Dewberry began to shift her magic to the pestle again to mix it all together, but there was no need. The dye mixed itself, swirling and churning until it flared with rainbow light, its glow seeming almost holy. She stared, her mouth parted slightly with awe. She hadn't even put any of her own magic into it--! Was so much stored in the Spire piece that it could do this on its own?

"Azure!" she called, tasting the scent of burning magic and... soil? She wasn't sure, and couldn't seem to take hold of the smell a second time. "Azure! Come look! I made something!" Where was her sister? Dewberry had to share this with her!

Azure came into the room with ruffled feathers and a concerned-sounding 'Whatsit?'. Ah… I woke her up, Dewberry thought, half-guilty and half-amused. The sight of the Spire dye seemed to wake her right up, though, and she laughed softly.

"I made it from a small piece of crystal from Polaris," she told Azure, then hesitated. "Ah... you know the Spire? A piece that looked like that, but around the big Spire instead of attached to it. I got it here with mind magic; it's pretty safe when it's a little piece by itself. But touching the bigger pieces probably isn't as good of an idea?" She was trying to be reassuring, in case Azure worried, but she didn't want her sister to go touching the greater Spire either.

"Anyway! Yeah, a bit of the Spire crystal, and then I put a whole bunch of glow in it. I didn't cast any spells, though! It did the rainbow thing all by itself!" Dewberry looked back at the dye, admiring its shimmering aura again. "Do you wanna paint each other? I could give your head a rainbow halo!"

"Oh! Yeah, I have," she assured Azure. "The stone felt tingly, and gave me a little zap like static—but it wasn't that strong, so it didn't hurt! Maybe it's being away from the big Spire, or maybe it's that it was such a small piece?"

It had still held on to enough magic to mix its own dye and create the rainbow aura, though, so perhaps even a small piece was more powerful than it might seem. "I haven't touched the finished dye, though! Good idea to test it," though to be honest, she didn't really like the idea of Azure getting burned from a test either. It would be better than all-out painting without knowing what might happen, at least, and she was pretty sure the glow and water wouldn't have made it any more dangerous.

"Feel all right?" Dewberry asked a bit anxiously, slithering closer.

Azure's praise sent a shiver of warmth down her spine, and oh how she wanted to bask in it—! But with it also came a touch of worry: she hadn't created the rainbow herself. Wouldn't Azure be disappointed in her, if she tried something similar in the future and failed without the gem's own magic guiding her?

"It was all the Spire crystal's magic, really," she admitted. "I just did the crushing, and the glow." Dewberry looked at Azure, then at the mortar filled with dye. It was a pity there wasn't more of it, but considering the sheer amount of magic the Spire held, using a tiny piece had probably been the safest option.

"How do you feel about some spots on your wings, like some butterflies have?" she asked. Ah… perhaps the glow would make hunting from the air a little difficult, though. Had Azure said she only rarely ate meat? "Or some patterns on your antlers?" There was some flat space for painting, though getting the dye there was another question entirely. Dewberry could only hope her magic wouldn't fail halfway.

"I think I'd like a stripe down my back!" she decided, and in a sudden flash of whimsy: "Oh! And maybe I could make the tip of my tail glow, like glow worms."

Warm pride bloomed in Dewberry's chest. "Thank you," she said, pressing her nose into Azure's feathers briefly before pulling away and holding still for the stripe to be painted. She felt the cool touch of the dye on her scales and waited for it to dry before coiling around herself to look at it.

It was bright turquoise, like the blue scales she already had, but it retained its rainbow shimmer and flare effect even in the relatively thin stripe. "What about calling it brilliant aqua?" Dewberry suggested. "Or maybe rainbow aqua--but I think the halo part is more unique than the rainbow." She could, of course, put all three parts into the name--but that would be much too long. "Or rainbow flare! That's got the two most prominent parts, I think!"

Dewberry slithered to the 8-rock, pausing before she put it on. "Why don't you pick your favorite option? You did teach me how to do all this, so you should have a part in the naming too!" She wedged her nose inside, then dipped the attached feather into the dye. There wasn't all that much--she'd used a smallish rock, after all--and she didn't want to run out of dye and leave Azure's wings asymmetrical, so she'd have to alternate between wings. It'd take longer, but it was worth making sure.

The oval outlines came first, then a solid circle inside, like a peacock's eye spots. There was just barely enough paint to fill them in; she ended up having to roll her tail over the dye-stained feather instead of dipping it into liquid dye. The effect was several streaks of glowing turquoise rather than a solidly dyed tail tip, but she thought it was pretty anyway.

"All done!" Dewberry cheered, sliding her head back out of the 8-rock. "I think I'd like to keep this for a while--can you please magic it for me?"