Somebody should really open a school for this kinda thing, y'know? Or... I guess maybe probably someone already did? Seems like a good business opportunity, is all. 'Cause, and I'm not saying this should be obvious, see. But it's, hmm y'know maybe they should try putting up a sign? Signs are good for seeing stuff. 'Cause it's just, if they do have a school (which they should!) then I haven't heard of it before. And it's just, yeah, y'know? There's a lot about this stuff you don't think about. 'Til it's too late.

Yue's grip on the wheel can really only be described as 'white knuckle' at this point. And, oh that poor poor wheel! If it was an animal it'd be a pelt or near enough, what with Yue Just Yue The Unprepared Hero strangling it so tight you can hear it squeaking even over the vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom vroom skrrrrrt of the car's heroic efforts to keep all of its riders alive.

And she can't let go of it. Not for anything. Her fingers clamp tighter than crab claws and her arms whine uselessly at her as the blood starts to drain out of them, but she keeps those mitts at 10 and 2, whatever that means, and that's the end of that. Stalls are handled by angry shouts now. Hyra pulls the stick and turns the key, bless her. Yue stomps the pedals and keeps her eye on the mirrors and the monsters chasing her in them as much as she does on the road in front of her.

And this is the thing! The thing where a school would help! In the movies the driver's always spinning that dang wheel as far as it will go, left and right and left and right, and the car whips about like a serpent god dodging rockets and small arms fire until it finds a ramp big enough and cool enough to shoot itself off of to go on the attack. And, like, nobody tells you that that's all for show? 'Cause it turns out even teeny little nudges on that sucker are more than enough to send the car skidding this way and that. Which is another thing, see? The more it wobbles and zips and zigs the less it feels like anybody is controlling it. Sometimes Yue wrenches it to her right and the car just sort of... swings? It's bad. And nobody taught her it'd be like this, which is a danged shame.

Nothing Yue tries really feels like it's up to her. Mostly there's a lot of screaming and that weird and uncomfortable swoopy feeling you get in your stomach when you go sledding down a stupidly steep hill. You know the one, right? That flippy churny feeling that's like all the stuff you ate that day organizing a jail break but also for some reason it's kinda fun and you want a little more of that? Think it's called ad... something. Iono. S'weird. That's probably a metaphor or something. But what it really is is scary.

KRAKOOM!

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"

A rocket explodes so close, Yue can feel the heat of it through the window, which is slightly less closed than she thought it was based on the slight feeling of wind sucking into it but is definitely closed enough she wasn't expecting to feel any rocket-heat anytime soon, nosiree. It pushes the car around until it's sitting awkwardly stalled out on the freeway pointing sideways, where her panicking legs predictably lift off the pedals and send the haggard thing into yet another stall. It lifts up off the left two tires, more... more... a little more... and the thwomps back down on all fours with the help of some desperate leaning by our stack of heroines. Hot chunks of whatever the heck roads're made of rain down all over the place like hail from the underworld. It cracks the windshield. It whumps the hood. It dents at least one door past the point of opening. And everywhere it doesn't hit the car it bounces and scatters into fiendish caltrops. That Princess Qiu never misses, even when she does.

And Yue? Her hands won't come off that wheel. Her eyes sting with tears, but she refuses to let them squeeze shut. There's something burning there, something beautiful, something like... determination? She's so overwhelmed. Qiu can probably see her shivering from all the way up there. But my beautiful girl's never looked more like a hero in her entire life, including that time she almost tricked Chen into believing she was a master bladecaller.

I won't let her catch us, she does not say. Her throat's too tight for the words. But she thinks it with all of her might. I won't let her catch us. I won't. I won't let my friends down. I can do this. I can. I can!

Hyra helps her get the car started again. The wheels spin out and rubber burns, and the air fills with just the nastiest smelling cloud of ick you've ever had the displeasure of sniffing, believe you me. And with a final ugly lurch she gets it going and shoots off toward freedom again.

...The other thing that never seems to come up in movies is that helicopters are actually way faster than cars. Or maybe that's cause Yue never got this one out of first gear? But it's important: there isn't actually any escaping Qiu no matter how hard anybody tries or wants or believes. Mice don't always get eaten by hawks, but they would if hawks had rocket launchers. Hawket launchers? Er... w-well, let's just say they're dragons instead. With flight so pure and breath so mighty and nothing, nothing at all between the princess and the cleanest shot a body could ask for.

But she hits the bridge they cross under, instead. The roar and the flame is terrible, but the impact is less direct than the last one. Bits of earth that someone somewhere once upon a miracle raised up toward the sky come tumbling down on top of our intrepid travelers and try their earthy best to squish everyone involved in the exchange. But there's enough... juuuuuust enough of a space for a busted, vroomy car to squeak through before disaster strikes. It, it really was a perfect shot, y'know?

The sounds of the helicopter drift off into the distance with the arrogant confidence of a villain who just had a henchman tell her "Nobody could have survived that!" Yue stomps on the brake, but it's barely even necessary at this point. She flops her head on the steering wheel, where her hands finally come unstuck, and she hiccoughs herself half to death.

Such an ugly sound. Such a nasty sound. She's, like, laugh-crying while also choking to death on her own snot and spit. But even still? Deep, deeeeeeeeeeep under whatever kind of gross noise she's making? There's a beautiful chime that we in the 'biz call triumph.

[Yue Defies Disaster and takes a slightly off route to get there, but she does eventually come up with a 7]

Serenity is not effortless. Rather, it is a choice, an imposition on the world. Serenity in the face of a car being driven by a young woman doing her best while holding close a fox who wants to be in the safest place in the car (i.e. Rose from the River’s exact location) is... challenging. Yes, let’s call it that. A challenge. Something to be met and overcome. aum shantae aum. aum shantae aum. aum shantae nemo padhome aum.

Rose from the River wraps up her stress and her confusion and her desire to scream at someone and take control of the vehicle herself and wraps it all up in a blanket and cuddles it as furiously as she is cuddling the panicking fox in her arms. She smothers those emotions, which want her to charge down any road she can find, to take control of things and make her own decisions, in the cool resounding sound of her mantra.

The mantra, however, is not perfect. There are some things that even it cannot make right, some annoyances that even a follower of the Way cannot overcome. And for Rose from the River, that annoyance is Qiu showing up in a helicopter. If not for a certain someone getting tangled in her seatbelt, Rose would have climbed out the window, onto the roof, and taken the Conciliatory Ice-Star Blade in both hands, in a batter’s stance. The ostentatious gall! Was there ever any doubt that Qiu is being a huge drama queen about this?

As the car comes to another shuddering (and comparatively final) halt, Rose from the River growls, in a tone of voice most unbecoming of a monk and more becoming of a dangerously sultry monster, “Next time we see her, I’ll show her rockets.” The rockets carry the implication of physical discipline, at the very least.

Oh, how wonderfully easy it is to be pissy at Qiu, rather than admit that she is making a decent attempt at earning the adoration she demands, at wielding the monopoly-power of three Sunshards. How effortless to let the fire of competition spark, to imagine a world in which (assuming she even was interested, which she’s definitely not saying she was), she could yield to Qiu on her own terms. There is no safety in yielding to someone that Rose from the River could not defeat if she chose to.

(And speaking of Chose, our little fox friend might notice a slight but distinct relaxing in the mighty monk’s stance if Chen manages to get over the broken bridge, possibly with her sword-surfing skills.)

At first, Chen thought that the guards backing up was her getting comfortable with her sword strokes, picking up a little speed, shaking off the stress that she had been under. But no, no that would be asking too much. No, the guards were backing off because Qiu was coming in a helicopter!

Of course she was, of course, and that meant the small fry were backing off. At least, it seemed like Qiu was focused on the escaping car. That’s good, right? That’s...Chen shook her head. A small part of her was mad. Mad that Qiu didn’t respect her as an equal, mad that Qiu was chasing her friends and not her, mad that she was being ignored, and mad at herself for treating Qiu like what she wanted didn’t matter, which was almost certainly why this was happening this way. She felt guilty for feeling mad on top of that, why shouldn’t her friends get Qiu’s attention, this was good in every practical way, and anyway this was her own fault. So...so she just had to make do.

