The sinister hooded figure rises. It’s Quillius! It’s Vincent! It’s Villius: sinister squared with a side of EVIL. Looks bad for the home team. “I’m glad you came,” he says. “It saves me having to find you.”
“Find who?” asks Laurens.
With a wave of his hand, Villius, Gwynedd, Thomas, and Vivienne disappear. Oops. The bird/book and Thomas’ minions remain behind though. Hmmm...
And a man on a horse approaches from the north. It’s Erik of Devonshire, former knight and hard-luck soldier for hire. He’s following the signs of EVIL and they lead straight to Laurens (no surprise). Too bad he can’t take credit for this one ... yet.
“Laurens of Roque, is this your handiwork?” he calls out. Laurens shoots a crossbow bolt as a near miss, but Erik doesn’t flinch. “Is that your answer?”
Sir Martin subscribes to Knight’s Quarterly, so he recognizes Erik. Laurens eventually does too. They pretty much ignore him and get to concentrating on Thomas’ picture in the book.
Villius and the magically inclined appear high on a mountain. Misty clouds are below them and the sun is shining. He decided to come up here to chill while his plans to become ruler of “this sphere” come into place. And he has plans for them....
Gabriel manages to reach Thomas via bird-o-phone. Thomas message, “Help help help help help help.”
Villius notices. “There’ll be none of that.” He waves his hand and cuts off contact.
Gabriel wants to try another number picture to pull the others through. “Gwynedd?” The bird suggests Vivienne. Orro just doesn’t seem to like Gwynedd for some reason....
Gwynedd talks to Villius, trying to find some vestige of Quillius, but she doesn’t get much traction. “The world’s gone on fine without you,” she says.
“I didn’t say I’d make it a better place,” he replies.
“Yeah, like I said – fine without you.”
Villius has plans and “others for you”. The thought of Evil Thomas fills the world with dread....
The gang decides to go back to the font to try this magick thingy. As for Eric, eh, sure, bring him along. What this pagan ritual needs is more witnesses. Eric gets up to speed (sort of) along the way.
Vivienne asks about Quillius, and Villius says he knows everything he knew.
“Where are we?” asks Thomas. Eastern Europe it turns out. Better start walking....
Thomas gets Villius to spill that he’s waiting for dawn in order to open up some doorway.
Gwynedd tries to stir up the old Quillius, but nothing happens.
Eric discovers the bird talks. The group tries to somehow tap into the power of the font and/or swords and contact Vivienne. What could go wrong?
Gwynedd hears distant chanting and tries to hum something to reaffirm the connection. Vivienne carries on her conversation with Villius while speaking mentally with Gabriel. She can reach Gwynedd, but not Thomas. Oh, well. She grabs Gwynedd and vanishes.
Villius is pissed. Thomas starts casually making marks on a convenient rock. Pay no mind, nothing going on here. His aura of inoffensiveness fools even powerful spirits.
Gwynedd and Vivienne appears. Vivienne tries to reach Thomas but gets nothing. Eric demands, “What manner of Black Arts are you dealing with?”
Sir Martin begins to explain (oh, the irony). Other conversations ensue.
Donal, Gabriel, Vivienne, and Gwynedd try to figure out what to do. Gwynedd eventually starts trying to gather up the magic of the font into something useable, leaving the others to come up with a binding. Oh, and maybe save Quillius.
Much talking. Eventually, Gwynedd asks, “Do you want to make this place it’s prison?”
“Yes,” says Vivienne.
/Elsewhere, Thomas finishes his sketch and vanishes to Edgemont. No one’s there, but hoofprints lead south to the font. He starts running. Thomas 2, Ancient Spirit 0./
Gwynedd starts singing and the stones of the cave start shifting and reshaping. Ok, that’s kinda new. She and Vivienne begin working together to form the binding. The others are standing guard when there’s a earth-shaking rumble. Whoops, pillar of flame where the town use to be.
Villius is pissed. Sir Martin goes winging south, sees his evilness heading south, and Thomas running ahead of him. Orro and the Zombies (they’ll form a band and get a single into the top ten in a few years) tear off to meet him. One of the zombies turns into a horse and Thomas rides to join the group.
“5 minutes,” says Sir Martin. Gwynedd is optimistic, Vivienne not so much.
Manly moment:
Sir Martin declares, “This creature that is coming behind Thomas cannot enter that room until they are ready.”
“How do we stop him?” says Eric
Sir Martin draws his sword as does Eric. “All together,” says Sir Martin, “You swore an oath.”
And Donal, of all people, says, “I have your back.”
/music swells/
Gwynedd asks Olta to help and says they’re trying to save Quillius. She tries to work some mojo in to help separate Quillius and Vincent, adds some children’s stories, and then goes to man the front lines.
Thomas comes riding up. “He’s ...”
Sir Martin says, “We know.”
“He’s ...”
“We know.”
Donal says to go down and get to work.
“Work? On what?” He heads down, passing Gwynedd.
“Just make it better,” she says.
Donal skulks off to hide. Sir Martin powers up into angel-form. Gwynedd has her Big Stick.
The flaming Villius tops the hill. Eric says he’s seen witchcraft, but has no idea where “you people” are from. Gwynedd says it isn’t witchcraft. (Amateurs....)
Villius says to Gwynedd, “This is not a game I wish to be playing.” With a gesture, he sends Eric and Sir Martin the Winged flying. Eric lands hard, Sir Martin swoops around and knocks Villius in the head, so Villius sets him on fire.
Gwynedd blows her whistle and calls him for the foul. The flames go out.
Villius closes with her, but Donal backstabs with his enchanted sword to the neck. Doesn’t go through, but bites. When Villius goes to his knees, Gwynedd winds up. It’s a hit, long ball to center field.
Everyone takes a moment to recover. Villius gestures and the invisible blow sends her sliding back fifty feet. It hurt, but she starts walking back towards him. Sir Martin swoops in again. “Bug!” says Villius, and sure enough he is. Whoops. “Help me!”
Thomas is polishing the walls with a cloth. Strangely, this is effective. Vivienne thinks she’s done. She needs about ten seconds to finish the spell. The guys will try to come up with something.
Donal sneak tackles Villius, so Gwynedd brings the painstick down on him. He’s getting a fair amount of damage. Cracks are forming and golden light is seeping out. Then Donal is gone.
Gwynedd does something that throws a monkey wrench for Villius, and Eric strikes. Not too effective. Gwynedd grabs Villius by the throat, gives him a body blow, and then squeezes.
“SLEEP!” he says. She nearly goes out, but she uses a power word to barely hang on. She’s down.
Eric takes a swing, and gets swatted for his trouble. Donal takes advantage (as always) and kicks Villius into the hole.
Hope they’re ready.
Gwynedd climbs back to her feet.
In the hole, Laurens uses a power word: VOMITUS. Ew. Villius momentarily regrets that large lunch. He and Gabriel wrestle him to the center and the water warrior grabs hold. Barely.
Vivienne begins the binding. Thomas thinks it needs a few more touches. Everyone gets grabbed and dragged out. Explosions, Villius is heading up, and Gwynedd sings the hole closed.
Um, Quillius? Never quite figured that part out.
They’ll work it out later. Eventually someone remembers Sir Martin the Bug, and Vivienne fixes him.
Fussing and assigning the blame is still in it’s infancy. Gabriel and Gwynedd hang behind to tend to the cleanup, Sir Martin looks for survivors, the rest card home.
Eric could use a job. He tags along to York, too.
Next Episode: The Guilty Are Promoted, the Innocent Are Punished