So this is what it felt like to be moved by someone else.

A strange thought. Even if Chen wasn’t exactly a big, strong girl herself, capable of picking Rose up and carrying her, it’s not like Rose ever... and anyway, how would she even dare? Holding someone like this was so intimate, so demanding. And it is easy enough to melt into the movements: the strut across the room, each step small but quick, on the ball of the foot, her hips swaying easily as she went. Then the low curtesy (not that she has any skirt to lift, not yet), the steps of making the tea (a ritual, one that priestesses are as familiar with as monks), and then the way she is to fall to her knees, elegantly, head bowed and hands upraised, the tea as still and smooth as glass within the cup.

The only problem is when she is released and told to try for herself. Because she is useless, isn’t she? Suddenly, bereft of that comforting touch, everything comes undone. She wobbles dangerously across the room, her balance gone; her curtesy is ungainly, her blush as she recognizes her own nakedness is furious, and she is seized again by gentle hands before she can butcher the tea. No, no, back to being controlled, little Rose; you clearly aren’t ready for this.

Then Thian hits upon it: little reassuring words. That Rose can do this, that she is graceful, that she is pretty when she walks, and, ah! There. That does it. A dozen repetitions around the room under Keron’s eye, but all that was needed is one. When tested again, her footsteps are perfect, exactly where Thian guided them; her curtesy is low and perfect and without any self-awareness, and her skill with the tea is almost mechanical, but with a gentle fluidity that suggests more than rote learning.

So here is a prize, Countess, that much is obvious: a girl who is incredibly malleable. It takes more than an eagerness to serve to be this eminently moldable, to yield this thoroughly, to be akin to wet clay. She could be shaped into a perfect maid, or a deliberately imperfect one; she could have new truths whispered into her ear to change her very self. Tell her who she is, and she listens.

Ah, a case in point: Rose lifts her head and dares look the Countess in the eye, though she quails like a wet kitten. “Please,” she dares, “is my Chen all right...? Whatever you do to me, please, just don’t punish her... too much...”

Her voice is faltering, but the spark of defiance in her eyes still exists. It is as feeble and weak as a mouse trying to hold a sword, but for her Chen, she will still dare speak out of turn and speak to someone so far her superior, so important and commanding.

(And deep within, the nameless thing is strangely proud.)

What kind of wolf is she? That's a silly question, she's not a woof! Not a... woof. Not a, ahaha that's so funny. She's not a woof, ok? Woof! Woof. Grrrr! L-look, just check out her paws! Then you'll see, she's not... wait. Wait wait wait. Wait wait wait wait. Does anything look a little, y'know, bigger to anyone else? No? Oh, phew. Wait, wait.

A trembling, nervous Yue glances down at her hand as she lifts into the air. It's heavier than it should be so already she knows she's not going to like what she finds. But even still, she has to see it. Right? She's gotta look. It's not real unless she looks. So she gathers up all the courage she's got left, and she bends her neck to really see. Which is also weirdly awkward and a lot harder than it should be, and that's not a great sign either, is it?

She smacks herself in the face straightaway. It, um! H-hey! D-d-don't laugh, it's not her fault! They're not su-supposed to be this close to each other, ok? It looked weird so she brought it closer but then her nose turned out to be sticking out way farther than she's used to and before she knew it, whap! She yelps with fright, and the sound of that yelp's not her voice either, which only brings on further yelping, which helps even less than the first one! The Yelpy Loop is a dastardly trap, indeed.

B-b-b-bu-but maybe it's a mistake? It's not. She looks down again and makes to wiggle her fingers, but she's got no fingers to wiggle and all she does is shake a bulky gray paw like a silly girl. She whines, maybe with frustration or maybe with despair. She's not sure right now, ok? Ask her later. But right there, in the middle of her pitiful whine and the sad drooping of her tail (wait, what?), she is saved by the feeling of soft and warm fingers massaging her head.

Yue looks up. And up. And up. She tilts her head like she's ready to howl, and she finds the red eyes and the beautiful and oh-so-perfect smile of Hyra. All human. All herself. All just the way she should be, except the way the sparkle in her eyes looks more like pity than delight, but perfect just the same. Yue feels her heart explode with love all over again, which for some reason feels a lot like a perking of her ears atop her head and a rapid thump-thump-thump of a floofy tail she's got no control over. Her jaw opens up into a big goofy smile that's just filled with sharp teeth, and a long pink tongue lolls out with something kinda like happiness. Oh, she's drooling. Haha, whoops! This is hard!

...Ok. Ok. Ok. Wait? Ok! This isn't... no, it's still bad. She's supposed to be training to become a warrior, darn it! Or a, uh, y'know a... more goodful fighty person or something. But a person! A person! Herself! Yue! And she's not and it's. Well. It's worth it, for Hyra. Maybe she'll get lucky and Cyanis' work snuck over with the rest of the curse, too. Maybe when the moon goes full again she'll have hands and feet and she'll only need two of those to stand. It'll be a lot slower learning everything she wants to like that, but she could still do it! She was just figuring out how fun it could be! And if... if it took that extra time and bought Hyra all this extra to be the beautiful woman she was meant to, then that's a price she'd have paid on purpose if she could. She thinks. Probably.

Woof.

"Yue? Are you all right?"

She nods. Then she takes a punch on the top of her head.

"Then what were you thinking!? That was so stupid, Yue! Why'd you have to go and do a thing like that for me, you... you... dumb, beautiful girl?"

<<Because I love you>>

She wishes she could say it with words. She's got no idea if Hyra knows animals the way that she does, if she can decipher all the meaning of their language. For that matter, she can't really tell if she's even saying it right. Everything's all weird. It's trying to be human and animal both at once and it's like squeezing her brain into two jars at once and it's weird. But she feels the hand that punched her switch to patting instead, and she sees Hyra kneel down to pull her into a hug, and even though all she can do is flop her silly fuzzy head on Hyra's shoulder now, that seems good enough for a start.

She glances down and startles to see her dress pooled around her paws. Well, it makes plenty've sense that it'd flop off now that she was a completely different shape and all, but she kinda thought it'd've... nah. Of course it wouldn't succumb to some silly ol' curse. Not [i]her[/] dress. She snorts with pride, and steps out from on top the pile of fabrics.

She goes toppling over with a pitiful yelp before she finishes the first step. Legs go every which way except the ones she wants them to, or... maybe they do? But the way she wants them to move isn't the way she needs them to move, in any case, so here she is bouncing off the Prison Floor to roll helplessly onto her back in a pile of gangly wolf limbs. She can't blush like she is right now, but she feels her body heat up in embarrassment anyway. Hyra helps her to her feet. Fwump! Failure number two, thy name is Yue.

She rises shakily to her feet, and decides to try and master sitting, first. Slowly now, careful girl, just lower those haunches (wait, what?) and... hey! Yeah! Good girl, Yue! Good... g-goshies! Woof! A-a-at least this gives her time to look in a mirror.

And there she is. Yue the Wolf is a creature with beautiful blue eyes, which is how she knows it's her looking back if she ignores the part where the reflection-wolf tilts her head at the same time and in the same direction that she does. Her legs feel a little overlong for her body and her paws are massive and heavy and end with very prissy looking useless claws that don't know a thing about the hunt and the wild. She might be slightly smaller than Hyra was, maybe. She's not sure. It's hard to tell under all this floof. Which makes sense, doesn't it? If Yue had one particular quality she'd define herself by, it was the frizz of her stupid, rebellious hair. And that's stayed with her in the form of thick, super soft mottled gray-and-black fur that runs through here and there with patches of warm cinnamon, especially across her back.

She looks less like a mighty huntress and more like a naughty pet who's wiggled out of her collar. But the awkward pile of limbs called Yue is gone. Yue the Wolf fits together much better. Her tail is pristine, her triangles are wonderfully perky, and her muzzle ends in a soft, wet button of a nose. Somewhere in that frame, there's power lurking deep inside her. But mostly she is scared that if she tries to move again, she's gonna fall on her face again. Most of the rest of her is trying to come to grips with the fact that she is, technically, naked.

But, still. She stands up and makes to pad her way across the room, and goes scrabbling and screeching back onto her stomach. But still. She stands again. She makes it a step or two this time. Again. She's finding it hard to count the attempts, but she walks over to her sword, and paws somewhat ineffectively at the hilt.

Ya wanna know what kind of wolf she's not? A quitter.

“I...uh” Chen stops short, unsure how to answer. None of the things she’s worried about have changed, but she’d also forgotten about all the things she did today. T-those weren’t princessy things anyway, right? She’d let herself get captured by Cyanis in exchange for a pretty dress that felt so nice to wear, which was totally below her station right? And she’d done nothing to rescue Rose yet. And she had entertained the Sky Castle at the expense of her own kingdoms, hadn’t she???

And yet...she was having fun. She’d been having fun all day and they had gotten to the sky castle exactly as planned. And...Qiu had chatted ahead for them to expect her and everything. Like...like she belonged at least a little.

