Anarion

Sunshards

At an izakaya, serving pancakes

Let’s get one thing straight. Chen absolutely expected the Pyre to have a little fun with her Rosepetal while she was cooking. That was part of leaving her! Part of the maid experience. Chen was the skilled maid who was directing the experience, Rose was the bimbo maid who was there to be teased and silly even when she was unexpectedly competent. So Chen ducking out of the scene to cook the pancakes wasn’t just abandoning Rose to the Pyre’s machinations, it was an invitation! That was the fun of it all!

Even so, Chen had to stop as she exited the kitchen with her plate heaping full of chocolate chip pancakes, whip creamed bottle tucked into her skirt to draw the smiley faces. She has to stifle a laugh and a blush, and she can’t stifle the grin. Uh oh Rose, the Pyre had gotten straight to the cuffs and now you were locked up oh so tight! Tighter than Chen had been when you’d wrapped her hands in the old world caution tape and trussed her up on a stick! Don’t think she’s forgotten! In fact, her first thought is that she’s going to have to get you back for that trussing while you’re like this and put you up on a pole for people to play with. Oh oh, or maybe over a fire pit as though you’re going to be a sacrifice to the nearest deity. In fact, she would bet that the nearby deity would come down just to tease you, oh yes that will be great! Just add that one to the idea bin that occupies a small corner of her brain.

But Chen has pancakes to serve and smiley faces to draw! So, she slides out of the kitchen, her feet in their heels perkily clicking as she crosses the floor to you both. She sets down the plates oh so gently, and pulls out the can of whipped cream with a flourish to properly shake it. She smiles, and a little blush enters her cheeks as she looks at her Rosepetal over the Pyre’s lap, but she stays strong and makes her follow through on the flourish by putting the cherry down daintily to complete the pancake presentation.

Only then, only after things are served and she’s curtseyed properly to her mistress, does she calmly suggest “Mistress, if it please you, I can take my co-maid off your hands while you eat.” Because it will obviously please the Pyre, she’s already sliding Rosepetal off the Pyre’s lap and onto the plush lime green cushions of the booth seating on one side of the table. She’s not taking the cuffs apart though, not yet. Instead, she takes her own seat as the Pyre begins on the pancakes.

Chen tuts. “Petal, goodness, I can’t leave you for a moment can I?” She puts a hand over Rose’s mouth, shushing even her moans and pressing her gag in more firmly. “No no, I come back and you’re all tangled up!” Chen smiles as she brushes a hand over Rose’s wrists. Her touch is gentle, not enough to pull them apart, but more than enough to make the skin prickle and the sensation rush through Rose’s body. Then she runs that hand down the legs, over the bare skin and the high socks and down to the ankles, feeling those tensed muscles held together by the cuffs. The soft rustle of fabric fills the space between the two and nestles in Rose’s ears as Chen enjoys the feeling of touching her over these lovely clothes. For a moment that the light rustle of a hand running over the fabric and nearby the clink of the Pyre’s silverware are the only sounds. Chen lets it linger before she speaks, “maybe I should leave you like this, hm? Suggest that the Pyre command you to follow us without separating your legs or hands. That would remind you how to be a good girl, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be fun to be desperately trying to keep up and falling all over yourself hopelessly?” She grins. Does she mean it Rose? The Pyre isn’t going to be eating forever and Chen seems to be quite enjoying her freedom running that hand up and down your thighs and along the inside of your belly. She’s thinking about whether she ought to feed you first, the servants’ meal while the Pyre enjoys a drink, but she ultimately decides better of it. There is work to do after all and she doesn’t have time to do all that work with your gag. “Well, my silly handmaiden, lucky for you today that there’s still an order of knights that we need to clean up. So I guess I’ll have to free you. But we’re making up for lost time later and you’re absolutely forbidden from taking those cuffs off until I say so.” Thus at last Chen grins and slowly, gently, pulls your wrists apart and then your legs, making no effort to avoid leaning her small but ample chest right into you while she’s doing it.

Fireworks over Ys

The little group leaves the Izakaya and heads towards the walls. It’s not far, they were nearly there already from their route catching demons before they reached the Izakaya. They do need to deal with the knights and Yin. Chen’s plan had been to simply roll that into the maid routine, part of the city cleanup, so to speak. She was going to high heel drop kick Yin when she saw her because oh boy did that Princess have it coming. Chen assumed that her Mommy’s forces would have already thundered down the main causeway while she had been busy and then fanned out along the walls, so they would have a fairly easy time. Or if they hadn’t they would be soon. Mommy Ysel did have a knack for timing if nothing else, and she might be waiting until the sunset just to make sure that the light gleamed off the soldiers in their regalia properly. It had to be set up so the minstrels and bards described them as the spirits of legend come down to Ys in their gleaming ranks, the twilight air blurring them with the heavens. Something like that at any rate. Maybe Chen was just feeling dreamy with how everything was going.

