Anarion

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kazelia's sudden hug feels like being wrapped in a fluffy blanket after a long, hard day. She might be soaked through from the rain and the waterfall, she might still be a little cold, but the joy radiating from her is so strong that it overcomes everything else. Eupheria's sudden defeat was a whooping, singing triumph. Alina's landing is relief so thick that it seems for a moment as though Kazelia would collapse entirely if she were not leaning into Alina for support.

Jessamine is right there with her and follows the same cue, joining the hug wordlessly. It's almost a mirror of Jessamine's miracle in Jedad, but Kazelia isn't standing off to the side keeping guard this time, she's right there with everyone. They hold Alina tightly, gently, wordlessly, for as long as it's possible to hold a breath. And then...no this isn't like the series of thefts earlier. This isn't the moment where Jess takes advantage of vulnerability to grab the Cadeuceus or Kazelia magically yanks it from a relaxed hand. This is the moment where Kazelia lets out her breath and smiles and looks Alina right in the eyes. "I'm so glad you stayed. I'm so glad. You're not weak, Alina. You're strong. You're so strong. The strongest princess here. Stronger than anyone! You were strong enough to take the Caduceus and strong enough to ask for help giving it up."

Kazelia draws her cloak over it, over Alina's arm. She's still holding it, but for a moment nobody can see anything but the shape of the staff beneath the dark silver birch of the soaking wet Argossian fabric. Maybe it's imagination, but maybe for a moment that makes things easier, makes the Caduceus a little bit more quiet in Alina's mind as it's hidden beneath something made of the great tree that marks the very center of Hyperborea and whose roots reach beneath them, even here. Kazelia leans her head into Alina. "I can't promise you'll never be cold or that things won't be hard. But...knowing what that feels like is what sweetens the joys of the world. Knowing pain is how we grow and gain wisdom. When I...when I said I admired you in the hot springs in Alvonia..." Kazelia blushes at bringing this up in front of Jessamine but presses on, "...um, I didn't really understand you then. But I do now. You're strong because you hurt so much. Because you keep pressing on and never give up even though you're hurting so much. That's why, that's why I know you're going to do something no princess has ever done and let go of the Caduceus. Then we're going to wrap it up here and find a way to make it safe so nobody else has to go through this again. How does that sound?"

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

DARKEST SELF

Annalee looks quite taken aback (she turns Carmen so she'll notice too). "I did need a reason to curse you before, and that reason was that I was in the presence of a vampire. I mean really, Timmy, I was interrupting your one on one session with that vampire the other night, you're being very silly not remembering. Unless today was a big act, you obviously don't want to be with him, so I'd think you'd be more grateful!" She gives a slight huff.

"Yes, I did have to curse you at his request, but he's powerful and can hypnotize people, and I had to protect my own life once you'd escaped! Protecting life is the most important thing there is, Timmy! And really, I can use magic, but it's not very different from little Carmen here..." she hefts Carmen for emphasis "who's spent years training to be able to fight monsters and has picked up lots of skills and powers as a result. I'm sure she could manage a few curses with the right enchanted item, herself. And I'm sure that if you all come inside I can help lift her curse and we can sort this all out. Now there's a good boy, hmm?" She leans over and lifts Timmy's chin a little so he can look in her eyes and see what an honest, pure soul she's being.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

She wanted to sing. Alina was so beautiful. So incredibly, painfully beautiful. Kazelia wanted to sing her praises forever and exalt her in the halls of the greatest princesses in all the universe. But she knew it was a lie. Mother knew, she had been railing against everything the Caduceus made since they first got here because none of it was true. The Caduceus was an overlay that fell over people, a cheat from the devils that simply altered reality. But Mother knew that cheating wasn't truth. Magic might be someone's truth (it was probably a part of how Kazelia's was expressed, likely Azora's as well) but changing yourself with magic never changed your truth.

Also, all that philosophical reflection aside, Kazelia wanted her friend back. The happy ending here wasn't replacing one Caduceus wielder with another, distant and open only to worship and painting reality as her canvas. A happy ending was having her friend back and saving the world from Oberon and mad devil things alike!

