---

Shēnléi
I am so sorry this took so long I can’t think up a good starter to save my life.

Yet ANOTHER backdated thread taking place during the Ravorn festival because Izumi parties too hard.

Yukimi hadn’t come to visit her dreams as of late, and Izumi wonders why. Maybe the girl was merely something brought on by the incessant loneliness she felt while recovering in that pack. The desperate need for her samurai to be by her side — a need so severe that the crane ended up dreaming up a child with him. This wasn’t the first time it happened; it also happened back when she was kidnapped under that dingy mountain and barely clinging to life.

Or perhaps it was the woman’s strange new obsession with wishing to start a family of her own. Ever since taking the initiative to inherit her parent’s crown, the woman had never so much as thought of the warmth of family life nor kids. Perhaps she’d be betrothed during her reign to a foreign royal to strengthen the bloodline and nothing more. Never once had she thought that she’d open her heart again and fall in love in a way that made her vulnerable. It was a weakness that she still feared to this day, yet…wasn’t exactly upset about.

Would she even make a good mother if the time came, though? Raise a heir strong and worthy enough to replace her when her mind became too frail to balance the crown?

Izumi had stayed on the sidelines once again and watched as the others mingled, getting lost in her own thoughts as she stared at the samurai’s form from afar. A warmth lingered within her chest at the thought of it all, but so did the notes of fear and doubt of anything that could go wrong…

SKILL: DIPLOMAT (1/5)

---

Festivity had a way of multiplying beneath Ravorn’s sky. Laughter rose and broke like sparks from a fire, voices weaving between music, movement, and the scents of food carried upon the evening air. Shēnléi remained near the celebration’s edge, near enough to participate without surrendering himself entirely to its revelry. Bronze eyes moved with habitual vigilance between the three women who held the greatest share of his attention— Ye Lanyi amid unfamiliar company, Mei somewhere within the gathering’s warmth, and Yuè, whom his gaze returned to with quiet regularity.

It was during one such sweep that he noticed another woman lingering apart from the festivities.

She did not appear abandoned so much as withdrawn by choice, her attention fixed somewhere beyond the gathering and upon a man Shēnléi recognized as one of the many dignitaries samurai. There was something softened in the manner of her watching, though a shadow of thought rested heavily upon it. Curiosity drew him closer, his approach unhurried and deliberately visible so as not to startle her. He stopped at a courteous distance, inclining his head in greeting.

You observe the celebration as though it is a performance meant for others, he remarked, the faintest sound of amusement warming his otherwise measured cadence. His gaze briefly followed hers toward the samurai before returning to her face, politely leaving whatever conclusion he had drawn unspoken. I confess that I have done much the same this evening. It is difficult to surrender oneself wholly to merriment when there are so many worth keeping within one’s sight.

His tail settled neatly behind him as he turned slightly, allowing her the choice of meeting his attention or continuing to watch the festivities. I am Emperor Shēnléi of Tianlong, he introduced. And you appear to have found one of the few peaceful corners Ravorn’s celebrations have spared. Would you object if I shared it for a time?