====== Serendipity and Grave ======
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Our current task was a two-parter consisting of to getting ahold of [[farne:actors:sanria veris|Veris]]'s list of redheads left to be kidnapped (and if lucky, the whole list), as well as jail-breaking the redheads she currently had drugged up in her palace.

It was decided without much discussion that we should use eight "Snap Gates", mechanical constructs of [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]]'s, that would be activated by [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] using Spatial Gate powers that could be carried by each of us during our incursion into the palace. We would each take one (so four), and the other four would remain in a fortified cave of our choosing somewhere as the exit points.

Also, since we would be funneling almost completely drugged up people through the gates, it was decided that we'd need someone to manage things on the exit side to ensure there were no traffic-jams or anything of that nature. The boys decided quickly that [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] would be a good person to manage this task.

So, we headed up to [[farne:locations:Celestia]] and [[farne:actors:vandriel|Vana]]'s keep to talk to him. Actually, the boys set about helping [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] to construct the gates and I got tasked (by [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]]'s extremely implicative insistence) to go recruit [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] by myself.

[[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] was, of course, hanging out with his mother (was there anything else to do up here in [[farne:actors:vandriel|Vana]]'s keep?). I was struck by how much better [[farne:actors:elina parnth|Parnth]] looked as I entered the room. She seemed to be well on her way to making a full recovery. Thank goodness, and quickly too, as we were running out of time.

They greeted me pleasantly, and I got right to the point. [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] agreed immediately without me even having a chance to explain what it was we needed him to do. I tried to explain that it had the potential of being extremely dangerous given that any of the big five could show up with swords waving ([[farne:actors:Grave]], [[farne:actors:Nemesis]], [[farne:actors:Serendipity]], [[farne:actors:anzja of the rivers|Anzja]], or [[farne:actors:sanria veris|Veris]]). He still said sure as if it were no big deal. I eyed [[farne:actors:elina parnth|his mother]] skeptically. Was he some kind of idiot? She smiled and shrugged at me, but did tell him to be very careful. He nodded to her and we headed back to the boys who were just finishing up with the construction of the snap-gates.

I explained to [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] as we joined them what we were going to do with the gates and what his role would be. I mentioned that we needed him to manage the outgoing traffic, as the girls coming through the snap-gates would probably be drugged and incapable of doing much of anything on their own. At that statement, I heard an "allll-right!" from [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]]'s direction. I rolled my eyes and made a bemused "pfft" at that statement, and so [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] added that [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] should help himself to them, since I wasn't being cooperative.

[[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] looked at [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] who gave him a thumbs-up, then me in turn, with a cocked eyebrow. I shrugged at him with a slight smile on my face, as if to say "ehhh, it's just [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] being [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]]", and then went on to finish my explanation without any further interruptions.

After that, we gathered up our stuff and headed back down to [[farne:locations:index|Farne]], to the cave which we'd use as an exit, located in [[farne:locations:Masayume]].

[[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] began his ritual which would take an hour or so to activate and link up all the snap-gates. I sat down against the side of the cave and watched [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] as he paced back and forth, mumbling to himself about how we should get into the castle grounds in [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Tusbel]]. Every now and then I would interject a comment during [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]]'s ramblings, rejecting a lot of overly-complex ideas or pointing out obvious things that he had missed in his calculations by focusing too much on the details of the plan.

While this was going on, [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] stood next to me chatting with me about box socials. I have no idea how we got on the topic, but I guess it was a common type of party to have pretty much anywhere. He seemed... pleasant, but a little bit sterile in conversation. A little boring, but given the circumstances... not too surprising I suppose. Anyway, I think maybe I could learn a lot from him about how a noble is supposed to behave and what a noble is supposed to do, since I was more-or-less clueless. 

It certainly made me realize that I was no prim-and-proper lady at all, like the way [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] talked of the young girls at the box socials he attended; I was nothing more than a peasant wearing the mask of a noble. But, then again, maybe I was lucky. I was nobility now but I had absolutely none of the responsibilities of most nobility. I wasn't set to inherit a family business, land, or fortune really. No one was counting on me, no parents hovering above me restricting my every action and desire. I had all of the benefits of the title but none of the responsibilities of such a life. Hmm... I had never thought about it that way before. Perhaps I was pretty lucky after all?