That's why Kazelia's answer to this wasn't to raise her spear or gesture for Kyouko to use her ninja tools (don't think she wasn't paying attention). Instead it was to drop that spear and let the rainwater run over it without any steam hissing up from its fire. It was to stand beneath Alina and raise her arms in a gesture of begging and just say one thing. "I stopped singing because I don't want to lose my friend, Alina. Please, come back to us. To me."

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

[Keep cool 4+4+2=10]

Annalee, impatient with luxuriating on Elodie's bed, pulls the door open. Out jumps the pig and Annalee catches her in her arms and gives her a little noogie. "Who's a cute little pig, Carmen? Is it you? It is you! You're very cute." She lifts Carmen up and holds her, then gives her a hug because she is a cute little piggy and she deserves hugs. This is probably not going the way that Carmen expected, but Annalee is practically aglow so good is she feeling.

That does leave the little matter of Timothy Oglevee Crompton though. "Timmy dear" she says, turning Carmen around in her arms so that Timmy can look at the pig. "I asked you to watch this little fellow and what do I find when I open the door? She's running around loose and jumping all over the place. I appreciate your patience, you're welcome to come in now, but I think you need to explain yourself or you're going to be in a great deal of trouble."

[Question to the MC (from the 10+ cool roll): How could Annalee get Carmen to like her (and stop trying to kill her)?]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Were they still in the Bazaar after all this? Cool clear water flowed downwards and Kazelia (Kazelia!) had to try and remember that they weren't in the heart of the Illumina that had once been. A little part of her heart came free with the flowing water. All the nerves and energy that she'd been saving up, all the burdens of the world that she had been trying to shoulder, thinking that her curse was somehow more tolerable than those of her friends. Ha! Alina had done it, they were all free and her mind felt clear.

With a whoop that burst like a thunderhead, Kazelia jumped into the air and thrust her spear skyward as sparkling raindrops tinkled along its length and wet her tongue. She twirled amidst the rain and laughed in her own voice. Her voice! It was clear! It was loud! Its echo bounced around the glass room like sparkling crystal in the heart of the rainfall and joined hands with her laughter to dance among the rafters and soar to the glittering clouds.

She sang a few words experimentally. "A summer rain came calling. Playing peek-a-boo with the summer sun. It sparkled out like diamonds, falling softer than fresh down. The sun thought this delightful, and laughed a merry song. It tried to glimpse the ground below, though it hadn't rained for long. What do you suppose, the sun song down below? Why a truth that every child knows the sun had just now seen: sunlight in petrichor times means rainbows come to gleam!"

The joy in her heart was infectious, and every princess in the hall would feel for a moment as though their heart wanted to join in the same silly song. It was only at the end as she laughed again that she saw Alina still above them, and still holding the Caduceus even though her task was done. Only then that a little shadow of doubt started to creep up to Kazelia and she started racing along the wet floors to get below her friend and call to her. "Alina, you can come down now!" She shouted and waited for a response.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

She can't win. Kathelia's a know it all. She doesn't have Hornet's inventions (and even with Hornet using them, she can see that this is a mess). She doesn't have Alina's grace. She doesn't have Helya's competition genius (and the new princesses don't even look like they're cursed yet, Eupheria must not have been accounting for their arrival).

Kathelia's got a keen mind though. Even if she can't win herself, she can be a queen-maker. She can give Adila a chance. The moment is there. She knows Adila can't hold onto the Caduceus, maybe nobody here can, save perhaps Mother, and on the order of extremely bad plans, handing the staff of pure creativity to the void of pure destruction was a real list topper. But chaos was a good state of things, and better by far than Eupheria's controlled chaos. They needed to shake her.

So, she did the only thing she could and sent Euphie a direct magical broadcast from across the room. "Eupheria, I got Alina back from your doorth" she brags, her voice broadcast by magic right to Eupheria's ears (there's no way she could shout above this normally). "I sthtopped my thithter from falling into your trap. I hope you liked the drama, I did it for you. And now I'm gonna find a way to cheat your game too. All your magic'th no match for a smart princeth." She gives Eupheria a little cheshire grin, showing off her shiny braces in a way that screams come get me even though there's nothing that's putting her ahead of the princess pack. It's not about that, it's about having Eupheria look Kathelia's way for less than half a second and thinking about her and not anything else. That's all she needed to do.
[Keep busy: 4+1+2=7. It works, but there will be reprisal at the end.]

