-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
"You were perfect."
And not a moment too soon, either. Alina feels the shiver crawl up her spine when she hears the horn, and dreads to think how much worse things might have been if Dandy hadn't managed to pull herself back together before the Riders announced their coming. If you wanted to talk about things that weren't fair, how about Oberon Greymane and his people? Of course it wasn't enough to take an entire kingdom all for himself and then kick out or enslave the people already living there. Goodness gracious, why should that satisfy anyone? No, the big bully had to go and steal from everybody else, too! What's that? His darling little girl wants to give him a giant laser snake as a present? Well what else do you give the man who has everything?
And then there was the way he did it. He had daughters, Princesses like Kaja or Kazelia or Eska who were easily the equals (and in some cases she wondered if that was praise enough) of any other girl Alina knew. But would he send them out to do things all proper and civil like? If he did, they'd succeed more often than not and far fewer people would have to suffer. But of course, he doesn't. He lies, and where lies won't get him, he'll scheme. He'll somehow get a dragon to burn down farming towns that never wanted anything to do with any sort of adventure or misery. But he won't just sic a dragon on something, oh no. He has to do this, too! He has to send battalions and cavalry and boats full of fierce warriors with swords and formations and all of that goofy nonsense in Adila's Watch book that nobody's supposed to take seriously, because he's Oberon Greymane and he has to ruin literally everything. All at once.
In a moment like this, when the excess was just dripping off of every second, Alina almost stops feeling guilty. How could all of this still be her fault? If she'd upset him, he'd taken more than his fair due already in return. This was just evil. This was greed so deep she doesn't even have a word for it. A man like that... a man like that is still exactly what she unleashed on the world, whether she meant to or not. Every greedy, stupid, boorish awful thing he did he might never have been capable of if it hadn't been for her. It was a greedy thing in its own right to try and deny that to make herself feel better. Alina notices her knees are shaking.
She turns and faces the bay. Stop that. Stop it, Alina. You have to be brave now, or these people will fall apart all over again. You have to be brave, or Jess won't trust you anymore. You have to be brave.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Kazelia!
You led an elite wing of Riders once, Kazelia. You were a huntress when your father required something found, or someone. You would bring them back home, sometimes in chains, sometimes... somewhat deceased.
So when you hear the horn of the Wild Hunt ring out across Parsley Bay, who do you expect to see riding those black pegasi, who will you recognize from your old unit, and how worried are you, knowing you were the one who trained them?
Oh no!
There is a part of Kazelia that, if she were to be defeated by these flying huntresses, would feel proud of it. They were hers and being defeated by them would mean that someone she had made them the best. But that is only a small part.
Let me tell you about the unit first.
Spoiler: Kazelia's Huntresses
Show
Oh a brief note, the fancy names are only for Rider princesses, most Riders have a single name and the location they come from (in their new world, it gets shaken up every time they travel the void).
Chenana: So, if the core of the old unit is still intact, Kazelia would have expected Chenana of Snowblind to be in charge with their leader gone. Chenana had been sort of like a protege to Kazelia. Of all the Riders she had selected for the flight units, Chenana was the swiftest, full of will and wild abandon, and the most decisive and independent. Which were exactly the characteristics that Kazelia wanted in a huntress who had to fly far from her home. Act fast, decide swiftly, commit with strength. That was Chenana.
Kalia: Kalia of Snowblind would probably be the second in command. She was the best magician after Kazelia and an inveterate problem solver. Chenana's neighbor, the two had enlisted together. Where Chenana was swift and sure, Kalia was more like a slow avalanche. She would listen to anything that was making trouble, and she'd start making plans for the best spell, snare, or strategy. Her mind was always whirring away, and while she wasn't as quick as Chenana (in pretty much every way) she'd take an idea and make it into an unstoppable reality.
Trilian: Trilian of Shade would probably be there too. She always took the best care of the Pegasi and their equipment. She wasn't the best fighter or the best tactician, but she had a way with animals and monsters. Probably better than Kazelia had until recently, truth be told. Trilian had a way of getting to know every mount in the unit and she'd have them flying faster and longer than anyone thought possible and reveling in it the whole time. Kazelia thought that maybe in the great void, Trilian had been a steed herself and had reconstituted herself a Rider to care for her brothers and sisters.
Jazira: Jazira of Winter's Eye is the equipment specialist. She's worked with witches all her life, even before coming to Hyperborea. She's not the best at magic herself, but she's got this intuition for cunning tricks and devices. She used to get Kazelia or Kalia to infuse them in their spare time, half of them just to play jokes or test something out. She used to work with Eska too when they weren't out on a mission, and they tended to trade tips and tricks and hae very matching personalities. Jazira is dangerous and she tends to make sure that everyone else has some way to be dangerous too, often in unexpected ways. She was the best at giving gifts though, she didn't care about people, but whenever you needed a gift she could always find the object that would most speak to a person, and that was an impressive talent.
Cleo: Cleo of Respite was one of the odder Riders. She'd been a relatively minor Rider when she arrived, settling in a town called Respite right at the edge of their new kingdom's border by the coastline near Rowan and Askaia. She'd appeared in Hyperborea young, and had taken up fishing and craftwork, going out on expeditions along the coast and generally being pretty nice to the Rowan and Askaian fishers that she met, even greeting some of the goblins who ventured out by sea once in a while. Kazelia had found her when their unit was seeking shelter from a storm after a fight with some Rowani scouts sheltering an Illuminan refugee. And Cleo had joined up and helped them find a cave, food, everything. And then when the Rowani had tried to attack them in the night, Cleo had fought like a monster, grabbing a hot ember from the fire and spooking the Rowani horses by jumping out them full out. Kazelia had recruited her on the spot and her fearlessness bordering on her recklessness combined with her good cooking and natural skill at reading terrain to make her a key part of the unit. Also, Kazelia had gifted her a powerful necrotic runeblade that thrummed with dark energy when drawn and could inflict magical wounds that didn't heal properly and filled the victim with despair. Let's chalk that down as a mistake, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
But, enough about the unit. Let me tell you why Kazelia is worried and thinking "oh no!" above everything. She trained this unit. She, who had shown her skill in scattering Illuminan armies and jousting a Rowani princess by herself had trained this unit. They weren't all her equal in a fair duel, but let me emphasize that they were trained by pre-defection Kazelia. There was not going to be a fair fight. They would make sure that the fight was stacked in their favor. They would trick and manipulate, use magic and artifacts of all sorts, keep hidden backup plans up their sleeves, and show no mercy. They'd fight hard and fast, they'd split up, they'd harry and hide, create chaos. Even if they didn't want to fight, they took what they want wherever they went and were always entitled to it as far as they were concerned.
The one reassuring thing is that they're blowing the horn of the hunt from a distance. If they knew Kazelia was here or were intent on ruining this village, they would already be upon them. That meant that perhaps this was an announcement of their presence and not a combat situation. If this were an attack, it would mean at least one (possibly several) of three things
1) The visible unit was a decoy,
2) They were counting on the Felorians to group up for defense as part of some new trick, or
3) The Felorians weren't the target
Kazelia gripped her spear firmly and stood up straight. If they were coming here for her, they'd probably want to take her back to Oberon. Trying to run or hide from them would just spur them to the chase, so she was prepared to face them.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Adila!
Easier said than done, Princess. See, there’s a reason that nobody’s helped Old Miss Gillwort out of the collapsed apothecary, and that’s because the apothecary was also one of the major crystal hubs for the port. Being under dragonfire broke that power, and made it go strange.
There’s a dust devil chasing down anyone fool enough to get close, spinning them around and around until they collapse. There are shimmering barriers of force at odd angles, gouts of fire sparking all of a sudden from the ground, and Miss Gillwort herself is half-buried underneath fast-growing vines. If someone doesn’t help her soon, she’ll disappear from sight entirely, and might even suffocate. Also there’s a giant rat. He’s white and sleek and panicking, running around with whistling little squeaks.
When you approach, the rescue team backs off with murmurs. This is your chance to shine, Adila, and show how smart and strong and helpful you are. I mean, unless all that magic does something weird to you, too.
***
Kazelia!
And so it is. You can see, as the shadows of horses’ wings fall upon Bounty, that Kalia is leading the flank; she’ll stay in the air with her women while the main force lands, serving as both lookout and a sword hanging over your head.
But at the head isn’t Chenana. Oh, no. That would be far too easy, now, wouldn’t it?
No, the Rider at the head of the Hunt is none other than Asteria Spite, her hair in a practical braid, her riding boots coming up to mid-thigh, a potent spear in her hand and a very... loud... breastplate catching the rays of the afternoon sun in its many, many black jewels.
She looks around, and makes a face that’s... well, it’s an attempt at sympathy? It looks more like mild disgust.
“People of Feloria,” she declares in her clarion voice, as her fellow hunters touch lightly upon the ground, decked out in bows and dark cloaks, spears and nets. “Know that your plight has been heard even in the frozen court of our king, and it has, yes, touched his heart.” She clutches melodramatically at her breast, going all out for “performance of the year.”
“Your humble, quaint little cottages... burned! Your cozy little lives... upturned! You are at the mercy of a marauding dragon, and we know well enough how dreadfully scary dragons are! Why, they’ll melt you as soon as look at you! They say one even slew the snake-husband of Jedad!
“But worry not,” she says, and smiles the sort of smile that reminds you of the person you used to be, even as she spreads her hands wide. “We are here to save you all.”
***
Alina!
Jessamine stiffens. Her eyes are fixed on Asteria, and they burn with hot tears. It takes only a moment to imagine who might have been in charge of molding your sister into a pliant killer. Of course Oberon wouldn’t dirty his hands with that sort of thing himself.
On the other hand, if you start a fight right here and now, I cannot guarantee you will win it. Asteria almost certainly isn’t supposed to hurt any Felorians while she’s here, but you’re facing down perhaps thirty well-armed Rider huntresses, and Kazelia looks worried, doesn’t she?
On the other, other hand... she hurt your sister.
Jessamine pulls a knife from her belt and tenses to spring right over Dandy’s head. What’s it gonna be, Alina?
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!
Easier said than done, Princess. See, there’s a reason that nobody’s helped Old Miss Gillwort out of the collapsed apothecary, and that’s because the apothecary was also one of the major crystal hubs for the port. Being under dragonfire broke that power, and made it go strange.
