Time has no meaning in the Marches...

Our Intrepid Angels are on the run, unweaving as they go, fleeing deeper into the lands adjoining the unicorn's forest. The unweavers have the act down, baby -- " Stay away from earth, fear humans, we are angels and yes, you are being released by angels", flower from Matt, 'business card' from Alaric. Why yes, War does recruit, in case you wondered.
    Of course, this does mean the angels are not really *running* with any speed at all. And lo -- the forest has eyes. Lots of eyes. And strange looking little faces to go with them. (GM: looks like a Brian Froud painting) Arashiel recognizes the watchers as little sidhe folk. So Rashi elects to step aside and try asking for help from the locals. A pile of hair and twigs with eyes sits on a branch, and unlike its compatriots, does not flee Arashiel's approach. It is a gruagach, and it has little ribbons in its fur in places. Rashi does a fine job o a) not laughing at it and b) adopting a serious and respectful demeanor. "We are being followed by demons. As you can see, we are trying to release more of your kind. We would ask for your help. There are five demons and they are very dangerous but if you and your kind would enjoy playing pranks on them, we would appreciate it. But most importantly, do not get hurt."
    The gruagach demands a flower for its fee, which Matt is happy to supply, and bounds off to do mischief.
    More unweaving -- we have a hostile manticore, a pooka, and finally -- an angel. It's a Cherub, great lion with brilliant pale wings. Arashiel recites her Speech To Emerging Ethereals. The Cherub reveals herself to be Eliah, a former Servitor of Purity. She is Outcast, and walks beside us.
    Arabis, circling above the trees, spots an ominous bat-winged shape approaching. She tried to play decoy, but it did not follow her. Drat. Next thing she knows -- she's fallen out of the dreamscape, out onto the featureless grey of the Marches. Plink, plink, and the rest follow, finding themselves Out In The Open and Exposed. They can see the vague shimmer out of the edges of their vision -- the dreamscape behind them. There is some argument about whether to go back in or not, but it is decided with a minimum of verbiage that the entities within are in enough danger without us adding to it. Uh-oh. There's more trouble. Six black winged shapes in blinding white are approaching. This can't be good.
    The unweaving is put on hold, and the angels take to the air however they can. Eliah the Cherub has not emerged from the dreamscape...but when the demons also emerge, there are only two Calabim in evidence. So we have Malakim on one side, and demons on the other. Choices, choices. The PCs try to play them off against each other, weaving back and forth, attempting to make the pursuers intercept each other and hopefully kill each other on the spot while we run on. Indeed not.
    There is another slip into a different reality, and the angels find themselves unexpectedly in a desert, with great pyramids rising out of the sand. The pyramids are shiny new and pretty -- no erosion has touched them. There are rocks, too, and steep dunes -- so there are places to hide. The angels decide not to play Indiana Jones and go into a pyramid; they instead take shelter in an oasis of sorts, ad rocky canyon riddled with shallow caves. Arabis, of course, flies around to scout (and privately loves the desert)...and spots something under the sand.
    Picture sand like water, translucent, with a massive shape beneath it. It is, as Arabis draws closer, a lioness. As she flies even closer, the sand shifts, then runs away from the shape that rises from it: leonine golden eyes, tawny fur, and an air of ancient blood and violence. Its attention is focussed on the perimeter of its realm. Ever brave, OfanRaven flies up beside on golden ear.
    "Oh great lady, why do you rise?"
    In a voice like the winds of the desert: "Little angel, what are you doing in my realm?"
    "We travel here...meaning no harm."
    She is not unkind. "You are of no consequence to me. I hunt those who intrude."
    "Leaving now," Arabis mutters, and wings back to her companions. "Alıhamdullilah. There is a goddess here who has taken no consequence of us but now rises to take on intruders. We should leave, I think."
    The lioness-goddess' shoulders eclipse whatever it was that had come into the 'scape. Still -- the angels know who is coming. Arashiel does not want to leave her to the demons or the Malakim, and suggests we stay to help her. Matt and Alaric are left behind to mind the Tapestry, and Rashi falls back to stay with them...or halfway between them and the other battle. No telling if both groups of pursuers will be courteous enough to attack Sekmet (who did you think the lioness was?) or if one will try to be sneaky and go after the Tapestry.
