The Labors Of Jasper, Episode 04 free porn video

20Jas0004, The Labors of Jasper Episode 04; 5722 words Yara woke up feeling sore but refreshed. She blinked for a moment. Looked around. What was different this morning? Something felt different. If it was important, it would manifest. She waited in line for the toilet, considered for a while, and then walked outside to use the outdoor privy. Maybe it was her nails. They were growing in again. Thick. Almost like claws. Still not used to these teeth. When she wasn't thinking, she could eat. Muscle memory. Paying attention to the process, though, caused troubles. She bit her tongue. She bit her cheek. She clacked her teeth together. Not used to this mouthful of bitey dentition. Fairy princesses had scary teeth. Maybe that's where legends of a tooth fairy came from. Jas joined the JL Recovery employees in calisthenics after breakfast. She skipped the run, choosing to do yoga on the dock instead. Her feet were still a mess. The lacerations had been deep. Several tendons had been nicked, some cut entirely. It was a minor miracle that she could walk. Shower, sitz bath, autodoc. There were two showers now in this cabin. It reduced the waiting time. Team Five had more than enough work to keep them busy. Yara intended to stay out of their way but was drawn in by what she saw. Each of Team Five was writing summaries of what they'd learned at the University on Earth Nine. The displays on their toughbooks were polarized, intending to provide a view only to someone in the focal point, but Yara had no trouble reading any of the screens at nearly any angle. Some of this applied to her problems at hand. Most of it would have interested her old self, because he'd been a huge geek. Insights into magic, interfaces between human tech and fey tech, human tech that might be marketable on Earth Nine.... The Team Leader of Team Five didn't look busy at the moment. Yara stood near her and waited. The woman looked up. Yara heard her growl with frustration. Yara said, "Professor?" She read the team leader's name tag. "Helfast." "I am Professor Helfast." The professor looked annoyed. Yara considered. How to play this? Years of roleplay helped. Yara had never played a princess before but she had spoken to royalty. And recalcitrant orcs. She said, "Your team's findings interest me." "Proprietary information, Princess." the professor closed her toughbook. "Not kicking with both feet," Yara said. Oh, that had translated poorly. "No offense intended, but I would like to view it." "I'll ask Corporate," Professor Helfast said. "Princess, I can't stop you from raiding our computers. We discovered early-on that the fey can read quantum computers at the process level. But, by contract, this information is proprietary. Are you familiar with the term?" "I am. I wasn't raiding the computers, I was reading the displays." "The privacy shields don't work." "Not well." Yara realized she was thinking in one language but translating to English. "When I understood it was a privacy shield, I came to you." "To ask for access. That's surprisingly polite. For a fey." Athan said, "The Queen is funding this. I think her representative can view it." Professor Helfast looked back to Yara and said, "Are you the Queen's representative in this, Princess?" She glanced at Yara's glyph. Her collar. Yara smiled. "I am what the Queen says I am. I'm not asking for an official copy of the reports. The work looks original. It interests me." Athan said, "She might add to your knowledge base. She already identified one weakness you weren't aware of." Professor Helfast considered that. Yara said, "I don't know that I could add to such scholarship. I would enjoy reading it, though." Professor Helfast snorted. "Can you read English?" "Yes." Yara smiled. "Good, cuz I'm not translating." That's what was different. Languages. Some of the etiquette, too. Not at all like the last few days when she had been a jumble of.... Yara thought to herself, "My name." She considered that some people here might hear subvocal thoughts. Jas. The name seemed strange. Foreign. Like a character in Stones and Scepters. A male character. Male? Yara shuddered. Ew. Dangly bits, all too easy to damage. Then she stopped, confused. Because she clearly had been male, for twenty three years and had only been female for ... three days? What the blue fuck? She heard Master Hoose chuckle. She looked over to him. "Master Hoose, do we have fish to feed this crowd?" She found Sheena's rod and reel and grabbed it. Master Hoose bowed. He said, "We have venison, milady. Butchered this morning." He handed Yara the cooler. "Panfish should be biting. Bait is in the cooler." Yara