There’s a dust devil chasing down anyone fool enough to get close, spinning them around and around until they collapse. There are shimmering barriers of force at odd angles, gouts of fire sparking all of a sudden from the ground, and Miss Gillwort herself is half-buried underneath fast-growing vines. If someone doesn’t help her soon, she’ll disappear from sight entirely, and might even suffocate. Also there’s a giant rat. He’s white and sleek and panicking, running around with whistling little squeaks.
When you approach, the rescue team backs off with murmurs. This is your chance to shine, Adila, and show how smart and strong and helpful you are. I mean, unless all that magic does something weird to you, too.
Princess Adila is pretty sure she understands how crystals work. They're essentially harmless little baubles that, when applied delicately to certain chakra points, enable the healing flow of energy - or that's the gist of what she's picked up from Princess Dandy over the years. They're probably a bit fragile because Dandy's never let her touch them on her own but really, basically harmless overall. Oh, didn't Juniper Blue use some of them in her battle magic? Probably just as decoration or to make sure she felt relaxed while casting.
Nothing to be afraid of. Feloria wasn't very dangerous in general. She pushes right through the magic to start tearing vines free.
[Overcome: 6]
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Asteria reaches the end of her speech. She's standing there with that smile on her face and her arms held wide to either side of her. Soak it in. Soak in that moment. She is poised and in command and confident, every bit the image of a savior or a conqueror, depending on your perspective. She milks for an extra second, to really rub it in. That's the moment she gets a five-colored laser shot at her face. No warning, no threats or complaints or crying. Just one moment this space was completely laser free, and in the very next it was anything but.
Alina's eyes glint with fury. Her breathing's gone a bit unsteady again, like it did when she first found out about Jessamine. She's pointing directly at Asteria, and her crystals float around her wrist and flash with the threat of a second volley.
"Don't you say another word. Don't you even... not after what you did to her."
Who cares what the Felorians might think about her? Who cares if this is a fight she can't win? This is the person who hurt her little sister, and she can't let that go. Her sweet little Jessamine is seconds away from doing something that might get her hurt like that again all over, and she can't let that happen. There's no choice here. None. If anyone here made the mistake of thinking that a princess' call to beauty made her delicate and helpless, they'd suffer for that before she fell.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Adila!
What are the odds, right? That your shoulder would shove that one crystal into a new alignment in its matrix with the other broken crystals to create a heavy-duty absorption field? The crystals begin drinking in the ambient magic of their surroundings greedily, some of the smaller shards flaring up for a moment before blowing like firecrackers. It won’t last long, but it might just bleed the most magical thing in its radius dry in the process.
Unfortunately, you’re the most magical thing.
Fire seeps out from between your scales, dancing in elegant spirals and waves, and it doesn’t hurt. It should hurt. Something this dangerous should hurt! It shouldn’t make you feel like a quick nap would solve all your problems. The world fades in and out around you, and—
Then the world rushes back in, and you can hear the young girl accompanying you going “ouch ouch ouch yikes ooooof,” as she does the dance of “that was very, very hot.” She’s disrupted the alignment, thankfully while wearing thick gloves, and as the magic changes and finds a new expression, you might just have enough time to get Miss Gillwort out of here.
Take damage, and then roll to Get Away. Because, oh, the vines, and the waves of warm molasses (why???) and the rain of mild-mannered scorpions!
***
Alina!
Asteria’s head snaps back with an audible crackle of laser on skin. The effect might best be described as a long-range, full-power slap to the face. You even leave a laser burn that looks very much like a handprint, one color for each finger.
And that’s when Jessamine, bold and impetuous and furious, leaps into action. She bounds up onto the pegasus nearest Asteria, yanks the Rider huntress up out of her saddle, and, with an elegance that brings a tear to the eye, swings her like a polo mallet to deck the stunned Asteria right out of her own saddle.
And chaos breaks loose—
A seed of ice is flung from the wheeling Riders above, and when it strikes the ground between you it explodes into a frost-flowering wall of ice, groping out blindly to either side, topped in a moment in elegant, vicious spikes.
“We are not your enemies,” Kalia yells, firmly. “We are here to help you.” Behind the wall can be heard the sound of a grand melee, and you know that Jessamine is showing them what it means to be an Iluminan Princess...
But she’s not going to win. She can’t, outnumbered like that. She jumped into the fight because she had to, not because she could win it.
Jumping over the wall— you could do that, Alina. Easily. You have your grappling hook! But you’d be exposing yourself to the archers wheeling above, and two-on-thirty is still a losing proposition.
Tell us how you do it anyway, and what happens when you vault over that wall.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!
What are the odds, right? That your shoulder would shove that one crystal into a new alignment in its matrix with the other broken crystals to create a heavy-duty absorption field? The crystals begin drinking in the ambient magic of their surroundings greedily, some of the smaller shards flaring up for a moment before blowing like firecrackers. It won’t last long, but it might just bleed the most magical thing in its radius dry in the process.
Unfortunately, you’re the most magical thing.
Fire seeps out from between your scales, dancing in elegant spirals and waves, and it doesn’t hurt. It should hurt. Something this dangerous should hurt! It shouldn’t make you feel like a quick nap would solve all your problems. The world fades in and out around you, and—
Then the world rushes back in, and you can hear the young girl accompanying you going “ouch ouch ouch yikes ooooof,” as she does the dance of “that was very, very hot.” She’s disrupted the alignment, thankfully while wearing thick gloves, and as the magic changes and finds a new expression, you might just have enough time to get Miss Gillwort out of here.
Take damage, and then roll to Get Away. Because, oh, the vines, and the waves of warm molasses (why???) and the rain of mild-mannered scorpions!
It was no worries Feloria wasn't dangerous at all oh good gosh. Adila's head is ringing and covered in scorpions and things are very - crystally. But it's okay sleepiness is about the expected thing she's got this! The Operations Manual was very clear as to what to do in moments of sensory disruption and it's to continue as trained and directed. She just needed... to get all these hugging, gripping, politely-not-stinging things off her before she hurt them. This wasn't the weirdest her brain had gotten - honestly it was kind of nice! But people were hurting and she couldn't stay thinking about pretty crystals right now.
With honestly pretty good precision for the state of things, Adila shakes her head and inevitably pushes through the wreckage to rescue the trapped alchemist.
[Get Away: 7; taking Miss Gilwort with me. Damaging Sense.]
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Pointless. What good is a wall to keep away Alina Cascade? She's hooked onto the line of ice spikes almost before they've finished forming and pulls herself high up into the air and over the wall on a rope of bright orange light. As she crests past the height of her sudden climb, Riders unleash a swift volley of arrows at her unprotected back, but an indigo shield forms behind her and blocks them effortlessly. No. Try again. Do you think because your King bested her that she'd fall just like that.
Alina does fall, like a comet. She forms a giant violet hammer in her hands and drops straight onto a Rider that's got Jessamine backed against a wall, which gives her sister time to leap onto a horse and knock its unfortunate occupant onto the ground while Alina and her unwilling cushion finish crashing into the ground and kicking up a huge dust cloud. The two Illuminan Princesses jerk their heads up. Their eyes meet, each a bit too watery for a fight like this. But they're there to see.
"...Lina?" Jessamine's voice is strained, like she's half caught in old nightmares again.
"I promised, Jess."
"But--"
"I promised."
They reach for each other, but just before they can close their fingers around each other, Asteria's whip spooks the horse Jessamine is standing on and it shoots off until she's stuck in a wave of fresh Riders. Meanwhile, Alina is surrounded by less fresh but no less dangerous troops. She hesitates, feeling her heart pounding in her chest, the panic of separation meeting the panic of being outnumbered and being outmatched meeting the panic of just seeing so many Riders in one place. Asteria flashes a sneer that's as full of malice as it is sharp teeth.
"You idiot, did you really think that--"
Her head snaps in the other direction as another five point laser strike slaps an identical mark onto her other cheek. Alina doesn't even pause to mark the moment. Her body glows red and she launches herself feet first into the platoon and crashes through a second freshly forming ice wall before it can fence her in. What follows is a whirlwind of determination, grace, and pain. Alina and Jessamine fight to each other's side again and again, only to be driven apart again. Here Alina twirls about with twin swords of light cutting through Rider blades, there Jessamine leaps as though she too had dragon strength and punches some poor girl's nose out of alignment forever.
Alina grabs her sister fast and tries to grappling hook her way back up and over to the others, but her way is blocked by a wall of pegasus knights with readied bows. They drop back down, dodging whips and arrows and spears and who even knows what else. If they stopped to look, the panic would surely take one or both of them and then it would all be over. Alina rolls over Jessamine's back and launches multi-colored beams in a dangerous circle, bowling several of the huntresses over in one go. She continues on into the spin and helps flip Jessamine into Asteria's face, but she's blocked at the last second by a pair of lancers. Jess's glass knife cuts through one icy weapon before the other disarms her.
That's when Alina finally turns to her ribbon. She wraps it around the foot of one of the lancers, yanks, and with strength she didn't have the last time she fought whips her right into her companion. Alina spins and flourishes with her weapon so that she's lost for a moment within the spiraling ribbon, thrusting her left leg out behind her for counterblance with her toes pointed out gracefully like a ballerina. She lets her leg continue on its arc until her back bends with it, carrying her up and over in a front flip and lashes out with her weapon as her feet touch the ground again.
This is it. How do you like it, you bully? Alina's got her silken weapon wrapped around Asteria's throat. This is it. She'll pull and smash her jerk face into the hard Felorian ground and then nobody will ever dare try and hurt Jess ever again. But something makes her hesitate. It's just a second. A stupid flash of an image that shouldn't be here right now. Kaja's face, looking reproachful and distant. Was this all right? Some sisters were worse than others, but weren't they all still family? Kazelia would... no. Kazelia would end this too. Alina pulls.
And finds the ribbon still attached to her baton has gone slack. Something cut it while she was stuck wondering what to do. She points, maybe trying to launch another volley of lasers to end things that way instead, but her brave and reliable little lights don't help her this time. Something's wrong. Something's very wrong. That's when she notices it. The lack of the comforting weight on her head. The Rider floating just above her, riding a pegasus and wearing a look split between triumph and relief, unhooking her crown from the end of a mechanical grappling hook and then manipulating it with far-too-clever fingers until it twists from a tiara into a necklace and her lantern goes inert. Oh no. No no no.
