Yuki takes out her tablet as they exit the main corridors of the Viperiat so that she can take a picture of the space with its new dark tapestries sucking up the sound and light where before the mirrors had created a dazzling rainbow of reflections. It’s different and she’s not really sure when she’ll have another chance to see the Viperiat. It could be tonight with Sulochana, or it could be never if adventures sweep her in a different direction. So she needs a picture! Well, several actually because Sulochana is late, so she doesn’t so much stop to take a picture as turn around and walk backwards, her heels echoing off cool stone as they come down and she snaps picture after picture. She can look at them in the palanquin, delete the ones that are blurry, or uneven, or get the tapestries too dark because the angle doesn’t capture the light coming in from the open stable door. As long as she gets one or two solid ones, she’ll send them around to the chat group excitedly. The Viperiat that she had opened, now redecorated, consecrated from her own work!

Of course, there’s a bit of oddity to it. This was obviously Sulochana’s space now, her home in a way that it was never Yuki’s. That was how it always should have been, but it’s weird to be the conquering hero of a space and then come back and feel like it’s not yours. You’re supposed to feel good about stuff you conquer, right? Going out to the stables added to the weird trespasser feel, even though she obviously wasn’t since last time she had shoved open the main gates after her daring breakout.

She glanced to the side, wondering if she could see the main gates at this angle, but the heavy stone bulwarks and rounded corners of the architecture meant she couldn’t see what the main gate itself looked like. Come to think of it, it probably didn’t see much use anyway, it was so wide it could march in an army, way too intimidating for regular business. That’s why they brought people in via the stables, or maybe a service entrance, or a servant’s entrance, things like that. Much more intimate, much quieter, felt in keeping with all the heavy tapestries. 

Yuki was so caught up with her photos that she nearly walked into the palanquin before Sulochana’s gentle coil stopped her with an angled shove that avoided tripping her while arresting her momentum into nearly sitting on those thick, white-pink coils striped with gold for the ceremony. Sulochana really could make herself beautiful in such incredible ways.

Yuki blushes sheepishly and puts the tablet away as she climbs into the palanquin with Sulochana. The rest of the description is only now catching up with her with the photos done. Yukisworld, really? This was definitely Keli’s fault and she would pay for it. In gold in fact because the way you [i]got[/i] a foxgirl was in business payouts. Between that and the ransom they had received for her, she was definitely owed some luxury and a little pampering! 

“I swear I told most of you that my planet was called Earth, right? Yeah, nothing to be done at this point I guess. Not if you’re using it without even thinking. So Yukisworld fencing, it’s more like a sport than maid knight fighting. You use long piercing swords that are bendy and uh…supple I think is the word for it. Everybody wears special protective clothes, and you get points for scoring a hit on someone’s body but nobody gets hurt. It’s good practice because since the swords are so light and easy to move around the duels go really fast and you usually score a hit in just a few moves. Parry, riposte, score!” She excitedly thrusts one arm in the palanquin in demonstration as she’s speaking, rustling the velvet curtains. “It’s actually pretty different from my heart blade though. I tried summoning it right when I got here and I think it got even bigger and heavier than when I was younger, like it sized up for me at least a little, maybe even more than a little. And like, it’s not really heavy, you know what I mean, but the way I want it to be it has momentum to it. It helps you swing it and when it’s going it puts weight behind it beyond just what I’ve got in my still pretty little body.” She blushes again, but no point denying that she’s just never going to be tall. At best or maybe at worst, she’ll put on a freshmen fifteen in her sophomore year and just get thicker without gaining any more height. 

“Aaaanyway, my heartblade is a big heavy axe with a long shaft, but even though it’s a way different weapon from fencing, I still feel like I learned a lot about moving my own body around, how to step and balance and stuff like that, and I think that’s still super useful no matter what weapon I wield.”

She smiles, glances out of the palanquin to see what the market looks like, turns back to Sulochana. “So how are things here? Is it all backstabbing politics and tricky schemes all the time? Tell me what’s happening with Civelia, this is a big deal, right? Juniper said she couldn’t make it from so far out, but told me that every priest of Civelia is going to be in special prayer today even if they’re not here, then she DMed me a kneeling priest and five wolf emojis, which probably means this is important, right?”