nodded to the house spirit. She was aware that every eye in this cabin was on her. She stopped in the doorway and looked around. Everyone suddenly discovered that they had tasks that needed attending to. Yara smiled. While she was fishing, Team Five's data appeared on Yara's specs. Yara set her secretary at work, parsing the data. Another foggy day. Yara filled the cooler with fish. She'd come out here to think, and to study, but spent most of her time reeling in fish, baiting hooks, and repeating the process. "Enough," she said. This time, when she cast the hook and bobber out onto the lake, she didn't bait the hook. She caught a fish anyway. Yara growled. She put the fish in the cooler with the rest of them. She realized that no more fish would fit in that cooler. Ah. She nodded to the lake. "Thank you, Lady. I need no more fish, although I do need time to think." Yara saw the water ripple. A tentacle appeared. It tapped her ankle twice. The tip of it, just the tip, was wider than her boots. Yara composed herself, trying to will her heartbeat to slow. The tentacle hesitated. Yara said, "Grandma, what big arms you have." The tentacle slid into the water noiselessly. The cat appeared next to Yara. It seemed bigger today. It smelled of blood. She examined its fur, then ruffled it. She said, "Sorry, I have no maker bacon today." The cat sneezed. Yara looked at the cat. She subvocalized. "Master Hoose?" The cat nodded. Yara asked, "Why am I me today?" She pushed hair from her eyes and looked out into the fog. *Please clarify.* "I'm completely at home in this body." Except for eating. "My gender identity is ... girl. My name is Yara, although a few days ago I was Jas, and male. I have all of his memories, and none of Yara's. Did you cast an identity spell on me?" *I did not.* "Then who did?" *It probably happened when you reviewed the spells.* "How? When?" She was certain she hadn't actively cast any of those spells. *When you look at fey magic, it looks back at you.* "Dubious." *When you use a computer, does it respond?* "Yes, but it's programmed to do that." *Adware keeps track of the sites you visit, your mood, and the environment around you. Fey magic includes what you could call advanced adware.* Fucking tenesmic. *Also possible.* "So, when I was simply reviewing the spells - reading summaries and descriptions - I activated an identity spell?" *Probably. You activated several of those spells while reading them.* "Just considering a spell activates it?" *It can. You must learn how to stop your natural inclination to subvocalize when you read, how to stop modeling everything you think of and to stop mirroring the actions of those around you.* Yara groaned. *It is not difficult. There are spells that will help. It does take practice, though.* Yara called up the Identity spell. She read through it, learned how to use it. It seemed simple enough. At the moment, she had three default personalities. Yara, Jasper, and Reflet. Reflet? Oh, great, she could permanently adopt the personality of a cheerful pirate/assassin who fucked monsters whenever she felt stressed out or depressed. Yara activated the Jasper personality. He didn't feel any different. Same memories, as far as he could tell. Same vocabulary, except that Jas was roleplaying a bit, trying to affect the vocabulary and language usage that Morgana had drilled into him when they played Scepters and Stones. The tutorial responded to this line of thought. Ssssspooky. It affirmed what he was thinking but also told him that he now wouldn't instantly respond to any name besides Jas. The recognition spikes for the other names existed, and could be suppressed, but he was now centered on being Jas, a male in a female body, and significantly stressed by that experience. Then the tutorial showed Jas the range of responses and personality traits he could dial in. The fey had their own version of Meyers-Brigg's Personality types. Jas saved his data, as it stood today, in case he ever needed to revert to baseline. Then he toggled back to the Yara personality. It didn't differ much from the Jasper personality, except that it was a bit more open to new experiences, and it was female, oriented towards males. Yara noted that she scored near the midpoint on most axes, but was off- center on two axes. On the axis that modeled Male/Female orientation, Yara scored about 25%, favoring male-oriented. On the monogamy axis she scored 65%, favoring the omnisexual side. Yara looked up the term to verify that she had the basic gist. She did. She checked Reflet's specs on that axis. 87%. And Reflet was only Level 3. Yara imagined that almost every avatar in that game eventually scored above 99% on