Princess Chen takes the last sip of her tea and lowers the mug gently and oh so carefully to the ground beside her. It is an old tea set, but full of love and she will not add a single chip or scratch to it. It makes a light clink on the stone where she rests it here beside the new shrine. 

Rose finishes speaking and for a moment, that little clink from Chen's cup simply hangs in the air, too clear and pure to fade. The silence lasts as Chen rises from her seat and smoothes her silks, and only then does she break it. "Delicious tea. Truly special." In what must be quite the embarrassment to a girl mostly engaged in being covered by foxes, Chen puts her hands together and leans her head forward in a deep bow of respect for the meal, ducking her head beneath her locked arms. 

Then she looks at Rose. In her mind, she files away the words 'she would never discover her own secrets' knowing that to ask of such a thing now would be the most perilous question. Instead she looks at Rose, at how the great monk carries herself. The feeling is fear, is it not, that rests in her stance. Fear of herself? "Your Way flows nearly as swiftly as the wind, I think. You are much changed from when I met you with the Scales of Meaning, Rose, and even from our fight. I thought you enjoyed that, does the Way allow you enjoyment?" Chen shudders for a moment, remembering some of Hestia's lessons on hard work and self-sacrifice. Perhaps her Mom followed the Way and didn't know it? No matter, the question was rhetorical and Chen swiftly fills the space before Rose can answer.

"You asked someone else to take a turn though, right, and I owe Yue, at least, an explanation of why I'm here. And perhaps Hyra as well. Though for my part, I'd like to know why one of Yin's handmaidens seemed ready to stab her." A glance for Hyra and a cute smile at what she expects to be a wolf baring her fangs. 

"But, as I said, I'll go next." She steps over to Yue, covered in fox and fox maiden in their turn. "I'm sorry, this must be so much. I imagine that maybe you were prepared for an adventure with one special warrior and a fox who grants wishes, and instead the world has dropped four of them right on you, counting Yin, not to mention all manner of demons. Maybe it will make you feel better to know that my moms did something similar. When I was first starting to learn all the things for how to be a Princess, and my moms were still together, they introduced me to things like what Yin did. They're called Sunshards, the special magic of the suns of this world that used to once be in the sky in a time that Rose might even remember. Well, my moms decided they were just going to toss me in the deep end and see how I did. So they put their two sunshards together and they made a big world out of our palace. Some of it was full of caves with sparkling gems and light coming in at strange angles to make rainbows on underground waterfalls. Other parts were full of indoor deserts with their own little oases and palm trees rising up to the ceiling and such heat that the air shimmered and swayed like a dancer." Chen pauses and offers a little affect with her own silks to lighten the mood.

"I suppose they thought I'd rise to the occasion. At first it did seem enchanting. But it turned out the caves were full of all manner of things, scary crystal monsters that would come after me if I stayed in one place too long, and demons coming from the water, and then all manner of snakes and even one ifrit in the middle of the desert who had the most booming voice. I think that was actually my Mommy, Ysel, playing pretend. But, whatever it was, I wasn't up to it. I screamed and ran off and found a low little cave with a noisy stream where I thought I'd be hidden until they found me crying and had to carry me out of their special magic castle. That was the first time I ever had to deal with all this big magic stuff. You came out the other side of Yin, and now of our friend Rose here and you're okay. You even found a nice outfit and have some new friends!" Here, Chen gestures to Hyra, and then down to Cyanis, who is giggling in Yue's lap in a way that makes Chen very quickly blush and step sideways, clearing her throat to resume talking.

"So, I'm going to say some things about all the Princesses and such, but I think you shouldn't worry about them right now. Hyra will understand, and Rose might know some of them, and anyway I just want you to know why [i]I'm[/i] here now." Chen nods and looks more at Hyra now when she's speaking, though she spares glances back to Yue. "Among the Princesses right now, there's one called Qiu Tian. She's very powerful and demanding, and she has this lovely strong dragon's tail and wears her dresses with a sort of confident lounging pose and...um, a-anyway, what's important is that Qiu has three of the sun shards now and most everyone else is upset about that." Chen looks at Rose to see whether she's upset about that.

"My parents split up, but each of them is in charge of a princess alliance that's trying to stop Qiu before she takes over everything. I'm supposed to try and get Qiu's shards. I could do that by fighting her, but I'd probably lose since she's so strong. But, I might also get them by embarrassing her or tricking her. So, right now, I'm working for her to bring her you, Yue! Because one of Qiu's special demon advisors (she has those) said you were the most valuable thing in her entire new kingdom. No idea why! But the special demon advisor said so, so it must be true. That's why Qiu drew your face on all those posters and she's offering a princess dance as a reward for whoever brings you to her, which is what I'm after." 

Chen hesitates here, kicking one foot uncomfortably against some loose dirt. "Except...well, I think the Princesses are mean sometimes! My moms can be, and so can Qiu, and you [i]met[/i] Yin. So, I want all that stuff I said, but only if you, Yue, want to become a handmaiden and train with princess Qiu. It would be tough, but you'd learn how to fly like Hyra and I can, and how to do some magic that you'd be good at, and how to duel with that sword you've got in the bag there. But, if you don't want to do that, well, I'd just like to be your friend and help you find a way to hide for a little while until everyone stops looking."

Chen looks around her. At Rose who is afraid of herself, clutching Yue's sunstones. At Hyra, who has a look of suspicion because she can't decide if Chen is legit or up to some kind of Princess trick (too wise a handmaiden by half), at the fox and the fox who have decided that Yue is very comfortable indeed thank you, and at Yue herself, for whom probably most of this flew over her head, but who has the unenviable position of having to decide things. She offers a curtsy to fill the silence. "I r-really hope that we can be friends" she adds, with some hesitation.