Christie wasn’t allowed to leave bed for a whole day after Esmeralda heard that she had performed lapiloquia right after waking up from a coma. The redhead didn’t blame the seamstress and, if anything, she was thankful to her as it was hard to come up with excuses to laze around, even if the source of all that pressure was herself rather than anyone forcing her to train. I hate that my mind is my worst enemy…

  Though after a whole day of rest, Christie felt way better than before, and she found herself at the place where she had awakened lapiloquia. And also fell unconscious, but there was no need to talk about that.

  “You were right, mock sapphire,” Christie said as she looked at her own lithic creation born from the unlocking. “It truly looks like a crown.”

  “I told you, dummy doll,” Agatha puffed out her chest as if it were her own achievement.

  The structure the redhead had created as her first display of lapiloquia was a curious one as she created massive spikes of rock that pointed upwards on a pronounced obtuse angle, all pointing away from her. As they walked around the massive formation, Christie felt how unstable the ground was around here now. If she didn’t watch her step, the soil beneath her would collapse and reveal a hole big enough to fit a person. After all, all the rock covering the area had to come from somewhere.

  Not all was a porous mess, for a good chunk of the bedrock came from the very spot where she had collapsed. Now it looked like a valley, the spikes receding into the almost natural-looking depression at a far gentler angle on the roots.

  “Though I still cannot believe I was able to do this myself. Like… how?” She mused at a loss for words. There were a couple of dozen spikes, and each one was as big as a house, at least in total volume.

  “I am not the most adequate person to ask that,” her ladylove responded as she climbed one of the spikes. Even if the ground was unstable, the terrain altered by lapiloquia proved to be quite resilient. “But considering you exhausted so much energy that you passed out… maybe the answer is there. I have talked it out with my mother, and the only two moments where I got close to an Agatecraft coma myself were when I used Control Spin and Amplify Speed in the first year to have four virtual commands, and then when I was running away from the behemoth from all the backlogged mental exhaustion.”

  Christie certainly remembered the last as her ladylove had puked on herself from the sheer nausea of using her sapphire at strains far higher than she was used to.

  “I see…” The redhead mused as she caressed one of the spikes. It felt harder than an agate with Protect. “I knew that lapiloquia could be potent, but it feels far more unbelievable when seeing it in person.”

  Everyone knew that most of the houses in Knight’s Ascent had been created by the corps of the Shining Knight in a matter of days – though some legends said in a single night – but only now did the weight of that claim strike her.

  “So,” Agatha slid from a spike and landed next to her. “Are you going to try doing it again?”

  “Well, I guess I am morally obliged to do so,” Christie giggled. “But we should first move elsewhere. I worry that, if I strain this ground any more, I might end up opening a rift to the depths.”

  “Good thinking,” the blonde snapped her fingers at her. She then popped her agate out of her necklace socket, chucked it on the air, and it became bigger as the Duplicate command was removed, and when it landed on the ground, it was shaped into a platform. “Want to take a ride?”

  “I…” The redhead almost protested saying that she was scared of heights, but she found herself doubting. I… do not think I am anymore. I respect them, yes, but I am no longer terrified of them. Having flown by herself and living on a flying island for two years did the trick. “Sure, I would love to.”

  Agatha offered her a hand, and with a giggle, Christie accepted it, stepping atop the platform as if it was a diligence and her ladylove was its coach driver. The nouveau riche circled her arms around the villager’s neck, the back of her ladylove’s head resting on her chest.

  “Oh,” Agatha half-grunted, half-yelped.

  “Is there something wrong?” Christie said softly, though a whisper might have been more adequate.

  “No, nothing…” The redhead knew her ladylove was blushing even if she didn’t have line of sight of her visage. “It is just that… well… when I rode with my mother, it was a perfect match as we are similar in height, but with you… it is a different sort of perfect match.”

  Christie couldn’t help but giggle as the shy sciurine girl nudged the back of her head on her bosom. Mock sapphire, you really have interesting concepts of modesty. It took a lot out of the nouveau riche not to say those words aloud. As factual as they might be, she knew the petite girl well enough to know that she hadn’t burrowed her head consciously on her chest. At least this time. If Christie pointed that out… well, perhaps Agatha might suffer from an attack of shame. So she simply let her driver take them to the skies as she enjoyed a perfect headrest.

  It was even harder to restrain herself from not doing anything to her ladylove now that they were alone in the skies. By all means and accounts, a romantic escapade.

  Agatha landed them a couple of hundred meters away, still in the dirt clearing. As Christie stepped out the platform, she was finally able to see her ladylove’s visage for the first time. It was red as a carnelian. Oh, it seems I was wrong~ She mediated amusedly. She knew what she was doing. Oh, mock sapphire, you are getting adventurous…

  That made Christie squirm, her desire building up, but she still managed to restrict herself. Everything had the right place and time, and this wasn’t the right time just yet. If anything, it would only be when her ladylove said it was. As the perfect girlfriend, Christie shouldn’t start anything. Couldn’t.

