Over fried chicken, fries and sides we discussed our next move. We needed to do something about Agnes. Both generally and specifically. We couldn't have her messing with our minds like that. Adam had a notification that his new set of books had arrived, so we could do some research on both shielding spells and on wards. But Michael had had a text from the fairy queen, and wanted to visit her again, and Elizabeth was very insistent that he shouldn't go alone. I happened to agree, but I wasn't sure why she was making such a big deal of it.
Anyway, Adam and Elizabeth went to hit the books, and I went with Robin and Michael to see the fairy queen. We ran through the rules since it was Robin's first visit. Don't eat or drink anything. Don't accept gifts. Don't tell them your real name. And don't fall asleep. The door to the fairy realm seemed to have ditched most of its special effects. Or maybe someone was just in a hurry and couldn't be bothered to impress us. Either way, we got in to see the queen with minimal fuss. Robin was careful about his name, and all in all it went pretty well.
I found that when I relaxed a bit, I felt less itchy and the queen's voice lost some of its intoxicating quality. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The queen asked me a strange question, about whether my transformation was permanent. I didn't know what she meant, and I didn't know if I should ask in case I said the wrong thing, but she said that I was becoming something different. And she's right. I've tried to ignore it, but between the teleporting, the armour and the strange glow, it must be pretty obvious to everyone.
We learned that the fae court was working with the Foundation, of all people. They even had one of their pet werewolves, which was really quite embarrassing to witness. It was clear we were running out of time. A supernatural war was brewing, and the only chance we had of avoiding it was getting rid of Agnes's ward. According to the queen, we all had the smell of Agnes on us. It was time to get back to the others and see what they'd found out.
Back at the junkyard, they'd got some useful info on dealing with the ward, but first we had the magical contamination we'd apparently picked up to deal with. Elizabeth could see it on all of us except Adam. We had a number of ideas for getting rid of it, and I think my idea of getting us into running water by visiting a water park was the best, but before I could book tickets, Toby the grotesque, not a gargoyle because he's not a drainpipe, showed up to tell me we had smelly bags on our shoulders.
We couldn't see or feel them, but Elizabeth's pet demon Nick could, and soon we were all cleaned up. Next up was a shielding spell, in case we ran into Agnes and needed to not immediately reveal all our plans. I attempted to help Elizabeth with the spell, and managed to set my own hair on fire this time, but fortunately she was fine without me.
I think being the chosen one is getting to Michael. We managed to talk briefly while Elizabeth was casting the spell, and he thought that it should have been me who was chosen and that someone just got it wrong due to patriarchy. I said that maybe they'd just been told to look for a redhead and got the wrong one. I don't believe that though.
Adam and Elizabeth's research had confirmed what we half suspected. The source of Agnes's ward was the tree. We were going to have to bring it down. We loaded up Vanessa with iron spikes, chainsaws and a flamethrower, and off we went.
The tree was in the middle of a playground, which was rather inconvenient. Toby was still hanging around, complaining that he couldn't even touch the thing. I found it was quite an effort to get near it, but that once I did my armour seemed to weaken the effect. I quickly backed off to avoid any sudden glowing in front of the children playing.
Elizabeth attempted to try a bit of lichcraft, I think, but that didn't go well. Her hand suddenly turned black, and the blackness began creeping up her arm. I had a sudden hunch about how to stop it, reached out to take hold of her arm, and tried to drive it back. Not all the way, but at least she still had all her fingers.
We donned some hi-vis jackets and began clearing the playground, claiming that the tree was dangerous. Which was true, after all. Adam got to work hammering iron spikes into the tree to weaken it, but I had other things to worry about. Michael was having a seizure. He didn't seem to be hurt, so I just did some regular first aid, but he didn't wake up when it ended. Elizabeth could see it was no normal seizure, but Agnes doing something to him. Elizabeth said that he needed a shock to wake him up and suggested that I should kiss him.
At which point I realised we were being shipped by our own teammate, but I couldn't think about that right then because Michael needed help. So in my mind I screamed at Agnes to get away from him, and I kissed him. And he woke up.
I think we were both a bit surprised, and must have said out loud that this wasn't how I'd imagined it happening, because Michael was surprised again that I'd imagined it. But while we were having this moment, Elizabeth and Robin were laying into the tree with ice magic and chainsaw, and it was about to come down. I kept hold of Michael and teleported us back to the van out of harm's way.
The tree crashed down. Adam shoved Robin out of its path and we regrouped at the van. I think we all knew what was coming. Agnes didn't waste any time. She was there in a moment, and for the first time she let her little old lady façade drop to show us the winged, clawed hellspawn beneath.
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