Dinner with your new friend

And only him. As you walk into the dinning room there are a few people not only a few. No one you recognise from the upper class baths. Getting your plates of food and finding a seat you and your new friend, "Sorry I never got your name."

"Adam." He says offering you a hand. "I'm from the Extier Plains as well, I'll be one of your lords one day."

The Extier Plains? Oh right, that. "Oh, well nice to meet you Adam." You said with a smile. You say his hand lift up and his aura gather around it. "Best not. I can be a bit overwhelming." You did feel bad for saying that because he looked really sad.

"Oh right. Um so how did you get so strong?" He asked as he started eating his dinner.

You considered telling him the truth, it had worked out well with Lucia so far, maybe the same will be true here. "Luck I guess, and I spent most of my life training my magic as much as I could." That last part felt important, you'd seen Gabrielle who hadn't trained and you were a lot stronger than her just based on how you'd held up to Eve's nukes.

"So do you think other guys could get that strong." He was quiet and looked around conspiratorially.

"Why?" Seemed better to ask that then say yes and give false hope, or no and potentially make your new friend sad.

"Cause if guys could be as strong or stronger than girl we wouldn't have just do whatever they say." He half whispered.

You didn't answer right away, he was right. You were, as far as you could see one of the only guys treated as an equal and that was done to being substantially unequal. "If guys can't that doesn't mean it's impossible to become equal." You wanted to hedge yourself here. In your old world things were a lot simpler, half of the population wasn't naturally more powerful than the .... other ... half. "You'd need popular support, laws enacted to ensure equal treatment in, relationships, work, finances, social standards. As the most basic, you'd need men to be allow to hold titles separate from their wives and for inheritance to be either equal for all children. The first step would be to gather both men and women who'd share the idea that everyone should be equal then have them petition everyone in authority to do something and if they don't to go on strike."

"Strike?" Adam asked. He look like he was taking some mental notes.

"Refuse to work until demands are met. For guys that could be no cooking for wives, no cleaning, no shopping, gathering as a group at the base of the hill to making the strike public, get everyone thinking about the issue. And have a group of people in charge who can negotiate the demands on everyone behalf so one person can't be bribed and but there aren't so many it is pointless for the authority to even try talking."

"Do you think you'd -"

"Christopher." Lucia said plunking down on the other side of the table with her food. "Who's the new guy?" The smirk on her face told you she didn't this was a new friend so much as a new partner.

"Adam Lucia, Lucia Adam. He's a to be Lord from the Extier Plains." You have no idea if Lucia remembers that since she'd never believed it.

"Oh," She was quiet for a moment looking down at her rather empty looking plate, probably planning on stealing some of your food but couldn't in the presence of an unknown noble.

"You're the Encantor aren't you, the Rainbow Dragon. I love your performances, I saw you in the theater a few weeks ago." Adam's face suggested he'd completely forgotten about the equal rights talk in the face of fandom.

"Thanks, I remember you, second level, third window from the left. You were with a group of older women. Your mum take you to see me?" Lucia teased, but that didn't mean you could ignore that memory, it was weeks ago and she was performing with lights on her, how did she recognise him?

"Not my mum." Adam said in discomfort. "You were stunning, are you performing again soon?"

Lucia looked over at you. "I think so, but I'll know this weekend." You hope Aurora wear a revealing top, it will make you kinda sort throwing Lucia into the big leagues easier for her to accept.

"How do you know Christopher?" Adam asked. He was really breezing past who he'd been at the theater with.

"He's obsessed with me." Lucia said with a smirk. She'd gotten comfortable with Adam quickly, him being a fan must have helped her get over the social standing issue.

"Coming from the women who keeps pestering me for help and advice." You say back with a smirk.

"You love it." She said back then broke into a smile and laughed. "So Adam how'd you meet Christopher?" Her fork had extended across the table and she was trying to spear some of your food. The attempted distraction was hardly worthy of reward but you pushed your plate a little closer to her.

"In the baths, I watch the fight and wanted to talk to him." Adam said looking down at the plate being stolen from and at you clearly aware of that fact.

"Oh I bet you made sure he knew exactly how much you liked the fight." Lucia giggled triumphantly as she managed to snag the larger piece of meat and slink it back to her plate.

"Huh?" Adam asked.

Before you had a chance to say anything Lucia went ahead and said it, "Relax I just mean you sucked his dick." Lucia started to eat the meat while Adam looked stunned.

"What?!" He shouted. Lucia stopped with the meat half chewed, aware she'd just made a mistake. "That's disgusting. We should have you removed from the school for talking like that to a Lord and a Duke."

She swallowed the half chewed meat, grimacing as she did. "Sorry my Lord I didn't mean to offend you." She grabbed her plate and stood but you stopped her from running away.

"Adam. She was just joking. She didn't mean to offend." In a quieter voice you added, "If you want women to treat guys as equal, shouldn't you also treat everyone as equal?"

Adam looked at you then at Lucia. "Thank you for you time Sir." Adam said grabbing his plate and walking away from the two of you. You and Lucia watched what had been one of your only male friends walking away.

"He totally wants to sit on your dick." Lucia joked. You gave her a flat stare. "Sorry."

You sighed, "Maybe I'm just not supposed to have male friends."

"Edin."

"Male friend who don't sit on my dick." You said with a smirk at her.

She gave you a flat stare. "How dare you speak of Lord Edin like that, there is no way he'd ever be on top." She finished breaking into a laugh that you echoed. "Oh hey do you know where Auria is? She couldn't sneak me into the upper class baths with her sister."

"No idea, I was in the middle class ones. They're probably taking so long because Stephanie is in there."

You saw Lucia's brain short circuit. "Huh?"

"Yeah as pay back for making me the target in the arena she'll be bathing with everyone else for the next few weeks."

"You mean, like, naked?" You were sure what was going to happen first, either drool was going to make it out of her mouth, or blood from her nose.

"Well yeah she's in the bath, Auria's probably grabbing her boobs or trying to taste her pussy." You were betting on drool but couldn't rule out the nose bleed.

"Nah, Stephanie a top, bet she'd biting Auria's nipple while making her squirm on a few fingers, maybe even making Auria grind on her thigh." Drool won and you let out a chuckle. She came back to reality and wiped her mouth. "Why weren't you in the upper class baths with her if you're the reason she's there?"

"My guess is when everyone saw her approaching the baths they all piled in to see if Auria would be able to wrap her lips around anything." You said, Lucia thought about it for a second then nodded.

"It'd be weird to wait outside the baths wouldn't it."

"I doubt Stephanie is going to come out naked."

"Yeah." Lucia start scoffing the rest of her food.

"I'd say you need to get laid but you did miss several explosions because of what's between Auria's thighs." You had to raise your voice as she finished and had started running for the door before you'd finished.

"Jealous." She shouted back as she darted out of the room.

You shook your head and looked down at you plate. "Hey how you do that?" You asked as somehow through all the scoffing she'd managed to nick several of your vegetables. Maybe she should be a thief instead an Encantor, she's clearly talented at it.

Finishing what was left of your dinner you checked the buffet and decided to go for seconds. Adam had left completely and you didn't have anyone to sit with so you sat on your own and ate. When you were finished there was still no one from the upper class baths, nor the middle class baths.

You looked at the door. You just had a bad feeling, what if it wasn't sex and perving on the teacher so much as angry at teacher for putting you in that position. Which, fair enough, you'd accepted her reasoning but thinking about it was aggravating you anyway.

However, going to check on thing did mean standing next to Lucia waiting for people to leave the baths and there is no way that isn't going to earn some comments. The alternative is to be on your own until everyone is done doing whatever.