Ember, Fianna and Maeve sit cross-legged in a half-circle around the round table in Ishaza’s office. Ishaza sits across from them. Her silver nails gleam in the coral-shaded light.

  Ember wears a heavy bnket, deep red and velvety, while Fianna and Maeve are back in uniform. Despite the anxiety in her gut, the bnket Ishaza pressed upon her is so comfortable and her body is so satisfied that it’s hard for her to stay alert. The low buzz of the aphrodisiac in her is so muted now that it’s almost unnoticeable.

  Ishaza sets her cup of tea down on her saucer, and Fianna refills it, slightly sloppier than she strictly should be… but Ishaza doesn’t so much as correct her posture, her gaze instead lingering on Ember’s face.

  Ishaza taps her fingers against the fragile ceramic, and at length, speaks.

  “Do you feel ready to debrief?”

  After the sharpness that was in Ishaza’s tone a few minutes before, the sudden gentleness of the question takes Ember completely off-guard. She takes a few moments to think about it, struggling upward from the haze of satisfaction and warmth.

  “I don’t feel like I’m thinking straight,” Ember admits. “After… everything… I don’t think I can really trust my own judgment. And I feel deeply tired and spent after all that.”

  Ishaza nods. “Your hand,” she says.

  Ember reaches out of the bnket and presents her hand to Ishaza, not even really processing the command so much as obeying instinctually.

  Ishaza takes it by the wrist, her grip sharp as her nails dig slightly into Ember’s skin. Her thumbnail presses into the heel of Ember’s hand, where the vein that traces her arm trails over the joint. Ember winces — and the haze over her thoughts clears, a feeling of cool calm settling over her mind.

  Ishaza releases Ember’s hand, and raises an eyebrow. “And now?”

  Ember takes a breath, the unnatural crity spiking her anxiety a little. “I think I can try, at least.”

  “Good,” Ishaza says. Then she takes another small sip of her tea. “The three of you. Debrief.”

  “We…” Maeve has the good grace to look ashamed. “I didn’t actually intend to have sex with Ember, it’s just that, well…” She ducks her head. “By the time she was asking for it, it seemed cruel not to give it to her. And I expected that she’d feel okay with it, given the discussions we’d had earlier. I didn’t really think about the fact I was making her fail her control training, that was just — the established stakes.”

  Fianna nods. “We… Pyed dirty,” she says. “I’m sure you’re aware of the bet already, but Ember was winning, she kissed Maeve three times and didn’t even slip a little. I was surprised that she fell for the trap, even though it was designed to do that.”

  Ishaza regards them both coolly, then her gaze slides over to Ember.

  Ember swallows. “I…” She ducks her head. “I think the part where it started going wrong was after that third kiss. I was getting cocky, taking unnecessary risks, and… I had a training session with Camellia where I more or less just made out with her for no good reason, now that I think about it. And then by the time I had my session with you, Ishaza, I’m sure you noticed me, um, being kind of out of it…”

  “You looked more at my breasts than at my face during that lesson, yes.” Ishaza folds her hands together in her p. “Being in that state going into the trap that Fianna and Maeve had set, it’s no surprise that you failed.” Her long tail curls up into her p, and she ys a hand on its arrowhead tip. “Who was responsible for this failure?”

  “I think all of us, really,” Maeve says. “We — egged each other on until things got completely out of hand.” She shakes her head, her silver gsses catching the pink light.

  Ember nods. “I think the majority of the fault lies with me, though,” she says. “I rationalized my way into this situation. I couldn’t stop trying to find ways to tempt myself. I told Camellia I was going to do ‘control exercises’ — the control exercises I did were edging, not anything — real.”

  Maeve frowns. “I was the one who proposed the bet, though —”

  Ember shakes her head. “But you never would have proposed it if I hadn’t tried to tease you in the first pce. It’s on me.”

  Fianna frowns as well. “I mean, I have a hard time believing you would have fallen for it even in your bad state if I hadn’t helped Maeve out —”

  Ember pinches the bridge of her nose. “Alright, fine. Everyone participated in this. But it’s me who should bear the costs, it’s my control training that I fucked up, not anyone else’s —”

  “That’s not fair to you?” Fianna hazards, her gaze flicking over towards Ishaza.

  Ishaza nods, confirming Fianna’s question. “No, it’s not.” She settles her hands around her teacup and regards it for a moment, then taps her silver-nailed fingers together, as if considering.

  “All of you are responsible for this,” Ishaza says at length. “And I am gd to see that you all recognize that. Some students I’ve had would argue after something like this, bme each other for what went wrong. All of you seem if anything too eager to bme yourselves.”

  She looks over at Ember. “You’ve just shown a dangerous habit of rationalization,” she says ftly. “That habit could well result in a cascade of modifications when you kindle. But I will note that you also held out against a concentrated assault from your fellow cssmates until the very st day of your control training; when you’re trying, your will is more than strong enough.”

  Ember swallows, not sure whether to be anxious or proud. “Yes, Courtesan.”

  “In better conditions, you might have succeeded,” Ishaza says. “However, the world is messy, and you were the one who chose to risk your student career. You were the one who chose to stare at my breasts, who chose to make out with Camellia rather than train, and who chose to edge rather than drill properly. This situation is in a very real sense your fault.”

  Ember ducks her head in a nod. She tenses, waiting for the hammer-blow of expulsion.

  “All that said. This training is intended to expose such weaknesses before you kindle, so they can be corrected properly.” The corners of Ishaza’s eyes crinkle in amusement. “It would be a poor school indeed that expelled a student because they failed a single test.”

  Ember swallows. “So I’m… Not going to be thrown out?”

  “Yet.” Ishaza’s tone cuts like a chill wind. “If you cannot correct this defect in your character, you will undoubtedly be rendered feral by kindling. Kindling is not kind to those who cannot control their impulses. It would be murder by another name.”

  Then she smiles reassuringly, a rare expression on the serious woman. “That said. We learn from others’ mistakes when we can, and our own when we cannot. You’re hardly the first students to be awakened rudely to their own faults by this form of training.”

  Maeve and Fianna exhale visibly, and Ember feels her own shoulders rex a little.

  She gets another chance.

  “Thank you,” she says softly.

  “If you had been less willing to accept responsibility, or failed to be able to have a civil conversation…” Ishaza shrugs. “Who can say. But the students I see here in this room are eager to succeed, so much so that they’re inventing games to push each other further.”

  She looks at each student in turn. “Ember, we are going to work on the fact that you justify things to yourself. We’ll be repeating your control training starting tomorrow. Fianna, you need to learn not to go along with ideas that people who you like propose just because you like them. We’ll be going over service training again, particurly the portion on how to politely refuse a request. Maeve, you need training in taking the implications of your own ideas seriously. We’ll be reviewing the history csses.”

  “One mistake does not undo all the good work you have all done over the past month. Take that lesson to heart.” Ishaza stands. “Fianna, clear away the tea-set. The rest of you are dismissed.”

  “Thank you, Courtesan,” the students chorus.