Tatterdemalion

Return to Thellamie

TEAM RELAXATION!

You'd think the party would be winding down now. Some of the staff have already said their good-mornings and slunk away to find their beds (or, as is often the case at the Chrysanthemum, a friend's bed, by invitation). But the keen mind of Eclair Espoir will start putting together a brief timeline, whirring in the back of her head:

• An Aestivali woman as soft as sin, almost ready to burst out of her corseted dress, gets a ping from her tablet. She checks it, and her face loses its jovial cast. She whispers to the friends on either side of her.
• They whisper to others. Those who are whispered to pass the whisper onwards; it ripples throughout the room.
• A beefy young Kel bartender whispers in Mayzie's ear.
• Two gangly twins start putting up thick black curtains over the windows. They continue over the door.
• Mayzie fishes a mask out of her bag and whispers to you: "Ecl-- Mystery, you still have your mask on you, don't you?"
• "And Yuki, there should be one in your apron pocket, put it on, put it on--"

And that's when the lights go out and there is a moment, just a moment, of the deep darkness that was before the world was formed.

---

TEAM QUEST

Alcideo has a piercing whistle. The kind that cuts through creepy dirges.

He's waving to you, Hazel. He's got a tablet bag slung over one shoulder, a cut on his forehead from running into some whip-thin branch, and he's pointing upwards.

Up the staircase of moldering stone.

Up into the branches, where there is a dragon-sized door.

Up to the two pale torches which are not any color you can put your finger on, and the figures in shadow who hold them.

There's your path for scampering, when the time comes.

Can you feel anyone's breath on the back of your throat yet?

Breathless Dead

Once upon a time there was a city which was also a planet, alone in the sky. So many people lived here that they crammed themselves into houses as big as this room, and stacked these houses on top of each other, and they still decided that they needed people who would take care of them. So they made Servitors, people woven into purpose from before they were even born. And the ruler of all these people was - is - a woman named Nero. She is their Empress.

She is immortal, but she still decided she needed a child in case anything happened to her. She was the baby's mother, and the baby's father - or, well, other mother - was Zeus, King of the Gods, the Thunderer, beautiful and powerful. And to make sure her baby was safe, she had a palace built just for her. You could have had fifty houses instead of that palace! But she needed a space which was big, and secure, and allowed her baby to run around when she got big enough.

Her daughter - a princess - grew up studying military history and political theory and mathematics and applied theology and economics, and she wasn't good at it. At any of it, really, except for the theology. So to encourage her daughter, the Empress promised her a Servitor of her very own to be her maid, who was named Bella. And they grew up together, and even though they knew they weren't allowed to fall in love, they did anyway, and they both kept it a secret from the other.

The princess loved her maid, and she wanted to be free and find the stars, and she wanted people to be able to live in houses that weren't little boxes stacked on top of each other (because she'd snuck out with her maid to see how her people lived). So with the blessing of her father, she stole one of her guardians, a great big four-armed statue named Alexa, and she stole a ship, and she launched it into orbit. She had to leave her maid behind because Bella was frightened for her and threatened to tell her mommy- the Empress. That is.

And when she did this, Hades - the lord of the dead, the keeper of vaults, the last king - showed up on her ship and told her that if she took a message from him to Ancient Gaia, her wish would be granted.

Along the way, the princess ran into a crew of pirates, and Alexa threatened to beat them all up, but it turned out that two of them, Vasilia and Dolce, were so moved by her story that they decided to come along with her and Alexa. They traveled across the stars, pursued by Bella in her very own ship, and... well, lots of things happened. They found a city inside a giant turtle and a planet where Dionysus ruled robots in madness. They found a shipwrecked fleet and a kingdom full of snakes - but not this snake. She comes later. On the other side of the river.

On the desert world of Sahar they fought against Bella's evil stepmother, who was the Master of Assassins - who had trained Bella - and the princess and Bella, together again, managed to defeat her. It was very difficult. It was one of the scariest things to ever happen to the princess, fighting there. But they won. And after that they came to the very end of the world, the House of Hades - and they discovered that they had been in the underworld the whole time. The princess was just a princess of the dead. All her people, the last humans, their empire fell and was consumed and was damned, the whole time.