that axis. Out of curiosity, she checked Jasper's specs on sexuality. Skewed on almost every axis. For instance, Jas scored 82% oriented towards Female. Only 82%? This surprised Yara. 11% on the monogamy scale. Deeply attached to one sex partner. Only on the hedonism axis did Jas score anywhere near 50%. On the asexual/hypersexual axis he scored 79, decidedly sexual. Yara closed the spell page. She asked the house, "Why are fey languages so easy for me?" She could read and write in several scripts that should be completely alien to her. She wondered if she'd activated a language spell. Was there a language spell on that list? Yara didn't remember seeing one. *A different answer for a different question.* "Okay." Yara waited. Morgana had warned her. It might involve a long story. *A short story." Oh, good. *You still hold the full mind and memories of the princess. You are a simple overlay. Consider her asleep for the moment. Her language skills are unreliable, as are other skills that bleed through. The skills will come and go. The more you use them, however, the more they become yours. There is risk, though.* "I might wake her up." *Yes. If she wakes, you will lose most of yourself to her. Forever.* "Lovely. What prevents her from daisy-chaining, jumping from body to body and leaving me stranded here?" *Nothing. Expect her to do exactly that if your body receives a mortal wound. Or if she simply feels a need.* Yara sighed. *It was the best deal I could drive. Normally, a commoner like yourself simply ceases to be. She pays a blood price to the family. She inhabits both bodies, updates her selves whenever they meet, and then, when the need for two bodies has abated, she abandons one. If it suits her purposes, the royal leaves the abandoned shell alive. The family of the deceased, if they have the means, retrieves the shell and prints another persona on it. Sometimes they impose the original persona back in place. Often, though, they create a simulation of the royal who abandoned the shell, and use the body for profit. It's the fey version of 'George Washington slept here.'* "Except that it's actually, 'Come, fuck the body the princess once used,' isn't it?" *Yes.* Yara resisted the urge to touch her glyph. It pulsed anyway. *Morgana thinks it's likely that the princess would be captured or die almost instantly, if she used your body as she first intended. She wanted to prevent the royal from cycling through four bodies, yourself and your three friends, with little to show for it. Thus, we raised the stakes. If the princess does not return to claim her old body, you get to keep it. Unless.* Yara waited. *Unless you awaken the princess yourself. Or an outsider does the same. The longer you inhabit that body, the better the chance that you will survive, at least somewhat, when the princess wakes. If you remain you for years, you may find yourself her better - or at least on equal footing. Best-case scenario, your champion returns triumphant and is willing to swap bodies as an equal. Expect that the royal will be reluctant to accept the life this collar and glyph guarantee. Also, I advise you to carefully consider the enemies she creates for you in that body.* The glasses paged down. *Second-best scenario, you learn the skills to cover your true nature before one royal family or the other uncovers you. Accept life as a brothel slave and rise above it. With luck and skill and cunning, you can forge an empire in a thousand years, or so.* "Is there a Plan C?" The cat sneezed. Twice. *Become a true hero.* "Or a dead hero." *You will find suicide nearly impossible.* "The glyphs." Dammit, they pulsed again. Yara felt an urge to masturbate. She ignored it. The cat nuzzled Yara's hands. *This is what I mean by modeling,* Master Hoose said. *Observe your hands.* Yara considered her hands. They hadn't done anything. Twitched a little, maybe. *You thought of something sexual. Your hands modeled the action. A savvy practitioner uses that modeling against you. Amplifies it. Damps out competing nerve orders. When I nuzzled you, you modeled petting me. A rider, such as the wraith that inhabits each glyph, would prevent you from even modeling petting a cat if it suits their purpose.* "But not petting my pussy." Yara felt another twinge down there. *Truly.* She examined her hands. "These have a mind of their own?" *Some modeling is spinal. Most of the action occurs in your brain.* "I suspect that life as a hero is strongly discouraged." *It is.* "I have a lot on my plate." *A great abundance. A chance to live for thousands of years.* "I mean that I have lots of work to do. And little time to do it. Am I completely doomed? Can I improve my odds?" *The Lady of the Lake has agreed to your cause. She is a Red Wizard of great skill.