Chen tried to shake off her feelings and settle into a rhythm. She really did love flying and she hadn’t been able to do it freely in a long while, not since her quick little race back to the shrine to buy horses on the trip over and that had only been a few minutes. Here, now, there was a bit more to it. The world was chaos and uproar! Missiles were exploding, sending clouds of dirt and chunks of road flying up into the air, assault ribbons were still all over the place, starting to fall behind the princesses and vehicles, and Yue was turning the van into a belching cloud of smoke and soot that was, miraculously, swerving around and away from the missiles.

Chen almost turned around to be a diversion but something stopped her. There was a framing to this scene and was Qiu slowing down? She wouldn’t but...maybe she wanted this to go a certain way. She seemed really intent, even from a distance Chen could see her body language hanging out of the helicopter and she was so focused. So, she didn’t. It felt wrong, like she’d break something. Instead she just, for a minute, let everything go and focused on her flying. The rest would sort itself out afterwards.

So, for a precious moment, princess Chen simply went fast and let the wind on her face her. Away from the dust and the heat, towards the cool open air. She settled her crystal blade below her and balanced with her weight forward, urging it faster and faster. And when the big explosion hits the bridge and the car skids to a halt, Chen comes zooming out of the dust cloud, hair and dress covered with fine gray powder, but a great big smile on her face as she finally let the rest of the world go to shoot herself through an explosion.

As the smoke clears and the helicopter soars off into the distance, the price of victory is made known: the final, wheezing collapse of the escape vehicle. All four tires deflate, the entire rear door falls off, the engine sputters, wheezes and chunders to a halt and an endless column of exhausted smoke ascends from the bonnet.

It is to be walking, then.

But the full moon is still high in the sky, so Hyra helps walk Yue from the wreck. Below the broken bridge is a river which promises a release from the dust and panic and the weather is just so warm as to make it inviting. Better, the water runs quick and shallow, barely ankle deep in places, crashing white and loud over ten billion thumb-sized pebbles while sweet coralbark trees emerge from the shoreline to drop their star-shaped leaves one by one into the rushing water. A river like this is no accident. It is the work of princesses and queens to dredge the depths, slay the ancient monsters, seal any portals to the stygian depths, and then surround the banks with saplings that promise springtime flowers. There is a lot of hard, unglamourous work that goes into restoring a river, just as with restoring a shrine.

But now that it's been done there's nothing easier in the world than to enjoy it.

Chen came skidding out of the cloud, landed with slide next to the stopped car, and offered her friends a wave. Then for a few moments, elation and exhausted cooperated hand in hand to make her dead to the world as she lay down headfirst in the grass and just let herself breathe.

It was nice soft grass, and everybody was fine. There were sounds, something like an engine dying, air hissing, and a clang and clatter that sounded like a whole chunk of metal had just fallen off and knocked against the rest of the vehicle. They weren't important sounds though, much less important than the scent of fresh earth and the bundled touch of her dress and scarf spreading the tension from her muscles as she lay flat.

Chen considered staying like that forever. The idea was very appealing. It was comfortable, relaxing, no annoying phone calls, and the grass was not lecturing her about her obligations or giving her hurt looks because she wasn't empathetic enough to it. As it turned out, however, forever was about two and a half minutes. That was long enough to start feeling the itchiness of all the smoke and dust covering her skin, to have a few blades of grass start tickling her thighs, and to hear the running water right in front of her.

"Mmmmph" said the grass girl into a face of grass as she slowly gathered her legs beneath her, collected her scarf, and worked herself to her feet. "I'm going in the river" she added to nobody in particular as she made her way to the edge, took off her pack, and, before she could have time for second thoughts, jumped in feet first with a splash!

Chen came up for air quickly, throwing her head back to fling her soaked hair out of her eyes and wringing out her scarf as she just stood in the river and let the water flow against her chest and her open arms. She breathed out and it felt like she was dropping a whole mountain off her shoulders and letting it evaporate into the moonlight.

Only then did she look back at her friends properly. At Yue moving with Hyra out of the wreck and towards the water at a more measured pace, hands still slightly twitching and a wild look in her eyes. And at Rose carrying Cyanis by the scruff of her neck, and wearing a...Chen squinted, was that a pink dog collar with studs?! Rose hadn't been wearing that on the way in. A gift from Qiu then? She couldn't help a snicker. And here she thought Rose wanted to do all the capturing. But was she? Did she actually...?! Chen started laughing, great heaves of her shoulders as she nearly fell into the water, completely unable to help herself. Hopefully the others wouldn't think she'd gone mad or been cursed by the trapped stream!

Here's a couple of things I know are true. One, there's no place Yue needs more right now in all the wide world than a clean and pure river like this one for her to sit by and rest. Except maybe a nice restaurant, y'know? Somewhere with tasty food and the promise that she doesn't have to be the one cooking it. With a little fireplace and a cozy comfy atmosphere that she can snuggle into. But, oh! Not so nice that she's gotta worry about how she's supposed to pay for it! Remember, hardly nobody's taking sunstones as currency these days. But, y'know, absent that, this little river is her slice of heaven. Anybody got hot sake or something? 'Cause she does kinda like to... well, anyway.

Two, there's not a single chance ya girl is making it that far from what used to be the car without Hyra doing literally all of the work. Not on those scrawny, shaky legs she's not! Not with her hands still clutching at everything she can reach like it's a steering wheel that she'll die if she lets go of. Poor Hyra, by the way. It can't be very fun having your wrist or your butt squeezed like that. Probably? It's uncomfortably near the tail, is all. But she's a trooper, if the look on her face is anything to go by. So focused! So determined! And after a long and wobbly trail down to safety, she's got Yue sitting daintily down by the water's edge.

From there, it still takes time for Yue to fall back into herself. She sits there watching the water, not... quite looking at it like she's expecting demons, exactly? But eyeballing it like she's expecting something, or maybe just doesn't know what to expect at all. It's a lucky thing that clear, rushing water is so beautiful. It's a magical thing the way it shines in the moonlight and makes all the tiny stones buried in the riverbed look like treasures to be gathered and like old old friends happy to see you at the exact same time. When it carries the leaves out of sight to who knows where, and bubbles its song so sweetly in her ears, with its wet and splashy breath so cool on her legs, it unlocks enough of Yue's brain to let her look around and actually see.

So what's she see? She sees her friends, all together. All in one piece. There's Cyanis patting her tails down, and Hyra (obviously) watching the moon almost as intently as she's watching her, and a little wiggling tuft of fox fur under the flap of her bag that's doing its tiny adorable best to purr away all the bad feelings and stress. There's Rose over to one side standing so incredibly poised and statuesque and trying so very obviously hard to look like nothing was bothering her that it'd be impolite to suggest otherwise. And Chen! Tiny little Double Princess Chen, standing in the river and laughing herself silly. And if all of those things are happening, then what is she so upset about?

Here's a couple of things I know are true. One, Yue's legs are so tense they're cramping from that whole stompy-stomp depress and kill and revive loop she had to put herself through to get on the other side of her encounter with the Evil Princess Qiu (...hm, no that doesn't sound quite right. The Dread Princess Qiu? Work in progress) not even the strongest wings of triumph aren't gonna lift her heart aaaallll the way out of the pit of ickful feelings.

Two, cramps and general exhaustion are a combination of factors that are astoundingly well addressed by a beautiful and above all friendly river. Yue gingerly removes her sandals, though she probably didn't need to, and slips her bare feet into the shallows so the water can splash merrily sillily splishily across them up to her ankles. She coos and sighs at the feeling of the tiny pebbles massaging her soles. And a soothed sole is a soothed soul, am I right?

She leans back, and there's Hyra. Holding her. Bracing her. Wrapping her arms around her. Those intensely red eyes stare into her soft blue ones, and in the light of the moon they flicker with amusement. Hyra's fingers trace the outline of her jaw, and, gosh. Gosh gosh goshies, were they always this soft? Was she always this gentle? Everything about her and all the wonderful parts of her wonderfully human body feel so soft and warm and [inviting[/i] and, a-a-a-and, um, w-wasn't she supposed to be the iron and sinew girl? What's she doing, being so snuggly? So nice? S-so...

