5.09 – Aftermath


    For a long time, Rosalie didn’t know how to respond.


    “I guess they are,” she finally settled on.


    Maddy tittered nervously. Her face, beet red, was surely the same shade as Rosalie’s own.


    Rosalie looked down at herself, then back up at Maddy. The damage had already been done, so she withdrew Zoey’s cock from inside her, since she could hardly leave it in. She stifled an unfortunate moan on the way out, which she pretended didn’t happen, then put the linking te—and Zoey’s wet cock—into her inventory.


    The situation she’d ended up in through her uncontained lust felt somewhat surreal, but she pushed past it. She needed to handle this, and didn’t want to rely on Maddy’s illusion forever. All it took was a high advancement mageing by, who her illusions couldn’t fool, for Rosalie’s true state to be revealed.


    And her true state <em>really </em>shouldn’t be revealed. Moment by moment, the insanity of what she’d done came closer into focus.


    She’d really done that?


    Had she gone insane?


    Well, for a certain manner of speaking, she had. With arousal. It had been so overwhelming it had erased any other judgment of hers.


    She grabbed a towel out of her inventory and got to work cleaning herself up.


    “I, um. Get it?” Maddy said, breaking the silence. “I’ve gotten caught up in some stuff I should’ve have, too. You’re not alone there. The safety of illusions make it pretty tempting to get a little adventurous. So I get the appeal?” She blushed even deeper at the admission, and Rosalie appreciated that Maddy was making efforts to reassure her, even at the cost of her own embarrassment.


    “I can’t believe I did that,” Rosalie muttered. “Gods. What is wrong with me?”


    Maddyughed again. “Like I said, sometimes we get caught up. Um, do you need help?”


    “No. Thank you.”


    Mortified, Rosalie finished the frantic clean up. She wiped her thighs down then pulled the towel into her inventory. She stood, but couldn’t quite meet Maddy’s eyes.


    “We should talk,” Rosalie said.


    “Yeah. Okay. Sure.”


    A short, mortifying walkter, with Rosalie only feeling half-conscious from the cascades of pure, distilled shame coursing through her, they arrived to a private training room. Rosalie closed the door.


    There was absolutely nothing she could say to defend herself.


    “Thank you,” Rosalie settled on. “That would have been even more disastrous had you not been there.”


    Though, if Maddy hadn’t shown up, she might never have lost control in the first ce. Or in the worst case, Rosalie would have had the rity of mind to seek out a restroom. Maddy’s presence, along with her reveal of knowing who Rosalie was, had been the catalyst that had hurled her over the edge. Rosalie was still grappling with what that meant. The implications behind how deeply aroused by shame and embarrassment she was.


    “Well, you know,” Maddy said. “Happy to help where I can.” She smiled, and it seemed genuine, though the blue-haired girl was still blushing deeply from the event. Rosalie was too, for that matter.


    Since she had no defense that could remotely excuse her behavior, Rosalie simply moved on. The best case scenario was that neither of them spoke of the event ever again.


    And there was a more important topic to address, besides. One she hadn’t been able to before.


    “You know who I am,” Rosalie said. “Does anyone else?”


    Maddy was also eager to move past the awkwardness—not that they could actually <em>move past </em>it. It hung in the air, and certainly wouldn’t be going away. But they still tried to ignore what had happened. Maddy considered Rosalie’s question. “Nobody that I know for sure. People generally mind their own business, and you haven’t been here all that long. I have to figure <em>someone</em><em>’ll </em>put two and two together, though.”


    Rosalie had assumed the same. “We won’t be staying much longer. Another week at most, then we’ll be setting off.”


    “You’ll probably be fine, then,” Maddy said. “It was just easy for me because, you know, I’m more informed than most. And we’re thinking of teaming up, so it was on my mind.”


    Rosalie nodded.


    “Do the others know? I assume they don’t,” Maddy said.


    “They don’t.”


    “Not even Zoey?”


    Rosalie winced. “I’ve been meaning to. I just don’t know how. And we’ve been busy. There hasn’t been much chance.”


    “That’s fair.”


