The hustle and bustle of Pendrago had been on another level than Margaret was used to; Symonne could have told that even without hearing her partner's happy sigh as they walked through Lastonbell's gates. Teleporting close to the city and entering normally had become a habit whenever they returned. From there it was a quick trip to the Crowe's Nest, at which point their leader immediately ran off to see her mother.

"Well," Alisha began as the two remaining women eyed each other, "what shall we do?"

"Beats me," Symonne returned with a shrug. They entered the house as well, but found no one there to greet them; admittedly, she had been hoping for a certain someone. "Do you hear anything about who's here?"

The therion made to listen for a moment, but shook her head. "My ears are not that good, I am afraid. Although there are people present; were you, perhaps, looking for someone in particular?" Turning back to her newest companion, Symonne took note of her faint smile. "A young man, perhaps? Blond, and with this friendly smile of his?"

She had been had and knew it. "Okay, you got me."

"Then I will see about speaking with Velvet. Enjoy yourself."

Alisha motioned for the staircase leading upward, where Laphi likely was, before wandering off toward the kitchens. Her knowing smile bothered Symonne, but she felt she could not really complain after how much she teased the other woman. Putting it out of her mind, Symonne scaled the stairs and poked around; finding her friend did not take long, seeing that he sat in the living room. What surprised her was that he was not alone with a book as usual; no, today Edna kept him company. The two had tea together.

With an odd feeling in her gut, Symonne weaved an illusion over herself and crept into the room to watch them. Old habits died hard, but she also felt a pressing need to know what might happen without her presence known. The easy smiles those two shared formed an ugly knot somewhere within her, making her want to do... something. Anything to make it go away. She did not understand these feelings and pushed them down, wanting to work it out later. For now, she had observations to make and an entrance to plan.

"Is the new vessel okay?" she heard Laphi ask as she crept through the room; a glance to the other seraph revealed Edna playing with a fist-sized chunk of pure amber. Odd, she was supposed to be bonded with Shepherd Sorey.

"It's fine," the girl muttered before sliding the stone back into her pocket. Symonne blinked and pushed her own preconceived notions aside even harder; freeing herself of what she wanted to see, a new picture formed before her eyes. Details became apparent, the way Edna's shoulders were hunched and a slight red splotch around her eyes. She had been crying; she was not doing well. Symonne filed this away, knowing she would figure it out soon.

In the silence those two left, she finally reached her destination behind the couch Laphi sat on. Hiding behind it, she cancelled her illusion and rose up with a grin; Edna paused at her sight, seeing the other girl appear basically out of nowhere. Laphi only picked up on her presence when slender hands covered his eyes. "Huh?" he muttered, but held his silence otherwise; Symonne wondered if she got the whole thing wrong, but played over her uncertainty with a sigh.

"You're supposed to guess who I am."

"No one but you would do that, Symonne. When did you get back?" The familiarity drew a grin from her and she let go, crawling over the backrest instead of walking around.

"Just a few minutes ago. Good to see you again, Edna." The other girl nodded, visibly alienated by how Symonne snaked herself down onto the cushion before righting up; there was something else about her gaze now, though. Something Symonne noticed but could not make sense of. Disregarding it for the moment, she wrapped an arm around Laphi and pulled him closer; her tension dissipated at once. "It's nice to be back," Symonne chirped at them. "Pendrago is a lot bigger if you walk the streets instead of taking the rooftops." Then, deciding it was time to dig, she turned to Edna, whose gaze went back and forth between them. "Is Sorey still in town, or did you give him the boot?"

Contrary to what she expected, the mood dropped immediately. Whatever Edna had been thinking about before, it was gone as her expression fell visibly. Laphi frowned as well, neither of them at all happy. "You couldn't know," he began, "but please be a bit more tactful about this." Which made it clear she picked the wrong subject. "I tell you the details later, but the shepherd was beaten back and lost the silver flame. A lot happened the last few weeks."

The last part brought Symonne up short; Sorey appeared competent enough, regardless of the doubts she expressed about him. To be pushed back in such a manner left scant few possibilities as to who was responsible; something in her gut clenched again, but this time it was a completely different kind of pain. She could not help but ask: "The Lord of Calamity?"

