Anarion

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

It amused Kazelia in light of the last adventure that the first thing that came to her head was the analysis. Her eyes hadn't changed because she had absorbed Mother into herself and she was infused with the energy of the void, the essence of what made a Rider and why travel between the stars was so dangerous. It wasn't something that could just be gone, it was already nothing, even its absence was something. Eupheria's curses had been really good that way. Bringing out a little piece of what was inside people, playing it up, making it take over every other part of them. She wondered, for a very brief moment, if Alina wanted to be a cat sometimes. Maybe she'd ask later, that would be fun.

This wasn't the time for that kind of theory though. That wasn't what Azora was really asking. Kazelia looked at her with those starry eyes. "Azora, my eyes didn't change because Mother and I agreed to stay together. She's right here with me. She's seeing the world through my heart. I've done a lot since we've been apart. I've felt things that I didn't think I could ever feel again." She puts her hand on Azora's, a gentle touch. It's not like a Rider's, it has that Rider chill but an odd warmth to it too, not frigid like a normal Rider, but rather like a spring breeze over a melted river. And under that, Azora's hand is warm, full of life that she hasn't had in so many ages uncounted that she forgot what she's feeling. She, more than any of the others had wanted to forget.

Kazelia turns to Ninian, hand still on Azora's. "Let her answer. There's a whole world out here, and I'm guessing you might have a few ideas." Kazelia turns her Ninian as she's speaking, addressing her with a warm smile. "What do you think you'd like to do Nins? It doesn't have to be something you're sure about, and don't worry if it's a little embarrassing, we won't judge, not even Azora."

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

"Yeah, crazy. Beyond my wildest dreams." Kazelia smiles and cuts herself a slice of her own sausage, which she eats with a little couscous and butter. It's delicious, hearty fare, spiced with a bit of chili from the Bazaar and it makes her feel alive as she swallows it. She looks at Azora, studiously not looking back at her. "You know one thing I love about Hyperborea? It's got competition but it's not about competition the way that our lives used to be. With Father, it always felt like we had to compete, there was that fear that if you weren't the best, or weren't doing enough, you'd be abandoned. I always worried that all the nice things I wanted would go to somebody else if I didn't make him proud. Here though, it's not like that. There are contests, sure. Princesses compete to see who's fastest or strongest, who's the most graceful or the best craftswoman. But if you're not those things, they don't mock you or ridicule you. Instead they help you find the things you are good at and the things that make your heart fill with light and a smile creep onto your face. I'd forgotten that I love to sing and dance before I came here."

Kazelia takes another bite. Chews, swallows, takes a drink of some spiced wine to go with it. Then she looks at Ninian, not Azora. Starting the conversation first. "what do you think you want to do, Nins?"

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kazelia's sudden hug feels like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket after a long, hard day. She might be soaked through from the rain and the waterfall, she might still be a little cold, but the joy radiating from her is so strong that it overcomes everything else. Eupheria's sudden defeat was a whooping, singing triumph. Alina's landing is relief so thick that it seems for a moment as though Kazelia would collapse entirely if she were not leaning into Alina for support.

Jessamine is right there with her and follows the same cue, joining the hug wordlessly. It's almost a mirror of Jessamine's miracle in Jedad, but Kazelia isn't standing off to the side keeping guard this time, she's right there with everyone. They hold Alina tightly, gently, wordlessly, for as long as it's possible to hold a breath. And then...no this isn't like the series of thefts earlier. This isn't the moment where Jess takes advantage of vulnerability to grab the Cadeuceus or Kazelia magically yanks it from a relaxed hand. This is the moment where Kazelia lets out her breath and smiles and looks Alina right in the eyes. "I'm so glad you stayed. I'm so glad. You're not weak, Alina. You're strong. You're so strong. The strongest princess here. Stronger than anyone! You were strong enough to take the Caduceus and strong enough to ask for help giving it up."

