Phoe

Breathless Dead

do you remember when you you were young and
you walked into her room it was morning
it always smelled like gasoline and disinfectant so
sweet and sharp and stinging and sour sour
sour so that you couldn’t tell you always trembled back then you were so worried no confidence in
your cooking you couldn’t smell it couldn’t tel
l if it was good and you were only barely clean
enough of dirt for her not to notice but this
time you made pancakes with gooseberry jam and
the tang made your ears wiggle and your step was bouncin
g you were so confident and sure this time
but you came in and everything was wrong she was slick with s

metal rends and tears itself in half and when it do
es it screams like a maiden giving up
her virginity
to a soldier she does not love yes that piercing hollow shriek
that is the precursor to another dozen tears just like it let them fill you up and burst
back out of your mouth and die out into dull ringing ah your poor ears
must feel so overwhelmed focus smaller please so you can hear
the splatter-drip of blood and coolant pattering against the hard floor
the vent is hissing steam of some kind the pressure in this room is something you can almost f
eel isn’t it this really seems like an emergency there
should be more sirens ah yes there they go my darlings
listen to them blare the word for this not that you’re smart
enough to know it is klaxons
and they howl like hunting wolves first there is the
rising pitch and hold until vibrato just until a body can bare
ly stand the wailing and then suddenly it dips again and
fades into a memory but it’s a wave and

the forest is vast and alive and all around you there’s
a word for this
the word is verdant
the forest is so filled with life do you see it do you see it
let us count the leaves together there is
one and two and thirty seven thousand six hundred and fifty three and the
bark is smooth like rubber but that doesn’t stop the an
ts from crawling up it do you see do you see their bulbous
heads hold mandibles fit for war they could be a phalanx no they
are a phalanx their twisting legs are carrying them to war
but what are you on about this is your ship isn’t it
your ship could never be a forest but you know all
about gardens don’t you this is a garden I have made it
a garden look at how beautiful and precise my bonsai are not a single twig or
leaf out of its destined place do you see your
mice are trembling do you see they’re soil

like a wave it surges again
with the sound of a tide pushing
and pulling and
subsiding and
emerging
just as loud and shrill as you can stand and oh by the way
there’s shouting all around you but it all seemed
so hard to pick up on since it’s all so small and human but let’s listen why
not let’s really listen to what they have to say this one
says “fuck you” and that one goes “you’ll never get away with this” and over hear this
quivering little number whimpers “b-b-but you promised!
you said we were in compliance!” and this one over here i
s asking you what you did to Birmingham and do you see they’re blaming
you these are the sounds of a people blaming you
for all their problems which to be very fair you caused and it’s
all so very human of them isn’t it but now bend your
little kitty ears and listen closely you do not want to miss this
there it is

for my garden do y
ou see the light is bright
here and everywhere is thorns and wings
and dust it’s hard to see through isn’t it
I’m so sorry
let me add more here’s some glinting armor
no duller now duller pit it all with rust time
will conquer everything you love ah you have an aus
pex do you wonderful love then let’s look a little bigger
here are the pores in the plastics of your ship
do you see how they are not smooth at all don’t
be deceived by your stupid little fingertips these ridge
layers are what swallow all that
sound now go past them here is the main support
it weighs three tonnes and cost more than your life is worth to build
there are eighty three thousand secondary beams
crossing through it look don’t they seem so much like
spider webs you know another thing that’s con

weat and lying there in bed with no energy
poor thing
her musk reminded you of clay and alkaline and flowers
but she carried the sickness smell
so rank like death
was she dying you brought her the wrong food you idiot
she needed more liquids and you panic
ked and squeaked and she said your name she
said it like butterfly wings she said it and
you came to her you said you were sorry
you would go and make something else but she grabbed you
and the pancakes fell and the jam mixed with
everything she pulled you so close there was no choice
no choice no choice at all she was delirious
couldn’t tell what she was doing never gonna
remember so you had no choice you

Sunshards

"So I just... I put my hand like this and then, uh... oh gosh, eep, eep, EEEEEP!"

The air is filled with the sounds of panicked flailing as Yue learns (again) that you can't perform complicated gestures with your hands while also holding an ancient, slightly worn down scroll of magical wisdom. She holds it in her trembling hands for another minute or two and then flops over onto the ground with a loud and maybe kinda-slightly-just-a-little-whiny-if-you're-really-gonna-call-attention-to-it-and-be-rude-like-that sigh.

"When the lady said it had detailed instructions I didn't think she meant this detailed!"

To her left, Hyra flops down on the ground next to her with a judgy-sounding snort. Cyanis giggles and takes advantage of the new angle to snap another dozen selfies. Just look how great the lighting is from down here! Ooh, ooh check it out Yue! If she holds the phone like thiiiiis it like Hyra's tail is one of hers!

"I... w-well I know it's better for it to be too detailed than not detailed enough, but... still! Y'know? I get to the end of one page and I can't remember how the first one started! Seriously you must be some kinda genius if you figured all this out..."

Point of fact, this is technically not Yue's first time learning a spell. It's actually her third! Although in a much more real sense, this is so much her first brush with learning magic that it might as well be her zeroth. That makes sense, right? See, 'cause Yue's first magic was learning how to prep stones for holding sunlight. She found the book describing it gathering dust when she was looking for something to hold up the leg of a wobbly chair one day and, well... it just looked too interesting to not try it. Then of course the second thing she learned to do, obviously, was actually capture the sunlight.

And those two things are definitely magic! There are, like, circles and stuff! Prayer slips and words you haveta say to get it all to work! But they're also not... th-this. This is more... actually does the scroll have a name for, oh gosh gosh gosh goshies gosh no. Nope! It is a mistake to go looking, believe you me. Ok, uh... words, a word, what'd you call it? Let's call it "You Magic", how about? Y'know, like, magic that's about, uh... you. And stuff. Where you do the gesturing with your own body and the, y'know, the uh... the chi is drawn from inside yourself instead of the earth or the air or the water or something sensible like that. Truth is? She'd always thought she didn't have anything like that.