* A Red. Helping a Green? *You are no more a Green than I am. Have care with your words, though.* Master Hoose replayed some previous conversation. "I am what the Queen says I am." *Be happy you did not specify which queen.* "I don't suppose I can run and hide while the world sorts itself out." *Find a way to remove that collar without invoking the curse. Remove the glyphs, or obscure them.* "Curse." It gets worse? The cat nodded. Yara thought for a moment. "Master Hoose. That video game. Can I use it to model actions I can't take right now? Teach skills to my avatar?" *I wondered why you wasted time in mindless porn.* "It's only porn-filled if you lose a battle." Yara looked off into the fog. "Even that might be useful, soon." *I can modify the game.* "I'll need a tingle suit." The cat went rigid. *Searching.* "A feelie player, tactile-AV, AVS, audio-visual-sensie, Sensurround. Do any of those keywords help?" *Sorting.* "It lets me feel what the avatar is feeling. Not just sight and sound from the specs. Tactile simulation. The fancy ones include taste and smell and cranial nerves." *Feelie suits can be hijacked.* Yara grunted. Just what she needed. Another rider. Wait a moment. *That could work.* What could work? A rider? A rider to override her other riders? *It could also make it worse.* Or it could activate an underlying curse. *That, too.* Yara didn't know whether to be annoyed or relieved that Master Hoose could read her thought like this. *The glyphs also watch. Action potentials. We'll work on keeping your private thoughts private tonight. Along with modeling and mirroring.* Yara wondered at that. Would her riders let her learn a skill unfriendly to their cause? *Nevertheless, you must try.* An object jumped out of the water and onto the dock. Yara's AA coin. Yara's mother's.... No. Yara's mother was Queen. Jas's mother's AA coin. Why did it feel so odd to think of it that way? Yara felt a tug at her ankle. Tentacle. It had wrapped around her boot. She felt the weight of it. An image of an octopus appeared on Yara's specs. Very Japanesey. It was a smiling octopus, in chibi form. *Fear not.* Yara tried to still her rapid heartbeat. She tried, and failed to keep from pulling against the steady pressure on her leg. She was aware of a growing warmth in her core. Sexual need. Desire. *If I want sex from you, child, I will have it.* Yara struggled to find words. "Not ... helping." She gathered her wits. "Thank you for returning the coin, Lady." Apparently, her riders turned panic into sexual need. Yara squirmed. She almost moaned with need. *I will not defeat your demons, son of Adam.* Yara thought, "Why am I not surprised?" *That task falls on you.* "Right," Yara said. "Thanks for returning my coin." Useless demon. The chibi icon appeared again. It laughed. Lovely. The Red witch could read thoughts also. Subvocalized thought. *Yes.* Yara wondered if she'd just offended her only Red ally. *The coin will buy you time.* Yara examined the coin. It didn't look any different. She glanced down at the water. Tried mightily to avoid pulling on her foot. Felt wetness in her panties. Pee? Yara squirmed again. *The Red Court uses Hive magic now. I have little experience with the Hive, except killing them rapidly.* An icon appeared. Yara recognized the icon. Starship Troopers. A warrior bug. Yara coughed to cover up the laughter she felt bubbling up inside her. *You are not Hive. Yet. Fear not.* Yara panted. She tugged at her vest. Touched her nipple. *House, calm your guest. It is important that she listens.* Yara stilled her hands. Mostly. She said, "I'm listening." She took a deep breath. Focused. Ignored the weight on her ankle. Ignored what her fingers were doing. *The coin buys a few seconds with each charge. For a three to five seconds, your temple guardians will fall silent, asleep and unobserving, while you perform a single task. Use the charges wisely. I've taken care to ensure that your guardians fall out of your world together and fall back in together. The first time that synchrony fails,* Yara's specs paged down to a new page. *you may lose use of the coin forever.* "How many charges?" *Seven.* "Seven." *Yes.* "Can I recharge them?" *Yes. You will enjoy the process. It involves giving the guardians what they need.* "Sex." Yara felt a spike of pleasure. *Yes.* Yara wondered if virtual sex counted. *Unlikely.* The specs paged down. *Unless it involves actual release.* Release. Yara puzzled at that. Orgasm? *Yes.* Yara snorted. Fucking fairies. Of course it would involve sex. The text refreshed. *Yes.