    The blackwings come through first.
    Arabis confronts them, putting her raven self between them and Sekmet and the rest of her friends.
    The largest Malakite, armed with a sword, steps forward. "Dissonant angel, who do you serve?"
    "I serve Fire."
    Sneer. "Another dissonant angel. We serve Purity." Tsayadim. Wonderful.
    "Fine. You may cleanse me if you can catch me!" OfanRaven jags to one side, and Sekmet swats one of the Malakim from the sky. The remaining five attack her. Mayhem ensues!
    Matt, annoyed to be left out of the fighting, tried to find desert-y tings to unweave. A giant cobra proves unwilling to help, and Alaric and Matt change tactics...they try to pick Cariel free from the weave without inadvertently decapitating something else.
    Rook, in a fine display of why Michael's Malakim win fights, steps in and disarms one of the Malakim. The sword spins off over a dune, leaving one *pissed* Tsayadim. Jael engages a Menacing Malakite. Arashiel begins the attunement alert twitch, and stays by Matt...and a Calabite comes round a dune's edge. Uh-oh. Rashi and Alaric decide to focus on it.
    Mean old Malakite of Purity smites Arabis a good one, and an enraged Jael forgets her engages him. Rook spots the approaching demons, sees Jael engaged with two Malakim, see a wounded Arabis -- and elects to go protect the Tapestry. Jael and Arabis -- who takes another hit, her dissonance making her a target for Purity -- and Sekmet are left with the Tsayadim. Rook feels his first taste (ever!) of dissonance as he abandons one fight for another.
    Arashiel Sings Entropy and Calabite No. 1 and sends him to clawing at his face and screaming. Calabite No. 2 resonates on her, and as she resists...and gets a Divine Intervention. The Calabite's resonance rebounds on itself, and from then on, everything he does affects only himself. (The PCs cheer, and Rashi's player threatens to bronze his dice.) Boom upon bloody boom.
    Rook attacks the Djinn with much zeal. He's been frustrated lately. Alaric joins him in doing gleeful damage to the hapless Djinn. Rashi hauls out her lightsabre artifact and smites happily at the defenseless Calabite. Mean ol' Rashi.
    Arabis attacks one of her attackers -- he has foolishly turned his back on the raven to deal with the very angry dragon. Slice! He whirls to chop at her, but OfanRaven is too swift for him! Sekmet, meanwhile, seems to be winning. There are black feathers at the edge of her jaws. The winds of the desert whip and wail in violent accord with her emotions.
    Matt tries for his first invocation of Novalis -- failure.
    Alaric and Rook continue to smite the Djinn, who cannot Sing anything worthwhile because the dice hate him. Arabis, meanwhile, dives down for the sword Rook knocked from the lead Malakite's hand, changes vessel, and picks it up. The Malakite is *furious*.
    "Put. That. Down."
    "Call your boys off and leave."
    "You are releasing the impure. You are consorting with the impure. You yourself are impure. Servitor of Fire, you should choose better company."
    What*ever.* "At least I still serve Heaven." And Arabis takes off over the dunes, back toward Jael and the battles.
    Rashi calls Alaric over to work on the Balseraph; Rashi' attunement is really pinging, and the Cherub cannot ignore it much longer. Matt and Rashi start for the embattled, bloody Jael. Rashi tries and fails Ethereal Form; Matt hears too clearly Ethereal Charm sung behind him, and looks back to see Alaric looking zombie-fied. Then Rashi smites the Malakite on Jael's back, and gets his attention.
    The Symphony crashes: a Superior has arrived. Sekmet dissolves back into the sand.
    Novalis: little, blond and young-looking. The Balseraph looks *appalled* -- it's half a step from obliterating Alaric. Bright green eyes go narrow on a pretty, innocent little face. "Sweetie, you have got to stop that. NOW!" Novalis' hand twitches, and the Bal vanishes. The Calabim follow suit, and Novalis comes over to Rook. The Djinn and Rook look...messy.
    "Negotiations didnıt work?" she asks Rook brightly. Poof, no more Djinn.
    Wide Malakite eyes. Negotiations? "Um, no."
