Story:

Then Violet giggled. It was a soft, lilting sound.

Peach knew that laugh.

Unfortunately, knowing it did not make her feel any safer.

“What about Peach?” Violet asked.

Bill blinked.

“And Shiori,” she added. “People seem quite certain that they are your girlfriends.”

Peach felt heat climb into her face.

Having her name included in that conversation, while she stood hiding behind a door, was an indignity she had not prepared for.

Bill merely shrugged. “They are.”

Violet raised her eyebrows.

“And that presents no difficulty?”

“Why should it?”

He smiled again, apparently encouraged by her interest.

“I care about them. There’s room for you too.”

Yoshiro laughed. “Lucky girl.”

Violet glanced at him.

So that is your contribution.

While Bill spoke, she let the last delicate threads of her probe withdraw.

Neither boy noticed.

She had extended them cautiously from the moment Bill approached: the faintest contact at the edge of awareness, enough to examine what lay beneath the familiar human presence.

Nothing. No Vesperia Heart.

No concealed reservoir of power answering her scrutiny.

There was residue on both boys, a weak magical contamination that warranted remembering. But it clung to them rather than rising from anything she could identify within them.

For the moment, that was all she had.