Luke the mysterious wizard has delivered a tidbit of bad news to Gwynedd, something about Lauren’s sword falling into the hands of darkness (not him, apparently).
Sir Martin goes to Thomas with his sword (again). It suddenly appeared at Sir Martin’s side, but Thomas had just thought he’d taken it. “Maybe it didn’t want to be left alone.” How sweet. Thomas proposes going to Raby Castle for research into the previous owner (Sir Martin’s uncle). It’ll be quick, because Thomas has a picture of Raby.
Hmm, just the thing for a surprise attack. That’s just a little unnerving....
Sir Martin goes to Quillius to share details. (”Um, I’ve been dead and dispersed, can’t I get a little rest?”)
“Thomas is studying your sword?” asks Quillius. The incredulity goes unnoticed.
“He seems a wise man,” says Sir Martin. “Anything you need?”
“The chores are falling behind since Vivienne is with Gabriel.”
Sir Martin misses the hint to start tidying up. “There’s Simon,” he suggests.
Then he goes to his sister to say he’s going to Raby. (What happened to the chaperone thing?) “Tell my dear brother that I’m tolerating this gilded cage.” Yes, this courting of the Duke thing is going swimmingly.
Back to Thomas. “We’ll need horses.” But Thomas has a horse that’s a card that he keeps in his pocket.
Sir Martin: “Wah?” *boggle*
Donal is doing “the usual”.
Gabriel and Vivienne are on the road.
Eric is training and working with Sir Andrew. He sees Sir Martin and Thomas, but only Sir Martin has a horse.
Gwynedd (walking with Anthony the Unicorn) has just gotten the disturbing news from Luke, who gives her a Look and vanishes. (”What? Why blame me?”) She doesn’t sense anything odd or forboding, but maybe her antenna is on the fritz. She sings a song to get Vivienne’s attention (it starts out, “Louie, Louie...” for some reason). Vivienne hears and calls her up.
“Luke, font, swords, sword to the mainland, Laurens lost sword?, in the hands of darkness, don’t separate the swords, don’t cross the streams.”
“Laurens went to France.”
“Ooops.”
Vivienne will look into it. She tells Gabriel and tries to reach out and touch Laurens, but gets no answer. Gabriel uses his sketch to sum up to Thomas what’s going on while Vivienne tries a scrying spell. She gets that he’s alive in eastern France, but that’s all. There’s some resistance. Then she gets in touch with Quillius. “Sword, Luke, can’t find Laurens.”
“I’ll do it myself.”
Sir Martin and Thomas are heading out of York to take a quick hop to Raby, but the news of something going wrong changes their minds. They turn back around. Eric sees them come back after an hour, and Thomas still doesn’t have a horse. Ok....
Vivienne and Gabriel bamf back to the York stables. There’s a commotion, Vivienne nearly gets kicked and does take a brief roll in the hay.
Eric sees Vivienne and Gabriel come out of the stables. Never saw them go in all morning....
Donal sees them too. “Quick trip,” he says.
“Trouble with Laurens.” And then Sir Martin walks by, so they figure everyone is assembling.
Donal takes Vivienne aside to tell her about the odd page. She does a little mojo and figures out he’s a fae lesser noble here as a spy/observer. He’s keeping an eye on the interesting developments, but he doesn’t know more than that. Donal wants her to be sure to tell Quillius how helpful he was.
Back in her quarters, she finds Quillius with the white sword. He couldn’t scry Laurens, but he found the black blade, which is in a fortress and it’s been drawing blood for half an hour now in some battle. He doesn’t know if Laurens has it. The fortress is east of Troyes, a town south-east of Paris, and it’s shielded. He suggests not dropping in directly.
Avengers assemble!
Sir Martin counsels caution. Thomas is sketching. Eric gets dragged in. Gwynedd is off walking with a unicorn heading towards the druids.
Gabriel suggests he and Donal go in first. Vivienne teleports them to Troyes, but they appear fourty feet above a building and fall through the roof into a storeroom. Gabriel lands on bags, Donal on boxes. They climb back out as people come to investigage the noise and go bounding along the rooftops, ducking down when people start to notice.
Gabriel checks in with Thomas. “Tell Vivienne to aim lower.”
They get to the fortress and get into the complex by hiding under a cart. Gabriel senses via the sword that the black blade is in the main keep. They decide to do the inconspicuous shuffle over there, but they get greeted by the chancellor. “I don’t recognize you. Welcome to Castle Daraque in the name of our Mistress, Veronique du Daraque.”
(Veronique = Quillius’ mom)
Oh, snap.