Kazelia lands and tries to rub her shoulder. But she can't because of a stupid vine. How dare Eupheria not be impressed by Kazelia's impeccable rules lawyering! She was gonna get it now, you better believe it, and this stupid vine was first on the chopping block! Kazelia's ultra cool awesome spear flares to life (you know that's what it is because the haft has stickers on it with pink and blue glittery swirls that say "ultra cool awesome" mixed with glittery rainbow unicorns all along the length). The vines singe immediately and Kazelia pulls on her spear to cut through the weakened parts, which are covering up the suspenders holding up her blue overalls (they have a heart on the belly because they're cute). Eventually, she extracts herself from the foliage. She waves her extremely cool glittery spear at the princesstrap menacingly as she continues forward.
"As everyone ought to know" she says to nobody in particular, still working on keeping her voice steady and trying to ignore the braces that are rubbing against her inner lips. "The Axonian princesstrap is a common species of fauna, primarily designed to catch and digest wild animals. It tightens its vines based on struggling, hence the term princess trap, but when approached cautiously and with something harmful to the plant such as fire, it slowly withdraws its vines into itself. The actual plant is, of course, barely larger than a a typical chair, and stores most of the vines in a special underground pouch for later use."
"How dare you!" Princess Kazelia tries to shout. However, her voice cracks instead, and it comes out less as a shout and more like a frog croaking "How Ddddddare youuuu" as she tries to get control of her own speech and fails utterly. She stops, tries to clear her throat, rubs at her face where her new braces are scratching her lips uncomfortably instead. Ugh, this wasn't fair. Kazelia hadn't been a teenager in actual centuries and even when she had, it had never been like this! Oh Eupheria was going to pay.
"Well..." Kazelia says, speaking more quietly and trying to keep some control over her voice (she's failing, but she's getting words out now that's she's going more slowly) "what if we all just agree that whoever wins will wish for you to lose the Caduceus and undo everybody else's punishments, huh? What then? Your little game is totally flawed." Ha, that would show her. Kazelia definitely knew everything about the situation and just had to tell the whole world. Her plan was totally and completely flawless and she was confident that she'd foiled Eupheria already and she would just give up now and surrender.
Flowing white hair - Navy blue robes and matching scarf light brown leathers with white fur on the neck and sleeves - Cold starry eyes - Predatory teeth
In Jedad, change to Blood red silks and demon mask in half/half black and red. Second Jedad outfit: one-piece turquoise silk, black and white four quadrant checker mask.
Flowing white hair with a line of blue-green - mottled verdigris skin - silver birch hooded traveling cloak with gold neck clasp and matching boots and pack - sea-green passionate eyes - Crystal spear
Stats Doom +2, Blood +1, Courage +2, Grace -1, Sense +0, Wisdom +1 SINGER OF THE ANCIENT SONG: I remember now, the old songs, they flow through me like a vast river and connect the hearts of all who hear them.
Agenda You'll get through this: Protect your allies from harm and danger, no matter what happens to you Be Brave, Take Risks Tell Us Of Your People Improve The World Around You
Doomed Soul: a) when Doom is damaged by an enemy attack, must damage another one of my stats. b) When you finish them by relying on fate or luck, roll +doom. 10+ their fate is sealed and the Overlord decides what happens to them. Anyone sharing this move has Doom +1
Doom and Gloom You can never have more than one bond with someone and others can never have more than one bond with you. Cannot share this move.
Do not Trifle With Wizards: Can conjure a powerful spell to destroy something in your way. Pay a price take up to 3 damage to inflict that much damage to the target. Then exhausted for the scene (roll with Despair). Cannot share this move. It doesn't work on Threats to the World and Set Pieces.
Wizardry: Can cast the following magical effects -Floating light (typically an icy will o wisp) -Deliver a message through mysterious means (voice on a frigid breeze most often) -Speak, look, or listen as if you were somewhere else that you can see (starry illusion magic) -Touch, push, or grab as if you were somewhere else that you can see (delicate ice and snowy hands or limbs)
What is a Harbinger My people are the Servants of the Dark, the Riders. They serve the Overlord and herald his coming, but I do not, though I retain my powers. I do not need to pay a price when I show people why they should not trifle with wizards.
Food: 2 uses 1/2 used wizardly baubles: 2 uses, useful. Mine consist of some nevermeltice, a few crystals holding a myriad of lights, and some fine snow for conjuring. Other small wizardly things tbd.
A runed lance that can cut through anything (Piercing): This is the lance for which I have my name. I am a skilled witch, but I am most comfortable with my lance and it is where I go first when I am threatened. It was broken by Eska and replaced: A sparkling and sparking crystal lance that can blaze with flame (Burning): Reformed when Kazelia took on a new body in Argossa. The lance is clear crystal and forms a prism that shines with rainbow light reflected through it.
