Home by Christmas?

    It's early evening, and the guards are busy doing.. whatever it is guards do. A lot of walking around, probably drilling. Whatever that is! Regardless of all that, the castle is rather lacking on a few critical things. The biggest being..

    "There is just not enough LIGHT here!"

    Elly, that is, Baroness Wake, is looking at the castle walls, clearly displeased. Considering her thing *is* light, this is an obvious problem.

    "Snow is great, but if we do not have something prettty and shiny it will hardly look welcoming." As if to drive her point home, she draws on her artes and suddenly the entire near side of the castle wall is brilliantly lit. One of the guards walking by is nearly blinded. She walkts right into a guard coming from the other direction. Apparently not just nearly blinded.

    "Talked with my best friend at Christmas, just before we all got stuck here." Fukaziroh notes almost absently, peering up at the walls. She pauses as Elly walks into a guard. "Wow, you should pay hazard pay here!" she muses, grinning. Ambling over she makes to help out. Fortunately for her she had been watching her aunt casting a spell, so wasn't looking directly at the blinding light. Since it's unlikely a guard will allow a guest to help, particularly when that guest is a small sylph, she ends up offering her aid to Wake instead.

    "Wait, where was I? Oh yeah! Best friend christmastime. Fun times! She said it hadn't even snowed in Tokyo yet! Like, no snow on the ground or anything. Can you imagine no white christmas? I can't! Hokkaido with no snow, inconceivable!"

    Well no, it isn't really. But Hokkaido does occasionally have a white Christmas, and Tokyo rarely will. But what's the point of telling an amusing story if you don't exaggerate?

    Elly accepts the help with a smile. "I was in Tokyo most of the time, so yes, I can. But a ways before that I spent time in Korea. Winters there were brutal. Far colder than the mountains here! And as much snow as you would ever want to see."

    She considers her castle and asks, "What do you think we can use to make it look a little nicer here? I am not the greatest of decorators, but I want things to be nice. I am still hoping that I can bring my people back for the holidays. If I can, I want everything to be perfect when they arrive."

    Fuka, or at least Miyu, is a summertime girl. Summer is the season for tennis, cute shorts, and plenty of free time. Winter is the season for sweaters, long hot baths, and staying mostly indoors. She shivers at the thought of a winter so far to the north as Korea. Sure, Fukaziroh is relatively immune to the cold, at least compared to Miyu, but that doesn't mean she prefers it. But then, lacking air conditioning, a hot Yamato summer isn't quite so pleasant as a Hokkaido summer unless you're spending plenty of time hanging around enchanted cooling equipment.

    "Let's see." Fuka considers, looking speculatively at the walls. "Without electric lights, we'll probably have to go for something more traditional. Wreaths maybe? Captured fairies in bottles? The heads of our enemies on pikes?" she asks. "I could probably work up a simple enchantment to hold light for a reasonable time, if you like. Normally you'd put it on a torch if you're going exploring in caves, or like on your helmet or something. Shouldn't be hard to work out a design you could chalk onto a wall! But ideally you'd want gems, or coloured glass... so you can have sparkling coloured lights!"

    "Wow, those are such great ideas! But.. I am not sure how many gems I have. The mines are rather quiet right now. And will be until we get some people to do something about it. But certainly, the enchantments sound good. Hmm. Would my light artes work with them? It is not a torch, but I can generate light for a bit of a show each night anyway."

    Knowing nothing of enchanting, the Baroness will rely on Fukaziroh's expertise. "I like the idea of wreaths, as well. That sounds like something simpler, and I know there are a few adventurers running around who can help with it."

    "You can charge them with light magic." Fuka notes professionally. "And if you can generate different colours then... OH! AN ENCHANTMENT TO MAKE THEM FLICKER!" Fuka shouts as inspiration strikes. "Aaaaah it's too late, or I'd make an absolute FORTUNE by designing a little frame for a wreath where the frame is an enchantment to make flickering christmas lights!" she says enthusiastically. Probably overestimating the market for such a thing. Probably.

    Fortunately Fuka's a remarkably skilled enchanter, and making a simple short-term flickering light enchantment is easy for her. Making something that'll last years now, that would be technical, requiring balancing material strength and capacity with the ability to delineate paths for power to flow. But for the minor power levels of a light spell with no permanence, she can manage it with no more effort than a smith takes to make a horseshoe. "So! That only leaves the severed heads of our enemies!" she says, speculating with intense seriousness that can only be playful acting.

Miho had so many orders, and many had to be delivered. Miho would do it when she was on other errands to save money on couriers after all. So here she is coming to town. With an inventory loaded with things for the Baroness, decorations to be exact. The Salamander was in pretty good spirits as she hears Fuka calling out.

"Hoi! Delivery for the baroness and it would be a waste for the heads of the Palace Lander's noblity. Feed em to pigs and be done with it!"