Alina scrambles to get closer to Jessamine again. You won't take her, she won't let you. Stop it! She glares defiantly at anyone and everyone. The terror is building in her heart. In a moment she might scream. But just this little bit longer, she's determined to go down with the fight not over inside of her.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Kazelia jumps to the aid of her friends. Whatever her misgivings, she will do everything she can to protect Alina and she's more than prepared to get into a scuffle with her old unit and hold them off for as long as possible. On top of that, any opportunity to nail Asteria is not one to pass up and Kazelia practically cheers at Alina's laser blasts, even if they aren't quite as strong as might be ideal. She leaps onto Shiva and makes to follow Alina into the fray. With her spear and her magic, they stand a good chance, and at the very least, they'll inflict a lot of damage.
It's as Shiva first leaps to take off that Kazelia suddenly flies off her mount and Shiva steadies and looks for her master rather than shoot off into the sky. It's sudden, and Kazelia dives into a roll and pulls out her spear as she gets her bearings, coming up at ground level on the side of the ice wall opposite Alina. There, before her eyes, is Cleo, just vaulted off a jet black pegasus and setting her own stance after finishing her flying kick. She's no taller than she was before, despite the passage of a year, but her hair is longer, splaying out wildly down below her shoulders in a cloak of white. She's wearing light armor, just a cloth shirt and pants in a dark gray that blends in with the stone and earth of Feloria and helps to blend the deep dark blue of her skin.
"Cleo!" Kazelia shouts. "You...you don't have to do this, come help me, we can-" But Cleo is already mid-stride, her sword drawn from her back, a blade of midnight steel shot with stars and crackling with the darkness of the void. Whatever Kazelia might have been about to suggest is cut off as she's forced to leap sideways to avoid Cleo's sweeping strike. This time, Kazelia uses her spear like a vaulting pole, planting it and letting her use the momentum to swing around it and back towards Cleo. The young girl ducks Kazelia's kick and brings her sword up to deflect the spear thrust as Kazelia uses the landing to pull her spear back out of the ground and swing it at Cleo in an overhead motion. The two weapons strike with a sound like frying bacon as a spear that can cut anything meets the limitlessness of nothing, then there is the clang of metal on metal and the two split apart.
"Cleo, stop, we don't have to do this!" But she just shakes her head and springs at Kazelia again, using her natural speed and the darkness of her sword to cut wide, sweeping arcs one after another to force Kazelia to step back and deflect rather than use her spear's superior range. She slowly starts to give ground, looking for an opening, some way to interrupt the back or forth or do anything but keep Cleo occupied.
And there across the ice wall is Alina. A Pegasus rider passing above her and grabbing her crown, several more ready to take her the moment she loses her magical strength. "NO!" a shout begins to escape Kazelia's lips and shadows begin to crackle from her eyes as she tries to level a spell at the Riders and banish them to the void, to let Alina's crown fall gently back into her hands and let her save her sister. But Cleo won't offer even that much time and she is constantly advancing, her own blade cutting in the way of Kazelia's magic, forcing Kazelia to lower her outstretched arm or risk losing it and bring her spear back around like a staff, deflecting the blow and using the base to push Cleo back and gain some distance. And yet still she keeps coming, never taking a second to stop and catch her breath or to talk. But Kazelia can see it in her eyes. This isn't a mad berserker. No, she's there, she knows who she's fighting and she's...she's having fun.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Adila!
The good news is that the scorpions have made you their queen!
No, wait, let’s back up. The good news is that you have managed to get the apothecary out, and you yourself are out, and everybody’s out of the crazy crystal zone. That’s the good part. That’s the important part!
The bad news is that you have baked an adamant shell of molasses all around you, and also, the scorpions have made you their queen, and would like nothing better than to be hugging you and reciting love poems in morse code by clicking their pincers and rattling menacingly whenever somebody gets too close, by any means necessary.
I mean, it’s not like they’re actually going to sting anyone, but the racket! The absolute din of a thousand mild-mannered scorpions rattling their chitin against rock-hard molasses!
Your ability to move anywhere quickly has dropped like a stone. Your ability to fly gracefully has also dropped like a stone. And your ability to sneak around is deep, deep in the negatives. You would have an easier time being stealthy if you were accompanied by a Felorian marching band.
The sound of you taking a step is the crunch of plates of caramelized molasses grinding against each other, combined with the rattling of scorpions and the unsteady thump of your tail as it drags on the ground.
But, hey, at least you don’t have to go anywhere immediately or fly for a while, right?
But Old Miss Gillwort is safe, and your young companion is checking her for injuries, and everything’s fine. Even all those Riders over there probably think so.
...oh, by the way, there are Riders all the way over there.
***
Alina!
You are hit by exactly seventeen shadow arrows in the space of two seconds. It’s impressive how fast that desperate lunge for Jessamine, to hold her close, turns into a full-body flop on the ground, a little mummified worm-princess. But, I mean, you’re still wriggling, right? Trying to use your knees as leverage, throwing yourself from side to side, trying to get just a little closer before—
You’re scooped up with contemptuous ease by a Rider with close-cropped hair, wiry and close to you in height. (Though still taller. She is a Rider, after all.)
“Well done, Chenana,” Asteria hisses, rubbing her stinging cheeks. (Good. She is such a jerk.) She clears her throat self-importantly. “Now. As I was saying. You idiot, did you really think that you could take us all on?”
She snaps her whip, commanding the attention of everyone on this side of the ice wall. (Where is Kazelia? Where is Dandy? Where is Adila? Where is Rita? Why aren’t they here to save you?) “Let us leave these simpering, ungrateful fools. They’ll change their tune once we save them from the dragon.”
So that’s their plan! Maybe if you screamed really, really loudly, you could... make a tiny kittenish mewl which will tell Kazelia nothing. No! No, this is all wrong! If you could just break free, get your lights back, maybe Jessamine will—
And then you see her limp body being trussed over the back of a pegasus. For a horrible moment, your heart plummets straight through the ground— but, no. No. She weakly tries to lift her head, and the Rider holding her shoulders slams it hard against the shoulder of the horse, stunning her further.
And you can’t do a thing to help her. You have to watch as the Riders make her helpless. Again. You promised, Alina. You promised that you wouldn’t let this happen.
Chenana vaults up onto her horse, and holds you tightly against her, one hand crushingly heavy over your mouth (as if you could make a sound!) the other tight around your waist, as she ably spurs her pegasus upwards. She doesn’t even tie you down! That’s how confident she is that she got the easy princess to manage.
And it’s not like you can try to wiggle free, right? You’d end up going splat on the ground. Face it, Alina, you did the right thing, standing up to Asteria, but you didn’t do the smart thing. And now Asteria is going to make you pay dearly for both of those laser blasts to the face.
And worse, she might make Jessamine pay, too.
***
Cleo!
Spoiler: Cleo
Show
Cursed Blade - Cleo’s attacks are Necrotic. DAMAGED by Princess Dandy.
Cunning - DAMAGED to inflict damage on opponent automatically.
This is thrilling! You can feel the joy surging in your cold blood as you keep Princess Kazelia on the back foot. Fact: the Riders always win. Fact: if you don’t follow Oberon, the strongest of the strong, the most cunning of the cunning, you’re not a Rider. Not really. Fact: you embraces what makes you strong. Princess Kazelia is embracing weakness.
A real Rider would be using this crowd of Felorians as shields, pushing them into you and using the distraction to undo you, to knock you bloodied to the ground and demand your submission. A real Rider would go loud with her magic, toss you up off your feet and send you flying. The fact that Kazelia does none of these things is proof enough that she’s gone soft. She’s thawed.
But that’s good, because it’s that thaw which gives you the opening you need. She sees her pretty princess brat go down, and the shock and horror that flash across her face are signals, loud and clear, that now is your one window to count coup properly. To land a blow on Princess Kazelia, ex-Rider. To remind her that in ice there is strength, and in the void there is belonging.
The wound you leave is a hole, pushed inside her. It is an emptiness, one that will eat suture and magic alike, and lick its lips and ask greedily for more. It does not bleed. Your sword does not thirst for blood; it thirsts for reality. For meaning.
And it leaves behind emptiness.
You step back and bow, once, mockingly. Behind you, you can hear your comrades taking to the wing. But you’re not done with Kazelia. Not yet. You shoo your own pegasus up.
Because if she dares to care about that girl again, you will cut a hole in her again. And you will do this until her heart freezes over again or until she is more hole than princess, and then she will be accepted by the dark beyond the world once more. And the thought makes you grin.
Come on! You gesture for her to—
A baker hits you over the head with a biscuit tray. You swing out at him, nearly taking his head from his shoulders, and two young girls throw blankets on top of you. Your sword eats those blankets, pulling them inside itself to unravel them, but a sheepdog has already slammed into your shins from behind and knocked you on the ground, and when you try to stand up, roots break the dry, parched soil and pull you down.
A stout, grossly red-hued young woman picks up your sword, handling it like she’s afraid it’s going to bite her. Then she offers her other hand to Kazelia, before gasping and clapping it over her mouth.
“Someone go and get Miss Gillwort, now!”
And you laugh like a wolf.
***
Kazelia!
Mark one stat as being damaged twice; the first mark cannot be healed with food.
Part of you has come unraveled. The realness of you, so hard-won by your arrival here, is coming undone. Feel free to glitch or to fade, rather than bleeding or losing organ function.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
And you laugh like a wolf.
***
Kazelia!
Mark one stat as being damaged twice; the first mark cannot be healed with food.
Part of you has come unraveled. The realness of you, so hard-won by your arrival here, is coming undone. Feel free to glitch or to fade, rather than bleeding or losing organ function.
Well, they'd stopped Cleo and disarmed her. That was something. The people of Feloria really were something. Kazelia turns grey for a moment, like her whole body is losing its color and fading, the starry fields of her eyes seeming to spread through everything. It's like the world goes grey with her, she can't see things right, can't see the colors and beauty and life of Hyperborea. She thinks for a second that she might just go to sleep. But she can still hear, deep in her heart, the slow and steady drumbeat and that distant voice that says she has to keep walking, keep upright. It's got a beautiful lilt to it, those ancient singers. And so the gray fades, mostly. There is still the wound of night, just around her shoulder, and it seems like the stars recede from Kazelia's vision just a little and sink into that deeper night and there is a greater darkness still in her eyes.
