So Tolwyn’s awake but bad things are still coming our way. Mei and I send Grace down to the castle bailey (she was at a heavily wounded health level at that time — a little worse off than my own wounded level, but what’re you going to do?). We’re still down three men — Tyche hasn’t joined us from Avalon yet (we left her behind with Nicodemus) and Albert and Amarant are lost in the city someplace. Great, just great. Albert shows up poisoned and whimpering as a werewolf. That gets fixed. He has no pants and pouts as usual.
And then the crap starts landing. Gargoyles, giant hellbats, and the Dark Lady–who looks exactly like a dark mirror of Tolwyn.
You can imagine what the first words out of my mouth were.
Epic combat ensues. Things decide I’m tasty and chew on me. About the fourth time, as I’m going to go stab something in the face…the something I was about to stab suddenly has its head explode.
Thanks, Grant. I was about to vent my frustration on that. So not only am I being rescued by my potential love interest, I’m also being shown up by him, since I’m not really a combat oriented character in the first place. So much for somehow convincing him I’m not some sort of damosel in distress (though I’m sure it went miles toward convincing him to actually believe that I’m not Allison, his wife). So before I can run off and stab something, he spins me around and points and says, “We have problems.”
Well, duh.
And then I notice that Mei is out of her suit and yelling in Chinese and think “Oh man. Not again.” So I go to her. And try to get her to reconnect.
It works on the second try!
Of course, then there’s a dragon crashing down into the middle of the city, fighting something fugly and made of plants.
And then it decides Albert is a tasty treat and flies off with him.
Then, Tyche and the fey pull a Gandalf at Helmsdeep and come to our rescue. The batle turns in our favor, though Tolwyn’s not in good shape and the Dark Lady isn’t anywhere to be seen. Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Tyche has a ritual that’ll fix the seal on Draconis but at the same time seal off the Realm of Magic from the rest of the world. I, of course, don’t like this much, especially when she says that she’s staying in the Realm of Magic. Knee-jerk reaction is “there has to be another way.” Eventually, I accept the inevitable, though I don’t like it.
Here’s the kicker: There has to be a regal sacrifice. Someone of regal blood has to become the living barrier between the material world and the Realm of Magic. Amarant (being the Emperor a la his Tarot card) volunteered.
Of course, I’m liking this plan less and less every second. But I’m not getting a vote. So I get Tyche on the guilt train so she’s not happy, either.
In the end, we go down two characters — Tyche goes into the Realm of Magic to stay and Amarant becomes the barrier. I told Tyche to kick some frog god ass for me.
And then there were four (well, five including Grant, who was scandalized that I forgot him in my protests against the plan–I countered with “Are you going to stick around?” and got an answer I could live with).
And we’re supposed to go to France next? We’re doomed.