[[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] saw me spacing out for a minute and asked me what was up? I replied that it was nothing, and smiled up at him. He smiled a little bit in turn and we continued our conversation. 

In fact, I was so engrossed in conversation with [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] that apparently I had accidentally tacitly agreed to the most ridiculous incursion plan in the history of warfare. It seemed our plans were finalized and it was time to leave. I stood and said bye to [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]], heading over to where the boys were gathered around an open Gate to [[farne:locations:upper thalia|Tusbel]]. He waved back and said he'd see us again in a few hours. With that, we all stepped through and the Gate closed behind us.

We spent about an hour on the rooftop of a building near to the outer walls of the palace while [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] constructed a catapult device. We tried to remain as quiet as possible during the construction, and luckily for us no one noticed.

When the device was completed, everyone climbed into my bag of holding but me. I placed the bag of holding onto the catapult and turned into a cockroach and hunkered down on the outside of the bag. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] had made the catapult invisible so it was a little bit disorienting to watch the goings-on, but anyway, Swift Wind pecked at the tension rope and eventually broke it, catapulting the bag of three people with the cockroach riding it over the wall of the keep. Swift Wind flew with us till we made it past the wall (to make sure we would) then turned back.

Unfortunately, we landed in a place where this cook guy was able to notice. I quickly turned into a big scary spider under the bag and then crawled out from under it in a dramatic way and then made a bee-line for the cook. He froze in place as I climbed onto his foot and then shrieked like a little girl and immediately set off running in the opposite direction.

Before he had gotten too far I hopped off his foot and let the boys out of the bag and told them what happened. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] told [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] to go kill the poor guy but surprisingly, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] was like "why bother?" and declined. In the end, the cook was able to escape. I picked up the bag of holding and forced [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] to give up one of his mundane bags, which we left there instead for them to find. We ducked out of the way and headed toward the castle itself, and up the stairs to the special library floor just as the cook returned with two guards in tow, screaming frantically about a non-present scary spider and an empty bag.

Unfortunately, despite my "magic papers", the librarian told us the library was closed in a very meaningful way. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] turned invisible to go see what the guy had been nodding meaningfully toward that door about while the rest of us headed out to wait in an alcove in the hallway.

[[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] said over the link that [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]] was in the room reading. Oddly enough, apparently he was reading... children's books and giggling. Oh, that didn't bode well but wasn't too unexpected. I kinda felt sorry for the poor guy.

Anyway, [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] had [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] slip him some roofie shots and he used them to knock out both [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]] and the librarian, and the rest of us headed back in, locking the door behind us.

Since the librarian was down for the count, we'd have to find this information on our own (last time the librarian told us what room it was in). [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] used some Matter powers to speed up the search. While this was going on, I analyzed [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]]'s mental state. He seemed to be under some kind of spell that regressed him to childhood. I poked at the potency a little, and it was extremely high so even if I had wanted to do something about it (which i kinda did... a little), I really couldn't do it right now. It would take a ritual to break that potency of magic.

Furthermore, there was some sort of giggling sound in the room with [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]]. [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] and [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] tried to figure out what was causing it, but alas, could not figure it out. To try and get an idea of what it might be for, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] made like he was gonna cut [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]]'s throat and a large feeling of doom descended over the room. Great. :P

So anyway, we left [[farne:actors:tenris melfir|Melfir]] alone and headed back out into the hallway. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] then nagged [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] into helping him search and almost immediately [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] found the right area of the library and the info was successfully retrieved within minutes. From there we made our way back out into the hallway. From the central area of the tower, I did an extremely large-radius magical detection on red-headed humans and got the impression there were about 30 in the palace grounds. 20 of them were together in a big central area in the keep and the others were at various spots outside of the central area, like the main library and the kitchen.

We decided to split up from there. [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] and I headed to the central area, while [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] and [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] headed out to catch the stragglers.

The main hall was guarded by two gargoyles. Without [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] here, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] and I decided to take a more [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]]-like approach. We went around the side and I used Matter to open a wall for us to slip through and into a broom closet in the guarded area. I got the layout of the area and explained there were five "human" guards and 20 girls in 10 rooms up each side of the hallway (so, rooms 1a and 1b, 2a and 2b.... 5a and 5b).

