[b]Threefold Garden[/b]

It's a fancy name for a small garden. A trellis in an L has ivy growing up it, sectioning off a small amount of the deck from sight, with raised beds holding flowers blooming in the night air about hip height. Piripiri's standing at the railing, brown eyes staring out into the dark at the jungle just across the water, invisible in the murk. How to explain?

"I come from Hymair." For once, she doesn't smother the sudden well of homesickness. A deep breath and squeeze of the railing, and then she can continue. "I come from Hymair, and to us, what Giriel did was wrong. Horribly so. Not because my blood is sacred. But because... you'd need to understand, first, I'd yielded in a fight earlier. It's dishonorable to fight after that until the sun's crossed the horizon twice. And I'm a noble. Fourthborn, yes, but my honor matters to me." A glance to Lotus: does this make sense? Are you so alien that this is confusing. "So when she bleed me, I couldn't resist that. I'd be just as furious if it happened to, I don't know, that scribe downstairs. If she had [i]asked[/i]. I would have given it freely." A pause. "That does need to stay between us, however. Immaculate philosophy and all."

She takes another deep breath, eyes closed, and lets it out, deliberately, before jade eyes open. Feels good to soak into your element, a good way to center. Her sifu would call it a crutch. Then he'd smack anybody who called a crutch a bad thing: any tool you can use is a useful tool, just know it's limits. "So I need to leave the hand wound for the moment. The... repercussions of what happened, there, haven't fully shaken out. But your offer is appreciated, genuinely."

She pauses, then asks the question that'd been biting at her. "How would the Flower Kingdoms view this? A daughter of dragons who's captive, a witch who needs her blood to have all of us escape hell? What's the moral action to you, oh priestess?"

[b]Kalaya[/b]

The masked woman pauses in the middle of folding back up the robe at the word "princess", eyes narrowing as she glances back at you with renewed focus. Then goes back to folding the robe, deliberately unruffled. Looks like you just got made.

[quote]9 on It Wasn't All Bad with Lotus: gain a string on Lotus and she'll respond with something interesting or useful from her upbringing.[/quote]