Go get her Adila.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kathelia leans against the door. She's tired and it's really, really hard for her to talk. There's so much to do. Princess Hornet would, clearly as evidenced by direct empirical observation, be exiting the giant drill that she crafted and commanded for a perfect entrance into this room. But Kathelia couldn't mimic princess Hornet when princess Hornet already that job handled. There was a ton else to do. She needed to monitor the magic and try to protect Adila (who is racing forward far too quickly and is probably going to trip her own door trap before even reaching the Caduceus if she's not careful). She needed to figure out how to protect all the other princesses who had just piled in here. She had to find some way to keep Eupheria entertained so she wouldn't come out and complicate matters. And it was extremely likely based on what had happened to Alina that both Isolde and Rita were trapped in other doors, which required identifying those doors and then determining a way to get them back (which seemed pretty hopeless if she couldn't even reach Alina, who she definitely had the strongest connection to). Plus she should try to wake up Kyouko, figure out a way to access the Caduceus, and continue working to break this curse so that she could bring her full strength to bear without distractions.

This was too much homework for one princess! So instead of doing any of those things, she procrastinated and looked back at the door where she knew Alina should be, leaning against it to catch her breath. She looked with longing because at least if this one thing worked, she felt, then everything would still be okay. Somehow.

That was when Alina burst out the door, wiping away tears with her suit sleeve. Kathelia was standing right there, so there was a bit of a tumble, although somehow Alina landed perfectly while Kathelia picked herself off. The little yellow and orange lights were already rushing over to Alina and Kathelia had just a moment to exult! "I knew it! Magically attuned, but the door material wasn't sthtructured to keep regular thoundth! This meanth we need to thave Rita and your Momma, they're in other doorth I think!"

If Alina was back, she was safe until Eupheria changed the conditions. The same door trap wouldn't work on her and she wouldn't be attuned to any of the others, so she was the best person to make an approach on the Caduceus. But, Kathelia had to warn Alina what was happening. She tried to pull her aside and speak really fast before something bad happened. "The roomth trapped, only you're thafe thinth you got out! But Eupheria'th here, behind the thtaff. And, and Rita and your Momma are in thome other doorth I think. But nobody elth but you can go look."

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Stars sparkle in front of Kathelia's eyes. Not the Rider stars, just little bursts in her vision as she tries to clear her head. She had flung herself out of the way as the wall burst into shards of tinkling Illuminan glass, and she was still trying to get her vision back, furiously polishing her glasses on her dusty overalls and trying to blink away the bursting in her vision to clear it up. Kyouko is okay, she can see her and the blanket sprawled nearby, and it looks like Adila has burst right out of the drill and jumped up to Azora. She can tell that even without being able to see that well because Adila has a very distinct blurry outline. Woo, go Adila! She's super cool and it occurs to Kathelia that she should celebrate their friendship with a formal friendship contract after this.

Polish polish polish. She lowers her eyes, slips her glasses back on, blinks, looks up again. The lights are still there. They're...that's not her vision. Oh stars and void, these are Alina's lights. How did they get here and why weren't they with her?! She's starting to follow the lights, but her glance strays to everyone getting off the drill. Oh! There's princess Hornet! Oh no. W.W.H.D. has no answer for what to do when meeting Princess Hornet since Princess Hornet has never had to meet Princess Hornet (this, of course, discounts both clones and self-modeled automatons, both of which have separate response protocols). She should ask Princess Hornet what to do, but she's wheezing from all the dust and her knees are locking up and...and nobody is paying attention to the lights!

Kathelia resignedly hitches up her overall straps and resigns herself to waiting before meeting her idol, following the little lights to their door. Oh, wait, now that she's looking at the door, it occurs to her that she really ought to shout a warning to everyone else about the door traps and the fact that Eupheria is right there. But...wait if she does that Eupheria might jump out and turn her into an even tinier, muter nerd for being a spoilsport. She settles for a magical whisper carried to...well Adila because even though she's a dog right now, there's too much else going on here and she still trusts Adila to handle things right.