  Focusing her giddiness elsewhere, Christie knelt on the ground. Her dress got a bit dusty, and she lamented that either Esmeralda or Miss Diorite had to clean it later, but she couldn't care about it now. It was either ravaging the land or ravaging Agatha.

  Instantly, Christie knew that something was different when she touched the ground. A connection. This wasn’t like modifying the shape of a single boulder, but something far more solid. Real and tangible. In a way, it wasn’t that different from her sea of stone.

  She felt a complete inner peace.

  “Huh,” she grunted in realization.

  “What? Are you not able to do it?” Her ladylove asked with a healthy dose of worry.

  “No, it is not that, Agatha…” Christie caressed the ground in a daze. “I have just finally remembered what my revelation from the other day was.” Or at least part of it, but she left that part unspoken.

  “Oh, what is it? Do tell,” the blonde’s eyes shone eagerly as if commanded by Light.

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  Christie took a deep breath and stood up from the ground, then she looked at her beautiful and radiant ladylove. For the briefest of moments, she forgot what she was doing as she could only think of kissing her, but she promptly recovered.

  “How do I say it without sounding like a complete buffoon…” The redhead murmured.

  “Oh, you will never sound like a buffoon to me, Christie,” Agatha said lovingly.

  The tall girl closed onto the petite one and arched her head forward to nuzzle her. “The worst part is that I am inclined to believe that is the truth.”

  “Worst part?” The blonde squinted accusingly, which made the redhead giggle.

  “Well, I trust you. The truth is that… I realized that I could withstand my agates.”

  “I… fail to understand,” Agatha proselytized her bewilderment.

  “Alright, I might have used a bit of a… wrong wording, but it sounds too moronic if I say it in another way.”

  “It will not. Trust me, dummy doll.”

  “Calling me a dummy certainly makes me feel like a moron.”

  “You know it is for a completely different reason, you dummy,” her ladylove giggled. “So go on, tell me.”

  “All my life I have fought against my sea of stones, and do not get me wrong, it was the right answer so far. I could not have lived my life if I did not. But now… that is not the case. Perhaps I am not suited to be called strong, but at least I am far stronger than before, and now I can just… let my sea of stones exist. No longer compact it into a bag and grab the ropes with so much strength that my palms bleed, but now I am strong enough to close the bag shut enough to make a knot.”

  “That… sounds lovely, Christie,” Agatha said softly as she grabbed her hands.

  “It does?” The redhead could feel the warmth fill her.

  “Of course!” She smiled at her radiantly. Oh, how much did she wish to be fulgurated by that radiance. “You have said it yourself; it is only now that you have the strength to tie that metaphorical knot! Though that raises a question, does that mean that you can maintain your sea of stones without the Sleep command?”

  Christie smiled wryly. “No, I cannot.”

  “Oh,” her ladylove instantly deflated.

  “I can tie the knot in the bag, but like the morning bread, it continues to expand. At some point, the knot will be undone by the mounting pressure. But until then,” she smiled more warmly now, “I am free.”

  “Does that mean…?”

  “Yes,” Christie interjected. “By not forcing my sea of stones inside my body, I have won far more time than before. Not much, mind you, but I now can keep it controlled perhaps five minutes before it becomes too much.”

  “That is incredible, Christie!” Agatha jumped on her and hugged her.

  How could I not melt in her arms when she gets this happy about my progress? About me. The redhead let herself melt in those thin yet strong arms. The fact that Agatha was happier than her for this advancement made her happy in return.

  “Like, I cannot reiterate enough how big that is!” The petite girl said loudly as she unapologetically pressed her head against the tall girl’s bosom. “I remember when you could not do seconds. Five minutes is a really big increase!”

  “Oh, let us not be superlative either,” Christie scoffed playfully. “I held more than a few seconds since the beginning, and now I could do a solid minute without many issues before this realization.”

  It was surprising that simply not fighting against her very being – that simple change in mentality – allowed her to use her agate for five times as long.

  “Yes, yes, you can last long…” Agatha stopped talking and blushed. Something told Christie that it was because she noticed the rather… dubiousness of her wording, which made her giggle. “Just get onto trying lapiloquia again!” The blonde snapped at her in embarrassment and rage.

  Christie did as suggested and squatted again. She still was feeling some consequences from the coma – as it was never healthy to fall into one, no matter how short it might be – but she was quite healthy at the time being. Once upon a time, she had thought of the ground as dirty, but now, she could only see it as a tool.

  Move.

  A single trivial thought. And that was the only thing she needed for her will to be made reality, for one truly couldn’t command the earth, just talk to it and hope it listened.

  And it obeyed Christina Valasela.

