Commissions During Break: Wildtouched Part 3

I'm once again letting Arrow describe his most recent Kaerwyn plot, this is part 3.

Images: An upclose shot of Richard. A view of Richard from behind starting to turn into a hawk with a house on fire in the background. Richard in front of a mirror working on his shapeshifting abilities. Kaga in the Kaerwyn Tavern. Ernestine portrait.

Arrow:

Endymion, now implanted with an urge to visit Augusta, knew who he had to visit to get there. So a few days later, he stopped by Richard's apartment, since he's Rich's landlord. It was a pretty brief chat; Endymion used the Art to dominate Richard to operate the rifter for him and leave him unclear on remembering any of it. Once he was in Augusta Falls, Endymion felt a pull into an unattended area of the forest. Walking along, he stepped through a Veil, moving into a fae realm.

It wasn't too long before he arrived in a manor, occupied by the fae lord from before. While he was quite pleased that his gamble to try and get someone better than Jeremiah under thrall had worked, he was very upset that Richard was not with Endymion. During an extended session of what might be best called a magical temper tantrum, he 'convinced' Endymion that he should go back to Kaerwyn, and bring Richard back to him. At this time he also dug through Endymion's memories and picked out a few extra people he wanted brought along: Caius, a Jeleni (anthro deer) with angel heritage, Ernestein, a royal with fae ancestry, Jeremiah, who'd previously wielded great fae power, Kaga, a former empress of the Sek'Hath who was now Rich's girlfriend, and of course, Richard himself.

Returning to Kaerwyn, Endymion set about on repairing the medroom (short for Meditation Room) that was broken during the prior events. He then convinced the others he needed to visit him and get scanned in the medroom, to help calibrate it to make sure it was working again, since he had their signatures on file from prior events. As they each visited, they were turned into sleepers for Endymion by a subtle modification in the medroom.

From there, Endymion became distracted, and the influence waned, but was refreshed when another pull to Augusta Falls saw him 'reconvinced' to assist. So a few days later he gathered the others, and convinced them that Richard was in grave danger. Dispatching them around town to find him, once they did, they met up at the rifter cave. Rich knew all these people and trusted most of them, so when he arrived, he was pretty low key, up until they wouldn't answer anything. He got wise at the last second, but five on one isn't a fair fight. Restraining him, they managed to take him through the rift to Augusta Falls, this time landing right in the fae manor.

Nobody else was there, and at this point the rift behind them closed. Endymion's mental influence waned, leaving him unsure why they were there, only that they shouldn't be. Alone in a great antechamber, there were four directions to go. Rich was concerned, and realizing the danger they were in, they began looking for a way out, despite a sense of dread and not knowing how long before the rift would open again...