When Chen feels those strong arms wrap around her and looks up at the huntress, we must forgive her if her heart skips a beat. Rose from the River is, for a moment, naked intensity; her pupils bared slits, her nostrils flaring as her chest rises and falls against the back of Chen’s head, her fingers locked tight around the wrist of Chen’s sword hand. The Conciliatory Ice-Star Blade is half-sunken into the turf. For a moment, Chen may even worry that she is at risk of being eaten in wonderful and terrible ways. But then Rose from the River laughs, a low chuckle, rich and dark as river-mud, and allows her energy to bleed away and recirculate, changing into new forms.

Two new arms unfold from her body (how unfair that must seem!) and one new hand, which feels like smooth yet inhuman bark on Chen’s skin, cups the Princess’s chin. The other toys down Chen’s side, brushing with careful softness down those flimsy silks. And there is nowhere to hide from Rose’s eyes, which are watching carefully: do you like this, little Twinshard heiress? How fast does your heart beat in your chest? That fourth hand lifts from Chen’s side and then presses down on her chest, searching for that heartbeat.

“I am a follower of the Way,” she says, muzzling and dragging back the part of her that wants to mark her catch. Dear Thorn Pilgrim! How her own heart beats, holding the Princess so! “But I am obligated to help you, since you have asked for my assistance.” Her thumb brushes against Chen’s lip, and then gently opens her mouth, letting those helpless pants wash over her barkskin, still smoothing, still changing. “I will aid you in finding your path. But the first step is learning how to let go of your ambition and self-assurance, and I think...”

She leans in closer, her braids spilling over her shoulder, making a curtain for the two. A moment of privacy. Who would dare part that foliage? This close, the flowers in her hair smell like plum blossoms at the very end of winter. It’s sweet, almost intoxicating. “I think you desire my lessons, Princess Chen.” Her thumb presses down on that lip, ever so gently. “I think that you began this fight so that you would be here, even if you did not know it. And while I am not a member of the Black Snakes, I have learned pedagogy from their order.”

She shakes Chen’s wrist with a flick of her hand and the crystal blade falls from her grasp. It’s so close! She could reach out and grab it! But Rose giggles to herself, and lifts Chen off the ground as if Chen weighed no more than a pillow, grip firm but not painful. “Do wait just a moment, little Twinshard. I need my bag.” But instead of moving, she settles into place, one hand cupping Chen’s cheek, fingers resting on her lips, the other running through Chen’s hair, her original two distributing Chen’s weight evenly. Something slithers in the grass, off towards the bag. The smell of her is all around, and each can feel the beat of the other’s heart.

“There are eight million paths for you to take from the moment you wake up, Chen.” The dropping of the honorific is scandalous and overfamiliar, is it not? “Some, naturally, are better than others. For you to take a knife and stab your mother would be a very ill path, and perhaps for you to take up a brush and paint would be a much better one. But what to paint? How to go about the process? What to learn? Infinite variables. Infinite paths.”

The pack slowly begins dragging itself across the ground towards the two. Is that right? There’s hardly any way that Chen can turn her head to look.

“But there is a path that maximizes goodness and elides suffering. Our duty as moral beings is to search for it. To follow its footprints, to feel it tug at our heartstrings, to be willing to shed our vices and our attachments in order to walk where we are needed. We are called to [i]surrender,[/i] Chen.”

The pack flops open next to Rose, and one of her braids brushes against a side pocket. Dark, soft ropes spill out, and a roll of demon-sealing tape, and... something folded carefully. Rose’s cheek touches Chen’s own.

“Allow me to offer three paths for us to walk, your radiance. On one, I will put you down and apologize for my audacity in daring to oppose you. Then we may go chase after Yue, and perhaps come to blows again when we have caught her. On another, you will surrender to me, the victor of our little game, and I will offer you further instruction in my faith and my protection from [i]danger[/i] as we travel together.”

Her voice drops. One finger brushes between Chen’s teeth for just a moment. The fingers running through Chen’s hair tighten and tug her slowly but inexorably back. “Or, if you want to [i]play[/i] as we travel together, all you need to do is tell me that you are a Princess and I will [i]never[/i] get away with subjecting you to this [i]indignity[/i]. That, simply. Do you understand?” Is that a note of excitement in her own voice? She does, after all, yearn to be the Adversary. How her heart beats like a drum on Chen’s back! Yes, it must be her hope that Chen chooses the third, yet... it is not entirely a selfish hope, is it?

“So how may I serve you, o mighty and revered Princess Chen of the Northern Wind, heir to the twin powers of Sourcefall and Ys?” And effortlessly she spins the power, positions herself as if she was a humble handmaiden, eager to help, despite the way she holds Chen in her embrace, her limbs like the branches of an oak, heavy and still and sheltering Chen from any storm.

[Rose from the River uses her one String immediately while offering Chen another. Chen may mark XP if she plays the damsel with Rose from the River. Rose’s choice from Chen’s Fight is, of course, to find an even stronger position holding Chen, from which she may offer Chen varied paths. I feel it would be spamming moves to Entice here, even if Rose is hammering Chen’s buttons.]