CH 271: Exhaustive Reading
Samira felt weird sitting in the library. It felt like her panic was constantly about to spike, yet she also felt comfortable. She leaned against a table as she watched the three try to decipher the old language by finding similarities in the words of today. It was impressive how they worked through guessing some of the words.
“I still think this means light.” Elsie tilted her head. “If this word means magic, and this means dark, then this spell should be an illumination spell.”
Lily and Ana leaned closer. They studied the vaguely familiar sentence and wording. Lily pulled her glasses off and rubbed one of her aching eyes. “Maybe? Maybe it means to illuminate? Something like that?”
“Isn’t that the same thing?” Elsie exhaled. They’d been at this for a couple of hours already. The others had long since stopped making noises in the other room, getting rid of the distraction but reminding Elsie of just how long they’ve been doing this. “Illuminate is just lighting things up, right?”
“Kind of,” Samira spoke up. “Illuminate can also be used to mean “Revealing the truth.”
“Does it?” Elsie's eyes and mind were hurting. “So this spell could be revealing something? So that could mean this word doesn’t mean darkness?”
“Shadows?” Ana leaned into her sister. She was very tired, and her head was starting to hurt. “S-shadow can obscure the truth. Maybe illuminate that word from the shadows?” She pointed to the word in the middle. It wasn’t similar to any word that made sense. Looked like “Hat” or “Heat” mixed with “land”.
“Disguise?” Lily strained her eyes. The “a” and “e” were fused into one letter. “Hats can be disguises.”
“Reveal the disguise from the shadows?” Elsie let out a groan. It was close, but not quite right. “Why would you hide a disguise in the shadows?”
“F-fuck,” Ana mumbled. Her vision was blurring due to her fatigue. “I think I-I have to call it a night.”
“Me too,” Elsie stretched her arms. “We’ve figured out how many words?”
“Ten or so?” Lily looked at the list of words they had written down. They were only certain of a few of them. The rest were guesses or had multiple words they could mean.
“Samira?” Elsie slowly stood up and grabbed the piece of paper. “Want to give these a look? You said you taught the younger kids back in your village. Maybe you can decipher some of these.”
“I can try,” Samira hesitantly grabbed the piece of paper. A slow examination showed they had figured out some proper nouns and verbs. Some guesses for others, and they were uncertain if one word meant “and” or “or.” Nothing really jumped out at her, except for the “illuminate” word. “Not really. I only taught basic reading and writing.”
“Welp,” Elsie held out her hand to her sister. “Maybe the others will know.”
“Wait,” Samira tilted her head. “This looks like 'love'.”
Elsie perked up and glanced at the word. It was one they were unsure of and had assumed to mean bread. “Hmm. What was the context for this word?”
“Person was giving something to another.” Lily glanced around to find the sentence. “Yeah. This one looks like “gift,” and we thought it was food or something.”
“L-love would make sense,” Ana mumbled. She was leaning into Elsie for support. “You give love too.”
“You do.” Elsie smiled. If she had any energy, she’d give love to her sister right now.
‘Pervert.’ Ana said within their minds.
‘Only the purest of love,’ Elsie smiled and replied.
‘Maybe when we lay down.’ Ana let out a yawn.
‘I doubt that.’
“Samira?” Lily grabbed the Lamia’s arm. She was scanning the words rapidly, her eyes darting from line to line. “Are you okay?” Lily could feel the woman sweating; she moved her hand down to check Samira’s pulse. It was beating rapidly. “Samira!”
It took a moment, but Samira slowly blinked. She took a slow breath and set the page down. She could feel her heart beating in her chest as she tried to calm down. “Sorry. I-I didn’t realize I was spiraling.”
“Want to talk about it?” Lily glanced at the twins. She motioned for them to leave. “I can stay up a bit longer.”
“Kind of,” Samira rested against a nearby shelf. “I was thinking about my village and teaching. Then it went to being captured. They stormed in when I was teaching…”
Lily pulled a chair close to Samira. “I’m sorry. We didn’t realize that.”