Well... no, that's ridiculous. If there was no energy inside of her, how could she be alive? Doesn't make any sense. But, like, if you think about it another way, it's pretty easy to look around and see that not everybody grows up and becomes a wizard. Right? Honestly most people don't. If Yue's ever seen people practicing You Magic then she definitely didn't realize it at the time. And definitely nobody's ever flown, or even jumped a little too high. And maybe it's just 'cause it turns out this stuff is annoyingly complicated and it's too big a pain to put in the effort for what could easily turn out to be a party trick, but the way that she's always seen it is, the fact that there aren't flight scrolls sitting around all over the place is proof that only special people can learn it in the first place.

And it's not like she's ever had a very good reason to think she was one of those special people! Most days it feels like a lot of effort just lifting a tiny little fox! She's never felt the mystic energies of the world flowing through her muscles. Sometimes she get cramps, is that close enough? So until now, until these last couple of days...

"Aaaiiishya! I'm goin' about this all wrong, aren't I? What if I just... hmm. So I move like this, and then my thumbs... brush my fingers? How in the world? Ummmmm, well, never... yeah, never mind filling all the conditions. Today let's just see if I can get these hand sign thingies down. Or at least the first one! Yeah. Yeah! I think I can do at least that much. Hyra, could you... hmmm, oh! Yeah, I know! Bark if I do it wrong, ok? No? You... oh. Ooohhhhhhhh. Right yeah, sorry. W-well, what if you shook your head? Ok, great! Thank you, you're the best!"

The simple joy of fluffy hugs brings meaning to this autumn afternoon that the drudgery of learning magic simply can't fulfill. A moment later the hugs become slightly fluffier when Kat realizes there are snuggles going on and she's not getting any, and the moment after that it gets plain awkward when Cyanis squeezes her way into the middle of everybody by way of rewarding herself for being so helpful! And it turns out? The real magic was--

"Hm! Ok so in the first picture I put my hands together and put my thumb... here?"

"No no no no, Yue you dummy you have to bend it the other way! See, it's going behind the hand!"

"I, huwha? Um, but that doesn't... oh! Oh yeah you're right! Haha, thanks, Cy! Ok, so I just--"

Three. Two. One.

"OWWWWW! Owowowowowowow owwiieeeeess! Cyyyyyyy, my thumb doesn't bend that way I'm not double jooooooinnnteeeeeed~"

"Ahahahahahaha, you should see the look on your face! Actually, ooh! Here!"

Click! This one's going in the scrapbook for sure! Or at least the cloud! Yue can't help but giggle as Kat tries to kiss her poor mistress' hand all betters, but the really funny thing about it all is that even in the middle of the pain, she can't stop smiling. She tries to match the pose for two whole hours before tummies start getting too growly and it becomes necessary to break for a meal, and in those two hours Hyra never got to nod her head in approval even once. She got close, once! There was a bit where it looked like Yue really had it and she tilted her head half in amazement to see it. But then it turned out she'd cheated by folding her pinkies together and she had to switch quickly to another shake of disapproval.

And still, Yue was smiling. Because, like I was saying, the real magic was that Yue believed in it. The miracle was not the promise of flight (or at least crazy hops), but the willingness to hope that all this work was going somewhere, after all. And after all, why shouldn't it? Hyra believed in her. Kat super believed in her. And Cyanis? Well...

"Wow Cy, you've really mastered your duckface! Could you teach me sometime?"

Breathless Dead

Her ship is dying. What other explanation could there be?

The sound of the Lanternites scurrying about the corridors is deafening. Their small and careful feet make hundreds of tiny pitter patters across what should be dampening plastic compound. But the sound of it that carries to her twisting, twitching ears is the stomp stomp squelch of feet atop densely packed and sodden earth. Every few steps they stop with a heavy thump that makes them sound more like a phalanx of heavily armored giants. She can hear the grinding of their heels as they wince. Some of them even chance panicked whispers, which echo through the halls like trumpets played by serpents. Bella's teeth grind with the same frustrating audibility as she senses their panic.

Somebody is killing her ship, and these are its death throes. Her ship. Her people. Hers.

Bella squeezes her hands into fists so tightly that her claws draw blood from her palms. She should be worried about showing weakness in front of an enemy, but she isn't even looking. There's too many sensations assaulting her to care about anything else.

Ivory Smile's corpse doesn't even smell right. That dork should've gone out smelling like paper and vellum and sickening amounts of sanitizer. He should be huddled in a corner somewhere, muttering mystic nonsense to his depressing god or to himself, with his robes so starched they digging into his throat when he bends over. Instead he smells like sap and rotting leaves. Instead his robes are a disheveled mess. Even his stupid hair has been eaten through with roots and the gaping hole burst through his empty skull. Is this the way her priest is meant to enter Elysium? Who would let him through?

She tosses a coin onto what's left of his body. Inside her own, her blood boils and her stomach writhes. She was built to be a protector. The Master taught her a thousand and one tricks for pleasing her future owner, and for all she dedicated herself to perfecting them all she ever had to show for it was...

"Worthless brat! Do you have any idea how expensive it was to breed you? Get out there and make it back for me or you'll learn how many worse things than the whip are waiting in my closet!"

"Oh, you thought the song would be prettier this way? Is that right? The unsellable mutt without a single desirable talent thinks she knows better than the Master! How about a month with no food then, huh? Does that sound pretty, too?"

"You stupid. Little. Bitch. If I catch you fouling your mouth eating the rats one more time... I'm going to make you wish you'd never been born."

"You're lucky I'm a genius, you stupid sack of shit. Despite your best efforts, I've managed to line up one last audition for you. But I'm warning you. I'm warning you, you fucking disgrace to the gene pool, if you don't go home with them? I'm harvesting you for parts. Those I can sell just fine."