The Overlord's Weakness: The singers have given me the Dolorous Song and I hold it in a box for safekeeping. It is my privilege and my freedom. This is replaced by an ancient staff of oldwood (melee) with a spell of safe travels written upon it (2 uses, armor)1/2 used
My Pegasus, Shiva: She can FLY, and is skilled at MOUNTED COMBAT. She is a Rider steed, black as night, but her wings are made of delicate crystal glass from Illumina.
My magic comes from my bloodline as a rider and and I can call upon it for healing as well (2 uses, Healing).
Princess Alinagives me hope for the future.Fills me with joy.
Rita von Catabas held me close by choice.
Shiva the Pegasus is my fearless steed
Detective Brill and I played Find the Queen together
Adila and I worked together to win the joust and help Helya
Kyouko and I shared a night at the ball, a heartfelt moment, and she travels with us.
Tashanna really listened to me
Oberon Greymane revealed he took me from my mother
Diana the Witch and I shared an evening in good simple work restoring leylines
I greatly respect Theodora the Witch and her plant magic
I walk with Mother Void within me
Harbinger Custom The Evil Eye Above: I'm ready for the Overlord and know him. a) When the minions of the Overlord approach, the Overlord must tell me before the minions arrive. b) When I know the overlord's plans, I may ask them "what is one way I could stop this" and the Overlord must answer me truthfully.
Wildspeaker: You speak the language of monsters and beasts. When you speak with them for the first time, they will always pause to listen and reply, and you can speak softly or talk sense.
Are we not the Same, You and I? -Have an overlord stat (in the stats above). It's true while undamaged, false while damaged. -While the overlord stat is undamaged, the overlord and I are the same in some way and I cannot harm or hinder him. If he makes An Offer You Can't Refuse while the stat is undamaged, I must accept it, but I can negotiate one (1) caveat to his terms because of my power. -The overlord's weakness (currently Dolorous song) damages my overlord stat the same as how it damages him.
We are not the Same Strike out stuff in Are we not the Same, above. Once per scene, may use Heart of Fire against the Overlord without erasing a bond with him (still need to have a bond, I think).
Threat to the World You are a Threat to the world. When someone who is not a threat to the world takes direct action against you, they have to pay a price. You no longer have to pay a price just to act against other threats to the world. A variety of moves no longer work on you.
Evil's Bane You have become a new weakness for the Overlord. This applies to the Overlord's SHAPESHIFTING. When the overlord is in your presence, the chose stat becomes damaged.
-Harbinger Move -+1 stat (blood) -Take an End of Days Move -Take a second End of Days Move (level 5) -Become a Threat to the World (level 5) -Any move from a destiny playbook (level 5+)
The spotlight turns to Kazelia, who's wearing a long, sweeping gown in bright white with diagonal slashes of black running down the chest from the covered shoulder to just below the waist. Unlike her Gala dress, which had been subtle and served to highlight her new skin and the vibrancy of her body, this dress competed with her, its color contrasts and her own skin all vying to be the center of attention. The dress itself glittered and sparkled like a rainbow with diamonds set throughout the fabric and woven into it, and the long train completely obscured Kazelia's legs and spooled out to gather at the base of where she sat, making it look sort of like she melted into her cushioned seat.
"Uh, hi. My name is..." *record scratch noise* "...Kazelia Swiftlance. The last part's kind of a title, but I really like it and I think I'm going to keep it. I'm the very magical and kind of military daughter of Oberon Greymane, who's a totally evil force of arrogance and dominance that scours worlds until they're frozen, personified in a shapechanging man. My mother is a distant memory of a warm lodge in a cold, lost world. My other mother is the Void herself. She's here with me and kind of is me now?" *Record scratch noise again* "I channel a series of ancient songs that run through the universe and connect hearts, and I let my mother into mine along with some other people who are all sort of connected to me now. She really hates false things though and she's kind of unhappy with this whole setup, but we can't seem to tear ourselves out of it for the moment."
Kazelia pauses, seems to hesitate, there's a sense of reality flashing like static for an instant before coming back into focus still with Eupheria in charge. "Actually, I'm working on a spell that will mess up how this game is structured and control the outcome of the wheel, I just need a couple more minutes and it should be done." Kazelia flushes like her own mouth has betrayed her, which is absolutely has, but even with that the spotlight still hasn't left her.
