Wonder! Marvel! Fantasy! Terror... (IC)

[Raveled]

Brannagh reeled back from the blow, blood streaming from his nose. He kept stumbling back until his heels splashed in the water, actually. His face was flushed and he tried to take a step back towards Crow -- tried, but the water froze his feet in place.

The first rays of the sun speared across the lake, and slow mounds of water piled above the surface of the lake in a way that Crow had seen before. In moments the Lady's smiling visage was discernible, splitting the rays of light into a rainbow across Crow and Ignatio. No more, Brannagh, she 'said. You have achieved your goal, and more besides.

Brannagh stood there, breathing heavily to keep his temper under control. "The woman, the golem. She yet walks free, as do the children."

Not for long, the fae purred. I shall drag him down into my depths, and the cries of his agony will draw her near day by day, until she serves me yet again. And if you end this pointless fight now, I'll even let you work him over with the irons.

Brannagh sneered at Crow, but retreated further into the lake. "Until another day, Son of Morrigan." As he disappeared, the extra length of Ignatio's bindings zipped out until the cord was underwater, then started pulling the swordsman into the water.

[Quinn]

For all of his injuries, Crow still moved with clear precision, and seized the cord in both hands. He pulled backwards with all of his might, arms bulked by years of boxing training and heavy lifting pulling backwards as his feet dug into the sand. Despite his efforts, he kept getting pulled forward...

"Oh hell no, you're not getting away that easy, you traitorous excuse for a puddle! Toilet-water sidhe! Saggy-chested Tinkerbell!"

A torrent of water-related insults in old Gaelic flowed from his mouth as he yanked back, a rune on the back of his coat beginning to sputter and glow without his knowledge. He felt immense strength flow through his veins, unbelieveable might, and as he pulled, the rope slowed, and stopped. Then he moved a hand forward. And pulled it backwards. One inch. Two inches. Three inches.

"You want him, come to Freedom City and claim him! I'll be waiting there with more heroes than you've got soldiers, and we'll kick your ass back to whatever realm you came from!"

[Raveled]

The rope slowed and stilled again, strung taunt between two mystical, near-godly forces. Then slowly, inexorably, the rope began trending back towards the water, and the Lady's expression turned triumphant and cruel. Foolish mortal! I am in my power! This water connects to my City, and this flicking, insolent flame shall be pulled down and drowned under there! I shall have his mate, and their offspring, and in due time I shall have your skin too, you jumped-up scion of a straggle-hair goddess!

The fae's shrill laughter echoed across the lake, and the rope started slipping from Crow's grasp. He strained all his might, but it was for naught. Then he heard something, a harsh, rasping breath coming from behind him; it was Ignatio, rising slowly to his feet. "I hated you," he said, staring the Lady down, "and my beloved and myself stole our children out from under your eye. We ran and escaped here, but even now you pursue us. You use bonds of duty, but you are not worthy of them!" The fae swordsman strained against his bonds, steaming blood running down his hands as he worked them against his bonds. "You shall not have me, you shall not have my wife, and you shall not have OUR CHILDREN!"

There was a flash of light, a wave of force that knocked Crow flat, and for a moment everything went dark. A moment later he was on his feet again; the surface of the lake was absent of either the Lady or Brannagh, and Ignatio was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was a short, swarthy man in nondescript clothes. Close to his hand laid a wavy-bladed sword, like an oversized kris.

[Quinn]

Crow pulled his face out of the sand, rolling over and breathing heavily. Every other breath was a Gaelic curse, of course, and he sat up, looking with bleary eyes at the fellow with the nondescript clothes. The teen struggled to his feet, limping over to the water and looking into it's depths before simply spitting into it.

"I'll be seeing you soon, bidse. Count on it."

Turning from the water, he staggered over to the swarthy fellow and raised an eyebrow, pulling his bandanna back over his face as he went.

"Oi, you okay?"

[Raveled]

For a moment Ignatio didn't move, then he sprang into the air and waved his sword in a figure-eight, barely missing Crow before he got himself under control. "Crow! You survived! I am very sorry about the explosion; I did not expect it would be so violent." He started suddenly and grabbed the hero's runic coat. "My wife! And my children! We must be back to your castle!"

[Quinn]

Crow's eye twitched, but he simply sighed and placed a hand on Ignatio's shoulder, and the familiar sight of the hotel room reappeared about them. The teen simply limped to the door of the room, throwing it open and motioning for the exciteable fellow to follow him.

"She's alright. Had a bit of trouble with a fence earlier, but that was pretty much it."

As they walked down the corridors of the upper floors, one smaller rune by his shoulder began to smoke, and his limp began to straighten and disappear. The wince turned into a grimace, and from there his face straightened, as his nose seemed to jolt back into place. Although most of his face still had blood on it, he'd need to clean that up himself. Crow mulled several questions over in his head as the healing energies of his coat coursed through his body, finally speaking once they were done.

"I gotta ask. Why the hell did you follow Branagh like that when he came to Parkhurst? How'd he get past the wards? And what the hell did you do back at the lake?"

[Raveled]

Ignatio followed Crow through the hotel, careful to stay a step behind the runemaster. "I am -- I was -- bound to the Lady by certain agreements, certain oaths. As long as I could not hear the Lady, she could not invoke them, but she lent her authority to Brannagh. I could not resist his orders, despite how much I wanted to. As to what I did... it's complicated." Ignatio's hands shaped the air as he tried to explain what happened. "The Lady had a, a stake on part of my soul. That was what she was pulling back into her domain. So, I very simply let her take that part of me. What was left was, well, this part. The part that I shaped to hold my other part when I came to this plane." He glanced sidelong at Crow. "Does that answer your question?

[Quinn]

"Not really, but I'm used to it."

Crow walked down the stairs to the main floor, leading Ignatio down a couple of corridors (Parkhurst was a big place!) until he reached a familiar door. He rapped on it once, twice, thrice, then called out.

"Oi, Crow Courier Service, special delivery for one Ossulus. Got a husband here, slightly used, answers to Ignatio."

He smiled wryly under the bandanna, leaning on the wall opposite while waiting for a reply.

[Raveled]

The door opened to reveal the basement of Parkhurst. There wasn't any animated rock pile and waves of elemental motes; instead there was a tall, pale, statuesque woman with ash-gray hair and soft, green eyes. Behind her were three children, a mix of pale and dark features. Ignatio paused, then rushed past Crow and threw his arms around her. She was almost a head and a half taller than the man, but she kneeled down so they could kiss each others. The children charged up the stairs and hugged Ignatio and the woman, the whole group becoming a close knot of humanity. The hero could barely hear the former fae panting hard, sounding like he was trying to hold back tears. "Ossulus. Children. I thought I would never see you again."

[Quinn]

A genuine smile creased Crow's features, and he pushed himself off of the wall and walked away from the happy group. For a moment, a tinge of bitterness seeped into his mind, threatening to pollute the warm feelings, but he quashed it fast. Whatever troubles he might have had with his own family, these two didn't share it. And they deserved this time of happiness. Let the warm fuzzies happen when they could.

Besides, he had work to do. Crow stopped at the end of the hallway and looked back at the happy family, then cracked his knuckles. The Lady had insulted his family. Threatened this couple and their children. And probably had who knew how many others like them locked down in whatever ivory tower in Avalon she controlled. And that just wasn't right.

He said he'd be seeing her soon, and he didn't intend that to be an idle threat. Soon enough, it'd be payback time.