His eye roams the bubble a final time before finally moving to join Genny as she helps the boggan out. "Hey, bitch." he says to the boggan with a smirk. "Your girlfriend is alright. That sidhe ain't half bad either. We'll get 'em out."
What? He's gotta keep up appearances, right?
Mean...but funny and Genny's not about to help the boggan out with this one. Then again, her mind is rather on other things, like what happens if he scrys and someone catches him at it or if it bounces. Feedback to his brain would be bad. She does grin as the boggan blushes and denies all 'girlfriend' allegations.
"Us? No! Never. We're friends. We're..." He rubs his cheeks, looking away and asking. "Can I go? I need to tell a few other friends that I've seen Shova and Anna and they're alive."
Genny nods, "Fine by me. We can find this place again easy 'nuff." She grins then and musses the boggan's hair looking him over and muttering into his ear. "Some goats will bed jus' 'bout anythin'. If ya like Shova ya may jus' wanna...ask." She makes the word into something intimate and naughty and the boggan may just pass out as she steps back from him, looking smug.
Chago keeps walking when Genny bends to say her soft words to the boggan, but he is listening. He doesn't look back to let either of them see the amusement on his face, even if Genny has to know it's there. "Get outta here." he says instead of reacting to the quiet words shared. "I'm getting hungry and some boggan stew sounds real nice now." Boggan -made- stew that is, even if it may sound like something else coming from a redcap.
Who needs magic for fast escapes, when a redcap is around? That boggan gives a final little near squeak of fear and bolts at Chago's parting words. Once the redcap can no longer hear the running feet, he says "Back to the inn for a long bath and a real dinner, then we'll figure out what to do." And finally, he lets the amusement color his tone. That was fun.
After a few hours, they're alone in a room, well fed and bathed. Well, mostly bathed. Chago is heading for another one to clean up after eating. Other redcaps are messier than he is, but even he isn’t always neat.
Bathing done leads to scrying...or at least an attempt to do so. With Genny sitting close by Chago tries to penetrate the bubble, but whether it's the metaphysical nature of the thing itself, or other wards that Eric has had installed that private room seems impossible to latch onto. The club itself, easy, it's all Eric in nature: dark, twisted as all get out...a true pit of despair, in every way. He's not even been in town that long and some of the girls look strung out and falling apart under the eye of his bully boys.
With the attempt frustrated the two bandy about ideas, not coming up with anything tremendous and eventually head to bed with plans for revisiting the bubble in the morning. Unfortunately, these prove to be thwarted as well, due to the fact that when Chago awakens Genny is gone, her spot next to him cool and a note left in her place.
Beloved... I've gone and done something that I'm certain you'll be angry with me for, but it's the only way I can think of to penetrate Eric's security, and if we talk about it then we'll talk ourselves out of it. The satyr said that family could pass, and from the look of the girls Eric had they can bring non family in with them. I know that you can go wherever I go between blood and oath... So I'm creating a beacon for you. Eric's boys will take me to him, and into his sanctum...you can jump him there. Just hurry your ass to get to me. I love you, Chago.
~Genny
No. Not just no. Hell no. Within moments of reading the note, Chago is tasting the air for her and then driving a fist into the wall as taste tells him she's no longer in the Dreaming. Too late. The nearest rooms empty with small sounds of panic as the redcap bellows what amounts to a warcry in reaction to the facts of this situation and then he's dressing and grabbing their weapons. Then he goes through their packs, looking for the last thing they bought from downstairs, the glamour filled jerky each of them have. After all, even with the time they've had, they've gotten almost no time to rebuild any real Glamour for themselves, no rest and little imagination.
Armed and supplied with just necessities, Chago storms out of the inn, growling threats at anything that even looks like it might slow him down and never breaking stride. Even doors open in the face of the furious redcap. Angry? Beyond words. Why? Because he's frightened for her. Still, if anyone understands fear and how to use it, it is a redcap. They -are- fear. There's no way to tell how long it's been since she left, but with the help of travel magic called Wayfare, it's only a matter of minutes from her leaving to Chago's arrival at the bubble to try and see what's already happened. No fool Chago. As much as he wants to just charge in, he -knows- he has to see what the trap is first. Eric took one eye from him. He's -not- taking anything else.
It takes a moment for the haze that comes and goes over the bubble to clear. When it does the dim back room is shown again, peopled by Eric, Theo and a handful of others. A meaty thud aludes to where Genny is, flying through the air to impact hard with the wall. She slides down it with a nearly inaudible groan, ending up on her side. She can't have been in custody very long, but it never takes long with someone like Eric before one is wishing they weren't in custody anymore. One cheek is swollen and blackening, her lip split and other bruises decorate her dusty skin. Whatever top she was wearing has been stripped away, blood trickling along her skin from a couple of cuts above each breast.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Eric follows her, stomping across the room, grabbing her by the throat and raising her up to eye level. It has to hurt, but she doesn't make a sound, even as he gropes her roughly with the other hand.