"You were impressive." she says, and her voice has all the iron qualities it's supposed and that it needs to to convince Yue that she means it.

"I. Am." Yue sighs and flops dramatically over into Hyra's embrace, "Never driving again!"

Her flipping and her flopping open the flap on her bag, and Kat crawls out because her snuggle radar is going crazy right now and she'll be darned if she's going to miss out on the good stuff, not after putting up with all that adventure silliness! So Yue's dramatic declaration is met on both ends by snuggly triangle girls, and her fingers just can't help themselves but work their magic and give just the best scritchies anywhere this side of the Terraced Lake.

"I mean it!" she says, and she does, even though she's also struggling not to laugh.

Her face is caught halfway between a smile and a pout. Her hands are occupied with pats, which makes it all a lot more difficult to point and gesture dramatically the way she'd really like to right now. But she doesn't mind so much, because to really do that right, she'd need to stand up. And that's just not happening. She kicks her leg instead, spraying droplets of crystal clear and deliciously cold water all over the place.

"Not only am I never driving again, I'm not setting one foot in a car for as long as I live! Or a truck! And don't even get me started on motorcycles! No! No, no, no, I'll walk as many extra days as I've gotta, I don't even care! I'm gonna master this silly flight spell just to put this whole thing to bed! See if I don't! You all... just, g-go ahead if you wanna, I'll, y'know, catch up. Eventually. Without cars!"

Rose from the River should not care whether she is the object of mockery or not. Only the fool heeds the chittering of monkeys, and only the vain desire to be revered and respected by all. But there's something in how Chen almost falls over looking at her, how Hyra is carefully not looking at her, how Cyanis is radiating pure innocence...

So Rose from the River inspects herself carefully. It cannot be a sign that Cyanis has put on her back, given that Chen cannot see her back (nor can anyone else, given her braids). It is not something that she can see-- ah, when she looks down, something digs into her jaw. Something familiar. Something humiliating. Her grip on Cyanis tightens, and for a moment she considers punting the fox over a mountain, or at the very least onto the other side of the river. Instead she takes Cyanis with both hands and swings her, one, two, three, then sends her flailing into the water.

"Just a fox trick," she says, unbuckl-- hmm. This is. How does this mechanism work? She could tear it off, but that would be... admitting defeat. Yes. Except the longer she tries to figure out how to unbuckle this, the longer it might seem that she is either too incompetent to do so or does not want to do so, and so she tries to casually seem as if she was stretching, not trying to take it off. "This is why someone is going to Cutie Jail."

Then, calmly, rationally, as a response to Chen nearly dunking her head in the water doubling over with giggles, and as a response to the most shit-eating grin from a soaked Cyanis sitting up in the water with her hair in her face, Rose from the River wades into the river, spins her staff, and with a single blow reverses the flow of the water back on top of Chen and Cyanis in a mighty wave. Behold, the martial skill of the Thorn Pilgrim, defeater of rivers and giggling foxes and princesses! Let nobody challenge her who does not wish to be defeated, yes, not even Qiu, because that first battle was a fluke and next time the collar will be on the other throat!

Autumn evening steals in a little quicker than you're used to. That calls for fire to warm soaked and shivering bodies, and a shelter to block the gently rising wind. The former is the product of hard work but the latter is serendipity - one of Princess Kikil's travel castles can be found a few kilometers down the river and it's a perfect improvised shelter.

Even if you've never seen a Princess you'll likely feel some sense of personal connection to Princess Kikil. She builds castles, you see. If she stays in one place for a while it'll be a huge complex as filled with defensible tricks of mathematical subtlety as it is filled with sweeping spires. If she's just passing through she'll still leave some little maze or shelter or tower - she especially likes building lighthouses - behind her, swiftly to be overgrown and weathered into the landscape. While a lot of her works are too far out in the wilderness to move into, some are indeed occupied by aspiring hermits who are happy for the free real estate. Plenty more are left uninhabited for lost travelers to stumble into.

This one in particular is built like a birdwatching hide - sunken and low, entirely hidden from one angle in particular - you'd suspect built to spy on Princess Qiu as she worked to clear this river. It's a cozy enough space, but in these close quarters with the wind rattling across the exterior and the fire flickering in the middle, it's just eerie enough for ghost stories. It's also suitable for gossip, party games, or the general camping experience, but Cyanis was the first mover in the space and decided it was to be ghost stories.

Hyra actually took to the activity first with the energy of someone who hasn't had the opportunity to talk out loud in too long. She's good at it too, telling it like she just heard it herself, letting her eyes go large and startled while keeping steady eye contact until, almost like a small jump scare, she shifted her whole attention across to someone else.

"On Tuesday the Sixth of April, Countess Klarissa's bank account ran dry," said Hyra. "She didn't notice. Why should she? She wasn't a technomancer. Wasn't relying on any burrower services or features. She was a creature of the new world and held no truck with demons, so that surely meant she was safe. Everything she'd earned was from her own hard work, and now she was powerful and respected and independent. She hadn't asked for anything from anyone so now she wasn't going to give anything to anyone in return. She put up a huge fence around her land and told everyone to keep out. No matter what! One time when two children snuck in to steal her apples she drew her sword and spanked them with the flat of the blade until they were in tears. Stay out! Work your own land! What's mine is mine!

"Or so she thought. Countess Klarissa had forgotten the wishing well, you see."

"Wishing wells are, of course, common - a well is more likely to be a wishing well than to be safe. Whisper into it and the water will carry your voice down deep, deep, deep into the depths. Normally it's a priestess' job to guard the well and draw the water but young Klarissa hadn't seen it that way. All that chanting and nonsense just to get a drink? Nonsense! So she snuck a sip when nobody was watching and it was easy - water was water! So she snuck another and another and got used to it, and when you're used to it you aren't as careful. And when you're not careful, and you're not chanting to keep your voice busy, you're always in danger of saying something that might just sound like a wish to the ears that listen at the bottom of the well. And little Klarissa had said 'I wish they all listened to me!'."

"And for a while that's exactly what they did."

"She got used to bossing people around. It came naturally to her and she had a lot of orders to give. Stop this, do that, go away, give me that. She thought she was just charismatic and had a way with words but every word she said was amplified by the invisible demoness that hovered behind her shoulders and brushed her hair as she slept. And each time she gave an order it subtracted a few more dollars from her bank account."

"Now sometimes service cuts off when you hit zero. Some people unknowingly waste their technomagic for years until it disappears without a trace one day and all the demons go home. But sometimes you get an Afterpayer. These are the most dangerous demons of all because they're authorized to extend you credit - and that's exactly what Klarissa's demoness did. Day by day she used the power she thought was her natural talent, thought was her ordained birthright, and day by day the demoness clacked another bead across in the abacus."

"But there was hope. You see, when a demon is granting you credit it needs to provide warning of some kind. It can, however, get fairly abstract or hostile when doing this. Sometimes it whispered its warnings at the same time as other people were talking. Sometimes it made milk curdle or roosters lay eggs. As the credit progressed red lights began to dance in the sky and a passing monk took notice. She came to investigate the village, demon-smiting staff in hand, searching for the signs of corruption. But just as surely as the monk could smell the demon the demoness could sense the monk and she decided that now was the time to call in her debt."

"In a swirl of water and algorithms the demoness appeared before Klarissa. It told her of her debt and told her of the price. She was to descend with her into the depths of the Burrowing World, collared and leashed, dressed as a maid to cook, clean, and wait on the demon's every whim until her debt was paid. Klarissa balked, panicked, and ran. She ran towards the town, calling for the monk - who heard her! The monk raced out to defend her with staff in hand, and Klarissa ran towards her saviour in relief."

"But then they both came up short."

"There was, you see, a fence in the way."

"Klarissa's own fence, her own gate, her own KEEP OUT signs were now no longer a defense against small children. They were now a cage that was keeping her locked in. The monk tried to climb, but she was not young and the barbed wire line at the top seemed so excessive now, didn't it Klarissa? And the demon was able to come out at a leisurely pace, take the girl by the hair, and start whispering the terms and conditions of her new role as it dragged her down into the depths. There she toils still, a single slave in an empty hell, working off every order she ever gave."