“Not your fault,” Samira exhaled softly. She was rapidly calming down. She approached Lily and sat in her lap. She wrapped her arms around the alchemist and looked into her violet eyes. “Thank you for helping.”
“Obviously,” Lily wrapped her in a hug. “I’m still surprised you sweat in general. I thought reptiles couldn’t.”
Samira giggled, which helped her panic ease away. “I am only part reptile. Could inspect my tail to see if that part of me sweats.”
Lily didn’t hesitate to run her hand down the woman’s scales. They were warmer than usual, but not sweaty. “Fascinating.”
“Yeah?” Samira chuckled. The contact and laughter really helped brighten her mood and ward away the panic that was previously building. “Feels nice too.”
“It does,” Lily glanced up at her. “Surprisingly smooth. Well, when I go downward.”
“Mhmm,” Samira let out a yawn. She was calming down surprisingly fast and could no longer hear her heart beating so fast. “Upwards isn’t great for me either. Bit uncomfortable, but I can manage.”
Lily began petting Samira’s upper tail. She could feel the woman calming down in her lap. She was thankful that Samira hadn’t gone into a full panic attack. Lily giggled. “Reminds me of my lessons with Ursa. A few of her rewards were just me petting her.”
“Sad I missed those,” Samira pouted. “I did enjoy teaching.”
“It was fun,” Lily giggled. She was watching the end of Samira’s tail wiggle. “We can ask if she wants to continue. I only really taught her the basics of our written language.”
“Ah, so she knew how to speak already?” Samira tilted her head. “I guess that makes sense. She doesn’t have much of an accent.”
“Yeah, only a bit.” Lily leaned her head back. She was extremely tired now. “She was a lot smarter than I was expecting, too. Thought she’d be a meathead and all.”
“I get it,” Samira giggled and grabbed Lily’s glasses. She wiped the smudges off the glass with her shirt. “She scared me when I first saw her. I thought she was a mindless beast…”
“To be fair, she is when she fights.” Lily squinted to watch her. “Well, was. Claire seems to have tamed her.”
“Really?!” Samira laughed and placed the circular-shaped glasses back on her face. “I haven’t watched them fight since that time. Would love to see that.”
“Pay attention to Ursa,” Lily adjusted her glasses on her face. “When Claire gestures with her hand, she’ll move instinctively. If she points, Ursa looks. If she raises her hand, Ursa lowers her head. It’s quite cute.”
“Oh my.” Samira bit her lip. Not only imagining Ursa acting like that, but from Lily. Seems Samira sitting in her lap triggered some arousal. She could feel Lily’s erection growing. Samira wiggled in Lily’s lap, cutting off Lily’s train of thought.
“Fuck,” Lily muttered under her breath. “I wish I had the energy…”
“That’s okay,” Samira smiled as she parted Lily’s purple bangs from her face. “Maybe wait until tomorrow. Or while we lay down.”
“I feel like I’ll pass out the moment I do.” Lily chuckled.
“That’s okay too.” Samira slowly unwound her tail from Lily’s legs. “Would you be okay if I, um, kept going after you slept?”
Lily blinked and tilted her head. She readjusted in her seat and then cleared her throat. “I-I think so.”
Samira could tell. She felt Lily’s bulge grow after saying it. “Well, I’ll try not to wake you up. But I’m a bit too hot and bothered to sleep right away.
Lily gulped. “Th-that’s okay. Um, I wouldn’t mind waking up anyway.”
“Nonsense,” Samira giggled. “You need your sleep after staying up so long.”
Samira stood up and helped Lily to her feet. She held the woman’s hand and supported her as they exited the library.
“Want me to carry you?” Samira whispered. “You seem wobbly.”
“Um, I don’t know,” Lily pushed her glasses up. “I’m not the ligh-”
Samira picked her up in a prince carry. She giggled softly as she slithered into the barracks. “I’m a lot stronger than I look.”