Her musing is interrupted by the sudden whistle boom of fireworks overhead. A whole series of them suddenly go off in sequence, red and white one after another in the shapes of starbursts and flowers in the sky. But Yin’s colors were black and white, her stark radiance night and day thing. Red and white were Hyra’s colors which meant…it’s then that Chen sees her. Wordlessly she taps Rose and points, gesturing upwards to the sky past the walls. There she was, hovering over a little hill with a shrine and a fountain from which a small waterfall pours down the hillside. A less enraptured Chen would have found the scene odd because she was sure such a hill shrine had never been there before in all the years she’d spent in Ys. But the sight is mesmerizing and Chen has no attention for such observations. The sunshard illuminates Hyra with an ethereal light, merging with the deep blues of the sunset to make her look transcendent, as though she were infused with all of reality, spotlit from within.

Chen simply stares for a moment, trying to commit the sight into her memory, to burn the ghostly image of Hyra above that hilltop into her brain. She is going to paint this, from the war topknot in lunar white to the deepest blues of the steel merging with the sky behind. Oh, oh if only she had all her painting things now she’d pull them out immediately, at least mix colors until she got the hues just right before going up there. She could keep the pigments, bottle them up for later. But she hasn’t been carrying her paints and her brushes since all that time ago when she left them with Qiu, and besides she couldn’t have kept them on her anyway when changing into a maid dress.

“Come mistress, we should go see about the commotion, I’m sure there’s quite a story up there.” Chen offers the Pyre another curtsy, and gestures for Rose to follow as well (Rose, of course, does not receive a formal address since she is the lower-ranked maid at this point, but Chen does give her another warm smile and a gentle tug). Then Chen draws her sword and begins a lazy flight up toward the hill, trying to see what there is to see without outpacing Rose or the Pyre as they work their way up.

A hill shrine held by an army

As Chen gets a look at the hilltop, the first thing she sees is the cast of characters all spread out. Yue is tied up and gagged, placed against a little pine tree near the shrine entrance and looking full damsel in distress. Yin is at the base of the shrine, unbound but begging for mercy and bowing before her new master high above. And near her, lying on the open ground, is Qiu who is also tied and gagged. She’s got her tail up with the tip coming out past the top of the ropes. That tail is twitching as she’s squirming against the bonds in a way that says I’ve got this under control but also involves some very active rolling about. Above them is Hyra, with her moonlight armor, her gorgeous new hairstyle, and her flashing sword, as lightning bolts cut through the sky to backlight her. Last, in front of them all, holding the hilltop and looking as fierce as Chen has ever seen her (ignore the breadcrumbs around her mouth), the illustrious Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits. Chen gives that fox one look, meeps out loud and races back down from her flight to hide herself in a hug with Rose!

Now, she might also be smiling and giggling a little, and this might actually be an excuse to give Rose a big squeezy hug in the process. But what’s important is that Chen understands that the hilltop is being held by a very powerful army and that anyone who underestimated Kat was in for the chormping of a lifetime!

So Chen snuggles into Rose and looks up at her with the biggest saucer eyes. “Oh Petal. Hyra’s defeated all the other princesses and seized a sunshard and and and she’s got a fierce and terrible army holding the hilltop. The most fierce. Only you can distract them and make an opening for me to duel Hyra for the safety of Ys and freedom for Yue and Qiu! Pleeease!”

On the matter of wolf princesses with very hot armor

Now, let’s be clear here. Does Chen think that Hyra could have taken Yin and stolen her shard? Absolutely. In fact, if you thought about what happened at the Sky Castle, it probably wasn’t even hard. Yin might be the single easiest Princess to distract in all the nine kingdoms. So count that as one problem solved. Chen is only a teensy bit disappointed that this is not an appropriate situation for a maid drop kick.

But Chen does not believe for a second that Hyra would ever hurt Yue and she’s pretty darn skeptical that either of them could get Qiu into that spot if Qiu didn’t want to be in it. Not to mention that there’s no way that Kat would be guarding the hilltop if Yue were in real danger.

