[i]"Eeeeek! Somebody, please, save me!"

The helpless Princess Stellabrande squirms against the totally incapacitating plush serpents wrapped around her forearms and kicks out at one of the vicious velvet squids approaching her. You can tell that she's a princess in need of saving because she's got a spare tiara on her head instead of a headdress. And, oh, goodness, how she squirms against those serpents, sent by Poseidon in his most wrathful aspect! Won't anyone save her? Won't anybody at all?

"I'm here!" The fabulous swashbuckling Princess Redana charges into the room, grinning. She sets about her with her training foil, dealing the velvet squids devastating blows! One! Two! Her sword sings as Stellabrande gasps excitedly. "Don't worry, princess, I'm here to save you!"

"My hero," Stellabrande says, smiling shyly. "So, what happens next?" she asks, as Redana unwinds the no-longer-resisting stuffed animals from around those white-furred wrists.

"Well, usually the princesses kiss," Redana says casually. Princess Stellabrande looks very carefully nonchalant as her tail stiffens. "And then Aphrodite warns them about danger and they have to run off together! And usually the running tires them out and so they have to sleep together."

"Well, you, you should let me go first!" Stellabrande says, her smile very big and not panicked at all. She takes Redana's non-dominant hand and gives the back a demure kiss. "You're my hero, Redana..."[/i]

***

For once, Zeus heeds the prayer of this humble Servitor. Even as the Nemean's hand slips underneath Bella's skirt, cradling the base of her tail (right where it's ticklish), the doors to the Seventh Dimension begin to open. Being so close is a terrible miracle: it is like an infinity of mirrors unfolding, cold and sharp. Ozone curls from the Nemean, and she raises her head and barks at the sky: [b]"I'm not done yet, father!"[/b]

But it's too late. Bella falls from her hands and the cards are shuffled again, time and space correcting themselves as Redana stumbles out and collapses into Bella's arms, groaning in pain. Her journey to the couch of the Moirae only postponed her pain; the Fates did nothing to alleviate her suffering. The Princess is returned, and in a moment her blessed nanites will begin their work again to try and force her back up onto her feet, but right now she has collapsed insensate, head lowered and weight all on Bella, dazed and swooning.