It is one of the quintessentially romantic images, perfect for the damsel in distress, the lure of the Angelshark (which must, surely, even now be lured out of position).

It would be much more romantic if Ember were not hacking and coughing, red-eyed, sputtering, waving the unwanted cigarette in one hand which just makes the smoke [i]spread.[/i] Ceronians don’t smoke. They’ll burn incense, they’ll spread perfume, they’ll control the scents precisely, but the stench of roses and nicotine that surrounds her is cloying, suffocating, overwhelming, not made for her.

What this practically means is that she doesn’t have a clever argument for why she’s using her love for Bella, her Mosaic, to save her from being saved by her ritual love, Liquid Bronze, which is really just mean of the god— how dare he put this princess in a position where she has to either renounce her ritual or deny her heart? That’s the sort of thing that gods are doing all of the time, but still!

Instead, she is just, well, rather canine. And part of that animal instinct is knowing how to wiggle out of someone’s arms. Not gracefully, not with any concern for where she will end up, but with the wriggling panic of an anxious dog in a suit worrying about things like wine sales: in such wise does the Princess Alpha free herself from the clutches of Love Himself, flopping in a heap on a neat and tidy bed in front of at least two sheeps.

She coughs again, twice, like she’s about to throw up or expel a hairball, and then brushes her hair out of her face, suit jacket hanging half-open to show her— well, let us be polite and say undergarments.

“…Dolce!” Her smile is like the sun on a day with a picnic basket and a pleasantly cool breeze, isn’t it, Dolce? “From Beri! Juno be praised! Have they been making you cook for them all this time?!”

(A sheep might here, perhaps, remember the Silver Divers, and perhaps even one of their scouts who would occasionally enjoy his cooking.)

[With an [b]8[/b], Ember gets to Dolce quickly and without harm, but not quietly and without attention.]