    In the presence of a Superior, the Tsayadim stop battling. Rashi, we may note, has badly wounded her Malakite, and has him on one knee.
    Novalis steps up, puts her hands on her hips. To the Tsayadim: "Is this very nice? Do we make war on other angels? No. Are we going to be leaving now? Yes. Good bye. And leave your weapons, please."
    Aggrieved, the Tsayadim drop their swords and back out of the dreamscape. Carefully. Rashi gathers two up, while Arabis still has a deathgrip on hers.
    "Those," Novalis says sternly, "are ugly things. They could be much better employed, but they *are* artifacts." She does not confiscate the sharp objects, though, since the two angels seem rather attached.
    Novalis escorts the angels out onto the Marches again, healing the wounded and refilling Essence for the needy. She even negates Alaric's Ethereal Charm effects. The unweaving recommences, and the creatures released huddle together in shock and nervousness.
    Novalis is proud of Matt, and tells him so. "You were wise to call me when you did. There could have been death. There could have been Remnants."
    "When all this is done I think I need to go upstairs for a while. I am having a hard time."
    "Yes, working with War is hard."
    "No, itıs not him. Heıs taught me a great deal."
    Arashiel approaches, bright ki-rin. "My Lady. Your appearance is the best thing that could have happened for those that we are releasing."
    Novalis gets that 'do not try charming me, Creationer' smile. "I will have to speak with the Seraphim Council, you know.... Given the way things have gone here," Novalis eyes Rook and Alaric meaningfully, "I may have something to say something to War other than ŒStop smiting.ı " She sighs. "Rook, *try* to ask before smiting. And here, have a brownie."
    "Yes maıam," Rook obediently takes and eats the brownie. It's one of *those* brownies... Jael grins. That's one way to mellow out a Malakite.
    And suddenly the Tapestry is unwoven -- a new vista spreads out, a collection of strange plants, animals, landscapes, all of myth overlaid on itself. A huge griffin, Cariel, springs from the center, and stares around her. Other angels cluster beside her -- Ofanim, Cherubim, Malakim.
    "Hey, you're Cariel!" Rook is quite -- affected -- by the brownie by now.
    "Who are you?"
    "I am Rook."
    "You are stoned." Creationers can *tell.*
    Owlish blink. "No, I am a Michaelite, not a Davidian."
    Cariel transfers her attention to Arashiel and Matt.
    "Why have I been unwoven?"
    Arashiel answers: "The Crusades are over, Uriel has been recalled. Laurence has replaced him. -- Yes, he is pesky. He will still be trouble. However, when we came upon the Tapestry, Eli instructed me to take care of it. However, it drew the attention of many demons."
    Cariel absorbs this. "You are telling me there is no safe place on the earth for these creatures."
    "You will have to stay here, in the Far Marches. The weapons you were familiar with when you entered are essentially not used anymore. Itıs been 1200 or 1300 years. They have weapons that can kill millions in one moment."
    "This does not surprise me. Humans ever did like war."
    "You are not forgotten there."
    "And we will not *be* forgotten. Is it safe in Heaven or have I been outcast?"
    "I donıt think so. The status of your lord is that he is Š.um," Matt begins.
    "Disgrace," Jael offers mildly.
    "Judgment is after Creation," Matt adds.
    "How *dare* that six-eyed freak !" Cariel is shocked, angry.
    "Seventy or so years ago Eli just walked out. Things were divergent enough that things no longer required his direct guidance, perhaps," Arashiel explains.
    "We will stay here." She looks around her, at the Tapestry-scape.
    "It could be best. Many of the beings were released at varying locations," Arashiel adds. "We were unweaving as we ran."
    "*I* can find them." Cariel says with the assurance of one attuned.
    "Irad is on his way," Matt says, more hesitantly.
    "Dragons?" Griffin eyes light up.
    "Heıs Fallen," Arabis says flatly. There is silence, and wide griffin eyes full of shock and disbelief.
    "He *what*?"
    "You can work on him," Rashi suggests. "He came to my rescue once before, has helped us defend the Tapestry.
    "But how could Irad Fall?" Cariel's eyes seek Jael, obviously also Dragons...who cannot meet her eyes.
    Rashi to the rescue! "It is my guess that he lost faith. All that he cared for disappeared...I think Eli tested him, and he failed."