    Rosalie didn’t hear any judgment in Maddy’s voice, which she appreciated. She really did need to figure out how to tell Zoey about her family. And Delta, she supposed. If nothing else, they’d be finding out when they arrived to Mantle; she would hardly be able to hide it then. Just, she didn’t look forward to the conversation. She couldn’t help but feel like something would change. And, oddly, she enjoyed their group dynamic as it stood. She didn’t <em>want </em>much to change.


    “And speaking of teaming up,” Maddy said. “That’s another thing I wanted to talk about.”


    “You’vee to a decision?”


    “Maybe?” Maddy asked. “Um. I was also nning on talking with Zoey about it. But I wanted to talk with you first.”


    “Oh? Why is that?” She and Maddy hadn’t interacted much. They’d spent an afternoon or two together as a group, but of everyone, Rosalie knew the blue-haired mage the least. Delta had been Maddy’s friend prior to everything, and Zoey had daily lessons with her.


    “Because, um. We’d need to Bond? Me and Zoey. You know. <em>Bond</em>.” Sheughed nervously, not quite meeting Rosalie’s eyes. “For her ss. And you two are girlfriends, yeah?”


    “Oh,” Rosalie said, understanding what Maddy was getting at. “Zoey can do as she pleases.” She paused. “<em>Whoever</em> she pleases,” she added dryly. “Our rtionship isn’t restricted in that way.”


    “I kind of figured, but wanted to ask.”


    “Well, thank you.” Rosalie studied the girl. “I figured you two had <em>already </em>done something, to be honest.”


    Maddy’s pink cheeks tinted back to the previous red. “Well, not, um, <em>exactly</em>. She hasn’t used her skill on me.”


    Rosalie quirked an eyebrow. But they had definitely gotten up to something. From the sounds of it, nothing too intimate, but still <em>something</em>. Though it sounded like Maddy nned to go farther during their next training session? Zoey was getting especially lucky today.


    “So are you joining?” Rosalie asked. “Not to press. But the window is growing short. We won’t be in Treyhull much longer, and if you are, I’d like to do some team training in the days we have left.”


    Maddy’s eyes widened. “Team training? What, uh, kind do you mean?”


    Rosalie paused. Maddy’s tone implied something. But she didn’t—?


    “<em>Combat </em>training,” Rosalie said. “In preparation for the shard. There’s still monsters there, as we’ve mentioned. It’s not all—that.”


    “Oh. Oh! Yeah, of course,” Maddy said. “I didn’t mean— Just— Anyway,bat training. Sure. Sounds fun.”


    “Those sorts of <em>events</em> are reserved for the shards,” Rosalie said. “Or, at least, we don’t need to <em>train </em>for them.”


    “Of course!”


    Rosalie shook her head, cheeks colored. “Regardless, I’m d you’re joining. I like what I’ve seen, and was looking forward to you saying yes.” Realizing how that sounded, Rosalie rified, “Yourbat proficiency, I mean. That’s what I appreciate. Not your, um.” She winced a second time. “Not that I <em>don</em><em>’t </em>like what I see in that way. It’s relevant too, I suppose, considering everything. Just. I don’t—“


    Rosalie wiped a hand down her face.


    “I’m looking forward to working with you, Maddy,” she said tly.


    How was she handling this so poorly? Didn’t she have a lifetime of social training? Well, less than most high nobles, having always been focused on wayfaring, but still plenty. And yet she continued to make an embarrassment of herself. She could at least me theck of grace on her flustered state from the earlier event. Her heart squeezed and her stomach sank, remembering that. Gods, she really couldn’t believe how carried away she’d gotten.


    “You too,” Maddy said. “I get what you’re saying. And yeah, same here. I think we’ll have a lot of fun.” Her eyes widened. “As in, the normal kind! We’ll make a good team.”


    At least Rosalie wasn’t the only disaster.


    “I need to take a shower,” Rosalie said. Her efforts with the towel had only been a half-solution. “Talkter?”


    “Talkter,” Maddy agreed, clearly relieved. Both of them had been stumbling through the conversation and were eager to get out of it. Rosalie generally enjoyed Maddy’spany from what little she’d had of it, but their particr circumstances made things too awkward. Rosalie needed a moment to herself.


    Namely, toy on the ground and dissolve into a puddle of shame.


    Gods, what had she been thinking?