Danika felt like everything suddenly happened at once. Underneath had a little more free time, but less predictable schedules as the production neared the end. The designers started sending responses to Hikaru's referrals. And things somehow lined up so that the new school semesters were starting for MatchlessMinion, SaltySiamese, Shrubbery and Penname all at the same time.

Danika had expected things in 'Living Jade Empire' to go quiet for a while with so many of her friends busy with school, but instead war broke out along the Southwestern coast. Justin's guild, EmeraldHearts was at the heart of it.

EmeraldHeart's crescent shaped territory defined by their line of glass towers along the coast was the largest player controlled area in the game, despite the fact that only three of those towers were being developed into settlements. The NPC based Dwarven Kingdoms didn't really care, in spite of the player instigated attempt by the southernmost kingdom to take the central village earlier in the year. The dwarves were still very tradition bound, despite the industrial revolution, and EmeraldHeart's choice of territory did not infringe on any of the original Kingdoms.

The expansion of the genie race into the desert didn't create much of a territorial conflict either. Since the tribes were usually nomadic, as long as EmeraldHeart didn't restrict peaceful access to the area they claimed, the genies didn't care.

Danika had thought of the area's isolation from the racial capitals and other game constructed transportation routes as a major disadvantage, but it had actually been one of the things that had allowed EmeraldHeart to grab such a large area. It was the new shipping routes that stopped at the three player settlements that became the first targets. If EmeraldHeart didn't defend the NPC routes, their affinity would drop and prices for goods in the future would sky rocket.

The three guild alliance that was attacking seemed to have purposefully timed their assault with the beginning of the semester, because despite the fact, or perhaps because, EmeraldHeart was one of the oldest guilds in 'Living Jade Empire', a large percentage of their members were still enrolled in schools or universities. The tactic annoyed Danika enough that she posted on Endless Song's guild board, asking for everyone's opinion on ignoring the contract they held with EmeraldHeart which limited their assistance to two more battles.

She was a little surprised when even their NPC members, Thimblepot and Sea Song Tione, expressed wholehearted enthusiasm for going to war on EmeraldHeart's behalf. Quicksilver used the same organizational skills that she'd used to make their entertainment venue a success, and the new internal guild mission system, to organize a two pronged assault on the three guilds.

The assassins and mercenaries of Endless Song could log in and find new assassination missions for key members of the triad at any time of day. Their bards had missions to sing, that were actually even more deadly for the guild triad. The bards of Endless song spread out across the Empire and targeted high ranking officials in the NPC run kingdoms and territories.

Even though they were targeting NPCs with their propaganda, Danika was surprised when the reputation of the three guilds began to drop just as quickly among the players. In every MMORPG that she had played, the biggest guilds and top players had always grabbed what others had built up as a matter of course. It had just annoyed her that the guilds were purposefully timing it so that the members of EmeraldHeart were forced to choose between defending their game territory or focusing on their futures.

Maybe because 'Living Jade Empire' had so many people who were playing as crafters who focused on creating things instead of destroying them, or because the game subtly encouraged people to support each other, the three guild triad was soon generally regarded as a collection of criminals. It actually made Danika sympathize with them a little, since it was similar to Endless Song's reputation as a notorious guild that went around destroying things, while they were just doing what RPG players had always done.

With all of that going on, it took Danika a while to notice that the King of Cats had gone missing again. Her strong luck was activating more often, and she was sending a lot of messages to targets in the ocean or in the air that her flying messengers usually carried, so she didn't miss him at first.

When she investigated, she quickly discovered that a player that she'd never heard of had been tricked into a duel with the King of Cats, and had won. The player took the title of the King, while the cat himself vanished.

The new King didn't get to enjoy his virtual cat crown for long though. The kitten that SaltySiamese had helped, in exchange for control over the shape of her ears, was an adult by this time. He quickly deposed the human player and became the King of Cats himself.

The young cat had allied itself with some other familiar faces, like Smoke, the Prince of Thieves, while the player King had offended cats all across the empire by actually daring to issue a proclamation. As far as Danika could tell, none of the cats cared what was in the proclamation, it was simply that the new King had dared to issue one.

Lin Hao tracked the original King down quickly this time, since the cat was using the same trick he'd used to become the cub of the Guardian of the Western Vault. This time he was recreating himself as a human, sort of. The Jade Empress was pregnant, and when the cat was reborn he would be the child of the Jade Emperor.

When Silvam informed Kit of the cat's deception, she thought about it for awhile and then announced, "I actually feel relieved to know that I can blame it on that cat. I really can't claim that I was ready for this, but now I have the perfect excuse to try."

Danika said, "It seems like a much gentler way to gain some of the Emperor's powers than I feared."

Silvam shrugged and pointed out, "Neither of them are being forced by external pressures to combine their powers the way Jade was. And while he's stuck as a human child for four whole years, we can even try to teach that cat some manners!"

Both Kit and Danika laughed at that.

--

It was easy for Danika to choose a designer, because she chose the only one who included her chair. Several of the designers had included her inability to walk in their designs by including gliding frameworks that would carry her elegantly, and let her sit on a seat without having to make a transfer, but only one had included both her existing chair and her love of dragons.

Even if she'd decided that the outfit design was horrible, Danika would have contacted the designer and tried to get the custom leather upholstery for the chair. The embossed green and gold scales and low profile wing shaped back were something that she was certain that she would love to use for years. Just looking at the virtual renditions of it made her feel like she should have tried to get something like it years ago.

The outfit the designer suggested to go with it was much flashier than anything that Danika would have ever chosen for herself, with a lot of metallic gold. But it echoed the dragon theme, without becoming dragon cosplay. When she showed it to Hikaru and Ryuske, they both approved for different reasons, neither of which were what she expected.

Ryuske said encouragingly, "It looks surprisingly comfortable for something that dressy. It looks like you'll have a full range of motion, at least from your hips up?"

Danika pointed to a line of description and replied, "Even though it looks kind of tight, it says that the bottom will be flexible, and have a quick release seam fastening down each side."

Hikaru said thoughtfully, "I think that it's actually a design that you can wear more than once. You look a little taken aback by all the gold, but it's actually a clean and simple design, which means you can combine it with a wide variety of other things. The open mesh of the scaled areas will allow for under layers to show through, while the smooth lines will go well with outer layers. And the gold tones will do well with everything from the green it's being presented with, to quiet browns and creams, or even bright reds."

Most importantly to Danika, Shinichi also said that he liked the way the virtual rendition looked on her, and that several of the outfits Underneath's designers had dressed him in previously had used the shades of green that were used in the suggested accent items. She apparently wasn't the only one who thought that green suited him.