She had already begun to feel this odd sensation, but Edna's sullen nod magnified it greatly. Guilt, Symonne realised some time ago. She started to feel guilty about her past actions; even though this event was outside of her control, she immediately thought it her fault. Her earlier misgivings were forgotten. She did like Edna as a person after all.

However, this required a different approach than a mere apology; one that Laphi would likely shy away from, at that. Thinking it over a second time to make sure, Symonne let go of him and stood; she then made her way over to sit next to Edna. It spoke of how dumbfounded she was by the turn of events that she did not even fidget, even when Symonne deposited the other girl in her lap. "Sorry about that, then," she muttered gently. "You okay?" She placed her head on Edna's shoulder, allowing to whisper into her ear; two slender arms were wrapped around the other girl's waist as well, holding her in place.

Edna stiffened somewhat, head turning ever so slightly toward a chuckling Laphi and then to Symonne herself. "Yes," she finally deadpanned. "Could you let go?" By her tone of voice, she wanted to be let go; by the way she seemed to soak up her comfort and began to relax already, she was fine.

Symonne made a show of thinking, adding a few thoughtful "hmmmm"s; all the while, her embrace grew a little tighter. After drawing it out for a bit, she grinned at Edna. "Nope. I think you need a hug, so you get a hug. Besides, this is my chance."

"Symonne." A warning from Laphi, cheerfully ignored.

"Your chance to do what?"

Symonne now threw a wink at Laphi, who sighed in defeat, and leaned closer to whisper into Edna's ear again: "To try making a sturdy earth seraph weak in the knees." She breathed into the girl's ear on purpose then and gave her a light squeeze, rewarded with an almost inaudible squeak and a luminescent blush.

Edna almost vibrated with embarassment for a moment, but her recovery was swift; the smirk returned and she turned her head further to meet Symonne's gaze. "Considering that you're water, wouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Oh, we can do the other way around. Good thinking!" So saying, she proceeded to lift Edna and turned her around, pulling the surprised girl back into a close hug; now their noses almost touched and once again, only one of them smirked. Symonne allowed herself a giggle over Edna's renewed blush, especially because her prey kept fidgeting; the other girl's knees steadied her on the couch, almost straddling Symonne from how she was placed.

"Okay, that's enough," Laphi chimed in sternly. "Let her go, Symonne."

Seeing Edna's state and renewed tension, Symonne had to agree with his assessment; this was enough. She let go. "Alright. Sorry if that was a little overbearing."

Edna leaned back slowly, studying her with absolute confusion. Then, from one moment to the next, her expression hardened and she leaned forward again, one hand rising to cup Symonne's cheek; she pressed her warm forehead against Symonne's a moment later, staring directly into her eyes. The silence that followed lasted for a while, as Symonne was the one to blush this time. This was closer than she intended to be and it did funny things to her feelings. Edna's smirk had reemerged as she taunted quietly: "Where did that wave of bravado go? I only see a puddle."

It took a moment for Symonne to compose herself, much less a response. Her mouth opened to speak, but then she paused and pulled up a single finger to press on Edna's lips; pushing her back gently made the other girl retreat. "I give you that one," Symonne conceded chipperly, "and props for pushing past your inhibitions. But you really don't want to challenge me in a game of chicken in this. Unless you wanted to give Laphi a show?"

Edna blinked once before her cheeks grew crimson a third time. Not just a light dusting of pink, but a beet red Symonne rarely ever saw before; she did remember that it was common for Edna, though. The implications of her last words were certainly not lost on the earth seraph, but the true hilarity was Laphi wearing a blush to match. Edna dismounted her thighs silently, making to sit next to Symonne while keeping a polite distance between them. Laphi hid his face, likely to hide the blush Symonne already spied; she giggled again and leaned over to pet his head. "There there, we both know you missed me." He just kept grumbling.

With no proper response forthcoming, Symonne's attention went to Edna, who studied the hand on his head rather curiously. "You want headpats, too?" Her cheerful question garnered a fast shake of the head, which almost made Symonne do it anyway, but she reined herself in, if barely. "Okay then, but the offer stands."

