Ember raises her hand to the door of Camellia's dorm room, and knocks sharply thrice.

  "Camellia?" Ember's not quite able to keep the desperation out of her voice. Her whole body is keyed up, fear and lust sloshing together within her, and her sex still aches with need and hurt. The warmth in her core still wants to be in charge, but she forces it down. "Camellia? It's me, Ember."

  Camellia opens her door a crack, just enough for her to poke her head out. Her hoop earrings gleam golden in the magelight, and when Ember's gaze alights on her peach-covered lips a surge of need to kiss and hold and touch rushes up —

  Ember takes a harsh breath and forces it down.

  Camellia eyes Ember warily. "Trouble with your control training?" she asks.

  "Yeah," Ember admits. "You were right. I was unkind to Maeve —"

  "I’m in the middle of an assignment, can you wait five minutes for me to get what's in my head down?" Camellia says. "I'll meet you in the common room after."

  Ember ducks her head. She's just grateful that Camellia's willing to talk to her at all. "Okay. I'll wait."

  Camellia nods, and shuts the door with an apologetic smile.

  Ember goes and sits in the pillow pit, and fights down the craving deep in her bones. Visions of Camellia and Ishaza both py in her mind, their generous curves fighting for space at the forefront of her fantasies.

  After a small eternity, Camellia emerges into the hall again. She's carrying a small notebook and a pen. She comes and sits across from Ember, and flips open the notebook.

  "So," she says. "Go ahead and expin what happened and I'll see if I can help."

  Ember looks from Camellia's thick thighs to the notebook perched on them and then up to Camellia's face. "Um. — Are you taking notes?"

  Camellia nods. "Yeah, I'm treating this as a real debrief. After all, I need to be able to go through your case to give you solid advice." She brings her pen to the page. "Start from the beginning. When did you have your pse of control?"

  Ember takes a breath, feeling uncomfortably inspected. She shields her chest with her crossed arms. "What are you, some kind of healer?"

  "Oh, right," Camellia says. "You haven't taken communication csses... Well, courtesans are expected to be able to debrief each other after scenes or incidents." Camellia offers a small smile.

  Ember exhales. "Ah. Yes, I’ve read the course material on it. It’ll be interesting to see it up close." She tilts her head.

  "Gd to see that you’re paying attention." Camellia smiles. "Anyway, to do it properly I need to note-take."

  Ember squares her shoulders. "Alright," she says. "This is embarrassing, but... it all started with my first dose of aphrodisiac."

  Camellia nods, picks up the notepad, and writes down a line in shorthand. "Go on...?"

  "I made it through the lesson okay, though I was definitely experiencing symptoms — looking excessively at Ishaza’s body, forgetting to keep my gaze lowered according to protocol, that kind of slip. I think the st time I could have retreated was when I decided to masturbate? But I'm not sure if I could have pulled back after an orgasm in one of the low spots."

  "You decided to masturbate. How and when?" Camellia scribbles down another line.

  "Uh, with my vibrator —"

  "You have a vibrator?" Camellia's eyebrows jump. "Was that an intimate favor from someone, or...? — no, I'm getting off track. Sorry, I was just surprised you could afford one."

  "Had. — we'll get to that. And it was a gift from my old mentor." Ember says. She shifts against the cushions and forces her gaze to stay on Camellia. "But you were saying?"

  Camellia coughs. "Yes, right. I meant, how did you decide to masturbate, and when did you make that decision?"

  Ember tilts her head and frowns. "Hmmm. I’d say that I… formed the intention to get me through the control lesson, and then when the lesson was over I just followed through. I'd already promised myself that I’d get some time with my wand for good behavior."

  "That would be your first problem," Camellia looks up from her notes and gives Ember a disapproving frown. "But that wasn't your st chance to recover. You said that you could have maybe stopped after you had an orgasm or two. Why didn't that happen?"

  "Um..." Ember hangs her head in shame. "I didn’t set limits on it. I didn’t have a pn for how many orgasms to have, or when to stop. So I got totally carried away. I didn't expect that I'd actually get so impatient and needy I'd destroy the vibrator —"

  "Destroy the vibrator? How did you manage that?"

  Ember’s gaze skitters off Camellia. "I... It ran out of mana, and I was so ticked at it that I chucked it across the room and it shattered. It was gss."

  "Ouch," Camellia says. A flicker of sympathy goes across her face. "That must have really stung. No wonder you sought me out. Let me guess, Ishaza showed up and confiscated the pieces afterwards?"

  "Actually I brought her the pieces. I didn't know vibrators were banned." Ember looks up and meets Camellia's gaze, a note of challenge creeping into her voice. "Otherwise I wouldn't have been using one."

  "Somehow I doubt that," Camellia says. Then her tone softens. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." She folds her hands in her p, tapping her fingers together in consideration. "Next time set limits up front, before you’re in the situation. Really, I’d say this whole thing was a failure to pn on your part. I hope you’ve learned your lesson."

  Ember sighs, forcing down another stab of irritation. "Look, I know it was a fuckup. It’s not that simple, okay?"

  Camellia puts her notepad and pen down and makes eye contact with Ember. She gives her a gentle smile. "Yes, I understand that it’s one thing to say it and another to put it into practice. Nonetheless, more control drills might have prevented this and saved your vibrator.."

  Ember nods, a little mollified by Camellia’s softer tone. "I guess so. That vibrator was... precious to me." She presses her thumb against her opposite palm in her p and takes a slow breath. "So what's your recommendation for further training?"

  "Don't promise yourself a failure of control as a reward for controlling yourself," Camellia says ftly. "Make a pn up front next time, and drill your consequence list again. You should know better."