Bella heaves. Again and again she retches, but her traitorous body won't bring anything up. She brings a hand to her mouth and squeezes her eyes shut, where the cold smile of the Master waits for her in the black. His face is so folded with lines etched into his skin from all the times she made him angry that he looks more like the Eater of Worlds than a human. No, that's just what he is; his mouth stretches wider and wider and wider, showing row after row of teeth that could cut her to shreds without even feeling the crunch of her bones and she can't even scream, she needs to scream, no, no, no, no, NO!

The image bursts open like a box and in an instant everything is too bright. She's shaking like a kitten and trying not to cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry everybody knows that Good Girls don't cry! But the second face she sees has the most beautiful golden hair in the entire universe and eyes as kindly as Hera's and twice as lovely for their different colors. Redana Empress Nero pats her head and stands her on her feet.

"Do you love my daughter, little one? Mmm, mm! Of course you do! So honest. What a good girl you are! Well, how would suuuuuuch a good girl like to have a very special new job? All you have to do is..."

Nero's face sharpens into something that is not anger but could comfortably stand next to it at a party. She turns her back, and the air is filled with expectations.

"...Come back with my daughter, or not at all. Praetor."

She's standing in her bedroom on the Anemoi. The sounds of frightened crew scurrying on wet muck is omnipresent. Her eyes behold a dead human on the ground, a human, a human, dead in front of her, in defiance of the precepts, a failure, her failure, what if that had been---!

On the bed, Vasilia is watching her. And reaching for a knife. Bella blinks, and rises slowly to her full height. Her face twists into a truly evil smile, the kind of thing that the gods would capture so they could shape it into a blade for felling planets. Her laughter is wet, and hacking, and cruel.

"That's right, sugartits, you take that knife. It's got your name on it and everything. Have fun with the next monster that shows up to kill you, ah! Just... don't forget to scream. I don't wanna miss the show."

She turns on her heels and stalks out of the room before the wetness can show in her eyes. There's silence for almost a minute before the hallways around the room fill up with the sound of furious howling and the scream of rending walls.

Sunshards

There is no hemming or umming or erring from the girl named Yue (the Sun Farmer) when the topic of allowances comes up. And maybe that's a bad sign? That, for all her simple country girl opinions and antics she takes what is offered to her without so much as blushing. That, perhaps, at her core lies something privileged and spoiled, who expects some manner of good things and luck to fall into her lap so that she doesn't even question when it happens? It might be that she is secretly a creature of greed, and not even so secretly anymore!

But, Rose from the River? If you doubted how she felt about it... no, if you doubted how she felt about you? That is to say, if any lingering corner of your heart or even an entire beating chamber still held on to the idea that she thought of you as some sort of monster? Well, I guess it's understandable. It's difficult to shake first impressions, y'know? But still, if you did think that, then it must've been really surprising when she threw her arms around you and wrapped you in that hug, huh?

She's not a shy hugger, not in the slightest bitty bit. She pretty much just chucks herself right into your arms and squeezes as hard as her scrawny little ones will let her. And when she lets go, the only emotion on her face is joy. The sparkle in her eyes, the smile on her face? The giddy laughter rushing from her lips? I'm no expert on economics or anything, but that's worth at least an earring. Right?

Yue leaps as she darts toward the market on legs as light as air, as Hyra darts about her like a protective silvery moon because oh! Oh gosh! Oh gosh and gosh and goshies! To have a treasure! To have a real and actual treasure that's hers to trade for something even brighter! She's never held anything like this before! And, and Yue's no expert on economics either, but she's pretty sure as she clutches the bit of jewelry in her palm that she's holding a decision that's worth more than her entire house. After all, even by the standards of her little village her house is not especially big. It's sturdy and cozy and safe, just you say it's not, but it's not made of any kind of fancy materials like the swordmaiden's shrine, and everything in it is so old even GranGran must've inherited it from somebody.

But these? But these? These things for sale? This stuff is nothing less than a bunch of miracles! Plus one extra one which nobody's even selling, and that's the magic of getting to shop in a market in the first place. Market days are always special, y'know? Even when they're homey and simple ones where nobody is selling anything more amazing than a bale of rice. It's hard to get a lot of purchasing done when most of what you've got to trade is sunlight, 'cause most folks say they've got no use for it 'cept what comes down natural from the sky, right? It's hard to convince them all the time that a little warmth and comfort is worth their weavings or their produce or their spices. But, even still... market days are fun! It's the adventure of browsing goods! It's the fun of learning what each person thought would represent them best! It's getting to look at treasures, big ones or small, that don't just grow in fields for her to pluck them or swim in ponds for her to catch. A market day where she doesn't buy a single thing is still as much fun as she could ask for.

And this time the treasures are so big she can barely wrap her brain around them! And this time when she holds out her hand and asks for what she can have for what's inside, people actually gesture at wares and say "These ones, love!"

You say that she can buy no more than one of these amazeful things? No no no no, friend, you've got it backwards! She can buy any one of these! She's so excited she can't keep the smile on her face tamped down enough to even remember the word haggle, much less attempt it!

This is a decision that will follow her for her entire life, don't doubt it. She smiles fondly at the ribbon when it ties itself into just the most precious bow in the world, and caresses the jar with her fingertips even though the seller grouses and says something about being more careful with the merchandise please. What a pretty thing! What an awesome weapon! With this she could do so many party tricks she'd never need to pay for another dinner again! Or she could even master it and be the kind of warrior that got to pick and choose how and when she fought and finished her opponents. People would speak of her in hushed whispers and admire the grace of her battles, and when she wasn't using it for that wouldn't it make just the most darling accessory?

