"Actia," said Cyanis in a trembling voice. "Why did none of them protect us?"
The two foxgirls slid another inch apart as the wreckage of the [i]Plousios [/i]continued to collapse. Actia was still shaking, paws burnt blue with the aftershocks of her re-entry shield.
"Because that wasn't even a secret sword! [i]Someone [/i]here had to be able to parry that!" said Cyanis, rapidly transmuting her terror into outrage.
"Maybe not," said Actia thoughtfully.
"What on [i]Earth [/i]do you mean!?" said Cyanis, before hushing herself as though the aliens would demand a fare for them hitching a ride.
"Look at how many foxgirls there are," said Actia. "There must be a thousand. Outnumbered by the others of course, but that tracks - those aren't soldiers. This is a pleasure yacht, and everyone who isn't a foxgirl is part of a foxgirl harem."
"[i]Oh[/i]," said Cyanis. "Well, that tracks, actually."
"Yeah. It's some sort of renfaire situation. They're even carrying Flux spikes," Actia said.
"What's a Fox Spike!??!?" said Cynais, no longer calming down.
"Flux. ELectromagnetic Flux. See those spikes they've all got? It's an old curse, before your time. Shoots lightning, blows up electronics, that kind of thing."
"Blows up - ACTIA WE JUST FOUGHT AN EVIL ROBOT IN SPACE DON'T YOU THINK WE COULD HAVE USED ONE OF THOSE."
"Believe me, it's not worth it. Unless you want your name on a Ministry of Curses list. Being sealed under a bridge is one thing, you do your time and get out. The Ministry won't be satisfied until you're [i]tame[/i]."
"..."
"And not in a sexy way. I've checked."
"Then why didn't you get Fluffybiscuits to do it!?!?"
"Do you think you could get that girl to harbour a curse in her heart?"
"Unh! Why! Being that good a girl is just a list of things you're [i]not [/i]doing and tails you're [i]not [/i]getting! So why does that mean she's not helping me in my hour of need, and has more tails than she has any right to - knock it off with the pushups Actia, this is serious!"
"If I wasn't taking things seriously I would have stopped doing pushups long ago."
"Anyway, all those foxes are one-tails. How do they have human form if they don't have their second tails? Do they have illusions up?"
"Maybe they're humans cosplaying as foxes?"
"That is DEGENERATE."
"So maybe they're not the ruling class after all?"
"That is SLANDERING MY BRAND BY IMPLICATION."
"And several of them have decent sized chests, so -"
"That is UNACCEPTABLE. Everyone KNOWS that tail count and cup size is correlated, which is why my dysmorphia can only be cured by SUPREME FOXGIRL POWER. By having a range of body types along with fox tails, these people are CULTURALLY APPROPRIATING my tragic medical condition. For CLOUT, presumably. This is why nobody takes me seriously!"
"You are right," said Actia.
"Well, Yue looks like she'll be busy here for a while, let's sneak into her house and eat all of Fluffybiscuits' fox snacks," sniffed Cyanis. "That'll show her."
"That is a good plan," said Damn Fox. "Can I join you?"
"Of course," said Cyanis. "We'll split the treats 45-45-10. Actia and I are even partners, after all."
"Um," said Actia.
"Great!" said Damn Fox.
"Is that." said Actia. "[b]Um[/b]."
"Oh, Fluffybiscuits might be there even if Yue isn't," Cyanis said. "Damn it. I forget that she's a badass sword fox meanie now. Can you distract her for us?"
"Sure!" said Damn Fox.
"Cyyyyyyyyyyyy-" Actia was saying.
"What?! Can't you see I'm trying to be a good sempai to our new frie -"
She glanced up. Only for a second. Cyanis might not have many marketable talents, but she could do this.
"- nd who we're lucky to be working alongside. There's so much we can learn from you, Mrs. Fox."
"What are you talking about?" said Damn Fox.
"Um. It's an, um, an honour -" said Actia.
"Honour!?" Damn Fox arched her back. An avalanche rumbled somewhere in the distance, the crack and slide of pine trees that grew alongside her back like fur. "Where!? Where?! Hss!"
"Oh no no I didn't mean -"
"No jokes," said Damn Fox. "This is serious. You've seen what happens if a fox catches Honour."
"See!?" said Cyanis. "Fox God agrees with me. She agrees with me that Fluffybiscuits sucks and didn't even have the honour to steal our tails dishonourably, like a true fox."
"Why is your friend doing pushups?" said Damn Fox.
"Sorry," said Actia. "Sorry, I just got so used to -"
"Don't care," Damn Fox adjusted. "What were we doing?"
"Stealing a Sunshard," said Cyanis, figuring she should upsell the mission a bit now they had divine assistance.
"[i]Cy[/i]!" hissed Actia.
"What?" said Cyanis, fluttering her eyelashes innocently.
"That is a good plan," said Damn Fox. "I'm in!"

*

[b]The Plousios![/b]

A literal mountain - millions of tonnes of rock and stone and trees - has stood up and walked over to your spaceship as it sinks into the lake, ankle deep in the water. It has sniffed it and had a weirdly low volume conversation, and now it seems to be walking away. All of this is occurring in perfect silence and serenity and if you didn't turn your heads to look at it directly you wouldn't even know that it was happening.

Biomancy, for all of its power, is ultimately bound by things like the tensile strength of quadranix and air pressure vibrations and the laws of fucking physics. It is perhaps an unnecessary additional data point to consider given that your spaceship, rated for hiding out inside a literal star, was just cut in half by a slender girl, but [i]things are different here.[/i]