“I guess...” Chen said. She blushed because Jessic was being so nice. She was giving Chen all this time to just think and asking such good questions. “I dunno. Like, this part was fun but...why are we even expected to fight over the shards? Why does Qiu want so many shards and my parents care so much about stopping her? I don’t know how to handle that part, I wanted to just, like, be friends with her.”

Chen!

+Qiu wants those shards so that people care about stopping her,+ thought Jessic. +If you didn't care about them she'd steal the moon instead, or make the rivers flow backwards, or just stand outside people's houses yelling HEWWO! until someone came to fight her. I can't get too much into that because it's personal to her, but that's the way she can approach friendship and it took a lot of work to even get her this far.+

Princess Jessic opened her left wing and used it to gently fan the eerie blue fire, causing it to burn brighter and warmer. +Speaking of friends, Chen, do you have any actual friendships amongst the Princesses? Any romances? Any, mmm, strong emotions? I ask because it seems like you don't feel like you've got anyone you can really trust in this game.+

Rose!

Keron's eyes rake across you, Rose, and then switch to looking at Thian. "It seems," she said, "like she still doesn't understand her place."

Crack! The smack across your behind comes, swift and firm. Immediately following the jolt, Thist takes you by the shoulders and straightens you up, holding your posture in place. "Good girls," she murmured in your ear, "try their best to keep quiet when they're punished. And you're a good girl, aren't you?"

Keron stands smoothly, and oh, when did she get to be taller than you? She looks down on you and her voice is as unyielding as silk rope. "Listen, little Rose. Your mouth is for one thing: pleasing your mistress. You will not use it for anything else unless you wish to be punished. Am I understood?"

Yue!

"That's," said Hyra, lingering on the taste of the words - on the relish of being able to speak them again. "My girl."

*

She's up early. Good nervous system, as the saying goes - the kind of deep, instinctive intelligence and discipline that can pull her out of bed and to full alertness instantly. Although perhaps you might be capable of similar feats, Yue, were you nursing slightly fewer bruises. Turned out that the bruises shapeshifted with you which hardly seems fair.

It's after you've woken but before you've summoned the willpower to get out of bed when Hyra walks back into the room, scratching the back of your neck with the pinpoint precision of someone who has spent weeks thinking about all the places she couldn't reach to scratch under her own power. "Hey, beautiful," she said. She's got her phone in her other hand and it buzzes intermittently as messages come in. "You sleep okay?"

She is benevolent enough to not make fun of your response or lack thereof. It doesn't count as quitting if you haven't started yet! "Don't stress too much, cutie, this is actually my kind of curse at this point," she said. "You know, I was trained by Princess Jezara in the Western Plains? She taught me everything - magic, swords, even a little bit about shapeshifting magic. I reckon I might get... maybe not a fix, but a something with a few days of research. But you know what I got for you right now?"

She takes one of your paws in her hand and a nail-paint brush in the other. She paints one claw a bright red, and then a delicate series of dots all across it. "This isn't much of a spell," she said. "But it will let you digest things like chocolate and coffee with no problem. This is important because I've cooked breakfast, and it's chocolate chip pancakes, and you look like you could use the coffee."

"...Mroof."

Ok. Being a hundred percent fair here? This is not a wolf thing that's happening right now. That was not a wolf noise, ok? That was a I Am Sore And Tired And I'm Very Glad You're Full Of Energy Today, Hyra, But If You Will Recall SOMEBODY Thought It Would Be A Good Idea To Use My Butt As A Lesson Planner So Now I Can't Move And Also Do You Have Any Idea What Time It Is Right Now It's Like Wait What How Can It Be Ten Thirty Already Hwaaaaaaaa(?!) kind of a noise, y'know?

In her defense, Yue didn't really sleep all through the night. Not quitting means not quitting, all right? She snuck out of bed not too long after everyone else fell asleep so she could practice padding around in the dark. It was pretty easy, y'know? Well, it was hard. You don't understand how much extra brain work goes into walking on four legs until you suddenly have to do it. Crawling's not remotely the same; this way she's gotta do it while her brain's telling her that she's standing up, only there's two more feet involved and just... woof. Right? That's a wolf expression, by the way, you wouldn't understand. Anyway! Surprisingly good night vision. That's how come it was easy.

Plus, this was before she realized just how sore she actually was, see? Like, ok sure, she got slapped a bunch on the thighs by a wooden sword and her wolf body didn't really feel less ouchie than her human one had, but there's... there's pain, right? Ouchie ouchie pain. And then there's the stuff that comes after, where it sinks deeeeeeeeep into your muscles and becomes a whole other demon. That's what she's got now, on account of the two hours of walking practice and the two less hours of sleep. Plus, she couldn't figure out how to get comfy with the whole "curl up into a ball" routine because she just couldn't accept it as good posture so she wound up just sort of sprawled out on her side which didn't really help the sore butt for at least half of her.

Anyway, that's how come Mroof. You'd make that noise too, if your girlfriend came in wielding chocolate pancakes and coffee before you were ready for wakeies, if you had the kinda night she did. Can't even say if it was worth it right now, she feels almost as ridiculous as she looks high stepping with four exhausted paws. One, two, three, four and one, two, three, four there's a good girl, think about each of them and you can do it!

But when she makes it to Hyra? Oh, she's such a good girl! Kissing involves a lot more tongue than she remembers, but she covers her girlfriend's (yes!!) beautiful face with them the best way she knows how. And she lies down and waits very patiently for her nail to be painted with a magic spell, even before she understands what it's for. And then? Oh gosh! Goshies, Hyra! Wow! Jump, Yue! Jump for joyowowowowowiessss.... flop.

But flop in front of pancakes. Still a win! She sniffs the air with her silly nose and... oh wow! Oh wow! Do you have any idea how good melted chocolate smells when you've got a sniffer this sensitive? No, you do not. You do not know, because you are not a wolf. I can tell because you're reading this. But ohhhhhhh goodness goshy woof woof! It's strong and sweet and somehow it even smells gooey, y'know? You don't. We just established this. Not a wolf. But still. Y'know?

Her attempt at a first bite does not go as well as it should. Yue opens her mouth and brings her head down to her plat but she... can't... how does? She fit this? In there?? Um? Hyra? She licks the fluffy disc and, oh!! It's good! She wants it in her mouth please! But every time she moves to bite down she can't get the angle right and it's like somebody gave her an impossible koan. What is the sound of one wolf eating pancakes? Turns out it's a lot of frustrated whining. She gets her face smeared with chocolate and not much else.

Method number two doesn't go much better. Yue you sillyhead, what made you think you could hold a fork with paws? How were you planning on cutting this up, exactly? W-well it's just... w-woof! Shut up! Mmmmph. Maybe if she just... kinda gave up and shoved her face in there? No no no, it's no good it doesn't feel right. Her fur is covered in sticky chocolate and sweet syrup and as nice as it tastes when her tongue laps against it she's gonna need a bath now before she's ready to face the day and her tummy is still all grumbly complainy empty-like.

But this is not a sad story! This is the story of Hyra, the perfectly astonishingly amazingly cutieful oh-so-good-with-fingers handmaiden-turned-angel who smiles and laughs with all kinds of teasing energy that's still completely empty of mockery. There's just no room for it inside of all the love. This is the story of the woman who picks up utensils and in a flash of truly superior swordsmanship has converted breakfast from an impossible enigma into a series of proper (dainty, even) bite sized chunks of delicious pancakey goodness.

The riddle solved, Yue chows down with gusto! The noises she makes are as embarrassing as they are happy! She barks between almost every bite and her tail! Won't! Stop! Goshies!! The coffee is bitter, but sooooo nice as it slides down her throat, a perfect contrast to the sweetness of her breakfast that fills her with energy and determination in equal parts.

But she's still a mess, isn't she? Well darn, guess she's going to have to bathe. With Hyra. W-w-w-w-wait a second oh gosh!!!!

Good girl. A thrill runs through Rose from her toes all the way up to her head; her hair floofs in a perfect and impossible way as the shudder reaches the top of her. Yes. Yes! Another piece of the puzzle fits into place with an almost audible click: she’s weak, fragile, useless, Chen’s girlfriend, and she is a good girl. A good girl: is good, is a girl, does her best to keep quiet when punished, check, check, check. And her mouth is for pleasing her mistress (in her silks and fluffy scarf and shining eyes that see the beauty in everything) and she won’t use it for anything else unless she wants to be punished.

(Does she want to be punished? That’s a prickly question. Punishment is bad. Punishment is... dark, and sleep, and loneliness, and she can’t remember what the temple did if that’s what she remembers of it, and the thought hurts. Punishment hurts. It hurts so much. Is that what Keron will do to her if she is a bad girl? Will she make Rose fall asleep and bury her forever under the castle? Then how will Chen find her? Please, please, Chen, if that happens, you have to find her, please.)

