After several minutes, for lack of a better descriptor, Fess started vibrating.  Or buzzing. He wasn't quite fidgety or twitchy, but there was some kind of nervous energy happening there.

"Fess?"

"Janis?"

"You're thinking about Chry's proof."

"Yes."

"Well go look at it, then."

He twisted around and gave her a kiss, then popped up, wriggled back into his clothes, and dashed out.

"Now I'm jealous. Of the girl he wasn't just fucking on top of me. I know they're not going to boink, but it's like she's giving him something that I just can't. And it's kind of an out-there thing, too. Like someone having a kink that you're not in to, or even turns you off. But its math."

Janis moved my overspoon hand to her lower boobs, and held it there.

"My Dad taught me differentiation and integration, but I have a feeling I wouldn't even know how to read the first sentence of that thing."

"Maybe they have a class skill for it. You picked a class yet?"

"Yeah, I went to the Registrar the first day."

"No, not college classes. Your class class. In the system."

"Oh, yeah. I can't do that. I'm not in the system."

"Okay, if you don't want to talk about that-"

"No, I'm not joking. No status. No system. I was born like that."

"Are you serious? Can I Inspect you?"

"No. Well. You can try. You won't get anything."

Janis flipped around on the bed, putting us face to face.

"Inspect."

I watched her eyes widen.

"Inspect! Identify! That's impossible. It says, 'Invalid target. Select a creature or item.' and that's it. You can literally Identify the air in a room if you have the ether, but not you. How?"

"When I was little, I used to think that a deity wanted my help, and I turned them down, so they cursed me to not be connected to the world. But it's probably just some random ethergenetic mutation, that probably happens every one in ten million births or something. But I don't need traits or skills."

"Though they are pretty usef-"

"Because I got big dick energy on my side."

Janis laughed at that. "You got that right. It reaches some places. Hey."

"Hey?"

"When you left Fess alone, so I could pick him up..."

"Yeah."

"You can't do that, any more."

"What do you mean."

"You can't go alone anywhere, any more. You were thinking too much about getting your wingman laid, and not enough about yourself. This is the city, not the woods. You can't have your backup five minutes away, and still be okay. Most country girls get a little time to adjust, I know, but you got jumped on your first day."

She brushed my hair out of my face, holding it with both hands.

"With a pretty face like that, you're lucky you only got beaten up and dumped on the street. Is this make-up? I thought you weren't wearing any!"

"Ancient goblin secret."

"It's working, girl. Anyway, promise me."

"Promise you what?"

"Promise me you won't go alone off campus. Even on campus, if there aren't enough students or security around."

"Okay. I promise I won't go alone. I should have had my pistol, too. Don't ever tell my parents I didn't have it, or they will kick my butt."

"If I didn't know you were a country girl before.... Yeah. Guns aren't quite the same equalizers in the tunnels as they are out there in the open. The engagement distance is shorter, and a lot of times stealth skills are in play."

Janis pushed her hands back from my face, stroking over the tops of my ears.

"Ohhhh, yeah. That's nice."

"We should probably check up on them, out there."

We each re-hooked the other's bra, and dressed ourselves again, before exiting my little cell.

---

Fess was sitting on the central tree planter, hypnotized by a floss-bound manuscript. One hand held it in reading position, as the other traced invisible shapes in the air. We could only safeguard his mortal shell until his soul returned to his body. Chry was not visible in the courtyard. Nor could I find her in her cell, the toilets, or the showers.

"Chry? Where are you?"

Her face poked out over the hanging moss.

"I'm up here. I was using Analysis on some of the plants up here. Most of these are uncommon pharmaceutical feedstocks."

"You have a garden right in your burrow? I need to see this. I assume that's what the incongruous and heretofore unexplained ladder is doing randomly set up here?"

Not waiting for an answer, Janis jumped into the air, grabbing the circular iron rail, and pulling herself up with cat's grace.

Fess spoke up, "So this part about the three points on the circle...?"

Chry called down, "Each point in flat space is decomposed into a composite of points in positive-curvature space and points in negative-curvature space, so the usual operations on the composite produce the same result as in flat space, but the new operations can produce points in a wavelike space that only resembles flat space along a resonance curve. When that space is projected, the points relevant to the conjecture just fall right back onto flat space.  It's like imaginary numbers, but with a different mathematical basis."

Fess replied, "That's brilliant!"

Janis poked her head back over the rail, a questioning look on her face. I shook my head. I didn't get any of that, either.

Janis said, "You know... there's some jester's bells up here."

"But it's too late for those."

"This is basically a greenhouse up here. Should still be good."

"Want me to throw up a bowl?"

"How about a basket?"

"No way!"

"Way."

I grabbed a plaster hod from the floor of one of the unfinished cells, and passed it up to Janis while climbing up the ladder. When Chry said, "pharmaceutical feedstocks", she didn't mention that someone had excavated a ring midway between the glass dome and the tree hole, and planted a wide variety of recreational herbs, which then proceeded to self-propagate without guidance.

Nothing was outright illegal, but this sort of thing would definitely be frowned upon by any institution influenced by parents. Janis and I filled the hod with small, dessicated, spherical flowers with a hard seed rattling around inside. Once full, teamwork got the bounty down to courtyard level without spilling.

A bit more work resulted in a pile of seeds, and a pile of petals.

Chry had followed us down the ladder. "Analysis said that was Haptoryx alaneae. Uncommon. Pharmaceutical feedstock, with the flowers having the most economic significance."

Janis explained, "This is commonly known as jester's bell. What Analysis doesn't tell you is that the drug it makes is recreational. That's not for everyone, but the effects are pretty mild."

"I've taken it before. All the Freyalings have. It only lasts a few hours, so it should be gone by morning. But you probably shouldn't go out on it.  Chry, is it okay with you if Fess and Janis sleep in our burrow tonight?"

"Yes, that's fine. Rav, do you think that I could? It seems like you might know other people... like me."

"My brother, Orazon. He has tried this. He said he didn't care for it, because it made everyone's voices too loud. So if you're sensitive to sounds, that might make it worse? It shouldn't hurt you, and we'll be here if you decide you don't like what's happening. Do you want to try it?"

She nodded. "I'll try it."

"Fess?"

"Sure."

Janis and I measured out appropriate amounts for the veterans and beginners, and we stuffed our petals into our cheeks, alternately chewing the wad and sucking the slightly bitter, dirt-flavored juice. After a few minutes, we spit our petal wads out onto a scrap of paper. Janis collected Fess onto herself and started nibbling his ears, and I guided Chry to lie back on the tree planter and look up into the willow leaves.  I took a nearby spot, close enough to check up on her, but not so close as to trigger a touch aversion reaction.  We watched the galaxy spin for a while, then went to bed.  Janis and Fess grabbed one of the empty finished cells, electing a little bit of exclusive couple time.

It was a great way to relax, in my opinion. Sex. Drugs. What could anyone possibly add to improve on that?