Maybe Baby (IC)

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox growled in frustration as her sword glanced off, lunging forward to cut off the Queen as she flew upwards, flames still burning harmlessly against her protective wards. But Hayley wasn't so lucky, squealing and falling down on the ground, unmoving as the fire burnt out. Her cry echoed in Siobhan's head before it went blank.

All of it. She couldn't see a thing. She couldn't sense the currents of magic in the room. She just stood, unmoving, the only thing she could do until the Queen slipped up being to hold up her force field, simply to remain upright long enough to formulate a plan.

Technically, she could send the entire place up in a firestorm. But, if she couldn't see, there was no way to save the baby or Hayley from the effects of it.

[Supercape]

GM

"Ha ha ha!" laughed the Fae Queen, beside her self with joy as she spun around mid air at the sight of Hayley's collapse. "That silly rodent is no more! well worth spilling some blood from those stupid Redcaps for! just delightful hahahaha!"

She was singing with joy at the sight.

"And now..." she continued, turning her attention back to Equinox "...my poor blind baby snatcher, who thinks she can outwit me, who has lived in this terrible realm for countless centuries, eh? foolish thing! I'll have some fun with you, my pet... but first, I;ll have that pretty little trinket of yours..."

She reached out her hand, and although yards away from Equinox, closed her hand and yanked it back, tugging at the sword in the witches hand...

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox just grinned broadly, and tossed the sword lightly into the faerie's eldritch grasp. In a burst of white light, the sword, freed from her hand and will, reverted to a carved piece of wood. She cockily dropped her powerful shielding spell, relying on her usual basic wards and bindings.

"Yes, it is a nice trinket," agreed the witch. "Which I just willingly gave to you as a gift." She smiled sweetly at vaguely where she thought the queen was hovering. "And, under your laws, doesn't that mean I can request something as ever so simple as a hug from the beautiful, gracious Queen?" She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I mean, it only seems fair."

[Supercape]

GM

And, under your laws, doesn't that mean I can request something as ever so simple as a hug from the beautiful, gracious Queen?" She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "I mean, it only seems fair."

"That's right" answered the queen, floating back to the floor beside Equinox. "I am beautiful and gracious, I am not? and fair, and wise too!" said the queen, brandishing the wand this way and that with an air of nonchalance.

"Really my dear, without this little trinket you aren't anything! But come, it is true, you are entitled to a gift in return, yes you may embrace me, your Queen, I understand! how could you not want such a thing after all!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox, with some relish, slid her arms around the Faerie Queen, holding herself close so their faces were touching, forehead to forehead, lips only a few centimetres apart. "Thank you, my Queen," she said, smirking gently as her eyes slid open, the complete blankness of them disconcerting. "But you're wrong, I'm afraid. I don't use the wand to cast spells, so much as focus them. Without it, I've got the exact same level of power... just nowhere near as much control. For example..."

Her hands suddenly gripped the Queen's body tightly. "Kaléste tin kataigída," she hissed. And electricity arced around them, the lightning bolt crashing up from around the feet of the two women. Ozone burned, leaving a sizzling, scorching smell even as stray arcs of lightning burned and tore at the witch's flesh, the KRAKOOOOOM of the blast deafening her until she couldn't even hear her own cry of pain. But she didn't let go, fully intending to harm this damn child snatcher, throwing every trace of power and rage she had in her into one destructive, terrifying display of magical might, casting brilliant white-blue light through the room as the thunder and lightning rippled in one brief column of fury.

[Supercape]

GM

"Wrong?" replied the haughty Queen. "But I'm never wro.."

"...oohh!" she wailed, panic oozing out of her voice and skin. The force of the lightning bolt screamed through her body and entwined with her own mystic power. Sparks of arcane power flew from her, and her eyes glowed white with power.

"Treacherous cur!" she screamed, he voice croaking with electricity.

"You will pay for that, you vile creature! I'll stuff this wand down your throat to stop your silvered words... as soon as I can find you..." she added clawing blindly around her...

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox gritted her teeth. Blind, deaf, unable to feel magic around her, she felt near-helpless. But near-helpless for her was still incredibly dangerous by any standard. Letting out a primal scream of rage, she slammed forward blindly, catching the flailing faerie around the waist, and even as exhaustion began to overtake her mind and body, she drew up all her frustration and anger, and let it crackle and roar into the environment, the thunderous blast of lightning coursing up and around the two women once more, turning the floor black in a concentrated ring.