* Yara giggled. She couldn't help it. She pictured masturbating here, in full view of the house and its occupants. She pictured throwing herself into the water, into hentai heaven. She wondered briefly about the shard. *I returned the coin to you unfinished because you have great need. Do you wish me to hurry the other process?* Yara put the coin in her vest pocket. Shaking hands made it difficult to button the vest pocket. She spoke quietly. "I have not learned to police my thoughts. Please ignore the stupid ones. Thank-you, Lady. Once again." The tentacle released her and slid into the lake. Yara stopped by the outdoor toilet. She needed to pee. She swept it for spiders and checked the mess at the bottom of the pit below the seat. She saw no evidence that any of the other guests used the outdoor toilet. There was only leavings from herself and her friends from Fairview. Interesting. "Anyone outside?" She asked the house. From the look of the outhouse, it was hauswood. It would hear her. *Only yourself.* "Thank you." Yara hiked up her skirt and pulled down panties. She peed. She felt a stab of gratitude. Muscle memory. Apparently this body knew how to pee. Much easier than it had been the day before. As Jas. While dabbing herself with baby wipes, Yara felt a thrill. She stopped for a moment and considered. She spoke subvocally. "Let me know if anyone comes outside, okay?" *Do you want privacy?* "Yes!" *OK.* "Also, let me know if someone in there can tell what I'm doing." There was no reply. Had the house heard that request, or not? No matter. Yara looked around. No obvious cameras inside. No obvious listeners outside. She shut the door. "Okay you little bastards," Yara said to herself. She felt the glyphs pulse. "Time to feed the kitty." It took some fumbling around. If the princess inside had any motor memory or tips on how to masturbate, she wasn't sharing. But Yara-Jas figured it out quickly. She sat there for a moment. Afterglow. Yara felt an urge to repeat the experience. Later, maybe. She cleaned up with baby wipes, hiked up her panties and opened the door. She resisted the urge to smile wistfully. She checked her coin. *8 charges.* "Gotta love fey tech." Yara entered the cabin and placed the cooler of fish in the preserver. As walked in, she saw Professor Helfast wrinkle her nose in disgust. The woman snorted. She glanced over to Yara with distain. Yara tapped her specs. She bozo'd the keyboard. *Fey? Not fey?* Then she highlighted the image of Professor Helfast. *Not fey.* *She can smell me.* *Perhaps she smells the fish.* *No. Clearly me.* Yara subvocalized. "Can you run a background check?" *I can Google her. You can do the same.* Yara grunted. She used her specs to Google Professor Helfast. The university site provided some information. Girls College, Riverside, Western States. Professor with tenure. Eleven years of employment. Science and Engineering. Daughter of another professor, Uri Helfast, also a professor of Science and Engineering at Girls College. They listed her degrees and awards. Tartle provided pictures, more awards, certificates and licenses. Reserves, inactive status. Combat veteran. Purple heart. Other military awards. A recent Citation for Meritorious Service. Other government awards. A news article about Advanced Materials. Other news articles. Sciencey stuff. The professor looked nice in a bikini. Yara smiled when she thought about how Jas would have viewed this picture. Not to kid herself, how she was viewing the picture. Yara bozo'd off the site. If Professor Helfast was fey, she'd been here for a while. Or faked it somehow. Still. Something was off about the professor. Too much confidence, for one. I mean, who was deliberately rude to a fey? Any fey? Much less a fairy princess. Maybe it was the glyphs. The collar. Yara pinched the bridge of her nose. A puzzle for another day. She found a broom and swept the cabin. As she did this, she felt every eye on herself. Yara stopped for a moment. "Is there anyone here," she asked, "too important to clean up after herself or himself?" She met the gaze of everyone in the cabin. Even the professor looked away. Yara smiled. She continued sweeping. She felt the glyphs pulse gently as she did this. She realized that this should worry her. Instead, she felt calm. Lunch was venison stew with nuts, berries, and food from the woods around them. Yara took another sitz bath, and endured a session in the autodoc. She was getting inured to stripping naked in front of people now. Most of the actual stripping was done behind a curtain, or a towel, but Yara found it disturbing that she wasn't disturbed in the least while dressing or undressing. It was only mildly disturbing to lay