The water is crisp and cool. It feels like it's draining all the heat from her body, but after all of that running and climbing and burning and sweating (yuck!) she can't say that she minds it all that much. The water is gentle. It was soft and thoughtful enough to catch her, not to mention wash the grime and corruption from her body. If there was anything left of her dress it's gone now, as gone as gone gets. But that's ok, isn't it? You don't need to wear anything at bath time. 

Yue's baths are normally a lot warmer than this. It generally has to be so you know it's safe, y'know? But it's still her favorite thing on days when she's been working too hard, and this one might be her favorite thing of all. The current tugs her hair and lifts her body to the surface, where the air she breathes tastes a little sweeter each time she tries it, while curious and freshly glimmering carp zip up to nibble ticklishly at her legs and back. 

And actually... can you keep a secret? When she said all that stuff about not being out of shape? That... that was a lie. So sorry to mislead you! It's not, y'know, a vanity thing, she just... it just felt like, if she admitted it she'd have never been able to move that much. A-and it's not like she's a [i]complete[/i] sack of potatoes! R-right? She just... there's no definition on her scrawny little muscles stretched out on that gangly "fairy" body of hers because she's always been content to let her life be her exercise routine. And why shouldn't she? Her lifestyle's plenty active, it just doesn't involve a bunch of crazy-people adventure stuff like hours of swordfighting and climbing and running around while screaming and... well, yeah.

She thought she was tired before, but, aish! Hoo, gosh. Goshies. It's nothing compared to now! Before it was burning and dramatic, but the secret of wearing down like that is that it kinda sorta pushes you to keep going even as it punishes you for trying. One more step, one more swing, one more spin, y'know? But here in the water, with her aching... everything being teased and soothed and cooled, the only thing that's left is nothing. Yue is nothing. Yue is one with the pool, and if the pool is content to float here she is not about to tell it otherwise. But between the two? This is a much better sort of tired. It's emptier, but it's also... fuller? Like before, she'd had to struggle, but now she's earned the rest.

When the dress reaches its sleeve down to pull her up, she almost groans. Almost. She doesn't, because that's air she needs for gasping instead. Yue can't exactly claim to be a worldly traveler, y'know. She's seen a pretty thing or six, because the world's full of 'em, but this is the farthest she's ever gone from home and even then if she went outside and climbed a tall enough tree she'd bet she could still find her house from here. But she's seen Princess Yin dazzling like a star against the night sky, and until this moment it had been impossible for her to imagine anything or anybody ever being more beautiful than that. 

And now? Now she's smiling, because it's the only thing that makes sense to do. She lets herself be lifted back onto her exhausted feet and she lifts her sword to dip into her own bow in reply. 

"I know, I know. Just one more, right? A promise is a promise. Just... just one sec, ok? I need to... to... a-AASHYII!"

Yue blinks, and then she blushes. Then she shivers, just for good measure. Aish, that'll wake a body up! But that's... sneezing isn't what she meant, hold up! Still clutching her sword in one hand, she gathers up what feels like 10 kilograms of sopping wet hair and twists it all together like she's wringing out a mop. Pitter patter splitter splat splat splat goes the water on the floor, and then drip drip drip THWACK! down her body when she tosses it free again and it slaps itself back down all across her back and with several sodden locks criss-crossing down her chest. That'll... whew! That'll wake a body up too! 

"Ok! Sorry, sorry, yes, I'm ready now! Would you like to dance? It's really the least that I can do."

She settles into a dainty stance that's half what she's been taught and half her own imagination, and twirls her wooden blade to call for her final duel to begin. And when it does, it's like magic. It starts like this, then moves like this, then finishes like nothing, because you're crazy if you think she's about to give this up right now! 

Even though her body feels as heavy as the stones that make this tomb, she floats lighter than the air around her. If you watched her, you wouldn't call her form perfect. You might not even call it [i]good[/i]. Her swings are enormous and sloppy, and here and there she spins not to dodge out of the way of anything but just to see the way the light glimmers off the armor's scales as it moves to follow her. Her bright and earnest giggles ring off the walls and cover up the clash of the two swords as they thrust and counterthrust and seek something so much greater than a victory. 

The shape of her moves resemble everything that she's been taught, but the order and the weight are things she chooses for herself. Her she blocks, and here she rolls, here she goes high, and here she ducks low, here jumps into the air and even manages a half turn before she brings her sword and CLACK! They meet in perfect symmetry. She's not a warrior, y'know? She never has been. But until just last night she never thought she'd ever see a Princess with her own eyes, and once she had she never thought she'd see anything more beautiful. And now she has, and as she lifts her sword high and brings it to the ground in a great vertical cleave that lifts her onto tiptoes, she's suddenly gotta admit that maybe that could change, too.

For somebody who's never had to speak the language of swords before, Yue is a dab hand at it. Like this means 'I love the way you move', and like this means 'I love the way you make me feel', and like this this this means 'Please, teach me more, give me more, I don't want this to end!' The duel is not for dominance, and it's for position or even for fun. This duel is about singing a song with a voice that's long passed from the world. Just one more time, as loudly and clearly as she can. So that the water will remember it. So that the little fishes and the ravens will remember it again. So that the rocks and moss and the beautiful-hearted foxes who dwell here will remember how it goes. Forever and ever and forever again, the way it was meant to be. Because somebody so bright and warm and wonderful should never be forgotten. And she should never be remembered as anything less than what she really was.

But everything has to come to an end eventually. Yue's sore and tired legs fall behind the beating of her heart, and with a gasp and a squeaky little EEK she winds up tumbling to the floor when she asks herself to take one step too many. No, Yue. Now is the time for resting, after all! She falls backwards onto her butt, and with her arms splayed out behind her to keep her back lifted up off the ground there's nothing for her to hold up in defense for the blow that must surely be about to fall! She winces and squeezes her eyes shut, afraid to look in spite of everything...

But then she opens them again. And she sees the dress floating there in front of her. It's the most beautiful thing in the world, she just knows it is. A love song to the water and to the body she had when she was alive, to the dance of blades and the beauty that's impossible to speak into the world any other way. A miracle in golden blues and dappled yellows and frothing, foamy whites. A vision so perfect she'd bet an entire year's worth of sunshine that it'd trade favorably against any Princess' shards. 

She feels the tip of the glittering blade touch her chin so gently and warmly that it might as well be a fingertip. Yue feels her entire face turn pinker than the dawn as it lifts her head up, up, up. But in the end, she smiles. And then she sticks out her tongue like some sort of sillyhead and ruins everything.

"Guess you win!" she chirps, "You're amazing. Did you know how pretty you are? Someone really oughta tell you, heee. I'm so, so glad I got to meet you..."

[Emotional Support with Spirit: 6+4+2=[b]12[/b]. as her option, Yue will select insight from the GM]