The hug comes when Yue is working on the flight spell, hands trembling. It's all the speed Chen has to muster, wrapping herself around her friend and holding her tightly. "You've got this" she whispers up to Yue's ears, and her hands are so warm and soft as they cup Yue's trembling hand until it steadies and she can properly draw her flight runes. "We'll come join you as soon as we can, and then we'll have the best Ysian chai in the whole city." Chen smiles as Yue departs, and even manages a little wave.

It's only when Yue's gone and out of sight that Chen starts pacing the hill, taking in the scene. She's thinking quickly, her steps sharp and agitated. Her eyes dart over the scene, taking it in. She looks at the sunset glow of the radiant knights of Yin betraying Mommy Ysel like it was nothing. Her eyes snap to the menagerie of great cats and wolves and all manner of beasts flung aside by the Pyre of Inspiration in a great demonic parade. Then her gaze falls to the battlements, covered with assault ribbons as soldiers climb up ladders unopposed. 

Damn it. [i]Damn it[/i] this is her home, those people are her friends! Qiu didn't have to do this! Tears well in her eyes. For the briefest moment, she just wants to throw herself upon Rose and cry until her sweet, wonderful girlfriend takes her away from it all. This was all too much. All the weight of power being thrown around here, the mixing of the old world and the new all under Qiu's banner, all to ruin a bastion against her and, Chen understood at some level after her talks with Jessic, all to force the conflict that Qiu couldn't get for herself. It was awful and unhealthy and it wasn't fair that this had to be Chen's problem!

But then that instant passes. Because...ah, Yue, you're not here to see it and that's a pity. You'll just have to let Rose regale you later. But Chen doesn't give up because that fire of Princesses the world over is burning in her heart. She wants something for herself. She wants to save her family and her friends and push out Qiu and seize her own shard and see [i]her dreams[/i] become reality. She's learned a lot about how to do that right, how to do it in a way that doesn't hurt other people the way that Qiu and Yin are doing right now. She doesn't claim to know how to do it all just right, but she knows how to try. And what matters is that the dream, that insistent little voice, is in her and it won't let her leave no matter how big it all seems in the moment. 

Before she leaps into action, there's one other little nagging thought. Where was Ysel? Where was [i]her mommy?![/i] Shouldn't she be leaping to the battlements or roaring out from the palace in her tricked out car to slam straight into the pyre of inspiration music blaring? Well, if she wasn't coming, Chen would have to go to her.

Chen blinks back her tears and looks straight at Rose, those sparkling wet eyes earnest and serious, "Keep up, Rosepetal." 

Chen draws her sword, metal gleaming in the twilight, and she's off like a flash. She's first falling and then flying as she works spells in motion, the magic of her training and her sword work. On a section of wall, a sudden streak of brilliant light cuts every soldier free of battle ribbons and drops every ladder. And then Chen strikes the battlefield exactly like a dazzling comet. A block of Qiu's soldiers, all standing in formation for their turn at the walls scatters apart in a crack of thunder and Chen is already moving again. A sudden tornado of blades and skirts smashes the radiant knights holding the gates, sending them flying away to land dazed on their backs. Even the Pyre's circus slows as a blazing sword bursts among the lesser demons bringing up the rear of the procession and they break and flee from the main body. 

Chen surges past them all, a blur flying through city streets, over low roofs and around old buildings and hodgepodge construction stacked one atop another to whims of a thousand competing architects. She traces a perfect route to the palace, moving among the chaos with a speed and comfort that comes only from long years of familiarity. The grand palace gate, inlaid with desert rubies to catch the glittering reds of the sun so often on the horizon, she blows open before her with a wind from her blade, not stopping her flight nor slowing her speed as she races full tilt for the throne and what's become of her Mommy!