in which nymphs are good for more than one thing

[subtly_artistic]

At least four people conclude that Bella and Celo have had sex and mention this to Bella. The fact that the door was open the entire time he spent hanging out in her room is apparently immaterial (since she wouldn't have been breaking any rules if she'd had sex with him that way, and no one was loitering in the hall supervising them the whole time). She contradicts them on this. Three people don't believe her. Miki does, and is immediately promoted to Bella's favorite out-of-class friend.

In Intro Psych for Subtle Artists, there's a discussion of what subtle artists do with their own minds, and how this differs from everyone else. Bella has already talked to all her subtle arts professors about her own peculiarities, and Professor Murray has her talk a bit about how she's used lucid dreams for introspection, self-modification, and memory boosting. Professor Murray then explains that people who aren't subtle artists can only rarely lucid dream, and even those who can don't find it an effective jumping-off point for any heavy-duty self-searching.

One of the elves in the class looks at Bella oddly through her little talk.

But she doesn't say anything, so Bella ignores her.

Comments

[subtly_artistic]

"What do you want me to do?" Bella asks.

[pythbox]

"Someone is afflicted with a faerie curse that requires true love's kiss to break. We want you to supply it," the voice explains.

[subtly_artistic]

"I'm not in love with anyone, and I don't think I even know anyone under a faerie curse, so I don't think I will be very helpful," Bella says.

[pythbox]

"I'm sure you could do it if you really tried," the voice encourages.

[subtly_artistic]

"I'm not. Especially if you require true love - I'm not sure what that means but it probably doesn't involve twisting my mind around in response to threats." She notes the gender composition of her surroundings and what she remembers about elves of an age to be students at MU. "...Also, I'm straight."

[pythbox]

"Details," the voice says dismissively. "It can't hurt to try, can it?"

"Whereas," says one of the elves in front of her, speaking visibly and aloud, "it can certainly hurt not to."

[subtly_artistic]

"It can hurt to try - mind modification is serious stuff," says Bella. "I - hey, aren't you in my psych class?" she asks one of the elves to her right.

The elf who may or may not be in her psych class declines to answer.

"Are you blocking me?"

The declining continues.

[pythbox]

"You're sure as fuck blocking the path," says a different, more familiar voice from a short distance behind Bella. "Scuse me."

None of the elves move. Most of them don't even look at him.

"What," he says, theatrically aggravated, "c'mon, some of us have places to be."

[subtly_artistic]

Bella can't exactly talk privately to him with the psychic screen the other subtle artist is throwing up. She doesn't have the outward-facing strength to break it.

"Hi, Celo," she says, softly. Maybe he'll get the hint that she said his Pax translation instead of his real name.

[pythbox]

"Hi, Boring Hallmate," he says back. "Seriously, is somebody gonna move?"

"Go around," an elf suggests.

"Nah," says Celo.

Someone says something in elvish, pointedly audible. Now they are all looking at him.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella holds quite still.

[pythbox]

Celo grins.

"I know what that word meant," he says brightly, and he swaggers back a few steps and spreads his hands in open invitation. "Come and get 'em."

Weapons appear in elven hands. No one here seems to be paying Bella any attention at all anymore.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella eyes the space behind her to see if there is a gap in the elves. The subtle artist is not distracted enough to have quit screening her, so that's out.

[pythbox]

The wall of elves is not exactly solid, but then, a wall of elves doesn't have to be.

Two of those between Bella and Celo start toward him with deceptive elven speed. He saunters backward with his hands clasped carelessly behind his back, then at the last second brings them forward again holding paired daggers. One finds a throat, the other a stomach.

There is a moment of stunned silence before all the remaining elves rush him in a shrieking mob.

[subtly_artistic]

Now the subtle artist is too distracted to screen her. Bella has never actually tried knocking someone out with subtle arts, but she read ahead in Utility Psionics - it even has therapeutic uses - and nontherapeutic ones -

She tries; she bounces off the subtle artist's shields and the screen comes back. So much for that.

[pythbox]

Meanwhile, Celo and the mob of elves are rapidly exchanging grievous harm.

The difference is, grievous harm doesn't stick to Celo. And the elves seem obsessed with his genitals. If someone would take a swing at something other than his crotch once in a while, this might be a more even fight. As it is, even when one girl almost severs the offending items with her dagger, he runs her through with a sword he wasn't holding a moment ago as golden light flares from the wound.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella can contribute absolutely nothing valuable to this fight. She stands well back and waits for him to take out the subtle artist -

Wait, she shouldn't just wait for him to take her out. Any minute now the subtle artist elf will determine that he's more of a threat than Bella is and start attacking instead of screening.

Bella stands ready to pounce on any drop in the screen to set up a shield around Celo.

[pythbox]

Out of seven elves, four are on the ground and two of those aren't moving. He stabs a fifth in the leg. She goes down.

When he pauses to heal the pair he stabbed first, retrieving those daggers in the process, the one remaining opponent who is not a subtle artist pounces on him from behind and rips her knife across his throat. The cut has started healing almost before she finishes making it, but it's deep. There is a lot of blood.

[subtly_artistic]

The subtle artist chooses this time to abandon the screen in favor of attacking Celo.

Bella's good at blocks. She's not as good at blocking for someone else as she is at blocking herself - but she's still very, very good. She couldn't break the elf's screen and the elf can't break her wards.

The elf subtle artist whirls and comes at Bella with a knife. Bella quicksteps back, but she is not going to be able to outrun an elf, boots or no boots.

[pythbox]

Celo, now covered in his own blood, stabs his assailant in the ribs and bolts forward as soon as her grip falters.

[subtly_artistic]

The elf is fast and Bella is slow.

The elf makes a nasty slash across Bella's face, and Bella screams, and her shields around Celo drop, and the elf whirls to face the nymph and batter at his brain with imprecise violent fury.

[pythbox]

It's a new kind of pain, and it's intense and startling, and Celo neglects to care. He barrels right into the elf and locks his hands around her throat.

[subtly_artistic]

She's still got her knife. She brings it to bear, quickly, before she runs out of air, slashing at his wrists.

Bella will be over here kneeling on the path, clutching her face and sobbing.

[pythbox]

Celo slams his knee into the elf's stomach.

[subtly_artistic]

That loses her some of the air she had.

Bella recovers some of her presence of mind and, still clutching at her face, makes another attempt on the other subtle artist's mind.

Concentration is key for opposed subtle arts.

The elf has less than Bella at this moment.

She falls unconscious.