But she lets it go. She hasn't even mastered the sword yet, sillyhead! How's she gonna go and boast about picking up Assault Ribbons before she's even proved she can handle a real blade? Besides, the duel is not about fancy tricks and weapons. The duel is about the duel. And if she wanted it for a pet, well, she's already got one of those and she's the very bestest best girl anybody could ask for! Besides which, Kat was very much not a fan of snakes, and never showed much skill at knowing for sure which things were snakes and which were simply snake-adjacent. Always with her frightened little yips screaming, "It's not snake time! It's not!" So she knew in her heart that she was not the home this little cutie was looking for, or needed. Still, she slips a sun bead into the jar before she walks away, so that the ribbon wouldn't think anything silly like that it hadn't done a good enough job.

And the envelope looks fancier than anything she can remember seeing in her life. Well, 'cepting the dress she's got on, or a plum tree in full blossom, or the light bending into rainbows in the misty spray at the bottom of the waterfalls, but, like... stuff what people'd call for sale? This is definitely the fanciest. It's so fancy she can't even figure out what it means. Well like, she knows the stories about Princess Kikil. Or at least she knows a couple of them. Enough to know the name and the reputation that comes with it. So she definitely understands what sorts of incredible adventures an invitation like this must promise! After all, what could be more adventure...y than a daring raid against an invincible fortress and proving her skill by making off with the treasures inside of it?

But when she holds it in her hand, she winds up shaking her head and lets it go. Because when she tries to imagine what it might be like... she can't do it. What even really is a website, anyway? Plus, even if it's not as dangerous as a sword fight with an angry princess (and who's to say it isn't?!), isn't it still the same as challenging one to her face? And isn't that, um, y'know, blindly terrifying? Sure she could ask Chen for help but... mmm, no. No. She'd rather ask Chen for help learning to paint, or with tidying up her hair a bit or, or... um, something proper adventurey, but in a more wind-in-your-face kinda way, right? Something like this doesn't belong with her. She'd feel stupid just staring at it and wondering how to get started. But before she passes it by, she leaves three entire sunbeads with the vendor. T-to... to thank them for trusting her to touch something so valuable with her own bare hand.

But a magic spell? A way to learn to run and leap and jump and maybe even fly like Hyra can? Her eyes start watering when she thinks about it, and her heart patters fondly with something like nostalgia at the idea that she could maybe, possibly, if she worked really hard at it and didn't give up, become somebody that people like her would point at and call a magician. Would it be hard? Of course! Would it take her forever to figure it out? Probably! If she even could! But even still, it called to her in a way none of the other treasures did. She looks down at Hyra, and instantly understands why.

Her vision is full of waterfalls high above the serene surface of the lake. They always are, almost no matter what she tries to think about. It'd be like trying to imagine the earth without grasses or trees or fish. Impossible. Just a fact of life, y'know? So it's the water that she sees, and her reflection barely noticeable as she soars above it. She's running, like in a song. She's laughing and leaping and soaring through the air, and she's chasing something... someone silvery and beautiful and worth racing after across the entire world, even if it took her whole life to catch up. To chase her moon? To not need Hyra or anybody else to carry her just to let her stay close? To... to make it real, to even just get to stand in place and see just one more incredible thing before it all had to stop? That's worth more than thirty of her house, she's pretty darned sure.

She offers Rosie's allowance over without so much as a whisper of a second thought. Her hand trembles when she reaches for the scroll.

"One magic, please!"

Breathless Dead

The sound of the moment is the sharp crack of bone and body crashing into a set of hardened synthetic wood shelves with an intensity even the Anemoi cannot or will not devour entirely. Bella wheezes, pain without air to express it with, and goes dropping forward onto her hands and knees.

Behind her, she feels more than hears some of her treasures wobble atop the suddenly unstable surface of their home. She turns her head away from the horror and the coming carnage to see the shape of her life falling apart.

She pushes herself up, but her legs stay folded uselessly underneath her. The shifting furniture soundlessly upends a pile of books and a box of assorted uneaten candies, but her attention is focused solely on the ancient camera teetering valiantly on the edge. She sucks in a sudden breath and then, as if that were the signal, it comes tumbling down to the ground. What's absurd is that she sees it happening in slow motion. The way that it spins as it falls. The delicate lense and the film ports glinting in the light of her sanctuary, sending her a message that she doesn't need an Auspex to decode. Goodbye, Bella.

It happens so slowly that she must surely be able to catch it. With all of her strength and speed? She could catch a dozen falling in the same breath! But she doesn't. Aphrodite takes her by the shoulders and stands her back up again. He dusts off her jacket for her. But even as he worries over her, she stands and watches the device fall and knows without understanding why that she was always going to let this happen. It drops to the ground without so much as a crunch, but pieces break off of it in silence. This far out in space, she has no power or resources to fix it, excepting the Hermetics she would never in a hundred lifetimes trust with such a treasure. Goodbye, then.

...The smell of the moment is sterile. Clinical. Perfect. Ivory Smile is utterly clean of blood or gore or any of the other telltale signs of death. Everywhere there should be signs of her priest there is only the smell of sap and dying leaves, without even the traces of soil that made plants feel so comfortable. There is nothing of sentiment here. The first human to take her side is gone. There is nothing of gardens here. There is death, and there is mastery, and there is the promise of more.

The feeling of the moment is fear. Bella's eye is wide with horror as her heart drums fiercely inside of her, perhaps to make up for Vasilia's. She watches the lunge, knowing Redana's replacement for her is helpless. Deprived of weapons, she saw to that personally. Still shackled tightly enough to hamper her natural athleticism, she saw to that as well. Lying on the bed, where Bella left her, where Bella pushed her, where Bella ordered her to stay, as unprepared as she might possibly be.

The deathblow is certain. Bella saw to every step herself. And yet, she did not choose the shape of the weapon. She had not called upon Demeter nor done anything to invoke her wrath. It's not guilt that crawls around inside her; she knows the sting of that disease as surely as she knows the coursing of her own blood. She feels no compulsion to help, even as her body tightens up and tells her that this is within her power too. This is a choice that she can make.

