Back on the Sky Castle, Princess Jessic whines and scratches at the edge of the hole in her castle. Countess Keron holds her back, gloved hand with none of the strength and all of the willpower needed to keep a dragon from her treasure. There will be time to collect gold and jewels again. There will be opportunities for airborne duels in the future. On a different day they might even win, even against hearts like these.

But on this day, true love's first kiss is taking place and it needs no dragons to make it magical.

*

Elkibrant swims through the air towards Vogodoris, pointing with a thief's razor eyes. The War God turns and his eyes alight with fire. They bypass all the falling treasure as they angle their descent, for they are wise as thieves are wise. Gold is worthless, diamonds can be synthesized. No, these thieves know what real treasure is, and they intend to steal it.

They reach the camera just in time, and Elkibrant swings around with it, adjusting lens and optics. Click. Click. Click. Perfect photographs. 

And just like that, they turn themselves in the sky and angle themselves away from the others, having the treasure that they've come for. Nobody who has any sense in this wide and beautiful world values dead gold or shiny rocks, but a photograph of a first kiss shared during freefall? That's a treasure for the ages. In exchange for these pictures the thieves might ask for any service from the maidens, or any who sought to provide them with the perfect gift. What better prize for a master thief?

*

Cyanis sees nothing but Rose's chest. She craves nothing but the gold. She tries to reach out blindly to scoop up falling diamonds with her two large and fluffy tails but they just look like they are wagging. Everything is horribly unfair.

Not least of these unfair things was the fact that Countess Keron had correctly identified her as Hyra's inside girl! Such injustice! She had not committed a single crime in her life before having her arm twisted by the wolf maiden, practically blackmailed into participating in this heist. And yet she had been a suspect! On literally no grounds! And the Countess was probably up there even now thinking about how guilty Cyanis was, putting all the blame for this whole thing on her innocent, fluffy head while she was still unjustly tied up and unable to get hardly any gold! And everyone knew that crime didn't count if you didn't get away with the treasure! [i]Attempted[/i] robbery!? They didn't give Nobel prizes for attempted chemistry!

She squirms and mmphs as best as she is able in a vain effort to communicate A) her opinions on this incredibly anti-fox legal system and B) that she has learned nothing from any of this.

*

All she wanted was to be someone's everything.

When she performed a complicated magic trick, crowds looked at her. When she did an astoundingly complicated sword technique, opponents reassessed her. When she stole hidden riches, security demons cursed her. She could come into a life like a miracle and change everything. That was what she loved. To capture attention. To see herself reflected in sparkling eyes. The stars that surrounded her then were the measure of the joy she was able to create, a halo that made her feel angelic. A storybook come to life.

But performances ended. After the applause, the curtain. After the moment of transcendent bliss, the quiet, then the return to the long and quiet hours of rehearsal. It took work. It took weeks and months alone with the craft to discover or create a new secret to be revealed at the perfect time. She'd measured her life by counting the moments like this one, where everything perfectly came together in a storm of diamonds falling from the sky. Perfect romance, worthy of her angel self.

What she hadn't expected was how Yue had made every moment in between then and now feel. She had been in the long silence of the wolf. Sitting. Thinking. Planning. A shadow of her greatest self as, piece by piece, she assembled the parts and learned the skills to create another moment like this. A transitional period before she could arise again in light and colour and be someone's everything for another moment. 

But for every day of that period she'd been loved. She'd been loved when she was silent. She'd been loved when she was withdrawn. She'd been loved when she'd gone weeks unable to speak or touch as humans do. She'd been loved when she hadn't been ready to be loved. When she hadn't collected the pieces to make someone love her. She hadn't needed to do all this to win Yue's heart. She'd had her heart all along.

This, then, wasn't her fighting for Yue. This wasn't to impress her. This was all just a way to say... 

"Thank you for loving me," said Hyra, sparkling eyes reflecting an angel. "I love you too."