Laphi picked this moment to float away beneath her hand, gliding through the air and to his feet with a lazy turn. "I'll go get some more tea," he announced in an obvious bid to get some breathing room. "Do you want another cup, Edna?"

"Yes, please."

Both of their cups startet to float and follow Laphi out of the room, leaving the two girls in a bit of a weird silence; Symonne could not tell why it felt weird, she just knew it did. Something was odd about Edna as well, considering how little snark there had been from her so far; Symonne figured that must have been because of meeting Heldalf and decided not to poke the issue. Which sadly left her with few matters to talk about and required some digging about any safe subjects. "So, how did chewing out Sorey go?" The earth seraph tilted her head in visible confusion, so Symonne reminded her: "About Alisha"

"Ah, right. Well enough, I guess. He is stubborn like a mule and didn't change his mind right away, but I got him to think it over. Maybe he goes down to being stubborn like a rock from there."

"That's a start at least. Alisha would be much happier if she could keep him as a friend." Then, as she could just not resist, Symonne nudged Edna with her elbow. "So you think Sorey is more stubborn than you, oh lady of the mountain?"

The other girl started to grin in turn. "Yes. Even solid stone is more fluid than Sorey, and half as dense." She paused noticeably, studying Symonne again before continuing: "Then again, fluidity and density aren't really related, oh lady of the river."

This took a moment of consideration to even try making sense of; Symonne still failed and had to shake her head. "Okay, I don't follow."

Edna hesitated once again, glancing to the door; a sign she did not want Laphi to hear whatever came next, which in turn intrigued Symonne. She leaned in to make sure she heard clearly, only to stiffen when the other girl finally spoke: "You are crushing on Laphi." At first she huffed and wanted to laugh it off, but the odd churning in her gut returned and made her hesitate; it was true Laphicet and her were close for a while and that she actively liked to be around him, and she thought of him when they were separated...

"Oh."

It never actually occurred to her that she was crushing. Perhaps in love, even.

Of course, Laphi picked that exact moment to return with refreshments and another platter of cookies. All was placed in front of them and a question about Symonne being alright waved off; even though she knew her confusion was visible enough to be noticed, she could not help it. In the middle of her whirlpool of thoughts, she realised how Edna kept eyeing her almost cautiously. Confused? No, but perhaps scared. When the other girl glanced at Laphi again, she understood. "So are you."

A soft nod was all the answer she needed; the knot somewhere south of her heart continued to throb, worry bubbling up from deeper within Symonne. Fear as well, fear of losing the boy she liked to another. A potent fear too, seeing how well those two seemed to get along; had they kissed before? She could not tell, but some part of her needed to know. Envy, jealousy, an aching need to persevere in this matter all joined the plethora of new sensations Symonne experienced. She tried to quell them all and mull over her situation, but success was minimal.

Ultimately, the now incredibly awkward silence was broken by Laphicet asking the only question he knew to ask: "What's going on?"

"Girl stuff," Edna deflected immediately; Symonne understood that neither of them wanted to draw him into this yet and agreed.

"Yep, girl stuff. Girl stuff that we, uh, should probably talk about later?"

It ended up being more of a question than she meant it to be, but Edna nodded once again. Laphi glanced between them before looking down at his teacup. "Girls are weird," he mumbled, just loud enough for them to hear. They both shrugged; He was not wrong.

From that point however, the entire situation became awkward; neither girl brought forth any more teasing or even so much as a proper conversation, both fully aware of the other's feelings and uncertain how to act about it. Symonne was at a loss, wanting to be the favoured one and to assert herself but liking Edna enough not to want to hurt her. Going by her refusal to try for Laphi's affection in front of Symonne, the other woman felt similarly.

After some time, Laphi sighed and stood without meeting their eyes. "I think you should get your girl stuff out of the way first, so I'm now going to make a completely inconcspicious retreat to my workshop. See you!" He dashed out of the room with those words, leaving two befuddled girls behind. They stared at the door, then at each other; Symonne cracked first and started to giggle, with Edna following a moment later. The tension dissolved as they laughed together.

"He somehow gets to be blunt and considerate at the same time," the water seraph mused once she got a hold of herself. The earth seraph agreed with a nod.