[[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] slipped out to take a look around. I turned my hair red and wandered into the hallway saying sleepily that I was hungry in sort of a tired, whiny, childish voice. The guards didn't even look up, saying that dinner was an hour ago and telling me to go back to my room. I headed into room 1a and dumped the two sleeping girls through. They did not awaken in the slightest despite my man-handling of them. While I was doing this, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] headed to room 1b and sent those two girls through. 

I wandered back out into the hallway mumbling something about the wrong room, and this time the guards looked up, noted they didn't recognize me, yelled out. I hurried into room 2a which I was already next to anyway. I dumped the two girls through and manifested my weapon. Just as they opened the door, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] stabbed the one in the rear in the doorway, while I took out the first guard coming into the room.

Unfortunately, we heard the two unmistakable sounds of teleports. Two of the devils had to be here. [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] teleported to the end of the hallway saying that [[farne:actors:grave|the big guy]] and [[farne:actors:serendipity|the hot chick]] devils were here. I ran across the hallway to room 2b and dumped one of the girls through my snap-gate before [[farne:actors:Grave]] came thundering in.

I set a defensive stance as he pounded on me with his gigantic sword. When I had a chance, I yanked the other girl through the snapgate recklessly and took another blow from him, this time a huge one, putting quite a gash in my abdomen+side. Well that hurt like a motherfuck! I jumped through the gate after the second girl, hoping to be able to destroy the gate, or at least split them up, but [[farne:actors:Grave]] dove through without hesitation.

I could hear over the telepathic link that [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] was having about as much trouble on his end. As expected, [[farne:actors:Serendipity]] was using mind tricks on [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] which he has historically been susceptible to, especially when wielded by a hot chick. I heard him mention he got room 5b emptied out through the gate before he used [[farne:actors:vandriel|Vana]]'s bracelet to plane shift back to [[farne:locations:Celestia]] to get [[farne:actors:Serendipity]] off of his tail.

I came bumbling through the snap gate all bloodied and looking like hell. [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]]'s eyes were as wide as saucers, but he was fortunately already manifesting his weapon as I told him, "prepare for battle, very LARGE demon coming through with huge sword."

With that I chugged my healing potion and activated my Accelerated Healing power, took a deep breath, and held my weapon's point straight at my exit-gate as [[farne:actors:Grave]] came flying through.

Luck was on my side here, and I got a pretty good hit on him as he emerged. The three of us exchanged blows, [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] and I both getting hits in on [[farne:actors:Grave]], and [[farne:actors:Grave]] attacking mostly me (which I wanted him to do, since I could now heal it blow-for-blow as he dished it out, reflexively).

Several seconds later, [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] and [[farne:protagonists:trent:index|Trent]] came shooting up through their gates just after launching the last two girls near them through (they had rescued five) and joined the melee. [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] told me through the mind-link to use my power to drop [[farne:actors:Grave]]'s Dex, which I did... desperation driving the potency of the magic to be exceedingly high. With a significantly lessened defense, [[farne:actors:sigurvan parnth|Sigurvan]] and I were able to get better hits in on him, and then [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]] simply snatched his weapon from him. Without his weapon, [[farne:actors:Grave]] reached forward and did a harm-touch on [[farne:protagonists:grey:index|Grey]], leaving him wounded and staggering, but still holding onto [[farne:actors:Grave]]'s sword.

Around about that time, [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] and [[farne:actors:Serendipity]] appeared. She started charming everyone in range as I finished off [[farne:actors:Grave]], sending him back to hell for a year and a day.

I turned to [[farne:actors:Serendipity]], to see all four of the boys near her but unable to act. I heard [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] say "I got this one" over the telepathic link. [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]] stepped forward, toward her, and made some lewd remarks, saying they should go off somewhere and get down to "business". I prepared as potent a mental shield as I could manage, and was about to step forward to attempt to skewer her when she suddenly grabbed [[farne:protagonists:boyce:index|Boyce]]'s hands and the two of them disappeared.

Oh shit!

(list acquired, and 15/30 girls rescued from [[farne:actors:sanria veris|Veris]] palace)