Dei Swan Xian City

By general rule, tables do not wantonly explode. When a deity stage cultivator, slammed Deep Sea fire qi into said table, this table decided to be polite. Fracturing along every joint, crackling madly as the overwhelming pressure turned its surface into chum, before scattering wildly in all directions.

Shrikes filled the space as shards of pastries went flying in all directions. Instinctively all the noble ladies dived away from the things flying at them except for Iris Xin as Valentine Lockheed, who snatched a few from the air.

When the whipped cream settled, Iris sat gently, plate of pastries on her lap balanced by a tea pot as she delicately held the saucer sipping quietly as if tables explode all the time. Stunned and in shock, the various ladies simply remained as a mess upon the stone floor, dresses covered with sawdust and strawberries.

"This elder believes it's time for you all to leave." Guards and other personal had swarmed the site, looking just as out of it as the girls on the ground.

"Don't forget that none of you are stronger than the table." Gently picking Mary up in a princess carry, Lady 'Lockheed" left the scene to the retainers. Mary was beside herself. Steam rose softly from the intimate contact, even though she knew it wasn't her real sister, she looked so similar. Wild thoughts about how she was dirty flashed through her mind. At lest until she realized there was a plate on her décolletage that Iris had been holding, and a tea kettle on her head.

"Thank you for holding those for me." Iris said as the girl calmed down and her blush mostly subsided.

"When did you give them to me." Mary asked, she didn't remember them being placed on her at all.

"When I picked you up." Simply stated, walking in the general direction of the girl's room.

Iris had no natural embarrassment of this. Having survived harsh life and death matters meant that sometimes one became way more intimate with others than they would prefer. It was the young who got worked up of things like hugs, carries and indirect kisses. Mary who had calmed down ignited as she heard the surprise and double takes from the serving staff as they walked onward.

"We can get you cleaned up first. Someone as radiant as you should sparkle proudly." Iris throwing out one of her infamous lady-killer lines.

"Yes, that's not okay with your face like that." Mary had passed lobster read several moments ago.

"I don't have frosting anywhere, do I?" Iris Leaned far to close, bringing her exotic sister like looks to bare.

"Face! Face!" Mary screeched shoving the maid's face away from her, combusting even further.

"Let's hurry if you're this sensitive you may have been injured." In a few short seconds Iris sprinted the hall, up a set of stairs and pushed her way into Mary's room. Her normal servant who took care of the more background cleaning and assisting saw the blur sweep into the room.

Taking a moment to stow the cleaning implements, the maid dusted her hands off before she approached the door. Shock set in shortly after.

"Hey, don't pull on my dress!" Murmuring was heard, and the soft honeyed voice rising in both pitch and volume escalated.

"I can do this on my own!"

"Don't! you will rip that!"

"Leave my pannier alone, HEY! Not my underwear!"

"Wait don't look there! No touching!

"What are you doing don't-stop!"

At this point the maid's imagination had gone past overdrive into stratospheric proportion. Unsure if she should barge in, call the guards or peep into the room, her incisiveness paused when a vast splashing sound was heard. Gargled cries, more in line with a cat in the bath than a noble lady's room, scared the maid into action.

Returning quickly with those responsible for this wing several men in breastplates came and opened the door without pause. There they swept the room before stopping. On the lady's bed was a horrifying site. Clad in soft pajamas, the wavy blond hair of the half noble was sticking out in all directions filled with static. Tears streamed down her face as she buried herself in her bead sobbing wildly.

"I can't be a bride anymore." Filled the room with wails. In the chair by the bed side sat Lady Lockheed a book open. (Upside down but no one at this moment was willing to lose their jobs to point it out.)

"Ah you arrived. I helped the lady with her bath and made sure she was completely dry-"

"You rubbed off half my skin!" Mary moaned remorseful at the events that had occurred.

At this point no one present had a ton of ideas how to proceed. Shutting the book with a snap, Iris stood and spoke.

"Well, she's been cleaned and dried and should rest." Standing she simply swept out of the room leaving all the explanations to the girl who was to be ashamed to get up. Seeing no danger, the guards followed the heir out of the room leaving the bewilder servant.

"My lady how does you wish of us to proceed" The shift leader spoke slightly nervously as the small group proceed out of the hall.

"I just assisted my sister with cleaning up the mess from the tea party, whatever is normally required of you, just do that." Iris waved them off as she snuck back into Valentines room. Once the door shut, she became like a tree cut.

"Using essence fire is still to much, especially a higher ranking one." Perhaps the sage mulled over, that she should have just beat them all until they stopped talking. That may have generated trouble for Mary, so this way was better. The girl didn't have to honor her bargains, but she refused to welch.

"This is such a troublesome family" She muttered, prying herself off the plush carpet. To keep up appearances, the nightstand was covered with books. Iris could barely read them, knowing just enough to make out the gist of what was being said. Instead of reading, she simply opened a book and tossed it on the bed. Using an advance undressing technique, the girl removed every excess layer in one swift motion.