"In the meantime, I um...I'm kind of struggling with feeling like an imposter right now. I spent a really long time being an awful person who hurt other people and had to be in control of things at all times or my sisters would take advantage of me and hurt me. Especially the owl over there, my big sister Azora is really mean and scary! But since I got here I've learned a lot of different things and even that being kidnapped can be a fun and good thing for people to enjoy and I kind of really like that..." Kazelia blushes a very dark purple. "Actually, if I'm being honest, since I talked to Alina recently and learned she's kind of into that too, I'm really curious to have her tie me up and see how it's different than with the Konkon. I mean, if Rita's okay with it. Or if, um, Rita wanted to join in too, she's really cool and I'd be pretty happy with that."
Kazelia looks like she wants to sink into the ground and die, but keeps going on one more thing. "To be honest though, I'm really worried with everything that's happened to me, and how I'm still a Rider even though nobody else is, and how I used to be and everything that if I ever really give up control I'll end up hurting people and all my friends will realize that there's no place for me in Hyperborea except some kind of distant retreat in Argossa or in Devilhome maybe and I'll have to be all alone most of the time because I'm not safe to be around and I'm not even totally sure if I'm still me anymore."
Kazelia looks like she's on the verge of tears as the spotlight moves away from her. She tries to look over to Adila, or Alina, or Rita. She starts to process what the others had said too, but it all seems to be too much.
The world is suddenly facing a different direction. Kazelia has just an instant to make note of it and think to herself that it's somewhat different from the tests she faced in the void. This was not a conjured thing of her mind or a formless reality taking shape, it was more sudden. It was like some odd machine at Hobling Keep that could turn any way you pleased without falling over, except done to the whole space they were in.
Well, at any rate, that's about as far as Kazelia's sense impression got before she was too busy falling. That also meant she was too busy not being in control of her own motions to go fetch Azora's body or do something simple like keep hold of her head. [Losing Azora in the fall.] "Sorry Az!" she manages to shout as the head goes flying away.
Then she's coming in hard for an impact, and she has just enough presence of mind to get a hand on her staff and use its shield to cushion the blows of the tentacles flailing at her as she passes by. [using one charge of the staff of safe travels to prevent damage.]
"You. Are you serious?" Annalee looks ready to do murder. She has one thing she wants, she doesn't want to deal with anyone else right now, would every freaking person, monster, and animated Hot Topic just get the hell out of the way already? The answer is yes, they would. Or at least, they would find it really hard to get in the way, which was close enough. Annalee started speaking in tongues, trying to chant a spell that would completely prevent the Sphinx from doing violence of any kind, so that she could just walk right past her.
Simple, convenient. Unfortunate, however, that she had just read up on that spell today before detention and in the all the confusion hadn't really had the chance to do something like practice it. So, it was almost certainly going to go horribly wrong in interesting ways.
Kazelia is mid-cartwheel when she starts to snap back into a different reality. She'd known something off was, but the force of the vision had been so vivid, so real. She had felt herself burn with Adila's words. She had felt the signboard in her hands, its wood as real as anything she'd ever touched, more real than most. And she had felt her heart skip a beat when Adila had looked right at her.
She manages to hold onto the momentum of her cartwheel and careen into a tentacle with something resembling a spear slash and give herself enough space to shake her head and try to take in what she's seeing. There's, things coming through everywhere, some in armor, some not. Eska's robots are being fought and subdued, Eska herself is under assault and not Kazelia's concern. Alina and Adila are...recovering? They weren't hurt, figure that out later. Rita's doing something heroic (woo!) and Azora is...oh no!
Azora was racing towards Eupheria and the Caduceus. If she got it, well, Kazelia wasn't quite sure, but from what Ourania had said, it would at least give Azora the power to escape from here easily and present it to Oberon. And if he got it...Hyperborea was doomed.
Kazelia wished she knew some of the magic that Azora did. Wouldn't it be perfect if she could somehow reverse the earlier vision and stop Azora by pinning her to the wall with shadow shackles? She can't though, even if she knew the spell, it's almost certain Azora would have wards to prevent that sort of thing, or simply wave them away with a spare hand.
So, instead, Kazelia races forward. She whistles for Shiva, but her mount is coming too slowly, herself not fully shaking off the effects of the visions, and not being present for the observatory scene for Kazelia to bring with her. So instead she's running with pounding steps on the cold stone floor. Her spear blazes with light and fire, casting long waving shadows as it cleaves through any tentacles in her way, leaving the faint hiss of melting bronze. The north wind is at her back hastening her steps until she's almost but not quite flying.