Kazelia draws her cloak over it, over Alina's arm. She's still holding it, but for a moment nobody can see anything but the shape of the staff beneath the dark silver birch of the soaking wet Argossian fabric. Maybe it's imagination, but maybe for a moment that makes things easier, makes the Caduceus a little bit more quiet in Alina's mind as it's hidden beneath something made of the great tree that marks the very center of Hyperborea and whose roots reach beneath them, even here. Kazelia leans her head into Alina. "I can't promise you'll never be cold or that things won't be hard. But...knowing what that feels like is what sweetens the joys of the world. Knowing pain is how we grow and gain wisdom. When I...when I said I admired you in the hot springs in Alvonia..." Kazelia blushes at bringing this up in front of Jessamine but presses on, "...um, I didn't really understand you then. But I do now. You're strong because you hurt so much. Because you keep pressing on and never give up even though you're hurting so much. That's why, that's why I know you're going to do something no princess has ever done and let go of the Caduceus. Then we're going to wrap it up here and find a way to make it safe so nobody else has to go through this again. How does that sound?"

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

DARKEST SELF

Annalee looks quite taken aback (she turns Carmen so she'll notice too). "I did need a reason to curse you before, and that reason was that I was in the presence of a vampire. I mean really, Timmy, I was interrupting your one on one session with that vampire the other night, you're being very silly not remembering. Unless today was a big act, you obviously don't want to be with him, so I'd think you'd be more grateful!" She gives a slight huff.

"Yes, I did have to curse you at his request, but he's powerful and can hypnotize people, and I had to protect my own life once you'd escaped! Protecting life is the most important thing there is, Timmy! And really, I can use magic, but it's not very different from little Carmen here..." she hefts Carmen for emphasis "who's spent years training to be able to fight monsters and has picked up lots of skills and powers as a result. I'm sure she could manage a few curses with the right enchanted item, herself. And I'm sure that if you all come inside I can help lift her curse and we can sort this all out. Now there's a good boy, hmm?" She leans over and lifts Timmy's chin a little so he can look in her eyes and see what an honest, pure soul she's being.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

She wanted to sing. Alina was so beautiful. So incredibly, painfully beautiful. Kazelia wanted to sing her praises forever and exalt her in the halls of the greatest princesses in all the universe. But she knew it was a lie. Mother knew, she had been railing against everything the Caduceus made since they first got here because none of it was true. The Caduceus was an overlay that fell over people, a cheat from the devils that simply altered reality. But Mother knew that cheating wasn't truth. Magic might be someone's truth (it was probably a part of how Kazelia's was expressed, likely Azora's as well) but changing yourself with magic never changed your truth.

Also, all that philosophical reflection aside, Kazelia wanted her friend back. The happy ending here wasn't replacing one Caduceus wielder with another, distant and open only to worship and painting reality as her canvas. A happy ending was having her friend back and saving the world from Oberon and mad devil things alike!

That's why Kazelia's answer to this wasn't to raise her spear or gesture for Kyouko to use her ninja tools (don't think she wasn't paying attention). Instead it was to drop that spear and let the rainwater run over it without any steam hissing up from its fire. It was to stand beneath Alina and raise her arms in a gesture of begging and just say one thing. "I stopped singing because I don't want to lose my friend, Alina. Please, come back to us. To me."

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

[Keep cool 4+4+2=10]

Annalee, impatient with luxuriating on Elodie's bed, pulls the door open. Out jumps the pig and Annalee catches her in her arms and gives her a little noogie. "Who's a cute little pig, Carmen? Is it you? It is you! You're very cute." She lifts Carmen up and holds her, then gives her a hug because she is a cute little piggy and she deserves hugs. This is probably not going the way that Carmen expected, but Annalee is practically aglow so good is she feeling.

That does leave the little matter of Timothy Oglevee Crompton though. "Timmy dear" she says, turning Carmen around in her arms so that Timmy can look at the pig. "I asked you to watch this little fellow and what do I find when I open the door? She's running around loose and jumping all over the place. I appreciate your patience, you're welcome to come in now, but I think you need to explain yourself or you're going to be in a great deal of trouble."

[Question to the MC (from the 10+ cool roll): How could Annalee get Carmen to like her (and stop trying to kill her)?]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Were they still in the Bazaar after all this? Cool clear water flowed downwards and Kazelia (Kazelia!) had to try and remember that they weren't in the heart of the Illumina that had once been. A little part of her heart came free with the flowing water. All the nerves and energy that she'd been saving up, all the burdens of the world that she had been trying to shoulder, thinking that her curse was somehow more tolerable than those of her friends. Ha! Alina had done it, they were all free and her mind felt clear.