But! But but but! It was clear that a duel was required! Hyra didn’t get all dressed up like that just to pose for a photoshoot! And whoever had masterminded this little stunt (Yue, it was obviously Yue, Yue did it) wanted to see a proper duel with all her heart. Which meant that Chen, all dressed in her maid outfit with her sword gleaming in her hand, was going to need to go for Hyra one on one while Rose distracted Kat.

Gosh, had Chen ever told Yue this particular fantasy? Yue had seen her in the maid outfit working for Cyanis of course. That’s how they’d met, Chen blushing for all she was worth while offering Yue her sword in the face of a whole countryside racing after Qiu’s bounty. But the duel as a maid part? Chen hadn’t even really been anticipating that, she was so confident in Yue that getting to Qiu had been the very last thing to do on her list for today and nobody else had been all that likely to offer a proper duel. But maybe Yue had simply understood it from all their training together, and the precise way Chen moved in that little maid dress cleaning that simple shrine months ago. Yue had seen Chen’s heart and realized that Chen wanted a showdown like this to get her first shard more than anything.

The Pyre of Inspiration, of course, was going to get a front row seat to the action. And sure, that did mean that if it all went wrong then Hyra might seize three sunshards all for herself and become the new and terrible wolf princess overlord of the nine kingdoms. But really, that didn’t sound too bad either. Not that Chen was about to let it happen. She had a duel to fight! R-right after Rose distracted the army standing in the way!

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel's heart skips a beat when the scribe begins speaking. And then when Piripiri brings her hand forward, it simply sinks to her feet. There's no shot of adrenaline, no burst of defensiveness. She simply slumps. She'd known of the possibility of course, and Piripiri had been nursing her wound, it wouldn't have been hard to notice. But she had hoped that...that she'd be believed. That after all this, after all she'd done, the way Red Wolf had celebrated her, she had hoped for the benefit of the doubt, had even been confident in it. Drunk and relaxed and willing to simply share what she knew.

But no. She had committed sacrilege for dark magic, and though it had won their freedom, that was how it was going to be. Perhaps she ought to run. Or to fight and make a show of herself. But that too seemed pointless. Cathak Agata, the Red Wolf had them all in her jaws and a small army at her beck and call. For all her strength and learning, Giri was not a fighter, she had barely even begun to study the sort of magic that would let her be a fighter, and it seemed a damn fool's errand to try it now. Besides that, she wouldn't give the damn scribe the satisfaction of watching her struggle. Twice now, twice she'd been in the presence of this heavenly spirit and all that had happened was all her affairs thrown into disarray. She would not, not, not let it happen a third time.

So she simply let the guards approach her. She deserved her punishment, deserved to suffer for what she'd done. She should never have trusted that she'd be believed, that when it actually came to something hard to swallow that anyone would trust her skills, her learning, or her experience. No, she was an idiot for believing in Red Wolf that way. She'd known it too, and been lulled anyway. She was...

...a jolt went through her at Red Wolf's words. She shouldn't. Shouldn't trust. Shouldn't believe. It was a fool's errand. But, she wanted to so badly. She wanted to trust Red Wolf, wanted to be close to her. Her thighs and her chest ached to be close to her, to curl in upon her and rest her head upon those strong shoulders and snuggle close. She wanted it desperately and so she believed when she shouldn't.

When the guards approached, she let them bind and gag her. As a witch, the binding is significantly more thorough than it might be for a regular prisoner. The guards pull her arms behind her and tie them with Agata's well-made silk ropes. First hands closed around each other and then tied around the wrists tight enough that she can't pull her hands apart to prevent any sort of magical signs and gestures. Then again just above the elbows so that she can't move her arms away from her body nor her hands up from her butt. The cloth gag they stuff into her mouth so she cannot speak any spells and then bind it with one of Agata's red silk scarves behind her head so she cannot speak beyond a moan and can utter no spells. And finally there is the blindfold, this too of red silk wrapped twice about her eyes so she cannot see through it to remark upon her confines or be able to call upon the local gods that might reside with her.

Her trust, then, is to not only accept the inevitable but to relax into this. Had she known that she was following the best teachings of Piripiri, perhaps the two would have felt greater sympathy. But regardless, there is nothing more for her. Robbed of two senses, she is led by the guards not unkindly. One pulls her direction by a rope and the second stands by her side so that she doesn't trip as they escort her from the hall to be even more at the Red Wolf's mercy than she already was.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"She saved all of us in hell" Giri purrs, lounging at Red Wolf's side.