"Tomorrow will be today eventually." Crawling slowly into the covers the sage slept almost instantly to a soft sunlike fragrance.

!@# !@# !@#

"Why did we let her call the shots?" Complained Ai Jing loudly as the small group of cultivators made camp for the night. Since they were out alone far from civilization, most of the spirt beast were let out to hunt and rest.

Ai Jing suffered the most in the long days march. Her short childish legs were pushed well past her limits with the noble leading the pace, none of them had wanted to look bad in front of the outsider. They all pretend that it was no big deal to follow the noble. Flashforward several hours of running later and only the nascent soul was standing without shaking.

"It was a good run today." Oblivious to the pain of her companions, Valentine was in a relaxed delightful mood. None of the other disciples ran with her and her master wasn't hounding her made it such a peaceful time. Basking in the afterglow of such a good excretion the noble was prancing about as she made preparations for the night.

"Well, it seems that or team is comfortable with running in formations so we can relax a bit. 'Patience and passage are the greatness paths to truth'. We can just do some morning exercises and practice regularly rather than trying to force it.

Duchess heir had no illusions about the state of the beast tamers sect; however, she was chilled as ice.

"If that's what our leader wants."

It was fortune that there was no pushback, as Tang ren was not sure how long he could last, let along before he had to deal with three angry mutinous cultivators. Morning practice came and went and Haoyu who sparked despite his tormented shins lead the group this time in a march rather than a run.

"We are still two weeks away however we should start considering what we will do when we get to the secret realm."

Traveling was the same no matter where one was, and it was expected that the worn paths and roads would have tons of danger and other obstacles. Valentine knew that this wouldn't be true and contented herself that this secret realm was bound to exciting. Rare beast and treasures, vicious traps, exciting betrayals it was clearly the stuff of novels.

Noble lady couldn't wait but decide to be reserved, so far nothing had gone as it was expected. Since the party was sure it would take two weeks she wondered if they would be surprised when they arrived ahead of that.

Xin Yan had no cares either way walking along while holding a dark striped shadow kitty. It was dark as endlessly night with sparkling purple eyes and star spots acrost its fur. As the self-proclaimed queen of cute and cuddly Xin couldn't resist taming the little thing. Judging from the distained look present on the feline, who was in charge and how 'tamed' the beast was still uncertain.

It was an unfortunately boring journey as the noble expected but during the time she had a chance to get know the group slowly. The group slowly filled the noble in on the details of the location they were visiting.

Elemental fracture of the four Cardinals, like everything else Lady Lockheed encountered in the martial realm it had a long-winded name. Realms such as this were small pocket spaces, separated from the overall realm. Many such places existed in varying degrees of size danger and frequency. Some held complex requirements, glimpses into other past and place, even souls of long-lost immortals. Not all lands had coalesced properly, leaving unfortunate places with strange properties.

Wood fire earth and water were the primary constructs of the Four Cardinal realm. What made this realm so benign was that the reactions naturally apposed themselves. What should have been an unmitigated nightmare became a soft space with far less potential for disaster. At best a few thousand year spirt beast and few undiscovered secrets made it ideal for training.

"We still must make Zojila pass before we are even in the right region."

"Right senior told me that the realm is tucked away in a small cave." Ai Jing interjected.

"Mew Mew." The look of contempt from quadruped screamed of anguish.

"We should stop soon; however, Dei Swan Xian city has not yet seen my graceful visage." There were certain qualities that the noble lady did have to admit to in Hayou's appearance. Unlike the stiff strong hard noble features, his soft almost girlish looks gave him a touch of beauty not normally seen in the noble realm.

It was the feministic features that Valentine found to be more interesting. Perhaps she thought to herself that there was a reason to why things had been difficult. Her vague memories of her mother's dereliction were focused on a few specific memories. 'I think third princess is more attractive than second prince…'

She remembered afterwards that she learned a new word after she had said the above line at age seven.

Starvation

Muddling about her own thoughts, the noble failed to realize that they had arrived within city walls. Her new group mates found the dissonance in her character a little strange. She was mostly quiet but would than become smug and cocksure. Tang Ran suspected she was acting but wasn't certain.

Markets were at least similar no matter where one went. The various peddlers and preforms were different from the noble realm and include strange magic like displace from monks and spiritualist.

"I didn't think we would get her so quickly." Ai Jing muttered aloud. "If we ran normally, we should be here tomorrow."

"Caw, longer legs less time-cak caw." Brilliant teal feathers shook wildly.

"White wine and garlic sauce over crispy skin!" Once more the vertically challenged girl attempted to end the spirt macaws' life.

"Such a child holds adorableness in form not in spirt." Hayou had displayed a strange habit of judging how cute things were, but Xin Ran hadn't stopped mewing at her shadow cat.

"I think traveling with others might be more fun." With a slightly quirky smile, the noble followed the cultivators to explore a new city.