With a whoop that burst like a thunderhead, Kazelia jumped into the air and thrust her spear skyward as sparkling raindrops tinkled along its length and wet her tongue. She twirled amidst the rain and laughed in her own voice. Her voice! It was clear! It was loud! Its echo bounced around the glass room like sparkling crystal in the heart of the rainfall and joined hands with her laughter to dance among the rafters and soar to the glittering clouds.

She sang a few words experimentally. "A summer rain came calling. Playing peek-a-boo with the summer sun. It sparkled out like diamonds, falling softer than fresh down. The sun thought this delightful, and laughed a merry song. It tried to glimpse the ground below, though it hadn't rained for long. What do you suppose, the sun song down below? Why a truth that every child knows the sun had just now seen: sunlight in petrichor times means rainbows come to gleam!"

The joy in her heart was infectious, and every princess in the hall would feel for a moment as though their heart wanted to join in the same silly song. It was only at the end as she laughed again that she saw Alina still above them, and still holding the Caduceus even though her task was done. Only then that a little shadow of doubt started to creep up to Kazelia and she started racing along the wet floors to get below her friend and call to her. "Alina, you can come down now!" She shouted and waited for a response.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

She can't win. Kathelia's a know it all. She doesn't have Hornet's inventions (and even with Hornet using them, she can see that this is a mess). She doesn't have Alina's grace. She doesn't have Helya's competition genius (and the new princesses don't even look like they're cursed yet, Eupheria must not have been accounting for their arrival).

Kathelia's got a keen mind though. Even if she can't win herself, she can be a queen-maker. She can give Adila a chance. The moment is there. She knows Adila can't hold onto the Caduceus, maybe nobody here can, save perhaps Mother, and on the order of extremely bad plans, handing the staff of pure creativity to the void of pure destruction was a real list topper. But chaos was a good state of things, and better by far than Eupheria's controlled chaos. They needed to shake her.

So, she did the only thing she could and sent Euphie a direct magical broadcast from across the room. "Eupheria, I got Alina back from your doorth" she brags, her voice broadcast by magic right to Eupheria's ears (there's no way she could shout above this normally). "I sthtopped my thithter from falling into your trap. I hope you liked the drama, I did it for you. And now I'm gonna find a way to cheat your game too. All your magic'th no match for a smart princeth." She gives Eupheria a little cheshire grin, showing off her shiny braces in a way that screams come get me even though there's nothing that's putting her ahead of the princess pack. It's not about that, it's about having Eupheria look Kathelia's way for less than half a second and thinking about her and not anything else. That's all she needed to do.
[Keep busy: 4+1+2=7. It works, but there will be reprisal at the end.]

Go get her Adila.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kathelia leans against the door. She's tired and it's really, really hard for her to talk. There's so much to do. Princess Hornet would, clearly as evidenced by direct empirical observation, be exiting the giant drill that she crafted and commanded for a perfect entrance into this room. But Kathelia couldn't mimic princess Hornet when princess Hornet already that job handled. There was a ton else to do. She needed to monitor the magic and try to protect Adila (who is racing forward far too quickly and is probably going to trip her own door trap before even reaching the Caduceus if she's not careful). She needed to figure out how to protect all the other princesses who had just piled in here. She had to find some way to keep Eupheria entertained so she wouldn't come out and complicate matters. And it was extremely likely based on what had happened to Alina that both Isolde and Rita were trapped in other doors, which required identifying those doors and then determining a way to get them back (which seemed pretty hopeless if she couldn't even reach Alina, who she definitely had the strongest connection to). Plus she should try to wake up Kyouko, figure out a way to access the Caduceus, and continue working to break this curse so that she could bring her full strength to bear without distractions.

This was too much homework for one princess! So instead of doing any of those things, she procrastinated and looked back at the door where she knew Alina should be, leaning against it to catch her breath. She looked with longing because at least if this one thing worked, she felt, then everything would still be okay. Somehow.

That was when Alina burst out the door, wiping away tears with her suit sleeve. Kathelia was standing right there, so there was a bit of a tumble, although somehow Alina landed perfectly while Kathelia picked herself off. The little yellow and orange lights were already rushing over to Alina and Kathelia had just a moment to exult! "I knew it! Magically attuned, but the door material wasn't sthtructured to keep regular thoundth! This meanth we need to thave Rita and your Momma, they're in other doorth I think!"