Giri is caught between many things right now. Caught up in Red Wolf's aura, yes, but also there was a question that Red Wolf just asked the room, one that Giri knows the answer to with a clarity unmatched by anyone else present save Fengye herself. Why shouldn't she rush to please her host with her information? And on to that there is a worry nagging at her mind about this little scribe and the divine spirit that is with her. She doesn't know how that works, hasn't pieced it together yet, her mind feels like it's moving through molasses right now. But isn't that even more reason to share this information? To leave it to a hero of the dragon-blooded who is surely experienced in such matters. There's also the fact that Giri is already on her third glass of sake and there are fewer barriers between thought and word than there might normally be.

"I don't know how it happened, but she's host sometimes to a divine spirit of the heavens, partial to Venus if the local gods of Turtlehead are to be believed." Giri takes another sip of her sake and plows forward.

"I still don't know her name, but I'm certain of it. I watched in the hells as this woman bound the General of the Broken King and reduced her to that maid wandering about over there." Giri chuckles and sips her drink again. Her demeanor is far less serious than it ought to be for revealing such dire news as that serving girl is actually an aspect of the broken king stripped of her power, but then again Giri has professional interest in the matter and she saw how thorough the ritual was. Her worries at least were minimal for the time being, even if she ought to be afraid of things going wrong down the line.

"I can't tell you why a heavenly spirit has deigned to grace us with her presence through this vessel" she says, her formality dripping with a hint of mockery given her past experiences with the spirit to date. "And as far as I can tell she has no agenda but to appear and work marvels regardless of whatever else is happening." Giri looks at Red Wolf, the smile on her face a mixture of was I a good girl and a relaxed warmth from the food, drink, and presence of the dragon-blooded. She, at least, had decided a while ago that this simply was what it was and had put it with the problems to be sorted in the future along with the Rakshasa, finding Ven, and figuring out how to keep Han together with her little girlfriend.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Life was meant to be lived. This was the lesson of the flower kingdoms. Everywhere, everyone and everything sought to revel in life. The rains fell vastly and the flowers sucked in the waters and ached towards the sun. The people congregated in the warmth of inns and homes, of good food and better drink amid the steam. In the mountains, the N’yari basked in their own strength and ever sought for challenge and dominance. The knights fought for fame and an ever growing retinue. And the witches too sought knowledge and were not afraid to practice their art. That was the lesson of the flower kingdoms. Life was for living.

So Giriel Bruinstead, who was large and hungry, and full of life yet, started to recover. First with rest and massage and soft cushions for muscles that had experienced days of walking and constant strain as she had put her whole self into maintaining the spell, had willed each and every body out of hell to their ultimate salvation. Her mind and her thoughts were simply not prepared to race ahead of such exhaustion and so first was to ease out that tension and breathe. To rest, to relax, and to let the magic of time do its work and restore her to life.

Then there was the matter of food and the banquet. Seated as she was by Cathak Agata, she felt that she ought to wait on her host, but the Red Wolf lived up to her name in many ways and seemed to have no hesitation at their meal (especially so when it pleased her guests for her to have such freedom) and so Giri in her turn chose to enjoy the banquet. There was fine sake in abundance, and peppered meat grilled with sweet, sticky rice. And from the rivers salted fish eggs with flavor that seemed to burst in her mouth and deserved to be savored one tiny bite at a time.

Nor let it be said that Giri was an ungrateful guest, for with each service and each delicacy, she thanked her host graciously, hands together, and offered a bow before she ate. Abundance was never to be taken for granted, no matter how common it seemed and Agata was being a gracious host indeed.

There was still a little fear gnawing at the back of Giriel’s mind. Many things, many people were out of place and she ought to worry about them. But sitting so close to Red Wolf, it was difficult indeed to remember why exactly she ought to be worried about them. And more pressingly was Agata herself, who seemed always somehow larger than life even at her rest. She always was the center of things. And Giri wanted her, wanted to feel her, touch her warmth, have her wrap her all up with those strong arms and stronger legs. Yes, Giri was hungry, and bold, and though she did not violate decorum, she sat as close as was permitted to her hostess, and even as she ate and drank, her eyes were not shy as she met the Red Wolf’s gaze and did not look away.

Sunshards

"Of course, mistress." Chen curtsies in her rags and immediately hops off the dais. "This way, mistress, if you please, we'll all need to change and I um...know a good place."