[Double damaging sense]
"Thank you" she mouths to the gathered Felorians. First thank you, because she is grateful to get help. Then there is the panic and the fear. The realization that the Riders are leaving, that Alina and Jessamine are gone, that she couldn't help them. Oh no, no. That at least helps her stand up on her own. But she can't just fly off. They need a plan. They need. "Cleo, where are they going?"
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
You couldn't save her. You can't save her. There is no way to save her. You won't go home. You can't go home. You have no home. You couldn't save her. You can't save her. There is no way to save her. You won't go home. You can't go home. You have no home...
There's that voice again, the same refrain drip drip dripping in the back of her head. Eroding her courage. Draining her strength. Oh, what a rich thought that was. What strength. What strength? Helya's power came from the blood of her mother and years spent tending to horses. It was her power, and nothing could rid her of it. Shazari's power was a sharp mind and dutiful training. Alina hated to admit it, but she'd worked hard for what she had and now all of it was as natural for her as breathing. Tashanna's power was her heart and her words. It was a quieter strength, but no less potent or beautiful and no less her own, forged from her own pain, struggle, and love. What did Alina have? All of her power was borrowed. She wore it on her head, and someone snatched it off of her. No borrowed dragon's fire. No lights. Just a weak little girl who couldn't even wriggle enough in her bindings to inconvenience the Rider carrying her off. She was trying, believe it.
Idiot. Useless girl. What made you think you could save anybody? Did you forget Jessamine was saved by a borrowed miracle, too? You can't do anything for yourself. You couldn't save her. You can't save her. There is no way to save her. You don't deserve her.
Alina's eyes sting with tears. She's trying at least to keep her eyes on Jess. Don't lose her. Don't let her slip away. Don't fail this last and simplest duty of a big sister. Stay. Watch her. Watch over her. Watch. But her captor has other plans. Fingers close vice like around her cheeks, and as she's carried up into the air, Alina's eyes are force to the ground, where Kazelia is fighting. Just in time to watch her get run through.
"Mmm!" she screams, but her mouth is so buried under wrappings that it doesn't come out as anything more than a pathetic squeak.
Kazelia had real power too. And now she was hurt, because Alina was too stupid to realize when she was outmatched. Her eyes water to the point of nearly blinding her, but she doesn't miss Dandy and the Felorians gathering around her friend. Even from up here she can see the concern on their faces. How bad is it? Oh, Kazelia... be well. Be safe. Please just... please.
But there's one more figure down there that Alina sees before her gaze is yanked skyward again. Small, sparkling as it shifts from cat to girl. Her arm raises up to the sky, too late to do anything but too full of love not to try anyway. For one small, painful but tender moment, Alina's eyes meet Princess Rita's. Then she's dragged off into the sky, while her heart screams inside of her.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!But, hey, at least you don’t have to go anywhere immediately or fly for a while, right?
But Old Miss Gillwort is safe, and your young companion is checking her for injuries, and everything’s fine. Even all those Riders over there probably think so.
...oh, by the way, there are Riders all the way over there.
Princess Adila spots Princess Alina instantly - dragon-eyes picking out that shock of lavender amidst all the cold greys and blues. Immediately she le - she performs her four point check, sidesteps into a position that aligns her with the centre of the street, telepathically informs the scorpions that she intends to take off and they should either secure themselves or get off now - and then she leaps dramatically into the air!
Her wings cracked and strained and her claws stuck to everything. She had to arrest her leap and come down into a run but the sticky materiel stuck her to everything. She focused harder. She had strength and speed enough to - but she didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone who was in the way that she didn't see, or destroy the entire street by letting her claws fully sink into it for leverage. But Alina's in trouble! She could leap onto that building and kick off at it at full speed to build up momentum - but what if there were people inside? There was no way she could do that gracefully. She had all this power but there was no way to use it safely. It was impossible. Every solution was risky and she couldn't take those risks but if she did nothing -
She tried for one more leap. She spread her huge wings as far as they'd - almost as far as they'd go, in case they brushed against the houses to either side. But it wasn't working and she already knew she was falling. She should have at least curled up to lessen the impact or roll into it but she didn't want to hurt the scorpions on top of her so she resigned herself mid-flight to a painful belly-flop directly into the mud.
And for a moment she just lay there morosely.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Kazelia!
“You were just told,” Cleo says, her voice dripping amused disdain for you and all of Feloria. Of course. Why give a straight answer when she could give you riddles and mock you? You’re not in charge of her any more; you’re just a target.
And that’s when a furious, sobbing catgirl starts hitting her in the face with an embroidered throw pillow. Where’d she even get that?
“Why? do you? have to be so? mean???” Rita forces out from between her teeth. Cleo can’t really answer, between having her face slapped from side to side and also having her word hole repeatedly hit with a pillow. “Why can’t you leave us alone? Stop! hurting! my friends!!”
***
Alina!
The sign reads SPANK THE NAUGHTY PRINCESS.
You know this because sometimes the breeze spins you around and you can stare at where it's nailed to the tree trunk, with the snow-white wooden paddle resting jauntily underneath it. The rope dangling you from the branch is secured firmly at your shoulders, and your crossed wrists, and your hips, leaving you helpless to do anything but spin in the breeze and wince whenever more Riders stroll by and pick up the paddle. You definitely wish you had put on a thicker skirt today.
(But even that's not as bad as not knowing where they took Jessamine.)
Here’s the thing, though. The silver lining on this big dark cloud. The huntresses are definitely not watching what they say around the useless idiot princess, especially between swings. Now is the perfect time to listen in and try to glean as much information as you can from them.
I mean, unless you’ve got any other plans this evening?
***
Adila!
The mud welcomes you with open arms. Don’t worry, Adila. You never need to worry about breaking mud. You can be the mud queen of Scorpion Town and never worry about being too strong and too clumsy ever again.
But even now, somebody’s still offering a helping hand. It’s the girl who was working with you. She’s coaxing down the scorpions one by one and sending them off to play with the littlest little push of magic.
“Are you okay, Miss Dragon?” She gently pats you on the flank, and then has to try to pull her sleeve off you, gingerly.
“Madeline!” Oh. That’s a villager. They’re probably here to complain about you making a huge mess. Like usual. “Come quick! This one night-eyed lady hurt another one, and where’s Old Miss Gillwort?”
“Uh, oh, she’s back at the apothecary, I asked her to sit down and not stress but that sounds serious, I’ll come take a look!”
You know what would get her there faster, though? Being given a ride by a dragon. I mean, unless you prefer being the mud queen.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!
The mud welcomes you with open arms. Don’t worry, Adila. You never need to worry about breaking mud. You can be the mud queen of Scorpion Town and never worry about being too strong and too clumsy ever again.
But even now, somebody’s still offering a helping hand. It’s the girl who was working with you. She’s coaxing down the scorpions one by one and sending them off to play with the littlest little push of magic.
“Are you okay, Miss Dragon?” She gently pats you on the flank, and then has to try to pull her sleeve off you, gingerly.
“Madeline!” Oh. That’s a villager. They’re probably here to complain about you making a huge mess. Like usual. “Come quick! This one night-eyed lady hurt another one, and where’s Old Miss Gillwort?”
“Uh, oh, she’s back at the apothecary, I asked her to sit down and not stress but that sounds serious, I’ll come take a look!”
You know what would get her there faster, though? Being given a ride by a dragon. I mean, unless you prefer being the mud queen.
Mud queen of scorpion town seems like it has a lot to recommend it. Nothing to break and the scorpions love her. She sighs and pulls herself up again.
Princess Adila, I remind you, is not in the habit of giving out rides. Just because she happens to walk on all fours does not mean that having people hold tightly on to her back and wrap their legs around her isn't... well it's not the sort of thing you do for just anyone!
+I'll manage,+ she thought wearily as she straightened up and broke into a trundle. +Thank you. Madeline, was it? I'm Princess Adila.+
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Alina isn't giving up. Useless as she is, she isn't giving up. The Riders don't notice this, of course. There's not much to notice in the first place besides a useless idiot princess with an increasingly sore behind. She's tied up so tightly and dangled so awkwardly that they can't even tell if she's wiggling or struggling against her bindings. None of it would do any good; she's trapped, she's helpless, she's pathetic, and oh golly, is she ever fun to beat! Keep out of her vision, don't let her see it coming, and ah! Yes! That's the sound! That adorable little squeak! Do it again! Do it again!
But there are signs that Riders don't even know to look for. Her tears have all been cried out. Even if what's left is pain and agonizing fear, their sparkle hasn't quite dulled yet. She hurts, and therefore she fights. Her dress and her hair, what parts of them are free at least, flutter majestically in the breeze and as she spins, and they bounce with every cruel thwack of that paddle. She's beautiful, even trussed up like this. Somehow, she's still graceful. And if she's beautiful, that means she's still a princess. And when a silly, weak, helpless little girl manages to be a princess, there is no darkness strong enough to overcome her.
So Alina doesn't pass out or try to bury herself deep in her imagination so she doesn't have to deal with the pain. She doesn't waste time wallowing in the feeling of that awful sting or complaining about how humiliating all of this is. She stays in the moment and squeaks through the pain, so that she doesn't miss a word these huntresses pass between themselves as if she couldn't understand them. She does it for Jessamine, because it's the least and last thing she can do to help her little sister.
[Squeak Softly: 8. What can they tell Alina about what's happening to her sister? What were they doing, and what are they going to do next? What should she be wary of when dealing with them? One of these answers is unhelpful, and I assume it comes in the form of a "terrible truth she doesn't want to hear"]
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Kazelia is ready to be annoyed and indignant. To point out that yes, she knows they went to fight the dragon, but obviously what she meant by her question is where they were going to make camp first and what Asteria's plan was for how they would look around. Also while they're at it how convenient it was that they showed up right after a dragon attack.
But, there's Rita bashing away with her pillow. It brought a tear to her eye that Rita would defend her like that. She didn't want Cleo to get beat up though! Cleo was a friend. Sort of! Kazelia had found her and brought her out of her village and handed her a sword. And well, yes, that had gone pretty badly today, but it had made Cleo come alive and Kazelia felt sure that if they could just show her that not everything was kill or be killed survival that she could come around.
Also, it was kind of humorous that Rita was hitting Cleo with an embroidered throw pillow, and Kazelia found herself wishing she could see the embroidery better, which probably wasn't the most productive line of thought.