To get here, to the land of the living, they had to cross the Lethe, which is a river which eats memories. When the princess and Bella made it to the other side - and Alexa didn't come, she stayed behind, so many of their friends stayed behind, but Dolce and Vasilia refused to stay - they didn't remember each other. Not with their memories. But their hearts still remembered, and they fell in love again, not as princess and maid but as a knight and a demigoddess.

They continued on. And, eventually, they regained their memories. They got married. And they kept coming, with the Silver Divers who the princess led, with the brilliant Azura snake-woman Dyssia, with the people of Bitemark and Bella's assassin-sisters and the Tides of Poseidon who we could never get out of the flooded sectors of our ship.

And now they're here. Because Hades told the princess that if she brought a message to Ancient Gaia, she and her companions would be able to make a Wish.

"So let me introduce myself again. I'm Redana Honorius Claudius. I'm the daughter of the Empress Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Tellurian of Ecumenopolis, and I'm the alpha of the Ceronian hunting-clan known as the Silver Divers, who worship Poseidon, and most importantly, I'm Bella's wife. I can fight, but I can't fight like you can. I don't think anyone I've ever met can fight like you, though Bella comes really close. And we're here, all of us, here, because we're carrying a message, and because we've all got a Wish. Though the funny thing is, the really funny thing is, I think just being here is going to fulfill my most recent Wish. This whole time I was trying to make it so that I could go back home and save everyone, but I've figured out how I'm going to do that, and who I'm going to be when I do that, and now I think I know how I'm going to become her. But... I'm sorry, that's a lot, isn't it? You can call me Dany if you like. <3"

Return to Thellamie

TEAM QUEST

Of course there is nothing anyone can do to help. All of you have found the limits of help. So many empty words, so many pretty promises, and now you are here.

Now you are here in my body.

It is grand. I stretch across the Outside and the world, and I anchor it down with ten hundred thousand nails more subtle than those waystones the first of us used when he fell. My hands reach up towards the light and choke it. Nothing inside me wants their light anymore. My leaves are broad and bitter.

Talking about it is pointless. The one who talks all the time would tell you that talking is pointless, and she would have an irritating trill in her voice, and she would also encourage those two garishly-colored ones to tease the boy, and it would all be pointless. Teasing and flirtation and those useless little veils - it is all a self-satisfied ouroboros.

The boy's light flickers. Nothing inside me wants that light anymore; I reach out to choke it, but my growth is still too slow. I close the road behind them. At most I can catch at the heels of these playacting clowns, and I can whisper to them:

There is nothing anyone can do to help.
They should have helped anyway.
It is not your fault.
It is never your fault.
It is their fault.
Talking about it is pointless.
Blaming someone is better.

Just a little slower. Stay inside me for a little while longer. The boy is trying so very hard to make it out to places where the dreams of my trees recede, but there is nothing anyone can do to help. Start an argument. Pick a fight. Throw a fireball at the woods, which will smoulder and smoke but refuse to burn. You know you want to. It is their fault for making you start it.

Stay just long enough to put down roots.

Stay just long enough for my favorite clipping to catch up.

And as your allies fall into spiteful argument, Hazel Valentine Fletcher, I will give you what you have wanted all this time. I will give you a quest that you can perform. I will give you a lover who shapes herself to suit you. I will take away your pain and your hope and your light, which are all the same thing. Aren't you looking forward to being in the hands of my Walking Elm again?

(Hazel, help them.)

---

TEAM RELAXATION

It's time for you to put some cards on the table, Eclair Espoir. And by cards, I mean napkins, and I also mean theories.

You are on the far side of despair, buoyed up by the presence of a sidekick and a loyal companion, who I am sure is going to be chiming in with data points and suggestions. You are surrounded by my cheer and the air of possibility, of invention, of masquerade, that is my hallmark. You are also surrounded by crab. Feel free to use a pincer as a pointer if you need to.

This is the brainstorming session. The big one, suspended between yesterday and tomorrow, as you look for the place where Timtam's heart pivots.

Goodness, might you have a quest after all by the end of this?