So she has to use her mouth to make her Chen pleased. And what would please Chen? Rose thinks as hard as she can, Keron’s stare hot and hard on her. Then she speaks, looking up with eyes like gold and onyx.

“Princess Chen tries so hard,” she blurts out. “When she laughs, the world lights up all around me. I used to think princesses were no good, were power-hungry, needed somebody to keep them in line— not me, of course,” she squeaks, squirming. “But I don’t want anyone to stop Chen from smiling. She does that enough herself. She deserves someone big and strong to look after her and keep her safe and hold her and instead she picked me and every day she makes me feel a little more like she made the right choice. Because that’s what she does. She sees the beautiful things in landscapes and draws them out, and she sees the beautiful things in all these silly princesses and draws them out, and she sees the beautiful things in useless, weak girls who can’t even use a sword... and she makes it so that everyone else can see them, too.”

And then her mouth clamps shut, because begging someone else for reassurance wouldn’t be pleasing to Chen! She’d want to know that her fragile little Rose never lost faith in her, and no matter how much she wants to be called a good girl again, she can’t ask. And, and, and! And the look that Keron is giving her makes her feel all the more useless, useless, useless, because her heart’s hammering and she’s all hot and she’s being held in place by a handmaiden who can move her around, and, and, and if her mouth is only for Chen’s kisses she shouldn’t want Keron to steal one from her mouth anyway! That’s not a good girl thought, right? R-right? She doesn’t know the words for that kind of girl, but they’re probably... w-whatever the opposite of a good girl is!

No, a good girl is... someone who Chen would be proud to save. And that sort of girl would tilt her head like this— before Keron can decide her fate— and let out a little “hmmph!” of defiance, like Keron doesn’t make her scared and excited and weak and useless, like she wants to be punished, and even though she’s scared, she can’t stop herself from trying to be the most like Chen’s girlfriend she can be.

Because Rose is a good girl.

[Despite herself, Rose is Smitten with the Countess. She may take a String, herself, on Rose; and if she tugs that String, she will tug Rose helpless and all confuzzled and thirsty with it.]

Chen offers Jessic a thoughtful look and an actual giggle at the image of Qiu shouting “hewwo!” at people’s doors. It really did help her understand Qiu better, though she would need to tell the Princess that just asking for a duel was a better approach for Chen than all this pressure to force a fight with her at high stakes. Well, maybe. She was trying to figure out what made her want to fight, that was part of this conversation. It’s complicated!

When Jessic asks about the Princesses, Chen contemplates for a second, resting her chin on one hand and almost pouting. Then she starts ticking off fingers for the nine kingdoms as she goes through them aloud. “Pasalkhen: Qiu, I wanted to be friends, but I hurt her feelings and my moms aren’t cool with it, it’s a whole thing.
Terraced Lake: also Qiu right now. Ishan was friends my Mommy Ysel I think, but she’s more like an aunt to me, I don’t really know her that well and have no idea where she is now.
Sourcefall: Hestia’s my mom, so I mean, I guess she’s cool.” Chen stopped, chose not to laugh at her own pun, moved on. “I mean, Sourcefall is most of where I grew up after the hot and cold alliances split up, but it’s hard to say I’m friends with my own mom cuz it’s different.
Ys: same thing, I think Mommy Ysel tries to be more like friends than Hestia but she’s also really demanding and kinda scary.
Plains: Jezara is cool! Maybe I could say she’s my friend? We haven’t really hung out that much, but I text her cat pictures of my leopard sometimes. And uh, I really want to go visit her and turn into a cat, it sounds really fun.” She blushed at that one.
“Tesla Hive: I’ve only seen Kikil at formal visits and she’s kinda scary
Radiant Lands: Yin’s a vassal, but I kind of hate her. I mean, I know it’s mean of me, but but, she’s so over the top and she scares other people, and she cursed Hyra (the wolf that’s here with Yue) and really upset Rose! And when I defended my friends earlier she backed off, but I’m pretty sure Mommy is gonna be really mad at me for not siding with Yin, so it’s like extra double frustrating!
And, uh, Sky Castle is you and you seem cool but we didn’t really know each other before this.

So...uh, I guess I kinda hope to be friends with Jezara and you, and maybe Ishan. And I don’t know if I can really be friends with my moms but I want to like them and for them to like me even if I can’t beat up Qiu. And I want to be friends with Qiu but like, not in a way where she’s, like, expecting me to give her this big special fight with so much pressure where no matter what I disappoint her or my moms or all of them all at once!”

Chen!

+So to summarize, you don't really have a strong relationship with anybody yet,+ thought Jessic. +And that makes sense. You're very young and you're also very offline so you don't have history or long distance relationships to call on. You're engaged in a clash of hearts with people your heart is pretty ambivalent about. No wonder you're finding it hard.+

She shifts about, lying down flat across the bench. +And this isn't a problem that's unique to you. Kikil, for example - you're scared of her, right? That's her rep. If you came to blows tomorrow then she would be spooky and mysterious because while you don't know her you do know fear and how you relate to it. It's, like, a handle on her. A sign of how you're supposed to relate to her. And so even if you'd never exchanged three sentences before you'd be able to go into that fight knowing who you were meant to be. And that's what I think this problem really stems from, Chen. You're trying to get under everyone's masks as soon as you meet them. You're not engaging with the stories they're trying to tell you.+

She looked off at the distant arena. +That handmaiden you came with, Yue? She's the opposite. She just buys into everyone's narratives so sincerely that she throws them off guard. They buy into hers in exchange. And if you feel like you're being trapped by other people's expectations, consider that they're trying to support the narrative they think you're telling them. Before today I assumed that your narrative was the unstoppable pure-hearted prodigy and would have proceeded based on the idea that's who you wanted to be.+

Rose!

"Oh?" said Keron, eyes filling with a terrible amusement. "Princess Chen? You think she can save you here? More importantly, you think that when she does she'll find anything other than a perfectly trained slave dancer?"

The handmaiden behind you twists your arms, sending you to your knees before the Countess. She uncrosses her legs and then bends forwards, a long fingernail tracing your ear all the way down to your chin, which she tilts upwards so she can see your eyes.

"You silly little thing," she said, putting her hand on the vein in your throat, "I can hear your heart pounding," her hand slid up to cover your mouth, "I can feel your breath panting," she seized your chin and pulled you up, close, until you were inches away from her. "I can feel your body trembling. You wish you weren't Princess Chen's, don't you? You wish you were mine, you lust-crazed slut. You wish you were mine - and you're too much of a submissive to act on that wish. You won't be mine until I drag Princess Chen in here and make her tell you that you both belong to me, will you? Because you would never disobey your mistress no matter how much you want to."

She flicked you away, sending you sprawling into the arms of the waiting handmaidens as she leaned back in her chair. "So what to do with you until I pull your ownership from Chen's whimpering lips? I suppose I can keep you here. Stay, watch, learn - and that way when your true mistress claims you at last you'll be properly trained. Girls, chain her to the wall, and gag her."

[Keron spends that string: Mark XP if you do what she tells you]

Yue!

You're running. You're running! You're running like it's flying and everything is perfect except you have no idea how to slow down without crashing nose over tail. It's scary and wild and amazing, like the first time getting real speed out of a bike, and maybe if you never stop you'll never have to.

Hyra insisted on this after all the externalities of breakfast and bath were resolved. "Learning how to be graceful has nothing to do with the body you're currently wearing," said Hyra. "Even if you're in a body that's miles away from your ideal one you need to be able to carry yourself like your ideal self. That way when you finally transition into your true self physically you'll have already transitioned mentally!"

And with that the lessons of the previous day had resumed. No swords yet - Hyra wasn't so ambitious she was blind to the fact that you didn't yet have your paws under you. Right now was just about speed and agility. It had started with a gentle jog but now you were flying around the walkways of the Sky Castle. To your left was the infinite vista of the Nine Kingdoms, to the right where the spires and flags and kites of a city made to catch the wind. You are running, and you've left Hyra in the dust, and this enchanted world is flashing past your eyes in every direction.

“But I do want that!” Chen bursts out, then stops herself. “Well, I don’t know about pure-hearted. But like, I like being a prodigy and trying to do good and make the world nice and protect people who need it. I want that. But I don’t…I don’t think it’s that simple for me. Each of my moms has something they want me to be, and it’s a little different. Hestia wants me to be…um, I don’t know if I can do the archetype names as well as you did mine, but like, Hestia wants me to be disciplined, polite, to think about risks and stuff, you know like ‘proper and upright sword saint’ or something. And Ysel, I think she kind of wants me to be Qiu almost? Not exactly Qiu, but like, she wants me to help expand Ys, reward my vassals and punish my opponents until they submit. Like uh ‘strong tough bandit princess’ or something. They both were excited that I like swords and magic and want me to be good at the things I like, but it’s like…it’s through their visions.”