But then, *boom* Kazelia has to use her magic, all her strength, and plant her spear like a pole vaulter to avoid the explosion of one of Eska's hidden traps. They hadn't all been disarmed and some of them are here now too. She manages the swerve, landing with a roll and coming up with her spear as she tries to reorient herself. She's racing after Azora again, this time casting little ice crystals ahead of her, trying to find the trip wires that send out the poison bolts only to realize that they're some kind of invisible boundary field and being forced to stop and twirl her spear to burn the bolts out of the air before they hit her. She sets off explosives ahead of her and swerves out of the way as a line of scarab beetles emerges from some recess in the floor she's just passed and tries to converge on her from behind.
These things are distraction and slowdowns. She's leaving her own wake of broken weapons and burnt tentacles as she advances on the Caduceus to try and match Azora. If she can just get there first, she can keep it safe, or at least intercept her sister before she can grab it.
I realized that I can't remember my conditions from before, which is why I haven't been listing them. I think Annalee had CREEP, WHIPPED, and one more?
Annalee considers whether she might just explode from the frustration of this. Doubly so because somehow G'eldriia had lapped her and gone in ahead. That was injustice enough and now this idiotic sphinx wanted to stop her here. Oh, when she got just a little more magic, she was going to rain fire on this whole place. Even the moat. Especially the moat. For the moment she just seethed, thought about it a little, and came to her answer.
"That's not...even a riddle. I'm just...ugh I cannot even. Okay, ugh, first, I do not care, like, at all. Second, let's cut to the chase, okay? Here you go, they're perfectly fashionable and you look great in them. There I answered, can we skip to the part where you let me in now?"
The first time this had all happened, Kazelia had been so afraid. She had been helpless. Really helpless. With someone who cared nothing for her well-being and kept her alive and intact primarily because it would make Azora's dealings with Father slightly more convenient. That was terrifying. It was part of why she'd been so ready to use all her power when Ninian had tried to capture her. It wasn't until her dealings with Kyouko and a very different sort of Hyperborean attitude towards kidnappings that Kazelia would even contemplate the idea that some people found this sort of thing fun. (Recalling recent conversations, a tiny part of Kazelia's mind took this moment to wonder whether Alina would enjoy being upside down in shadow shackles.)
For a long, long time, there had been a true difference in the nature of their power between Azora and the other sisters. Morgina's elevation was a Hyperborea innovation, and Eska's seemed to be of her own making and even more recent. Most of their existence, Azora had been the special sister both in power and in treatment. They were linked, Kazelia thought. A tracing back to that most ancient time when they had all left together and Azora alone had been proud to be with their father as the others marched begrudgingly into the snow and the cold. Was it that moment that Oberon had given something special to Azora? Some greater glimpse of his own power and essence? Or was that merely the moment he had favored her, offering greater training and knowledge over time until she had gained a nature beyond that of her sisters?
The differences started subtly, at any rate. Azora had always been prone to casual demands and the younger siblings at hopping up in response. But when that they had come to that second world with its sun-dappled glades and large trees the size of church towers, Azora had shown a new sort of power. Once, Kazelia had been dancing between missions, for parts of her heart still sang to her that long ago, and she had ignored something Azora had shouted to her. Then, all at once, she had been off her feet, as she was now, and Azora had been holding Kazelia without any need to touch her, some well of dark magic offering her strength greater even than Kaja. She walked differently after that, then she began to float. She saw things differently, like she was looking at the world overlaid on a grid with extra information that nobody else could reach. She thought grander plans and experimented with bigger creations. She started training her own witches, Kazelia among them. And of all these things Oberon approved and nodded, for he saw in his daughter a growth that would aid him and that was absolutely loyal to him. He could thus allow it to flourish because it was, first and foremost, his.
Let us go back to this moment though. Somewhere over the course of Hyperborea, Kazelia had become on a level with beings like Oberon and with Mother. Not entirely their equal, but playing on the same field so to speak. She was not just Kazelia anymore. She was the light of Argossa. She was the ancient song. She was Mother's gracious host. She was an open heart filled with the firmament and the void balanced around the essence that was herself. She was even, beyond all those other things, a princess who had learned from one of her friends that sometimes being captured was just about the best place you could be.
So this time, instead of begging, she looked at Azora from her upside-down little hanging place with calm eyes that weren't Rider eyes. And she said "would you like to sing with me, sister, while we wait? I don't think we're alone here." And as she has done oft of late, she hums a wordless but merry little tune to pass the time. This one has distant sounds of gallops through the forest and old dances in sun-washed meadows. For a moment, at least until their lovely host arrives, Azora and Kazelia's hearts will be connected. What's that like for Azora, who sees the depths of Mother, the stone and birch of Argossa, and the light that animates Hyperborea all mixed up in there?
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