01.09, Godsday
Jacques-Alphonse awakens and tells of a dream: He saw an old and sturdy tree, standing alone in the open, with dark green leaves speckled with a sanguine red. In its branches sat a wrybeak, and a fabulous polychromatic bird, eyeing each other. Somewhere else a crane was turning, turning, searching. Jacques-Alphonse felt that "when the third bird comes, the tree will fall". He then saw a martichoras fighting a unicorn below the tree. The unicorn impaled the martichoras on its horn, and slew it, but perished by the martichoras's poison, its healing horn trapped in its enemy's body.
The picaros go to a polytheistic mass with the castle household. Baronet Chrysale prays for a good grain harvest, solace from and victory against the Montcuivre, and protection from all foul spirits and inhuman presences. Jacques-Alphonse privately prays to Terminus and les Bois-Alsantes.
The picaros, wearing steel helmets to protect their minds, are taken by the Baronetta and her eldest daughter to visit Roxanne. The sidhe is kept in a large empty chamber, warded with mystic sigils, its windows shut with iron. Roxanne lies in iron chains, in a 6' cage woven from iron and hawthorn. She is robbed of her glamour and very much recognizable as an elf. She seems weary and lethargic, but regains some of her energy at the mention of her brother, of whom she would dearly like to know more.
The Baronetta wants Roxanne to give her true name and her reason for being in Valsangé, to promise that the elves will refrain from stealing children of the people of Valsangé, and to refrain from any revenge. Roxanne answers that she wants nothing more than to put the affair behind her, but cannot give her name nor swear to actions that is beyond her authority, though she is willing to present the case to her mother. She begs Jacques-Alphonse and Cornelius to come to her aid, invoking Jacques-Alphonse's chivalry and promising rich rewards from her mother and father.
One considers contacting Serendipius and having him present the conditions of release to the Queen and King.
In the eveningtime, a thunderstorm breaks.
2.9, Airday
The day is fresh and clear from the recent downpour.
The three are lent horses, a covert hack for Jacques-Alphonse, a trotter for Cornelius, and a dobbin for Bertrand - each according to his stature. Jacques-Alphonse is given a red pennant with a unicorn painted on it, affixed to Roxanne's glaive, to use as his flag.
Jacques-Alphonse, Cornelius and Bertrand set out with twelve mounted and armoured men-at-arms, the forester, six mastiffs and two keepers. They go to the wooded vale of the northern waterfall, where Roxanne was found, a week after Ostara, 65 days ago. A circle of mushrooms of odd shapes and colours still grow where the chase started on that spring day..
Jacques-Alphonse invokes Serendipius while standing in this circle. By fell arts, Bertrand comes to pull an elf up through the ground.
While returning, the company comes upon Cynebuhr and Yon. Cynebuhr seems rather more tired than Yon. Both seem stunned to see Serendipius among the riders, Yon very much so. In the latter, the amazement gives way to almost hysterical mirth. Yon obtains Bertrand's reassurance that he is welcome into the castle.
Passing through the castle village, they come to the inner gate, where two sentinels require all strangers to swear that they are not fairies while clasping a thick wand of iron. Cynebuhr willingly grasps the iron, but has no common language with the guards. Even her Cargan is too limited, and her intellect seems dulled by tiredness. Cornelius attempts to instruct her in his pedantic fashion. Meanwhile, Yon slips away "to pass water". His visage is not seen again.
Jacques-Alphonse goes to fetch the Baronetta Bélisa, as does Chrysalia whom has been watching the proceedings from the crenelated wall. Jacques-Alphonse meets the two women on their way down the Ravenhome Tower, and all three go to the gate. Meanwhile, Bertrand has grown increasingly worried by Yon's disappearance. Bélisa regards Cynebuhr carefully, and announces that she is not fay, but that a spell has been woven on her mind, and she would not have her in her castle. It is revealed that there was another who came with the party, and that Bertrand has already given him permission to entry. On Bélisa's command, Jacques-Alphonse, Bertrand and Chrysalia rush to the Ravenhome tower.
Jacques-Alphonse leads on, closely followed by Bertrand - his body enhanced by his art. Chrysalia comes after them, while the buxom and corsetted Bélisa brings up the rear.
