[b]Chen![/b]

You're being lowered. Soft and as gentle as the earth's gravity after too long in space. You're held for a moment, horizontal, then set down on bench. There's a crackle of lightning and a fire starts burning nearby - an old piece of metal evaporating in a strange azure fire, fragments flaking off and evaporating into cosmic black sparks. Autumn falls at bay for a moment, settling down at the edge of the blue firelight like a wary hound.

+Everything I've seen of you today has been perfect Princess behaviour,+ thought Jessic. Her thoughts were alert but dispassionate, an eagle's curiosity. +You charmed me, defied Keron, stole a heart and bought great happiness to my people. I would disagree that you were a bad Princess, strongly. Does knowing that change how you feel?+

[b]Rose![/b]

"Countess Keron!" a handmaiden squeaks in surprise. There's a sudden rush as everyone gets to their feet and bows - and you are pulled to your feet and made to bow too, Rose - but some signal passes and everyone relaxes and returns to their duties. Keron takes a chair, reverses it, and sits facing you as you are pulled back to your chair for another round of hair brushing as two more handmaidens take your hands and begin working magic on nails that never truly learned how to not be talons.

The Countess' eyes are fire and her heart is hard, but in this place she too is somehow softer. As she sits handmaidens detach pieces of armour from her shoulders and back, gently kissing marks where leather straps have dug into her skin. Her command here is certain and because of that she has no need to impose it. Instead of the dominating mistress you saw earlier now she has a certain arrogant, casual satisfaction - something that you might have recognized on your own face not so long ago.

"I was right," said Keron. "You [i]do[/i] clean up nicely... but you're nowhere near worthy of being presented to a Princess. You've got a lot to learn about manners, etiquette and obedience. Thian, have Rose pour me some tea."

Thian takes you from behind like a dance instructor, one hand on your hip and the other on your wrist. She half lifts, half-guides you just so and teaches you how to walk to across the room, her legs swinging in unison with yours. She guides you like a puppet through the steps, hands soft and cool against yours, control invisible as she guides you through the curtsy, the pour, the stirring, steeping, sugar, and teaches you how to fall to your knees without spilling a drop so that you might offer your gift to the Countess with the proper respect.

[b]Yue![/b]

Curses can be terrible things. They're all the pain and hurt of a heart in turmoil, sharpened and thrown like a knife. But they're also magical things, and magic has certain laws - the chief of which is, as it ever is, that love conquers all.

It's not a wolf you hold in your arms as those words sink in. It's a girl. A beautiful girl with red eyes and long wet hair and a smile that's like the sun trying to fit all its light through an upstairs window at sunset. It's the face of a rogue who doesn't have a trick for this, it's the face of an enemy you disarmed at last. She leans in to kiss you and hold you tight and you know the wish in her heart and it's much the same as yours.

And you try to hold her back... and you can't. Not easily. Not with these paws.

Because you see, Yue, while love is powerful, curses are cunning - and this one has slipped right off Hyra and stabbed itself into you. And somehow in that moment where the only thing you could see was Hyra you didn't notice that you, yourself, had been transformed into a wolf in her place. 

What kind of wolf are you, Yue?