Breathless Dead

1. We submit to the court's attention that Princess-Alpha Redana Claudius stepped in front of her wife when faced with a sudden attack from someone who seemed nice, if frazzled. We speculate that it is, in fact, because on the level of instinct, Redana still wants to be there for Bella, to protect her, despite all that they have been through together, despite the fact that Bella could pick up this frizzly-haired assailant and put her up on a shelf (high), despite her hope that she has reached the end of the quest.

2. We further submit that while Redana put her hand on her sword's hilt, she hesitated to draw. For a moment there, she hoped that maybe she was wrong. That she'd misunderstood something. That she'd turn around and, just like in her nightmares, the Master of Assassins would be standing there, only her head would be falling off and this swordswoman would click her sword back into her scabbard and, with eyes grown suddenly as hard as granite, say, "Tch. You're welcome."

3. We deny categorically that she has "forgotten her training" and "gotten soft," despite whispers to the contrary from Professional Associates A-H gathered in the area, who drew their weapons (five swords, a ceremonial labrys, a naginata and a weighted net) to back up their Princess-Alpha. We submit to the court that further speculation along this line of questioning would risk prejudicing the court and hampering the Princess-Alpha's divine mandate to carry the message across the universe at what is almost certainly the finish line.

3.5. If it turns out that the message was actually for someone on Tellus the entire time, we request that the court allow some time for yowling, crying, and kicking various cans and bottles into the lake. This allowance will not compromise Trip 2.0: I Don't Want To Lethe Again, Daddy, Make Us A Bridge Or Something, I'm Not Forgetting My Wife Again, Fuck.

4. We submit to the court that, as soon as the aggressor started sheathing her weapons, the Princess-Alpha relaxed and looked to Bella Hostilius Mosaic with a wry smile and a conciliatory release of Relief from her glands, before turning to address the assailant again. Please note that she did not let go of her sword's hilt, and the claim otherwise is defamatory.

5. We submit to the court that the part of Redana that had enjoyed working with the Hermetics and the ship crews as a part of a larger whole was the part that let out the shrill shriek when the Plousios - which, we note, was literally her comfort starship - fell into two pieces as a direct result of what we all presume was one of the assailant's cuts.

5.5. The assailant literally apologized and admitted that she had intended for her attack to be parried.

5.55. The Princess-Alpha could not have parried that.

5.555. Bella Hostilius Mosaic could totally have parried that, but chose not to do so.

5.5555. We theorize it was because her wife was acting in the name of Ceronian chivalry, which currently requires all the advocates it can get, given the political leanings of the current Shogun.

5.55555. It is honorable that the Princess-Alpha throw herself in front of threats, especially ones which she has no hope of overcoming or ones which are looking for a potential abduction victim, and we humbly submit the Bella Heart Hellscape Nightmare (Fuck You, Aphrodite) file for consideration in the matter.

6. We submit that the Princess-Alpha allowing her hand to go slack as she stood behind her wife and peered around her at devastation which not even a thunderbolt could equal was not rank cowardice but, in fact, a prudent acknowledgement that her weapon would not, in this case, suffice to defend her crew if the blushing, stammering girl before them (that is to say, behind them, as they were turned around at the time) were to suddenly throw out another attack of the same caliber.

7. We submit to the court that Redana took several deep breaths, hands held in front of her face, and let the shiver run from the base of her bushing tail up to her triangles before she shuffled back around and, wide-eyed, informed the assailant that, "We would love tea. Bella does the best tea in the whole universe."

7.5. The Princess-Alpha is willing to swear under oath that Pretty Kitty Meowmeow Sweet Tea is, in fact, still the best drink in the entire universe, and she is aware that it is just whatever tea Bella has brewed today, and she is also aware that the last time she asked for it Bella picked her up and carried her out of the room, but that will not stop her from suggesting it under her breath anyway, as a tactical concern, as plying the assailant with the best drink in the entire universe is just common sense, and the fact that her tail was wagging shows that, in fact, she is full of love and is not a "dumbass," Mrs. Mosaic Claudius.

