It soon became apparent – not only to Christie but to the whole class – that Teacher Dago wasn’t joking when he mentioned that it would take them a lot of time to learn lapiloquia. Even if both Agatecraft disciplines could be summarized into two words – those being ‘commanding stones’ – lapiloquia was very much different from lithorica. The latter almost felt like a science when compared to the former discipline.

  Both were disciplines, almost militarily to a degree, but their progress was much different.

  Lithorica was instinctual, but in the sense that physics was instinctive to a person. One didn’t need to calculate the parabola of a throw to know where a ball would land, and yet they knew it regardless of applied physics or not. Even if she wasn’t the best lithorist, Christie instinctively knew how to give commands to her agate and even manipulate them. They were an extension of her body, but it didn’t feel like an exercise to move them. It was more similar to a field of mathematics that always gave the same results when applying the same formulae rather than moving an extremity or doing calisthenics.

  The same couldn’t be said about lapiloquia.

  There was no formula. There was no instinct. It was like lifting a weight when you had never exercised in your whole life and also were blind until recently so you had no idea how a weight even looked like.

  A paltry and overall useless analogy, but that was all the redhead could come up with after portraying such uselessness herself.

  “Remember, just like the Second Stratum, this is a long-term assignment,” René Dago had announced at the end of the first class. “Do not sweat over it, but continue working on it. Morning training sessions will now be partially dedicated to lapiloquia training as you have sufficiently built your body and stamina to start practicing it.”

  Christie could see the disappointed and tired faces of her fellow classmates; no one had achieved anything in these last two hours. Only copious amounts of sweating. Though that was a positive for the redhead as her ladylove looked really cute with her blonde hair wet and pressed against her face and head.

  All the students could practice with the Embed command as René Dago had suggested. He mentioned it wasn’t a mandatory step, only additional help, but Christie didn’t buy that. He had said that just so she didn’t get demotivated, and even then, it was really hard not to deflate. Because of her inner sea, Christie couldn’t keep that command on. She could use it, yes, but not for long.

  Because her sea of stones always craved to be out of her body, if she didn’t have the Sleep command on, they would just try to pour out. The previous year, thanks to Agatha, she had discovered that she could have some agates summoned outside of her body whilst the rest slept inside, but those agates still needed to keep the Sleep command as any command she gave to an agate would propagate to her inner sea, regardless of whether it was connected to other agates or recalled.

  So whilst the rest of the students could freely press their agates into the ground and make them become part of it with Embed, Christie only had precious seconds where she actively fought against her sea of stones with sheer willpower to get the faintest of connections.

  At least it is good training, she collapsed on the ground covered in sweat as everyone went to the changing rooms. The myriad-agate lithorist had progressed significantly with the control and sustainment of her inner sea, but at best, she could only hold it for a couple of minutes. But considering she was doing small and constant bursts, seconds was the best she got.

  “How are you doing?” Her glistening and sweaty girlfriend walked up to her, blocking the sky with her lovely body, and she pressed something against Christie’s cheek.

  It was cold.

  “Mm~” Christie grunted amicably – to not say other things – as she nudged her head against the cold object. The harsh clutches of summer had yet to liberate them, and because it was near high noon already, there was only a single item that could be this cold at the moment.

  “You are going to cover my agate in sweat…” The mock sapphire protested mockingly.

  “If that happens, you can just recall it, can you not?” The redhead snorted as she stretched her arms.

  As to reply to that claim, Agatha picked her sapphire, which boasted the Control Chill command – most likely, but it was a given considering her ladylove had yet to learn how to control the magnitude of commands, a thing that even Christie could do – and pressed it against her own neck. By all means, there was nothing wrong with the gesture. Just a girl cooling herself down with her agate as the harsh sun shone brightly. And yet… Christie couldn’t help but blush at that view as beads of sweat mixed up.

  Mm, Christie now grunted mentally, if just to not give the pleasure of a reaction to her ladylove.

  That proved to be the right answer as Agatha sighed, flew her agate away with Control, and then recalled it. Because there suddenly wasn’t a surface on which to adhere, the beads of sweat that had been clinging onto the agate now fell into the ground like the lone drops of water after a downpour. And of course, after every downpour, the sun always came out.

  But instead of the crown in the heavens, the sun’s name was Agatha of Malachite.

  As her ladylove radiantly smiled, Christie had to actively fight against herself to not grab her head and give her the sloppiest of kisses. With so much self-control that she looked like she had been commanded by Control, the redhead stood up from her prone position and sat on the sandy ground. She did not care much about the dirtiness of her uniform as it was meant to get dirty.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “Are you finally going to answer my question?” Agatha stood taller than her by virtue of standing up.

  “I am… doing,” Christie answered with a sigh. “You know how you can somewhat guess how much time something is going to take you?” Her ladylove nodded. “Let us just say I do not have an optimistic estimate about this.”

  “Well, I would not give much weight to that estimate, considering what we know about lapiloquia is sized between a pebble and nothing. Like, nothing at all,” the blonde giggled. “We have just been staring at the ground for these last two hours.”

  “And sweating,” the redhead added.

  “And sweating,” Agatha nodded. “I guess this has something to do with lapiloquia, as I do not sweat as much when running, and it is said that this discipline taxes the body instead of the mind.”

  “It is quite moronic when you think about it, sweating and getting tired from looking at rocks.” Christie moved her hair aside, and she was partially feeling guilty as the hairstyle her ladylove had done for her had become ruined with all this sweat.

