Anarion

Sunshards

Chen tilted her head in the morning air in quizzical thought. She held herself like that, just thinking and letting the breeze swirl around them for a long few seconds.

There wasn’t an easy solution. There wasn’t one way to show someone love and respect and kindness. She was going to have to figure it out.

Then she turned her eyes right up to Jessic’s. “So, Princess Jessic, what’s your story then?”

***

The first thing Chen did after the long anime run and her chat with Jessic was to fly around town.

She was a guest and a prisoner all at once, and she knew that she had been putting off a daring rescue for a while. Or something, she wasn’t sure yet if the right call was to try and bust in while sneaking Rose out (which was incredibly stupid in a castle none of them knew how to leave, but therefore also bold and daring precisely because it was unlikely to succeed). There was negotiation of course, and demands, a formal duel perhaps, though she wasn’t sure that either Jessic or Keron would be interested.

So, she was going to look around and do so in Princess style. A sword flight around the square was like saying “I’m here!” And people wouldn’t have seen her since that initial capture. But now was a time to be seen and to see. To spread a little word, to have whispers reach the palace and the handmaidens, that Princess Chen was out and about. Was she free, was she a prisoner on display? Perhaps Rose would find a way to send a sign or Chen would find her girlfriend out and about.

Eee, her girlfriend. A thrill went through her at that. A bold claims she’d made, all full of worry. But a right one. She thought Rose needed it too, and Chen felt so much more confident facing the world with her friends at her side. It was so different to having to stand there alone and declare yourself against all comers. Hmm, maybe that was why Qiu used her shards that way…

Chen rushed through the air, her light blue dress whipping behind her, balanced on her sword and arms held back for speed. She let herself be deep in thought and at once take in the clouds and the streets, the sun hovering as it did on the horizon and the deep gray stones of the castle tower.

And then she saw what seemed to be a tournament already happening. From the banners, streamers, and pennants all in rainbows it was quite a spectacle even if they were still in early matches and not yet to center stage fights. She slowed so as not to distract the combatants and went to inspect the signs as to who was up in the match.

…
…
…

Yue the wolf vs. Tianic the Squire. Yue…the…wolf. She was reading that right, wasn’t she? But, but Hyra had been and and Yue was…Chen had only been off on her own little fantasy for a few days, right?! What had happened?!

Well, she had to see this. Chen slipped into the stands and sidled into unobtrusively to an edge seat next to a couple youngsters who were cheering wildly and paid her no mind as she looked down at the stage. Yue?!?!?

Sunshards

Chen lets the cool breeze of the sky castle blow through her morning bedhead. She's been sleeping in a room next to Jessic's quarters, and came over this morning in her jammies (the sky castle being chilly, she has a set of fleece pants and a fluffy pink t-shirt) to sit on the balcony and chat before they got into the day's studies. There's supposed to be a fighting tournament too, or maybe it's been going on already? She lost track of time, but probably should check in on her friends at some point. She hasn't seen Rose either, but surely by now the candle had burned down and Rose was fine and just biding her time. Still, she should check in.

But for the moment, she was sipping hot cocoa and sitting on a nice stone deck looking out over the vastness of an open sky. She felt comfortable with Jessic. Comfortable enough to skip dressing or brushing her hair. Maybe it was just that she'd already been trussed up and dangled for the whole town? Or more likely, it was that they'd been sitting and watching anime together and you stopped caring when it got late into the night and early in the morning. There was just, Chen didn't know, just something about those times of day that said you didn't have to be all put together and pretty yet.