8. Given all of the above, we request that the court give us a nice teatime where the Princess-Alpha receives headpats, explanations for what is going on here, immediate remedy for the damage to her literal comfort starship, and kissies from her wife for being brave in the face of starship-cleaving secret blades, to the fullest extent of the law, with extreme prejudice, and furthermore that her pack be barred from initiating leadership challenges at this critical juncture, given the extraordinary circumstances and the fact that she is so fucking close.

8.5. The Princess-Alpha also requires time for the thought she just had to unfold fully, the itch in the back of her thoughts to be scratched, and the feeling she feels when she watches the wind dance over the hills covered in grass and sunlight and sheeps with lace ribbons.

8.5.5. The Princess-Alpha disavows thinking about how cute Dolce would look in a lace ribbon, despite the undeniable fact that he would look absolutely precious, legally speaking, and maybe Vasilly is thinking the same thing? Maybe? Maybe if she makes eye contact with Vasilly she'll realize it all on her own, despite the fact that she's totally not thinking about that.

Return to Thellamie

TEAM RELAXATION

It is past midnight in the most luxurious resort this side of Aestival, the evening after a grand ball which had the greats and worthies of Thellamie all in attendance in their fineries and their resplendences. What this means, in practical terms, is that if you sneak down the corridor and descend two flights of the new backup stairways, you can get leftovers.

Steamed Aestivali crab simmered in goblin-butter. Rich tomato soup from Vespergift, with Crevasi chickpeas and a loaf of bread from the tops of the Kel mountains. Those little sandwiches cut into squares. On top of all that, there's still champagne, violet shots straight from Crevas, and bubbly-water-with-fruit-in.

Most of the folk in attendance in this particular after-hours cafe are the employees of the Chrysanthemum, and they're coming off duty. Ties are being loosened, jackets are being shucked, high heels are being stacked on an unused table. Technically, there's a night shift, but they're cleaning up the absolute mess left downstairs, which means that the mood is eat-as-you-please, grab a seat and ask if anyone minds you stealing a piece of the sausage-and-mushroom flatbread.

And you know whose presence means that you're welcome as part of the crowd as part of the crowd, rather than as guests to be skirted around? One Mayzie, right here, who seems to know everybody's name. She used to work here, after all - and that still means something to the hosts, even if she's moving into different fields at the moment (which is to say, construction brokering).

---

TEAM QUEST

The wry smile playing on Alcideo's lips is a knife, Cutie. He's not going to bail you out of this one: handmaidens of the Hero of Ages are outside his paygrade, unless you mean to make it very much worth his while (which is to say, got him a crown or the like). But he's not going to combo with Cair, either, to absolutely dunk on you.

The noise that comes out of Keli and Seli is not a bweh. It's much more of a "HOEH?!" And a lot of offended jingling (and, admittedly, now that you might be paying attention to it, Hazelkins, some offended bouncing).

"Are you going to--"
"--let your handmaiden say such things--"
"--to two pure and innocent maidens, Heron-senpai?" (You may blame Yuki for this.)
"I'll ground her if she doesn't--"
"--watch her step, yah?"
"Hazel~ don't drink that nasty potion~"
"Come over here and let's get that starlight out--"
"--and then you'll get to be a hero with--"
"--Heron, the greatest of heroes ever--"
"--instead of fussing with washboards~"

Either way, Cair or the Twins, it's time for you to get a move on! Time's a-wasting, my heroes! The longer you linger, the easier it will be to someone to catch up to you. And I think you all know who might notice you sneaking out of Vespergift into the hateful briar-choked woods beyond...

Breathless Dead

From the jaws of the beast, a wolfgirl emerges. Now, she's not Hyra. But there's certain similarities all the same, such as the fetching triangles and the way that they twitch. She's wearing a scarf wrapped about her hair and neck, and one end of it catches the breeze as she descends, looking not at Yue but at the sky. She doesn't seem to mind the rain much. No, she's grinning from ear to ear - she must love the rain.

She looks around as she makes her way down. She's not alone, either. Behind her, those terrible jaws are tentatively pouring forth more wolfgirls, and mousegirls, and a beautiful catgirl, and a sheepboy, and a snakegirl or two, and two familiar foxgirls all the way in the back, an entire menagerie of people tentatively following in the footsteps of this forerunner. She's coming down the fastest, though. And she's got armor on like a fish's scales, and a sword swinging by her side, and a fur coat with all sorts of bristles in the fur, and underneath her gauzy scarf she's got hair the color of really nice buttered corn.