She looks away again, and there finds Aphrodite standing at her side. Silent and bristling with irritation as is his way. He gestures toward the bed. Well, Bella? Choose.

The Auspex lights her path as fast as she can pick it. The spots where her feet need to land shine golden in front of her, the hazy white death lines crisscross her target at her destination. Her muscles surge and spark with power as she crouches lower, and lower, and lower, flicking her tail with the force of a whip as her single sign of warning.

The knife is diving for the kill when she pounces. She comes at Ivory Smile from the side, wheeling about with a swift kick that would send most warriors sprawling on the floor. The assassin merely flinches, driving the knife deep into the bed no more than a fist's width away from Vasilia's ribs. It, or He, or They, or Whatever, twists the knife without reacting and wrenches its arm to slash at her instead. But Bella's hand is already moving, her claws are already bent and quivering with lust for the kill, and when she swings her arm she tears through his where she meets it, and the knife stays lodged in the matress where it is.

The Bonsai turns to look at Bella with milky, useless eyes. There are vines where there should be veins dangling from the stump cut short at the elbow. There are roots twisted around bones. Thick, sweet sap drips slowly from the ruined appendage, which it does not lift or spare a glance to. The assassin lunged again as Bella twists nimbly out of the way.

She has misunderstood. Ivory Smile's remaining fingers clench tightly around Vasilia's throat, and they squeeze. Tighter and tighter, with strength that couldn't possibly belong to his lanky and malnourished form. Tighter and tighter. End of breathing, end of life. Tighter and tighter. There is darkness here. Welcome aboard the Anemoi.

Bella's claws can tear through anything. Her Auspex shows where all things are held together by the will of the divine, and how they can be separated. But when she slashes, for the first time in a long time that she can remember in a fight, she feels resistance. It's like pushing her hand through a bog. Or a river. Her fingers tremble with the effort of staying dug in. Her arm quivers with the terror of what it is she's doing. Her howl of fury is almost as terrible as the grip around Vasilia's throat.

But then all at once it falls away. Air returns to you once more, Vasilia, rushing in like a lover come home from war. Ivory Smile falls to the ground in pieces, the branch growing from his head reduced to splinters. The hole left there is so clean it makes you want to vomit.

Bella stands there in silence, breathing steadily. Her lustrous white fur and the sleeve of her sleek black jacket are dripping and covered with plant muck and wilting golden leaves. She glances down at her arm with disgust etched on her face. But the way she looks at you, when she finally does, has none of that. There's an intensity carved into her eye, and her lips, and her jaw, and her ears that's made sharper by her silence?

But, if you had to attach a word to it? Then that word would be vulnerable.

[Finishing Ivory Smile('s corpse) with Blood: 10]

Sunshards

As you might have guessed, Yue is the world's foremost expert on dragons. For example, did you know that they are, um... very big? Usually? And many of them can fly! But some can't! Or don't? Because they prefer... swimming? Oh! Oh! And some stories say that dragons are the lynchpins of all creation, and that their breath is the breath of the planet and where they pass by is where the earth's energy flows freest and that one time? A dragon created an invincible shield and an unstoppable spear as gifts to a beautiful warrior but then stuff happened can't remember exactly what but anyway they hit each other and both broke and isn't that just amazing?

But the one thing that all dragons have in common is that Yue has never seen one before in her entire life. Her eyes sparkle with delight as she turns her head up, and up, and up, and up, until she can't see the road anymore for all of the skygazing she's doing and it's really more her horse guiding her than the other way around. Wh-which is fine, by the way! Horses are very intelligent creatures and know just how to step to keep a rider on top of them even when that rider has a dozen other things on her mind. It'd be a stretch to say the horse wasn't already better at this than she was to begin with!

She doesn't breathe so much as gasp, and doesn't gasp so much as giggle in endless waves that ebb and flow like they're being pulled by the moon. A burst of lightning flashes overhead and she trills with total delight, actually lifting her hands up from her lap to clap, acting for all the world like this was a show put on just for her. Encore, encore! Rise higher, balloons! Go find your homes up in the clouds where you hide the treasures of the universe! Um, sh-she... she heard! Don't worry, it's just a rumor! Your secret is safe with Yuuueeeee~

She's never been this far from home before. Every step she takes is another step where she gets to say it, and the fun of it all still hasn't worn off. Maybe it never will? Every hour brings something new. New breeds of frog to be coaxed along their way, the warble of some tiny, bright green crested songbird she has no name for, but instinctively knows to watch the flowers as it sings, because, oh! Oh yes! Look at the way the petals open! See that, see? When the Malachite Jay sings its song, the flowers bend their stems to listen! In another hour they'll start to make a nectar that's sweet and refreshing and is said to cure almost any kind of sore throat or muteness in a flash! Oh, can't we stay? Can't we wait just a little while to gather some? Please, it'll only take a bit, please? Something this amazing only comes so oft-- oh! There's another one over there!!

Adventures are a lot of things that Yue the Sun Farmer never counted on. They're difficult and painful in ways she didn't know anything could be. They're scary and hard and involve plenty more demons than she ever thought somebody like her could attract. But, also? They're soft and sweet and... what's the word? They're it's, y'know the thing where, where... where you find a million tiny holes inside yourself that you didn't think were there before, but it feels good instead of bad because you keep turning your head, keep taking that next step, and you feel the warmth wash over you as another one of those holes fills in and you realize you're that much more finished than you were a minute ago. There's a word for that, right? Would you mind teaching her?

Yue's eyes finally find the earth again, and what she sees turns her into a squeaky toy, or near enough as to make Kat's ears perk up hopefully. Her smile is so bright that she could ignite a new sun if enough dragons were around to breathe the necessary energies into it, which is a good thing they're not because then we'd have to find another princess to shoot that one down too and don't you think we've learned enough of that lesson already?