She does of course, Chen knows the city well and has been through the streets many a time despite Ysel's strict training regimen. It was the very nature of being a growing teen in a city of wonders that one had to partake of them, and it would not be the first time that Chen had gone to seek maid costuming in Ys, though it would be the most open she'd ever been about it. But nothing to be done there, she blushed and she led because that was how a proper servant had to be for someone new in town. She couldn't possibly let her mistress wander about by herself. Or her dear sweet girlfriend and helpless handmaiden. No, that's why she first offers her hand to the Pyre of Meaning to help her down properly and then to Rose in turn, who's still a little stunned.

How are you doing, sweet Rosepetal? For Chen this is a perfect combination of her own fantasies and Keron's training. But have you reverted to a silly ditz or are you managing a modicum of cute elegance from all that time in the Sky Castle? You probably trip and nearly fall right onto the Pyre of Meaning and Chen has to dig you both out, but be sure to tell us all about it!

Meanwhile lets get to the costumes. Ys is a city of wonders! It's full of all sorts of places, new and old all mixed together in a big hodgepodge, so of course you're going to find a tailor's shop with automated sewing machines and lace embroidery being done by hand all together. That's what puts the love into it!

Chen picks out for herself a short-sleeved maid dress with layers of wide poofy skirts. First there's the white underskirt and white leggings going down to her shiny high heels (the tallet she's looked to date, coming up nearly to match the Pyre's chest!). Then atop that she's got the main maid dress in its classic black with lots of ruffles going down her thighs to just above the knees and flaring out because of the underskirt. Then atop that she's got her white ruffled apron with lace edging that's only a few inches shorter than the black skirt and has some stitching to give it body. It gives the impression that her skirt is constantly billowing up because of the layers of fabric and she has to gather and smooth it down constantly, and it makes her look wide and fluffy. Above that she's got the dress gathering in around the waist and coming up over the breasts and shoulders but leaving her upper chest bare-skinned. There's a layer of frilly white lace going across the top of the breasts to join with the puffy lace shoulders of her apron which flare up on both sides both going to her black short sleeves which cut off well above the elbow. To complement, she wears a lace choker with a black ribbon holding it in place around her neck and of course a proper white headpiece with ruffled folds in her hair. And because she's a Princess, her one affectation is to set a single diamond in her headpiece, adding just a little sparkle. Lastly, after a moment's thought, she gets a set of dark gray kitty ears like the snow leopards she's been imagining and adds that to the ensemble as well. It's not quite the same as a sunshard, but it gets the effect across.

For sweet Rosepetal, well, Chen lets her pick out her own clothes because a good maid should be able to dress herself, but when they get in, she insists on adding a diaphanous white silk scarf over the top of the Pyre's handkerchief, tying it about Rose's face and behind her neck just so, tight enough to give her a nice feeling of constant pressure but not so much that it hurts. And through the translucent material you can still make out the purple of the Pyre's handkerchief stuffed into her mouth behind it. Chen gives her a pat and tells her sweet little Rosepetal to go and pick out the rest of her outfit now that she's properly shut up by her Princess.

Only then, when they're done does Chen pose for the Pyre, offering a proper curtsy and then a cute nyan with her hands up together by her neck making little pawsies with her fingers. Then she pulls Rosepetal into a pose (the silly thing!) and they both twirl together and giggle, or as much as Petal can manage through her gags.

But that's not all, they can't be done just because they got dressed, oh no no no. There's still a battle going on in the city and the Pyre asked them to help repair things. A good maid always carries out her mistress' will! And a better maid does it before her mistress even fully comprehends it. Which is why once dressed, Chen turns to the Pyre (who by the by ought to have picked out her own outfit, a proper servant hardly left her mistress wanting for dress!). "This way please, mistress. We must hasten!" and somehow she's still got her sword slung across her back, no harm done to the dress as she smoothes it out almost to the knees and then guides them outwards. There was a whole hoard of demons here after all and they need to be properly rounded up.

Chen darts expertly in and among the shops, stalls, street vendors, and bustling crowds. Now that the Pyre isn't in her procession they're amidst the crowd and the whole thing has become rather a spectacle of Ys for the day, no less awesome for its small scale than the vast beasts that had been fighting in the street just prior. After all, how often does a vast beast turn into a regular-sized demon with two elite maids waiting on her and rounding up all her various demon servants? Oh and they are everywhere. Chen has to bend down with all her thick skirts and pull them out from under carts and reach up on her little tippy toes to grab some that are trying to crawl up the rain gutters and the advertising banners. And poor sweet Rosepetal just keeps falling into them everywhere she goes, isn't that right?