She's crying, too. The tears are mingling with the rain and she's grinning, so maybe she's enjoying crying, or maybe something got into her eyes and stung but she's toughing it out. There, near the bottom, she turns around and looks, properly looks, at the vast behemoth which vomited her up and is still sucking up lakes, getting the last little dribbles of water down at the bottom where all the fish should be hiding. Maybe they're stealing fish to make suits of armor for spunky wolfgirls.

Yue has to clear her throat to get this mini-Hyra to snap out of it and pay attention. And those ears flick up and the woman looks Yue up and down in a flash with mismatched eyes: one like the dearly departed lakes, the other like the rolling hills in the midst of summer when all the grass is growing long.

"Hello!" The word bursts out of her explosively. She's shaking a little bit, the way that you might when your birthday suddenly has a surprise party on it after you thought everyone in the neighborhood straight-up forgot about it. "Is this - we're on Gaia, aren't we? This has to be it. It's beautiful." One might uncharitably note that she's not looking at the muddy sad pits where lakes used to be. She's looking at Yue, and the bystanders, and the hills, and the cottages, and the horizon. "We've come a very long way, and - I'm sorry, Bella told me I should have practiced this part more, hello, I'm Princess-Alpha Redana Claudius of the Silver Divers, and I'm here with a message from Hades. Can you... do you know who I need to speak to? Are you the Empress of Gaia? Or the most high priestess? Or..."

A slow blush steals over her cheeks, and she reflexively hides her face behind the scarf. "...well, I'm sure we'll figure out who the message is for," she says, failing to live up to her mother's legacy at the very last possible second.

Breathless Dead

Don’t be fooled by how Redana can’t hold still, not until she’s weighed down by her wife in her arms. It’s not that she’s impatient, you must understand, and it’s not that she’s bored— it’s just that this is her paradise, too. If she can’t keep her eye on one butterfly in particular, it’s because she’s noticed all of them, and if she can’t hold still to count them all, it’s because she’s noticed the flowers they spring lightly on, and the birds which prey upon them, and the rustles of the grass in the wind.

Also, she’s Ceronian. She is doing a very good job stifling the urge to run feckless and wild and free until she’s tuckered out, and she doesn’t even eat any weird bugs, which is— well. Let us not besmirch Ceronian honor. It would be quite beneath them. Even if the bug was particularly weird and interesting. She’s not going to do it.

“This must be the last test,” she muses aloud at one point, one specific point, as Bella follows small squeaking creatures from hole to hole, whipping her head around as they continue to taunt her from just out of reach. “A place no one would ever want to leave.”

But she does. She wants to go and get her sketchbook and fail at drawing for another hundred years. She wants to punch a tree in order to get wood enough to build a shelter. But even that might be too much to bring here, a terrible curse which would inevitably bring cities and farms and nature preserves and extinctions. Not that she thinks in those terms precisely, but that is the shape of the shudder that runs through her as she rests her knuckles against a tree which droops its long hair over the water.

Maybe just a tent would work. Or a pack and a blanket and willingness to sleep out under the stars.

These are the sorts of things she considers while she fights to maintain her self-control and not run up the nearest mountain just for the satisfaction of making it to the top and seeing what sort of creatures might be up there[1].

When the creature— the noble beast— the Questing Beast itself— emerges, she takes Bella’s hand[2]. She feels the awe, lets Bella’s transcendence spill into her own cup, which is ready to be filled. Somehow, the two of them find it in themselves not to bolt after the Questing Beast.

For a long while, she just holds her Bella close. The sky is nothing like a box. She tries to find ways to explain, but none of them can withstand the full, searing light of Bella’s ecstasy. Eventually, Redana gives up and focuses on the things which are important: running a hand over the back of Bella’s head, subvocalizing at a supportive resonance, and not chasing any, any rabbits at all.

“…let’s spend our honeymoon here,” she eventually manages. “Once we save the universe and all.”