"Rita..." Kazelia puts a cool hand very gently on the cat girl's shoulder and urges her to stop. "Thank you. For being my friend and rushing to my defense. Thank all of you."
She sighs. "This is Cleo. I trained her, she used to be in my huntresses when I was with the Riders. She also used to be a fisher, a seamstress, and a weaver before she took up the sword. I believe she can be a friend and I don't want her to get hurt, even though she hurt me just now." Then she looks at Cleo. "We can be friends, Cleo. Even if you don't agree with me, even if you don't want to leave the Riders right now. There's more to the world than the fight, and more to the fight than just being strong. And there is so, so much more to the world than Oberon and the icy land he creates."
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Kazelia!
It’s a beautiful speech, and if the world was fair, Cleo would be overcome with the rightness of what you’re saying! She’d offer to lead you right to Asteria’s doorstep in the hopes of discovering the happiness that you have found.
Cleo rolls her star-speckled eyes and scoffs, however, because the world is unfair sometimes. (Just ask Alina! Oh, wait. Sorry.) Rita, meanwhile, has launched herself into Dandy’s arms and is still crying.
And that’s when Adila shows up! Oh, gosh, Adila, what happened to you?
***
Adila!
So, uh, Kazelia doesn’t look so hot. There’s a downed Rider, Rita’s climbing Dandy like a scratching post in order to bury herself in tears, and— wow, Kazelia doesn’t look so hot.
And that’s when Dandy steps in to do her thing.
“Madeline,” she says, while stroking Rita’s head and letting her get all the sobs out, “I’m so sorry, but we’re going to need to leave, and the sooner, the better. Princess Kazelia, your energy is terrible. I won’t have you walking. Bartimeus,” she says, turning to another bystander. “Can I ask for the loan of a stagecoach on credit?”
***
Kazelia!
So, here’s your actionable item, as the stagecoach is prepared and Old Miss Gillwort fusses over your wound of not existing and frets that, oh, if only she had her crystals!
Are you bringing Cleo along? She’s been beaten, and even though she’s clever, she’d likely be safe to leave behind. Or do you want to try to prove to her that your way works?
Either way, you also have a Rita to try to console and Shiva, who is bringing you small things lying around in the hopes that one will make you happy.
***
Adila!
So, so, so. How do you get the molasses off, and how ridiculous does it look? And when the stagecoach shows up and you realize that there’s no way you can ride in it — you’d be too dense in your compact form — and you’ll just have to trot along to keep pace with all your friends— that feels pretty bad, right?
***
Alina!
“It’s a shame we can’t have both of them strung up here.” Aha! Your ears prick up. “Can you imagine? We could produce synchronized squeaking!” Smack!
“Fine. You pry the kitten out of Asteria’s hands. You’ll look just as cute eating trail rations out of a bowl, ~Princess Trilian~.”
“I am not getting between the commander and a disobedient pet,” Trilian says, before— smack! Oof, ouch. That one had wind-up. “I’m just saying! Making princesses share a punishment? That’s good stuff.”
“Awwww, but you’d look so cyuuuu~te! Here, Trilly, Trilly, come get your nom-noms—“
Satisfyingly, the meaty smack of the paddle that follows is not aimed at you, and the resulting catfight gives you some time to catch your breath, in more ways than one. At least from the sounds of it, Asteria’s doubling down on humiliating your sister, not hurting her. For now.
...
“I’m just saying!” Smack! “The more we let the dragon burn down this pastel nightmare kingdom, the weaker it’ll be when we finally take it down.”
“Who dropped you on your head as a baby, Sirena? Burning things—“ Smack! “—makes dragons stronger. Everybody knows that.”
“Liar! They have a limited amount of fire inside them. If we let her burn it all out, we won’t get melted!”
“Girls, girls. That’s not the commander’s concern. We need to hit the sweet spot where she’s destroyed enough of the countryside to be a threat, but it’s still the best thing that ever happened to these bean farmers when we make it stop. Otherwise, all the King’s prep will be wasted.” Of course! Create a false threat, so that you can be the hero when you stop it. Ingenious. And it just hurts all the innocent farmers and, from the sounds of it, the dragon herself.
“So what, we just follow it around and wait for the word to jump?”
“Exactly.” Smack!! Oooh, that one’s gonna leave a mark. Mostly on your thigh, unfortunately.
...
The assembled crowd breaks into applause as the Rider with the hand-carved drumsticks takes a bow, having flawlessly played the entire four-minute drum solo from “I just want to freeze your heart.” It wouldn’t have hurt that much, really, if it hadn’t been preceded by several hours of making sure your poor little tushie was as sensitive as possible. As it is, your eyes might be crossed and you might just be slumped in those suspending ropes.
“What are you all standing around for?” The brusque voice of the Rider who carried you off in the first place. “The King’s here, you idiots. And he wants to see the prisoner.”
oh no.
um.
there might be one thing you should be very wary of, right now. and, lucky you! you can’t do anything to stop it!
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
We're bringing Cleo. Tied up in a blanket like she's a burrito, but we're bringing her. Kazelia wants to talk, and to listen. For what it's worth, she also wants to walk, she's wounded but she can move just fine, but she won't fight Dandy all that hard, it is her kingdom after all. So she's in the coach and she's talking to Cleo while they ride.
"Cleo, I know you've lived different lives. Even if you want to fight, do you really want to hurt all these people? To hurt me?" Don't bring up Oberon. His grip is supreme. Don't ask for a defection either. But there are lots of things that Riders might want even in Oberon's kingdom. And there's one obvious thing. "For that matter, how can you stand serving under Asteria? You of all people?! When I found you, I asked you to join us because you so loved freedom and knew so much about how to move through the world. And I got to give you the chance to go everywhere and to act as you pleased." Kazelia rolls her eyes. "Somehow, I doubt Asteria is offering that, and even if she granted it to you for a moment in that last fight, we both know with Asteria that's it's only a matter of time until she asks for something stupid."
Rider princess infighting was par for the course unless there was an Oberon direct order at stake, so this would sound completely normal to Cleo, nothing running against fundamental truths of the world or anything.
So, what does she say?
[Speak softly. 4+5+1=10.
What can she tell us about Asteria and the expedition?
What should I be wary of when dealing with Cleo?
What does Cleo want and how can we help her get it?]
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!
So, so, so. How do you get the molasses off, and how ridiculous does it look? And when the stagecoach shows up and you realize that there’s no way you can ride in it — you’d be too dense in your compact form — and you’ll just have to trot along to keep pace with all your friends— that feels pretty bad, right?
It's not that it's going to be difficult to get it off, or even particularly tricky. Molasses, like... too many things, is flammable. The problem is that the last thing that the people of Feloria need to see right now is a dragon breathing a whole lot of fire. That also rules out gracefully leaping into the air and cleansing herself with a swift and brilliant explosion. So instead she shuffles slowly over to a building that's already a pile of burned out ash and burrows into it, covering herself in the white-grey powder, and then... finally... letting out a full, proper breath.
The ashes glow like a furnace. Sugar cracks through with the heat and runs off her in rivers. A dark red pulse glows from the heart of the ruined building like a fire in a coal bunker. When it's done she slinks out, head low, ashamed of this reminder that desolation and ruin was her natural habitat.
She slinks alongside the carriage, listening to Kazelia speak to the Rider quietly, trying to pick up on what had happened while not having the confidence to ask.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
It hurt. Currents and pebbles, it hurt. It shouldn't hurt. She should be stronger than this. She's a Princess, she held onto that through everything. But the old stories talk about girls going through all sorts of awful battles and dealing with terrible witch's curses and all manner of horrible things, while Alina only got spanked. And even though that's all it was, no words come to mind but agony. It's so hard not to cry. She tries to be hard as perfectly cut glass, but the truth is every little twitch or touch stings so hot that it's a miracle she hasn't passed out. Even the ruffling of her silk skirt and the kiss of the wind makes her moan with pain.
So small. So weak. But trying so hard.
It's not fair how quickly that last sentence breaks her. They hadn't even said his name, but already she feels it in her breast. With the cold comes panic. I'd like to be able to tell you she still stayed strong even now, that love for her sister gave her a shield that protected her against every evil, but Jessamine is driven almost completely from her mind. Even the pain on her delicate little butt and her outer thighs, though it doesn't ebb in the slightest, is pushed into the background. She struggles as much as her restraints will let her, while her eyes go wide. Already she's crying. Hours of hurt and indignity pour out of her in a wave coaxed on by fear.
There is no courage left in the heart of Alina Cascade. No. Please no. Please! Lock her in a dungeon! Throw her in the sea! Make her be Asteria's kitten! She'll be the best kitten ever just please please please don't take her to see-- no. No. Please. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. Don't do this don't do this don't do this she's been good she's been goodgoodgooooood no no why don't no. She shivers uncontrollably.
He's coming.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Kazelia!
“Why not?” Ooof. Right. That whole disregard for other people thing. They’re not Riders! That means Cleo and her friends should be able to do whatever they want to them. And you?
You’re barely a Rider anymore. You’re a traitor.
“Asteria’s a stuck-up brat,” she says, candidly, in the way the rank and file do when there’s no princess around to overhear. (Another reminder that you don’t count to her, anymore.) “But the King put her in charge.”
Oh, no. Your dad is behind this? There’s no way this is like what Ninian did in Jedad, then. This means it’s more dire than you thought, and that he’s getting something he wants out of this wild dragon hunt.
“So, the way I figure, we just have to take down the dragon, somehow, and then Asteria gets kicked upstairs to do other things, and I can do everything I want. Like fighting a griffin. Or stealing one of those cats.” (Rita hisses angrily.) “And if we tripped her up in front of the dragon, your father would kill us, so...” She shrugs.
The thing about Cleo is that she craves both adventure and the acquisition of treasures. She’s the kind of prisoner who would stop to steal your spear mid-escape, and the kind who would do outrageous stunts if it got her what she wanted. You’ve got her well contained, though.
If you bribed her, gave her beautiful things with the promise of more, she might switch sides in a mercenary fashion. At least until she ran into your dad. No Rider can stay true to princessing in front of him.
***
Team Stagecoach!
The worst thing about the spell that falls on you that evening is how you don’t even notice it at the time. An outside observer, not under enchantment, would find it obvious that something’s wrong. But, from the perspective of your own heads, all that happens is that you suddenly decide to go off in pursuit of what’s on your mind.