"Where is he, bitch?" He growls in her face. "Tell me and I won't rip you apart." His hand moves around her back to where Chago's name is tatooed, and three bars of metal representing three swords are embedded in her skin. Genny's gaze is focused over his shoulder, for those that don't know her they'd say it was only terror in her expression...for those that do...terror is there, but it's backed with determination and anger. She's not lost it yet, and with her stamina likely isn't as hurt as she's letting them believe.
"Tell me!" Eric's fingers close over the first bar and he rips it out of her skin with agonizing slowness, turning her pale as she refuses the scream he wants.
All there. Perfect. It's Chago's first thought as his fingers find the first piece of the jerky and pops it into his mouth to chew. He makes himself watch and listen for the moment, staying perfectly still as he takes in the glamour and just a tiny bit of extra wildness from the beast it was made from.
As the glamour fills his system, sparks of wild magic dance over his skin and flare wildly. Yes, that condensed magic is interesting. Very interesting. When the cap notices this, he grabs his second piece and pops it in his mouth, holding it carefully and not yet chewing. Instead, he pushes it into his cheek like chewing tobacco to have it there, but out of the way for the moment.
And that's then the ripping apart coments come and he shifts that extra jerky over to gulp down redcap style, setting those dancing sparks to be almost flames as he draws back one hand and drives his Gauntlet into the barrier with a bellowed "OPEN THE HELL UP!" Just like with the boggan, the barrier tries to suck out all the 'fae' in him in that contact, but the wild glamour about him is drawn off instead, letting his Gauntlet score the bubble and then, between the raw power of a redcap's demand and the rending and shredding of his Blooded Gauntlet to the barrier's 'flesh' it parts to let the redcap lunge through.
Chago hits the floor at a dead run and drives his Gauntlet's fist into the pyretic casting satyr's gut before he can realize they've been invaded. Between raw fury and power and the rending of the gauntlet, Chago's fist sinks almost elbow deep into the poor thing and when he rips free, the ribcage of the fading satyr is broken and left gaping open in a gory display of why redcaps are feared.
Then Chago turns and his eye locks on Eric. "Your ass is mine. Put her down mula and meet me face to freaking face. No more hiding from me like the damned coward you are." He rolls his shoulders and bares his teeth at the troll as Theo uses her faery kin tricks to fade from view. As usual, the trick works far too well on Chago and he even forgets she was in the room for the moment. Or maybe he's just that focused on Eric.
Genny's whip is at his side, easy to grab if she can gather herself enough to make a play for it when Eric lets her go, but Chago makes no move to offer it more than just having it there.
It's all about timing... Genny manages to remain quiet through the pain of the removal of two of her pins. She remains quiet with the commentary and the wandering hands, though her gaze gets more distant, riding that point of a painful disconnection. That's the moment when Chago breaks the barrier and she snaps back to herself. Timing is everything.
Eric turns his head slowly, looking Chago over with a sneer. Mostly it's trying to hide the surprise that the redcap's presence is. He doesn't let Genny go so much as slam her to the ground. "Have it your way. I'll take your other eye and let you listen to what I do to the bitch before I end you."
Which is the moment when Genny does speak up, her gaze angry now. "I don' think so." Low on glamour and beaten, but not nearly as down for the count as anyone buy Chago might guess. She shifts her weight forward so that it's on her shoulders and kicks out, a vicious hard kick that is why hooved creatures are so dangerous. It impacts with Eric's knees, popping one out and sending him stumbling away.
It only takes a moment for him to regain his footing and pop the knee back in, but that wasn't the point. The point was giving her enough room to move and come to her feet next to Chago, grabbing her whip on the way up and facing the rest of the room. She's a bloody feral mess and she bares her teeth and growls softly.
Chago smirks as Eric pulls himself together and shifts his gaze to the door while he knows the troll can't charge him. In a near bellow, he shouts "You assholes let -anyone- in, and your asses are toast! Keep that door SHUT!" The demand has all the power a redcap can put into a scorn behind it and that fast, any backup from outside that Eric might have normally called on is handled.
Then he turns back toward Eric as his fingertips snag a small pouch on his belt and pull it free. The only non weapon there. This is held toward Genny without even looking. "Brought you some jerky. Though you might need to get the taste of this place out of your mouth." And need the glamour since there's only one kind of jerky had.
Eric snarls and steps toward the wall, where his battle axe is ready at hand and Chago lets him get it. As he starts to speak again, Chago cuts him off "Screw you Eric. Brag if you want, but do you really think we'd be in your home if I hadn't read the cards?" he asks with a cocky grin as he brings his hands up into a fighting pose straight out of the UFC. "I own your ass this time. It's all over but the blood, and this time it's all yours."
And that's when another hidden attacker finally shows herself. Another of the old crew. She's a sidhe kinain that should be very familiar to anyone that's seen Theo's old room. She's the puppet on Eric's strings. Dreamstruck and clearly lost, she appears from the veil of kinain powers with a smaller version of Eric's axe, heading for Chago's back muttering "Such pretty hair." as she comes for him. It's like she hasn't even seen Genny as she goes for Chago.