[b]Handmaidens![/b]

The ambush is in the tea parlor.

Perhaps the way that Ruthmoreness drooped when she heard that you were from the Hero of Ages should have been a clue. As, perhaps, the way that the Nagi maid smoothly led you into the tea parlor to await an audience with the High Table themselves should also have been.

The rain is gentle on the windows, which look out on several different possible landscapes (pick-your-own-vista). The hazelnut tea is poisoned: not lethally, but soporifically. This is meant to ensure that the dozen maid-knights hitting the room from three different doors will have ease in subduing you. The grooves on the wall? Meant for skateboarding tricks.

This is not so much a killzone as a capture zone. At what point do you realize this, and how do you try to hold out?

[hr]
[b]Eclair Espoir![/b]

The answer is mumbled, but in the droop of the ears, the flush of the cheeks, the way she won't look you in the eye: in all these things, the answer is obvious. She didn't keep the money, and she doesn't want you to know that she didn't keep the money. Figuring out where it went? That will require digging. But as far as raising her own personal circumstances, your generous gift might have well have been tossed into a very big and very deep hole. (There are plenty of gorges in Kel here that would suffice.)

"Perhaps I didn't want to rely on charity," she lies, with a petulant toss of her head. "I worked my way through life, Eclair, and didn't need [i]dragon mommies[/i] to treat me with sugar!"

It is a slight against the honor of your mistresses to let that one lie where it lands. Not even pretending that the words were caught in the bracing wind and tossed up into the sky will suffice in this moment, not when she is being like this.

[hr]
[b]Yuki![/b]

She goes for your throat.

Her teeth are possessive; it will be a phenomenal bruise later. Maybe you'll have to greet Hazel at the ball (where, naturally, surely you will be going, if only to make sure that no one takes advantage of the poor innocent boy) wearing a very fancy turtleneck. Her muscles are strong, strong, [i]strong[/i], all around you, but she does not crush you. She is on the very edge of her self-control, but she still has it. Still has [i]you.[/i]

When she leans back, ignoring her red-faced bodyguards trying to look anywhere that's not at the two of you, she's got the most self-assuredly smug look on her face. She thinks she's got you wrapped around her little finger, and you've just figured out the way to get [i]her[/i] to provide you with what [i]you[/i] need.

What do you need, incidentally? She's got resources, and can easily be tricked into deploying them, as long as she thinks she's seducing [i]you[/i] rather than the other way around. (The fact that you are Sulochana's friend adds a dash of salaciousness to this that she is [i]eating up[/i], and also if Sulochana ever finds out about this she will hit the roof, as they say.)

"Good girl," she purrs at a tone that would almost assuredly destroy a deerboy. "See? Cooperation has its perks. Jomes!" ("Gemes, ma'am...") "Go and fetch us some coff[i]-eh[/i]. And make sure one has some... [i]chili[/i] to it." ("Yes, ma'am," he sighs, aware that he is going to break into a boarded-up restaurant to make coffee by hand.)

"Now," she says, still thinking that she's in perfect control of the situation, absolutely unaware that you can play her like a harp, "let's talk about outfits. Where will he be staring when I arrive to claim him? Up here, or down here?"

[hr]
[b]Hazel![/b]

Olesya is distracted. It's obvious the whole time that Juniper is helping out Keli and Seli with their outfit change behind a screen in what is, I assure you, a very salacious affair. Chests are being pressed up against each other. Ear scritchies are being deployed mercilessly. Seduction and counter-seduction are being deployed furiously. There is a chorus of squeaks and gasps and muffled exclamations.

But Olesya isn't paying attention. She's staring into the coals, and your initial attempt to speak with her fizzles out into awkward silence. When she stands up, it is slow and careful and wow she's a lot taller than you huh? Could easily pick you up. Tuck you under one arm. Toss you over a shoulder. All sorts of ways she could carry you.

"My mother expects us," she says. That's all. She doesn't pick you up and walk you out the door immediately - you've got to wait for your sluzhankas, after all - but there's no hiding here. No trying to stay low and away from the Khatun.

You [i]will[/i] be presented.