For Adila, that looks like going for a walk where she doesn’t need to clamp down on her thoughts every two seconds, to just go and be alone for a while. For Kazelia, that looks like getting up and following that icy trickle playing at the back of her neck. For Dandy, that looks like getting up and looking around for some natural herbs that might help stabilize Kazelia’s unreality, and for Rita, that looks like getting up and trudging into the woods to go find Alina, heedless of the fact that she doesn’t have the first clue as to where her childhood friend is.
And for Cleo, that looks like doing the inchworm out of the firelight, one centimeter at a time.
***
Adila!
You’re so deep in a funk that you don’t notice the Rider for quite some time. She finds you plopped down by a picturesque little pond, staring glumly at your own reflection.
“Oh, Adila,” she says, her voice dripping with sympathy. Her cloak is made of owl’s feathers and silver, and it shimmers in the moonlight. “How lucky I happened to find you here! I’m here to bring you a message from my father.”
Her fingers rest on your scales, bringing a familiar numbing coolness. “And trust me when I tell you that you will want to listen, you poor little thing.”
(And all around you, the enchantment deepens, lets the embers of your heart cool, and the birds in the trees go silent, the insects all around hush, the world holds its breath to hear you speak. Even if it’s telepathically.)
***
Kazelia!
This is just like the time Kaja accidentally knocked out two of your front fangs. (You had to wait for ages for them to finish growing back in!) A hole that you can’t help but probe with your tongue, something missing that should be there, a dreadful wrongness in what should be familiar.
Except, no. What’s wrong is that something you’ve begun to take for granted is becoming more familiar in a way that makes it alien all over again.
You come to a clearing where stands a beautiful crystal... well, standing stone. It’s dark purple, and a dim light flickers within it, and using your mystic knowledge you know at once that it stands upon a ley line convergence. One of the wellsprings of Hyperborea’s power.
Only, this one is all wrong.
The grass all around is wilted and brittle, touched with frost, where it can be seen under the heavy fall of leaves in the same condition. The trees ringing the clearing are beginning to rot, large gouges showing where the wood is coming apart. And a light, unseasonal snow swirls in the breeze.
“That’s not the only explanation,” the young woman standing there says to the cat riding on her shoulder. Both of them are wearing a wide-brimmed black hat with a pointy top, trimmed in white lace. “It is also possible that, for her own reasons, Ourania is allowing this; or, in the worst case scenario, that she is no longer able to prevent it.”
“Don’t even say that,” the cat yowls. “It’s gotta be something she just hasn’t fixed yet!” The cat swings her head around in hysterics, and happens to notice you. She puffs up, her spine arching, and screeches, “Diana!!”
The young woman has her wand out and pointed at you quicker than you can say “knife.” Or, more accurately but less able to help you understand the speed, faster than you can say, “It’s okay, I don’t mean you any harm.”
The young woman has dark robes on, emblazoned with three intertwined H’s on the breast. Her hair is the striking silver of a Felorian birch tree, and her eyes are a piercing blue.
“You’re a Rider,” she says, matter-of-factly. “What are you doing here?”
“Let’s get out of here, Diana,” the cat says, biting her claws nervously. “She’s probably here to stop us from finding out the truth, at any cost!”
***
Alina!
When you touch the ground your legs shake and tremble like a newborn pegasus filly, and your captors have to haul you up by your armpits and drag you across the green. It's night, and the darkness is only broken by flickering, cold blue lights in lanterns hung about the camp. Everything smells like horses and ice, drowning out the subtle and lovely scents of Feloria in bloom. (They trampled the flowers while they prepared the camp. You could see all sorts of dying petals in the churned mud from your vantage point, all through the dusk.)
And as you're taken to the main tent, you feel it. That terrible, searing cold all through your body, drowning out the aches and the rope burn and the exhaustion. There's nothing but the ice which is freezing your blood, penetrating deeper, down towards your heart. It hurts. It hurts so much.
They toss you down to your knees and you try your best to curl up into a ball and control the pain. Overcome it. Don't let them win. And you nearly do! You so nearly, nearly do! You're Alina Cascade and you're strong and you can't help Jessamine if you're frozen and helpless in agony!
It's just that having the ice-cold water dumped over your head is a shock. It drenches you, pushes you down further, knocks the wind right out of you, makes everything numb and cold and
then they do it again
and again
and again
giving you a moment each time to catch your breath, to bite down on the cloth filling your mouth and sob, and then sploosh. Another vat dumped out over your head. Until--
"Enough."
You hear ice cubes rattling around as several Riders furiously reverse course, ending up spilling it back over themselves. You hear Asteria say, "Awww, but daddy, I made sure to get as many of them as I could!" And you hear the crunch of frozen grass underneath his boots. You can't bring yourself to look up. Not yet. They can't ask that of you, not now.
"I know, honey, and I appreciate the thought. But I think that finally makes us even."
He says it without a trace of irony. As if the things he has done haven’t tipped the scales, but this final indignity, that on top of everything else, that was what made you even. Like what you did to him and what he has done to you are equal, now.
He sighs, tsks his tongue. "But there's still the matter of her destruction of royal property." That royal property was a nightmare swamp. "The subversion of my lawful agents." He probably doesn't mean Kaja, just Jessamine. Probably. "And, most vexingly of all, her slandering of my good name to anyone who will listen."
He lifts your chin, so that you have to look at him. He's touching you. He's touching you and you can't make him stop. "You have been a very naughty little girl, Alina. And you deserve to be punished." His eyes almost blend into the night sky yawning above him. "But I have decided to allow you to alleviate your sentence. I have a use for you." He pats your cheek. "I know," he says, in a half-joking manner, "I'm as surprised as you are. But only a fool would not take the opportunities provided him."
He pulls his hands back. "Bring me Diana Kingfisher. Win her over to my service. She must be willing and she must be mine. And when I return here with the Caduceus..." He takes a long breath. In. Out. His breath is winter, the death of trees, the emptiness of a starless night sky. "I will release you and your sister, and perhaps even your mother, as a wedding present to my bride. And then all I will require of you is that I never see you again."
He considers you for a moment. "And if you fail? If you poison Diana against me? If you go run off and find your friends and try to stop my daughters from carrying out my orders?" His voice is the sword which is cutting you, which is seeking your heart with its ice-cold tip. "Your little firebrand will regret it."
What could he do to her that's worse than what he did? Don't think about that. Don't think about that. Don't think about him freezing her in ice forever, or trapping her in a magic sword, or turning her into a Rider, or, or, or. Or taking her away from you forever. Never letting you see her again. Never ever.
"Go ahead and nod if you understand," he says, smirking. Because he can. Because he doesn't care about how you are feeling right now, only that you are cowed and understand your place in his schemes. Because he doesn't even want to hear your voice. Because he does not understand who you are, only how he can turn you into a weapon, like he turned Jessamine into a weapon.
He has tossed you into a labyrinth and the labyrinth is your own heart. (And the promise of this world is that there is always a way out, but he has taken your lights, too, and it is so very dark, and perhaps it is easy to forget that presently.)
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Adila!
You’re so deep in a funk that you don’t notice the Rider for quite some time. She finds you plopped down by a picturesque little pond, staring glumly at your own reflection.
“Oh, Adila,” she says, her voice dripping with sympathy. Her cloak is made of owl’s feathers and silver, and it shimmers in the moonlight. “How lucky I happened to find you here! I’m here to bring you a message from my father.”
Her fingers rest on your scales, bringing a familiar numbing coolness. “And trust me when I tell you that you will want to listen, you poor little thing.”
(And all around you, the enchantment deepens, lets the embers of your heart cool, and the birds in the trees go silent, the insects all around hush, the world holds its breath to hear you speak. Even if it’s telepathically.)
+I don't want to hurt you.+
The thought was part threat and part entreaty.
She wasn't asleep. She had been here before, experience and training woke unsteadily in her mind, armour that didn't quite fit any more. She had been lead astray into a magical ambush and the criminal was using her position of superiority to offer a bribe and threat all at once. Unfurl your wings to give you tactical options, check your backdrop, identify the level to which it is safe to escalate... Was there a level like that at all? Her wings, half-opened, started to close again. Why was she bothering to show her size, why was she going through the routine of intimidating a criminal? As if she wasn't scary enough! As if one Rider standing in the midst of an oh-so-flammable forest posed more than a threat than the Snake Husband? As if the fact that she didn't want to hurt this woman wasn't the only thing standing between her and being hurt. A combat stance was pointless overkill. Why bother?
She tried to pull away from that gentle touch but couldn't quite manage it. She brought about eyes that had fallen back on the redoubt of discipline because then at least it would be her head and not her tangled heart doing the thinking. +Identify yourself. Where is Princess Alina? Are these negotiations for her release?+
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
“Let’s get out of here, Diana,” the cat says, biting her claws nervously. “She’s probably here to stop us from finding out the truth, at any cost!”
Kazelia doesn't move. There's a wand pointed at her after all. "That's a ley line, my father has corrupted it, you'd like to fix it, I'd like to help however I can, and your cat is very cute" she says in rapid succession. Still without moving. She was very tired and mostly just hoped that this person who was almost certainly a Hecatian witch didn't run away. She would like some companionship and not having to walk through the forest alone, plus figuring out how exactly she had ended up here. But really she was just tired and her shoulder hurt and the world was more grey than it should be, and it sounded nice to just be with someone.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
A Princess must always be beautiful.
You are ugly, Alina
A Princess must always be graceful.
You are pathetic, Alina
A Princess must always be composed.
You are a fool, Alina
A Princess must always be generous.
Greedy! Selfish! Useless dog, Alina!
A Princess must always strive to be loved.
As if you could be, Alina
A P-princess
weak weaK weAK WeAK WEAK
Must be... m-m-must be
YOU CAN'T EVEN SAY IT! HAHAHA YOU CAN'T YOU CAN'T YOU'll NEVER!
S-s-s-s-s-s-t r o n g
Give up, you useless idiot girl
SPLASH!!
Hff! Ghk! It's so cold. Alina gags and sputters as water colder than anything she's felt soaks her through to the bone. Her hair falls limp and clings to her forehead and her neck. Her silks stick to her skin, but the dark color keeps her from baring herself to the assembled Riders or their King. She stares at the ground with fearful intensity, so she has no idea how anyone is looking at her. She doesn't see the lust and the desire flicker through several sets of starry eyes, the sharp toothed leers. Wet has always been Alina's best look. Even shivering, she is lovely as--
SPLASH!!