She breathed in the steam and took another sip. She loved that Jessic loved warm drinks, and warm clothes and warm things. It was incredibly sweet, and somehow cuter because she was such a big powerful dragon. She wondered if that was part of the story Jessic was telling? All these thought about art and culture. Was everything part of someone's story? Maybe that wasn't the right way to look at it. Maybe it was the other way around: you thought and you felt and you believed things and the stuff that you cared about sincerely is what became your story. That seemed more right to Chen. She was inspired by how sincerely Yue seemed to love learning about this world. And even more so by how much Rose had enjoyed their play. And the face she had made when they were brought up here, the blush in her cheeks, that was the real Rose for sure. It made Chen blush a little thinking about it, and she hid it in the steam and the whipped cream of her cup (because obviously hot cocoa came with whipped cream, Jessic wasn't a monster).

"I think you're right." She said presently, looking over her cup. "I think, there are things I've cared about, but watching anime, learning about all these different stories that people have made, I feel like it's giving me things to think about. Being told that you can do anything you want with a sunshard isn't that helpful, you know? 'Anything' is so many things that trying to pull something out of thin air just ends up being nothing. Or it ends up being some big monster thing like my moms did to train me or maybe like Yin does. Or it's like, a good cup of hot cocoa and a relaxing bath or something. Which is okay, but I feel like there could be so much more."

She sips for a second. "Why do you think some of the princesses push their stories so hard though? I mean, I understand that when, or if I get a shard, I get to make my own domain. A-and since I'm deciding, I get to make stuff in my domain how I want just like you do here. But some of them, it feels like they try to force everybody into their story. That's kind of what Qiu does, and I get there's a way to work with her that's like letting her be important and giving her the special fight without just being sad and angry. But it's still like she's getting the shards to force everyone to have the fight she wants. And I think, like, Mommy Ysel used to be like that and kind of still is, she just decided that she was good with Ys and its vassals and doesn't go off and fight so much any more. And Yin is kind of...like she turned Hyra into a wolf because Hyra upset her. She didn't ask if Hyra wanted that, or see how it worked out, she just left in a huff when I wouldn't help her and I think she's probably still mad at me about that. But like, she's sooo pushy. I think that having that kind of power should be like, you offer your vision to the world and people get to choose how they want to live in it. It shouldn't be like, like forcing people to be something they don't want to be."

Chen thought for a second. "Or even, I think, that forcing people is the thing that's bad. Like, what made me feel so bad is that when I found that I really liked some of the important princess stuff, my moms were forcing me to to be what I wanted to be. Like it stopped being my thing and became the thing they were forcing on me. Even though I wanted it! That's different from, y'know, all the kidnapping and play and stuff that we all do. I mean, sure you hung me over the square so I could wiggle and squirm to entertain everyone cuz I was captured, but that was, was because I wanted to be that role and it was fun, and I knew it was part of the role I took on and was okay with it."

Chen thought for several more seconds, a space that Jessic was giving her to work through her own mind, she realized. "I want to come up with a beautiful story that makes me happy and that inspires other people to join me. I want to fit in the other princesses stories too and make them happy, but I don't want to force people into them, I don't want people to be hurt and sad. And, I'm gonna stand up for anyone who needs help." She nodded once, emphatically, and then emptied the rest of her hot chocolate.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan
You find Sir Hector in the corridor outside the great hall, opposite the courtyard. All the spaces facing the courtyard are dark at Constance’s explicit direction, but on this side Hector seems to have brought a torch with her and considered it safe enough to set it in a wall sconce and have her hands free to cross in front of her for a proper stance of unapproachable contemplation.

She therefore starts when you approach her with puff pastry and gives you a look that, were it not obviously just a misleading trick of the flickering light, you might briefly have described as chagrin.

“I thought you’d be avidly spying on the courtyard like half the servants” she says, taking the offered pastry. “Even if your lady made certain that nobody would be able to see anything but silhouettes from the windows. But instead you’ve come to find me. To what do I owe the honor?”

That is, as far as you can tell, the most friendly greeting she’s ever offered, and there is no better opportunity to ask pointed questions. How do you ask her of her jealousy?

[and roll appropriately for however you seek to learn such pointed things.]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

“Hi! Peri! Slow down, you know we can’t all be savants. Which soldier do you mean? Give me a name if it’s safe.”

