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Mab visits Champion and Spring Knight Angel just as he's about to leave for the big battle...and redirects him to where the battle will truly take place.
9/15/2016 5:15 PM
Hyperion Hotel, San Francisco
The lights are on, illuminating the area.
The California-Spanish building known as the Hyperion Hotel was built in the 20s. Through the cast iron gates from the sidewalk is a small front courtyard with a rectangular fountain and a mythological figure holding a bowl from which water flows. Greenery frames the walls and a large set of glass double doors open into a high ceilinged lobby. Dark red carpet descends the four steps to the lobby floor and climb the two sets of stairways that lead to the second floor. The green marble floors are accented with wavy red inserts, as are the walls have a complimentary red border running their length. A set of doors identical to those of the entrance lead to a small enclosed garden.
Cream-colored pillars line two sides of the room, holding up the second-floor balconies that look out onto the lobby and creating arches. Underneath one of them is a large plate glass window that looks into the hotel office - now used as the office and nerve center of Angel Investigations. Nearby, there's a wraparound counter with dark wood paneling and a top the same color as the floor. Behind it are filing cabinets and a pair of desks pushed together. A navy blue circular couch harkening back to a 50s design sits near the back of the lobby. A large wooden, glass-doored cabinet pushed up against the wall holds a large assortment of weapons.
Outside, it's clear, cool, and windy.
Angel had just finished talking to Rabbit, who was now upstairs in one of Hyperion's many rooms catching some sleep while he had the chance. Angel, meanwhile, was just about to turn and head to the Imapla where Faith waited for him, and Buffy too.
The sound of heels on stone may be heard, approaching the front door, and a firm, crisp knock sounds upon it. There's a scent on the air, too, something subtle and almost easily missed, but there's a hint of something to make it interesting--holly, for those who might notice.
Holly? This...could be a visit from the Court, then. Or maybe not. Holly was often a decoration used in Winter. A Winter court member coming to visit then? It's possible. Angel opens the door, to see who this might be...
As the door opens, there's a blast of air that is, unmistakably, wintry. Framed there in the doorway is a woman of striking beauty--striking, and clearly inhuman. Despite the clean, classic lines of her quite modern clothing--a flawless white business suit, the sort with a pencil skirt rather than slacks--she is visibly alien. Her hair, several shades whiter than even the pristine fabric of her clothing, is swept up into an ornate style, her skin alabaster, and her lips the precise color of frozen mulberries. Her eyes are vivid green, slitter vertically like a cat's. Her smile manages to be at once polite, yet frigid.
"Please pardon my interruption, Sir Knight. If you would spare me a moment, I would have words with you--and I believe I can put you on a clearer path to what you seek."
And yet again the Hyperion is graced with the presence of the High Sidhe...this time, Winter's Queen. With all the due deference one might give a foreign ruler, for in the scheme of things, as he is now, he's essentially dealing with the Queen of another country. "Your majesty, you honor me with your presence, please, come in." The rules of hospitality are things he's getting used to, and he doesn't have Cordelia around to help this time, so he puts out various food and drink for his royal guest, and sets up the table and chairs so she has somewhere to sit.
Mab enters with a polite bow of her head, though when Angel sets about preparing offerings of hospitality she reaches out to gently touch him on the arm. Her hand is cold, even to him, even through his coat. "Your gesture is kind, Sir Knight, but I would not trouble you. I shall not tarry long, nor have I come to test your hospitality. I have come in mutual interest. The sister of your beloved has been taken, and my own interests are threatened. I offer you direction, safe passage, and warning." She pauses, fixing him with a gaze that is at once vital and chilly. "In exchange, I ask that you do only what you believe is right--not as the Spring Knight, but as a Champion of the Powers That Be."
Well, since she's mentioning what she wants in exchange in advance, he should be alright to proceed. Angel...has been a Champion for sometime now. "I was a Champion before I was Knighted." And his own conscience doesn't usually lead him astray. Particularly when his closest allies are so near at hand. Angel then asks, "Your majesty, what can you tell me?" And then he may figure out what he can do about it.