But then there's still one last thing (and many more things still after that, but one last thing for now). After they've made their way down the street and back towards the gates, it's imperative, in fact utterly mission critical that they stop at a small izakaya and Chen duck into the back (poor Rosepetal, left to entertain the Pyre all by yourself, you'll have to manage for a few minutes) where she informs the owner that she'll need to assist with the cooking.

Now, Chen is not a baker on the same tier as Yue when it comes to amazing flavors and weird fish-eclairs. But she does know how to make pancakes and she did purchase some lovely chocolate chips in one of the shops while pulling out a strange little demon who kept talking about chefs made of some kind of metal. And so she's going to quickly and carefully take over the Izakaya kitchen and make a batch of the most lovely chocolate chip pancakes with cinnamon and just a hint of nutmeg. And of course, they're providing maid service here, so there needs to be a full and proper treat with this. That is why Chen serves them and draws a happy smiling face with the whipped cream, and then daintily places a cherry nose and, with a smile on her face to match the pancakes, presents the whole stack to the Pyre. "For your strength mistress" she adds, holding a deep curtsey once she's no longer holding the platter.

Because, well, she had to. She had to, and now they could get to all the radiant knights and princess Yin with no regrets!

Sunshards

Chen lets out a little murmur when her Rosepetal strokes the back of her neck. She can't help herself, it just feels so good, makes her want to melt right there and then. Gosh and in front of the Pyre. And a gathering crowd in the neighboring streets to boot! Ys was full of marvels, but a full on demon parade still stood out, nevermind the battle of titans. Oh gosh, the gossip about Princess Chen was going to spread like wildfire. Though then again, it would have been a shock if it hadn't already started making the rounds from the Sky Castle by now. Word always did travel fast in the shard queendoms.

Chen's running a little behind reality here, given how Rose is displaying her, how hard she's blushing, and doing her best to sit still and let herself be nodded without fidgeting or squirming in her handmaid's arms (she is failing, but doesn't she look soooo cute with the effort?). But eventually her head gets there and understands what Rose is offering and she adds her own eager nods to those prompted by her girlfriend. Because yes, with everything they were doing they had to treat the Pyre properly now. This wasn't a trick or a trap or any of those things, it was an honest offer. If that meant some work now, well, the city would hold up until they could talk to Yin, and Yue would too for that matter! And if not then all the better to do this when there wasn't a bunch of other stuff to do and she could have her mind entirely focused on being the best maid ever, which Chen was very good at thank you very much! All that sword skill made for plenty good arm skill, and if you might stumble from time to time, it was only because she was trying extra hard to put on the best show possible with the most precise movements. And because occasionally a maid needed to do something to help the mistress really feel in charge. That was just the right way to go about these things!

What Chen does say as Rose holds her up right to the Pyre, still blushing so red, is "Thank you for believing in us. We won't disappoint you!" and she adds to the show by picking up the bare shreds of her dress still remaining and offering a tiny little curtsey from atop Rosepetal's strong, sturdy arms.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel leans back against a rock. Or perhaps it's a bit of broken masonry from the castle? That's the thing about the symbolism of the tower, the catastrophe, its nature is to take the works of mortals and tear them down through a greater power until at the end who can even say what was once crafted and what was shaped by the gods. It doesn't matter though. What matters is that there's something solid for her to lean against, that whatever it might be or have once been it has the strength to hold her body and let her settle all her bulk upon the sandy soil and relax. Her legs scream at her as the pressure releases, that feeling like a rubber band stretched too far that can't snap all the way back anymore because it's strained too long washing through her legs and up her thighs. Yes, this would be a great time to simply let her legs fall asleep and the rest of her with it and she could deal with all the consequences of that later.

Of course, the instant she closes her eyes, there's an army. The world is like that. It's always like that. Just like it's always going to force those with dark knowledge into doing things that will bring them stares like Piripiri's stare. It's just always like that, it's how the titans and the gods and all their servants crafted it to be. Perhaps it was in the materials of Creation itself and even if they wished it, they could not have changed their clay any more than a potter can magically change the soil she is given to spin.

