The girls were ostensibly here to buy jewellery to wear to the Lantern Festival tomorrow night. While the eight of them descended on the shop and browsed around, the guards took positions at the front and back entrances.
Delphi quietly collected their order from the manager, a wizened little old man who looked like he'd been selling jewellery for a very long time.
She inspected the bracelets he had laid out on a velvet-lined tray for her. Perfect! she thought.
Eight gold charm bracelets, each with different charms selected by the girls, but every one had one charm in common, a tiny pink mother-of-pearl gorilla with gold eyes with the letter 'G' etched into each eye, holding a golden key. Her eyes burned with excitement as she handed them out to her team.
"Ruby, animal theme." Her bracelet was covered in animals like bunnies and foxes, so the gorilla fit in well.
"Feifei, archery theme." The bracelet had a bow charm, a quiver charm, an arrow charm… The gorilla stood out like a sore thumb. Was he meant to get shot by the arrow?
"Indy, judo theme." There were a series of girls in a judo outfits all doing different judo moves, and the gorilla… "I'm sensing you all picked your passions. Something less personal where the gorilla blends in would've been good… Loveday, weapons theme," she handed the tall girl her bracelet.
"Oh, how cool is that?" asked Loveday, examining the tiny charms; a sword, a dagger, a bow and arrow, a slingshot and a whip.
The jeweller came over to the group and peered up at Loveday. "I did wonder which young lady requested those charms," he said with a quizzical look.
"Winter, rainbows and teddy bears. Cute," said Delphi, who clearly understood that selection as much as the jeweller understood Loveday's choices.
Winter clapped with delight, giving a little cry of joy. "Thank you," she said to the old jeweller.
He smiled happily. "Of course, of course, we're glad you like it." This was more within his expectations of young women's interests.
"Araminta, gymnastics theme. And last but not least, Lili…" she inspected the bracelet a few times trying to grasp its meaning. "Weapons?" Delphi asked.
There was a whip, a mask, a rope… "Is this one a bra?" asked Delphi.
Lili pealed with laughter. "Miss goody two shoes. Araminta knows what the theme is, don't you Arrie?"
Araminta and Lili giggled suggestively, sending the jeweller bright red. He had thought that they were horse riding-themed charms.
"Girls, girls," said Delphi, "stop, you're destroying this poor man who made us these beautiful bracelets. Our apologies sir," she said to him. "Our Lili loves a good joke."
The man couldn't get away fast enough. He was looking forward to a well-earned retirement, and engaging in lewd jokes with the Emperor's underage future wives was a guaranteed path to an eternal rest instead of moving to his beach shack...
Delphi showed the girls her bracelet. There was a horse, a boat, a lizard, a shark, the gorilla and the last charm was a house.
"Is this our new life?" Winter whispered.
"It's to remind me what we need to overcome and what we gain at the end of it," Delphi whispered back.
Winter smiled appreciatively.
The girls purchased some earrings and necklaces to make the whole trip look real for the eunuchs. Only Ruby and Winter cared much for such things, so they made the selections for everyone.
They withdrew behind a privacy screen to put the jewellery on. God forbid a man should catch a glimpse of their ears or their neckline.
Winter clapped with delight. "Oh, they're perfect on you Delphi. They look stunning."
"Delphi would look stunning in a brown paper bag with arm holes," said Lili. "All the consorts would be asking her which shop she bought it from."
"Especially Consort Robbie," said Indy. "She really hates your guts Delphi."
"Well, she has one more day to nurse her hatred, then she can have that arsehole all to herself, plus a hundred other women clamouring for his grotty attentions," said Delphi with a shudder.
"Don't call the Emperor an arsehole in public Delphi," signed Feifei. "You never know who might overhear you. Use sign language."
"You're right of course Feifei," said Delphi. "Can I at least call him a dickhead?" she signed.
Feifei shook her head and rolled her eyes, and Delphi rubbed her on the shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry warrior girl. Only one more day, then we can worry about tubiàn instead of men. At least they don't want to turn us into sexy dolls, they just want to kill us, I can respect that."
"Hear, hear," agreed Arrie, gripping her surgically enhanced breasts from underneath and jiggling them. "These have totally destroyed my vault. They wobble when I do my run up."
"Wear a better bra," said India scornfully. "Those are nothing compared with these." She swung into Loveday, bumping her with her battering rams. "These have ruined my judo. I don't even know where they are most of the time, they're too busy flinging about the place on their own. And people keep hitting them because they're such an easy target."
The other girls nodded in sympathy. It was widely acknowledged that India had come out of the Emperor's surgeries with the worst outcome of everyone. Ridiculously large breasts on a tiny frame, which completely decimated her formerly strong athletic abilities.
"I quite like mine," said Lili, looking down at her generous implants. "I feel like they'll be a very useful part of my GG arsenal."
"For what, smothering dragons?" said Delphi witheringly. "Or do you plan to use them as floatation devices if you fall overboard?"
"I'll use them as a honey trap, Delph, you wait and see. I have a good feeling about them. Loveday you should have added a boob charm to your weapons bracelet."
"The jeweller would have reported us to the eunuchs for that one. I had to call your bra charm a 'cropped riding top'. Come on you lunatic, let's get out of here. We have a lot to wrap up before tomorrow night."
They strode out of the shop, Delphi in the lead. She found Commander Meyer and Niko on either side of side of the shop entrance, scaring away any other customers.
Alton immediately dropped in behind Delphi, following her closely to her horse.
She stopped suddenly so that he almost ran into her.
"Prince, you're paying me so much attention I might almost believe you have a crush on me. It's very flattering and all, but as you know, I'm engaged to your Uncle," she pulled down her veil again and flashed him a saccharine sweet smile.
Diabolical woman... he thought, trying not to laugh.
"I'm just doing my job, Miss Chastain. I know how important you are to my Uncle, so I'd hate for anything to happen on my watch."
Like her escaping, she thought bitterly.
"I hope you selected some extravagant jewels for your wedding," he smirked.
A dig at her frivolity and a reminder of her upcoming nuptials all at once, the horrible man.
"I did, thank you Prince Alton," she dangled her charm bracelet close to his face. "Hmm, I wonder which charm reminds me of you. Is it the dragon?" she held it aloft, it's golden scales catching the sunlight. "No," she said flatly. "The horse?" she dangled the noble running steed before his eyes. "No, not that one either," she shook her head. "The shark? Getting closer with this one... But oh, here it is! The ape. Most definitely."
He gathered that being compared with a pink gorilla was not meant to be a compliment...
She bit down on the gorilla charm like she was chewing him up and spitting him out.
"Any time you want to play 'me Tarzan, you Jane', Miss Chastain, just reach out, there's no need to be coy. It seems like you very much want to wrap your lips around me, and that's okay with me too, but it does beg the question of who has a crush on whom," he raised his eyebrows suggestively at her.
Well, that backfired spectacularly, she thought. What an insufferable man!