Chen stops and thinks about what she just said. “You know, it’s stupid. I’ve been the heir to two shards all my life, I’ve trained with both parents in how to move through sunshards. They said something like you did, that you have to fit yourself into other people’s stories and flow with them into the role you want with their shard’s magic, actually. But, um, anyway, I haven’t…I mean, in all that time I’ve always just thought about doing my thing, finishing whatever job they set me or stopping whatever problem. I don’t really know what I’d do when I actually get them. Like, pure-hearted prodigy isn’t a look or a power or anything, is it? It’s not something I’d do with a shard. I mean, the only thing I know I’d want is a tail and ears like Li, um my snow leopard, we’d look so cute together.”

The Girlfriend’s Plight

“W-wait,” Rose tries to squeak, realizing too little too late that she still hasn’t gotten to the “new wardrobe” part of her makeover. But she can’t! The words aren’t there for her! As the Countess (beautiful, terrible, confusing, amazing??) gazes victoriously at the squirming girl being pulled back to the gleaming, ornate manacles (with padded cuffs), just a little too high for her to be able to lower her hands, all Rose can say is: “Chen will save me! You’ll see! She’s the best at swords, annnnmmmph—!!!”

And that is how Rose ends up on display: slender wrists locked above her head, and her dainty ankles spread; her lovely face swallowed up by blindingly white cloth from the bridge of her nose, just beneath her striking eyes, to just tucked beneath her dainty jaw; her mouth well-packed with frills and lace and perfume. Helpless, without modesty, letting out useless little huffs and grunts as she rattles the chains, twisting this way and that as she agonizes over Keron’s accusation, which must be true, and without her Chen to rescue her...

But not alone. Never alone. And not ignored, but not mocked, either. After all, she’s here to watch and learn— and how can she do that without an example to learn from?

***

The Dancer’s Lesson

“My body belongs to my Mistress.

“For her sake, I make it limber, ready to be moved, and for her sake I train it to remember the steps. Without her to drive me, I would say to myself: Thara, this thing, it is too difficult! Perhaps you should go and eat the iced cream today, or luxuriate in sunbeams, or dangle your feet off above the clouds! Anything but mastering your body, making of it a beautiful thing!

“But our Mistress, she knows that my desire to excel is not strong enough to rule my heart. So she takes my desire for her, and she lashes me to it, so that I can follow her to where I want to be, so that I can move for her and she can move me as she pleases. For her sake, I dance; for my sake, she commands me to dance. For her sake, I am alluring; for my sake, she invites me to allure.

“Little sister, I do not bring you a special magic. You can be me, but you will have to want like I want. You have to want to move for our Mistress, and you must want this badly enough to train your body, clumsy thing that it is, to remember the orders you have given it, over and over, until it remembers, until it obeys without thought.

“Good girl. Follow me. My body is your body; my steps are your steps. Even a clumsy girl can learn someone else’s steps to follow. Listen, and I will tell you the secrets of the dance.

“The first is that you must make those who see you wish to touch you. Make of your body a whirlpool, a siren song, a living motion. Draw your witnesses in, remind them what it is to touch and be touched, to move and be moved, to love and be loved. Make your stomach a wave, your hips a wall, and your hands mist.

“The second is that you must not let yourself be held. You must punish an impudent touch and sway away from it, or check it, or invite it to try again, but when you are held, the dance is over. Then you may be of other use; but your honor as a dancer depends on making your Mistress struggle for mastery of you when you move for her.

“The third is that you do not need to speak. Let your body speak for you. Let it say: desire me! Let it say: take me! Let it say: I am yours! Let it say: you must win me! With your beautiful eyes, little sister; with the shine of your navel; with the elegance of your ankles and wrists; and with the bounce of your chest, you lucky thing! To dance is to supersede words, and it is all the better for you to learn like this, unable to give in to the temptation.

“If you practice, my little sister, you may become as graceful as I am. If you make yourself beautiful in your movement, you will not be useless. You will be adored, treasured, and free to submit.

“Good girl. Now, let’s get you dressed properly. The Countess had some very specific instructions for you, my dear~”

***

The Pirate’s Tale

“I was a pirate queen, once upon a time.

“I had a fleet of ancient ships, older than the burrows. They were like the Sky Castle, but unlike; they were dangerous little shrikes. With them I controlled the skies from elevator to elevator. Nothing bigger than a bird could challenge me and my Empire of Winds.

“Jessic defeated me. And Jessic saved me. I tumbled, my line cut by a treacherous first mate. I wanted nothing as badly as I wanted not to hit the ground; and Jessic dived, despite the shell and the cannon all around her, to catch me. After the battle, which went on longer under that sky rat, I begged Jessic to enter her service, to be her slave, because I had lost everything I thought I had wanted, and all I had left was hers. And so she asked the Countess, and now the Countess lets my Mistress have me. I am hers; I prepare her tack and I shine her scales. And I have never had to hurt someone ever again, because Jessic keeps me safe, and I can trust her with my life.

“I don’t know why a little thing like you needed to hear this story, but whatever you may have done, you dainty little thing: I’m living proof that the Sky Castle will keep you safe, no matter what happened in your past.

“Now, let’s get to work. Keron tells me you have dainty, useless little hands, but personally? I think these hands are perfect for the sort of things you’ll need to do. I’m a little jealous, even! We’re going to start with folding laundry, which is perfect for a pretty little maid like you. Just remember: strength isn’t in here, it’s in here— gosh, that jingles a lot, doesn’t it?

“Do you like— haha! Oh, stars above and sea below, you’re precious. I prefer leather, myself, but you do look very nice in that veil, little sister.”

***

The Artist’s Story

“When I was younger, I was given a very useless present indeed, and this one caused me to be given another. The first was a gender, and the second was a future.

“When I was young, you see, I stumbled across a broken machine, and I lucked upon the key to restoring it to its old use. It ran for a few months, flickering tape connected to our projector, before its account ran dry. When the collector came to discuss payment plans some time after, the exorcist who defeated it took me in as her apprentice. And I took to it because that was my future: a repairer and, more importantly, understander of machines.

“But the thing was? The machine had been colorcoded inside of its guts: not like to like, but complement to complement. Each component found its home in its partner. Against normal circuitry and code I was helpless; the colors were all wrong. And so I spent my life thinking that I would amount to little more than a second-rate exorcist.

“Indeed, I was so hapless that I was incorporated into a package deal, as my mistress found her match in haggling in the person of the Countess. As the new exorcist of the Sky Castle, entrusted to maintain wards and routers, I was, as you might expect, not particularly talented; the Countess soon realized that she had made an error in that deal. So she gave me a command: a full year and a day on the Sky Castle to discover who I was and who I wanted to be, and if I could not come up with an answer by then, she would send me on my way. And if she saw me wasting a minute of it, she’d put the fear of a sun into me.

“It was the sky, ironically enough, and all its colors. Not just the elevators and the Sunshards but the space in between them. That’s what taught me that I can be the empty space full of colors, too. I can be what defines other things by not being them. And soon enough I’d figured out how to save that on canvas, and in other forms, and when the Countess asked me what my calling was, I said that I was an Artist of Emptinesses.

“And, like most of the girls I meet here, I just want to tell you: don’t let the Countess scare you into being something you’re not. Let her scare you into what you want to be, like Thara does. You have emptiness inside you, but you also have a fullness inside you. Find your fullness, like I found mine, and don’t let anyone scare you away from it.

“...fine, I’ve been around enough of you girls to know what those puppy-dog eyes mean. You did a wonderful job of pouring my tea and you sat very attentively to listen, and you are in fact very pretty and demure. If this is who you want to be, Rose, you’re very good at it. But remember that, as scary as the Countess is, she just wants you to have the courage to know what you truly want. How else can she give it to you?”

She's running. She's running? She's running! Oh goshies, <<bark bark>> goshies, she's running!! Just look at her go, she's never moved so fast in her entire life! This is amazing!! Do you see her, Hyra? Do you see her, Kat? No! You don't, because your silly little legs aren't fast enough to keep up for once!

The wind is all... woof! Er, wh-whoosh! Blowing through her hair fur like a gale and it feels so nice it doesn't even matter that the air is so thin up here or that she misses the tug of a long ponytail she always imagined a moment like this would have, because that stuff is folded up into a ball and wound so tightly with excitement that she doesn't have time to hardly notice it! There's no time between steps to think about what she's doing, and more to the point to overthink what she's doing. All she has to do is feel the rhythm of her body in motion, like a song Sis might sing for the husband she's almost definitely got by now: her muscles bunch up underneath her and all her weight gathers at an invisible point in the center that pulls all four of her legs together, and pap pap pap! Her paws touch down and the ground shivers underneath her and powie! She's stretching, bounding, leaping, uncoiling, somethinging forward as her body gets ready to do it all again!