This time, the blast nearly overloaded Equinox's magical protection, sending agony spiking into her skull and casting her backwards from the sheer kinetic force of her spell. She unceremoniously felt herself crash into the floor, barely able to move, lips moving as she frantically tried to sustain her spells.

[Supercape]

GM

The Fae Queen was scrabbling around, equally blind, besides Equinox, when the lightning embraced them both.

"You certainly have some bite in you, whelp, but I will put an end to thaaaaaarrgggghhhhhht!" she yelped, as once again her body filled with electrical power.

She ended up flat on her back besides Equinox, groaning and sizzling.

"That...hurt..." she muttered, as she strove to be the first to recover from the lightning stroke. It appeared to be a dead heat. The Queen rolled away from Equinox, her body literally smoking, and worn out. She floated away, struggling to keep her composure, and aware finally that Equinox was no mere mortal as she had initially supposed.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox staggered to her feet, still smouldering, barely able to make out what was going on from sheer exhaustion and pain. Part of her hair was smoking gently, and the ends were a little crispy. "Give... me..." she whispered hoarsely, every breath forced and scratchy against her throat. "Give me the goddamn child..." She panted deeply, and then forced out a little more of her precious reserves of will, lightning arcing between her fingers.

"Now."

[Supercape]

GM

The Fay Queen just laughed at the scrabbling, burnt and exhausted witch. Although the truth was she was hurt just as bad, and probably even worse. And she knew it.

How did this woman keep going... I'm barely standing... How can she challenge a queen???

The woman would learn some respect. Yes! respect... she would respect her queen!

No! more than respect! she would have to love he queen!

With a twisted smile, slightly obscured by soot, she turned her faerie powers into an enchanted glow that was not quite real, or even perceptible. If anything, she became less real, and more like a dream. Something about her seemed to speak of a childhood... the love for a toy, a doll, a smell, a mother, an imaginary friend that would always be there, in the heart, comforting you...

"Come my child" she whispered.

"I am your Queen", her voice like a summer zephyr.

"You love me..." she finished, simply.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox found her senses assailed by warm, comforting images of her childhood, and the spell forcing her to associate them with the Queen. But for this, she barely even had to harden her mental defences. She just brought them up enough to resist the spell long enough to recall her actual childhood. Memories of moving school every year and knowing nobody. Of never having any real friends. Of running away from home because she was sick of it all.

And she shattered the spell like hurling a beer bottle at a wall. "Love you? Going to take a hell of a lot more than that," stated Equinox flatly. "Just give it up, please. You're embarrassing yourself. Spare me the hassle of taking you down, and spare yourself the pain of getting taken down. Please. You know what you're doing is wrong.

"

[Supercape]

"Love you? Going to take a hell of a lot more than that," stated Equinox flatly. "Just give it up, please. You're embarrassing yourself. Spare me the hassle of taking you down, and spare yourself the pain of getting taken down. Please. You know what you're doing is wrong.

"

Shocked at the rebuke, the Fae Queen's face darkened like thunder clouds.

"Curse you thirteen fold!" she said. "And don't think your words have any more influence on me than mine have on you!" she retorted. "But I swear to you, you will be taught respect for your queen. And with enough time, I will even teach you to love me as you should. "

"And I have plenty of time, my dear" she said, her thin lips twisting into an even more spiteful grin.

"You just have to stay still and listen, as I whip some obedience into you..."

As she spoke, she threw out a handful of seeds, which grew into plants, that grew further and further, until they writhed and curled and whipped in the air, the web of vegetation hitting Equinox square on.

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox gritted her teeth and snarled, trying to move forward as leaves and wines coiled themselves around her arms and legs. She daren't try to burn her way free, as being unable to see exactly what was coiled around her and wear could lead to catastrophically painful results. "Go ahead, bring it on," she said through clenched teeth, as a vine began working its way around her neck. "There's nothing you can say to me that can convert me to your crazy, messed-up little kingdom here."

She spat on the ground before her. "No. No. Thrice I say it, and be done, no. Bring it on, Tinkerbell."

[Supercape]

GM

"But my dear...you will come to obey me, to worship me, and yes...even to love me as your glorious queen" she laughed, now confident in her victory.