"It's cute."

Edna's response unleashed another giggling fit. Even if it was just the sudden stress that made them laugh, Symonne appreciated it anyway. Once they were calm again, she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Here isn't a good place to talk about this, I think. Should we go elsewhere? I could just cover us in illusions so no one can hear, but I'd rather make sure." Edna agreed easily enough and they left the Crowe's Nest in search of a more secluded place; it was also her who soon pointed out the belltower, which Symonne liked. They could talk in peace and the view was nice, though it may be a bit more extravagant than appropriate for the subject matter.

Neither girl spoke as they climbed the tower, each trapped in her own head; Symonne tried to come up with a way to actually discuss this but blanked out entirely, a state which did not change even when they were settled at the very top. Her illusions reached out and covered all of Lastonbell like a blanket; overkill it may be, but she wanted to make sure.

"Now what?"

Symonne shrugged weakly. "No idea. Humans usually settle this by one side deferring to the other if the girls know each other, or by competing when they don't."

"But we are seraphim," Edna countered haughtily. "So we ought to do better than that." She did not say, but Symonne caught her meaning anyway; that she did not want to hurt Symonne by 'stealing' Laphicet.

"Agreed." And she felt similarly. "But what do we do about this? Both of us pining after him without acting is even worse." Edna nodded, but did not share her thoughts just yet, so Symonne coaxed her: "Any ideas how we decide who gets to try first?" The other girl shrugged again and frowned as she considered.

"We could just ask him to pick one of us. That's the best I have and it's bad. It might not even work because he is so protective, so he might just pick me after... you know." Edna did not clarify what, and Symonne still did not know what exactly happened to her; she got her meaning though, which drew a snort.

"That makes me think he'd agonize over this even more than normally because he knows we don't have many friends beside him. He might just pick me out of guilt, too." When Edna glanced at her, Symonne made a face and decided to reveal that bit: "I used to be suppressed, during the Age of the Gods I mean. Still can't look at his light without getting scared."

"I see." There was no empathy to her tone, but Edna always tried to keep it devoid of emotion. Symonne still felt a little hurt about her lack of care, but then the other seraph bumped her shoulder ever so slightly. "But you still like him?"

"He is my first ever friend," Symonne supplied softly. "I only found out about the other thing later, when I was already crushing on him." She bumped Edna's shoulder in response.

"It was similar for me. He is important to both of us. We could share him."

The deadpan had Symonne blink at Edna, whose expression gave almost nothing away; just the slightest curl of her lips indicated the attempt at levity. In difference to what she expected however, Symonne's brow creased as she began to contemplate the jest. "I was joking," Edna quickly clarified, but the other girl just shrugged.

"So what if you were? The idea has merit; if this worked out, we both get what we want and no one is hurt."

"You have a point, but..." Edna trailed off, clearly hesitant; she needed a while to finish the sentence, clearly unused to talking about her feelings like this: "I would just be jealous half the time. That might be worse than not being with him." She was not wrong, although Symonne had been thinking of the matter a little differently.

A soft tap on Edna's shoulder drew the other girl's attention, at which point Symonne smiled at her winningly. "I was thinking more of a proper relationship between all of us, not to put Laphi between the two of us. If we did this, I would want the two of us to be an item, too. It should be fine then, right?" She wanted to leave it at that, but another idea made Symonne snap her fingers. "And if it turns out he doesn't like either of us that way, we can start going out with each other instead!"

Edna opened her mouth but hesitated, clearly confused and intrigued by the idea. "I never considered that," she admitted after a moment. "But would that work?"

"Who knows?" Symonne shot back playfully, batting her eyes at the other seraph. "Do you think I'm cute enough to compete with Laphi?" She considered nestling against Edna too, but left that for another time. She received a faint blush anyway, which only grew deeper with the follow-up: "You're definitely cute enough!"

"T-That's beside the point! I mean, we get along right now but we barely know each other and we aren't in love. It's, I'm not sure." What Symonne could tell was that a bashful, babbling Edna was adorable, but wisely did not mention that. Instead, she turned more serious and shook her head.