It's... it's powerful, like she never thought she could be. It's, it's graceful, in a way that even being held and controlled nobody could force her to be. She's speed! She's agility! She's got no idea how to stop and today that's only half as terrifying as it is exciting! Yue throws up her head as she runs and calls out to the world around her with a joyous howl.

"Awoo!"
"Awooo~!"

Over yonderwise in a grassy little park a couple of children (a brother sister combo! probably! they smell pretty similar, and isn't it weird that she can tell that?) are trying their little kid best to howl back at her. And if she tried to smile at them the way she would if she thought about it? Probably it'd be terrifying! All toothy and too close to snarling and stuff. But this far in the zone, her body takes over and she flashes them a goofy puppy look instead. Her eyes sparkle and her tongue bleps and she jumps several feet into the air and she lands so heavily that she goes rolling over onto her side and then around and around and around a third time before she finds her paws again. And when they laugh it's like the warmest hug inside her heart.

And even that doesn't stop her from running! As soon as she's upright her body is filled with zoomies and she's off and bounding up the hill into the park to zip around the younger sister's legs like a sillyhead. She scoops the girl up onto her back, because the weight will help with her training or something sure why not, and then she's off again, leaving Older Brother to come chasing after her across the outside of the sky castle! Come on, come on slowpoke! Aren't you gonna rescue your darling little sister? Hey there silly, quit giggling! You're gonna give the game away! How's he supposed to be a hero if you're over here laughing like you're having the time of your life? Gosh, it's like you've never been kidnapped before!

Yue runs a little slower now, and more gently by half so that those bouncy, shaky, breathless peals of laughter don't stop for anything. Zip zip, zip! They go darting agilely between grand flag poles and then zoom! It's off at top speed to run around a windmill, which's close enough to a castle for a young up-and-coming knight to come and fight her in, right? She circles merrily and waits for the boy's aching legs to finally catch up, and yelps her very best Surprise Yelp when he tackles her to the ground, though neither of them are paying enough attention to realize that if he'd really gotten her then Little Sis would be a Little Pancake. Which is a lot less delicious without the chocolate chips, y'know? Still, the role of every good monster is to know when they've been beaten, and Yue's read enough stories and been in enough villages (or... well, the same village enough times) to not miss her cue. She gives the both of them a big wet silly kiss and then goes zipping off at top speed again, following the call of her heart.

She's running. She's running? She's running! The air's so thin up here that just a couple days ago this kind of activity would have downed her for a good several days, and yet! And yet! She's running! The song in her heart says go, and the faster she gets the harder it is to stop. And so? She doesn't? It's magic, and it's music. It's training, but it's play. It's the new most beautiful thing she's ever seen in her life.

She runs nearer to the outer ring of the grounds, now. To her right it opens up to the sky and the lazy tufts of cloud that refuse to get out of the castle's way as it floats above the world. Beneath her are trees, rivers, valleys, hills, and glints of more spectacular things besides that explode with color and delight her shimmering eyes like she can't remember happening before. Which is funny, 'cause she thought the same thing when she was flying up here, and shouldn't it be the same view? Maybe it just feels fuller when she's less scared of falling, or maybe they've gone to some new and somehow even prettier vista while she was busy? Maybe it's love that helps her see the true beauty of the world, even for somebody who was always trying her best to find it under every single rock.

Or maybe... maybe it's because it finally feels like she's the one who's flying. Her body is sailing over the ground and she's moving like a bullet. Or a train. Or some kind of... bullet/train hybrid, even (what a silly thought!), and she's not being carried. She's not riding anything, she's not even pedaling a bike! She is running, and the great big beautiful earth is opening up beneath her, and if she never turns back, never has the fingers again to finish learning her spell, it'd be o...

She whimpers, though she keeps on running. No. No it wouldn't be ok. Even for Hyra's sake it wouldn't be. She's not a wolf, ok? She's not a wolf. She's Yue. She's in love. And she's never managed to kiss her girlfriend at a time when both of them had lips. They've never gotten to hold each other with hands. She's never gotten to find out what it's like to press her body against someone who's just like her, to find out where she yields and if a bony, scrawny, unpretty thing like her has anything about her that'd squish softly and pleasantly like Chen must feel all the time, or if her silly twig arms could make a lover feel safe the way that Rose must do for everyone she's with. She's never learned what it's like to trust somebody with your body, just you and them, no darkness, clothes, or secrets (or fur!) between you.

She's never known that. And if she's a wolf, or Hyra's a wolf... she'll love her just the same. But she'll never know it, ever. And that isn't fair. And that isn't right. But that's how come she's training, y'know? That's how come she's zooming around the outside of the sky castle even with a bunch of sore bruises and burning muscles that are starting to whine at her to please please please remember we're at altitude Yue! She runs and she leaps through a puff of cloud vapor and she's straight back to grinning again.

And y'know why? Because she might not be a wolf, but that's not gonna stop her from being the very best one that she can be. There's so much to learn now, so many new things to practice! And every single one of them's a treasure! Every single one is a little tingle and a thrill and this... this adventure is more than she'd ever dreamed about even after the long night's chase and her stumble across that fateful shrine.

Actually, where the heck did Cyanis get to, anyway? She's been awful quiet for a long time, considering how fond she is of... oooooooooooooh!

The thought's chased right out of her skull by a pair of gossamer rainbow wings lifting up over the side of the fence beside her. Up they lift, and up! The sun catches the material and suddenly the whole world is bathed in a prism, and a woman with a shocking pink mess of punk-as-heck hair poking every which way out of a headband and goggles gives her a grin and a brief thumbs up before she leans back on the bar of her hang glider to turn deeper into the slipstream and spread her rainbow all the way into the depths of the outer market.

Yue yips and leaps to celebrate this bold artist and turns down the road to roam for a while with a pack of cyclists out for an afternoon stroll. They shout words of praise for her coat and her extremely silly smile, with so many words of encouragement she can barely pick them all out from the noise. She woofs her best Agreement Woofs and follows them up with a few Encouragement Woofs to return the favor. Which manage to draw a lot of fawning 'aawwwws' as they all break away on their own separate journeys again, but for some silly reason she's not sure she really got through to them? Gosh, she wishes she was at least one of those magical talking wolves.

She's running. Running in an infinite world without end. She's running, as if it's all she's ever known and it's all she'll ever do. Until, suddenly? She's not. Yue yelps with a sudden burst of delight/panic (two emotions that are very close to each other, believe you me!) and suddenly puts her entire butt into instantly learning the Wolf Backpedal only to learn this secret technique does not exist yet, and she winds up slamming extremely inelegantly into the shins and eventually the chest of Hyra.

Wait, Hyra? Did she really make a circuit around the entire castle grounds?! She melts into a series of gentle scritches up and down her spine, and flops her head across her girlfriend's shoulder. And everywhere that Hyra's fingers find, her exhaustion seems to catch up. She mroofs, which as we've established is Not A Wolf Noise, and settles in for a long and well deserved rest, because surely there can't be more, right? She's earned a Forever Rest, because no part of her body will ever be capable of movement again, gosh gosh goshies. Except, apparently, her tail. Thump thump thump, wag wag!

"That's my girl."

Chen!

+...+

Just because Jessic isn't thinking words at you doesn't mean she's not thinking. Her thoughts expand outwards, inhuman and complex, weaving in and out of each other in lines of strange structure as she visualizes everything you have said, the maze of words you have woven for her and seeking some way through. The thoughts flash beige and black and then - vibrant pink.

+... Princess Chen,+ the thoughts eventually resolved into something directed, +There is a point that I want to make here but it's too complicated to express in words alone. I'm going to have to introduce you to something even more powerful than myself.+

She got to her feet and offered her foreclaw to help you stand too. Her eyes are bright with utmost sincerity.

+I am going to have to introduce you to anime.+

Rose!

You are cleaning; you are dancing. The two should be the same! It takes all of your attention to be so oblivious, all of your focus to be so empty, falling down the well of a deeper meditation than your martial masters ever taught you until -

"Psst! Rose!"

The voice of a fox cuts through it all.

"I didn't recognize you at first!" said Cyanis, pulling down her veil immodestly so she can give you a smile and wink ass he wraps her arm around your bare shoulders. "You're looking great! Anyway, so, the thing is, I have some totally legitimate fox business around here and I thought, 'Who is a girl good enough to help a pure-hearted fox move some money around so she doesn't get robbed by corrupt city guards?' and your name came immediately to mind! So how about it, cutie? Ready to help protect a poor, innocent vixen from those cold-hearted fiends who want to imprison her in a harem?"

Yue!

"So, good news and bad news!" said Hyra over dinner. She cooks in the style of the Western Plains; thick, earthy food with potatoes and peas and eggplant and African spices; the flavours of the savannah and red soil. "The good news is that I'm three days away from having a spell that I think might help with this curse!"

She flourishes with her chopsticks, swish-swish-clack! She's honestly showing off a bit with how she can weave them through, but one can't hold that against her given how long she spent without fingers.