Chen was much more relaxed now. Rose had given her the best reaction, oh that moment of hesitation with the collar. She had seen it! She had seen those fingers tap and bounce off and the big monk had tried to pretend like it was what she meant all along. Now she just had to figure out what to do with it. That was a head scratcher for another time though. The time now was to towel off and get dry before it got too chilly, then to inspect the new little castle.

Chen was still a bit suspicious of Kikil and even though she knew this little old place was almost certainly deserted, she still felt the need to poke about in every little nook and cranny of their temporary abode. She popped her head into little cabinets, zipped up to inspect the tower crenellations, and poked around the fireplace before she was satisfied that there wasn't some kind of spy device or...or something! Even this suspicion was a kind of relaxed one though. Chen was suspicious of Kikil but she didn't feel any pressure from her. She poked and zipped about and scowled a little, but it was all in good fun and she had grins for her friends, Rose chief among them as she passed them.

By the time that Hyra had finished her ghost story, Chen was overcome by a fit of the giggles. She looked over at Yue and tried to shake her head and get across gosh please don't say anything to Rose while nearly falling over. Rose hadn't seen her in Cyanis' maid costume before Yin cut that thread, she was pretty sure, and she didn't need Rose getting any silly ideas for dressing her up. No she wasn't blushing, the story was just fun and silly and the fire was making her cheeks a little ruddy. That was it!

After that little giggle fit, all eyes were on Chen, so she was, of course, obligated to tell the next story. "Okay I have a good one, but it's pretty scary" she said, giving a pointed glance to Yue and then Rose in turn. Obviously the two weakest links here. She cleared her throat, but giggled a bit more at the idea of a permanent maid in the burrows, ruining the initial suspense. She blushed, cleared her throat again, and started her story properly.

When the original princess shot the suns, they say that the first shard might have been the one that fell in the north because it's closest to the sky. It's always been wild, cold, and full of magic. Fun if you aren't afraid of anything out there. But I want to tell you about Jian the wandering monk.

Jian came from a town pretty far away from Sourcefall, somewhere near where they have one of those big towers nearby, so their phones work really well. Jian loved designing little pictures she could share as she traveled. They helped her make friends wherever she went, and sometimes she could even get pictures of demons that nobody else could see with something called an "AR filter."

When Jian got to Sourcefall, there were rumors of some kind of demon threatening the northern towns. The Princess at the time had recently been kidnapped by Ys and she wouldn't be ransomed for at least a week, so Jian offered to go see what was happening. A couple of handmaidens took her up north and she began to wander, questioning the townsfolk and looking around the tundra. She took picture after picture, but her AR filter couldn't find any demons.

Frustrated, she followed rumors from the townsfolk and made her way into the tundra, finding a deep cave. She thought for sure that she had found what she was looking for, but what she didn't know was that the northern demon wasn't a thing of the old world, but of the new. It was frost spirit, a powerful little one that jumped around from icicle to icicle, delighting in drawing in just enough warmth to start melting and then...boom trapping whoever it had found as things slowly refreezed. Jian didn't know what she was in for as she wandered into that cave, and the spirit was delighted at the new source of warmth it had found. Frustrated, but assuming herself safe, Jian made a fire and settled into her fluffy sleeping bag for the night. Above her, the icicles in the ceiling began to melt. Drip. Drip. Drip. But the fire was warm and Jian was all bundled up and tired, so she let herself fall asleep.

As she slept, the icicles kept melting, forming a little pool of warm water all around Jian's sleeping bag. Strong and powerful as she was, she didn't feel it subtly grow. Not until the drops started to hit her fire and caused it to sputter and go out on the now damp logs. Only then did Jian awake to find that the water had frozen and she was trapped in her sleeping bag.

With no other option, she pulled out her phone and took a picture, trying to capture some of the cave and send for help to whoever she could reach. But the frost spirit was delighted, for Jian had brought it a new, long-lasting source of warmth. A small one, but easily recharged with the right tools. So it snuck into Jian's sleeping bag and nestled next to her as she sent her pictures.

It's said that the frost spirit possessed poor Jian. Or perhaps she became the new frost spirit. None could say. But if you turn your phone on in just the right place in the north, it's said that you might get sent a picture asking for help that looks like it's from someone in a nearby cave. And if you go in, you'll never come out.

Rose from the River cups her drink in both hands, legs folded, impossible to read. Even the fact that she’s still wearing the collar (it has resisted repeated attempts at removal, and may in fact have been jammed in all the chaos) doesn’t seem to phase her. She has much the same gravitas as a statue of one of the nameless saints, which is why Cyanis is leaning on her for support.

Dear little fox! The night outside looms with existential horrors that cannot be tricked or pleaded with, things without hearts to appeal to. Things that aren’t so much dead as never were alive. Things with gleaming eyes and cold hands. Rose is a comforting pillar of stability in the darkness, because what’s the good of being arrested by a monk if they won’t even protect you.

“Yes, poor Jian,” Rose says, lifting her eyes from the inky dark of her drink. They glitter like the eyes of a ghost. “There are all sorts of dangers like that in the world, children of the new age. I think they are more frightening to me than the punishments of Hell, for at least those can be understood, even if they are unfair. It is possible, sometimes, to come out the other side.”

Cyanis heaves a shaky sigh of relief under her breath. That’s a comforting thought, at least. That’s when Rose goes in for the kill. “Though when I met the Principle of Hidden Promise in the deep places of the world, she told me that her darling Klarissa was racking up more debt faster than she could pay it off, as demerits for misbehavior and low quality work ramped up. And this, too, I recognized. It is the nature of the world that was to impoverish its victims, then set traps for them to keep them in their place, desperate and willing to work. So now there is only the choice for the Countess.”

Here, Rose takes a sip of her drink and settles back into silence until Cyanis pipes up: “The choice?”

“Well,” Rose says, very seriously, “there are... opt-ins. A veritable menu of toys and humiliations and extra services, designed by the demoness herself. Every one signed for, every one a permanent addition to her routine. What do three inches of skirt matter if they bring you closer to freedom? Or three inches of your height, for that matter? And since you’re so busy anyway, surely you don’t need the right to relieve yourself without permission, or to be able to talk whenever you want, and what’s the harm of the kitty-ear headphones constantly playing a... curated playlist? There is a way out of Hell, yes, but it narrows as you climb, and eventually you are likely to find yourself... stuck.”

She examines her audience, all the more shaken by her simple, ostensibly factual account, and manages not to smile. Who is to say whether this is true or not? Have they climbed down into the ancient burrows and dallied with technodevils? (And let little Chen remember that Rose herself was once one.) Surely, after all, a simple monk could not be drawing this scenario out of her own fantasy.

“I met the Scales of Meaning some time after that. She informed me that the sophont once known as Countess Klarissa (whose new name I will not share in such innocent company) had accepted, at that time, one hundred and eighty-seven amendments to her original contract, that she would be free within one thousand and seven days barring further demerits or amendments, and that the chances of her choosing to leave her service by the end of that period were seven to three thousand and two.”

Cyanis is a wide-eyed bundle of floof as Rose’s voice becomes low and gravelly. “But at least for her there was that seven. A possibility that she could save herself from her fate of endless humiliated toil. The ghosts of this world... they are not as sophisticated. They do not play games. And they do not give chances, even chances designed to make you even more theirs. So, companions... I pray that the devils find you first.”

And then, the killing blow, the line that makes Cyanis fling herself into Yue’s arms in a trembling bundle, the sepulchral hiss of ancient stagnant water and molding cubicle labyrinths that sounds horribly wrong coming out of Rose from the River’s throat: ”After all, we have a special place prepared for every one of you.”

After holding it a beat, she clears her throat, hocks up something phlegmy into the shadows, and takes a long drink. “I hope you appreciated the voice,” she croaks. “I don’t really do it anymore.”

If the best trained warrior in history took a Cyanis to the face the way that Yue is just now, she'd be lucky just to stay on her feet. At best she'd stumble back several paces acking and pffting and possibly even thbbbting at the face full of cutie all up in her business before she finally managed to get things under control, and even then she'd have to deal with the raw horror of a trembling scaredyvixen nuzzling her neck as though the warmth found therein was some sort of get out of jail free card and a security blanket rolled up into one precious thing. And honestly, how many warriors do you know who'd handle themselves even that well? Bet you a shiny nickel that even the Demon Swordswoman herself (whatever her name really was) couldn't have done any better than that.

