[b]Rose and Chen![/b]

The Pyre of Meaning glances down at you, Rose, for but a moment. She rummages around thoughtfully in her pockets until she comes up with a large silk hankerchief, violet and patterned like stars. She looks at it thoughtfully, letting the fabric run over her hands.

"Shut," she said, "up."

And she crams it right into your talking mouth.

Certainly, she may have stepped up from being the Demon Queen of Ultimate Evil, but it's a [i]long[/i] road from there to Shambala. 

She lets her gaze snap across to Chen. "I don't need to hear another word about what needy, obedient little sluts you are. Marketing is the Eighty-Eighth Division of Hell and I've heard enough of it for a thousand lifetimes. Either you will prove capable of the task or I will find less prestigious uses for you. Now, I have a city to repair, so come along, quick smart."

[b]Yue![/b]

After all of this, after everything, who is Princess Qiu?

At first she comes at you like a hurricane - swift, sharp, decisive, dismissive, but still so floweringly brilliant it's hard to process. But nobody winds up with a combat style like that by accident. Somebody taught it to her, or she invented it to fight against specific opponents. And as you engage with Qiu you start to see that hurricane of faces and opponents passing by in each beat and opening move that's also a finishing move. This isn't how she is born to fight, this condensed and decisive power play. This is the record of a thousand duels that ended before she was ready. This is a fighting style born of disappointment, of the idea that she has to demonstrate her brilliant ultimate moves at the first possible second because it's the closest she can get to satisfying.

The range she has is enormous. She switches between styles in brilliant burning starts but there are no transitions. Again and again she explodes outwards and then stops in a kind of thoughtless surprise whenever you escape the technique. Again and again her blade asks: "Can you? Will you?" and she almost does not know what to do when the answer is "Yes!"

A cautious eye passes over you and, with creaking and rusty memories, she settles into a different stance. Low and sharp and braced against pain. And for the first time she starts a dance she's forgotten long ago.

You learned from wolves and shapeshifters and hurricanes; they are visible in your sword. Princess Qiu, for all her seeming solitude, learned from people too. This dance is a close one, an intimate one - she sweeps in close so that her blade is against your neck, even as yours is against hers. It's a frightening duel, one of intimacy and edge, sharpened and soulful stares lip almost to lip as free hands tease, distract, and search for daggers. Flinch away and you'll be cut, or worse, will be free of the blade. Everything is tension, hand in hand over the void, unbelievable danger and unrestrained, terrifying possibility. You can't fight like this and ever forget it. It's a level of trust that she's never felt before or since. And so in the end, Princess Qiu steps away from this embracing duel, though it's clear how much she yearns for it.

But beyond that she explodes into techniques of colour and vibrancy. Different opponents taught her this - brighter, more innocent. This is a style built in terrain, built in things, built in landscapes, and when she wields it Ys becomes her own. She tells narratives in temple stairs, the blade is less important than the window it gets kicked out of, then onto the back of a gondola to fight even as the waterfall comes ever closer! This is a blade to fight against a radiant world, stances for escapes and armies and constant motion. As dragon and as lion and as wolf! One as many against many who are many! No wonder armies cause her no fear! No wonder she can confidently besiege the city of Ys! She could fight them all like this, the spotlight that transforms the city into a stage and a girl into an army! Oh, she never forgot what it was to be a [i]multitude[/i]!

But then time goes back one more step, and at last that unending momentum tapers to a halt. She sets her stance immovable and her face becomes grim and she advances. She advances past every strike and counter, a steady march that resists every attempt to divert or lead astray. You can sense intuitively that this opponent did not wield a blade - they swung a hammer. This was the way she was walking when you met her, the way she went to confront Princess Yin. It is a technique for fighting evil, immense and immeasurable. Even the world of her Shards are different here, their power pouring into you, casting you as ever a greater and darker demon queen. You have the ability to not just fight but to torment, you are not a rival but a god. 

And she has a technique for killing gods too. She learned it from a Godkiller. This ancient, secret, foundational path which she never used before and can never use again. She isn't sure she'll ever fight someone like this again. Isn't sure she even wants to. But even as she strives against divine power she has become the center of the universe at last, the complete and utter object of focus for someone more powerful than her to test, to lead, to transform. In the deep, dark waters of this ultimate technique and original opponent Princess Qiu learned what it was to be everyone's everything, and the world itself did not survive their conflict.

But then that breaks too. On the other side of that immense and darkening moment is...

Two girls run at each other with swords. They don't know what they're doing. They hit each other much too hard. They cut each other. They say their lines and pound their chests and for a moment catch the eyes of those around them. It's not a good fight. They are too young and nobody taught them, and while it's wonderful for a while, it all ends in tears. These dance partners part acrimoniously and never see each other again. 

Again and again, the duel ends and she never sees her opponents again. 

She could have gone back. Could have apologized. Could have tried to settle down and be a normal friend to those people. But again and again she chose the blade, and so she passed through the heavens as a rogue sun, burning everything in her path. This is why she fights like she does. This is why she asks who are you, Yue. Because she's lost everybody who ever drew near to her and all she wants to know in this blissful, rapturous moment is how long she's going to have before she loses you too.

Princess Qiu is not a mythical person whose skill appeared fully formed. She, like you, learned from her battles with her friends. She stands before you now as a general in an army of ghosts.