Mab offers Angel a smile that, on anyone else, would seem warm. There's even a hint of apologetic sorrow to it. "I can tell you where the girl's being taken, and I can grant you safe passage there. I cannot promise it back. But first, you must know. The danger to your beloved is great, perhaps unavoidable. I have spoken to the greatest seers known to me, and they all speak the same. In this affair, should her path not change, Death is the only gift your slayer may offer. They have all spoken the same, saying 'Death is her gift.'"
Angel nods once, "I've just received word of that, your majesty. Her sacrifice that will save the world. I know Dawn can close the portal, and open it. I know Buffy can shut it." Angel looks pensive. "If I could just...take it. Take the Gift. I'm already dead, your majesty. The things that would kill her may not dust me." Taking the Gift is possibly the hardest part. It depends mostly on how the portal opens, and how it closes.
"Perhaps," Mab says, noncommittal. "Even so, it would be disingenuous of me not to say it." She inclines her head, then, rather than pressing the point. "What you do not know is /what/ portal Glorificus seeks to open. She does not seek to return from whence she came, as you have been led to believe. Rather, she has come under the influence of the darkest powers--Outsiders, beings from entirely beyond our reality--who would split open the world and fill it with madness and corruption of the purest form. This power has hidden Glorificus from our sight, but we know where she must go: She will travel through the Ways to Faerie, to the Lands of Winter, where she will approach the Outer Gates and use the power of the Key to unlock them." She fixes Angel with a firm gaze. "My forces will oppose her, but whatever power moves her may well aid her in evading them. Yet, I cannot act. I am bound by the very Balance I would seek to protect. My power knows few limits in the Lands of Winter, yet in this I require a Champion to act. I ask you not to take my part, only to do what comes to your nature. If you would save the world and the girl, then take what I offer: Passage through the Ways, through Faerie, to the Outer Gates. Stop her. Stop Glorificus, and save the world."
Angel takes all that in. "That fits with the older prophecies about the beast that would crack the world. So she is being played after all." How these Outsiders managed to form an alliance with her in the first place, well, who knows? It's not relevant. It is clear, though, reality is well on its way to falling apart if this isn't shut down very quickly. Still, it's a compelling offer. "Okay." He REALLY hesitates to bring Buffy with him now, with way too many sources pointing rather firmly at her death, but...there's no way she'd let him get away with leaving her out. She has to do what's in HER nature too, after all. "It'll be 3 of us traveling, myself, Buffy, and Faith, or 4 if we can find Cordelia and the Dagon Sphere she had. I'm not sure what happened to her."
Mab raises a hand, extending it to angel, and opens it, revealing a key resting in her palm. It looks and feels to have been made from pure ice, though it shows no sign of melting. "Take this. Go to Golden Gate Park. Find there any keyhole, and insert this token. That doorway will then, for one moment, be transformed into a Way into my realm, where you will be given passage to the Outer Gates. I cannot oppose her until the Balance is directly threatened, but by that time it will be too late. Go forth and do what you must, Champion. At the soonest chance, my forces will rally to your aid."
Angel takes the icy key. Well, that's a lot more efficient then what he was going to do, which is drive two hours to Beacon Hills and arrive at the Nemeton in hopes of getting to her that way. "We'll do what we have to do, your majesty." He's just hoping one of the major things they have to do can be avoided or redirected or something. His happiness is too new and too close to its peak for him to be willing to allow it to sputter out like a snuffed candle. "Thank you."
"A final word, Sir Knight." Mab regards Angel, her gaze probing but too distant to really read. "There will be greater dangers than you know. Other forces rally, some to our side and others against us, but if the Gates open--it will be a battle not for survival, but for all of existence. There is doubtless more coming than any yet have seen, and all that's certain is that Glorificus and the Key stand at the center of it all."