For a moment, Giriel's heart races and fear and adrenaline shoots through her, that sudden jolt of attention snapping through her body, the band tense once again. But pain shoots through her legs and they protest and continue their strike. And at any rate after that first moment she sees Cathak Agata leaping through the air with her blazing sword and pulling Melody away from Han. She grins despite herself, a rueful sort of grin, the grin of irony. If it didn't hurt so much, she would bark a laugh. It's like an epic poem isn't it? Han won't find it funny, but there she is finally finding the girl she cared so much to save and because she looks to be a monster she becomes the villain in the story. All a big misunderstanding. Or...hmmm. The adrenaline is fading, and Giri isn't moving, but her eyes are focused. Red Wolf understood many things, she'd known just how to dangle the bait before Giri, known that she wouldn't say no to solving exactly the problem put in front of her. Was she...did she know and pretend to misunderstand, performing for her own troops? It was hard to think long on that though, not when Red Wolf was moving so gracefully, not when Giri imagined herself though far larger than Melody, gripped by those strong hands and pulled closed into those muscled arms and that curving chest with its heroic armor.

Her eyes drift enough to that, ah good, there was Piripiri moving into their lines. Just as Uusha had thought then, well that had had always been the best guess. At least that brought a smile to Giri's lips though, a true one and not an ironic one. Because Piri would get treatment for her hand there, and safety, and a little comfort. She deserved that, deserved none of the suffering Giri had put on her, the exhaustion and the pain. Her blood had saved them and her march had been the hardest.

Well come what may then. Yes, come what may. Giriel Bruinstead was tired and she had decided that moving was not in her near future, adrenaline or not adrenaline. She owed Red Wolf a report anyway, she'd saved all of them whatever they may think of her, and she'd eventually be able to sort things out for Han when they weren't all having crossbows pointed at them. Yes, that would be good. For now, she would do nothing and it would be the most blissful nothing there was. Giri at last closes her eyes and relaxes.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel's heart sinks down to her feet. It's obvious and she makes no attempt to hide it a her shoulders slump and her head droops. She can see the look, the detachment. It's almost worse that there's no protest, that Piripiri is just going along with it. It's just, there it is, what witches do is evil, everyone thinks it's evil and they're right. Even if it works, even if it saves them from hell, she has to do a monstrous thing. It's stupid that it would be like this, that blood magic would be the only thing she can think of, that the power of dragon's blood would be so damned powerful! She had hoped that maybe Piripiri would understand the need, but no, she must be cruel and take what is needed, though it harm Uusha's prisoner, and disrespect her and reinforce that witches are full of dark workings and never to be trusted. (Alas, it does not occur to her that perhaps she could have trusted more, and that had she asked and not demanded, things would be different).

She sighs, a deep, bone-weary sigh. "I am sorry, I have no choice, I can think of no other way to save us. Let all the guilt fall on me and none else here for this decision." She turns the dagger in her hand, no long presenting the hilt to Piripiri. Instead, she has the blade out and take's Piripiri's hand with her own. Her touch shakes, and she stops, breaths, and begins again, gentle as she holds Piripiri's hand in place, her own cradling it beneath. Then with the expert hand of someone well-trained in housework, she draws a shallow, clean line across Piripiri's palm. It stings but is not deep. A few drops of blood pool in the center, and she gently tilts her own hand so that they roll to the ground even as Peregrine has begun to work, drawing the circle around them.

"I...must work quickly" she says, ripping a piece of her own black shirt near the waist for a quick bandage. She wraps it firmly around Piri's hand. "Hold this there with pressure, and we will treat it more properly once we're out of hell." And with that, she pulls her greatsword and begins tracing her own pieces of the circle, adding interior lines and sigils as quickly as she can. This was all for escape, after all, the best respect she has left to offer is to make that happen as quickly as possible.

Sunshards

Chen's tinkling laughter echoes up and down the causeway. It's not, you have to understand she's not laughing at the Scales of Meaning, but there's just so much tension and, well, Chen might have had variations of this dream since she first had a maid wait on her in Ys when she was seven and none of them, not a single one of them had a demon telling the audience that her services could be bought for 18 kilo dollar volts or whatever gibberish the Scales of Meaning had just said. And so being confronted with that after, well, after everything was just a little too much.

It's not that laughter is going to convince anyone of anything, but it is the sort of thing that takes one aback. Especially the kind of bright, happy, tension relieving laugher that Chen's feeling. The kind that lets her shoulders relax and causes her to shudder in Rose's arms and snuggle in tighter to avoid falling over. That may be a response that the Scales of Meaning has never seen in all her years. Or maybe it is and Chen's underestimating her, but either way she doesn't much care.

