Having set her scant clothing aside, Talla surveyed the steamy inside of the Temple's largest pool house. It had never occurred to her that she and her fellow conspirators needn't spend all of their time hiding out in Endowment's triangle. Here was a place, far more magnificent than the one they'd been using so far, and only the advent of needing to meet simultaneously with V'shika and their allies in Form had brought her to find it.
Fortunately, Tina and Yua were both quite familiar with the layout of the central triangle and knew the place quite intimately. With it's size, large pool and multiple smaller deep baths, it provided more anonymity in its large crowds of naked women than any other place within Gern's Temple walls.
"Let's get our tits under water," Tina muttered, looking around self-consciously..
It was the nature of conspirators, after all, to give anyone watching as little information as possible. With their clothing hanging on pegs along the stone walls, Tina, Yua and especially Talla, stood out in a quite literal way.
"Over there," Talla nodded toward a bath in the corner, trying not to look suspicious or nervous in any way.
Though many colours of filtered sunlight dappled down upon almost every pool in the hall, the crests of the waves in Talla's chosen bath were outside the reach of the light. There was nothing to shine upon their naked bodies as they slid into the water, nor anything to glint off their conspiring eyes.
Talla didn't feel safe until she watched her cold and nudity stiffened nipples dip below the surface. Securely concealed once more, they sat on the underwater ledges and spoke in low voices.
"What does she look like?" Yua asked, keeping her eyes on the main entrance.
"Slim," Talla said. "Of course. No boobs. Her hair's a bit dark. The thing you'll notice mostly is her eyes. It's like she's got part of a Facial upgrade or something. You can see it in the eyelashes."
'And the darkness,' Talla thought to herself. 'You'll notice the darkness in those eyes right away.'
It was not, however, V'shika who arrived first. A flash of red hair, glinting in the sunlight that glared through the entrance, announced that Zoe had managed to find her way. The eyes, the lustrous hair, the clever smile – it was enough to light a flare of jealousy in Talla. Not enough of a flare to go begging for a load of semen in her face, but still: a flare.
Watching Zoe disrobe however, even with all the filtered colours of sunlight highlighting her body from different angles, made Talla smirk.
'Yeah,' she thought haughtily, 'I've still got you there.'
"Ladies," Zoe gushed as she sank in to the tub. "The new one isn't here yet?"
"Haven't seen her," Talla replied. "Rika coming?"
"No," Zoe tilted her head. "No point being too obvious about it, right. What about Illya?"
"Same," Tina put in.
"There she is!" Talla hissed, her eyes narrowing with an eager smile.
In her excitement, she stood up out of the water, revealing herself almost to her crotch. Her breasts beading with water, she waved to V'shika before quickly sinking back into the little pool.
The girls pretended to be having a conversation while waiting for V'shika to hang up her clothing. When she too slipped into the water, the others were able to take their first good look at her, each one trying to decide if Talla was right about half-Facial upgrade.
Talla looked her in the eye and V'shika glared back.
"You want to join us?" Talla asked.
"Yes."
"Zhair'lo said that we could trust you."
"You can."
"I trust him to the three corners of the world, to the nine seas and beyond," Talla said. "Do you understand?"
"He deserves your trust," V'shika said. "He's a good man."
Talla smiled.
"You aren't going to test her?" Zoe asked sternly, turning to face Talla.
"It was hard enough getting to be alone with you," Talla pointed out, featuring Zoe with a sideways glance.
Zoe frowned into the space between Talla and the new recruit. Talla noted with chagrin that she was beautiful even when she was petulant.
"She's been with Zhair'lo," Talla explained to the obstinate Zoe. "He's been inside her and I've been in his head."
Zoe seemed unconvinced, folding her arms underwater.
"I've never been on that table," she clarified. "I'd planned to avoid it my entire career."
"I can feel Zhair'lo right now," Talla explained, her voice gone low and tense. "V'shika has his – and my – complete confidence."
V'shika looked back and forth uneasily between the two of them.
"Look," she said, her voice full of placation. "If there's some test, I'll take it right now."
Nothing but eagerness in her eyes, she seemed almost hyperactive. Talla was briefly reminded of her days minding children at the nursery. Periodically, there were days of nothing but rain, when the children were stuck inside. V'shika triggered a clear memory of one of those children who had far too much energy and was ready to explode.
It was Tina who spoke, breaking the tension between Zoe and Talla.
"The test requires some privacy," Tina said. "How quickly could you reach orgasm?"
V'shika's face shifted to wide-eyed shock.
"You want to watch me masturbate?" she asked nervously as she pressed her thighs together.
"No," Talla said. "I can – I can mesh, with women, you see? And when I do, I can tell if I can trust them."
"It's not like you can just do that in a pool in public," Yua told V'shika.
Yua gulped and looked nervously at her companions.
"Right?" she asked desperately.
"It would be stupid to try," Tina confirmed, looking pointedly at Talla and then Zoe, who were glaring at each other.
"Once we mesh," Talla said, barely getting the words past her clenched jaw. "We won't be able to break apart. If someone walks over here, it will be obvious what we were doing."
V'shika's hands were underwater.
"What if ...?" she asked. "What if we got a head start?"
Talla looked over at V'shika.
"What are you ...?"
Then she looked under water and saw that V'shika's thighs were no longer pressed together and that her hands were quite busy.
"Seriously?"
"If it'll settle things once and for all and you'll trust me."
"This is not a good idea," Yua said, practically twitching with anxiety.
"How long do you need in the mesh?" V'shika asked. "Before we come, I mean."
