Do you see? Alina is crying again. Darn it all, she's crying [i]again[/i]. And she's laughing too, through her gag and everything. What else is she supposed to do, when her heart is overflowing like this? She twists on the spot, all sniffley chokey sobby happy [i]relieved[/i], just enough to be facing Rita as she hurls through the air toward her. The yowls of a cat become her name. Her tiny kitten body shines with light that's never needed to sit on a crown as she grows larger and larger and gets closer and closer. You need arms for proper hugging, after all. All the power of cat and girl collides with Alina Cascade and bowls her clean over, jerking the leash out of Cassian Fleet's surprised hand as the pair of them go tumbling end over end across the floor. Do you see? The Gold of Queen Halcyon is riding a storm of magic. Everywhere it flits it whispers, "You are safe. I am here beside you, you are safe." With a crack like fresh thunder it raises up a glittering wall in the shape of a seven petaled flower that saves Dandy from a horrible black spear with wicked barbs that must surely steal the beauty from whatever they pierce forever. It scatters in a golden wave of freesia blossoms and sweeps up the sword that splits the skies to bury it harmlessly point down into the ground. It wraps around Jessamine just in time to melt the blade of the wonder knife that is called Yearning before it can carve her heart empty once again. She immediately follows up with a flip kick to Oberon's jaw that carries her somersaulting away from his retaliatory grasp. Do you see? Clever kitty claws have pulled Alina's gag free and cut the ropes and ribbons that bound her arms. The bouquet of ice flowers shatters into a hundred pieces beneath them. Where the light catches them, they glitter with a radiance unseen even in the likes of Hyperborea. There is such beauty in these fragments. Even wrapped in all this cold cruelty, there is so much beauty in everything that made it here across the endless Void and over the back of Ouroboros. Why should it not have a home here, if only it can learn to share of the endless bounty of this wonderful world instead of taking and taking and leaving none for those who came before. Every daughter has a home here. Every son, if they but learn to ask. Every weary traveler from across the starry skies may stay, and rest, and feast, and love here for all their days. Though perhaps... Do you see? Gold is making mockery of the treasury of Oberon Greymane, the supposed High King of Hyperborea. Everywhere it blazes it turns aside another stolen treasure from a lost and mournful world. And now when it does so, Gold twists itself into the shape of that whip, that bow, that sword, that staff, a perfect golden copy of the thing it crushes to the earth. Do not think yourself special, O King! You have no treasure so unique I cannot match it! And you, who prize the taking of things above all, will [i]never[/i] wield any of your precious baubles with the kind of power that could match ME! How could you hope to? You have not put in the barest amount of practice or shown the meanest amount of love to any of your wonders compared with the effort my precious and beloved Alina has shared with hers. See where your path has led you? Even a silly tickle-fighter like her has the power to stand against you! Do you see? Alina has her arms wrapped tight around Rita. She is squeezing too hard for her girlfriend to be able to finish unchaining her ankles. Is now the time for this? With Garthim swarming all around her, she pulls her Rita tight against her until their chests kiss and their hearts beat against each other's. She rakes her hands across Rita's back, scratches up her neck, and runs them through her sweet smelling hair. She pulls her precious treasure's forehead close against her own and squeezes her eyes shut in mimicry of Rita's happy squint to block off her tears and let herself be filled in body and soul with the beautiful sound of purring. Do you see? Though doom draws closer all around them, their eyes are shut to all the world outside of this tight embrace. Alina's lips part and brush against Rita's with a kiss softer than the dawning sun. They linger there a moment longer, then press together once again. Alina steals a breath from Rita, and parts with a delirious giggle. Rita sobs and steals it right back. They kiss again. And again. With hands exploring ears or necks or the contours of a perfect, lovely jaw. They kiss in that way that anyone should be embarrassed to do in front of others, made heedless by their love. The space where lips separate is filled with silly, teasing licks, and then they dive deep again and drown inside each other. Do you see? They pull apart at last, and it's hard to say who is crying harder than the other. Alina's hands are shaking as she sets her empty crown atop her head. She needs it there. She can't free her treasures without it. Her fingers are trembling so much she can barely tie the promise band around Rita's wrist. She almost drops the ring. Twice. Where did all her grace get to when she needed it the most? She can't even get it on Rita's finger; she has to hand it to her and press her palm closed around it instead. "MARRY ME!" her two words sing out through the whole of Argossa. No one here can miss them. "I... Lina?" "Marry me!" she says again, "I never want to be apart from you! I want to do the Summer and Winter! Or the, the Winter and Summer! Spring and... oh, who cares! I'll live in a closet for the rest of my life if it means I can be with you!" Do you see? Are you watching, do you see? Rita gasps. She mews where there ought to be words, and then she laughs where there should be tears, and... oh! Oh! She's nodding! That means yes! She's nodding her head and saying yes! And none of this is how either of them dreamed that it would be. Nor is this the right time for any of it. But none of that matters. Perfect or imperfect, right time or wrong one, this is the only way it could ever have happened. It has to be now, because there might never be a later. There are princesses to thwart him and a shining light sending him into an impossible rage, but Oberon is mighty and his Garthim are unstoppable, and all around. And even should he lose that might still be the end of everything, if the tree is too far gone, if the heart of Hyperborea goes quiet, if, if, if... That's why, do you see? Now is the time for lovers to love. Now is the time to say the words that need to be said and not hold back at all. Because now is the only time there is. "I love you!" "I love you!" "I'm yours!" "I'm [i]yours![/i]"