"As you can see, your puny powers, whilst entertaining, are no match for my own..." her pleasure at final perceived victory had seemed to blind her to her own pain, the soot and char on her body, and the threat that Equinox still posed. "...and I have all the time in world - longer in fact - to bend you to my will. To bend you, or to break you, if I need too..." her cruel laugh shot through the cave again.

She walked over to a wall, by a tapestry that still had some glowing embers on it. She pulled down a golden coloured tassel, which set off a dull chime in the distant.

"Guards!" she called with a spiteful voice and a cruel smile.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Worship you?" said Equinox quietly. "I have a Goddess. And a God. And you may think you have me beaten, but I have faith."

She grinned broadly, not even bothering to fight the bonds, letting the magic in her recede backwards, dropping her defensive spells and enchantments and leaning into the leafy embrace of the vines. "You won't bend me, and you'll only break yourself." She closed her blank, unseeing eyes calmly. "Just remember, I would not have been blind had I not had compassion for my familiar. And you mistake that for a weakness. It's a weapon. And it's one you don't have. So bring on your guards. I don't fear them."

[Supercape]

GM

"What?" replied the Queen, genuinely vexed at Equinox's logic.

"I care not for your words of defiance, of Gods, or faith" she said, although it was plain that she could no longer look her foe straight in the eye, and had a note of uncertainty in her voice. "Here, I am those things..." she waved her hand dismissively, and distractedly.

Distracted enough to fail to notice Hayley and the baby...

Two large Redcaps, with Iron chains and Iron halberds, waddled in.

"Guards!" she said, with enough regal splendour as she could muster, "clap the prisoner in Iron, and haul her to the deepest dungeon, where the wards are strongest and her power, impotent..."

Hear our queen, well and true

Obey the lady, orders new,

Into Irons, goes the witch,

Our task performed without a hitch...

Sang the two Redcaps as they applied to heavy manacles to Equinox's wrists...

[Ecalsneerg]

"You think power is about magic?" laughed Equinox as she was slapped in chains. "I'm afraid that's not the case. You couldn't hope to comprehend that, though. I'm offering to help you, and you won't acknowledge the offer, let alone take it."

The witch spat on the ground. "Power is in thoughts and deeds. And your thoughts and deeds point to my power over you. You're afraid of me. I hurt you, didn't it? You're not used to that. And you're terrified that it might happen again. You just won't admit it to yourself, and, well." She sounded genuinely sad for the mad faerie. "Well, that's a scariest thing of all."

[Supercape]

GM

A few minutes later...

Lock you up in the cell,

The bed is hard, the food is hell,

The jailor is not so swell,

His songs are tuneless as well...

"Take her away!" screamed the Faerie queen, bruised, battered but triumphant. Equinox had one last look at her stroking her wand as the two Redcaps dragged her away, in chains, to a damp cell. The ground was engraved with a circular rune that she could recognise as a powerful anti-magic charm.

The two guards awful rhymes did little to lift the ambience of the prison.

"And what have we here then?" said an extremely fat, and equally ugly Redcap. He was taller than the normal ones, with a pudgy face and a pudgier girth. Unlike his fellows, he was dressed almost head to toe in thick rugged leathers, which did not give a nice odour. The reason was quite clear however, he was handling thick iron keys on his leather girdle and also in contact with the iron cell bars all the time. It must have been quite a challenge for Faerie folk to build an iron prison, but the jailor was an expert.

He sniffed as he surveyed Equinox through the iron bars.

"Another one of the Queen's toys is it? Got bored of you, did she? Well m'lady, welcome to her dungeon of discarded playthings. " he said, by way of introduction, before fingering the iron with his leather gauntlet. "Filthy business this iron - demonstrates her power she says. Me? I'm about the only folk round here who has the guts to handle the stuff. "

He gave another long look at Equinox.

"Quite a miserable life you know. But not as miserable as yours will be, I shouldn't wonder. Hmmm, you know I feel a song coming on...."

He took a deep breath in, ready to compose...

[Ecalsneerg]

"Oh, quiet," snapped Equinox, trying to concentrate. Even without her magic, she could still theoretically talk to her familiar. And she was a little tired of the supposed whimsy of Faerie. "Besides, is it really a demonstration of power if the entire mortal realm can do the exact same thing... and in fact, has. We have great towers a hundred storeys tall, their very core and foundation carved of iron. You've got some manacles and doors. Forgive me, I pray thee, for not being at all impressed."