"Adila. Caduceus trapped. Doors trapped. Eupheria hiding here." That should be simple for a dog to get, right? Even if the dog is hearing it through a magical whisper.

It would have to do, she's shoved her way past the crystal rubble to Alina's door while everyone else is distracted and the little lights look like they're very panicked, which is not good. Hmm, Kathelia analyzes the door briefly. Despite presenting a rustic facade, this appears to be a class A-37 dimensional gate, suitable for narrow-frequency attuned resonant dimensional travel, communication, and three separate categories of scrying (though visible light divination was clearly out or Alina's lights wouldn't be blocked). Obviously Caduceus-crafted, and the seamless fitting into the temple facade was a masterwork. Eupheria clearly had an eye for detail in her pieces, nobody could take that away from her.

Okay Kathelia, stop admiring the insane princess who's trapped all your friends and figure out a way to help. Right, right. Kathelia presses against the door. Her magic wouldn't penetrate this, it wasn't attuned to her and she didn't have the time to try and figure out the right frequency to get it to Alina. It was obviously very specific or, again, her lights wouldn't be blocked like this. She'd have to rely on something more old-fashioned. Auditory bounceback scrying was in one of the likely functional categories after all.

"Alina." Kathelia's voice is hoarse and quiet. She coughs, it's so dusty. She wishes she had a glass of water. Or cookies and milk. NO, focus. "Alina, can you hear me? Itth Kathelia!" Her voice cracks when she tries to raise it. She presses on anyway. "That roomth a trap! Itth a ssss, a ssss..a unique trap jutht for you." She pauses to catch her breath, she's wheezing a little. "You have to...to come back to uth. Quick! Your lightth are here and I think thomething really badth about to happen! And I...I don't want you to be trapped. I want you to be okay. I hope you can hear me." Kathelia trails off, not sure what else to say, listening for some sign that her voice is getting through, faint though it may be.

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

"Hmm, that's quite odd. Is this what happened to you, Carmen?" Annalee asks to nobody in particular. She gives the pig a gentle pat pat on the head. "Well, this will have to do I suppose. Timmy, kindly take the pig and wait in the hall, I'll call you in presently. I've got some work to do, and I need perhaps half an hour to...freshen up, if you will. Oh, and don't let the pig run away. If she's well-behaved...maybe I'll lift her curse when I'm done here." Annalee gives Carmen a little wink and pushes her towards Tim, then she pushes the two of them into the hall and will not take no for an answer.

That dealt with, she does actually freshen up for a moment in Elodie's bathroom. It's been a long day and she's literally been flung from a tower into the castle moat. She can take a moment to wash her face. And wipe away the blood of Sam's bite. A bite she'd allowed him. A closeness she had permitted. Her terms, her rules. But then when she'd decided things weren't working, he had attacked her. Taken advantage of her. Used that closeness to bypass her charms and wards.

Annalee permits herself a smile in that bathroom mirror as she slides out the bit of Samael's shirt sleeve that she had ripped from him in their little exchange. Closeness was a double edged sword, after all. She hadn't been willing to face him back there. She hadn't been confident in herself, her spells. What if he had rushed her or tried something as she went to cast? That was of course before that madness burst from the portal, and Timothy's shadow had grown some teeth. Well, well, our little mortal had something else going for him it seemed, or someone else. Wasn't that exciting?

Annalee begins to hum to herself as she finishes drying her face and begins to run the shirt sleeve under the water. There was a little blood on it, you see, and that was the problem with vampires. All that blood. Blood was the thrill, the violence, the power. What would a vampire be like if you washed the blood right out of them, hmm? It was something worth finding out. Annalee's hum becomes a chant, dark words echoing through the bathroom. The old lights flicker and sizzle and the water seems to fill that sleeve, sink deep, deep into it until every last drop of blood of blood has run out and both sink and sleeve are pure, gleaming white. The words leave Annalee's lips and the taste in her mouth is sweet, like taking a bite out of a ripe plum. She licks her lips. Why hadn't she been confident in herself? That one little mistake on the sphinx? Please, even that hadn't mattered in the end. She was a powerful witch and it was time that people learned that properly.
[Hex casting 5+2+1=8. Samael is afflicted with Binding. Correctly this time. He cannot physically harm others. Annalee enters her Darkest self on this result.]