Now, if you're Yue? Well, then you've got a bit of a handicap. Or three. See, like, for one thing? She's not even standing! It's a story circle, so she's been politely and attentively sitting here this whole time, maybe pulling steadily further and further into herself as stuff's gotten scarier, but... in a polite and attentive way, y'know? So no warrior's stance and Battle Readiness for her.

And for two things? Ya girl's a lot of things, but 'strong' isn't exactly one of them. Just take a look at her arms. Twigs, you'd call 'em, if you weren't worried about the twigs ganging up on you after work and giving you such a poking for being sassy enough to insult 'em like that. This is the kind of girl who sometimes needs to find a river or a particularly agreeable bear to ask it for help opening a jar for her. A jar that she closed herself! Her tummy is cute and trim in keeping with her skinny-girl profile, but you could go over it with a magnifying glass and not find so much as a one-pack let alone six, 'cause muscle definition implies the existence of muscles. So yeah.

And for three things, these are really scary stories. Ancient debts you don't know you're collecting and ice demons stealing you while you're trying to sleep, and, and... extra c-c-conditions and eeeeeeeep! Also yeeeeeeeep! But mostly eeeeeeeeep! S-so maybe she's not exactly on the best of her game right now, even if her game was somehow magically better than a magic super monk/demon or a double princess or the world's best and prettiest handmaiden. No, she's quivering and shaking and inching ever-so-closer to Hyra the more words come out of anybody's mouths.

All of this is to say that when Cyanis comes to her seeking Asylum, it's all Yue can do to not go rolling so far over that she winds up on the bottom of the pile. And funny enough, it's actually her training that helps her manage this. Not her sword training, sillyhead, that's useless! No no no, it's all her experience as the World's Best Fox Mom that lets her roll with the sudden yipping weight and only go flopping over sideways into Hyra's embrace.

She's love to say it's kindness that guides her now, but it's not. Her fingers rub soothingly behind Cyanis' fluffy ears while her opposite hand wraps protectively around the wish granting girl's tummy, but that's all a function of how scared she, Yue, is. Snuggles are a two way street, ok? That's just science. Snuggle science, specifically. She holds Cyanis tight because she's as badly in need of clinging material as anybody here. She trembles and shivers so much that her body has become a soothing, uh, whaddya call 'em? Tuning forks? Yeah, and her trembling breath makes a wonderful shushing noise that can put any triangle at ease. That's the magic of being born for something, I guess. Even when you're not trying to do it you're still really good at it.

But that's how we wound up in our current situation: Hyra's iron arms around Yue's tiny scrawny twigs (aaaah, no no, it was a... uh, a joke! Don't hurt meeeee~) holding Cyanis as tight as a doll at bedtime, with a softly purring Kat curled up asleep and blissfully unaware of what any of the fancy folk are actually saying as the perfect cherry on top of this comfort sundae. Oooh, man. An ice cream parlour would be an amazing next adventure, just sayin'.

"D-do you, um. Do you maybe think we could, uh... I mean. Um. M-maybe that's enough ghost stories f-for one night. I mean! Um! Thank you and, uh... no, no! It's fun, r-really! I'm having a (gulp) blast. But we're scaring, um, Kat, so..."

"Yeah guys!" squeaks Cyanis with incredibly believable bravado, "You're scaring Kat! Just look at her!"

And the big fox holds up the smaller one and shakes her until frightened yips ayayayayayay their way across the entire castle.

The moon is gigantic and blood red as it hangs over the castle of Princess Qiu. Apparently she's decided that she likes it up there and so has doubled down.

*

Assault Ribbons soar in the cool dawn air like kites. In the distance formations of Princess Qiu's guards march in formation or roar along the roads in technicals (a category that includes horseback and light mecha). The spread out formation, the nonlinear movement and the tall banners that raise from each unit gives the impression that the entire landscape is overcome with Qiu's soldiers. She's on the march.

With the ribbon road occupied, the safe path leads along the river, keeping close to the undergrowth to avoid the eyes of passing patrols or the detection of streaking assault ribbons. It's cautious work, and tense - scurrying across the open while glancing everywhere for Qiu's black and gold banners.

The Sky Castle is the goal - but how to get there? There are some stories everyone knows - that a magical ladder hangs from the bottom of it, always just touching the ground but still a multi-kilometer climb; that to reach it by plane means dueling the skyfighters; that some chase it for years without catching up with it. It moves quickly and unpredictably and for this reason has only been conquered twice, and both times after Princess Jessic got herself captured first.

The internet provides some clues. Jessic's website is something of an adventure photography blog - she makes elaborate preparations and explores exotic and unreachable locations. There is a great deal of territory that only she can easily reach - other sky structures, or unreachable mountain valleys. Sometimes she faces terrible monsters there, creatures she spends as much time observing, researching or trying to socialize with as engaging in combat. Perhaps one might be able to predict her future movements from that but you'd need to be far more traveled or technically minded than anyone here is. Perhaps Princess Kikil or Jezara would be able to help with that.

Of course, there's also Cyanis' suggestion, which is to sacrifice a princess to tempt the dragon out. "Dragons love princesses," she said, looking at Chen with the confidence of someone who has learned everything they need to know from trashy romance novels. Then her gaze turns to Yue. "And maidens~," she said with a wink. And then she looked up at Rose and added, "and priestesses. You should absolutely let me tie all three of you up, there's no way Princess Jessic would be able to resist."

Her tails swish-swish-swish at the thought of committing fox crimes being so helpful!

Well that was just absurd. Luring the dragon out with a princess like some cheap novel?

Why was Qiu doing all these patrols anyway? They had escaped in a big chase and didn’t Qiu tell her to go to sky castle and see Jessic? Maybe that wasn’t meant for Yue though? Chen could fly, but she wasn’t going to leave her friends so they needed some plan to get everybody up to the sky. Chen wasn’t coming up with anything either, and there was Cyanis with her wagging tails offering an idea to lure the dragon.

Chen glanced sideways, trying to to look at anyone as she thought. Cyanis did have a point. Of course there wouldn’t be a sacrifice, but the dragon might want to whisk a tempting princess up to the sky castle, and maybe offer a ride to the whole group in the process. Of course, they didn’t need to tie everyone up, that was just exaggerating. But Chen would need to be a tempting target. Her outfit didn’t really stand out that much though, certainly not from the sky. She needed something to make her look bigger and with lots of folds and billows to draw attention.

Chen fidgeted nervously. There was a plan forming here, a bit of fox magic again, not even a need for a wish really, or perhaps the wish was to be the bait and have it work. Cyanis was making a very tempting offer and Chen wanted Rose to see...oh, ah, she couldn’t but!

A blush Rose to Chen’s face and she slowly raised her hand up as she looked towards Cyanis. “I um...I think that’s a good idea. I mean, um, we don’t need to tie up all three of us, but if we get the dragon’s attention with a princess like...um, me, then we can ask him to take everyone up to the sky castle and there’s no way that Qiu’s soldiers could keep up.”

Chen glanced down, pointedly not looking at Rose or...or anyone else. Especially not the fox tales that were going swish swish swish faster and faster once Cyanis realized that she’d got a bite with her bait. “But um...I’ll need a new outfit. The dragon won’t notice me normally, so we need something really...um...thick and...er poofy...and billowy even when I’m tied up, and, and in a color that will stand out against the ground so...so it can’t miss me. Then we can all pop out when the dragon comes down and ask for a ride in exchange for taking me captive.

If anyone thought she was reluctant, Chen dispels all doubt of that when she looks up and her eyes are sparkling despite the blush that’s once again suffusing her face. “We’ll avoid all of Qiu’s soldiers and go from a spot where only the dragon can see from above. It will work for sure, I just need Cyanis to make me a new outfit!”

