Azaelle
There is something very odd about Corvus... and considering what we've been through today, that's extraordinary.
[Latin]
"He's definitely strange, but if what is out there is what I think it is, then I'm not surprised he took flight. We can't contend with the Infernal so unprepared. And if it's not the Infernal, I'd still say we're better off with more preparation."
Azaelle
I agree. Let's be going then. I'll walk back with you incase something happens on the way and you might need my assistance.
She smiles sweetly, walking along beside Fabrica. Uza walks beside her, still looking disgruntled.
Mathius
"Hmm, I too know little of such things - people of my house seldom encounter such creatures. Though I do know that if it is a demon, then all of my intellego skills are useless. What have we let ourselves in for?"
Azaelle
An opportunity to impove our knowledge of Demons Eternal Oblivion, I suppose. Your strength is in intellego, then?
Mathius
"It is one of my strengths, as is talking to things - though I have never tried talking to the dead."
"Well Sodales, I leave this to you then. I believe discretion is definitely the wiser course. We can always come back for a more in depth examination later when we are better prepared. If things were more urgent I could see styaing despite the increased danger. We should mitigate our risks with further research and discussion, back in the safety of the Covenant and the Aegis. But I will stay if that is what we wish to do."
A few quick inquiries, by Mathius, before the group pulls out, reveals much. A rabbit, timidly pokes his head out from behind a tree, loathe to come too close. "I saws it, I did." it says, eating some grass. "The nun was walking bys, on her ways to the barn, and it flews out of the sky and hits her. I's was scared, so I's ran, but the nuns, she foughts back, she did." Before any more questions can be asked, a noise startles the already nervous fae rabbit, and he bolts off into the wood.
Meanwhile, Back at the Covenant...
[i]Corvus, intent on finding the red-haired Nephilim Uza spoke of, flies back to the covenant, a small dark shape against the greying sky. He notices bursts of fire below him in the courtyard some way off and swoops low. At speed, he flashes past Dierdre, the source of the fires, and notices the ground crawling with spiders.
Dierdre stands resolute, flames lancing from her hands and burning the crawling beasts.
Corvus wheels and lands on the beam protruding from the cooperage roof. He turns back to his human form, a spell already on his lips. In a moment, he stretches his hands out, fingers twitching and grasping, like the scrabbling legs of a thousand spiders, and then he bellows an unearthly cry.
Suddenly, spiders from across the courtyard are held still, legs impotently clawing the ground... and then slowly they are dragged back towards the cooperage.[/i]
CORVUS
Dierdre, Ya flame'll be well spent here. Burn dese and I'll fly fer help.
Dierdre's response is soon in coming; As the spider's get into a fairly close group, there is a flash of unnaturally bright (in this day and age, we'd call it actinic) light and a clap of thunde; and when everyone's eyes recover, all that is left of the verminous incursion is a disk of red hot glass, and the gawd-awful stench of burnt bugs.
She flashes a thumbs up in Corvus' direction, and then proceeds to work around the covenant. The spiders appear to have been headed towards the feast hall, and Mab's Lab, and have left other areas alone.
Mab soon rolls a ball of spiders entangled in spider's webs (never mind that it's this really bright shade of pink) out into the yard from her lab, which simply dissolves into flower petals at her gesture, spiders and all.
There is a blackened line around the feasthall, and wisps of smoke rise from the ground; Rhiannon sits, crosslegged in the makeshift gate of the stone wall she helped build, looking exhausted at having maintained her concentration against the onslaught. A left over spider crosses into that line, and there is a puff of flame, and it is gone.
Soon, the situation is in hand, and the last of the incursion is out of the ring and hamlet, and covenfolk begin taking stock of what is damaged, and what is not.
Corvus flies back to the group in the forest. After hurried explanations, he returns to the covenant ahead of them.
Azaelle
The covenant was attacked by... spiders? Or does Corvus just have spiders on his ceiling? If you'll excuse me, I am going to take a quick peek.
Azaelle takes a quick look around and summons a small pebble, which floats easily up into her outstretched hand. She then turns and sinks into the earth as if she had just stepped off a ledge into a pool. A second later, a small patch of azaleas springs up from the spot where she last stood.