If there is any sense or reason in Bella’s love, maybe it is found in the calm, happy certainty of those words.

---

[1]: she has a vague memory of a picture book which informed her that goats live on mountains. And lammergeiers, too.

[2]: her wife’s hand is an anchor that keeps her from running up and excitedly asking if it wants to be her friend, as per long-dormant genetic protocols.

Return to Thellamie

TEAM RELAXATION

Mayzie can't help but stare, and when she isn't staring, or trying desperately not to spill her hot chocolate whenever she takes a desperate thirsty sip, she's drawing madly.

Not only is her girlfriend(???) radiant, smiling, alive, and what if she was wearing the sort of suit with angles that should be illegal, that goes in the upper left corner, but Yuki! Edogawa! is straining to achieve new heights of skill with her craft, and... wouldn't it be nice if she could make, say, a heartpen? A heartbrush? Something with which she could dab the canvas and see it explode into colors, into hopes and dreams, into all the things that it's normally hard for her to say?

Things like the face study of Eclair that goes down onto the bottom, across from the study of Yuki, and it's a wild coincidence that Eclair's got her lips parted and looks like she's about to lean in for a kiss, and she wasn't thinking about that when she placed those two next to each other, and she isn't thinking about it now - I promise, on my honor - and instead she's getting lost in the eyes which she's looking at in order to get them down properly on the page, and she's purring.

Quietly, but unmistakably.

The world is warm and quiet here.

---

TEAM QUEST

"Cair Route?" says Keli indignantly, pressing a hand to her bosom (coincidentally taking a deerboy at least partially with it).
"Heron," Seli says, with a flourish of her sleeves, with a low bow. "It is my honor--"
"I don't see you going out there onto the dance floor, floozy--"
"--to fight alongside you at last, yah?"
"--where this poor, delicate boy is menaced by huntresses and the coils of seductresses seductressing--"
"We will fight for love and desire intermingled--"
"--just look at him, still red and speechless from how dreadfully they must have seduced him, yah?"
"--and bring discord into a tyrant's court--"
"Oh, don't you worry, you good boy--"
"--for the sake of the world."
"--you're safe from the world."

Seli's eyes shine with determination. Keli's eyes shine with the ambiguity of whether a bit has become the truth.

Then Alcideo steps up, whispers something very whispery in Keli's ear, and she releases a boy just enough for him to catch his breath, and for Alcideo to look him over for terminal fluster, sleepiness, stress, or-- "Ah. Yes. Quite. My lady, he's going to need a tincture of groundedness before he becomes entirely too breathless for this." He loops in an arm and pulls Hazel away, talking about how he will need to check his tongue for the proper dosage...

...and then whispers in a silly cervine ear: "I think she likes you, Hazel."

Breathless Dead

It's harder to draw here. The energy of the planet below... no, it's not that. Even if she can't capture it, can only get across squiggles that become angles that she adds little dots between, trying to convey what's going on down there: the final glorious battle of people who need dragons, or people who are trying to become dragons, who can't stop themselves from fighting, who...

Who are very Ceronian.

If an enemy is not provided, they will invent one. Isn't that the way of Ceron? To always be looking for a new challenge. Always pitting yourself against someone, and discovering whether they are weaker or stronger than you. If weaker, then good, bully and tease and steal. And if stronger, then use them to sharpen yourself, to become better, to become worthy.

Maybe that's why she's tempted to go down there. To challenge herself again. To learn what inside her isn't good enough, still - or was that sufficient, being reflected against herself so many times inside of Bella? To lose at infiltrating. To win at teaching them how to be a little kinder, a little better, a lesson she never truly noticed.

Or maybe it's the chill. The familiar feeling settling into her bones. Comfort and safety, in their own ways. She's never let either hold her back for long, but... would it be such a bad thing to linger here a little, Bella? Where it's easier to hear your heartbeat and feel your breath? Where things feel...

Right.

Another itch. It's harder to draw here. Sometimes she catches herself in reverie, and sometimes she has to get up and pace, and the pacing turns into running, and the air is cool on her skin, and she talks herself out of descending and helping, as best as she can, to contribute to the work of Jupiter. This isn't quite right. But Gaia's getting closer by the hour, by the minute, by the second slipping past her, and Jupiter's another part of it.