Of course Rose recognizes the shining light in Chen’s eyes. How could she not? That joy, that hope, that belief in fox wishes: she would have to have a heart of stone lying leaden in her chest not to recognize it and love it, because once she knew it, too. And it is certainly for Chen’s sake that, instead of putting her foot down immediately and informing Cyanis in no uncertain terms that she was banned, yes, banned from doing any more fox mischief, and that they would figure out a more practical plan all on their own, one that would not get hearts racing and so beguiled with delight that they would miss the delightfully wicked fox crimes being carried out right in front of their helpless eyes, Rose just blushes darker and thornier and feels her own heart start to race with that familiar excitement and longing. She should not! She should be strong! She should, at the very least, carry out her duty as a mendicant monk and supervise Cyanis in her granting of a wish.

But what Rose instead does is hum thoughtfully. So thoughtfully! One might almost imagine that she was developing some sage insight, not sweating like an ordinary girl (all apologies to Yue, who we are sure sweats a simply ordinary amount when in the presence of Hyra). “Well,” she says, her voice slightly huskier than usual. “One prize might not be enough for a globe-trotter like Jessic. And we can’t let dear Chen here get dangled as bait alone. Her plan is... sound.”

And then she turns to Cyanis suddenly, back to looming, full of doom. “Little fox,” she says— no, she declares, tipping Cyanis’s chin up to look at her. “If you carry this out and then make an attempt to run away, then I will make you regret your choice to flee justice. But if you carry out the wish of Princess Chen, to be the lure that brings Jessic here, I will regard it as Service to the Community. Consider carefully the fact that we are likely to be peers for a very long time.”

It should be obvious to see, despite any protests to the contrary, conflict war across Cyanis’s darling little face. On the one hand: tie everyone up and then escape from the monk! On the other hand: have both a grateful princess and a monk in your debt! On the third hand: make Chen, Jessic, and Rose in your debt with a successful hand-off and then get pampered as a fox should be in the Sky Castle! Oh, look, resolution. Wasn’t that quick?

“Cyanis, pure-hearted fox,” Rose manages to say without a hint of irony, “I offer myself into your hands. Secure me alongside our dear Twinshard Chen, spare no expense in making sure I am truly helpless so that Princess Jessic has no reason to suspect treachery, and...”

Rose closes those great golden eyes and lets out a shaky sigh. “Please take this collar off my neck and then give me a makeover. A dragon-attracting makeover. I suggest Royal Concubine or High Priestess, but you know best.”

Now this. This is a surrender. To admit that she needs Cyanis’s help to remove the collar, then to give her free reign over her wardrobe, all but begging her to be strict and stifling and be impudent in showing off how helpless she can make one of the pilgrims of the Way? To allow herself to be put into a position where Cyanis could walk off with all her belongings (and some cute new floral panties) and leave Rose from the River shouting “~n, ~n!!” after the fox?

Chen isn’t the only one unable to hide the sparkle in her eyes, suffice to say. After all, is it not said:

The river from the mountains runs clear,
the window of the palace is wiped clean:
so too is the heart of a maiden
when awoken to her secret desire!

Rose then turns and shares a long glance with Hyra, and then offers one hand to Yue. “You are, of course, not required to join us,” she says, doing a remarkable job of seeming composed. “But it behooves every young adventuress to take the plunge and explore new experiences in a safe way.” And what could be safer than the hand of the monster who binds her own heart?

"Oh goshies, um, I really don't think I ought to... I mean, I'm completely useless, right? T-to the plan, I mean. You guys are amazing, sure, what dragon or princess or princess-dragon or dragon-princess et cetera wouldn't want to capture you? Y'know? But I'm just... me, s-so I don't see how I'd be any use. I-I should just... supervise? O-or uh, maybe I'll just watch. F-from over there. And I'll catch up later, some other way. Yeah."

Look, before you judge her too harshly please remember that nobody brought Yue along for her acting skills. So fine, she's not fooling anybody. Ok? Glad we've established that. She's not hiding the blush on her face, or the way her head keeps dipping the more she tries to talk herself free of this.

For that matter, she can't hide the long and meaningful glances she keeps throwing Hyra's way. What's she looking for from her, do you think? A nod? A shake of the head? A piercing stare and a smirk? To be told she'll be safe? To be promised it's ok to want this? To hear from somebody who should know that, yes, standing up to two different princesses and then crashing a car actually does qualify her as a full adventuress? Oooooh, perhaps... a kiss?

Mm, sorry Yue, but this isn't that part of the story yet. You've tamed a ghost and cleaned a shrine, you've been chased by demons and found a girl who makes your heart go pitter patter thumpa thump, you've learned how to hold a sword and someday you might even swing a real one! You've done probably a dozen incredible things since leaving home, but everybody knows you don't get to kiss the girl and get carried home in her arms until you are, really for realsies and everyone says so, a hero. And you're just not there. Not yet.

So what she gets instead is shoved forward into the waiting arms of a giggling Cyanis, while Kat is left to gleefully headbutt at her legs until she trips and falls and is totally caught and helpless. She yeeps and yeeks and yikeses with all the proper protest required of a maiden in fine standing. She wiggles like any true hero-in-training should when in the clutches of a villainous fox, who is only very slightly ruining everything by gleefully giggling like she's just heard the world's funniest joke instead of "Ohohohoh"ing into the back of her hand the way you'd expect a really high-class kidnapper to.

But in her defense, have you seen Yue? Adorable. Especially while she's wiggling. And in Cyanis' double defense, she is prepared even before her cue with ropes so soft they border on cuddly and a clean strip of cloth to give the suggestion of a gag without actually hindering her ability to speak up if she needs anything. Say what you will, but she's a fox. And foxes grant wishes.

"J-j-just..." she squeaks, "I guess it won't hurt to try, so, um. Uh. Pl-please don't... make my costume too embarrassing?"

Fox wishes are perilous things.

Any fox, even one as allegedly new to this whole business as Cyanis, is dangerous not because they might twist your wish like a surly djinn but because they might slip past your defenses and grant the wish that you did not dare to speak. They will grant it so perfectly, so magically, and so undeniably that you'd feel like a bit of a churl for observing that they picked your pocket or stole your heart in the process. But then, if a fox is going through all this trouble to grant your wish then isn't it only fair that you grant hers along the way too?

(Daily Affirmation of the Way <3: Really when you get down to it, this is why foxes don't get trials. If a fox doesn't get what she wants she'll make you feel like a miserable, awful, terrible jerk who is slandering and oppressing a poor innocent vixen. The problem is that foxes want everything and so after a certain point you'll just have to put your foot down and hold your nerve no matter how many tears fall from pleading fox eyes.)

It is, however, too late now.

Princess Chen glitters. Cyanis may have a hazy grasp on the biology and mindset of dragons but what she does know is that they're absolutely loaded probably. So in service to that dimly remembered mythic stereotype she has rendered Chen opulent. Her hands shine with rings, her hair braid is magnificent and run through with gemstone butterflies, her ears shimmer with rubies and her neck is alight with opals. The dress too is a magnificent ballgown complete with hoopskirt, and sparkling glitter makeup surrounds her eyes. Just as much care has been given to the choice of rope and knot, and in Chen's case it's a brutal one. Rough fiber and tight fits gives just a touch of red to wrists and neck, emphasizing the paleness and delicacy of Chen by placing her in contrast to such harsh restraints; she appears as a princess captured by an ogre.

The chains given to Rose are more subtle. Cyanis in her foxy wisdom knows that she can't simply tie up a creature like Rose. To someone of her strength and power a knot would be more fashion accessory than restraint. No, here she is at her most wicked and her most magical and you only realize too late what a fox can get away with if you don't think to stop them. With a click of foxy nails and a glint of wicked teeth Cyanis steals Rose's very mind. All of her wit and cunning and ability to stop foxy mischief - plucked from Rose's head as a thread of hair and transmuted to a ransomware encryption lock. She returns this to Rose, in the form of a candle with the hair as a wick. For so long as the candle burns - which could be days! - her intelligence will be kept at a basic level, all your advanced functions and centuries of experience denied. Only basic obedience functions remain.