Giriel tried not to sigh as they were walking. For one thing, a big sigh meant inhaling a lot of dust from all the raiders on dry mountain roads. The lowlands had a recent storm, but it hadn’t made it up this far, not yet at least. So, the tension in the air wasn’t just from Uusha, but spoke of thunderstorms to come sometime soon. They’d be welcome when they came, a reminder that the fury of the heavens was beyond all these petty squabbles and even the dead paid due respect to such things.

Dealing with Peregrine was a challenge though. She had eaten her soup at least. She hadn’t noticed who it had come from, of course, or where, but it was right there next to her and other people were eating and that had been enough to get her body going through the motions from muscle memory even if her mind had been elsewhere. It was a blessing that she had said hello at last, and now she’d launched into theory. And while Giriel might be able to understand it, she knew that she couldn’t try to do it at Peregrine’s speed. Plus, one did have to say the safety things very carefully. For all Giriel knew, “that soldier” was a euphemism for some high ranking demon and Peregrine would just drop the name in the middle of a field like it was nothing. Probably not, but one did have to be careful.

Really, Peregrine and Uusha made the perfect pair. Frustratingly so. A better knight would not have put Peregrine up to such blighted work no matter how good her theories. And a better witch would have talked some sense into Uusha in the first place before she’d gotten all this momentum and convinced herself she was acting for everybody’s good by disturbing their ancestors to engage in mass murder.

“And Peri” she added, before the other witch could launch into a second run of theory, “why are you raising the dead for this? I heard about signs of demons near here on my way up. If you’ve got a good theory to test with your music, turn your magic on them and help everyone, not on young soldiers trying to make a living.”

Sunshards

Princess Chen is enraptured. There is no other word for it. Jessic has shown her something beautiful. And not just beautiful, but focused, niche, special. That people had these stories in their hearts, such specific people doing such absurd and specific things. Of course, she had known, that was after all how so many different princesses had their sunshards. But, she had understood this sort of vision only with her mind, not with her heart. Honestly, she hadn’t even really understood with her mind. When your main points of personal experience were Qiu, Yin, and your parents training you, it didn’t exactly make the idea of this kind of story enticing.

Imagine, if you will, growing up and thinking to yourself, in a world full of magic, “my job is to keep everything just as it is” and practicing with the sword for such a purpose. There is still wonder, so many things to discover, but there is no drive there, only a sort of fear and a forgetfulness of the self.

So Chen is enraptured. She can’t tear herself away from these stories that match the ideas budding in her heart. But even as they end, she finds her mind carrying them on. She finds herself daydreaming during breaks, imagining during meals, and dreaming to herself of fantasies at night. She dreams not of the sort of force that Yin creates, or even the wild and free plains that Jezara has worked, but of something different, of cities filled with people who can change their shape at will, of sword flying with little wind leopards and being carried about by a Rose in full throated joy of herself, and a place where everyone can have a companion of any sort they wish.

It is not that she has convinced anyone of her vision yet, or suddenly escaped the dreams of every other person in her life. But as days pass, there is a new sort of conviction forming about what Chen wants in the world, one that might carry her against the pressures she faces. An underlying dream that suffuses her as she blinks in the sunlight of the sky castle, dazed and happy in a way she had quite nearly forgotten she could feel.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel meets Uusha’s gaze. Kayl running off hot with pride was the best she could hope for, and now Uusha is her attention. Fight a knight? Was that really the only thing open to her? She had promised Agata to return when she had resolved things here. She didn’t think that fighting Uusha, running her off, would change her mind. Giriel didn’t think the Red Wolf thought that either, otherwise she’d have gone herself, a hero of the Dominion. One did not hire a witch to go smashing about with swords, even as a backup plan (barring certain very specific demons), and whether Red Wolf had any inkling of Uusha being here, the response to the N’yari would have been much the same.