So Chen laughs and hiccups (because those never went away and laughing just makes them even worse!) and tries to get a hold of herself. And it's in that moment that she understands a little bit about these demons. She understands a little more why Rose might have been so tentative and why she might like it so much for it to be safe for her to to just become small and be told exactly what to do as silly as she can be. Rose understands the value in that, the freedom, the joy of just letting go and enjoying yourself without worrying about the cost or the consequences or any other silly things like that. But the demons don't. They don't even understand what was being offered, not really.

Oh...they don't understand. Oh, oh gosh. She was going to have to...to say it out loud w-wasn't she? A bright blush rises to Chen's face.

"You um...ha, haha...you're not paying for, um, for maid services from us. That's um, we're not offering you a trade or a negotiation or barter or um, that's not why Petal asked if you want us to...to dress up as maids and c-c-clean you." Chen falls into a squeak there and needs a moment to compose herself.

"We'd do that because it's um, like, really hot, and cute, and um kind of embarrassing but like in a way that makes me feel all tingly inside and um, I always wanted to do something like that with my girlfriend, I mean, you know if she was into it, but um Petal seemed pretty into it and like she'd have a lot of fun and even added her own um twist to it you know? Or well, you don't know that's the problem. The problem is that you don't know what we mean. But like, we're trying to offer you a little taste of that feeling that you can't find anywhere else, of being cared for and cared about! Of being teased and waited on and having someone dress up all special just for you. You can't buy that because it comes from the heart, silly! We have to offer it freely because we really care about you for some reason, even if it's just wanting you to stop hurting so much and to, to understand things a little better!" And Chen stamps her foot for emphasis before going back into it. "And well, that's a really nice and special and important thing to offer someone and you have to ask if someone actually wants it and is okay with it before you do it. Otherwise it's um, you know, it's kinda weird and maybe mean to just start teasing people and doing stuff to them if they're not okay with it. So...um...so we want to um get dressed up as, as maids and help you...that is...we're asking if you...um...if you want us to and oh, oh suns!"

It's at that point that Chen can't keep up with herself and her blush becomes terminal. Instead of continuing on speaking, she buries her face in Rose's chest and squeaks and shakes a little and is just kind of hoping that nobody else nearby is listening to any of this at all but also she's kind of nuzzling into you Rose like she does when she wants to play more privately and gosh she's really hoping the Pyre understand this even a little bit and says yes, the poor thing! Rose, your Chen needs you to bring this one home, help the Pyre understand what she's missing!

[Chen will spend a string on Rose to trigger her Dream Mirror.]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giri looks at the chaos of the fight, the declarations made by the divine spirit, the collapsing of the general. She looks at Peregrine, still enrapt, and at Piripiri, a full dragon-blooded handed into her care while Uusha goes to do yet another utterly idiotic thing. And all that as her friends and the knights all scatter below in the course of the chaos.

And then she is done looking. It is time to leave. Or at least make a go of it. And all the big and little gods willing, they could have an end of portals to hell when they're done.

"Peregrine, help me. Nobody here knows the they're doing, and this isn't a safe place to be. We need a way to get everyone out of the hells and to safety. Even Han can't just fight every demon that comes out of, she'll get tired eventually." Giri stands from her perch with Azazuka with some strain, her own burns obviously paining her though she grits her teeth and ignores it. Instead she's looking right at Piripiri. A dragon-blooded dropped so conveniently in her lap.

As she speaks there's a pain in her eyes. An apology perhaps, not merely the pain of her wounds or even of seeing her friends suffer. It's the pain of regretting something before you even ask for it. Of playing into your own stereotypes and not being able to do a damn thing about it. "Piri, I...we will need your blood. Peregrine and I are skilled but mortal witches. We don't have the raw power to make an exit and keep it in place for everyone. But you do. You have divine blood, the blood of the dragon, and you're right here. It won't take much. Once we start the ritual, just take my knife, cut your palm and drip your blood onto the sigils we draw. I...uh...command it as your captor" though that last has barely any force behind it and Giri looks terribly chagrined. She obviously wanted none of this, but is scared enough at being here that all she can think about is the fastest route to getting everybody out.

With that she handed Piripiri the knife, and then drew her sword and started drawing a large magic circle into the ground. If she just did it, if she just assumed everyone would go with her on this, they would right? She needed them to.

[Rolling to defy disaster with spirit. 5+1+2=8. Giri's willing to sacrifice her own reputation, and also most of the particulars of where they exit as long as it's back in the mortal realm in the name of making a stable exit out of here.]