If Alina was back, she was safe until Eupheria changed the conditions. The same door trap wouldn't work on her and she wouldn't be attuned to any of the others, so she was the best person to make an approach on the Caduceus. But, Kathelia had to warn Alina what was happening. She tried to pull her aside and speak really fast before something bad happened. "The roomth trapped, only you're thafe thinth you got out! But Eupheria'th here, behind the thtaff. And, and Rita and your Momma are in thome other doorth I think. But nobody elth but you can go look."

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Stars sparkle in front of Kathelia's eyes. Not the Rider stars, just little bursts in her vision as she tries to clear her head. She had flung herself out of the way as the wall burst into shards of tinkling Illuminan glass, and she was still trying to get her vision back, furiously polishing her glasses on her dusty overalls and trying to blink away the bursting in her vision to clear it up. Kyouko is okay, she can see her and the blanket sprawled nearby, and it looks like Adila has burst right out of the drill and jumped up to Azora. She can tell that even without being able to see that well because Adila has a very distinct blurry outline. Woo, go Adila! She's super cool and it occurs to Kathelia that she should celebrate their friendship with a formal friendship contract after this.

Polish polish polish. She lowers her eyes, slips her glasses back on, blinks, looks up again. The lights are still there. They're...that's not her vision. Oh stars and void, these are Alina's lights. How did they get here and why weren't they with her?! She's starting to follow the lights, but her glance strays to everyone getting off the drill. Oh! There's princess Hornet! Oh no. W.W.H.D. has no answer for what to do when meeting Princess Hornet since Princess Hornet has never had to meet Princess Hornet (this, of course, discounts both clones and self-modeled automatons, both of which have separate response protocols). She should ask Princess Hornet what to do, but she's wheezing from all the dust and her knees are locking up and...and nobody is paying attention to the lights!

Kathelia resignedly hitches up her overall straps and resigns herself to waiting before meeting her idol, following the little lights to their door. Oh, wait, now that she's looking at the door, it occurs to her that she really ought to shout a warning to everyone else about the door traps and the fact that Eupheria is right there. But...wait if she does that Eupheria might jump out and turn her into an even tinier, muter nerd for being a spoilsport. She settles for a magical whisper carried to...well Adila because even though she's a dog right now, there's too much else going on here and she still trusts Adila to handle things right.

"Adila. Caduceus trapped. Doors trapped. Eupheria hiding here." That should be simple for a dog to get, right? Even if the dog is hearing it through a magical whisper.

It would have to do, she's shoved her way past the crystal rubble to Alina's door while everyone else is distracted and the little lights look like they're very panicked, which is not good. Hmm, Kathelia analyzes the door briefly. Despite presenting a rustic facade, this appears to be a class A-37 dimensional gate, suitable for narrow-frequency attuned resonant dimensional travel, communication, and three separate categories of scrying (though visible light divination was clearly out or Alina's lights wouldn't be blocked). Obviously Caduceus-crafted, and the seamless fitting into the temple facade was a masterwork. Eupheria clearly had an eye for detail in her pieces, nobody could take that away from her.

Okay Kathelia, stop admiring the insane princess who's trapped all your friends and figure out a way to help. Right, right. Kathelia presses against the door. Her magic wouldn't penetrate this, it wasn't attuned to her and she didn't have the time to try and figure out the right frequency to get it to Alina. It was obviously very specific or, again, her lights wouldn't be blocked like this. She'd have to rely on something more old-fashioned. Auditory bounceback scrying was in one of the likely functional categories after all.

"Alina." Kathelia's voice is hoarse and quiet. She coughs, it's so dusty. She wishes she had a glass of water. Or cookies and milk. NO, focus. "Alina, can you hear me? Itth Kathelia!" Her voice cracks when she tries to raise it. She presses on anyway. "That roomth a trap! Itth a ssss, a ssss..a unique trap jutht for you." She pauses to catch her breath, she's wheezing a little. "You have to...to come back to uth. Quick! Your lightth are here and I think thomething really badth about to happen! And I...I don't want you to be trapped. I want you to be okay. I hope you can hear me." Kathelia trails off, not sure what else to say, listening for some sign that her voice is getting through, faint though it may be.