[b]Sayanastia![/b]

I have been. Very patient. With you. I have given you battles to face, made room for your grand and marvelous sulking, and kept an eye on you and the other Handmaidens, since I can tell that there's still something interesting here that we're not quite done with. But spiting [i]me[/i], after all the hard work I have done not getting into fights? Bad girl! No treats for you!

But at the same time, I'm not going to hold your head under reality in order to gently persuade you to behave. Despite the chance that you might have tried to sink down with Hazel, I'm not about to let you leave on your own. Not when your presence still makes things so exciting! Imagine what we'd miss if we lost your insight into the coming war between the Church and the Khaganate.

No. I have a better fate in mind for you, as my light mingles with that of Hazel Valentine Fletcher.

[b]YOU HAVE LOST YOUR ADULTING PRIVILEGES, LITTLE MISS.[/b]

[hr]
[b]Yuki![/b]

You are witness to the shrinking, petulant dragon beside you: emptiness becoming compressed, compact, fun-sized, bullyable. I shine like the sun. I shine like the moon. My light envelops Hazel and he is lost in the radiance, that reality-making light which insists that we continue enjoying this strange little world.

I hope you have enjoyed it, by and by. You were such a lovely heroine last time, and you're up to more than even I expected. Well done with Aria - she would have been a dreadful threat, otherwise. But don't give me that look! Or, do, I suppose- oh. Oh [i]no.[/i] What is this urge to be polite? What have you done, Hazelkins?

[hr]
[b]Hazel![/b]

Er. Um. So I do need to let you know up front that while I have taken on some of the, well, metaphysical [i]qualities[/i] of you, and I didn't mean to do that, and there's probably a way to undo it or just let it wear off after a while, and I promise I'm not going to transform into you or anything, that would be weird, right? But you're, well, I'm afraid that you've just taken on some of the metaphysical qualities of [i]me.[/i]

I shrink down to the size of Keli and Seli. Not too far removed from them, in fact, but I'm less, um. See, you'd be really awkward about having [i]curves,[/i] and I'm like you right now, so I'm all lanky and nervous and I'm [i]sweating,[/i] Hazel, and if you don't mind me saying so, this is your fault? All of you are going to think I'm [i]gross[/i] for sweating, when I've just been exerting myself magically and otherwise, and I do very much hope that this is reversible soon! Because! Otherwise, this would be very mean to me! Why do I feel the sudden sense that something being good is actually horribly underwhelming and it has to be Perfect?

But you, Hazel - you're now buoyed up and boyed up and, well, [i]Aestivali[/i]'d up with the light of the False Fire, the Hidden Aunt, the Veiled Star. Me. A light of tricks and deceptions and lies and pranks and entertainment. Do you think you could, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, do something with that? Something useful, maybe? I only ask because all of us are right now in the midst of the Rot Star's forest beyond the proper edges of Thellamie and that is a very bad place to suddenly get lost until I remember myself properly again so if you really don't mind I'd appreciate it awfully if you could consider making use of it?

[hr]
[b]oh heck and beans it's Eclair Espoir[/b]

Um uh um I really should have started this by paying attention to you oh [i]no[/i]

The thing is you're really cool and I'm your biggest fan and I've been cheering for you to somehow unravel the mystery this whole time and I knew this moment would require proper attention but then the thing with Hazel happened and now, gosh, okay, I can do this, right, so, you're here with Mayzie, and actually, as a treat, she takes your hand properly. In her eyes, caution wars with the same fire I feel whenever you do the thing with the skateboard and the air combos and you just knocked Timtam, who is blessed by [i]me,[/i] out and I'm still cheering for you! Woo!

But yes Mayzie. "We need to get her help first," she says, practicality winning out over the desire to go and punch the Khatun in her face, which probably wouldn't end well for her, given that the Khatun is an acolyte of Demon Queen Miaou, and I think that's come up already in the story? I'm fairly sure this is information which you either have, by this point, or have suspected. I might be misdirection and tricks and japes but Miaou's just angy, angy, [i]angy[/i]. She did not adjust anywhere as well to being down here as [i]I[/i] did, thank you very much, if you don't mind the brag. "Then we can take this straight to the top!" It's a silly phrase, the sort of thing that's said by detective-heroines in thriller novels, but think about the top, think about the sorts of tops involved here: not just the top of the Mansion, your lovely half-sleeping dragons, but the top of the Church and the top of the Khaganate. Who might be willing to listen to you now? Who might best be able to stop a war?

The Mansion is on a defensive footing, and active maid deployment might flare things up in a way you're probably hoping to avoid right now. The Church is now missing their goddess and might be acting rather irrationally for them, if they don't mind me saying so - they're usually a lot more sober than this. And the Khaganate is all might-makes-right and if anyone could challenge the Khatun, they'd be in charge.

...are you thinking what I might be thinking? It's crazy, but it just might work...