“Oh, Chen,” Rose from the River purrs. One hand holds the princess’s jaw cupped in her palm, and she guides (gentle but insistent) that face to look up at hers. “Of course I will get away with it. Princess Qiu hunts me, Princess Yin would best me, but neither one of them has gotten the better of me yet. Do you know why?”

Rose guides Chen down onto her knees on the grass. One arm keeps her pulled in close to her firmness, but twisted just enough to the side that she can guide Chen’s wrists together. Around and through, around and through, making a crossed X harness of soft silk rope, as gentle on her skin as the last breath of twilight. “Because I am not your peer, little girl. I was older than the broken suns. I was born to outwit and harry those more cunning and desperate than you. I am Rose from the River, and you lost this fight the moment you drew your blade.”

One hand strokes hair out of Chen’s face, slow, sure. The wrists secure, Rose smears a strip of demon-binding tape over the rope in a band, securing it from the mischief of princesses. Chen is now helpless to undo the binding by herself. She drapes more rope over Chen’s arms, pulling them close, securing a knot above her elbows. “But you princesses... you always think that you are the most perfect and clever thing in existence, as long as Qiu is not in the room. You ridiculous little thing! Prancing about in your colorful silks, thinking yourself invincible!”

Rose uncoils the scarf from around Chen’s neck, ignoring any protests to the contrary, and drapes it around her own shoulders. Then she lays Chen down onto the grass, which tickles at her through the silk—

Ah. That would be the fingers of Rose from the River, surprisingly cold, running right up Chen’s spine, underneath her bright top. Her chuckle is wicked. Having thus distracted the Princess, she wraps her endearingly solid legs in coil upon coil, snug at ankle and knee. No escape save for hopping along. The Thorn Pilgrim idly considers making dear Chen do just that. It would be quite entertaining, after all.

“There will be [i]no[/i] escape for you, Princess,” she hisses. It is like walking out onto a needle-thin peak and balancing on one foot, to say that. But she puts her weight upon the needle to overcome it. Chen is safe. Chen will be imprisoned, and then (after being told there is no escape, after being silenced, after being made helpless to save herself) she will be released. It is safe. This is safe. This is safe because Rose from the River has [i]chosen[/i] to make it safe.

This is how the mountain did not end, but it is how the mountain [i]should[/i] have ended. That is the promise of the world she now loves.

“You’re my [i]trophy[/i], little girl,” Rose says, securing knots with clever fingers, making sure the weight is distributed properly, that there is no painful pinch or dig. “I will challenge the likes of Jezara and Jessic and bring in tow a little pack-slave, a silenced mouse of a girl, wearing [i]much[/i] less than this. You will be [i]decoration[/i] for their Guards and Priests to gawk at while I topple thrones in the name of the transcendent Way. But, dressed like this, you must have always known that was your fate, no? Deep in your heart, you knew that one day your beauty would shine in [i]my[/i] service.”

She pulls Chen back up to her knees and secures a small tie from wrists to ankles, slack enough to not grow uncomfortable, then wraps it, too, in that seal-tape. This done, she turns Chen around to face her, and holds up the scarf with an evil smirk.

“This is almost as lovely as you are,” she breathes. “How fitting that you should bring it to me.” One hand palms the folded fabric from her pack, even while she rubs the scarf against Chen’s face. “Do you have any [i]last words,[/i] Chen, former heiress of Ys and Sourcefall~?”

But even as she gloats, our dear Thorn Pilgrim cannot hide the gentleness of her eyes. How strange, that the eyes of a serpent could so easily show affection and vulnerability— there, betrayed in her lowered lids, the shape of her brow, the way her eyes linger on Chen as if looking at a beloved child. That she is pampering, indulging the girl, giving her the very treatment she has dreamed of but cannot voice. That alone may betray her villainy to Chen, daughter of two crowns, unveiling it and leaving its compassion bare.

[Since Chen has the move “Help Me~~” she may take this information about Rose’s heart and identity, as well as 1 more XP.]