Both Beth and Alderic's reactions were entirely predictable, up to Alderic getting up from the chair to pretend he hadn't been simply relaxing and talking with a mage. In the tower, there was a good number of templars who were perhaps guilty of being friendlier with some mages than was thought prudent, and she had seen such evasive behaviour before. She found it amusing, too young to understand that in a few years it would rankle that no matter how much any templar genuinely liked her, barriers between them would always remain.
Still, she had learned to not bring up the topic, so although it was on the tip of her tongue to tell Alderic to relax and sit down again, she sidestepped the issue completely. Templars could be so touchy sometimes.
"Well, you see...we overheard some apprentices talking last time late at night...you see, we couldn't sleep," the girl started, fidgeting on the spot. It was an understatement - they'd both been on a sugar rush after pigging out on some sweets nicked from the kitchen, and had actually been planning to escape their dorm and go perform some mischief elsewhere.
"We didn't mean to listen but they weren't being very quiet," Seth interjected, large blue eyes fixed on Beth earnestly. A complete lie, of course - late night conversations while everyone else was thought to be asleep almost always resulted in juicy tidbits, so everyone listened. But in a dorm where apprentices were packed together like sardines, it was expected that conversations were less than private, even in the middle of the night, so anyone whispering secrets was inviting trouble.
"Yes, so we heard them talking and...Beth, what is 'sex', and what does 'making love' mean?" Ashya interrupted, tilting her head slightly, no hint of amusement showing through, although she was keeping a very sharp watch on both apprentice and templar, hoping for interesting reactions. She knew exactly what she was asking, as did Seth - they had gotten the gory details from some uninhibited apprentices already, but to hear it from Beth - that promised to be amusing. Doubly so with Alderic present.