Setting Boundaries

To Kir, finding himself in a relationship completely changed his mood.

He didn't brood as much, and the first week of school passed in a haze of sincere conversation and private little kisses.

His duel with Daisy had the desired effect, so far, of keeping away challenges... though Daisy had seemed a bit weird ever since. She'd delivered his gold to him via messenger, along with an insulting message that promised all sorts of bad - but oddly not overly harmful - things she would do to him once she graduated. It ended with an invitation to "See who gets spanked next time in a real duel!"

Kir wound up burning the note when Stella started sniffing around, not wanting her to make any lewd declarations.

It had astounded him that Rainier and Kordia would move so fast, but later he learned that they were both under contractual obligation to marry.

Kordia was to marry a rich and powerful beastkin merchant to restore her family's name to wealth. She felt ambivalent about the arrangement, wanting to honor her family but disliking that the merchant in question was almost twice her age and bore suspicious of arranging the death of his first wife.

Money was the sole issue of note with her family, and Kir saw how it weighed heavily on her psyche. Even after giving her enough gold for three semesters, she bought only the cheapest meals unless Rainier prompted her.

Around Rainier, she was confident and cool, but away from him, she could easily be flustered and stammered a lot like when they first met. Kir found as the week progressed that she was growing close to him in a similar way.

Rainier was set to marry into a middling house in the land of Lydovan. They were elves wanting a bit of a divine magic kick to the genes - as Kir thought of it - and Rainier was disposable enough to benefit his family with an alliance by marriage.

Marrying into House Klyresh would give his family a means to establish influence and trade with the notably isolationist city-state, as Lydovan was run almost entirely by an alliance of powerful houses that preferred to keep things in the family.

Basically, Rainier was also the solution to their problem of inbreeding. No doubt they thought that his angel blood would cure all... Kir didn't say this though. He didn't want to interfere with their prospects until he was absolutely sure they wanted different.

That said, they decided to keep their relationship a secret. Kir agreed because he was already expecting a hard time ahead of him just from all the duels. He didn't want to have their relationship become a source of trouble, too. Still, he felt that with Kordia and Rainier things would be pretty stable.

They all agreed to have their first real date next weekend.

"No, Rain, you need to calculate this part of the equation first. If you don't then your end result will be skewed." Kordia had stopped by the room since she tutored Rainier after class.

Seeing as she was a star student in most subjects, the school gave her the privilege of earning money as a tutor. She also had the privilege of being able to visit the boy's dorms, since she was also working as a teacher's assistant.

Her hope was to reach her third year and then have and achievement worthy enough to test into the special student program so she could attend her last two years doing what she wanted.

Special students could attend whatever classes they wanted, and were exempted from tuition, provided they contributed some form of discovery or feats of great magic to the prestige of the school.

"Say Kordia," Kir asked from across the room. "You want to become a special student, right? Why not get an adventuring license?"

"That sort of mercenary life isn't for me," Kordia replied. "I mean, think about it, a tiny girl like me, on the road, all helpless. I'd be gobbled up in an instant unless I had shields up the whole time." She pointed at the page Rain was working on. "Carry the three there, Rain. You forgot."

"Thanks Kor," Rain bent down and kissed her on the head, right between the ears.

Kir thought he was pretty cute when he concentrated. Just like Kordia was cute when her ears twitched and she got all flustered.

"Anyway, adventuring is great for making a name and getting rare ingredients, but it's pretty backbreaking and most nations have armies or students like us to handle big tasks in groups. You'll find out when there's a field trip to a magic dungeon or something. If you're good enough to go on one it's a decent way to earn some money, though the school takes the biggest cut."

Thinking about what she said about constant shielding reminded Kir that he was pretty fresh from magical combat training.

His mastery of shielding meant that for the last three days the professor used him as a testing dummy for the whole class. Meaning he got to stand still and think about things with only the mild annoyance of people yelling spells - amongst other less magical things - at him as they tried to break through his defense.

Today Kir ended the lesson by discussing latticing with Professor Jubilee, a concept Kir had to explain to the professor. It turned out she had something similar for her anti-kinetic shields that also made them porous in ways to allow air but not spells through. He was looking forward to seeing hers in action.

One thing that had weighed on Kir's mind during his hours of standing around in that class was something very important he needed to discuss with Rain and Kordia.

"Hey, uh, so about our relationship..." Kir said after a few minutes of letting Rainier work on his math homework. He could tell when they were finished with a problem by the way Kordia's brow knitted as Rainier's relaxed.

"What about it?" Kordia asked, tensing a little up to her ears.

Rain just went "Hm?" a bit obliviously.

"I was wondering... should we set some boundaries?" Kir asked.

"What do you mean?" Rain asked.

"Like the other day, when Rain asked about my, um, you know... I said I didn't feel comfortable with talking about it."

Kir had been changing into his pajamas at the time - a recent acquisition funded in no small part by Daisy - and Rain caught a glimpse of him in his underwear. Thankfully, after he answered Rain let it go.

Kir felt as if he'd blushed all the way to the tips of his horns.

"What?!" Kordia exclaimed. "Rain! You don't just ask people personal stuff like that!"

"I was just curious!" He braced as Kordia started whacking him with a pillow.

"It's okay! It's okay!" Kir raised his arms, having not intended things to end up in a fight. "I just... want to figure out where we stand, is all. And when it comes to my bits, I don't really want people knowing. I know you both are engaged to other people so sex is probably off the table..."

Kordia looked at Kir, her eyebrows knitting as she turned her head. "Why would it be?" she asked. "Rain and I do it, like, once a month when my heat hits. Or when we're bored."

"Now who's getting personal?" Rain asked, only to get a face full of pillow.

Kir blinked, a blush consuming his face. "Isn't that a violation of your engagement or something?"

Rain took the pillow off his face. "As long as no one is underage or gets pregnant, no one cares if you have experience or not. There are schools for that sort of thing, too."

"Well, I guess it matters if you're a princess or something," Kordia crossed her arms and placed a hand under her chin, thinking. "Some countries are sticklers for things like that, like the elven ones-" she poked Rain in the clavicle - "but if it's not in the marriage contract there's no rule against it."

Kir swallowed heavily. His assumptions about this world were completely off the mark in this case. Of course, they had magic, so preventing unwanted pregnancies was probably easy. He'd just never encountered it because he wasn't exactly a social butterfly...

His attention was drawn back to the moment as Kordia hopped across the gap to his bed, embracing him from behind.

"In other words..." she beckoned for Rain to come over, and he sat next to Kir, placing an arm around his hips.

"Just say the word," Rain added with a smile.

"And we'll devour you..." Kordia bit Kir on the neck.

It was a very, very tempting moment, but Kir held firm, coming away with only a few marks and a lot of heavy breathing.