  The earth rumbled in a potent but localized quake. Christie couldn’t see what was happening as it all was localized underground, but she could feel it at the back of her head; a certain portion of the earth was now under her control. Her malleable control.

  Rise.

  And it did.

  A hexagonal pillar like the one René Dago had raised in his demonstrations appeared from the earth, only this one was far bigger. Not as ludicrous as the spikes from before, but still stoneshell-sized.

  “Oof,” Christie grunted and was now grateful that she was already squatting and supporting herself with a hand, because a potent nausea assaulted her.

  “Are you alright?” Agatha asked with the loveliest of worries.

  “Just a bit tired,” she giggled tiredly, more of a series of exhalations than a laugh. “I thought I could do more after seeing those spikes, but I guess I fell into a coma because of them, after all.”

  The pillar was quite massive, far more than any student of her generation had managed, but it still felt quite small to her. It is far smaller than my sea of…

  “Ohhhhhhh!” She groaned loudly in realization.

  “Eep!” Her ladylove jumped in surprise and yelped adorably. “What is wrong, Christie?” She asked in a very high pitch.

  “Something quite foolhardy, mock kettle,” Christie kettle.

  “I would prefer if you stopped giving any more nicknames,” the squirrel pouted. Unfortunately, her cheeks were just full of air instead of nuts.

  “My new revelation – and I hate that I have even noticed – is that… Well, I think it is better if I just show it to you.”

  Christie let loose her inner sea. As always, the agates flowed out of her ankle. She had curated her wardrobe so she always had an opening on the ankles as she needed skin contact to summon her agates, and when they spilled out, it was preferable they did so just above her feet instead of from her hands as that way she would always have solid ground on which to stand.

  Her sea of stones pressed on her, but she didn’t press back. She was strong enough not to be overcome by the pressure. It wouldn’t last forever, but it wouldn’t spill out into a tomb shaped like a perfect sphere quite yet. Then she let a single thought flow free in her mind.

  Grow.

  And the sea did.

  From the thin patina that covered the ground in a ten-meter radius, pillars ten meters high grew up that were as thin as Agatha’s lovely arms. So many all around her recalling range that they created a small dome as the furthest columns had their size gradually cut down by the spherical range. Her control over her fake command was far better than before, and that told Christie everything that she needed to know.

  “Wait…” Her ladylove mused as she took a step away. Because it was only a patina of agate on the ground, her boots hadn’t gotten lodged in the sea of stones. “Are you implying what I am thinking what you are implying?”

  “If what I think what you are thinking is right, then yes, I am implying what you think I am implying.” The girls looked at each other, then burst out in a harmonious giggle.

  “So…” Agatha took a short stop as she had yet to recover her breath from the giggling onslaught. “You have been able to use lapiloquia for more than half a year now?”

  “Er…” Christie blushed. “That is why I did not say this either, it sounds so silly…”

  “It is not, really!” The blonde walked on the lithic film on the ground, her steps clanking melodiously, until she reached the redhead and took her hands yet again. “So stop calling yourself a buffoon, silly, or moron, dummy doll.”

  “So only you can call me that?” The nouveau riche raised a brow.

  “Sactly!” The villager exclaimed happily, though then she blushed. “Exactly, depths! My mother has been a bad influence; I have been reverting to my old ways…”

  “You say that I should not denigrate myself in such a way, but you do not have to limit yourself in such a way either, mock sapphire. There is no need for you to be so… uptight.” Calling Agatha of Malachite uptight sounded truly moronic, but Christie had no better way to describe it. She just didn’t want her ladylove to be so formal with her.

  “I… do it because I want to,” Agatha explained. “Because you deserve it.”

  “I am not a teacher or a soldier, Agatha,” Christie chuckled.

  “I know, but you talk to people like that due to their positions. Nothing more, nothing less. And so far in my whole life, I have not met anyone who deserves to be spoken to formally, not out of their position, but out of respect. No one but you, Christie.”

  “You do not need to respect me,” she spoke her true feelings. “You only need to love me.”

  “I love you, and because I love you so much, it is that I want to give you every due respect.”

  “Oh…” Christie couldn’t help but blush. Esmeralda had already told her that might be the case – and she herself had thought it so too – but hearing it from her mouth… it was just too embarrassing. “I… I think I should get to practicing more lapiloquia… We have just found out that my ties with lapiloquia run deeper than we thought, so I should explore that.”

  Agatha reacted by clasping her hands behind her back and smiling. She always was a blushing squirrel, one embarrassed about physical contact and nakedness, yet now what Christie saw in those dual sapphires was the temptress that had once seduced her. Why is it that one of us always has to be the scared prey and the other the ruthless predator? She found herself thinking, yet not recoiling. Whether it was teasing or being teased, Christie enjoyed both. For in both scenarios, she was with her ladylove.

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