They aren't ready for the stars yet. But one day they will be.

What if they needed a guide?

What if they all need...

Somewhere, a beloved bride is writing. And Dany sits nearby and draws stars. Draws hands. Draws her wedding ring.

Isn't it funny how this whole time she thought she knew what she was going to wish for?

Eventually, the pens get put down, rather mutually. Bella always was good at sniffing secrets out. Maybe they linger a while on certain sketches, and then the sketchbook gets set neatly on the desk next to Bella's journaling.

In the cool of the underworld, there are secrets which can only be learned in the dark. And one of them is: You were following me and now I'm following you. And another is: We both want to help, deep down. And another is: I love you, and I love you, and I love you. I have seen your weakness and your strength, and I still want you.

And I'll say it over and over again.

Return to Thellamie

Everything has gone exactly as I have foreseen.

...well, that's what I would say if I were a villain, right, Sayanastia? That's what you say when you want a shiver to run down the hero's obliging spine, before she offers up one of her rote catchphrases (remember when it was just "schwing"?). It's what you say to convince yourself that you're in control of the situation and that no one can stop you now.

Fortunately, I am as humble as I am beautiful and clever and perfect. I am well aware that I didn't foresee any of this. Well, most of it. The Serigalamu contingent went about as well as could have been hoped. A boy got squeezed and squeaked uselessly about it. But an old man falling down from the ceiling? I'm not even going to say that I guessed that would happen, because I prefer not to tell obvious lies.

Still, I think the pieces have arranged themselves quite neatly. The Golden Fawn just so happens to be going off with a band of hero-support-staff to accompany two lovely girls on a quest to save a damsel in distress, given a perfect opportunity to see them at their best. And Eclair Espoir has met darling little Yuki when the maid-knight was at her lowest. Two neat narratives. And Civelia gone, to boot!

I will have to have her saved in the end, I think. A little nudge to Eclair, a dropped clue or two. It would be a shame to lose a counterbalance unless I had my own hand arranged properly.

---

TEAM QUEST

I think this will be the first time that the Handmaidens have assembled together in a little while, won't it? On a noble quest, even, one which requires Heron's touch. And with guest party members, who include:

• Hazel Valentine Fletcher, still wearing his gorgeous dress
• Alcideo of the Chrysanthemum, who neatly joined Cair and Hazel on their way out, because I am not letting my girls run off without support (and I suppose Hazel too)
• Keli, beautiful and heroic
• Seli, heroic and beautiful

You are not going through the Roads. You are going to have to cut through the Tanglewood, using the Golden Fawn as a stable waypoint in the midst of the Outside, in order to beat the Khatun to the Boar's Ossuary. The life of Sister Juniper hangs in the balance. You will have to set out from here, in the upper rooms of the Coachwoman's Arms, into the snow and the hateful forest that lies on the other side of Vespergift's walls.

So I suppose the biggest question is who attempts to convince these four companions that Heron is here and ready to lead the party? Who has it in them to even make the attempt?

(And I suppose the most sensitive question is what Hazel makes of these Handmaidens, all assembled, all pointing towards something that they lack in plain sight?)

(And also my daughters are very hot and they've incorporated magical charms of warding and protection into their outfits, and Keli is going to wrap you up in a big delighted hug, Hazelkins~)

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TEAM RELAXATION

Mayzie wraps her hands around her spiked hot chocolate and lets out a little purr of satisfaction. This is one of the promises of Vespergift: that while it snows outside, you can still be safe and warm inside. There's a clever little window that lets you see out of the Ophidia Room and out onto the streets of Vespergift laid out below, and the snow swirls past this window as Eclair Espoir and Yuki Edogawa chirp together.

Mayzie is drinking in both of them, and trying and failing to look like she isn't. The giddiness of meeting a hero meets with the giddiness of having her feelings reciprocated by the most wonderful, frustrating, singular girl. She lifts her mug and gives herself a little mustache of cream as she sips.

Then she sets the mug down and, using notebook paper, begins to sketch the scene that is unfolding before her...