Gabriel and Gwynedd are still scavenging for books or magical stuff in the ruins of the old covenant’s building. Quillius asks Vivienne what happened, and she sums up.
“Dude, was that your mom?” asks Laurens.
“It’s hard to believe,” says Quillius.
“She’s young. And hot,” says Laurens.
“Shut up, Ted,” says Quillius. “Things are not always what they seem.”
“But dude, your mom is hot. Oh, and she wanted your internment undisturbed.”
“I’m pleased you didn’t listen,” says Quillius. “And shut up about my mom.”
Quillius asks Thomas for an express ride to York. “We’ll talk more when you return.” Laurens hitches a ride too, and of course Thomas complains again that he’s “heavy”. Quillius says it’s Laurens’ own fault. Like always. Donal goes to York, too.
Thomas is examining the pile of “magical” stuff. It looks normal to him.
They spend the day gathering. A pig wanders by, a convenient dinner. Gwynedd fishes. Eric also helps move rubble.
Meanwhile, in York, Laurens asks Quillius about the swords. The former covenant held them about 250 years, but they were made earlier around 1000 A.D. They’ve got something to do with the millenium, light, and dark. (Actually, they’re the hands of a massive clock that will be constructed in 2000 A.D. by rogue Section Six agents working off some Rimbaldi plans)
Laurens hears his latest bookseller prisoner has arrived, so he goes downstairs to work off some steam. Apparently, both booksellers are telling the truth, and some strange third party has interjected the spirit-containing book into the mix.
Back at Egremont, Vivienne conjures up some tents. Gabriel keeps watch.
2am : Sir Martin the Owl swoops in. “Are you the only one awake?” he asks Gabriel.
“Eric woke up,” says Gabriel.
“Walk with me.”
More rumors get started. Wait, they just talk. Sir Martin says the militia from Cockermouth is heading down. The small child that Eric rescued was talking about black magic, a man in black, a group coming, havoc, cats and dogs living together....
“Eric, we need to talk.” They quickly sum up.
“What black magic has been happening,” asks Eric. A sensible question. Sir Martin seems to be much more accepting than he used to be.
“A spirit possessed a sorceror (let’s not mention it was Quillius, shall we?) and destroyed a town.”
Eric asks what the spirit was after, and Gabriel says it wanted to use Quillius, Thomas, Vivienne, and Gwynedd to remake the world. And it was stopped.
“It sounds like a job well done.”
Sir Martin points out the small problem of forty militia showing up in the morning. He also is wondering if Quillius is still trapped.
“Nah, we fixed all that and destroyed the spirit. His mom showed up. Dude, she’s hot. He’s back in York now.”
“How old is Vivienne?” asks Sir Martin. Hmmm....
“How do we convince the militia to go?” asks Gabriel. Sir Martin thinks Gwynedd is good with words.
“I told them the town was burned to the ground,” says Eric.
“They’ll blame us. I blame the hedge knight,” says Sir Martin.
“You’re certain I’m the cause?” Eric asks.
“Priest said.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“I’m not blaming you,” says Sir Martin, “I would have made the same mistake. If I were a hedge knight. And it’s your fault. Nyah.”
Gwynedd and Vivienne are awakened by the “discussion”. Gabriel sums up.
“Simple, we’ll just say it was a dragon,” says Gwynedd. Huh? She proposes that Sir Martin can relate the tale, but Gabriel points out that Sir Knight was up in town just a little while ago, and they wouldn’t have seen him ride past. So then it’s Gwynedd and Gabriel, but Sir Martin turns into a granny (ew), ‘cause it wouldn’t do to let the peasants handle things on their own.
“Um, where are we going to get a dragon?” But Gwynedd takes a trunk and charbroils it into a salamander-esque shape, scorches some swaths of ground, and makes tracks. Gabriel adds footprints from a battle.
Militia shows, and Gwynedd tells the story of seeing fires, a beast in the flames, and a group lead by someone Laurens-like riding in and fighting. She passes around a bong and they all take hits and buy it. In fact, Gabriel and Sir Martin get a bit of a contact buzz too, but then shake it off and decide not to drink the Kool-Aid.
By the time they get back to camp, Vivienne has marched all the rubble into place. Then, since the artist had gone back to York for the night, she invades Thomas’ sleeping mind (he dreams of electric sheep) to get a ride back.
The usual folk get back no problem. But when Eric decides to consort with sorcery, he lands right in plain sight of the guards on the gates. “What black sorcery is ... um, what were we saying?” Gwynedd said a Word, and Gabriel and Vivienne note that for future use. The sweet little bard is turning into quite the meanace.
Thomas decides to go somewhere less public. He also looks before he leaps.
Laurens is practicing in the courtyard. Gwynedd tells him he’s defeated a dragon. “Well ...,” he says, hitching up his suspenders.
“Have you met a real dragon?” asks Gwynedd with a particular tone of voice.
“No,” says Laurens. Gabriel gives them a look.
Sir Martin eventually speaks of Eric to the Duke, who’s willing (but not really eager) to see if the dishonored former knight can be useful. He’ll be sent to the Master of the Horse.
Laurens asks Quillius about the bookseller’s son. “Kaput,” says Quillius, “and mention my mom again and you’ll be a frog in a French resturaunt.”
“Your son is dead,” Laurens tells the bookseller and sets him loose. The travelling bookseller is told how lucky he is to be alive. Oh, and he’ll be working for Laurens searching for anything similar.
Gwynedd visit the kitchen staff and gets a hot meal.
Gabriel goes to sleep. Thomas goes to wake Gabriel up. “I’ve got a Thing™!”
“Is it concealable?” Back to the drawing board.
“Whatcha got?” asks Laurens.
“Nothing,” says the dejected Thomas.
Gabriel asks Quillius and gets told that yes, the Dolmans might be a good thing to look into. Oh, and take Vivienne and Laurens.
Thomas goes to Gabriel. “I’ve got a New and Improved Thing™!”
“Awesome!”
Vivienne has tasks and preps some spells, Gabriel asks Quillius about the magic sword and gets the same info Laurens did. Later, he goes and finds a “friend”. She’ll be correcting a few rumors....
Sir Martin visits Cecily and then Sir Andrew about Eric. He checks on Simon, who has been released from the hospital.
Gwynedd goes to rest before going to finally see the druids. For sure this time.
Late afternoon, Donal visits Laurens. Shortly thereafter, Laurens goes to Thomas and tells him in no uncertain terms that he needs one of Thomas’ pictures of Vivienne or Gabriel to take, and does he have an image of France. It’ll take an hour. Laurens packs every weapon under the sun (and a few that aren’t), armors up, and sits in the courtyard on his black horse, waiting.
Someone’s going to diiieeee....
Sir Martin is at dinner watching Cecily and the Duke exchange barbs. Yeah, wedding bells in their future, right. Then he sees Laurens and has a really terse man-conversation. They could’ve just grunted.
“Ug?”
“Gah.”
“Huk?”
“Grom.”
“Godspeed.”
Thomas gives Laurens the portrait (of Vivienne), shows him Callais (pronounced Call-ay – it’s French), and Laurens rides through. To the lighthouse. That first step is a doozy....
Oh, this is going to go so well.
Back in York, people see Laurens ride at the artist, nearly bowling him over, and then a crow is flying away and Laurens is gone.
Better yet.