    "He Jumped," Matt clarifies. "Now where is he? He said he would be here."
    Arabis, ever our little breath of joy: "Maybe *they* got him. Maybe they got him for helping us."
    Cariel looks grim. "If Irad comes, I will be prepared. Thank you, Arashiel, Matt."
    Alaric is over playing recruiter among the Ethereals. Easy to see where War falls on this subject.
    Arabis goes to the edge of the 'scape, holding her sword, and watches for trouble. The others scatter around to explore (Matt is on a plant-collecting mission); Jael wanders over to Arabis and settles beside her.
    Arabis glances sidelong at the Cherub. "You OK?"
    Jael twitches wing -- a dragon-shrug. "Yeah...some things heal and some donıt -- you know. Itıs good that you told them about Irad. You donıt choke up."
    Rashi sees Jael, reorients.
    "Thanks," Jael adds, "for your help."
    Enter Rashi, all perky as usual.
    "He was sooo livid when I took his weapon," Arabis smiles. Jael and Rashi appreciate the humor.
    Then Rashi nudges Jael. "Go play."
    "You play. I am happy right here."
    "He's coming back." That's our Rashi, ever to the point.
    Momentary sadness, but not the deep grief one might think to see. "Iım keeping Arabis company," Jael says again mildly. "She needs to go home soon. -- And thanks, too. Itıs kind of cinematic, you know. Itıs not often that the dragon gets rescued by the maiden from the knights."
    Matt collects the seeds of plants now extinct, and the angels take their leave with Cariel's thanks. She even promises to take care of the roc. They now face the task of getting home -- the cars are in Yellowstone. And they want to avoid Heaven, since they, um, might not be popular there just now.
    Rook snags a moment to walk with Jael and tell her about Wayland. He wants to go now and deal with the debt. Jael thinks this is a Bad Idea. But she's over here with Rook, and Arabis and Arashiel -- who can occasionally talk sense into Rook -- are *over there.* Drat. She begins to flick her tail in a dragon SOS.
    Rashi says a temporary farewell to Alaric, who asks her to "Try not to drive Rook crazy while I am gone, ok?" There is some flirting. Go fig.
    As Arabis, Rashi, and Matt start out, Arabis notes the frantic Jael-tail. Wise Ofanite surmises the cause. "Are you not going over to talk to her?" Arabis demands of Rashi.
    Obedient Rashi does so, and Jael steps back from the still-stoned Rook to tell Rashi what's up. Hmm. Rashi detunes herself from Rook, then starts asking questions about the Wayland affair. Rook provides no answers that illuminate anything. Poor Rook is also pretty hazy at present. Eventually Jael convinces Rook that this is not the time to go Marches-traipsing. They started back across the Marches, going for the Volcano.
    Arabis, as she waits, notices the Geasa on Matt and Jael...and that Rook hasn't any. Hmm.
    As they near the Border Marches, a Malakite of Dreams resolves himself from the shadows -- it's Mahariel again. "Quite a mess youıve made," he says cheerfully. "We heard an awful lot of noise out there. -- You will want help crossing the border. The patrols have been beefed up." He falls in beside them.
    Rashi takes that moment to tell Mahariel what's happened, and that Cariel is OK. She also warns him about Irad, in hopes that Fallen Dragons will not be killed on sight. And, using her natural charm -- she finagles passage through a Dream Tether to one close to an Animals Tether. That would be Australia.
    The angels pop and out of the land down under rapidly, and back to Heaven in the Savannah. The Cherub of Animals there pretends not to see them -- "If you are THAT group of angels, *I* havenıt seen you." It points with its tail to the Yellowstone Tether point.
    -- And down. Althea is pleased to see them, and reports that the Laurencians disappeared after a rather Symphonically loud fight earlier on -- with whomever we left behind. Oh dear. No one sheds any tears, though.
    And away we go in the cars, back to Boulder. The trip is quiet for Arabis, Jael, and Rook in the van, and slightly more conversational in the convertible with Rashi and Matt. Matt confesses to harboring some anger to Adrienne, and the pair discuss Archangels and their worthiness. Amiable silence reigns in the other car.
    Enjoy it while it lasts.

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