Cold. Cold. So cold. She can't breathe, can't breathe. Her teeth try to chatter, but her gag gets in the way. When she bites it, frozen water seeps out of the cloth and into her mouth. Her tongue is numb. This is better. Much better. She cannot speak, now. You do not need a gag to keep her quiet, now. A Princess must always be obedient. A Princess must endure an--
SPLASH!!
Why? What's... why? Again? Yes, yes, again! Again! Soak her, make her beautiful! Make her cold! Even black silks have a limit; arms and legs and underthings peek from underneath translucent garments. Oh, sweetheart. Oh little princess, isn't this much better? There you are. There you go. You are Illumina. Accept your blessing. This is good and right and holy and all that you deserve, so--
SPLASH!!
Hff! Hff! Hff hff hff! Breathe, Alina. Can you breathe. You can't. You can't so don't. Cough and sputter and gag. Stupid girl. How does it feel? Is it nice? How could you like this? Do you see now? Do you see? You see! You do see! How nothing could ever be good about this. How everything about you is evil. You wronged him. You shamed him! It's all your fault. If only you weren't a naughty girl who loved this awful thing, your mother would be here to hug you better. Your sisters would be here to change your clothes. Do you like this, even now? Oh my god, you do! You sad, gross, pathetic little girl. Awful, awful, naughty terrible thing!
SPLASH!!
Alina's breathing is ragged now. She's swallowed so much frozen water that she can't feel her throat anymore. She can't tell if air is passing into her body or not anymore. Her eyes have gone unfocused, her nose is dreadfully sniffly, and she can't even pick her head up to see who's even still in the room with her. Her hair feels heavier than iron. Her clothes are like manacles that clamp down on her body and hold her to the ground. She cannot move, now. You do not need restraints to keep her compliant.
Then
the fingers
the
hand
The sound is fear. It is in the shape of sobbing and a voice that cracks with every fresh burst of pain and terror.
The sight is fear. It is in the shape of glassy green eyes that focus on nothing but never leave their tormentor.
The smell is fear. It is in the shape of a girl dripping with water, and the scent of fresh rain on dust.
...
That can't be right. Even here? Even now?
Spoiler: Stop Struggling
Show
Her neck is heavy. Her body feels like it's made of ice, so it's hard to nod. It's a tiny thing at first, you'd miss it if you weren't looking for it. That's not good enough, and she doesn't wait for him to say so. She tries again. Up. Down. Up again. What does a good girl say when someone asks her a favor?
She says yes.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Adila!
When the Rider laughs, there is reverb.
“Oh, Adila,” she says, patting you on your nose, “you’re so silly. This is all about you. I don’t care the first little bit about that waterlogged brat.” Ooof. That was a nasty little smile that she has to choke back down. “Nooo! I’m here because my father took pity on you, lying in the desert, having broken an entire giant snake, hurt your friends, and just generally acted like a, well, a dragon. You poor dear! You’re trying so hard not to be a monster!”
With a wave of her hand, she summons forth music! Brooding, ominous, just the sort of thing for talking with a Rider offering you bribes in the thick of the woods.
There is a wicked monster
which every naughty Rider child fears
when their momma drips its tales
down into their nasty little ears
It's got a body as big as a tank
and nails as sharp as a rake
it's hot enough to burn you up
(to a crisp!)
and melt our kingdom down to a laaaaaa~ke
It's a dragon, darling
An overgrown lizard with wings
It's a dragon, darling
The worst of all manner of things
Now the woods come alive again, but with everything singing along to her song. She coaxes backup music out of the birds, and one even lands on her outstretched finger.
Imagine having so many teeth—
how do you clean them all?
Imagine thinking that a practical size
is being twenty feet tall!
They break every little thing they touch,
can't hold your hand or play bass in a band
or give you a kiss to say "I love you this much!"
(How pathetic~)
It's a dragon, darling
An overgrown lizard with wings
It's a dragon, darling
The worst of all manner of things
The bird teeters off her finger, and the sound of it shattering when it hits the ground is covered up nicely by the end of the chorus.
But don't you worry, sweetheart, and don't you fret
Auntie Azora hasn't abandoned you yet
my daddy thinks you're just swell
and so thinks that, well
you'd be pretty if nobody could tell
that you used to be a dragon!
No longer a dragon, darling
An overgrown lizard with wings
No longer a dragon, darling
The worst of all manner of things!
She pulls her cloak back, and there’s a mirror there that you’re sure wasn’t there before. It’s very, uh. Gothic. Lots of grasping hands and chains all around the rim, and raven wings, and a spiky crown right up at the top.
But that’s not important! Not as important as your reflection. Which... is cute. Not imposing and scary and glowy-eyed. You look...
You look like a princess.
Like you’d fit right in with Helya and Kyouko and Kazelia and—
and Alina.
You look as pretty and graceful as Alina.
Take a look in the mirror, honey,
like what you have to see?
Some actual hair
some va-va-voom there
and that's not all I've got to share!
You can be soft and small,
no longer too tall
to fit in kitty houses
and dainty little blouses
and forget about knocking down walls!
You can be like everyone else,
with fingers and hairdos and toes,
instead of the dragon that nobody likes,
who breaks everything in her rows.
She cups your chin, and in the mirror you can see it, clear as day. Her blue fingers on your dark, soft and smooth skin. She gives you one of the most maternal smiles you’ve ever seen. Like everything’s going to be okay. Everything will be okay.
So just say the word and I'll take all your skin,
whip it right off like a loose tablecloth
and leave you the size you should've been!
No longer a dragon, darling
An overgrown lizard with wings
No longer a dragon, darling
The worst of all manner of things!
***
Kazelia!
“I? I’m?!” The cat puffs up, full of indignant wrath. “I am not her cat! That’s just like you twolegs! You see a cat and you go, awww, pretty kitty, who do you belong to? I am Theodora von Cheshire, I belong to myself, and I am the greatest witch in the world!!”
“I’m listening,” Diana says, lowering her wand but keeping it in a duelist’s form, rather than holstering it. If you suddenly turn into a snow monster or something she’s more than ready. “By what means is your father corrupting the ley lines? What means do you intend to use to fix it? And—“ She frowns. “Are you all right? Your shoulder... the aura is, ah, unique. Even in comparison to the rest of you.”
“Okay,” Theodora says, sulkily, “I may have oversold myself a little. But you’d better take me seriously. Or I’ll turn you into a toad! And not even a pretty toad!”
***
Jessamine!
You lie on the floor of the tent, exhausted.
You really don’t have a lot of memories of what happened to you in Oberon’s clutches. It’s all murky, like silt-water, hiding something sharp and wicked underneath, like a carp-infested stream. He did something to you that took away what you are and made you nothing but the sensation of cold fury, hunting for a victim to savage. And you have a fear, deep and dark, of this Asteria Spite and her raised voice and her impossible standards. You don’t need to remember something for your heart to forget. And your heart is telling you that you have to run away. You have to.
Which is why you’re exhausted, because you have been flinging yourself across the tent in the hopes of breaking the chain keeping you here, or, or working it loose, or something. Snapping the collar, maybe. You don’t know. You just... you have to get out. You have to get free. And you’ll fight all of the Riders and save your helpless big sister and you’ll hurt Asteria so bad she won’t even—
Breathe. Don’t. Don’t. Your heart’s still... still vulnerable. Still shivering. You’re teetering on a silk thread over a long, deep fall, and one wrong step and you’ll fall and fall and never hit the bottom. Don’t think about violence. Don’t think about war. Think— think about Alina.
(if they hurt her you will dive off that thread and become a nightmare beyond the dreams of devils—)
Breathe. Breathe. Think about something else. Askaia. The summer house. (the one that HE ruined and destroyed and—) Alina holding you in her lap, reading you a bedtime story. Her hand on yours, tracing the shape of the rainbow on the page. Racing home from picking blackberries and always getting second place, but only because Rita cheated by having twice as many legs, and thereby being twice as fast, and Alina acting like she’d let you win. Tickle fights and hushed, furious pillow wars that stopped immediately when Mom—
(don’t even think about remembering that, your heart has that memory buried at the bottom of the lake)
The flap of the tent opens, and in comes Asteria. Thank Ourania she doesn’t seem to be in the mood to keep mocking you. Behind her come two Riders, dragging in—
no no no no NO
“Leave her with the kitten,” Asteria says. “She’s in no state to properly appreciate my work tonight. I’ll see to her before we ride tomorrow.” The Riders roughly toss Alina down, and laugh at how you spring up to your knees, the offensively oversized bell on your collar clattering.
“Awwww, is the widdle kitten up past her bedtime?” You lash out, and they laugh off the impact of the plush paws secured over your fists. Brigands! Monsters! you’ll destroy them all and burn down the world and—
You are given condescending headpats and scritches behind your kitty-ear headband, and they almost fall over themselves laughing as your vision blurs with furious tears. They leave, and Alina— Alina hasn’t moved— oh no no no Alina—
What have they done to her?
You can’t untie those thick black ropes, not with those useless paws. You can’t say anything to comfort her. You can’t even dry her off. But what you can do— what you have to do— is pull her close and wrap your arms around her and try to share some of your body warmth. To try to let her know, even if she’s barely here, that you’re there. That you love her. That you’re sorry for not being strong enough to save Mommy or her or anybody else.
All you can do is hold her through the night, and so you will.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Alina flinches at the warmth, and then again at the touch. It hurts. Being cold hurts, warming up hurts, being touched hurts. Flinching hurts. It's a trick. The thawing in her veins must be a trick, because he wouldn't let her rest. This strange softness must be a trick, because he'd never let her near something pleasant. The beating of her heart must be a trick, because he tore that out of her. She doesn't deserve to be love. She doesn't deserve it. Doesn't deserve...
Her hair and her clothes drip onto Jessamine, until they're both as wet as anything. She leeches the warmth from her sister, until the pair of them are clammy. Jessamine shivers, because Alina's forgotten how to. No words pass between them, even though it's what each of them needs most in all the world right now. Neither of them is capable of something like that. Soon, that niceness will turn bitter. Soon, that softness will push her away. Soon it'll be like it should.
