The kindest thing you can say about Yue is that she doesn't drop her sword.

She's not a warrior, poised and ready to strike. She's not a magician full of clever tricks, or a cultivator filled with strong Qi. She's not a Princess or a princess or even a handmaiden who might command the respect of one those others. So what is it, then? What's the source of her worth? She doesn't manage to scream Hyra's name, not to protect her or to let out her feelings of betrayal at the gentle, perfect hands that suddenly are holding her the way the river demons would have if they'd caught her. 

She doesn't twist her way to freedom, or even really squirm ineffectually. Instead she trembles and she shakes and she quivers, which is a peasant's sort of reaction. Fitting for a peasant girl. Unbecoming of a treasure. She tries to twist her head to look at Hyra. Just to look, you know? Just to see. Just to... to find out if those hungry red eyes still look as beautiful when they're being worn by a devil. 'Cause if they do then that would mean that some part of it was real, see? Some tiny piece of her magic spell was more than just a net being woven around. But those same sharp clawed fingers that thrilled her at their touch just minutes ago twist her back around and force her gaze back to Princess Yin. Because another thing she's not is strong.

The power of love doesn't surge through Yue's soft blue eyes. It doesn't fill her with fantastic new powers or imbue her with the will to fight, or really do more than gasp and gape at the otherworldly sight in front of her. Of course it doesn't! And if it did, would somebody like Princess Yin even notice? No matter how you're kidnapping her, Yue is just... Yue.

But she's still holding that sword. Her silly wooden sword that she doesn't even know how to swing, that doesn't even have an edge, and would probably horrify her if it did. She squeezes it anyway, even as she's dangled and lifted and crushed. She fingers grip the hilt through pain and through terror, when all the other muscles in her body seem to have forgotten how to work. Because Hyra told her to, and for some reason that feels more important than it has all night. 

Does that make her special? She doesn't know. She can't even say as much, for all that she wants to. What makes her so special? That's a good question! She'd like to know too! It's not like she's been doing anything different lately but now all of a sudden there are wanted posters and everybody under the suns is chasing her and when is anybody going to notice there's been a mistake? You've got the wrong girl! But one look up at the shadowed face of Princess Yin is enough to lock all of those words inside her stomach where all of the worst sorts of secrets and lies go. Princess Yin! Princess Yin! Disappoint her if you dare!

Yue doesn't dare a lot of things, and this is not about to become one of them. She's [i]not[/i] special, not even enough to survive explaining how not special she is. Oh, what a horrible party to get invited to! Darn whoever made those stupid posters! Hope you get, um. Not, like, [i]hurt[/i], but... y'know, if you stubbed your toe tomorrow morning you'd deserve it! Yue's heart is doing flips inside her modest little chest and it hurts, and the hands that squeeze her waist and wrist hurt too, and as her eyes stare at a sunshard for the very first time in their life they start hurting, too.

There's nowhere safe to look. The shadows are full of eyes and shapes, except where they're not which is somehow even worse. The stag is huge and terrifying for all the ways it doesn't move like a stag at all, and impossibly beautiful in all the ways that it does. She'd never known an animal to wear crystals like this so boldly, unless it was the sort like the diamond throated pheasant that grew them as part of its plumage. That by itself is enough to impress. The control that Yin... erm, [i]Princess[/i] Yin must have is, is...

That. That woman right there? [i]That's[/i] what it means to be special. Yue's never seen a Princess before. And it's incredible how far her imagination fell short of what it was actually like. The flowing of her dress! Not white like Yue's white, the white that took on stains and washed itself with light and really let's face it never quite worked its way all the way up to white on its best days, but [i]white[/i] so bright she might as well be the moon. And, and maybe she is! If, if she's what Hyra's chasing then... it's no wonder that she... that... that!

"H-Hyra... please!"

Yue's eyes are wet and leaking. This isn't right. It isn't right! The hands that hold her squeeze and twist her body in ways it doesn't want to go. She needs all of her breath for crying, now. This isn't right. Do all Princesses cast such terrible shadows? Are all Princesses so cruel? How is anybody so amazingly beautiful and so terrible at the same time? A-and if... if that's what it takes to be special, maybe it's best that she's only Yue after all. The thought stings like an arrow through her heart, fired from that great diamond stringed bow. 

Yue holds her sword, through shaking, sobbing, doubt. She holds her sword like she was told. Isn't that enough?