Paige sat in the back of the library. She loved reading espcially when she couldn't sleep or had no interest in going back to her dorm. She just hated the fact that once she got there it meant her day was over. So today she decided to get in some late night reading. The library was always quiet and peace this time of night. Plus, the people who were here seemed to be busy with their own studys and research to pay much attention to her.

She walked over to one of the many rows of books and slowly started scanning the titles of each of them. Today she had found herself in the fiction section. This was fine with her but than again she was happy with any section she found herself in. As she went down the line of books she slowly leaned over giving anyone who wanted a perfect view of her buttocks along with a small glimse of her panties underneth. But this was an all girls school so she gave no thought to it. She found a book on the bottom shelf that sounded interesting and went back to her table. Making herself comfy she began to read.

As she turned the pages and scanned a few paragraphs interspersed through the book's body to confirm the desirability of reading the novel a small directional light overhead detected her presence, automatically pointing a small cone of muted illumination down onto the pages. This particular library promoted privacy mostly by the expedient of keeping the lights dimmed. Walking the stacks or sitting at any of the haphazardly strewn seating fixtures triggered a curtailed radiance for the sake of reading book spines or pages; otherwise the readers glided amidst the hushed space of the library like so many pale specters. The research library and the law library were by contrast nearly painfully well lit (why Shokushu had so many distinct libraries was anybody's guess), but here in the fiction section it was easy to treat browsers like the apparitions they resembled, everyone occupying their own hazily lambent pools of reality.

Paige's book challenged her to classify its content, vacillating between hard science fiction, with its enthusiastically philosophical deviations from topic, and sheer sword-twirling fantasy, styled like historical romance that bordered daringly on the erotic. As Sylina picked her way deftly amongst the sharded shoreline her bosom mimicked the heaving ocean, and she willed her heart to quiet itself. Binding her fury in the sinewy coils of her discipline took a moment, and she employed that second to examine the haggard sailor deposited upon the splintery rocks. She gripped her hypersword tightly, fingering the electronic switches dotting its haft as she studied the strong features of his face, the almost serpentine muscles pulsing in his bare stomach. Somehow the wreck had left the handsome devil unclothed, and reaching down....

Before Paige could discover what the reckless Sylina had been reaching for a clatter of footsteps and rasping whispers intruded upon her space, bringing a noise and wealth of light that seemed vulgar after her formerly isolated existence in spite of the group's adherence to library etiquette. The group shuffled past her on its way. Momentarily their clamor would subside, their objectionable presence would leave an agreeable vacancy, and Paige could focus on penetrating the mystery of the nude castaway. No, a member of the group remained at the table with her. The interloper, a girlish slip of a woman, glistened in the mergence of light caused by her proximity to Paige, glistened being no mere turn of phrase; the woman's hair glittered, strand by strand of gold drowned in honey, while the vestless splendor of her uniform blouse was practically incandescent. She sat, further delaying Paige's return to literature with a pointed smile.

"What a lovely complexion you have." The lass greeted Paige. "Such fair features. You must be a freshman, no? I would not have forgotten you if we had met already."