouldn't work on ."
"It doesn't matter. You shouldn't feel coerced by the threat of being denied a spot on the team. You're clearly an exceptional vanguard and, so long as you're willing to tolerate Zoey's class—and the shards it creates—then you're welco as our fifth party mber. We're an effective team with or without fully utilizing Zoey's class."
"Shards it creates?"
"Ah. Right. We have an item that reduces how much they're influenced. That tal cube-fra. So you didn't see how our shards usually are." It had reduced the influence down to zero, in fact, which Rosalie hadn't known it could do. The shard had been completely mundane. "Normally, shards for us are much stranger. In the sort of way I'm sure you can guess at. Seeing how the rewards—both experience and items—are significantly better, we intend to return to that style of wayfaring. So, you would need to be willing to deal with that. But any other activities would be entirely your choice."
Reasonably, it took Astrid a few monts to digest what she'd been told.
"Won't pretend this isn't … surprising. But, worst fate in world?" She laughed, then cleared her throat. "No. Not worst fate. I could be—" She trailed off, and her cheeks colored. "You four really—do that? Every shard?"
"Sexual encounters of so variety are necessary to keep Zoey charged, yes," Rosalie said, desperately fighting her own flush. "And the shard itself sotis intervenes to create … its own scenarios. Often strange ones. So yes. Every shard, you should expect sothing like that."
"I see." Astrid hesitated. "Surprised you would keep on the team if I chose not to. Effects she provides are … strong, no?"
"Yes. But we decided early that we wouldn't bend to whatever Zoey's class asked of us. Or the shards themselves. There are definitely—incentives. But for our own sanity's sake, keeping to our own comfort levels is much more important. For both personal and inter-personal reasons, as I'm sure you can guess at. Team cohesion is important, even speaking from a practical, professional sense."
"Yes. Logical." She bit her lip and looked away. "Might need more ti to think, though. Zoey said the basic requirent was Bonding. Which takes … you know what it takes. I could—handle that. Maybe?"
There wasn't any possible way to speak about her girlfriend cumming on this girl without Rosalie breaking into a furious blush, so indeed, that was what happened: her face deepened through shades of red, with Astrid's responsively doing the sa in return.
"She would be accommodating about it," Rosalie offered. "She's a thoughtful person, and won't press you into anything you don't want." Except in the case of pushing boundaries in a good way, when Zoey intuited her partner wanted it. As happened with Rosalie all the ti. "That's, ah, for you two to discuss, though. I don't think I need to give my input."
"Yes. True. Is—between us, yes."
They shifted around awkwardly, and when Astrid offered, "Again?" while gesturing at the sparring ring, Rosalie hastily accepted.
It hadn't been handled the most gracefully it could've been. But thankfully, it seed like Astrid wasn't totally averse to the idea. Maybe even warming up to it—in her own way.
But, Rosalie couldn't help but wonder whether their first lewd shard would change her mind.
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