To complete the effect Cyanis has dressed Rose as a beautiful priestess all in white, and had her kneel down and await. If a royal princess snatched from a castle ball is one worthy type of bait, a noble priestess sacrificing herself to a monster is another - or at least it is if your understanding of dragons is entirely ripped from the covers of trashy romance novels. And by that standard there is only one more piece of classic dragonbait to cast Yue in: the injured knight. Dragons and knights, Cyanis reasons, have an intensely sexual dynamic which will no doubt be inflamed when one finds the other wounded and vulnerable. To this end she has dressed Yue first in shining armour, hair tied back in a practical ponytail, with a cloak of yellow and blue (this part was easy - the ancient hero's armour was half the way there, Cyanis just made some adjustments). Then she scuffs everything up. Smoke, grime and ash dim the shine of armour, and then everything is tattered and torn so that the straps are hanging immodestly loose. Then she injuries you.

It's a very strange thing Cyanis has done here because it does not involve violence at all, or any sort of specific injury like a broken bone or an actual cut. Instead she has somehow created the impression of being nonspecifically 'injured', like how a character in a show might hold one side and wince and walk with a limp. It's an intensely fake feeling (and if we are to be honest, it is because Cyanis has lead a charmed life that has never seen so much as a stubbed toe, so her entire understanding of injury is based on aforementioned shows) and while it's not really painful it still prevents you from doing things. This is ultimately another knot, after all, transmuted into a romance novel injury that can be wiped away by a tender scene that ends in kissing.

This all done, and the distressed heroines artfully arranged on the hilltop, Cyanis retires to a sunbench nearby to put on sunglasses and rifle through everyone's purses for spare change and makeup. It's not clear if she has a plan for actually attracting Princess Jessic other than assuming that dragons have some sort of sense for this kind of thing, so you've got a while to squirm and acquaint yourselves to your new roles.

(Hyra, for her part, lurks in the shadows, an ominous silhouette in the trees behind Cyanis. With the setting of the moon the curse has reverted her to a wolf once more and now she keeps a grim eye on the fox's inevitable treason).

Rose, High Priestess of the benevolent goddess Sai a’Niz, has some very simple principles. If the mind is a chariot, then the reins have been loosed and the driver chained to the car as the horses of the heart run free.

The deepest, most central desire of her heart is to Be A Good Girl. Approval, acceptance, affirmation: she yearns for these like the cat yearns for the fresh-baked bread. When her goddess commanded her, speaking so clearly that it was as if the words were whispered directly into her ear, she obeyed without question. A Good Girl doesn’t have to worry about making decisions for herself, not when she has— when she has Sai a’Niz to make them for her.

The path before her is so easy and simple: kneel here and wait for the dragon. Until she arrives, feel the ropes constricting all around you, the ones that will fall off when it’s time for your line. You’re into gags, aren’t you? What a cute monk you are! Okay, you’re gagged, too. So gagged. It feels amazing. Until the dragon princess arrives, you can’t make a squeak. Your mouth is so full and so securely shut. Doesn’t it feel amazing? You should thank your goddess for being so nice. But you can’t tell her, so you’ll just have to think about how thankful you are super hard! And... be sure to watch the princess! She needs an audience, doesn’t she? She wants someone reverent and attentive to pay attention to her! And that brave knight, too! She needs an audience for all those dramatic winces and struggles!

Rose (just Rose, only Rose, a small name for a dainty flower) loves this. The commands of her radiant and helpful and super innocent goddess are good, and they feel good, and following orders feels good, and she melts into obedient bliss. She kneels, and she feels the tight ropes squeezing her and applying pressure all around her, and she knows she can’t make a sound through her bulging layers of scarves, and she watches the princess and acts as her audience, and it all feels so good that she wishes deep down that the dragon princess take her time.

(To all involved, princess and knight and wolf, Rose from the River kneels and smiles. There are cute and girlish ribbons woven in her hair, and her sleeves run from wrist to mid-upper arm, and her white dress, dripping with golden ornaments in the shape of fox tails, is caught about her midriff with an ornate, ostentatious clasp. The slits on either side reveal princess-crushing thighs. She kneels, and smiles, and shifts her weight oddly, always keeping her wrists and knees together. The smile is silly and sweet and blissfully happy, without any of Rose from the River’s self-consciousness or brooding or even her projected field of being in control and cool. It is completely without artifice or cunning. And the way she melted into it as Cyanis whispered in her ear, well...)

But Rose is also a girl who knows what she wants, and what she wants is girls. Pretty girls. Brave girls. Girls who will take care of her. Girls with dark hair and dark eyes and the prettiest laugh in the whole world, so unexpected and, for a moment, unburdened; girls whose fair skin dimples around rope, whose face and ears go flushed while being loyally and obediently observed. Girls with silly snortgiggles and messy blonde hair and valiant hearts; girls who deserve new experiences (and what is a High Priestess but a very new experience?) and to be pampered and flustered until they squeak. Girls girls girls girls girls.

Rose takes deep breaths into her extremely muffling gag. Her golden necklaces rise and fall like empires. Even if she has been commanded to be attentive and watch, there’s no rule that says she can’t be worth paying attention to, either. The slow drape of her eyelashes is worth all the silly words she could say, when directed at the Princess and the Knight. Please, Princess. Please, Knight. Enjoy looking at her as much as she enjoys looking at you.

Because Rose knows she wants to help. That’s why she’s here, after all. She might not remember how she got here, or if she’s ever done anything daring with a sword, but she knows she’s here so she can help the Princess and the Knight. And following her goddess’s orders is the best way for her to help them, so she’s going to do it! And the way it makes her feel warm, the way heat suffuses her, the knowledge that she’s helpless in her impossibly secure bondage... that’s just a bonus. Really. She wouldn’t lie to you. She’s a Good Girl.

So please, appreciate her! She’s doing all this for you! She remembers that much, after all! All for you, her shining stars, the second most important people in her life (and pay no attention to that whisper of heresy suggesting that maybe, just maybe, she might care more about them than the omnibenevolent Sai a’Niz...)

[Rose from the River slams down a 10 on an Entice. It’s aimed at Chen, but Yue is invited to join in~]

Oh gosh. Oh goshies! Oh wow! This outfit is incredible. If the maid outfit before had given Chen a feeling of shy happiness, this gown takes her breath away. The light glittering from her rubies glimmers on her face, and the opals on her neck shine in the sun with glittering rainbow sparkles over their polished faces. Her hair butterflies sparkle in contrasting greens, little emeralds glittering along their wings.

She would smooth down the dress and feel the soft, thick pink fabric if she could. She’d bundle it all up in her arms and let is cascade down into its wide poofs and sigh in contentment. She can’t though because her arms and her neck are bound ever so tightly. Yet that too is special. She’s under tension, her skin around the ropes just a little red and it feels like her muscles are so tense. But it’s a good kind of tension, like a cat stretching in a sunbeam, a feeling of warmth and energy stretching through all her muscles. She feels jazzed and squirms on her hilltop perch to make the light refract and sparkle (t-to better attract the dragon, not just because it feels good to let the fabric brush her legs and her stomach. Of course!).

It’s as she’s enjoying her opulent new outfit that she catches sight of Rose. Cute priestess Rose, being so good kneeling there just like Cyanis said, her golden jewelry rising and falling on that mountain of a chest. Oh...oh gosh, oh goodness. Chen lets out a squeak from behind her gag and tries to look away but she’s tied in place and it’s too hard, so all she manages is a rustling of thick pink lace and rays of sparkling gems without any real movement. Oh, no no no, she’s blushing and squeaking, trying her best to avert her eyes when she can’t move her head but there’s so much Rose there and Rose is batting her eyelashes with such a cute, innocent look on her face that Chen has never seen from Rose before. It’s all hope and innocence and it’s sooooo cute that Chen could just burst! She’s never going to live this down, Rose will tell everyone about how she melted down in speaking and blushing and Yue is probably looking at her with pity and...and the dragon is going to find her like this aaaaaaaaah!

It's so hard to be a good knight right this second, and not just 'cause Yue's never done it before! Y'know? She managed, for a minute or two, to pull off "wandering swordswoman" as she left that shrine. All silks and sandals and promises of adventure and freedom. Then she opened her mouth and, well, yeah. B-but that part won't be an issue this time! See this lovely bit of silk tied over her lips? This is a strict no-talky zone, yup yup!

