Anarion

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

It was...another book. Hidden in a secret compartment. Kazelia looks disappointed. “Another book? You’ve got an entire library, and yet you went ‘oh I know, I’ll stick something in my secret compartment because I’m just out of room for books now?’” Kazelia rolls her eyes, kicks the elven sage again for good measure and picks up the book to take a look at what the big deal is, since she’s standing right there.

“No dont!” Azora shouts, but Kazelia has already flipped it open, too late, too late. You see, the sage was doing a better job than Kazelia had been giving him credit for. He had been napping the stars every night for a long time on his little world. Where they were. And...where they weren’t. This book was a book of absences, a chronicle of the spaces in the void. And as such it was an attempt to give shape to the shapeless, to map the nothingness that was and was not Mother void all at once.

When this had happened the first time, Kazelia had found herself standing before Mother. This had been the moment when she had lost the stars, traded them for a piece of that great darkness that she could call her own. Her magic had grown here, moved past parlor tricks to that great and terrible darkness that had sat within her all that time. And then Azora had snatched the book from her hands before she learn more, had sent Kazelia flying away from that book and pinned her to a wall with invisible bonds of force. She had left Kazelia like that, arms and legs splayed out in a V shape above and below her. Then Azora had murdered the elf and wiped the minds of every member of Kazelia’s unit present there. She had left her sister alone in that place for a full nigjt, until her magic had worn off with the wan, pale sunrise on that dying world.

Things might be a little different this time though. After all, Mother is already here and Kazelia’s heart and soul are different. Perhaps nothing happens when she touches that book. Or perhaps she relives that memory and she’s ready for Azora this time, conscious of herself in two different planes at once. Or perhaps she knows better than to pick it up at all this time and bows subserviently to her sister at the last moment instead. What do you think?

Masks: Resurrection Roundabout

The @Sarasylph post was an emotional rollercoaster.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kazelia gives the elf a kick and then uses her newly positioned toe to unceremoniously roll him over. He curls up in his brown cloak, instinct leading him to try and shelter himself in the only way he still can. Kazelia frowns in disgust, but doesn't kick him any further. If he blacks out, he'll be of even less value than he current is, if such a thing were even possible.

"I cannot for the life of me understand how these people can call you a 'sage' when all you've got are a handful of spyglasses and a few shelves of dusty books. You haven't even managed to map the void correctly, and this list of so-called 'constellations' is worthless. I can only assume you're hiding something, so I'm going to give you one last chance to tell me what you've really been doing here. I hope for your sake that you've got something to offer. My sister is far less kind than I am, and you'll wish I'd simply stabbed you long before she's done."

Azora had always been creative. In her punishments, of course, but really in everything. Kazelia didn't really remember a time before traveling in service to Oberon, but somehow she knew that Azora had been the first of them to learn how to cook own and for a time she had done all the cooking for the whole family because she was a wizard in the kitchen. She kept coming up with new combinations of spices and making all sorts of cakes and pies that even delighted Oberon. Kazelia couldn't have told you this now, but it was one of the few times that he had genuinely smiled in those days, a strange delight in the actual thing mixed with a sense of possession in this, a most ingenious daughter who was completely his lighting up his face in those moments. Briefly, of course. Oberon was never content with his things.

That vague memory just made Kazelia more frustrated here. Azora was busy directing the searchers and Kazelia was confident her sister would find something of value in this idiotic observatory. The idea that Azora could have directed them somewhere that was a waste of time didn't even cross Kazelia's mind (it might have a few hundred years prior, but after spending a month with only one arm while the other sat perfectly preserved in the freezing void she had been convinced never to think it again). Instead, Kazelia's rising worry was that she would fail to produce anything useful and Azora would have to be the one to find value in the place herself. That would lower Kazelia in her sister's estimation, perhaps even cause her to lose favor as the second-best in favor of Eska or perhaps Morgina. Azora had always liked Morgina for her loyalty. That wasn't acceptable when Kazelia was this close to another lesson on matter-shaping from such a master.

The elf groaned and Kazelia used a magical wind to lift him up, not deigning to touch him herself. "Tell me now, or you will greatly regret it."

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

Have some tasty Baba Yaga background while Annalee prowls.

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

Annalee is beginning to wonder just how one normally gets into Sleepshy Academy. Baba Sockolov had flown her into the castle the first time (she was absolutely going to learn how to mount a cauldron properly, but Baba insisted that she needed to gain her freshmen fifteen first, otherwise the cauldron would laugh and just throw her off of it because her thighs weren't strong enough). Right, castle entrance. How did the people who couldn't fly get inside?

She starts circling. She hopes maybe G'eldriia heard her and will know a way in now that she's not worried about avoiding the Angel. The spider quiz captain seemed entirely motivated by avoiding punishment as much as possible, so doing exactly what the Angel wanted seemed like it would be right up her alley. If not, Annalee was pretty done with her for now, and was simply going to walk away and circle the place. No way was she climbing those slippery stones, she'd had enough injuries already and she bruised very easily (this was also a reason Baba said she couldn't fly a cauldron yet).

Ugh, this was so frustrating. She finally had a bead on Timmy and it had been RIGHT WHERE SHE WAS. Oh she was going to get whoever had been hiding him, mark her words. She just needed to find a way into this dumb castle. If she didn't find something soon, she was going to have to just blow a hole into the dungeons.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Beautiful. I have absolutely no idea which things Kazelia had used already, since we didn't rest and I didn't double check on the refresh gear option coming to Jedad before we lost access to the character sheets.

If memory serves, I refreshed her staff of protection, so that's 2/2. Used 1 food, so that's 1/2. Have 2/2 healing still (I think...), and 0/2 wizardly baubles because Morgina Fang is a big meanie.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kazelia hovers in her unique stillness. It's not dissimilar to watching the world from outside of it, which she's done, what, twice now? Once astride Shiva when she was a great star-filled steed of the night, watching the fight between Oberon and Ourania from a perch in the night sky. And then once again when she had slipped Oberon's clutches and gone outside. Funny, Ourania had been there too, and she and Oberon had fought again, with Ourania's resplendent soul on full display for the viewer who stood on the outside of the veil.

This, then, made for quite the pity. She wasn't truly outside and Ourania was very much not here, she was simply enveloped in a unique silence that offered her clarity in the moment. That single moment hung suspended in the air like a crystal chandelier: the bells striking the whole world, Alina landing in the cactus patch full of joy, Adila hovering with her paws up in that oddly helpful way that put Kazelia in mind of a friendly puppy.

Then the moment shattered, and Kazelia was moving as fast as she had ever moved in her life. She leaped from the balloon and kicked Shiva forward with a rainbow glimmer of crystal wings. The winds were all at her back now and she was less a rider on a Pegasus than she was her own miniature sandstorm hurtling into the clock tower with the oddly light tinkling of sand flying past glass, though it's anyone's guess if a single other person besides Kazelia can hear anything right now.

She's chasing Azora, flying in headfirst to where or...whenever that portal was going. To Eupheria? To many Eupherias? She tried to remember what Ourania had said, and she remembered too that Hyperborea had its special share of impossible things: devil manses and sealed tombs, and that she should not think this so odd in such a world.

She trusted the others would follow. She trusted them, more than she'd trusted anyone. At least since...since the first time, since she had once trusted Azora, years ago, worlds ago, in a time when they'd both danced in sun dappled groves and even Oberon hadn't truly known himself yet.