[b]Chen![/b]

"Awesome!" said Cyanis. "You won't regret this! But that said all deals are final and magically enforced."

She tries to snap her fingers, though it sounds a bit off (close analysis would reveal she's just making the gesture and clicking her tongue because she never could figure out how it worked). What she does not do is magically transform your clothes into maid dresses - instead, she creates from air a big, beautiful flowing maid dress made entirely out of frills and ruffles - and cutting short just above the knee - hanging from a mannequin standing above you. Then she loosens your ropes and continues to stare with the utterly innocent smile of someone to whom things like 'looking away to give privacy while changing outfits' simply does not occur. 

[b]Rose![/b]

"Do you know where wild growth gets you, Rose?" said Princess Yin. "It gets you forests of groaning, ancient trees filled with wolves who menace the innocent. There is no virtue in [i]growth[/i]."

You have driven her back, back, back. To the edge of exhaustion and the edge of tears. There seems so much vulnerability in her then - such gentle weakness, unprepared for a conflict like this. It seems unfair how you fight her, a demon against a girl.

Ah, Rose. You face Princess Yin during the day - the little dot of black amidst the radiant white. You do not see her true hand in this because in your past life you were that hand. Now she has others.

You hear the thunder of hooves.

Knights slam their dog-catcher lances into place around your neck and around your arms. The loops pull tight and muscle and armour strain together to drag you down to the ground like an animal. It is love that fuels that strength and you know how fierce it is for you used to wield it yourself.

Princess Yin stands over you. "Mastery is not creating more diseased forests, Rose," she said. "Mastery is creating a bonsai that will grow more beautiful and perfect with every year. All that is necessary for love to triumph is to fit you for the cords."

[Marking [b]Hopeless[/b], both summoning allies and creating an opportunity for them to bring you low]

[b]Yue![/b]

The ghostly dress holds its blade under Yue's chin, shining in the woodland sunshine. Then it steps into the final step of this dance. It lowers itself on one knee, bending to the point where a pair of lips might touch Yue's forehead. For a moment the feeling touches there, dry and just a little bit warm but leaving a tingling happiness far deeper than the touch itself should allow.

Then, with a twist of light and rustle of fabric, the armour of the Demon Swordswoman embraces Yue. Fabric with the soft flow of cotton cooled by mountain snow and steel with the warmth of the ocean in summer slide into place. Straps and bonds wrap and bind, the tug and pull and restriction of each leather cord promising that it will keep you safe. It takes but a moment and then you are armoured for a wonderful kind of war.

The remnant of the ghost does not try to control you any longer but you can feel it latent alongside you. It no longer will force its lessons upon you but the feeling of them will always be there against your skin. In future days and future duels it will not force you to do it right, but it will help you recognize what 'right' is. It provides its advice softly, like a teacher, or a map.

And as you rest in a temple of water, the thought finally occurs: You have succeeded at your quest and helped a Fox. You... could go up there and ask Cyanis to make everyone forget about you. You could decide that this, right now, this magical day was enough. You could go back to your home and have memories for a lifetime. If you wanted, this could be the end of the adventure. 

Is it?

[Mark XP]