  Camellia shuffles her notes for a moment. "That said," she continues, "There’s often a rge gap between theory and practice, which is kind of the point of this exercise. Maeve had a simir first day to you, and she got it eventually, so…" She meets Ember's eyes, and gives her a reassuring smile. "I have faith you'll get it with practice."

  Ember raises an eyebrow. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, " she says, a little sarcasm creeping into her tone.

  Camellia sighs. "Look, I know you're new and all and are catching up, but Ishaza believes in you. And I want to believe in you too. Just... I think you know how unkind you were to Maeve, now. Could you please take some time to apologize to her properly? Do that and I'll consider this whole thing free."

  Ember frowns. "I still think that it's sensible that people doing control training should be subject to real temptation, but I really underestimated how much everything is a temptation under the influence like this. I don’t think I’m wrong. That said…"

  She pauses, taps her foot against the pillows of the pillow pit, then nods. "You're right that I was unkind, though. Is it enough to say that I'm sorry for doing it without her permission?"

  Camellia frowns. "You'll have to ask her, but so long as you make a real attempt I'll count it. Just... try not to be so..." She visibly searches for words.

  "Reckless? Callous?" Ember offers.

  Camellia nods. "Yeah, something like that. If you want me to go through the consequence drill with you tomorrow morning I can, but I think you'd get better results out of asking Maeve, she's the one who's loaded up on theory. I'm good at it personally, but she's the one who'll find the approach that works for you." She tilts her head. "So, good luck. I'd stick around and train with you but I really do have to study. Tomorrow, okay? I can test you on your drills in the afternoon if you want."

  Ember nods and manages a small smile. "Alright. Tomorrow." She looks away. "You're really quite a kind person, Camellia."

  Camellia ducks her head. "I try. Just do your best and try to get along with people, alright?"

  Ember meets Camellia's gaze. "I'll do my best." She gives Camellia a full-force smile. "I promise."

  "Good girl," Camellia says. "Now I really must be off." She gets up from the pillow pit, notebook in hand, and walks off.

  Ember's gaze follows Camellia as she goes, lingering on her shapely ass — but then Ember takes a long breath and shakes her head to clear it.

  She's got drills to do.

  ~*~

  The snting rays of the rising sun flood through the rose-tinted skylight and fill the common room. Ember shambles out of her dorm room in a foul mood, horny and fatigued. Last night was a mess of control drills, and when she finally felt tired enough to sleep the craving between her legs kept her up for several hours more.

  The sizzle and scent of sausages fills the room: Maeve's got a pan on the stove. She looks over her shoulder at Ember, her long blonde braid shifting with the motion, and gives her a knowing smile.

  "Rough night?" she says. "Camellia was up before you."

  Ember rubs her eyes with one hand. "Yeah." She goes over to the pantry and pulls an apple out of the preservation-spelled compartment. "You don't have to gloat." Maeve’s got nice breasts and all, but right now she feels so exhausted that the need’s pretty far away.

  "Not even a little?" Maeve's smile widens a fraction. "I heard someone got an object lesson yesterday."

  "Yeah." Ember takes a chomp out of the apple and chews as she walks over to the pillow pit to sit down. It’s a little too tart for her liking. "Mmh. I admit it, I shouldn't have teased you without permission."

  Maeve looks back at her pan of sausages, the temple of her gsses tossing a silver glint back at Ember. "Gd to hear it. Camellia said you were going to want to do control drills with me." She pauses. "So, why should I help you after you went out of your way to try and mess with my studies?"

  Ember looks down at the apple in her hand. "I..." Pride and fear war within her, and after a moment pride wins out. "It's okay. You don't have to help me. Camellia... already diagnosed what my problem was, so I'm going to work on it."

  Maeve raises an eyebrow. "Really." She flips one of the sausages in the pan. "Well, if you're so confident, you can go ahead and try. But don't expect me to py nice. After all, you're the one who says that people should be tempted during their control exercises. To me, that would seem to constitute permission, no? Or are you a hypocrite as well as a fool?"

  Ember bites back a sharp reply, and lowers her head. "I..."

  Maeve finishes with the stove, and comes over with her pte of sausages and eggs. She sits across from Ember in the pillow pit and gives her a searching look. She’s cute, but Ember’s gaze goes to the sausages in her p rather than her face. This apple’s really not cutting it as far as food goes.

  "Look," Maeve says. "I'm trying to reach out here. You're being stubborn about this idea of yours that control training should involve... random tests, let's call it. I think that's silly. It's all too likely to result in accidental loss of control, and that trains in failure as an option. Are you really so attached to your own mistake that you're not willing to admit that you weren't taking control training seriously?"

  "I was taking control training seriously!" Ember snaps out, louder than she intended. "You're the one who asked to kiss me, and said that you needed practice stopping in the middle. It's entirely reasonable to practice against real temptations in this kind of training. You're just dismissing me because you're worried I'm right. After all, you passed anyway."

  "Fine, then." Maeve arches an eyebrow. "How about this, then: You try and control yourself on your own, and I tease you just like you teased me. You make it to the end of the week without asking me to fuck you, you win, I'll admit the training technique has potential. If not, then you owe me a real apology. Deal?"

  Ember nods firmly. "Deal." She offers her hand to shake.

  Maeve takes it and shakes firmly. "There. Done. Don't expect me to help you with this. After all, you didn't help me at all when it was my turn." She pushes up her gsses on her nose. "We'll see who's right, once and for all."

  Ember gives a curt nod in reply. "We will."