    Elly demonstrates her ability to make different colors. On a grand scale. All along the castle walls she brings about little bobbing globes of pure light. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple. Like little stars they shine.

    Its not easy to do, and she can't maintain it for a long time, but Elly clearly delights in doing this. And then the delivery arrives!

    "Miho!" Baroness or not, Elly is excited, and there's a bounce in her step as she heads to greet her friend. "How was your trip? Uneventful, I hope. You were not troubled by the enemy, were you?"

    The thing about enchantment is you can't really make it do anything you couldn't do yourself, or at least with a suitable assortment of skills and possibly assistants. It's a tool for making the effect easier to produce, or often one to make it last longer than you would otherwise want to maintain focus on the effect. "Well then! Those will do just fine, and I'll set up a few spell forms to trap the mana and let it out over an extended period, plus flickering. Probably won't even heat up the stone enough to make for any sort of hazard!" she promises, sounding not entirely sure of herself on that count.

    As the ornamentation party is interrupted by a new arrival, Fuka grins and waves an enthusiastic greeting. "Homey! What's this about delivering the heads of nobility for the pigs then?"

Miho says "It went pretty well, nothing came up by the enemy. Some goblins on the way but we wiped them out. Nothing too worried so where would you want the order delivered Baroness?" She think for a moment as she looks at Fuka for a moment.

"No I mean we feed the heads of the Palace Lands' nmoble to pigs after we kill them. Enough on them we should not waste time on them right now, right?" There's a tail swish.

    "Well, I think right inside the gates for some of it, and for the resst, if we could drop it off near the inn that would be so helpful." Elly smiles at Miho, eyes hopeful. "Do you have time for that? And would you like to join us in decorating? I am hoping against hope that I can bring my people back for the holidays. It's not likely, but if they can, I want it to be welcoming."

    Turning her attention back to Fukaziroh, the Baroness laughs. "Let's.. try not to burn the castle down. I'd never hear the end of it from Tae. Not to mention how upset she'd be if I damaged her kitchen."

    Fuka shudders at the thought of burning down the castle. Not at the idea itself, but at the thought of Tae's anger. Or possibly disappointment. "No burning the castle down." she agrees. "Means we can't store much mana, just to be safe. I mean we could but we'd need more expensive materials to hold it, and that doesn't seem like a good use of resources." she says, nerding out on the idea. "No, it probably means we won't be getting more than a few hours of sparkling lights without recharging them. But that should be fine! Besides, it's not like I can't charge them up too!" she grins, waving her hand and setting a globe of light on top of Miho's head.

    "I like your style, Homie~" she grins, assessing Miho's new look along with her suggestion. "And yes, join us for putting up ornaments! No pigs invited, or palace lander nobles either! There's a couple of decent people from there, but not their nobles!"

Miho says "I have time for both, I could not make good time to anywhere else at this hour. So I'll be happy to I'll go deliver them and help put up things."

She thinks for a moment as she looks over to Fuka for a moment.

"If you need some enchanting help."

She peers at Fuka for a moment, who let Fuka into the sugar she wondered.

    Why wouldn't Fuka be allowed to have sugar? Elly is a pretty indulgent aunt, anyway, so sweets, cakes, treats, whatever Fuka could want is available! Well, that's really all Tae's work.

    "Ohh, you have that skill as well. Truly, this is an enhccanted evening." Elly's puns are truly cringeworthy. Not in a good way.

    "Thank you so much! I promise you will get a great meal out of the deal. Tae is here again, and she is cooking. And baking. And just.. well, being very much the wonderful housewife of my dreams."

    The Baroness' eyes go wide and she laughs at herself. "Do not tell her that. It will go right to her head."

    "Oh hey you do enchanting?" Fuka asks, pleased. "Wait, of course you do! Do you have light magic too? Oh, it doesn't matter." she adds, words spitting out rapid fire. She waggles her finger, sketching a design in the air. "We just need to make this mark in a few festive places." she promises. "It doesn't even have to be that precise! If a curve is slightly off, that'll only make the light a little more dim and go out faster, or flicker randomly HEY WAIT that'd be kind of cool!"

    Yeah, Fuka's been into the sugar it seems. Or has she? "Tae... baking?" Fuka asks, sounding quite thrilled. "Best be careful! Eat too much of that it'll go straight to your hips! Unless you work out a lot. Then it mostly goes to your boobs! You'd better leave all her baking to me! For your own protection!"

Miho says "Very amusing there and that sounds like a wonderful idea. I won't" She won't meddle in people's personal relationships a she looks back to Guka for a moment. "IOh you sure that's such a terrible fate mmm? You might want to take it up." She grins back giving a salvo back at Fuka.

"I do as well and no not much for magic i fear."