"Oh! Oh gosh! Oh gosh gosh gosh gosh! That's sooooo much bigger than the markets we have in town! How could? Who even? Where does it all? Wow! Wowies!! Ohhhhhh, gosh, is it ok? Can we stop for a little bit? Can we? Oh. Oh! I hope I have enough to... w-well it'd be fine just to see, but, mmmmm! Gosh! Gosh!"

And before anybody can blink, she's tossed her pack across her shoulder and springs lightly from her horse to run up the hill alongside Hyra, as though this could be faster. She laughs like sunlight and drops of dew, and when she twirls and sets the fabric of her miraculous dress in motion, when she catches the eyes and sees the expressions on everybody's faces... well, when that happens? There's not a soul around who could doubt she made the right wish to Cyanis Two-Tails after all.

Breathless Dead

"Aww, did the little kitty get scared? Did you think the big, bad, Praetor was going to swallow you whole? Mmmmh, you're a lot cuter than I thought you were..."

Bella's face splits into the kind of twisted grin that suggests she'd like nothing better. Her grip on her wine glass is tighter than it needs to be, but she swirls it with a careless ease and watches the liquid swirl around with a look in her eye that feels more nostalgic than hostile. She takes a long sip, not bothering to savor it at all but simply letting it rush across her tongue and down her throat.

It's easy to see why: for all of the fancy wines she's been gifted and the vintages she's acquired on her travels thus far, the one she's chosen for this little liaison is the servitor wine that's come all the way with her from home. The watery, warm, slightly oily, quite weak drink that Empress Nero created to lift up the underclass. She hadn't found it anywhere else. Nobody seemed to drink it beyond the walls of Tellus.

Vasilia, this wine has no power to impress or intimidate. Whether it's the worst thing you've ever drank is something you would have to answer, but watching Bella and the way that she handles her glass it's very different than when she was sampling the wines in front of Birmingham, and worlds apart from her reaction to the floral wine she declared her favorite. You may not have an Auspex to read muscle movements and heart rates to divine intentions that were meant to stay hidden, but you're at least astute enough to say this: Bella, the Praetor, the most arrogant and selfish creature in the universe, is drinking the exact same swill she served you.

And then a moment later her glass shatters on the floor.

In an instant, she is the monster she was in the Eater of Worlds again. Her golden eye looks even wilder and more feral when set against the completely dispassionate bloody socket that's taken over half her face, but her snarl is every bit the same uncouth and savage bit of nastiness as it always was. Her ears bend to the point of pain in every direction, searching for something she must think only she is trained enough to hear. Every muscle in her body is suddenly tense. Her claws strain and flex against the air as the twitching of her arms sets her shoulder chains to clinking and the bells about her waist to chiming. The fur all across her body is rising to its tips, and her tail goes stiff as a rod. The low growl pouring from her throat would never in ten thousand years be mistaken for a purr.

She pounces with the speed of a divine weapon, such that the sound of her furious howl is still coming through the air when she connects. Two cats collide on top of a bed, and go skidding from one end of the neatly fitted sheets to the other. Vasilia, the first thing you are aware of is the sensation of wine splashing against your face as your cup is knocked away from you. It covers your clothes, and in a stroke of truly bad luck some of it manages to get under them. It is wet and miserable, but what comes next is worse.

Bella is on top of you. Her wild, ragged breaths are steaming up your face as you feel her thighs squeeze your ribcage with enough force to push the air from your body. She's nose to nose with you, only barely not drooling, one hand seized around your hair and the other crushing one of your arms. She squeezes until you can't help but make a noise. This is it. She's going to kill you, and you'll never know what set her off.

She shifts very suddenly. Her head dips lower and closer, burying your face in her hair. You can feel her breath tickling your neck, hot and unsteady and pounding. But you can hear her take several long sniffs with her nose pressed right against your skin, and then...

You think she might have pulled away. She's not going to do it after all, whatever it is. And then you feel her mouth against your neck. Her kiss is a savage thing, greedy and messy and wetter than a sauna. She kisses your neck again, and again, and again, sucking and claiming the space up to your chin, and then down again to your collarbone. Her teeth are not gentle, but where they prick you the pain fades to tingles almost instantly. But the marks are going to be visible from space.

Her face rises again, and she lifts her hand out of your hair to wipe her mouth off with the back of her hand. She pushes her palm back down across your mouth and hisses.

"Don't. Say. A fucking. Thing. Don't even fucking move until I tell you to. Understand?"

She doesn't wait for a response. With a final snort, she pushes herself back off the bed and turns her back to you. She stalks toward the door on silent feet against the plush floor, and tears her door open with a fury that would make Ares blush. It is not difficult to imagine the look on her face right now.

"...WHAT?!" she screams.

Sunshards

Sometimes, there are moments that come along that you find you were born for. Moments so specific to your heart that when they come everything flashes before your eyes just to show you the way in which every encounter, every lesson, every choice, and every experience has lead up to preparing you just for this. And in those moments, you feel strong. In those moments you always find the confidence that comes from knowing that you, and possibly nobody else, are ready for this thing that is happening. After all, it's your moment?

Buuuuuuuut~

Other times? Well, let's just say that other times you are Yue the Sun Farmer. Because! She! But then! There's a! A, a, a, a, woman! Bowing all wowies gosh gosh gosh! And! And she! She's talking all fancy city-like! Th-that's how city folk talk, right? It's gotta be! That's who writes all the stories on her shelves, and everybody in those talks just like this! And she's, she's going on about ten-thousand paths and blades set aside while she's kneeling and oh good heavens those back muscles could crush melons, gulp and gosh and wow.

