Mittens runs. Pain and fear have driven purpose into her veins, and her heart pumps it through her entire body. Mittens runs. She drops down to all fours just to make it there that little bit faster. Mittens runs. She's whisper quiet; even if the room wasn't thundering with Rider blades and nasty taunts, you'd have to strain your ears to notice her. 

Mittens runs. Because he touched her. He [i]touched[/i] her! Her skin is crawling and her pain is ice and she has to run, has to run, has to run! But she's not the girl who collapsed into crystal guilt in Feloria. Not anymore. Mittens leaps. 

And she punches Azora Howl full in the face. That's for Rita! She doesn't say it out loud, but she thinks it very hard. The Caduceus goes tumbling out of Azora's grubby little hands, twirling through the air toward Eupheria. Mittens snatches it out of the air on a beam of yellow light without so much as turning her head. Her paws wrap around the most dangerous stick in all of Hyperborea. And she watches Azora without pity. 

"I hope... I really hope you grow a heart someday," she says as her voice trembles, "I hope it's the brightest, most beautiful, most deeply loving heart in the world. I want that for you. Because no matter how hard I try, I can't think of a single punishment that would be worse than if you really understood what a horrible person you are."

And she leaps into the air. Leashless, collarless, unowned and nothing more or less than the most powerful and most dangerous princess in the room. And, by extension, the world. Her back arches at the height of her jump, and her lights surge around her in a brilliant rainbow halo. She feels the pull inside her brain, the feeling of limitless potential and creativity. What does she want? She smiles. 

"Can you hear me, O Great Glass Roc? If you haven't flown away to better skies, if your heart and your wings still beat for this place as beautifully as I know they do, please come to us now. As Princess-Promised of Illumina, I humbly ask of you to share with us now your gift. Please, bless us with a summer rain."

Mittens lands lightly on her feet. It's quiet in the chamber. Everybody's looking at her, some with fear and some with anger, some with anticipation, and in one particularly terrifying case with patience. Does anybody look at her with hope? If they do, she doesn't notice. She's too busy looking at the sky. Waiting for the moment. Holding on with her entire heart to one singular idea. 

Thunder peals overhead. It drowns out the sound of keening blades. It smothers the sound of chains being rattled. It blankets over words and even thoughts, and fills every princess in attendance with the deep rattle and vibration of its roar. The storm is coming. It drips on every head, slowly at first. Big, cool droplets that startle you when they hit your head and splatter against your nose. One. Two. Ten. The proud cry of the Roc is even louder than the thunder. 

And then the rain begins. 

All at once the room fills with the scent of petrichor. From the east, a warm breeze wafts in and mixes with the slick, cool waters. And everywhere and everything is filled with the heartbeat of creation. And everywhere and everything is filled with the love of Alina Cascade. All around and all at once, things start to change. 

First, the paint on all the doors starts to peel. And then it starts to run, filling the little rivers that run across the ground with colors. The frames crack. And then with a loud crash, the doors split open entirely, dumping a bewildered and disoriented dancing girl and Lil' Euphie into heaps in the water. 

Next come the curses. Long suffering and freshly arrived princesses alike are washed clean. Little tufts of fur and shreds of veil wash off as easily as hair dye. Bodies stretch and grow and shrink and squish themselves back into their proper forms. Cuts weave closed, bruises fade, callouses soften, braces fall out entirely and melt away into the same prism-swirling rivulet as rainbow unicorn stickers and tacky Labazaar merchandise. 

Even thoughts come washing out in the cool refreshing waters. They drip their way across cheeks like silver tears from green eyes, golden eyes, eyes filled with stars or eyes filled with fury or eyes filled with wonder. And where those thoughts run dry they're filled up again with a sense of peace. Kindness rules here, and love. Alina's love for the rain and for the whole of Hyperborea and all the wonderful, special people living in it. A hard fought for and even harder won love that she might never have found without this journey and these wonderful people she's now sharing it with. And then, roaring up against that love like defiant campfires comes each princess' essential selves. Names come rushing back that even a moment ago felt locked behind impossible jails of fog and confusion. Rita! Kazelia! Adila! Isolde! Alina!

The noisesome Rider weapons have fallen silent. They've been knocked aside, drawn up into a river, and tossed away into a current to one day find their way to the sea, or perhaps the treasuries of the River King. He always gets his due, as they say, plus a little extra as interest. The ghostly forms of the Riders themselves evaporate into warm mist, and Oberon... Oberon? He is pushed back out the way he came, back to existing wherever he had been before that wasn't Here. This place is special. This place is not for him. 

The chains around Eupheria's wrists rust into uselessness before crumbling like old clay. But instead of stopping there, the rains keep beating down, maybe harder on her than on anyone else. Her many arms, her swirling eyes, her hair, her clothes... Euphie hasn't had a bath in years! She's had nothing to pretty herself up with but her old friend Caddy, but now the Roc has blessed her with a proper shower! What does she look like, now that she's free from the image of herself she's forced on everybody else? What's the shape of the true Eupheria?

Alina loves the rain, and her love is flowing through the Caduceus and out across the last remnants of the Roc's great storm. For her, the water that falls from the sky is the best medicine in all creation. It's a cleansing, soothing, healing salve that wipes clean the hurts of your body and your heart and refreshes you for another try and a new adventure in the morning. And finally, for once in her life, she has the power to share that feeling with everybody else. It's the thought held inside her head, the first answer to the question: what does she want? 

Up above, the rain is dribbling to a halt. Clouds part, and behind them shines a light not unlike the Sun's. The great rainbow of Illumina arches across the entire chamber. Alina spreads her arms to match it, and notices for the first time that she's standing there, not as a cat but as herself. Not in her borrowed princess-killer suit, but in her full battle regalia once again. Her eyes sweep across the room with pride as she sees each and every princess restored to their proper, deserved shape and self. Then she catches sight of Azora again, and... well. No princess can hold the Caduceus for long without giving into temptation a [i]little[/i] bit. She twirls the snakes-stick lightly in her fingers (yes, her fingers!), and pop! There's a tiny flash and then Azora's mouth is suddenly filled with the brightest, cutest, and (goodness) most enthusiastic little snakerchief anybody's ever laid eyes on. Whatever she's got to say about things right now, it can wait until Alina has comfortably fixed everything.

There's still so much that needs doing, after all. Like, in the first place she should--

[Finish Eupheria with Wisdom: [b]11[/b]. Alina has replaced the environmental trait with [i]Heal What Has Been Hurt[/i]]