Back at the covenant...
Rhiannon is resting on the wall that, earlier that day, Azaelle helped her build. Azaelle emerges gracefully from the earth in front of the wall.
Azaelle
(to Rhiannon)
"Is all well? Should tht others hurry back?"
Rhiannon, to her credit, does not start at Azaelle's sudden appearance near her. "I think... we've got...matters...well in hand," she says, slowly and deliberately, as the few spiders Corvus' spell missed become charcoal at Rhiannon's line. After a few quiet minutes, she visibly relaxes.
"A horde of spiders came through the aegis shortly after you'd left to investigate what the custos found. Mab and Dierdre both took shots at something or someone in the trees, but it is unknown whether they hit what they were casting or shooting at, or were forced to deal with the influx of spiders before whoever they were shooting at."
Corvus runs up to Rhiannon and Azaelle, a beaming smile on his face.
CORVUS
The others are right behind me. Come on! Let's find Dierdre!
Dierdre and Mab are easily found. One just follows the smolder footsteps around the covenant, and one finds Dierdre. A lone spider, probably having nothing to do with the evenings happenings, scuttles out onto it web, and immediately disappears in a puff of flame as Dierdre walks by. You find that you can't get very close, so great is the heat she gives off... and her eyes glow the red of steel in the forge.
"Flavius and Quintus have been handling the defense of the covenfolk and Stephan and Brodvick," she says, and each of her words is like blast of wind from the desert. "I think Mab and I got what our foe was using for a spotter." The glow and the heat begins to fade. "Both of them." Her smile is a fierce one.
Mab comes up, her hands wrapped up in a ball of what appears to be spider silk, only that's it's the brightest blue anyone can ever remember seeing. "She means at both ends of one of those Arcane connection things," Mab explains. "It's a shame you had to roast them, I would have liked to have seen how he made out as a frog. I had a feeling that would've lasted a long, long time." She tries to get the ball of sticky stuff off of one hand, only to have it wind up on the other.
"I learned a long time ago," says Dierdre, " Hearth and Home come first. Like it or not," she says, gesturing to the assembled group, "We are family. And no one messes with my family without paying the price."
"Cuana made sure all the animals were safe," continues Mab, the ball of sticky web transferring to a foot, "Wolves are the lords of the forest, so he has some power of command over beats in his domain, which happens to be the covenant and it's woods."
"I'm pretty sure I've a ward against vermin somewhere around this place," mutters Dierdre. "These were normal spiders, some had been enchanted to be larger, but they were still able to cross the aegis." Mab's ball of sticky web has transferred itself back to her right hand as she tries to get it off her foot.
"I can talk to Weaver," says Mab, the sticky hand grasping Dierdre on the shoulder.
"What magnitude do you know the Parma at, Mab?" asks Dierdre, eyebrow twitching as she looks at the offending matter that binds the 2 together.
"5th or 6th," she answers after a bit of thought, and then without prompting. "and 3rd magnitude in the form of Ignem."
"Good." says Dierdre, and with a few quick words, the annoying ball of silk simply becomes dust, and blows away on the evening breeze.
Mathius
"Spiders attacking the covenant? Through the aegis? What next? Flying cattle? Though if there are any left I can find out if they were commanded or forced to attack - but from what I have seen of Deidre I doubt there will be anything left to question."
He pats the various pouches and pockets to make sure that everything is still there, or is it to hide the sjaking of his hands?
"Let's hurry back before the next wave comes, I want answers"
Azaelle
What others? The other what?
she attempts to follow Corvus, totally confused.
CORVUS
Well... There's Mathius. I thought at least Conner... I don't know. I just thought it might sound a little more exciting if I said "they're right behind me". It's better than "they're a little way off and they'll be here when they get here".
For about five seconds Azaelle stares at Corvus.
Azaelle
"I got here quicker incase more help was needed but it looks like everything is under control."
The earth by Azaelle's feet rises up and folds over a line of spiders, crushing them.
(back to Corvus)
"You want to go find Deidre? Didn't she threaten your life this morning?"
CORVUS
Aye, she did. But then, I get that a lot.
Corvus starts to jog off, apparently in the direction of the hall.
CORVUS
Over his shoulder... She likes me really.