in the autodoc for an hour, tits on display, a towel draped over her privates. She watched everyone file out upstairs just before she finished in the autodoc. When she got out, Yara dressed and followed them outside. Weapons training. Yara found that she couldn't even approach the group of employees and Master Hoose. She couldn't even watch. Well, she could watch, but at great cost. It made her horny, squirming with need. If she stayed here, watching, she would end up masturbating again. Possibly in plain view of the people outside. So, instead, Yara went back inside and reviewed her notes. The secretary had been busy. Now she had a syllabus to teach her the programming language of fey magic. And some understanding of how the script-kiddie spells worked. Ha. Not mystical at all. Engineering. She could do this. She ignored what her fingers were doing as she studied, so the first orgasm came as a shock. But not the others. By the time the JL Recovery employees came back downstairs, she had pushed her coin counter up to 12. Professor Helfast hesitated in the doorway. She positively stared at Yara as she entered. Yara sighed. She was already standing, having startled as the first shadow that darkened the stairwell. "Okay, Professor," Yara said, as the woman tried to walk past her. "I know you're busy. Can we speak for a moment? In private?" Did the professor just growl at her? Yara checked to see if the professor's hair was standing on end. It wasn't. She said to the professor, "It won't take long." The woman turned around. She took the stairs three at a time. She stood, waiting, by the door. "Over here, please. Half of them will be able to hear, anyway. But I would like the illusion of privacy." When they had stepped a few meters to the side of the cabin, Yara spoke. "Okay, professor. Apparently you have a good nose." Professor Helfast stood, stoic and silent. "You know about the glyphs. The collar." "Difficult to miss them. You don't even attempt to cover them." Yara spoke quietly and rapidly. "I didn't volunteer for this. I am working to overcome my disabilities. And I am not going to be overcome with shame for something that men with criminal intent did to me. It's not your business, but there are consequences involved with covering the glyphs or ripping off the collar. I'm not in the mood to explore that phase space. As for what you're smelling, yuh. Not ashamed of that, either. The glyphs must be fed. Fey magic may take you all if I neglect to exercise my libido as required." "I find that unlikely." "Meh. I have no investment in what you believe. Not a care in this world. But now you will understand if I ignore your snuffles and snorts and hostile glances. No disrespect." Professor Helfast stood for a moment. Then she smiled. "None taken." She examined the collar and the glyph on Yara's neck. "Red court?" "In part." "I would love to study this." "You could end up with a set of your own." The professor backed away. "Thanks for the warning." "I am only guessing. But I am certain they are safeguarded." "Have you explored that?" Yara thought about that. She hadn't. She sighed. "There are things I can't say. Do you know who met me here?" "I met them." "And?" "Not impressed. Three humans. Two students from my department. Not memorable. An innkeeper. Not special." Yara smiled. "Not much special about you, either. Is there?" "I'm not going to be baited by a...." The professor stopped. "Go ahead. Free shot. One time. Say it." "Nah." "Truly?" Professor Helfast shook her head. "I have to work with you people." "You wish to examine the art. I wish to see the results, speculation, informed guesses. If we survive the inspection." "I'll see if I can arrange an equipment drop." "May I borrow your long knife?" The professor's eyes narrowed. "Why?" "To see if I can." Helfast offered the knife, hilt first. Yara couldn't reach for it. She couldn't even speak. She shrugged. Professor Helfast started to put the knife away. "I need it to cut firewood," Yara said. Then she reached for the knife, and took it. "Phase space," she said. "Exploring phase space. Um. Can I actually cut firewood with this?" She examined the blade. It looked expensive. "Sure. Can a Green cut a living tree?" "I'll be cutting deadwood." "Have a ball." Yara spent an hour collecting deadwood and chopping it or stabbing it with the long knife. More than one way to practice Kendo, escrima, and the light and heavy combat moves of an SCA fighting. She loaded up a double armload of deadwood. She dropped most of it by the stairwell but brought four short staves downstairs with her. She handed the knife to the professor and spoke with Athan. "I'd like to borrow one of your