    "If anyone leaves without eating some of these treats, she will be very disappointed." Wake sighs and looks past the castle walls, in the very direction where Tae is currently working.

    "In any case, perhaps we should just finish up here, and then I will come with you to the inn, Miho. When we are done, you can stay in the castle with us. There will be a wonderful meal prepared for us, of course."

    "It's a terrible fate, but one I am resigned to!" Fuka claims with a broad grin. "After all I wouldn't want Tae disappointed!"

    With that, she traipses off. Presumably to go find some sweet sweet baking. Should you head in that general direction you might just find her again! You may not, however, find quite as much sweet pastries as you might expect! Muahahaha!

Miho looks the the Baroness and smiles. "That sounds like it would be great I'd not be able to say no to that at all. Shall we get to work with the setup so we can get to the meal?"

    "Indeed! Now, I think the trees and bushes around the castle are best for the tinsel. And we can decorate the inn and a few spots in the village. We would be hard pressed to get it all done quickly, maybe, but I have my ways."

    Like, for instance, being able to get help from the various newbie Olympus adventurers who are always hanging around. It pays to have the HQ nearby. In short order, she's drummed up some helpers.

    "Is there anything we should be aware of when using what you have made for us, Miho?" asks Elly curiously.

Miho says "It's pretty stsndard but depending on teh weather you may only get one year out of it. Can't really do it like back in the dream world, right?" She grins and will go help out with gettin the decoratiobns set up. "So what have you been up to? I heard something about one of teh goddesses?"

    "Yes, I suppose things may not last, but we'll do our best to take good care of these. They are special." And so the crew is. Because while Elly is kind, gentle, loving, her gentle handling of failure just makes it even harder for people to disappoint her.

    "Oh, you mean The Beautiful One, my patron Goddess?"

    It's.. kind of obvious, isn't it. The Right clothes garb her in a strange mix of royal ball fashion and nun's habit. The one break from the trend are the pair of crude bracelets she wears, from which hang a few links of chain. Manacles. An homage to her Goddess.

    "She has indeed blessed me greatly, and so I am devoted to making the world a more beautiful place. And with these decorations, you have served the Goddess as well. Surely she smiles upon you!"

Miho beaming at this. "Yes I was curious about it honesly and just what your planning to do with her. Ah so this is also a form of worship you say?" Miho seems curious about this as she seem honesly interested as she get sto look. "You klnow those look pretty good on you. So what does she ask of her worshipers?"

    "The Beautiful One blesses efforts to increase beauty, fertility, and importantly, farming as well. She's a wonderful Goddess. I created a great concert hall and arcade dedicated to the arts in her name. It's truly lovely. Oh! We can decorate the arcade!"

    She's immediately excited at the prospect. And since she's already delegated the work here to others, she suggests, "Would you like to go see it?"

Miho follows along helping out. "I'd be happy to help out and sure i can go see at some point before I leave town. I'd heard a bit about it and I'd like to see it." SHe trails along getting to work with her tail swishing as she goes.

    With a goal in her mind, Elly is quick to draft herself some helpers in the village. With a bit of guidance, they help unload and get busy putting up some decorations. She even instructs them to take the remainder to the Arcade when they are finished.

    With that handled, she is excited to guide her friend to her favorite place in Eas. Okay, not favorite. Her favorite place is wherever Tae is.

    She offers her hand to Miho, "I can't wait for you to see this! It's the best thing we've made here yet!"

The Arcade of Eas

Seen from above, the Grand Theater of Eas would appear like a vast plumeria of pink, white, and yellow resting on edge of the easternmost point of Lake Eas. In front of this colossal structure is a large pool. In its center, a statue of The Beautiful One stands. Like a series of shells, three broad walls enclose the area in large oval shapes, each with space enough between for parks and gardens. Through these walls, two aqueducts pass, bearing the water of the inner fountains to the fields and village of Eas. Stretching out of the center of these structures is the great road, which leads eastward, out of the mountains, with branches curving towards the castle and village.

The first structure one encounters as they enter are the walls, which are supported by arch after arch, earning this place's name: the Arcade of Eas. Inside each wall is a broad hallway in which artwork from all corners of Yamato is displayed.

Five passages lead through each of the walls, allowing passage to the central square. There, standing amidst a vast and shallow pool of many fountains, a 25-meter-tall statue of The Beautiful one welcomes guests. Her calm gaze is directed to the east. At her back is the Grand Theater itself, large enough to serve as an elegant backdrop for The Beautiful One. Its entrance is made mostly of glass, allowing one to see the front of house. Inside, there are many more sculptures of The Beautiful One and paintings highlighting the beauty of Yamato.

Miho is quirt for the most part as she takes the whole place in this is quite the place. She's clealry looking over it with a crafter's eye too as shew follows along. She looks at teh art then to the Baron for a moment. "You have not held back on this at all have you? I'm impressed..."

