backdated to the 14th to immediately follow the BWP conclusion | welcome to any, but pings for Mike Yuèzhuō and Rìhé

Tianlong's lotus watches the reunion centuries in the making with tears, and then magic's glittering aftereffects, shining within golden irises. The burning chains, the writhing mass of bodies clamoring to free and to kill and to sabotage, the bitter blizzard that had condensed on the chained one: they were all gone, once everything took its place in the world once more. The chained wolf, reunited. The Isle had fallen still and into slumber, and the land itself opened the skies and finally gave way to the welcome of spring.

Lian dared, at last, cheeks damp, to blink.

And when she opened her eyes once more, the honeysuckle and the sweetgrass on the warm wind had stayed. The sky greeted her with a watercolor spill of orange and pink and yellow fading into hints of blue. A riot of sunlight crawled over a sprawling horizon, and Lian breathed relief. Joy. Gratitude. Harmony settled into the world around her, and settled her worrisome heart. She thought of crying a little more with no one to witness it, but a bird streaked across the now-unchained sky and Lian felt a smile crack her porcelain visage.

When the shock of her survival and success give her room to breathe, the space is filled immediately by duty. The princess startled, then flung herself to the earth to press her crown to the soft, sweet-smelling grass. The reverent bow is repeated thrice, muttered prayers of gratitude and praise to the Crystal Dragon for its wisdom and lending of its power to its chosen people to heal this world.

Only once her prayers are uttered, her lack of incense or offering lamented, and the daybreak still holds steady does Lian sit up and take stock of her surroundings. A foreign landscape, rolling hills and sagebrush and dryer air than she is used to. Persimmon and rich, rainforest loam does brush her nose as it twitches. Nor do the scents of her kin.

Strange.

In the distance, rising from the shadows of the dawn like bone jutting from a carcass: a structure loomed. It looked not unlike the temple of home, but jagged and worse in every way. Even so, Lian gathered herself up and began toward the structure with her chin high.

| skill

The girl did not notice the dragon at her heels at first. Lian's attention was captivated by the jagged spires of the castle, its layers of pale brick and the yawning mouths of glassless window. Vines lush with newgrown leaves and masses of decorative bushes that had not been tended in generations sprawled across the lawn and walls of the castle. Everything was worn and half-devoured by nature, yet the granite bones of the building remained almost untouched by time and the weather alike.

The wind shifted. Lian's nose twitched. Relief touched her heart, but apprehension clenched in her gut. Gentle peach blossom fit the springtime bloom perfectly, and Lian turned to face her distant cousin with a welcoming sway of her tail. Rihe. She had not seen any of her Tianlong amidst the winter chaos of the Door, but Lian had not been looking for them. She had only looked at the bound wolf, vision glassy with tears, and the tragedy and dire effort to wrench balance back into the world had consumed her.

Released from that burden, Lian felt welcoming, even to the woman who had participated in so much chaos within her own Dynasty so recently. The lotus tilted her head to invite Rihe to walk alongside her. Her expression was tea-warmed porcelain. Were you there as well?

Lian did not think of the trial. Of the tears, and Rihe's agonized cries. She did not permit herself to think of Shenlei's losses dragged through the muck of the twin's dishonor. She did not think of it.

She thought of Golden Kin, and Rihe's dawn-like coloring blessing the moors alongside Lian, and gifts from the Crystal Dragon that were mysterious and meant only to be appreciated, not questioned. Lian was not alone. I was going to investigate this strange place, see if any call it their own.