But, y'know, the point's more that being a K N I G H T, that ancient marvel of stories and fighter of dragons (meep!) felt a lot different than walking the walk of an adventurer more her sort after being shown the basic steps of how. This was going off of half-remembered snippets of movies and chirped instructions from Cyanis, which made it hard to tell if she was doing it right. And even then, the one bit she's sure she's doing wrong she couldn't help if she tried.

She's pretty sure, at least, that a proper brave, injured knight being offered as a sacrifice to a passing dragon shouldn't be blushing and smiling so much. But what's she supposed to do, eh? What's she supposed to do when her friends are so darned cute?

Just look at Rose! Just look at... mmmph, gosh ok, yeah, let's look at Rose some more. A-a-and not just the way that outfit hangs so tantalizingly off of her body, all perfectly fitted and somehow still one tiny flick of a clasp away from coming completely undone. Not just that! Not just that, ok? It's the bliss inside her eyes, it's the muscles on her body going from constant threat and coiled tension to a calm serenity sorta thing. It's like... seeing a tiger when she's napping, and realizing how soft she is when she's not out hunting large animals. There's so much beauty in her body that Yue never noticed before. She can't stop staring. She can't stop blushing. And she can't stop smiling under her gag at the silly smile Rose kept flashing at her. Is that what her face looks like when she's truly happy? It must be. Yue'd already made her mind up a while ago about trusting Rose, even being her friend (though she didn't really know what that meant with somebody so ancient and... whatever). But seeing this smile was the first time Yue really felt the spark of affection for the other woman. Whoever could make her look like that all the time would be the luckiest person in the world, just about. How sweet is she? How pretty?

And look at Chen! Look at the way she keeps squirming and wiggling till she looks ready to topple over! Look at the color on her adorable cheeks! Do you hear the noises she's ma-- er, well, trying to make while those ropes dig into her petite little body? What a cutie! How could she be a Princess like Qiu or Yin? D-do... do they look this cute when they're tied up? Gosh. Goshies. Wow. There's no way, right? But maybe! Maybe Yue'd wanna pick them up and hug them tight, like she does right now looking at Chen. If they 'mmphed' like that and wiggled like that and wore gorgeous frilly dresses like that, then maybe. And if... if they looked at somebody else with a face so obviously in love as Chen looking at Rose, well then double goshies. She'd really have no choice but to hold them tight and feel her heart just burst with joy.

And also... here's a funny thing, y'know? Look at Chen and the kinds've sounds she's making. All the silly muffled squeaking and whatnot. Yue always heard that's what gags did to a body, but now that she's got one of her own she can't really figure as to how they manage it. Sure, her lips are all covered up and, well, gosh it feels really nice, right? She feels just stunningly pretty right this second. But it's not, y'know, exactly doing a lot to keep her quiet. Right? If she wiggled her jaw for a few seconds she could spit the whole thing right down around her neck and then whatever muffling it was doing to begin with would be well and over with, now wouldn't it? But looking at Chen... she thinks she gets it. It's not the power of the gag to make you be silent. It's the power of the gag to make you want to be silent. Princesses must do this all the time 'cause they love it so much! She's learning so much right now!

Probably the most magical thing of all, though, of all these new treasures for her to keep inside her brain, is how... nice it is to feel beautiful and powerful. Yue is a small bundle of twigs tied to other smaller twigs. She's the kind of girl where her height's the only thing she's got going for her, specimenwise. Twig and flab that nobody notices because it's super skinny flab, and a pair of boobs so small they couldn't hold up Rose's dress if her life depended on them. Which, thank goodness, it doesn't.

But this, like... this pain of hers was no real pain, but more like a, uh, like exercising a whole bunch at once and then collapsing into a chair at the end of the day and realizing you're not getting up again 'cause you're just donezo. And it turns out that's a nice kind of pain to be in. She can't move hardly at all, but it makes her feel proud and accomplished to be in that position even though she's done nothing to earn it. Maybe it's the armor? Maybe it's the shining plate that hugs her frail body and makes her look like a thing of motion and power, or, y'know, whatever? Maybe that's what it is. But it's just... it makes her feel pretty. Desirable. A treasure worth snatching, even.

She glances around looking for Hyra again. If she could just catch a glimpse of those eyes, she knows she'd melt on the spot. There's just no way they wouldn't be filled with want, and even imagining that glimpse is enough to make Yue feel hot and flustered. She squeaks her own squeaks, forgetting she's supposed to be the knight and not the damsel. The heat rises to her cheeks again, and she makes the bravest attempt at standing she can think of how to do so that she can drop to one knee all dramatic-like and save it. You tell me if she managed it at all, I'm no judge of these things.

But she makes a note inside her heart. To hug Cyanis as tight as she knows how just as soon as she's got arms enough for hugging. And whisper 'thank you' in those adorable fluffy ears of hers for teaching her the shape of a new wish, and for breathing the fire of adventure into her so strongly she didn't see as it could go out again. Wandering swordswoman probably fit her better than Knight, when you got right down to it. But if her silly little trips could make her feel like this? Then that'd be all right with her. Her fingers itch to practice her spell again. Her arms ache to pick up her sword and practice her forms. Oh, if she could just... ah! Ah!!

Many souls have imagined themselves riding a dragon. This is a very mundane hubris, too simple and mild to even mock. It's a fantasy that's driven away by the flash of rippling muscle and glittering scales and constant motion - and it's the motion that breaks fantasy into a breathless reality. If an illustration of a tiger is cute, the tiger in motion is heart-stopping - and a dragon in motion is beyond parallel. Primal instincts are overwhelmed by complex body language, the flick and flow of wings, the paradoxical gentleness with which stone-shattering talons brush the earth in landing, the vocalization of tail and neck and scales of winter skies fading to scales of summer skies. Every motion is hypnotic, every mannerism is deadly.

It takes a rare soul indeed to stand in the presence of a true dragon and decide nevertheless that they will ride it.

Tall leather riding boots touch the ground, gripping black stockings beneath a dress of midnight rose patterns, wrapped in a long buttoned overcoat. Hair imperiously straight is tied back into a long ponytail by black leather gloves. Her eyes know exactly what she is capable of, and the bruises on her slender neck tell of how she pushed those limits. Her approach is predatory and pulls the dragon in her wake, looming over her shoulder like a wartime mafioso's favoured muscle. To wear a dragon princess as such an accessory is a mighty fashion statement indeed.

This is Countess Keron of the Sky Castle. Her eyes flick from girl to girl, coldly and appraisingly. Finally they settle on Cyanis who is visibly sweating and trembling, a street pickpocket in the presence of a crime lord. She hurriedly bows and tucks her sunglasses behind her back. "Countess Keron," she half-squeaked. "Princess Jessic. Uhm."

"You," said the Countess, snapping her fingers and raising her hand. "Have our attention." Smoothly, Princess Jessic places a bottle in her outstretched fingers and she takes a brief sip.

"Oh! Well, um, I have captured a Princess, plus friends," said Cyanis. "And I was hoping to...?"

The Countess had taken Chen's chin with her hand and was turning her face from side to side. "Princess Chen," she said. "Pathetic. Trying to trick us like this?" With one harsh movement she grips and pulls a rope expecting it to come loose - but instead it tightens and pulls your whole body taught. A razor eyebrow arches. "Oh? Could it be that you're actually caught?"

"She is!" squeaked Cyanis. "And she's for sale. I caught them all!"

"Hm," said Countess Keron, sweeping over to Rose and looking down at her. "And this is that troublesome monk, isn't it? And you expect me to believe those ropes actually hold her?"

"I've stolen her mind!" said Cyanis. "She's perfectly obedient, I promise -"

Keron hooked her leg around Princess Jessic's right foreleg and pulled it forwards, raising the talon almost to Rose's neck. "Prove it," she said to the fox.

"R-Rose, I order you to clean the Princess' foot," said Cyanis, wilting.

And finally that harsh gaze turns towards Yue. Countess Keron kneels down before the knightly maiden, eyes sharp as knives and staring right through to the heart.

"You I don't know," she said, her voice dropping a fraction too low for Cyanis to hear. "And I do know foxes. If she tricked you into this just nod. Nod, and she will take your place - carried back to a dungeon in the castle in the sky, while you will be free to go."

So what of it, Yue? Are you a knight, or are you simply dressed as one?