No, one hired a witch to talk and set things to right, or perhaps to set things wrong as Peregrine was doing for the sake of experimenting with her Art. And that meant that things might just take a little more time. Time enough to change a mind perhaps. Magic was, after all, about Will. You didn’t practice if you didn’t have that basic sense of self.

So Giriel stared at Uusha, the stag knight, and slowly shook her head such as the knight’s gauntlet would allow. “I will come with you, but I won’t help you rouse the dead. You’re making a mistake and I’ll stay with you long enough to help you see it.”

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Robena, Constance

It is as Constance dictates. Indeed, the very Winter sun seems to be on her side. The trail is slow going back, deer being a much greater load on squires and horses alike than fox, and the sun takes its opportunity to hide below the horizon before your return. Sir Liana absently plucks her harp, wordless low notes hanging in the autumn air. She is tired and more than a little hoarse. Singing upon a hunt is an experience of air rushing into the throat at speed and the dry winter was already inhospitable to a long ballad without such circumstances. Her gaze is still to you, though she is discreet and has learned in her day with you to leave you to your thoughts.

It is thus that you part at the stables and find yourself, Robena, alone. Alone with your thoughts and your footfalls echoing off the stone of a dark courtyard. A distant lantern sputters weakly, marking the entryway where you ought to head. The fountain runs with chill water. It ought to be frozen, but it has been thawed by servants in your absence and, while running, escapes the chill creeping upon it for the moment. It trickles gently to accompany your footfalls and the sound directs your eye, at last, to the outline of a woman before you, standing before the fountain, arrayed in a long dress outlining her silhouette. She holds herself in the size and style of Constance, though you cannot make out her face as yet.

Constance, you hear Robena before you see her and then see her, tired after a long day, making her slow way towards the lantern upon the castle.

Speak first, whoever is so bold!

Tristan
Your dinner task is assigned to you and none begrudge you the duty. But before that, there is a moment where Constance has arranged her meeting, alone by the fountain. None else are welcome there, for that one place is set for her and for Robena. For you, the trouble is a contrary one. Until you turn to serve Constance, you could be anywhere, doing quite nearly anything you please so long as it is neither too bright nor too noisy. Sir Liana is just returned, tired, quiet, and saddlesore. Lady Sauvage too has returned, though she says not a word and made herself barely known at the back of the hunting party, for the hart was not hers to approach. Sir Hector is tired in her own way, but took the courtesy to bathe and dress in long wools rather than her armor after her routine in the courtyard and is therefore not entirely unapproachable. And Sir Harold is directing the servants to prepare the newly arrived deer for dinner.

Sunshards

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?"

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

This is heartbreaking. It would surely have been better if the young and fearless shepherd had been a demon in disguise, or some spirit tasked with leading her to Uusha, or a sympathetic local god. Instead she got a brave fool who's bravery went as far as ghosts but not so far as angry knights. Well, that was smart of him, angry knights were far more dangerous than ghosts and far less predictable.

Though Giriel's face is held, her cheeks pressed inward by the careful but firm metal gauntlet, she gestures to Kayl with a dismissive wave of the hand. It says you may go and also your duty is done, and a little bit of you don't matter, shoo because the color drained of his face says that a little anger and indignation would do him good and he would be better off for withdrawing with his dignity than with his tail between his legs. A youth of his bravery doesn't deserve to be crushed by Uusha, even in passing.

So go, get out, leave her be, she needs no more guide. As for this, this is fine. Giriel's eyes are looking up at Uusha's, looking at her stag helm, at the weight of her symbolism and the burden she bears. That she sees herself, alone, as responsible for the salvation of kingdoms and it weighs on her as though the whole heavens press on her shoulders. It's enough to break a heart, all these people hurting. Enough that it brings a tear to Giriel's eye, though Uusha could be mistaken for thinking the pain she's causing is physical as Giriel shudders.

Sunshards

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.