& the fourth

[quu]

Comments

[yowokomete]

Shonagon's eyes skip across the other Outlander; he looks a bit worse for the wear since he ran from the throne room. But she's very interested in his captor, and her toy. She doesn't bother to try to be subtle as she watches the marble roll through the air. They have their own court wizards in Japan, but she's never seen that trick before.

[quu]

Varrå shoots a sly look over to the woman in all the elaborate robes.

The marble glides over in Shonagon's direction, still smoking.

[yowokomete]

Shonagon is absolutely delighted by this. She lifts her hand and pushes lightly at the marble with just the tip of one finger.

"What a charming little thing!"

She's very careful not to breathe the smoke in directly, but a flick of her fan wafts the smoke toward her so that she can better process the scent.

[quu]

At the least touch, the marble disintegrates into a fine, shining poof of dust. Varrå smiles the way that mean children smile when they've taken a toy away from someone.

The wafts of smoke have no particular odor other than "generalized combustion."

[yowokomete]

If she's being trolled, Shonagon doesn't really notice. She laughs aloud when the marble breaks, utterly charmed by the cleverness of it.

"What do you use these for?" she asks. "If I may be so forward. Are they meant as toys?"