    "I put everything I could into this. Though I am no builder. Thanks to Goldenblade, my vision was made real, and my designs were exceeded by the result. It seems that The Beautiful One was pleased. She granted me the Legend because of what happened here."

    Elly laughs in pure delight. "Which has allowed me to do so many things. To be recognized by Landers for the contents of my heart and soul. I am truly blessed."

    And then a voice calls out. "You are indeed, my love, though I would have thought you'd tell me when you've brought a guest for dinner."

    Tae's laughter rings out, and as two helpers swiftly take tonight's meal to a fitting place in the concert hall itself, she walks right up to the Baroness and wraps her in a hug.

    "More than doubly blessed," Elly murmurs softly as she holds her fiance. "And my apologies, it was most thoughtless of me to not send for you immediately. Miho, have you met Tae before?"

Miho thinks for a moment "Aye you did put a lot into it I can tell here and no I ahve not met Tae before." Miho will bow slightly. "Miho Mithril Scale Best Blacksmith in Yamato." Okay weapons but seriously cut her a break here..

    "Elly, did you have the best blacksmith on the server make you decorations for Christmas?" asks Tae, laughing gently. She steps out of the embrace to return Miho's bow. "You must forgive my dear partner, she is shameless in asking for favors at times. I hope a good meal can make up for the long journey!"

    The Baroness makes no attempt to defend herself. She simply laughs gently, "But they are truly amazing decorations! And yes, you are right, we should certainly go eat. The room inside is wonderful, Miho! Nobody else has joined us there before."

    She grins and adds, "And, if I am feeling up to it, I can offer some after dinner music."

    Tae offers a hand to Miho, "Elly is always up for singing. You'd think /she/ was the performer before we came to this world."

Miho says "How is it so the coin was good and a meal would be great!" Shje seme pleased "Your going pretty all out for this I would insult you both if I were to refuse. Oh really I was a smith before in the dream but that's neither here nor there at this point. So I get this feeling this is only the start of your work for the both of you?"

    "Hopefully, yes. After this Palace Lands issue clears up. There is so much we can do. There is plenty of space to expand and make something beautiful. I used to dream of other things, but after this war, I just want to make Eas safe. A sanctuary. Especially for Landers who aren't treated well and of course for adventurers in their strange moods." Elly leads the way into the concert hall. She takes a set of stairs down to the ground level. She steps out past many seats and then ascends a smaller stairs up into a proper private balcony, where the meal has been set. Strips of perfectly fried grunty are waiting there, as is a mixture of many vegetables and dried fruits. A bowl of cream and two loaves of bread rest in a basket in the middle of the table.

    Tae draws out a chair for Miho. "Please, sit, rest. We are delighted you can join us." After she helps Miho sit, Tae directs her attention to the drinks. "We have sake as well as fruit juice, if you would rather not drink alcohol with your meal."

Miho says "I hope so too but it's bad I suspect from the vibes I got working with Tien I'll have to talk to them more about it. For nwo though we eat." Miho will happily sit down. "If you got sake I'll take it but I won't complain!" She grins given how she grew up she is a bit of a dragon or an Oni.

    "Sake it is!" says Tae, laughing happily. She will pour, and then Elly will draw a seat for her. Finally everyone is seated, and the meal can begin in earnest.

    There is no lack of food or drink. Elly does not touch the alcohol, but Tae has some before switching over to juice. Tae does much of the talking, slipping into stories from the world before.

    "We first met in a little club in Tokyo. Now, as a professional vocalist, I have been started at many times, but.. that night it was like two lasers were locked on me, and I just had to know who this crazy American woman was who couldn't take her eyes off of me."

    "Tae! You make me sound like a stalker!" complains Elly, laughing again.

Miho says "Ah I see a intereing way to meet and a stalker?" She shakes he head. "I'm not even stepping in that!" Miho doesn't drink too hard though as she digs into her meal. "For me? It was a trial getting used to the horns and tail wait ahhaha sorry." She's looking a bit sheepish. "I'm way out of my depth here. Normally the most contact I have with this level of socity is generally commisions..."

    "I didn't stare /that/ hard," Elly says defensively. "And besides, the second she was done she walked right over and sat at my table, So.. hmph!"

    Tae grins and reaches out to touch Elly's elbow. "It was cute, really. Not at all like a stalker. Rather, it was like someone who was utterly locked in, so focused that the entire world fell away. I was the only person in her universe and I knew it."

    She sighs and looks over to Miho, "It's not always like that with love, I suppose, but I knew, right then. I decided absolutely what I wanted and I was not going to let this woman out of my sight, either."

    Elly nods, "And you didn't. Other than work, we haven't actually parted for more than a few hour since then, have we? Always phone calls and now chimlink."