Hastening up the winding stairs in Ravenhome Tower, Jacques-Alphonse reaches the landing on the third floor, where he sees the sentinel lying, face down, on the floor. Suddenly, he feels something blunt hit his face, a blow he never saw coming, and is knocked down the stairs. Fortunately he is able to halt his descent before hitting Bertrand, if only barely. Advancing up again, he gets out on the landing, finding that there is no one but the prone guard there, nor any object in the stairs that might have hit his face. A figure approaching on the stairs above, whom turns out to be another man-at-arms, asks Jacques-Alphonse whom he is and what he has done to the fallen sentinel. Jacques-Alphonse gives his name and answers that he has "regrettably" done nothing to the man. Furthermore that there are intruders in the castle. The man-at-arms rushes up to raise the alarm. Bertrand, Chrysalia and Bélisa also come onto the landing, while Jacques-Alphonse looks out the window, up, down and sideways, without discovering anything.
Withdrawing into the chamber, Jacques-Alphonse urges Bélisa to open the door to determine whether the prisoner is still there. The flustered Baronetta complies, although the bolts and locks are still closed, and the wards unbroken. The two noble women light a lamp and carefully step across the warding circles. Coming to the iron cage, they find the sidhe Roxanne still there.
At that time, Jacques-Alphonse is seized by the arm, and thrown down the stair by an invisible assailant. He goes with the throw, hoping to gain better control of his landing. Seeing him heaved into the air, the Baronetta shouts "Close the door! Bertrand and Dame Chrysalia rush to do her bidding, from their respective sides of the door. As Bertrand lunges towards the door, he is slammed from behind by the invisible assailant, whom rides, crouching, on his back through the warded portal, Bertrand's body erasing the circles as he skids through the room. However, the circles' power renders the attacker visible - a lithe female form, of human height, clad in soft, dark leather armour.
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***
Bertrand banishes Bob, cauterizing Maya's blood gate with fire, and throwing flame through it at Bob. A fiery maelstrom draws in the fay greenery, which crumbles into ash and are drawn inwards and down, bound at last into a knot of red embers. Alas, as the foetid gate shuts, the knot bursts in a shower of cinders, spraying Bertrand and most of the room, even as Bertrand feels the toll of drawing too deeply from his power, and collapses in a heap of agony.
Baronetta Bélisa flees the room, pulling with her her beloved daughter, whom is on fire. Jacques-Alphonse takes upon him to save his companion Bertrand, even though his oathbound charge is trapped in a cage in the midst of the flames, not yet burning as the protective circles held most of the cinders back.
Having dragged the gibbering Bertrand from the room, and smothered the fire in the sorcerer's clothing, Jacques-Alphonse turned back into the room, hoping to rescue Roxanne - both in order to keep his oath to her, and to secure her as a hostage in the further struggle with the sidhe. To his surprise, he sees Maya, back on her feer (or lower hands), standing unzinged in the midst of the flames, singing and gesturing at the cage's door.
Realizing that Maya will be able to save both herself and Roxanne, he charges into the conflagration, slashing desperately at Maya, heedless of his own mortality. In seconds, he overwhelms the sidhe, surprised as she is by his suicidal rage. Maya is hewn mortally, her ribcage shattered, and both she and Jacques-Alphonse tumble amid the flames. Roxanne, in her cage, soon succumbs the flames, her would-be rescuers dead.
Thus passed the Jacques-Alphonse, The Unicorn of Bois-Alsante. His last thoughts, as his strokes fell and the fire ate at his body, were:
”I have broken every oath, every custom and every allegiance, save one. My ultimate loyalty lies with the fate of Avation, and the fate of mankind. These! Bitches! Do! Not! Go! Home!”
So the two sidhe maidens came to ruin, one by iron, the other by fire. Maya died within arm's reach of her lover, whom she had crossed worlds to rescue. Roxanne was consumed by the very force that broke her magical bonds, her last hope hewn down by one she had bound by trickery to save her.
The aftermath
16.09
The day after Loafmass, the sorcerer Bertrand regains some coherency, after being wracked by pain and fever for a forthnight.
25.09
On this day, Bertrand's burn injuries are fully healed, but the scars will remain forever.