"The bad news is that your first arena duel is in two days," she said. "So I figure, one more day of intense training and then one day of total rest and relaxation. You ready to give me your best one more time, Yue?"

When time for training begins, Hyra's style has totally changed. It's so startling that the only possibility is that she's learned a bit about your upcoming opponent and is doing her best to imitate that style. Now she's not flowing, teasing, tricking - she's set her feet solidly and only takes a step when she knows it can't be interfered with. It's nowhere near as powerful as her normal style, at least in her hands, but it does mean you're starting again from scratch when it comes to figuring her out.

Start... starting from?! Starting from scratch? Starting from scratch?!? Ah, gfhb... psssshyeah no foolin' she's starting from scratch! The sword's in the other mouth!! D'you forget about the paws, or didja just not notice? Start from scratch. Might as well just try scratching, for all the good she's gonna mmmrble bmmble wmmf whff brrk!

So, uh, um... pros: a day's worth of running everywhere that physics would let her has left Wolfy Yue feeling a lot more agile than she remembers being in her own body. Even with all the soreness and tired she's built up with all this exercise she's still got zips and zigs and even a few zags that would've had her falling on her butt for sure just two days ago! Plus, she's a lot shorter like this (which is still weird, thanks for asking) and while she never exactly mastered the art of the duel the Demon Swordswoman did teach her well enough for her to be pretty sure this'll let her safely ignore a whole buncha different angles of attack. And something that Hyra taught her just the other day is that it's surprisingly difficult to guard your shins while you're fighting, so that's another advantage in her poc-- er, her uh... m-mouth? No, that's where her sword is. Wow, this is harder than she thought.

And, y'know, cons: she's got a sword. In her mouth. She's gone back to her wooden training sword because honestly she does not trust herself to use the pointy one right like this, but seeing as it's still magically enchanted to have the same weight as a proper metal one that's not doing her a lotta good now is it? There's just no getting around the fact that these things are designed for people. People with hands. And two limbs they can freely move around however they feel like without falling onto their faces because they don't need them for, y'know, walking. And centers of gravity a good foot above where her head is right this second. The weight's all to her side and she's gotta fight to keep it from tilting her neck until the tip jabs into the ground. The handle hurts her teeth if she bites it too hard, but if she doesn't bite it hard enough then she's gonna drop it or oh gosh gosh goshies if she hits or parries something like that, then... well, you wanna talk about tooth aches? Yeesh.

So there's, um, y'know, challenges. To be overcome. Before we actually get close enough to the hurdle of 'Hyra is fighting differently than she was before' to curiously sniff at it. We're not even talking about jumping over that hurdle yet, ok? Starting from scratch. Starting from scratch...

The first thing she tries, of course, is fighting like Hyra. That's her whole model for Wolf Holding a Sword Style, after all. But what's that mean for her? She's at a loss. Before she even tries going for the furniture her head is filled with images of being made to sit and pose for pictures with a sign around her neck that reads "I was a Bad Girl and broke the Prison Cabinets" and she freezes so badly she winds up on her face again with her back paws wiggling comically in the air behind her. And in any case that wasn't gonna work in the first place because Hyra cares more about the fight than she does about being polite all the time. Which TO BE CLEAR makes her cool and sexy, not a jerk. But it's a dead end approach, is the real point to be getting at here.

Yue runs and leaps as Hyra plants her feet and goes sailing to the side of her so that she can rip... uh, ripos-- erm, bounce off the bed all fancy-like and come at her from a surprising angle after she's planted her feet in response to the first charge. Her sword clacks harmlessly into Hyra's and all she can do is hang in the air with a determined look in her eye for a couple of seconds before she drops back low and has to try Plan C, which is spinning around like she's chasing her tail to take a good swing at her girlfriend's thighs. There, how do you like it when the spankies are on the other paw, huh? Well, it turns out she can blunt the blow by stepping into it before it gets to her. That's a neat trick! But all Yue's got to show for her new lesson is a tiny smile on Hyra's face. Did she... did she do a good?

...she's really out of breath right now. That's bad, huh? Not the least of the bads is on account of when she runs out of breath like this her body kinda wants to pant? But that involves tongue, and tongue need stay in mouth 'cause sword am still there. Blurgh. Cons, +1. Is it quitting to fake a tummy ache so that she has to postpone her first fight and give Hyra more time to work on that fix she's promising?

Yeah, it is. Darn it, that sounds really nice right about now. And come to think of it, fighting Hyra like Hyra fought her is quitting, too. She can't try to beat Hyra, as cool as that would feel, she's gotta try and fight this Sure Footed Mountain Style or whatever's going on here. That's the whole point, isn't it? To get her ready for her big fight. Sillyhead, what were you thinking?

Yue's tail starts wagging in spite of the fatigue. In spite of the ouchies and the grumbles and all the negative emotions of a person who keeps having to start from square one every time she turns around. It's not like she ever thought of herself as capable of mastering all this adventuring stuff, y'know, but after everything she's been through it's hard not to want to cry when you're all the way here and you feel like you've done so much but you can't see what skills you've got to show for it at all. But she wags her tail, even while that thought spirals inside of her brain. She's happy, fighting like this. She's happy, dodging, ducking, blocking, slipping between those iron, shapely legs and thwapping her useless fluffy appendage against them as she goes, because everything that's happening in this prison cell today is what Love looks like.

You're so great, Hyra. You're so strong, Hyra. Thank you so much, darling. Heart. Cutie. She promises, ok? It's a slobbery promise made with muffled barks, but it still counts! She's not gonna let you down.

Yue runs. She darts all around the room, because this is the one thing she's sure she's got down. She feels breathlessly fast, graceful, beautiful, and a lot've other smarter words that city folk probably keep up their sleeves for moments like this, but she's a simple country wolf from the Crescent Lake so you'll have to forgive her not rising up to meet this moment like a poet. She's too busy doing it like a warrior. Wherever Hyra turns, Yue runs the other way. Whenever she gets cornered she boldly darts through the kind of opening a human body can't clear but that are hard to cover up entirely unless you're constantly accounting for how much of your opponent's body mass is floof. She leaps out of the way of every strike as she winds her way around the room like an exceptionally small typhoon.

All waiting for the moment when she gets to pounce. She's got Hyra's back at last! Her body's better at turning, her blood's better at not rushing to her head, and that makes her better at spinning around all over the place without getting so dizzy that she falls over. When she leaps, her body surges with so much extra strength it seems to her that she's somehow accidentally cast a spell. Is she flying right now, or just jumping very far? Hyra pivots to meet her, but she's already entered the handmaiden's zone. Yue's form is a perfect poumce, a special technique that Kat taught her, though of course the esteemed Miss Fluffybiscuits never intended it to be a lesson.

Yue lands on top of Hyra with a joyful bark. She boops that beautiful nose with the crossguard of her sword, which is as good as a deathblow for everybody here. She drops the weapon on the ground and promptly flops into the arms of the most amazing person in the entire world. There's a lot of kissing that needs to be done right now, you see. Don't worry, it's all part of her training <3

Rose is movement. She is so spread out amongst herself, inhabiting each long-practiced step, each careful curl of her fingers, each alluring sway of her hips, that there is no center, no queen sitting on her throne giving orders in the chambers of the heart. The nameless thing slumbers peacefully and does not dream; or, if there is a dream, it is only a dream of unconscious motion. Step, step, shimmy. Step, step, sway. Step, step, knock. Swish, swish, open. Step, step, check the door closed with one useful hip. Spin, spin, and— EEEEP!!!

The breakfast trays balanced perfectly on her head come tumbling down. Before she can even finish jolting awake— she catches them. She doesn’t even know how she catches them. The teapot is balanced on its spout on top of a spoon. She balances, wobbling and instinctively correcting for the wobble, on one sparkling high heel, the other stretched out behind her as far as her hobbling chains will let her. Then she wakes up and comes tumbling down anyway— but Cyanis the Fox has whisked away the trays, and Rose has what smart engineer people call “built-in airbags” when they’re teasing her. She rolls over, takes a moment to cringe— ow— and then wiggles her way back upright. Cyanis already has her arm around her by the time she’s halfway up, stopping her from giving an apologetic groveling bow.

And Cyanis— a pure fox, an innocent vixen, someone you trust with your life— asks her for help, and Rose’s brow furrows for a moment with the strain of thinking. She’s obviously not supposed to help people escape. If they’re put places, that’s where they’re supposed to be. But she hasn’t been told not to help Cyanis out, and she has been told that a good girl is Agreeable and Loves to Serve, and she isn’t supposed to worry her Silly Useless Head with thinking for herself, because she’ll just get confused. Which adds up to mean...