<Hayley? Hey, furball? You still out there?>

[Supercape]

GM

"What?" spluttered the Jailor. "You don't want to hear my singing?" he said, split between indignation and disbelief.

"I'm just trying to make this eternal incarceration and gloating by our glorious queen a little more palatable, you know. I'm sticking my neck out for you... if the Queen heard that I was mitigating your unending misery with some song, she would be most displeased. Hmph. Well, suit yourself, madam. And enjoy your infinite stay!"

Shaking his head, he strolled off, muttering to himself, and starting up a song as he wandered up the stairs, only dimly heard and fading away...

"New prisoner, New prisoner, merry welcome to her...

Not worth a spit, She thinks she's a wit...

The truth is, the truth is, she's right in the...

Meanwhile...

The connection to Haley was true. The brave raccoon had recovered, and fled as the battered Queen executed her revenge on the defiant Equinox. The last sight of her was examining her new prize, Equinox's wand!

[Ecalsneerg]

<Siobhan? Hello?> whimpered Hayley, hiding in a corner somewhere. She was all alone, somewhere in the stronghold.

<I'm alive, fuzzball, don't worry.> Equinox's mental voice was still strong and confident, but tired. <They've got me chained down without my magic somewhere in a prison level somewhere. I can't tell you where, I couldn't see much.>

The raccoon quivered with fear. She'd brought this on them, how could she be so dumb?! <What do I do? What do I do!>

<I need you to find the jail. I need you to let me out.> Equinox's voice was firm but kindly. <Please. This is our only way out of this mess. Get me out of here, and I can try to go for a second round, only this time knowing full well what she can do.>

[Supercape]

GM

The threat, as far as the faerie queen, and her redcap minions, was over. She barely had a seconds thought about the raccoon. She had her baby, her bitter enemy in iron, and a nice wand as an added bonus. Her delight was only marred by her inability to get the damn thing to work. She reassured herself that a woman of her great ability and beauty was sure to crack it sooner or later. And perhaps the diet of stale bread and water she was feeding her prisoner might loosen her tounge.

If she did consider Haley, if only for a second, she would never have thought the creature would dare sneak back down to the depths under the hill. Yet, that was exactly what the little furball did, silently, and by the shadows. The redcaps missed her completely.

Down the cold stone steps to the dungeon she went, where she saw Siobahn behind an Iron door, and the large, fat Redcap prisoner tucking into a mound of strange coloured fruit and mumbling some ghastly out of tune song under his breath. A large wooden mug of ale (probably holding three or four pints or heavy duty beverage) sat on his table, half drunk - like the drinker. The Iron keys dangled from his belt against his leathers that were thick and complete.

[Ecalsneerg]

Hayley didn't even give a second thought about the keys. They were large compared to her, hard to maneuver, and honestly would just not have made it easy to unlock the door. Besides, even a large drunk faerie jailer was still large, and he wasn't unconscious. If she got caught, it wouldn't bode well for her.

Which is why she just bounded up to the lock and began testing it with her claws, softly and quietly fiddling with it by placing her claws inside it, and just using them as one would use a lockpick. She'd done it hundreds of times, mainly to find food. Well, always to find food. Eventually Siobhan had resolved to just locking everything magically and being done with it.

[Supercape]

GM

"Grahumph mumble rumble pretty lady all in chains, so pretty..." mumbled the fat Redcap, snoring and speaking in his sleep all at once.

"Pretty as a daffodil..." he mumbled again, turning slightly, the clink of the lock turning threatening to wake him. But no, he relaxed once more into a deep slumber, possibly whispering something about romantic moonlit serenading of the said lady.

Haleys nails had done their work. The door lock turned, and very slowly, creaking as it did so (to wincing effect) the Iron gate to Equinox's prison swung open.

Freedom!

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox stood up as Hayley removed the shackles from her. <Thanks, furrball.> She picked up the raccoon and squeezed her tightly. <Now, let's try round two.>

She prodded Hayley to turn and face ahead in her arms, and once more let her vision flow into Hayley's eyes. She was back. And marching out of the cell, to turn and point one finger at the table where the gaoler sat. "Pyrkagius!" A jet of flame burst from her fingertips, and ignited against the table in a jet of heat and light.