In the perfud hush of the Indulgence Artistry dormitories, creation and desire intertwined like lovers in a dance. The lamplight flickered low, spilling golden hues across silk sheets and half-finished sketches. From the adjoining chamber ca soft sighs and breathless laughter, the unmistakable rhythm of two young ladies lost in indulgence. Lyra and Dori’s moans rose and fell in harmony, their pleasure echoing faintly through the thin walls.
In the darkened room beside them, however, passion had taken a different form.
Kaelen and Ryan sat hunched over a peculiar contraption, a wooden box fitted with polished lenses and a small pinhole aperture, its interior lined with silver-dusted mirrors. The cara obscura, the product of two weeks of sleepless work and reckless ambition.
Through the pinhole, light spilled onto a stretched canvas coated with chalk-white paint, forming a dim but precise projection of the world beyond. The inverted image shimred faintly, Lyra and Dori’s intertwined bodies kissing each other cast in living shadow.
Ryan squinted through his tinted spectacles. “Well,” he murmured, a wry smile tugging at his lips, “our subjects are certainly… spirited.”
Kaelen chuckled softly but his gaze remained fixed on the flickering projection. “Indulgence Artistry students never lack enthusiasm,” he replied, though his voice carried more thought than humor.
The projection rippled slightly as one of the won moved, light catching the sheen of skin in a way that was almost ethereal. Almost, but not enough. Kaelen’s smile faded, replaced by that quiet ache of dissatisfaction that every creator knew too well.
“It’s beautiful,” Ryan said, watching the ghostly scene. “Pure Herptian essence: form, passion, indulgence, all captured by light itself.”
Kaelen shook his head slowly. “No… it’s not captured. It’s only reflected. Once the light fades, the image dies.” He leaned closer, voice low and edged with longing. “If I draw it, it’s still not real. It’s my interpretation, my mory. But what I want is the mont itself… alive, eternal.”
Ryan groaned, slumping back in his chair. “By the goddess, Kaelen, we’ve worked all day calibrating the mirrors, adjusting the aperture, refining the focus and now you tell it’s not enough?”
Kaelen didn’t respond. He was staring at the trembling image as though it held the secret to immortality.
Ryan ran a hand through his hair and stood, stretching his back with a sigh. “You’re chasing ghosts,” he muttered. “Light fades. Always has, always will.”
He began gathering his notes. “I can’t keep entertaining this. Her highness had entrusted with research of glass and magic’s relation, and I’m already behind. You can keep chasing your ‘perfect mont,’ but I need to work on sothing that exists.”
Kaelen looked up, his pen frozen midair. Ryan’s expression was firm, exhausted, maybe even a touch disappointed. The only sound between them was the soft hum of moans from the next room, where Lyra’s teasing voice carried faintly through the wall.
“Stop, Dori~ I don’t want to clean that pillow after…”
The words floated through the air like a taunt. Kaelen’s eyes unfocused for a heartbeat then widened with sudden inspiration. He shot to his feet, intercepting Ryan just as he reached for the door.
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“Wait!” Ryan turned, irritation already gathering on his face. “What is it now, Kaelen?”
Kaelen’s thoughts were a storm, but his words ca sharp and deliberate. “What if, hear out, what if instead of holding the light and drawing it by hand…” He paused, his breath quickening as the idea solidified. “What if we create a material that reacts to intense light on its own?”
Ryan froze. His frustration evaporated in an instant, replaced by the flicker of intrigue. His brow furrowed, lips parting slightly as he processed it. “A substance that… reacts to light?”
Kaelen nodded, his excitent palpable. “Not a drawing, not a shadow, a reaction. The light itself leaving its mark. Permanently.”
For a long mont, Ryan just stared at him. Then, a grin crept onto his face, the fatigue in his posture replaced by the spark of discovery. “That… that might actually work.”
He turned on his heel, muttering to himself as his mind already raced ahead. “If we can find a compound sensitive to light, sothing reactive but stable under shade, then…” He looked back at Kaelen, eyes bright. “I know soone in the Advanced Chemical Departnt. who owes a favor. Let get them.”
As Ryan rushed out of the room, Kaelen stood still for a mont, his pulse thrumming in his ears. The projection on the wall flickered again, Lyra’s arching silhouette caught in that perfect instant of light. Her voice spilled through the partition, sultry and teasing.
“Where’s Ryan going?” she called, voice thick with amusent. Then, more playfully: “Well, whatever~ wanna join us, Kaelen, till he returns?”
He exhaled a quiet sigh, half in resignation, half in delight, a faint smile curving his lips. “Sure,” he said, his tone warm and unbothered. After all, indulgence was as sacred as innovation in the faith of Herptian.
Next Day Morning, Advanced Education Academy, Herptian Church, Kim City, Kim Island, Kim Dukedom, Ancorna Empire
The main hall was dark except for a single sliver of morning light filtering through the glass panels. The room itself, an old trade vault now turned into an experintal chamber, was lined with brass fixtures, stone benches, and tools that looked both modern and archaic, as if the past and future had collided.
On one table, the prototype lay assembled: a cara obscura modified with a box of refined lenses and a copper sheet coated with the shimring new compound Ryan had obtained, a mixture of silver dust, and rcury salts infused with low-grade petals.
Junior Priest Finn stood at the back of the chamber, his white robes faintly illuminated by the warm glow of the light spilling on the wall. “So this is the invention that cost half of your attendance yesterday?” he asked dryly, though his tone held more curiosity than reproach.
Kaelen smirked, tightening the focusing chanism. “If this works, Your Reverence, it’ll be worth every skipped class.”
“Alright,” Junior Priest Finn said, folding his arms. “Show .”
On cue, Lyra and Dori stepped into the center of the chamber: naked, unashad, bathed in the gentle hue of magic lanterns dimd to near-darkness. Their bodies pressed close, movents slow, sensual as they kissed each other, the faint scent of jasmine incense filling the air.
“Hold still,” Kaelen murmured from behind the device, adjusting the focus. “Just… like that.”
Ryan’s hands hovered over a rune-engraved glow flower mostly used in chandeliers. “Ready?” he asked.
Kaelen nodded. “Then a flash!.”
With a BANG, a burst of radiant brilliance flooded the room. The flash of the flower’s magic was blinding for a heartbeat, pure and white, filling the air with the faint tang of ozone and silver dust.
When the brilliance faded, the two won blinked, kissing softly, the air shimring faintly around them.
Kaelen carefully removed the copper sheet from the device, his hands trembling slightly as he lowered it into the developing basin. The faint hiss of reaction filled the silence as the surface shimred, lines appearing like ink blooming on wet parchnt.
And then it erged. A perfect image. Sharp. Real. Eternal.
Lyra and Dori, frozen mid-embrace, the curve of lips kissing each other, the fall of hair, the light caught in their eyes, all captured in breathtaking detail upon the polished silver plate.
Kaelen’s breath caught. Even Finn stepped closer, unable to mask his astonishnt.
“It’s…” the priest murmured, “a captured indulgence!”
Ryan grinned, pride swelling in his chest. “No, Your Reverence,” he said, lifting the glinting plate into the light. “It’s a captured mont.”
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