[b]Chen and Rose![/b]

The Scales of Meaning is a creature who knows a thing or two about opportunity. 

She transmutes from embarrassed ferocity to control in a moment. She raises her horned head, and oh, the perfect balance of her bearing! You could balance a teacup atop her head, such is her poise and dignity as she calculates. New markets, new buyers, new risks - plenty of raw material for her to work with. 

"Princess Chen of the Northern Wind - or is that [i]with[/i] the Northern Wind?" she purrs, as velvet as snakeskin. "How lucky I am to find you! I am being positively tormented by [i]this[/i], the Hunter. Abomination of ancient days, she has somehow become even more odious in this day and age, ambushing me in my bath, destroying my guards and entrapping me upon the tip of her blade. Oh, won't you save me~, noble princess~?"

The Scales of Meaning manages to find a moment to flash you a smirk so bratty it almost makes you envious, Rose. 

[Offering a universal string to Chen: Get into a sword fight with Rose from the River and mark an XP]

[b]Yue![/b]

"Of course I don't," said Hyra in a voice far too soft to have once wielded such confidence. "Not one princess does. Perhaps not even one girl does. Perhaps not even Princess Qiu, perhaps not even the moon herself, can truly know that they are beautiful without being told. That's why..."

The sun, in a flash of gold, descends across the horizon in a celestial sprint. The twilight vanishes in an instant and the world plunges into darkness. Across the lake lanterns ignite and across the hills fireflies rise and across the tree-tops bioluminescent caterpillars unwrap themselves from their hidden places. The lights come back on but ragged, chaotic, soft, in a craze of blues and greens and soft violets. For a moment it's magical.

And in another moment it's dangerous. There are twists in the shadows where things that had been creeping in darkness find themselves illuminated by different light sources. And as fast as the sun's free-fall, Hyra is standing, blade in hand, once again sharp lines and pointed ears and eerie curse-light. Whatever it is that rises inside her rises to the surface in the darkness, and the way she's smiling and the way she licks her lips in anticipation don't seem entirely her own.