Delphi pulled her horse up outside a high-end jeweller, and leapt off, throwing the reins towards Commander Meyer like he was a groom, and shooting him a withering look as she entered the store.
He took a deep breath, willing himself to keep his cool. Six more months before he would earn himself a docile and obedient bride, he chanted to himself. Six more months…
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 small older man. 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 outfit 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, looking at the tiny charms of 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 curiously. "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, too?" 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 hadn't made the connection himself, thinking 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 exit their vicinity fast enough. He wanted to keep his head on his neck and engaging in lewd jokes with the Emperor's underage future wives was a guaranteed path to losing it.
"Can you show us yours, Delphi?" asked Winter.
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.
Winter approached Delphi shyly, handing her a wrapped box.
"You didn't need to wrap it, Winter," said Delphi affectionately, pinching her cheek. Everyone loved the gentle girl.
"I just thought the wrap was so pretty."
The box was wrapped in a glossy pearl pink paper with a sheer pink bow to match.
"Thank you, Winter, it is pretty." Delphi unwrapped her selection.
It was a pair of gold huggie earrings with the brightest green emeralds Delphi had ever seen.
"I thought they'd bring out your eyes," said Winter.
The girls 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 India. "She really hates your guts Delphi."
"Well, she has one more day to hate me, then she can miss hating me and 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.
Loveday laughed and so did Lili. 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 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 will you 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 police for that one. I had to call your bra charm a 'cropped riding top' to stay on the right side of the law. Come on you lunatic, let's get out of here. We have a lot to wrap up before tomorrow night."