The hours tick by. Jessamine's plush paws clumsily brush her big sister's hair out of her face. Alina's fallen asleep, or passed out maybe, what's the difference really? So she doesn't see Jess' face with those tears in her eyes. She doesn't get to watch them turn from hot and angry tears to quieter things born out of love. It's better this way. Jessamine always hated to let Alina see her cry. Now she can do it all she wants. Now she can love as much as she wants. Which she will. Which she does.
As dawn breaks on the tent, softness wins out. Warmth beats cold. Jessamine has fallen asleep at last, curled up on top of Alina without for the moment bothering to care what kind of animal she might look like. Between Jess' lap and stomach, Alina finally relaxes. The ropes won't let her move, but her muscles untense underneath them, and her face shifts to... if not happy, at least calm. She lets out the tiniest sigh, and snuggles in closer to her sister.
There are still beautiful things in this world, Alina Cascade. Don't give up yet.
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Raz_Fox
Kazelia!
“I? I’m?!” The cat puffs up, full of indignant wrath. “I am not her cat! That’s just like you twolegs! You see a cat and you go, awww, pretty kitty, who do you belong to? I am Theodora von Cheshire, I belong to myself, and I am the greatest witch in the world!!”
“I’m listening,” Diana says, lowering her wand but keeping it in a duelist’s form, rather than holstering it. If you suddenly turn into a snow monster or something she’s more than ready. “By what means is your father corrupting the ley lines? What means do you intend to use to fix it? And—“ She frowns. “Are you all right? Your shoulder... the aura is, ah, unique. Even in comparison to the rest of you.”
“Okay,” Theodora says, sulkily, “I may have oversold myself a little. But you’d better take me seriously. Or I’ll turn you into a toad! And not even a pretty toad!”
Kazelia settles back and leans against a tree with some relief. They're talking to her, not running away or attacking. She bows to the cat. "My apologies, Theordora, I should not have jumped to conclusions, it was very rude of me. My name is Kazelia Swiftlance, rebel daughter of Oberon Greymane, and former Rider, though one cannot shed the eyes and teeth just by departing the ranks."
Kazelia smiles ruefully. That had probably been too formal, but better that than rude and she had already offended the cat. You'd think after Askaia she would have known better than that.
"To answer your questions. I do not know the exact method my father and my sisters use to corrupt leylines. But this is not the first world we have visited, and Oberon leaves it every time as a drained, cold, and lifeless place. If I might speculate, being a witch myself" Kazelia gives them both a slight grin. "I think that leylines act as a sort of anchor for most worlds. They are sources of magic, of course, but they also represent and express the truths of a world and the magic that originates from them reinforces those truths and makes them happen when people live them. Oberon is a corrupting force. He may appear as a man, or some beast, but he's something vaster than that. He's a desire to...to control, to have everything under his power and his power alone. So he drains power from other things. Where he goes, where he is strong, even the sun is distant and the world is cold. And that twists leylines to reflect his truth instead of the truth of their natural world. When he has taken everything for himself in a world, the only truth is the cold and the barren wind, and so that is all that the world becomes."
Kazelia stops and chuckles for a second. This is probably very odd for Diana and Theordora. Nothing funny has been said. "I'm sorry, I just. You know, I never thought of my father that way before. He wants everything, but by possessing it, it becomes nothing, just reflections of his own barren soul, and so he can never be satisfied unless he stops being himself. That's sad. Maybe that's what they saw, so long ago..."
*****
There's a wood cabin. No, a hall, a grand lodge with a great oaken table. Fierce winds howl outside. A fire crackles warmly in the hearth, but it's interrupted by the sound of shattering pottery, a great clay jug of wine just flew out from the kitchen and shattered, leaving a dark, spreading violet puddle that sparkles with reflected firelight.
"There is NOTHING to FIX" roars a man's voice from that kitchen, and the children at the table quiver and try to cover their ears so that they can pretend they didn't hear anything. "This is how things SHOULD be. We deserve whatever we want, I deserve whatever I want and if that runs out, then we'll go elsewhere and settle there. Don't you DARE hold me responsible for this!"
The sound of an iron pan clatters to the floor, and the children wonder whether there will be any dinner left. But they can't risk chancing a look. Then there is quiet humming from the other room, and a tone of admonishment with words spoken too softly to be heard from the hall.
A moment passes. Another. And then Oberon Greymane, his hair still salt and pepper despite his name, storms out of the kitchen without a word and walks out the door of the hall, beckoning the children to follow. They do. They are afraid and so they must, even though it is cold and they wish to stay in the hall. They go, and the door shuts behind them to the sound of gentle sweeping of pottery shards.
*****
How had Kazelia remembered that? She wasn't there, was she? Had that really happened? How had...She was ignoring the witch, Diana.
"Sorry, old...memories, and wounds maybe. I...I don't know how to fix the whole thing. I'm not even sure I know how to fix this, here, but I have a pretty good idea. And yes I'm...all right. I was stabbed today by a very cruel sword that I once gave away, but it probably won't get any worse. Come, help me make a fire, and if you've got a witch's powers, perhaps conjure a broom? The only way I know to fix something like this is to treat it like my own heart and show it beauty and care. We'll build the fire near the leyline, sweep up the old debris, burn off the rot, and make an offering of magic with the sunrise. If it wants my magic, at least, I don't want to make it any worse with the cold of the void.
I don't know how I got here, exactly, but I'm glad that I am here, and I'd like to try and make this better."
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
You know what?
It felt good to hear someone say it.
I mean, no, it felt terrible. It felt abysmal. It felt like every time she turned her head she was struck in the gut. She was encircled and wound and swayed helplessly, thoughtlessly, like a snake before a flute. But at least somebody was saying it. At least it wasn't just her own voice and her own locked up head and having to hear people try to find a bright side she didn't believe in. It wasn't people who politely avoided talking about it. It was transfixing to talk to someone who knew the chaos in her head and heart and could say it back to her. It made her feel a bit more real.
And then the mirror.
Everything she wanted smiled back at her. Smiled with teeth that didn't make children cry. Bounced from foot to foot, rolling her shoulders, not needing to check what was underneath her. Took a steady breath that didn't catch fire, and let it out with a melodic sigh that could join in song. She reached for it the second she saw it. Touched the frame and stared into that reflection with eyes of glittering gold.
There were no thoughts in Princess Adila's head at all, and even if there were they wouldn't have been able to change anything. This appeal had been made directly to Adila's wishing heart, and this wish was all that was inside it.
For a sentence so simple it was terrifyingly hard to get out, like if she didn't say it right this magical moment would somehow disappear. +Yes. Please. I want this more than anything.+
-
Re: [IC] Princess-Champions of Hyperborea
Adila!
Azora Howl seizes you fast with fingers like iron and frostbite. Her fingers are under your scales, her fingers are touching the youness of you, and for a moment it hurts so much that your sight goes black. Just for a moment, though! Then—
It actually does feel like a tablecloth was pulled off your shoulders!
Just, whoosh! And you fall right on your soft lil’ tushie. You’ve got legs. Legs! Two of them! They’re slender and kinda nice and you’ve got toes and oh no it’s actually really cold. Luckily your hair— the color of your old scales— is long and disheveled enough to hide the fact that you are wearing zero clothes, actually.
Azora, meanwhile, is twisting the skin tighter and tighter and tighter until it becomes a tightly woven ring, resting in the palm of her hand. That ring is all your old dragon-ness: your strength, your fire, your flight—
Oh. Well. You have to make some small sacrifices, right? And maybe Kazelia can give you rides on Shiva now, and... and flying’s not worth all the hassle of being too strong and too hot and too big. It has to not be.
“I would strongly recommend against doing anything dangerous until you learn the rules of being small,” Azora says. “After all this, my father would hate to see you go and get yourself incinerated by a rampaging dragon. My advice is to go find a pretty girl and become a farmer, or something like that. Maybe go back to Jedad and dance on tables? Something safe.”
Wow, okay, you totally can— whoa. The world’s kind of big, actually, from this angle. And dizzy. Who knew that magic took so much out of you?
“Is someone there?” Azora’s head snaps up, and she steps into the shadows, vanishing along with your ring. And who should come upon tiny, dainty, cute Adila but—
Oh. Hi, Dandy. She’s carrying a great big wicker basket full of strange Felorian weeds and flowers, and when she sees you, she smiles. “Hello, darling! What are you doing out here?”
She doesn’t even recognize you!
“You’ll catch your death of cold. Here,” she says, shrugging off her shawl and offering it to you. She doesn’t even know who you are, and she still is acting like a proper princess toward you.
***
Kazelia!
“Interesting theory.” You seem to have impressed Diana, which is good! “As a intercosmic traveler, you would have a unique viewpoint. One I think the headmistress at HU might be interested in hearing.”
She holsters her wand, and Theodora hops off her shoulder and waves her adorable lil kitty paws, and zoom! The broom comes flying to her. She stands up on her hind legs and starts sweeping up the leaves.
Diana herself uses a firestarting charm and gets a feeble, wan fire going. The more you work, though, the healthier it seems to get.
“The question, however,” Diana muses to herself, as you work together to take down dead limbs from the trees, “remains as to whether Ourania allows this corruption, has not seen it, or... is unable to mend it. Your thoughts, Kazelia?”
***
Alina!
SPLOOSH
You and Jessamine jerk awake. This isn’t like your mother waking you up with a pitcher of cool water, and you doing your best to pretend to be asleep while she sings the Sleepy Princess Song until you can’t stop yourself from giggling and giving the game away. No, this is cold and mean, and the figure looming over you is very much not your mother.
More than that— you hurt. You hurt all over. You hurt in your aching limbs (they couldn’t have untied you?) and your heart, which is thawed but the thawing just makes it more vulnerable, more sensitive.
Damage your Blood and your Courage.
“Help the older one up,” Asteria says, and her retinue sets the buckets down and jumps to, undoing your bindings and pulling you up to your feet. “Now, Alina, you’re going to behave, aren’t you?”
Pap. Jessamine (still kneeling, unable to stand with her legs bound) gently boops your leg with her paws. A silent reassurance. (In the morning light, you can see she’s even wearing a little cloth “cat smile” half mask, which... okay, you can actually buy those in Askaia. It’s still a super offensive costume, though.)
“You ruined your clothes,” Asteria sneers. “Don’t you worry. I always come prepared~”
Oh no.
Oh no.
Asteria is about to give you a sincere makeover with a) no knowledge of Iluminan fashion and b) absolute confidence.
What horrible outfit has she got prepared for you, Alina?