  “Well, you know what they say: the wise look at stones, the morons shout at them,” the petite seamstress narrated with a raised finger.

  “And who says that?” The nouveau riche frowned as she had never heard that in her life.

  “Uhh…” Her ladylove blushed slightly. “Huh. I think I only heard one person say that.”

  “And that was?”

  “Mister Krugger, an old man from Malachite. It is a shame you did not get to see him on your short visit there. He is the one who made my necklace.”

  “I feel like I know him well, especially after seeing how well you treat the pendant,” Christie smiled. “But does his word have any weight, or are those just the rambling of an old mind?”

  “I would not discard the latter, but he was a military engineer – well, an engineer in the military as he always called military engineers crazy – so he must have known something. Considering he implicitly made me wear my sapphire every day by gifting me the necklace, he at least knew of Strata and how to increase them. So perhaps that sentence makes reference to lapiloquia.”

  With a soft grunt, Christie stood up. Quakes and faults! I am so tired. She slightly trembled when she stood up, prompting Agatha to reach out for her, but she extended a hand and stopped her. Her ladylove’s help was appreciated but unnecessary.

  “Let us hope that is the case. I would rather have any help I could get. Increasing to the Second Stratum is already a daunting task for me, so advancing in lapiloquia instead would be greatly appreciated.”

  Gingerly and defeatedly, the redhead made her way to the changing room and the blonde followed in her wake.

  “I know it is a bit… souring how you are the only one that has not reached the Second Stratum just yet, but do not get demotivated, Christie. You are stronger than most, even in the First Stratum.”

  Christie looked at her ladylove with a mixture of amusement and impotence. Yes, she was sufficiently strong even at her current level, but strength wasn’t what she wanted. From the beginning, Christie had only wanted to control her sea of stone, and getting to the Second Stratum would be a guaranteed way to do so. A permanent Sleep command that still left room to command other agates. But she didn’t say that aloud. Mostly because that stop at the beginning was highly amusing to her, clearly a sign that Agatha struggled to speak without weaving a swear or two.

  A thing Christie found mostly endearing.

  The redhead looked around the changing room after having entered walking backwards, and the moment she didn’t see anyone, that endearing aspect was set ablaze. Oh, I would be fractured… she swore for herself alone and then pounced on her ladylove. Agatha didn’t resist; she simply accepted her kisses and caresses. It was the most disgusting of exchanges as they were both sweaty messes, but in a way, that made it even better. Far more… arousing.

  “What about being secretive?” Agatha said after they broke their kiss.

  They had both done so at the same time. As of late, the two knew when it was time to split. It was something instinctual; they hadn’t talked about it, yet it never failed.

  “We are alone, are we not?” Christie found herself purring as she pressed her forehead against her ladylove’s.

  “In a public place, Christie,” the seamstress stated sternly.

  Only then did the significance of what she had just done weighed down on her. “Oh, I am so sorry.” She blushed in alarm.

  Agatha grabbed her by the cheeks. “You do not need to apologize for being a loving girlfriend,” and then kissed her on the underside of the chin. “But we still should be more cautious about it. No one will be able to split us apart, but they still can make things complicated for us.”

  “I know, I know…” Christie exhaled – not quite a sigh as another reaction overwrote that as Agatha kissed her again – and smacked her lips. “It is just that you…”

  “Me what?” The blonde removed her head from the redhead’s neck and arched a brow. That made Christie blush even more.

  “Er… I… You are so cute that I just cannot hold myself.”

  “Oh.” The one blushing now was Agatha. “D-did we not have this exact conversation before?”

  The mock sapphire awkwardly changed the subject and Christie allowed her to do so as she didn’t want to keep talking about her deficiencies on lithorica.

  “Perhaps we have~” It was a strange yet intoxicating feeling. Whenever Christie started taking control of the conversation, shame was no longer a hindrance to her. She was not just immune to it but could actively harness it to tease her ladylove. It was a massive power and authority that took even more mastery than her sea of stones to control and lull into sleep.

  “Mm, I see…” Agatha practically fled as she rushed for her locker, hiding behind its door as she changed.

  Whilst she let her change in peace, Christie was still a bit playful when they reached their shared bedroom. Once they were alone, and now in a private place, the redhead loosened the lace of her uniform coat and loudly opened the door of the lavatory.

  “It is truly a shame how there is only one tub,” she said softly. “We are well into lunch time, yet it feels wrong to leave you waiting. So, how about we go into the tub together?”

  She expected her ladylove to blush and even yelp, yet when the redhead looked at her, she only saw a stern expression.

  “This is the second time today, Christie,” Agatha said with her arms crossed. The redhead’s warm excitement was suddenly substituted by a deathly chill. “And you know I do not like these types of jests. They make me uncomfortable.”

  Christie felt a horrible feeling: disappointment. Until now, they had been giggling and laughing, yet now she felt like puking as a massive knot formed in her throat. She felt disgusted, and not because she was drenched in sweat, but because she had disappointed the person she loved the most.

  “I am so so-“ She voiced out, but she was cut off.

  “If you truly were, you would not have done it twice. We are both tired, wash yourself.” And before she could say another word, Agatha stepped out of the room.

  Christie wasn’t so sure if the expression by that Mister Krugger fella was related to lapiloquia at all, because she now felt very much like a shouting moron.

  Patreon to support me and read 20 chapters ahead of time!