For all the might of yearning, it is and remains only half of the cosmic dance. The other half is [i]denial[/i]. The fly yearns for sugar; the Nepenthes denies it and takes its life. This requires strength. Strength of will above all, for if the Nepenthes lacked will it would have evolved into one of the uncountable blossoming flowers of the Flower Kingdoms, yielding its treasure to any claws that demanded it. 

But the kingdoms lack this strength, just like this priestess lacks it. She dances a dance of power and denial but how long will that last, even against this weak and opportunistic craving? How long would it last if the rakshasa applied its <disruptive> hunger? Not long at all, she thinks. All of the confidence here rests upon her own shoulders and if even one decision in the chain of her life was proven to be wrong it would crack. In the time it took to recalibrate from a shaking of the self the battle would be over and the ropes would be tight. 

Zhaojun's arm clashes with Crane's, and her heel sweeps her from her feet and sends her to the mud.

The logic is inescapable. If this maiden's confidence is destined to be broken then it shall be Zhaojun who breaks it. She shall not leave such a critical task to these mere [i]bandar-logi[/i]. That would be an abrogation of responsibility.

"[b]Once[/b] there was a maiden!" she declared, tossing her hair that flared and floated with blue fire, eyes ablaze with the same. Her voice boomed out, raising and flowing downhill into each beat. "She danced upon the Blessed Isle, and the stars fell from the skies to watch her! She danced upon the isle of Wavecrest and the pirates sailed from every sea to watch her! And then she danced upon the head of a pin and not even the philosophers would bother to contemplate her."

She shifted, flowed, serpentine as she performed the martial kata of the Earth Dragon - but she performed it wrong. Instead of immobile stability her posture swayed; a mountain in motion, a mudslide or an earthquake where the soil moved like the sea. Trust not your foundations, foolish priestess! What yearnings brew within that heart other than complacent trust?

[Figure Someone Out: 7; she may ask one of me.
How could I remake you to become capable of withstanding the [i]bandar-logi[/i]?
Truth of Heart and Blade: What are you most afraid of?
One to ask later]