“Mmmhmmm! Ff’s duuu’t!!” Rose nods with a bobbing of braids and earrings, clasping her hands demurely in front of her. Yes! Yes!! This is right!! Even if she and Cyanis would look wonderful as harem sisters, dancing for the Countess and nuzzling noses under their veils, a Good Girl is Agreeable, and Rose loves being a Good Girl, and so she agrees! Wow!! It’s so, so simple! Whatever Cyanis needs, as long as she can explain it to Rose’s Silly Useless Head, Rose will do her best to please!!

Oh, can’t you feel it, Cyanis? The joy radiating from her maiden’s heart? The bliss of not being important, of being a treasure rather than... than something else? Of being given headpats and possessive squeezes when you’re a Good Girl? Of being desirable and desired, not feared, not looked up to and given responsibility? Oh, oh, isn’t it the most wonderful thing? The most wonderful feeling in all the skies? When she gets to share the joy of submission with her Chen, oh!! Then her heart will just burst with joy!!

And in the meantime, maybe she’ll get a kiss from a pretty, daring, innocent fox? A kiss between girls? Oh!! That would be wonderful too!! Rose is very kissable. She’s kissable and touchable and very good at obeying, Miss Cyanis!!! Please, Rose will do her best and be as kissable as possible!!

Chen blinked. For a moment she was just stunned. Ani-meh? She thought she'd heard of it, had Qiu referenced it maybe? Or Ysel at some point? Hestia didn't really like all the tech that much and Chen's childhood had been relatively austere in that regard. That's why she found painting the glowing towers and such so interesting, and a bit why Kikil was so intimidating. But, uh, she hadn't even considered that there'd be some sort of burrower magic that would help with her moms. Was it dangerous? Oh gosh, it was probably dangerous or she'd have heard of it!

B-but there was a dragon claw extended right there, and the voice in her head had been excited, welcoming. She needed to trust Jessic right now. She had to it just, if she couldn't then she was right back to all that trouble and pressure and and...she just needed to trust one of the princesses. Especially one who was trying to help her, who Qiu had sounded really sincere about saying she could help. And besides she'd been right so far, Chen did need to make better friends with the others and...and learn to play in their worlds so she could make her own.

So...so even though this was a total swerve from where her mind was and she was a bit bewildered, Chen took that claw and let Jessic help her to her feet. And she held on to that claw because...because right now she just needed to be led and to take in a little bit more and let this happen and she was confident that her thoughts would eventually catch up with her, but they weren't there yet.

Chen!

Princess Jessic has a palace - a place of power, mastery, and the realization of visions. She also has a house. It's a smaller little annex, comfortable and soft, filled with all the pursuits and hobbies that don't fit into her Princessly image. Three walls are shelves groaning to hold the weight of manga books. Some sense of organization was made once in the past but the collection outgrew that system and now surplus books are crammed into every gap, books stacked to fill every inch of shelf space but not quite yet spilling out into the floor. A large central floor heater is ignited with a passing breath of dragonflame causing the temperature to raise sharply before Jessic hurriedly turns it down. An array of couches surround the heater and is that - ah, yes. There are the excess books, hidden underneath the couches. Stories did mention that dragons liked to sleep on top of their treasures.

With a series of quick vocalizations the lights dim and a projector starts to run, covering the fourth and empty wall with a large projected movie screen. A few claw gestures and the screen had resolved to a title: Magical Girl * Ydian!

+This is a good starting place!+ thought Jessic. +It's about - well, I don't want to spoil too much. But I've found it's hard to know how to be without a hero to aspire to, and that's what these stories are about. Heroes, the girls who become them, and the trials they have to go through to get there. Oh and this is technically part two of an ongoing series but the author was really finding her feet during the first part so all you've really got to know is that there was a war where the main character's grandmother broke the Wheel of Reincarnation and now people can turn into demons or reach enlightenment within a single lifetime and an order of fortune tellers was founded in order to predict which would do which and they destroyed the King of Darkness but that was fifty years ago and he's a good guy now. Got it? Let's go!+

And so your education begins.

Rose!

If you were insufficiently endowed before, Rose, you are not so now. Not with all the gems, necklaces and exotic shadowsilks Cyanis has stuffed down the front of your dress. Your arms strain to carry all the paintings that she has placed within them, and she has wrapped you in a heavy cloak heavy with pockets stuffed full with even more treasures. Every so often she finds some new gem or portrait, does some mental calculus, and then empties one of your pockets so that she can replace the contents with higher value items. Sometimes she gets out a phone and tithes to the Scales of Meaning to check prices she's not sure about. Isn't she such a diligent businessfox!

Walking gracefully under all this weight is a real challenge indeed though! Roll to defy disaster with Grace to see if you should happen to stumble and alert any guards!

Yue!

One day of training, one day of rest. One day to sit and watch the clouds pass by at close range, to watch the brilliantly coloured biplanes swirl and dance. One day to listen to the street musicians with their meandering violins and watch the elderly men stain their hands deep with earth so rich it is almost violet as they prepare the city's many public flower boxes for when they will bloom in the spring. One day to taste beetroots that are like an ocean filled with as much sugar as salt and see a community come together to cheer the launching of a new balloon. One day to watch a hackysack game run for an improbably long time, the young men involved preternaturally skilled at keeping that beanbag in the air, and then meet a stranger taking a dozy owl for a walk. One day to rest and you've barely scratched the surface of the ways in which you might rest in the Sky Castle.

One day to spend in blissful harmony with Hyra, your girlfriend, who experiences it all with you there by your side.

When the sun dips down over the horizon and the lights of the Arena come on, announcing your battle is to begin, you are as rested and calmed and filled with light and life as a girl might be. In the distance you hear your name called and hear the rising roar of the crowd and you know that it's your time. As the portcullis of the arena rises before you and bids you to enter, Hyra takes a red kerchief from her pocket and ties it around your neck - for after all, a knight can't go to battle without her lady's favour.

One day of rest.

One day to let the bruises heal. One day to let tired muscles knit themselves into new strength. One day to build her energy back up, one day to find some kind of reserve, in case she needs it. One day to get as ready as she can for the first real duel of her entire life. One day to think about how she's doing it with paws.

One day to remember why it's worth it. One day to sit on a hill watching out over the edge of the castle, where she can see the rivers and the valleys float slowly by underneath them. One day to miss it all watching Hyra watching them, instead. One day to lose herself in the shape of her lips and the contours of her chin. One day to notice how cute her nose is, actually, and all the ways her beautiful girlfriend still looks almost as wolfish as she does. One day to wonder how it'll feel if when she finally gets to kiss those lips. One day to not notice her tail wagging while she imagines those teeth nibbling all over her. One day to notice Hyra noticing her, and blush hotter than a sunshard.

One day to notice all the little miracles that weave the world together. One day to see the children playing, and scamper (yes, scamper!) out to join them. One day to come prancing back and feel the blissful tingle of fingers massaging through her scalp. One day to hear music that she's never listened to before, one day to learn songs that even Sis probably doesn't know. One day to smell bread baking and marvel at the ancient wonder pulling fresh taffy, one day to weld her jaw shut trying to eat her share all at once. One day to watch a people adapted to life up in the clouds and all the little ways their lives were about flight and freedom and the open air. One day to wish she had words to tell them all how beautiful they are. One day to realize she wants to show them her waterfalls and flower fields and the old cherry tree at the top of her hill in exchange.

A whole lifetime to finally notice that adventure could only carry her to new beauty, and not more. But one day to be grateful for it, anyway. One night to chase the moon without having to leave the confines of her Prison Room, and smile in her heart to see it's just as uncatchable as ever. One night to let her eyes drift closed and listen to the beating of her girlfriend's heart. One night to sleep nestled into her taut, perfect arms. And then, one day is finished.

Yue throws the weight of her neck onto Hyra's shoulder in her best attempt at a hug while she ties the kerchief tight. She's never felt so loved in all her life. Or less ready for what's coming. The portcullis clicks open. She barks a bark of determination, though it might have been a bark of nervousness instead. She's still not entirely used to using her voice like this, y'know? Hyra smirks at her and holds up the wooden sword that's been waiting for her to use it for something for years now.

"Don't worry, this is plenty for what you've got to do. And so are you."

<<Woof!!>>

She chomps the handle in between her teeth, and can't help but notice she's getting pretty good at holding it like this. It's kinda surprising, given she didn't practice yesterday. Someone once told her that you actually learn lessons a day after you're taught them. Is this what they meant?

This is it. One moment to pad softly into the arena. One moment to sniff the air with her big, sensitive nose. One moment to realize she doesn't really understand how to interpret the smells she picks up. One moment to feel silly for trying. One moment to wonder what kind of person her opponent is. One moment to hope somebody will be cheering for her. One moment to wonder if she can win. And one agonizingly slow moment to wonder what's supposed to happen to her if she can't.

One moment, and none of the rest of it will matter. Because the duel is about the duel, right?