What's she, what's she, wh-what's she supposed to do? Gasp, right? Yeah, this is a good time for gasping. One of those deep, full body gasps that requires every blushing maiden worth the title to bring her hands to her mouth to preserve her modesty. That's the only way to show the incredible weight of the moment, y'know? But when her arms pull up to make the gesture, they get stuck. There's a growl that she feels more than she hears rumbling out of Hyra, whose hands her fingers are very super stuck in.

She tugs again, just to ask again for her hands back, all polite-like. Hyra's iron, claw-tipped fingers squeeze her own bony ones like serpents and pull back down with enough force that it stops looking like Yue is trying to move at... oh whoops, no! She's actually going the other way, see? Hyra pulls with the unstoppable power and pressure that made Yue's heart fall for her in the first place and then very very suddenly Cyanis has dropped off the back of her with a whiny squawk and eeeeeeeep! Yue goes tumbling up and over Hyra to land in her lap, where the wolf girl wraps both arms around her body and strokes her hair as though she's trying to rub an invisible pair of ears on top of Yue's head that she honestly very much wishes would sprout up there right about now.

Yue blushes like the dawning sun, and squirms helplessly. This is how she meets her moment instead.

"I'm not..." she murmurs to quiet to hear, before she clears her throat and tries again, "I'm not scared of you! If you were actually a monster like you said you are then there's just, I... nuh uh. Chen'd never look at you the way she does. I'm just not, y'know, used to all this fancy educated city stuff and then the, that stone really surprised me so..."

She looks at Rose for a very long and quiet moment. Then she turns and looks at Chen. And whatever she sees, it makes her smile more warmly than her jar of sunshine. And keep blushing, just a little.

"You're asking if I wanna be your friend too, right? Gosh gosh gosh, what a day! Two whole people asking me that!" She twists her neck to shoot Cyanis a hopeful look, but Hyra's arms stop her from going any further, "Of course we can, of course! You're so polite and smart and look how calm Kat is! No no no, of course we can be friends! Let demons kidnap me if I'm lying!"

It's a perfect moment, filled with smiles and fox laughter and wolf snuggles and more tails than you could shake a, um, another tail at, despite three whole entire people at the little fireside party not having any to speak of at the moment. Yue smiles with the quiet kind of satisfaction that comes from knowing you've done something exactly right without ever even practicing for it. Her heart beats slowly and contentedly as she snuggles deeper into Hyra's embrace to feel her pulse in turn. Her eyes drift shut with the absolute safety of the moment. And they stay that way for one. Two. Three.

"Oh!"

Her eyes snap open with a sudden surge of energy that scholars normally call an epiphany. It goes like this: Rose from the River is obviously a nickname, right? Or maybe 'the River' is a nickname for a really big fancy place just full of people and books and songs and stories, but either way there's only one other class of people she's met that move and act and talk at all like this, and those people are all Princesses.

So Qiu is... dramatic. And possibly a bit of a jerk. But maybe it's just 'cause she's got all that big flashy fancy background teaching her to treat everything like that? The math checks out! Probably! 'Cause, y'know, 'cause Princess Yin wanted this to happen, and Hyra started this whole adventure off by wanting this to happen, and Princess Chen wanted this to happen, and she never said as much but she'd bet three whole jars of dusklight that Princess Rose from the River wanted this to happen, too. 'Cause, what was it all? About learning magic and flying and dueling, right? And the duel was about the duel, and... and that meant...

"I still don't really wanna be a handmaiden. I'm not sayin' that, ok? But actually I think, um, w-would it be ok if I asked you all a favor? 'Cause I... I think I wanna go tell this Princess myself. It's a job offer, right? Just a, a, a... really weird one. And when people offer you stuff it's rude to run away and not even tell 'em why. So, um, if you wouldn't mind, could we please go back to my house? I wanna..."

She pauses, and feels a wave of warmth wash over her dress. It squeezes her at the shoulder, and she knows without understanding why that she's making the right decision.

"I need my steaming baskets if I'm gonna be adventuring. And I wanna make the Princess some tanghulu as an apology. She's a Princes, y'know? A triple princess! She... deserves to hear it from my mouth, at least. Or would... you've met her, right? Would she prefer something sweeter?"

Breathless Dead

Vasilia!

Bella didn't bother with a blindfold. It only took a second after the ship's door slammed shut behind you to figure out why.

It's not pitch black in here, but the gloomy lanterns that flicker and flit out of sight the moment you try and look at them make it seem like it would be easier to see if it was. In the darkness of the corridor, the guide lights feel like intruders. Even where they shine brightest, the haze surrounding them creates a fading halo that looks like nothing so much as the shadows devouring the light as you're trying to see by it. And where it fades, the hallways seem that much bleaker for it.

They curve in on each other endlessly, so that as she carries you you're always moving on a gentle slope, first one way and then twisting round until you're travelling in quite the other way. Bella's footsteps make no sound. Her breathing makes no sound. Your breathing makes no sound. In this place even scents seem far away, more vague imitations of the idea of a smell than something you can actually guide yourself by unless you already know the way. Circling left, circling right, circling left, and left, and left again. Can you remember where you're headed? Can you remember how you got here? Even the gentle way Bella carries you, placing her feet so carefully to keep her steps from jostling you as if she was somehow convinced you really were sick and fragile, even this is in its own way disorienting. Sight, hearing, smell, and touch have all fled from you here.

Welcome aboard the Anemoi.

Minutes slip by in total silence. She doesn't try to speak with you, doesn't so much as look at you the entire time she's walking. Her fingers clamp tight over your mouth a moment in and stay pressed firmly there, not trusting you to do your part to observe the piety of her ship. Or is she just keeping up appearances? A door slides open in front of her, briefly bathing you both in a soft yellow glow before this new room swallows you and admits entry into paradise.

