[b]Threefold Gardens[/b]

Lotus is, she decides, the most sincere person she's ever met. It's charming. There's a twinge of regret that she can't invite her below to her room for tutelage in the pillow arts, but... no, she could. Nobody would actually stop her, Cathak is likely too busy with Giriel to notice, and it could be considered part of being, well, a good host. Here is the clearly expressed desire.

But. She has other duties, ones that involve masks, and would be the poorer for her failure to attend to them. And proper teaching takes time. So squash that regret, fourthborn, you've a guest to entertain.

"Yes, I suppose that's the best way to think of it." She politely ignores the flushed skin and dilated pupils as the demigod trailed off talking about N'yari gags and Han the hero. "I wasn't physically restrained, but it wouldn't have been right for me to resist. So... tied up in here, I suppose." She taps the side of her head, echoing Lotus. "I am sorry to hear that Han was treated so poorly for fighting against the N'yari. What happened? I thought they were the Flower Kingdoms' enemies."

[b]Kalaya[/b]

"If I may." The masked woman steps forward from the wall, again barely not whispering. "There may be another way to break the spun narrative. If Princess-Knight Kalaya," a formal, slight bow, a host to visiting dignitaries, "were to publicly announce that she would work with Dominion legionnaires to protect the border regions from N'yari raiding parties and take those raiding parties hostage, then the narrative is broken, the N'yari warded against, and we may even be able to negotiate for a release of some of the captured villagers from that region in exchange for the raider prisoners."

She's not saying the Dominion objectives achieved by this either: stepping in to defend the corners that the Kingdoms won't and saving the people the Kingdoms can't or won't further fractures the land, sending Kalaya off to someplace politically unimportant ensures she will have plenty of warning if she goes rogue, she's got a chance of being captured herself by the N'yari, neutralizing her in a way that doesn't tie back to the Dominion, and finally the troop requirement for a border patrol is orders of magnitude lower than a war party.

"If you both find that acceptable, I may do my best to have some new clothes made in your colors, Princess-Knight. What are they?"