[b]All Aboard the [i]Beneficence of the Hearth![/i][/b]

The barge has been moving uphill this entire time, and now it has finally reached its apex. For a moment, for a vertigo-inducing moment, the barge is airborne, a flying barque as might be seen in far-off Heaven. And then it plummets, and hits a downwards slope at a bone-jarring, hull-shearing pace. There is a desperate grasping for hands, for deck furnishings, for ropes, for anything that will stop a terrible and undignified fall.

The [i]Beneficence of the Hearth[/i] comes to a final, terrible stop at the bottom of a ravine, where it will remain, in the midst of a wild inland forest. On one side, the rain will assail it; on the other, it will be assaulted by the vines and growing plants of the Flower Kingdoms, until it becomes something beautiful, sad and utterly changed.

And from here you are scattered.

[hr]

[b]Kalaya![/b]

You are exhausted. Petony has dragged you off the ship and into the forest, and now her remaining squires are setting up a camp. But you can't sleep. You won't be able to sleep. Not tonight, not tomorrow, not after that. No solace, no home. Not while you're in the Flower Kingdoms.

"--were you doing?" cuts through the haze. Petony looks haggard, horrified, the rain streaking down her face. Like she's trying to figure out what happened, and keeps hitting against the fact that Uusha (not here, where did she go? you didn't--) was stabbed by a knight she'd tried to take under her wing. The way she's touching you is not particularly gentle. "Why, bud? [i]Why would you turn on us?[/i]"

And in the way that a wounded mind will latch onto the strangest things, you happen to see a snake (an ordinary snake) hanging from a branch, and from there... where does your mind go?

[hr]

[b]Zhaojun![/b]

The barge still crackles far below. What an excellent dismount! After all that work, what else could you do but to leave them wanting for more? Let them yearn for more, let them burn to discover who you are, why you have overturned their lives, and let chaos burn wild through the rice fields! Let them--

"You!"

The Maid Confined is climbing up the slope with the clumsy fervor of a furious kitten. Her serving dress is torn, her dark hair is wild, her entire front is filthy with mud, and she has a pair of knives tucked into her sash. She stares up at you, and her heart [i]burns[/i]. "Get [i]back[/i] here," she insists. "I'm not done! [i]We're[/i] not done! I--"

Her heel slips in the rocky muck, and she faceplants with a wet splat. Again. But she gets back up, growling, crawling on her hands and knees to try to get to you so that she can try to challenge you (you!) to another fight. There is no need to let chance decide: if you let her catch up, you will win. Here and now? There is nothing that she could do that would allow her victory.

You took all her weapons away from her, after all.

[hr]

[b]Piripiri![/b]

"They're not [i]here[/i]," the Red Wolf growls.

She's about to explode. She's been holding it all in: for her witch, for the knights, for her image. But the fire rages and seethes inside of her, and the quieter and more strained her voice gets, the closer she comes to exploding into an inferno. Her luxuries, her pride, her position, her control over the situation: all lost, except for what she can force her troops to carry in chests as she attempts to forge her way out of the wilderness. You stand together inside the Earth Pavilion, one of four that have been erected outside of the ship. (It should be five, but there isn't time and manpower to erect a fifth.) "There's one of [i]your[/i] girls," she says, like you're to blame for her staffing decisions, "tied up in their bedchamber. They're unaccounted for all night, and we don't know [i]where[/i] they are, and [i]I want them back.[/i]"

She looks to you, and the essence roils just beneath her skin. "I will salvage this. I want [i]you[/i] to find them, and I want you to extend an invitation to the Black Spur." The redout, a military camp far downriver, the most fortified position you have in the entire Flower Kingdoms. This is a dangerous escalation that she is pursuing, but it's not tactical sense that's speaking, is it?

She's been rejected. She's been bested. She's been humiliated. And having her prize slip between her fingers is the insult that she is unwilling to bear, above all others. If you fail in this, you might as well not come back at all. The only problem is that this is a nigh-impossible task; finding two travelers in the entire Flower Kingdoms, stealthily, with no clear idea of where they are heading or where they disembarked, will be incredibly difficult.

Unless, say, you had a lead tied up in their bedchamber.

[hr]

[b]Giriel![/b]

You're in one of the corners of the Water Pavilion, on a hastily-relocated couch, sinking into the cushions, with a blanket draped over your shoulders. And out of the strangest possible place, you're receiving care after what you did.

The snake-demoness balances the tray on her tail, offering you snacks that were only slightly waterlogged: biscuits, dried fruit, a freshly-poured cup of tea. It's not so much that she's kind as that she's curious about why you're distraught, attempting to fulfill the duties that the Hymairean set her to, and... she's trying to be human.

She doesn't know how to do that. But she's nodding and going "mmhm" whenever it's appropriate (and sometimes when it's not), and she's staying with you, watching you intently, studying you and trying to figure out the way you're acting and how she can mimic it, but part of that is that she's the one who brought you the blanket, and she's the one offering you food, and she's studying you but she's not [i]judging[/i] you. How could she? She's a traveler in a world that's not her own among a people that overthrew her ancestors and imprisoned them within Hell. She's not human.

But she's trying to be, and she's pretending as best as she can, and she brought you a blanket and she brought you snacks.

How does that make you feel, Bruinstead?

[hr]

[b]Han![/b]

There's a point where it becomes readily apparent that neither of you has the power to break the awkward silence. She's holding onto your sleeve instead of your hand, and you could say something, but that would mean having to acknowledge how, well, [i]possessive[/i] you were, and you might blurt something out about the kisses, and besides, [i]she's[/i] not talking. She's staring at the river as you make your way back upriver, trying to find an inn, and the two of you walk in a deepening silence, in the rain, and you didn't include the umbrellas, really, Han, what were you thinking? The two of you will have to find a new umbrella. In fact, probably two. Why would she want to share one with you? She can't even hold your hand.

And if she clings to that sleeve, well, it's dark. She's probably trying not to stumble, too. And if she raises a hand to the veil you made for her, well, it's dark, and you can't really see what she's doing with it. And if she's screaming in her head, too, well, it's not like you can hear anything over the dragon tantrum going on inside of yours.

And that's why the first things you say to each other are when you manage to get in each other's way trying to get into the [i]Blown Dandelion Inn[/i] are flustered apologies as you press up against each other, and catch glimpses of each other's eyes, and look away, and try to convince each other that, no, [i]you[/i] go inside first, which eventually you decisively end by picking her up and pushing her through the door so she'll stop standing out here in the rain, and then she stammers and lifts her dress up from her ankles and makes her way deeper inside to dry off and use their facilities, and leaves you to start arranging with the innkeeper for... two rooms? Two rooms. And isn't it lucky that you've got this full purse that someone packed for you and--

"[i]Han[/i]," your big sister says from behind you. "Now [i]who[/i] was that I saw you with, young lady? Do mother and father know you're [i]fraternizing[/i] with girls on your way back from the big city? Hold on, ma'am, I'll just be a minute-- Han, look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Sagacious Crane, priestess of the Sapphire Mother, butts in and tries to fill up as much space at the counter as possible so that you can't do that thing where you pretend not to notice her and her big mouth, while you're in the [i]middle[/i] of trying to pay for the [i]two rooms, it's obviously two rooms, Crane[/i].