Allaria fanned the air away from her face, not bothering to stop her nose wrinkling at the ghastly wave of warm air that came from her friend. For her part, Dara looked absolutely mortified at what she'd done, clasping her hand quickly over her mouth.
Allaria looked at her friend sternly, then half-sternly and finally broke up into warm peals of laughter. A sweet melodic laugh that was so unlike how she'd laughed with Jon in control that it dispelled any doubts Karyn might have had as to the mind that was residing in that head. It did however give her time to attempt to put her thoughts together.
"Well", Allaria chucked, as she looked fondly to her friend. "At least I know you are definitely still you. I know no other who would dare belch at a princess, especially me." She descended into merry laughter again.
Dara waited for the princess to finish laughing, before continuing. Her alcohol-befuddled brain was clearing fast. The plummet down a stairwell had done much of the work, but the near-panic from Jon's mental transformation was doing much more.
She still was not sure how to continue, but if she tried to get the necklace off Allaria here, and it didn't work, there were quite a few elven and human warriors half-drunk in the room at the top of the stairwell. Warriors who would doubtless be loyal to the princess, and things would go downhill from there. Worse, Karyn did not know how common these amulets actually were. After all, the princess had recognised it instantly. If she even began to suspect Dara was not really Dara, Karyn's mind could end up going the way Jon's did.
No, the only choice was to try and pull off being Dara long enough to be sure removing the necklace would restore Jon then removing it.
Dara looked to Allaria, who by now had finished laughing, although she was still smiling. "You came to the hall where the troops and I were getting drunk." Allaria's nose wrinkled at that. "Plus, you were walking about the castle without even a touch of make-up." This elicited a gasp from the princess whose hands moved involuntarily towards her face.
Allaria looked down at herself as best she could, taking in her friend's words. She had been walking about Kornost's castle without any of the marks of her status, without the delicate highlights that accentuated her station amongst the Elves. That's when realisation of what she was wearing, hit her.
She was wearing a pale blue, conservative dress. Form fitting but without the usual slashes and flashes of skin as befitted the daringness of a princess. It was, she realised with horror, one of her formal solemn outfits she reserved for state funerals and similar. Had her altered mind been mocking her departure, wearing it?
She rose to her feet angrily. She was going to find the person behind this, and rip them to pieces. There was no doubt in her mind that somebody would suffer for this outrage. "Dara," she said quietly. "You and I are going to find the person with the power to do this to me, and we are going to end them." As she spoke the last two words, lightning crackled under Allaria's fingernails; a sign of the princess' inner powers. Whilst this went unheeded by her, Karyn caught the flashes, and was suddenly very glad she had not tried to force a conflict in the stairwell.
The princess tucked the amulet under her dress, nestling it between her boobs such that it might go unobserved by all but the most keen-eyed observer, and haughtily strode back up the steps towards the hall. After a moment's indecision, Dara followed.