If. If! Rose has had enough trouble learning to compensate for her chest, thank you, and if she is struggling right now, it is because she is trying to stop things from falling out, or getting stuck in particularly sweaty places, or just falling over, which is difficult enough when she’s trying to carry picture frames as big as she is! It’s not like she’s some big, strong champion who could carry all this effortlessly, and Cyanis, to boot! She’s just small, helpless, and useless without someone to guide her!

Not that she can talk back, of course. Like a naughty little thing, she is tempted to use her mouth in ways that would not pleasure her mistress. It’s a good thing she can’t! Wherever would she without her gag? It’s there to help her when she’s too silly to remember her rules! Thank you for gifting it to her, Countess!

Instead, Rose squeaks when Cyanis stuffs another tablecloth down her top, grunts when Cyanis tosses another painting on top of the other three and Rose has to catch it and ends up falling on her little tushie, and makes a worried little murr when Cyanis fills her cloak’s pockets with silverware. She is sworn to carry your burdens, Cyanis, but she’s definitely over encumber... encumber...

The fact that she can’t remember the word makes her face heat up and makes the nameless thing inside her writhe in shared embarrassment. How is a silly little thing like her supposed to remember big hard Countess words? And how is a silly, weak, dainty thing like her supposed to carry all this for Cyanis?

Unless. Unless. Maybe it’s a test. Maybe it’s one of the Countess’s no-win tests. Rose has to adjust her grip on the frames desperately. Why are her palms so sweaty? Why is her heart racing? Being punished is bad! Being put into a position where you can’t win so that you can learn just how much control the Countess has over you is... is just...

(It’s safe. It’s being spanked. It’s being called names that make her a squirmy mess. It’s being given extra chores. It’s being given penalties, tied up tighter, watching a timer while she dangles upside-down. And she’s always let out. She’s always let out. She’s never punished without being told how long it will last, she’s never locked in Rose’s Naughty Corner longer than the Countess said she’d be there. That’s why. Because it’s what hurt her, but defanged, made something that makes her squirm and clench her pretty thighs tight.)

Cyanis’s head snaps up. Rose immediately turns all her attention to her fox friend, just in case she’s about to be given new orders— and indeed, she’s right! “Over here!” Cyanis tugs on her leash frantically, darting into a shadowed side passage, and Rose hobble-hops desperately to keep up, trying so very hard not to fall over and not to drop anything and not to think about failing to catch up and—

Cyanis pulls her close around the corner, puts one silly hand over Rose’s face like she needs that to keep Rose quiet, while Rose keeps shifting and trying not to spill paintings everywhere. Why was she hurried over? Why are they hiding? Is this a game? Did Cyanis see an enemy? Why does she like being held like this? (Oh, right! The Countess doesn’t even need to be here for her to remember: it’s because she’s a desperate little slut! Gosh, that was easy! She’s sorry for being so sex-crazed that all she can think about is that hand pressing down harder and harder on the tightly-packed cloth and how much she loves it, Miss Cyanis!)

“You left a trail,” Cyanis moans in her ear, and Rose realizes: oh, no, she did! Gold coins and silver forks and egg-sized gems, all leading up to the two of them! She’s sorry, she’s so sorry, Miss Cyanis, it’s just that you were making her go so fast and she was just trying not to fall over or drop all the paintings and—

“Run!!” Cyanis lets go of her and smacks her rear to set her off like a race horse. And Rose, flustered, useless, flusterpated Rose, gets her heels caught in the cloak and goes down on the paintings in a huge clatter of bangles and treasures and paintings and a fox scrabbling on top of her. At least somebody picks up Cyanis by the scruff of her neck. Up she goes! With a meep and an eep! A squeak, even!

Which means, for a moment, just the blink of an eye, Rose gets to lie on top of a portrait of the Countess, helpless in the knowledge that she’s been a naughty, useless girl, and she deserves to be punished, and a good girl wouldn’t wiggle so eagerly knowing that, and therefore she needs even more training to learn to be a good girl, which is a much, much more complicated and interesting thing than she’d thought back when she was just a priestess.

Then she, too, is picked up by her collar and whisked away with a hmmph! and a mmmph! and a jingle of treasures still, still tumbling out of her top!

[Rose gains +1 XP for getting a 6 on Defying Disaster, netting her the coveted First Advance, which she will spend on Mirror Ball from the Dream Mirror.]

Someday, someone might ask you what dreams are woven out of. Here's what you tell them. For your thread, you need inspiration spun all round and about until its smooth and free of knots. For the loom, you carve from joy and lay the thread upon it. And for the needle, you take just a little bit of talent and natural inclination and you hammer them to a point, sharp as a sunbeam.

Chen has them all in spades. Where she stumbled on explaining herself and her struggles and all this pressure, and lost her words entirely when Rose picked her up in a squeaking mess, Jessic might be surprised to have said all that once and quickly and see Chen nodding and repeating it: "broken wheel of reincarnation, destroyed the king of darkness, fortune tellers reading people's fates between enlightenment and demonhood, got it, got it." And then it comes on and she's enraptured.

She leans and rolls with Ydian's fights, one arm matching the swordwork. She squeaks and blushes and throws up her hands when Ydian finds herself compromised by her arch nemesis and probably maybe girlfriend Zeryn, she grabs the nearest couch cushion to hug when Ydian has to consult her grandmother's ghost for advice on the dregs of the king of darkness, and she cheers when the hero triumphs at the end through pluck, hope, and the love of her friends.

Halfway through the second episode, she finds herself unconsciously leaning on Jessic for support as Ydian despairs at ever escaping Zeryn's clutches for a second time as the clock ticks down on the theft of a magic crystal depowering her home town. And when Ydian has to disguise herself as one of Zeryn's veiled handmaidens to escape, she blushes and hides her face in Jessic's scales and keeps watching by glancing through her arm.

And when they're done with this bit and Jessic calls for a break, Chen looks up at her with eyes big as saucers and asks "do you have one where the hero is a leopard princess? Or a cat maybe? Or a wolf even?"

Chen!

Princess Jessic not only has that, but she has shows so specific and so inventive you're not sure you could have imagined them. She has a movie about a girl who meets the King of Cats and becomes a cat in turn for a while, and she has a series about a girl in a world of talking animals who learns to transform into a megajaguar, and she has another where a magical wolf discusses economic theory as they journey across a mysterious kingdom. Each one is like a dream you might have started with, but in the telling of the dream it becomes so elaborate and so specific that it unfolds into something real and grounded. Simply by explaining a dream in that length and in that detail it somehow becomes a story instead.

Days go by, as enchanting and exhilarating as the richest sleep.

Rose!

It is always a sign of danger when the Countess addresses you directly. Everyone else offers advice, comfort, guidance. Hers is the shadow of discipline, the iron hand that keeps you from making any incorrect choices. But even though she's dangerous she's safe too for that exact same reason. If you choose wrong she'll score you across the behind to let you know your mistake and then make the correct choice for you. You can't make her mad, you can't disappoint her, you can't do anything that'll make her hold a grudge. She's responsible for you.

So when she comes in to see you tied upside-down and hanging from the ceiling, it sends a thrill.

"So, Rose," she said, running a hand through her long black hair - a signal that had a handmaiden fall upon it with a brush a moment later. "I am just back from hearing a tale of your wickedness and perversity in seducing the heart of an innocent vixen and leading her astray. Really, from the sounds of things, you are probably the most wicked and malicious monster to have ever walked the earth, a duplicitous liar who has been undermining my authority since the very beginning. According to Cyanis you are a very bad girl indeed."

Her fingers come up beneath your chin and she tilts your head up to look her in the eyes.

"And so I'm going to ask you a question, Rose," said Countess Keron. "How should I punish Cyanis for lying to me?" she snaps her fingers. "Ungag her, and let her speak."

Yue!

Here you are, before a crowd.

It's not a big crowd. This is very much wednesday night local team volleyball numbers, where attendance is a couple dozen. Ex-handmaidens who settled out early, retirees, enthusiasts, school kids and people who stopped by to watch a couple of rounds on their way home from work. The Countess is there too, a nexus of colour and energy that anchors the entire arena - she takes this seriously, takes you seriously, even if you have not won the crowd yet.

There's another smell in the air, visible to your enhanced wolf nose. Excitement. This is someone in the audience's first time watching a duel. You can hear the skipped breath, the gasp, the amazed cry "It's a wolf! She's fighting a wolf! Look, a wolf!" There's awe in that little voice raised so loud. Not many wolves in the clouds. Just like that, you've bought a little bit of magic with you up here.

Hyra had cast another spell to correct your colour vision in this shape. Important because without it you might not have been able to appreciate the sunflower yellow and black checker pattern of your opponent's dress. You might have missed the flash of her bright green eyes or the olive tan to her skin. She carries a long two-handed sword like she's afraid of breaking it and your amazing nose tells you that she's nervous and excited too.

"Tonight's duel," came Keron's voice, loud and clear, "is between Yue of the Terraced Lake and Squire Tianic of the Sky Castle. Salute your opponent and engage with honour."