She steps out of the bathroom, drying her hands and flips the towel onto Elodie's bed. That had been good, but it wasn't enough. Not nearly. Elodie had been a source of chaos today and it was clear that simple humiliation wouldn't work that well on her. Oh, Annalee considered making all her hair fall out, but she'd just get angry over something like that. No, what she needed was a more subtle curse, one that would stop her and her absurd flights of fancy in their tracks. Yes, let's see how the little girl who could never face anyone fared when she couldn't tell truth from lies and read every person she met utterly wrong. The ritual for this one was easy, she had Elodie's old shirt after all, stashed away in her bags from her last visit to this tower room. She put a hand on it and it practically seemed to glow with a black light as she spoke the words of the hex and darkness leapt from the tower to cloud Elodie's vision. She would see phantoms everywhere. Bug bugs and snakes were so gauche. No, the phantoms that Elodie would be seeing would be in intentions. Misread body language, misunderstood signs, subtext where none existed. Confident in her foolishness.

[Hex casting: 5+6+1=12. The curse goes off without a hitch. Elodie is struck by illusions, specifically she sees non-existent subtext everywhere. The exact manifestations are up to consensus of whoever is doing the scene.]

Then Annalee crawls onto Elodie's bed to relax, flinging the exhausted shirt to the side."Alright Timmy, you can come in now" she calls out. You've stayed outside with your new pig friend the whole time, right Timmy? You didn't peek or anything? That would be an extremely rude thing to do to a witch.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

W.W.H.D.? Stall. Stall like your life depended on it. Or Kyouko's life! Kathelia just didn't have the tools right now to do more than that. She could let Azora get whisked away, but her spiteful sister would probably hurl her and Kyouko into the traps in the process and despite everything else, keeping Azora around might be useful. She was powerful after all. Plus, if Azora dropped out and Kazelia just sat there, Eupheria would come out and mess things up. So stall, stammer, stutter, and generally keep Azora focused on not moving forward.

"Ha, I'm calling your bluff sthithter!" Kathelia managed, trying to roll out of the way of the stomping feet of her enraged sister. "I'd say that we're at an impathe! I cannot go forward, for doing so would cauthe you to harm Kyouko, one of my dear friendth. But you, dear sthithter," she says, using her spear to help struggle to her feet. "You can't carry out your threat or you'll lothe your leverage on me." Kazelia grins. "You've made the clathic blunder, sthithter! You are alone, while soon my friendth will stir or come to my aid. Our deadlock will guarantee my victory!"

Kathelia gives Azora her best grin, trying not to show that she's bluffing and that her best guess is that Rita, Alina, and Isolde are all trapped right now and probably need her help rather than coming to her aid anytime soon. Besides, she knew just how to push Azora's buttons and that was the goal here.

"Really sthithter, thith ith stho like you!" Kathelia is really warming up to this part. "You only think about Daddy and yourthelf. Did you even think about what happenth when he getth the Cadutheuth?" This part's a little for Eupheria too, since she's listening in. "You think he'll be proud of you, right? sthooooo proud of hith favorite daughter ever. But you've just been flying about, paying no attention to how all thith workth. If Daddy gets the Cadutheuth, he'll freeze Ourania, but then the retht of uth will follow. You too, sthithter. He can't pay attention to you all the time, can he? Where ith he now? Why ithn't he bailing out hith favorite daughter from an Illuminan curthe?"

Azora's probably fuming, she's absolutely going to lose it, nevermind the contest she's gotta take this out on Kathelia right now. And Eupheria, well, she should be getting some top quality entertainment from the sibling rivalry. You can't conjure pettiness this good, it takes that real thousands of years of pent up sibling rivalry unleashed by magical curses that make both of them immature kind of situation to give it that vicious flare.

So Kathelia goes in for the kill shot. "You know Daddy ithn't capable of loving anyone, right sthithter? He thinks you're utheful, but the thecond he focutheth on anything elthe, he'll forget you even exitht. I'm thorry to have to be the one to break it to you."

[Keep Them Busy: 6+6+2=14. This works really, really well and there are no consequences. Also someone else who drops in here might be at an advantage.]