people. Someone who dances." Athan raised an eyebrow. Tree Nose came over. "Dancing?" Yara handed two of the staves to Tree Nose. "Dancing. Drumming. Freestyle and full-contact. You may wish to wear armor." Tree Nose asked, "What of you, Lady?" "I find I enjoy getting bruises. If you break a bone, I may pass out from joy." On the way up the steps, Yara said, "I'm not certain this will work." Tree Nose smiled. "I watched you chopping deadwood." "I saw." "Wily old princess." "Who are you calling a princess?" Yara whirled around. She found she couldn't finish the swing. Tree Nose smacked her on the thigh. Tree Nose chewed her lip. "We need a drummer." Three fey filed up the steps and outside. They each grabbed deadwood. They clapped them together. Yara twirled this way and that. Then she whirled. And whacked solidly into a stave that Tree Nose held. Tree Nose whirled. Yara matched her. They struck high and low. Each ended up landing blows on the other. It hurt. It also felt good. Yara could work with that. They 'danced' until Yara felt exhausted. "You're weak," Tree Nose said. "I'm governed," Yara said. Brother stepped in. "My turn," he said in Green. Tree Nose said, in the same language, "She is spent." The word for spent involved a small, nearly worthless coin. "Then she really is fit for one thing." He clapped the staves together, got the 'drummers' to drum again. Yara called up her script-kiddie spells. She found a Restore spell. It was like a shot of adrenaline and caffeine and sexual need all at once. Also quite painful. She struck first. Brother worked with the rhythm that Tree Nose and Yara had established. Then he doubled it, doubling it again at odd intervals. Yara surprised herself by keeping up, and beating him to it sometimes. Music Theory. Yara smiled. She tried parsing the beat in threes. Each time she did this, she surprised Brother. He was collecting quite an array of stripes. "I thought I told you to wear armor," Yara said between beats. "You advised it, Lady. You did not command." Yara parsed the beat in fives. Each blow landed this time. He swept her off her feet. Athan yelled, "Enough!" Yara looked up from the ground. Brother stood, his left arm limp and hanging. He held one stave and a fierce grin. He offered that stave. Helped pull her to her feet. Yara stood. Then she collapsed again. The restore spell had worn off. Master Hoose appeared. "Autodoc for you," he said to Yara. It soon became apparent that he wasn't going to help her to her feet. Yara tried another spell. The pain spell didn't help. It wasn't pain that stopped her from rising. Healing? Which deep bruise should she heal first? Binding sounded too much like BDSM. She hit herself with another Restore spell. And was able to rise. Master Hoose nodded. He picked her up and carried her inside to the autodoc. In the boathouse, it took three charges of her coin to load the spell that would allow her to control subvocalization. It took two more charges to use the spell, and to set it up so she could turn it on and off without an obvious command word. In this way, she used all twelve charges from her coin. By default, she left subvocalizing on, and modeling, because Master Hoose said that it was often useful. But she left mirroring off as a default. It would make her seem extra-worldly. It also made her look cold, distant, and unfriendly. When working with humans, she needed it. But when working with fey, it was dangerous. It made her seem like a child. Master Hoose examined her syllabus for magical programming. He added a few things to the syllabus. Then, before sending her back to the house to study, he asked, "How comfortable are you masturbating?" "I don't wish to get caught doing it." "The last five charges on your coin lasted longer than the first seven." "I noticed that, too." "The last four charges match the duration of your last four orgasms." Yara looked up and away. She took a deep breath. "You were watching. Of course you watched. It was inside the house." She rubbed her eyes then covered her mouth with both hands. She giggled. "That says something sad about my new friend." She glanced to the water in the boathouse. Master Hoose said, "There are devices which can prolong and intensify the moment." "Intensify?" Yara said, worried. "My heart will stop." "Twelve seconds. Your longest event, so far. With mechanical assistance, you could go for twenty seconds, perhaps a minute." "Toys?" Yara's voice squeaked. "Vibrators, electroshock. Nerve induction." Yara laughed nervously. "Fey devices could extend minutes to hours." "Ah, no." Yara fanned herself. "Nada. Nix. Besides, what if the champion comes home tomorrow? How would I explain that?"