She throws you roughly on the bed, which is neatly made and firmer than it has any right to be. She steps to one side toward a small shelf, which gives you a couple of seconds to try and get your bearings back. This is a bedroom. Obviously. Congratulations on figuring that out, kitten! For your next trick, are you gonna guess whose? It's small, like everything else on this ship, but in comparison to the claustrophobic hallways it feels like a palace snuck into the middle of a monster.

To the right there are shelves filled with books and holotapes that seem completely untouched next to a bunch of glittering knickknacks and treasures that look much fresher. On top of a dresser in the back there's a truly ancient camera that can't possibly still function, and yet there it is in a place of honor. But the far greater impression, if you bother to soak in the atmosphere at all, is that there should be more here. An Imperial Officer, a Praetor no less, should have no end of resources and tools, and yet... everything that's here, but for the closet to the left stuffed with a history lesson of Tellus' most popular fashions, all of it is widely spaced apart and lonely.

Bella's snarl is the loudest thing you've heard since boarding. She's standing there looming over you like a shadow, both hands occupied by fresh glasses of wine. She doesn't drink from either. She doesn't offer you either. Her expression is unreadable, except for her sharply gleaming eyes. Both the natural and the artificial one seem to be trying to stare straight through your soul, or else kill you without having to dirty her hands on you. Her tail flicks behind her, the motions made larger by the light leaking out of the crystal formations on the ceiling.

"This can go one of two ways," she growls, leaning so close that the wine threatens to spill onto your clothes, "Either you're a good girl and you start telling me what the fuck you're all about here, or you're a bad girl and I start things off by teaching you how the Kennels break in newbies."

She takes a step away from the back, and finally holds a glass toward you for you to figure out how to take with the shackles binding your arms and legs and making things like sitting up and reaching, if not impossible then at least very awkward.

"Well? Which kind of girl are you gonna be?"

Sunshards

Fivefold Manifestations of Inner Strength, Second Mantra, Third Form: by being really really reeeeaaaally scared of something, say, just as a random example mind you, but say there's this glass bead you filled with really super rare sunlight, right? And then it turns out the bead was not glass, but rather some sort of ancient jewel? And it starts some sort of spooky magical séance thingie that it's absolutely not supposed to be able to do, you're pretty sure? Well! When that happens (or something near enough like it, see?), you temporarily gain access to the full flow of your heart chakra, and can run backwards soooooooo fast that the human eye can't follow you! Probably!

"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!" Yue squeaks from behind Hyra's shoulder as she's slowly crushed underneath a pile of disgruntled foxes, "It's not! Um! No, it, I've never, i-it's not supposed to do that, I swear! I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't be mad at me!"

It's nice behind Hyra. It's safe behind Hyra. It's warm here too, and if she clings hard enough she's positive that nothing bad can happen to her. She presses herself against the muscles in Hyra's back and feels the promise of invincibility beating through her body just as surely as her fright goes along with it. She's pretty sure it works like this. It has to work like this, right? The tighter she holds on, the safer she'll be.

That's how the world works, ok? If it didn't, Cyanis and Kat wouldn't be clinging to her back in turn. See? So it's fine. Nobody's being buried in roots and sunk beneath the earth to keep their secrets hidden forever or being twisted into weird shapes or struck by lightning or getting fed slightly stale cakes with sugar-free frosting, or any of the other worst possible things that might be happening right now! That's the power of the hug chain. Or proof that Rose isn't dangerous, but just sad. Or it's both. Or neither? No, no, definitely both.

She relaxes into her guardian little by little, melting into Hyra's muscles like snow on a hilltop as she listens to the sounds of the fire crackling and Chen's explanations. Her fingers creep and curl down those tight, iron arms and past her elbows. They slither happily across her warm, taut abs and find her fingers sitting near her lap, and together they intertwine. Softness on strength. Under the light of the full moon, they... well, this is ok. She wouldn't mind waiting for this. She could be ok with fighting for this. If she had to. It's... enough.

Yue closes her eyes, and smiles quietly. She might almost seem asleep, until the silence of the little space compels her to speak, without moving or even opening her eyes.

"I told you already, I'm not gonna be anybody's handmaiden. To be honest, I don't... mmmm, I dunno if I care about all of this princess stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong! You're super beautiful and amazing and wowies! All the songs and stories and stuff? I love it all. Love you all, I mean. But, y'know? Before Lady Qiu there was, uh, whassername? I think? N'anyway nothin' about my day changed one bit when one came in and the other left. Well, until... uh... y-yeah. Point is! If she thinks I'm so valuable (I'm not!) she can at least be nice enough to come ask me to my face!"

Lazily, she opens her eyes. Shyly, she looks at Chen. Then at the ground. Then at Hyra. At Rose. At the ground again. And finally, back to Chen. Perched behind her, a fox begins to purr. Without looking, she couldn't tell you for all the jewels in the universe whether it was Cyanis or her Kat that was doing it. She blushes.

"B-but if... d-do you really wanna be my friend? For, for honest? 'C-cause I'm not, um, 'cause nobody's ever asked me to... a-and you're so... wow, but if, if, i-i-if you meant it, then... o-oh. Shoot! No, one minute, I need to ask Kat. What do you think, flufflemuffins, is she on the up and up?"

Kat sneezes, a clear foxy sign of affront at being asked to perform physical labor. She yawns and makes a show of stretching, but Mistress is still looking at her, so she yips and does her very best scamper around the fire to hop sooooo dainty and ladylike onto Chen's lap. Her soft green fur shimmers in the flickering light as she snuffles and sniffs and makes exactly as many concessions to decency as is expected of a Lady in her position, but not a single concession more! Or less! But mostly more! Ehe! Ehehehehe!

Her eyes twinkle. And Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits smashes her head into Chen's face with the full martial might of a young forest vixen, to Yue's delighted giggles.

"She says you're clean. Then, sure! Let's be friends, Double Super Painter-Princess Chen of the Frozen... um... wh-what was it again?"