"We aren't in love, but we can be," Symonne began carefully. She picked her next words with caution to make sure she was understood. "I watched people a lot, and from that I learned something valuable: love is transient, it can slip away in a single moment if you take it for granted." Edna blinked, but did not interrupt as she listened intently. "Relationships that last are built on effort, to keep it up even after the magic of those first moments fades. So even if Laphi rejects us both, if we put in work to like each other, we will keep having that."

The ensuing silence felt a little oppressive to Symonne; perhaps Edna agreed, seeing how her first response was not an insightful reply but rather an attempt to tease: "So you're a voyeur?"

"Can't deny it, really. Not like the humans knew I was there when they got frisky." Symonne shrugged, then chuckled when Edna blushed once again. She aborted another motion for her umbrella, clearly used to hiding such expressions and conciously stopping herself here. It meant she was willing to let her see, which was promising. Looking at her and their past interactions, Symonne could see it working. It would be odd and unorthodox, but so were all of them.

Neither of them found anything else to add; Edna stewed in her own thoughts, likely mulling over Symonne's proposal. They observed people walk by far beneath, the silence stretching on and on. Both girls flinched as the bell rang right below them, almost unbearably loud; another hour passed, as signified by the ringing, before Edna finally answered her: "Okay, let's try this." Her agreement took a moment to be registered, but Symonne's hesitant smile was returned at once.

"Alright. Let's, uh... hm." She paused to consider what to do next. They barely spent any time together before. Finding some of her confidence, Symonne winked at her potential girlfriend-to-be. "So if we do this, you and I need to get comfortable with each other, too. We should see about that before talking to Laphi." Edna averted her gaze shily, but did not turn away; her cheeks became pink, a far more modest blush that was still as endearing as her previous scarlet. Symonne made a thoughtful noise and shimmied a little closer to the other girl. "Can I hold your hand?" Edna hesitated at that point, eyeing the hand next to her own uncertainly. Then however, she gave herself a push and bridged the gap on her own, covering Symonne's. The water seraph smiled softly at that. "Well, we're off to a good start."

The two remained seated there, Edna's warm and soft hand clasped over her own. It remained mildly awkward, but Symonne found more comfort now than she did before. After a time, Edna squeezed her hand ever so slightly. Symonne glanced at her then, concerned this was going too far. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted hesitantly. Her mouth opened and closed several times before more words followed. "This is all so new, I'm not sure how to..." Edna trailed off there and hung her head, but she had been clear enough even though she forced the words out. Symonne turned her hand around and intertwined their fingers gently, never ceasing to smile.

"Don't worry, I got no idea either. I just do what I saw humans do and what feels right. Within limits."

"What kind of limits?"

"We have a romantic moment on top of the belltower, normally that would lead to kisses."

"Oh."

Edna sat still and fidgeted, but did not pull away; with her intended reassurance having failed, Symonne leaned a little closer with a huff. "Don't worry, I won't push you on that. This is going fast already. But say, do you want to kiss Laphi first, or is either of us fine?" Her question led to a moment of contemplation.

Then Edna reflected it back at her instead: "What about you?"

In hindsight, perhaps she should not have brought that up. Everything had just begun, so admitting to their more adventurous moments might scare Edna off; yet lying would be worse, so she had to hope. "I already kissed Laphi," Symonne admitted slowly, stopping herself from shrugging when Edna's head turned. "But that was more me being me and not us being a couple. You would not believe how much I had to work on that boy."

"For what exactly?" There was curiousity there, but also insecurity; Symonne could understand her.

"To get him to stop being super polite and thoughtful. It's cute at first, but it gets tiring after a time. He thinks too much about what is okay with how he was raised and too little about what we think is okay. Does that make sense?" It did to her; kindness and politeness were good tools for interacting with strangers, but a friend should not require either. It just showed how Laphi never had a real friend before, not that the girls were much better off in that regard.

Edna mulled it over for a moment, her previous uncertainty replaced by understanding. "It does," she agreed.

From there, they continued to chat about their shared crush and then their own interests. They continued sitting close, hands intertwined but going no further; Symonne found that being with Edna was actually quite comfortable. When she ended their outing with a chaste peck to Edna's cheek and made the other girl blush again, then received the same a moment later, Symonne felt this might just work.