A part of Kathelia is thrilled at this turn of events. Kyouko was cutting the metaphorical Gordion knot here (hopefully not the real one though, that poor gremlin!). Hogarth's House of Hot Hams was still on the right side up part of the market, so they weren't even halfway through, never mind the backtracking. Just on this block alone there was Charlie's Checkered Cheeses and Marybelle's Mystical Menagerie and Merry-go-round, which had keys attached to some of the horses and required checking. (No Kathelia wasn't disappointed that this turn of events might mean she wouldn't get to ride the merry-go-round, shut up internal brain voice.) 

Another part of her was feeling sad though. A whole mixed bundle of sadness. She liked this part of Eupheria's weird labyrinth. Her nightmare creatures were...well, not really that nightmarish. More outlandish than the typical Hyperborean resident, but compared to everything out there in the universe, they were perfectly fine. They were running shops here, doing business, being friendly. Kathelia felt like she was back in Jedad. The scents of exotic spices tickled her nose and even the cheese looked like it was flavored with some kind of spicy peppers, a big wheel outside the shop had little flecks of red running through it like tiny spicy grains of sand. Even if Eupheria personally was being a total meanie-head, that didn't mean all her creatures were all the time. They had a life and independence of their own, which really shouldn't have been that surprising. Eupheria [i]was[/i] creative. Mean, as established, but she was obviously putting her heart and soul into all of this, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that her creations had heart and soul all their own.

"Kyouko, don't!" she shouted, as loud as she could manage through her braces and everything else. Ugh, why was this curse so frustrating? She was starting to see the shape of it though. The Caduceus was a reality warper, it changed the terrain, but that was a surface level thing (she tried not to smile at her own pun). It seemed like what it was really doing was changing the role of things according to the bearer's will. Eupheria saw Kathelia's role as a know-it-all and so it shaped her slowly but surely into that role as Eupheria saw it for her theater. It shaped Alina into the role of the cat that she was playing and Adila to the dog. Even a whole bazaar shifted towards Eupheria's imaginings and the creatures she made to fill it were filling holes in her imagination, making the place according to her vision. 

It was breathtaking, addictive in a way that Kathelia could appreciate as she started to understand Ourania's warning. Even someone of the purest intentions couldn't help but think of the ways that everyone around her ought to fit into the way she imagined them. It was the nature of every being with a mind to do it. Perhaps the Caduceus had once been safe for some devil grandmother who was already used to the world being mutable to her will and had the iron focus to live in that manner. She almost laughed though. For Oberon, oh for Oberon it would be nothing. Worse than nothing. He, of all people in the grand and vast universe could not conceive of anything acting beyond his control. If he held the Caduceus, the world would turn to icy stillness anywhere that he didn't immediately focus. She'd have to tell Azora, she wondered if Daddy's little girl would be so eager knowing that even she would be lost the second his attention strayed from her. 

And none of this was solving her immediate problem at all! But, it was helping. It was helping her focus and see the inhabitants of the labyrinth bazaar differently. As people. She turned to look at the centaur and the little gremlins. "I'll...I'll sthtop my friend from hurting anyone. Don't worry, okay? She's jutht cranky because it'th hot and we're worried. Your mathter, she's changing uth in wayths that we don't like, that hurt uth. I know she made you all thith wonderful plathe, and I bet you really enjoy her showth too, right? I don't want to change that. I jutht want to save my friendth and help her too. I think Eupheria ith really hurting. Tho...uh...do you think you could...maybe...help uth find our way patht the next door and I'll get Kyouko to sthop making thilly threatth?"

[Talk Sense with Wisdom: Alas 1+3+1=5. And the curse advances again.]