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?