Chen was much more relaxed now. Rose had given her the best reaction, oh that moment of hesitation with the collar. She had seen it! She had seen those fingers tap and bounce off and the big monk had tried to pretend like it was what she meant all along. Now she just had to figure out what to do with it. That was a head scratcher for another time though. The time now was to towel off and get dry before it got too chilly, then to inspect the new little castle. 

Chen was still a bit suspicious of Kikil and even though she knew this little old place was almost certainly deserted, she still felt the need to poke about in every little nook and cranny of their temporary abode. She popped her head into little cabinets, zipped up to inspect the tower crenellations, and poked around the fireplace before she was satisfied that there wasn't some kind of spy device or...or something! Even this suspicion was a kind of relaxed one though. Chen was suspicious of Kikil but she didn't feel any pressure from her. She poked and zipped about and scowled a little, but it was all in good fun and she had grins for her friends, Rose chief among them as she passed them.

By the time that Hyra had finished her ghost story, Chen was overcome by a fit of the giggles. She looked over at Yue and tried to shake her head and get across [i]gosh please don't say anything to Rose[/i] while nearly falling over. Rose hadn't seen her in Cyanis' maid costume before Yin cut that thread, she was pretty sure, and she didn't need Rose getting any silly ideas for dressing her up. No she wasn't blushing, the story was just fun and silly and the fire was making her cheeks a little ruddy. That was it!

After that little giggle fit, all eyes were on Chen, so she was, of course, obligated to tell the next story. "Okay I have a good one, but it's pretty scary" she said, giving a pointed glance to Yue and then Rose in turn. Obviously the two weakest links here. She cleared her throat, but giggled a bit more at the idea of a permanent maid in the burrows, ruining the initial suspense. She blushed, cleared her throat again, and started her story properly.

[i]When the original princess shot the suns, they say that the first shard might have been the one that fell in the north because it's closest to the sky. It's always been wild, cold, and full of magic. Fun if you aren't afraid of anything out there. But I want to tell you about Jian the wandering monk. 

Jian came from a town pretty far away from Sourcefall, somewhere near where they have one of those big towers nearby, so their phones work really well. Jian loved designing little pictures she could share as she traveled. They helped her make friends wherever she went, and sometimes she could even get pictures of demons that nobody else could see with something called an "AR filter."

When Jian got to Sourcefall, there were rumors of some kind of demon threatening the northern towns. The Princess at the time had recently been kidnapped by Ys and she wouldn't be ransomed for at least a week, so Jian offered to go see what was happening. A couple of handmaidens took her up north and she began to wander, questioning the townsfolk and looking around the tundra. She took picture after picture, but her AR filter couldn't find any demons. 

Frustrated, she followed rumors from the townsfolk and made her way into the tundra, finding a deep cave. She thought for sure that she had found what she was looking for, but what she didn't know was that the northern demon wasn't a thing of the old world, but of the new. It was frost spirit, a powerful little one that jumped around from icicle to icicle, delighting in drawing in just enough warmth to start melting and then...boom trapping whoever it had found as things slowly refreezed. Jian didn't know what she was in for as she wandered into that cave, and the spirit was delighted at the new source of warmth it had found. Frustrated, but assuming herself safe, Jian made a fire and settled into her fluffy sleeping bag for the night. Above her, the icicles in the ceiling began to melt. Drip. Drip. Drip. But the fire was warm and Jian was all bundled up and tired, so she let herself fall asleep.  

As she slept, the icicles kept melting, forming a little pool of warm water all around Jian's sleeping bag. Strong and powerful as she was, she didn't feel it subtly grow. Not until the drops started to hit her fire and caused it to sputter and go out on the now damp logs. Only then did Jian awake to find that the water had frozen and she was trapped in her sleeping bag.

With no other option, she pulled out her phone and took a picture, trying to capture some of the cave and send for help to whoever she could reach. But the frost spirit was delighted, for Jian had brought it a new, long-lasting source of warmth. A small one, but easily recharged with the right tools. So it snuck into Jian's sleeping bag and nestled next to her as she sent her pictures. 

It's said that the frost spirit possessed poor Jian. Or perhaps she became the new frost spirit. None could say. But if you turn your phone on in just the right place in the north, it's said that you might get sent a picture asking for help that looks like it's from someone in a nearby cave. And if you go in, you'll never come out.[/i]