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The monotony had overwhelmed everything. Rose woke and got dressed, had her eggs and coffee and attended meetings and listened to requests and reports and barely saw people who accepted her as a person anymore but didn't notice it because all she'd been trying to do for weeks now was to be seen as a Queen and not a person, and apparently it had worked.

It had worked too well.

In fact, what Rose had thought was a simple matter of weeks spent learning how to be Queen was in fact over nine months now. It had been November before, and now was late August. Rose couldn't remember the last time she had allowed herself to be less than full kitsune, either.

Rose had lost track of everything outside the kitsunes. Niko's reports were typed out now, and she received them via email. She had been suspecting for some time that they were also now being automated by some software Niko developed for that purpose. She was right.

Rose wasn't even certain of her connection with the kitsunes. she hadn't seen Kyrre in months now- and while she didn't keep track of the time, she knew it was long. Her General was, after all, preparing them to deal with demonic threats that still loomed. Sahm was no longer as outgoing and helpful. For a while now, he had become more quiet and reserved. Rose assumed he, too, was trying to respect her as Queen and not some mutt that he and his cousin had gathered from Northern Gaia. Trella was the only one who seemed happy with her. But she was, as ever, respectfully icy to her Queen.

Rose had no friends here. She was alone among a thriving continent of kitsunes, and she didn't have a clue.

Until...

One evening, Rose was undressing, and as usual plucked over half a dozen gems and jewelry pieces out of her hair and clothes, tucking them into her jewelry case methodically. Her hand ran across her forehead jewel and unthinkingly tried to pluck the gem off her head to put it away. But her hand snapped away as if burnt, for the gem was hot, and Rose suddenly felt hot, herself. Glancing up at the mirror, a flush almost imperceptible among her facial fur, Rose looked curiously at the red forehead gem, and tried to figure out what was wrong. She had... always had a gem there, right? And, it had always been red, right? Red, of course, to match the kitsunes and the fire magic that she wielded.... wasn't that right?

At that moment, a gust of cool fall air wafted through her windows, and Rose closed her eyes. Opening them, she realized.

"Air. Air magic is my original power, not fire. My gem was blue." Rose whispered. She was afraid to say it aloud- afraid someone would hear her and the guards would suspect... unusual behavior? Rose shook her head. She stood.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked herself. The vanity that the jewelry case was set into, that she sat at every morning and night to dress, was against the main trunk of the Great Tree that was the center of Green Shade, was the source of its vitality. And it was almost black.

Rose gasped, and stepped back. For the first time in over half a year, she transformed almost completely to her basic self- no ears, no fur- a fox tail but no wings, either. Her forehead gem went back to blue, and for that she breathed a sigh of relief. But there was something deeply wrong here. What had infested the Great Tree? And how had it infested her, too? How had she not noticed? Was everything really so stuck in a rut already? She needed a better perspective.

Sprouting her fairy wings, Rose lifted off the ground and flew out her open window. Flying up and away, she eventually spun and looked back at Green Shade and the Great Tree. And saw that a blackness, vague up close but better seen from afar, had infected the area. Everything, including some of the people, had a grey pallor to them, and even the fall leaves of the Great Tree, only barely turning from green to yellow, had a light blackness through their veins.

All was not well in Green Shade, capitol city of the kitsunes. Unfortunately for Rose, this was not the extent of the problems that she had left unnoticed. Her friends and adopted families were dealing with their own troubles elsewhere, as well. Flying back to her apartments, Rose took a deep breath. Then laughed.

"For once, the insanity of sanity is perfectly clear."