At long last, Ness was in her last months of schooling. It wasn't that she didn't like school--she did, of course...but sitting at a table with her nose in books felt so impractical after the time she'd got to spend in Lorendale, living among action. She'd adventured around all of Terra Nova enough to know that life was so much more than studying. An unpopular opinion in her kingdom, to be sure, so one she kept close to her chest. Ness found other ways to express it: taking breaks in the grasslands of Coheed rather than milling in the courtyard; things like that.

With classes for the day finished, Ness walked with a particular pep in her step and giddy rosiness to her cheeks. The world was her oyster now that she'd done her duty and showed up. Perhaps she'd stop by the palace for a bite before going to the Dresmondi camps to visit with friends...

Hearing her name called had her turning. Indeed, Ness was a friend to Pietro, and though she hadn't encountered Calanthe excessively, she considered the girl a friend, too.

"Calanthe!" Ness waved back, a friendly beckon to be joined. She smiled widely and would seek to slip her arm around the other woman's, a familiar and friendly way for the two to walk and talk. "Ready for a break. Where are you headed?"

Ness had a vague idea of what is was Calanthe was doing. Apprentice to the ambassador, or something? An envious post, to be sure. When Ness traveled she did it of her own volition, hoping nothing she did kicked up unwanted dust. When Calanthe traveled it was on official business and carried an importance. She was a star. Ness beheld her with shining dark eyes for an admiring moment.

"The world is full of adventure." She returned, her eyes darting towards the closest people passing then, an air of mischief rising around her like a palpable aura. "We need only reach out and embrace it." She smirked a little and then bounced her brows. "Are you reaching, Calanthe?"

Ness eyed her friend, her smile persisting, even as Calanthe doubted and questioned herself. Her friend's heaviness should have been Ness, in reality, considering Ness was a princess...but she had long ago shirked the weight of expectation and taken to embracing...whatever she wished to embrace. Of course, she still knew the curtsy and the proper forms of address and all that jazz, but she had stopped letting them be her burden and learned to embrace them as surely as she did everything else in her left.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Her hold on Calanthe's arm dropped so that she took the other girl by the hand instead. She would seek to tug her along, picking up the pace until they reached the closest door. Out of her pocket came her key, and into the lock it plunged. After a quick turn she'd pull it out and open the door. Instead of looking into a closet they'd find themselves gazing into a forest.

She looked towards Calanthe and whispered,

"Do you dare?"

Ness grinned at her friend and followed after her through the portal. They stepped into woods, and the door on this side of the world was the entrance to a rather crude hut. Ness closed it, then when she opened it again it opened into an abandoned little house used for relieving the bowls, not a hall in the palace.

"I'll give you two guesses." She invited, closing the door once more rather than using it, then turning to behold. While the building they had stepped from was whole, a scan of what was before them would show a combination of buildings and ruins.

Ness, beaming, nodded her head.

"Ding! Correct!" She surged forward, spread her arms, tilted her face towards the sky, and breathed in the crisp Coheed air. It wasn't any different than the air found in Arynn Frey, of course, but she liked to think it was. She liked to pretend it was an entirely different world.

"This kingdom is so refreshing." She sighed contentedly, then looked towards Calanthe. "Once you get past some of the cultural traditions..." she chuckled.

Ness, instead of agreeing with Calanthe's statement, hummed a note and smiled widely, lips closed over her teeth, eyes bright.

"How do you know?" She asked after a pause, rounding on her friend with large eyes and a mischievous tone. "Have you ever had sex?" Ness hadn't. Clearly. "Have you ever watched sex?" Her brows bounced. She'd be interested. "Have you ever studied the difference between tame sex and wild sex?" Her eyes cut to the side and she said quietly to herself, "I'd like to know which is more enjoyable, and whether it depends on the partner or the circumstance or both..." She raised a hand to her mouth, her thumb and forefinger pinching her lower lip at the thought of it all. Then she glanced around them again.

"We are many miles from Gilead."

Ness chuckled breathily as she walked forward a little more, poking at some earth with her toe. Calanthe had a lot to say, and Ness was pleased to hear that her friend was eager to learn--to see--more, too. It wasn't so strange for them to be curious. They were scholars, as were all of Arynn Frey. Why should they spend hours pouring into the arcane and not give any time of day to the natural? Sex wasn't dirty; it was necessary.

"I do." She confirmed, running with Calanthe's final inquiry. "And as long as I don't get caught, I don't get in trouble. I always stick to the edges and," she shrugged, "it seems to work." She cut her gaze back towards her friend. "But on the topic of watching..." She'd move right up into Calanthe's face, eyes wide. "Do you know where we might?"