2.5, mini-adventure: Pretty women

Fedler nods at Konrad.

"Okay," she says. "Breeze, an you give me the orb?"

"It's a love globule," corrects the fairy. "Oh, wait a minute. I need to put my feelings for Zelky in it."

She closes her eyes, and the swirl of Elements within the magical sphere briefly accelerates, and then returns to "normal".

"There you go," declares Breeze. "Please don't tell Sonlake about it, okay? He told me not to give a globule to anyone outside the adjunct. I don't want to be fired..."

"Don't worry," reassures Fedler as she takes the small object in her hand. "I'll never tell him."

"Thanks! Now, let's save everyone!"

_________________________

Fedler and Mihai walk through doors that lead to the buffet room to find Steve, Zelk, Aemilia and Peewee standing near the table; but there's no guests, as they appear to be dancing right now. The ladies are laughing at one of Songbird's joke, and Steve appears content in his new role of servant. The minstrel turns around, and sees Fedler approach their group.

"Ah, my lady!" exclaims Songbird with a magnificent grin on his face. "You have missed so much fun."

"I'm sorry," replies Fedler with a shaky smile. "Mihai was feeling a little sick. Please, can I join you?"

"Certainly. We won't stay here for much longer though. How about we take a stroll outside?"

"This sounds wonderful," comments Aemilia, as elegant as ever. "We can use my carriage if we decide to go somewhere."

"And Steve can be our coachman," jokes Zelk. She momentarily caresses Steve's hand, but her attention is quickly refocused on Songbird again.

Fedler goes to stand beside Zelk, and puts a friendly arm around her shoulders, laughing herself at the funny banter. The man in red doesn't seem to have even noticed the sulking Mihai.

OOC:

Mihai stands near the table, but a few feet close to the group, still sulking wordlessly.

"Oh, I bet I'd be an excellent coachman. I could pet the horsies and keep the cab clean. And I'd get to see you all a lot!"

Fedler's hand suddenly goes from Zelk's shoulder to the back of her head, which puzzles Songbird who doesn't understand why she is doing that. The Freeron maiden's eyes slowly widen with realization.

Steve's brainwashed subservience almost makes Mihai blow his cover, but it doesn't matter. Soon as he sees Zelk's eyes widen, his own snap into sharp brutal focus, and he steps forward. His body moves on it's own as his right hand lets itself fall backward, then flies with full force right for Songbird's teeth.

Konrad just sips his wine, watching the spectacle unfold at a distance. Honestly, no matter what happens, he wins. Songbird getting his just deserts and humiliated in front of everyone? Win. Mihai gets thrown out on his ass? Told ya so. The spell wears off? Well, the situation becomes solved a lot sooner.

There is a brief flash of incomprehension on Sonbird's face when he sees Mihai's fist flying towards him. He doesn't have time to say anything before blood spatters out of his mouth. Some teeth fly away like crossbow bolts and disappear in several of the plates laid on the buffet table. The minstrel loses his balance and falls to the floor, hurting his head against the marble in the process. He puts his hands on his mouth in a desperate attempt to calm the pain and stop the flow of blood rushing out. Songbird is wailing.

Aemilia and Steve also appear to snap out of it, and just like if they were waking up from a very bad dream, the alien feelings they experienced are already receding. Fedler is staring coldly at the the aptly named "man in red", and Zelk has recovered enough from the shock that she can now look at her suitor with pure disgust.

The music coming from the ball room doesn't seem to have stopped, and the guests are still dancing, completely unaware of the power Songbird had over them.

Peewee lands on the floor and puts his hands on Songbird's arms, in absolute distress.

"Songbird!" he shouts. "Eh, you okay!? Don't worry, I'm here!"

_________________

"Look!" exclaims Breeze, her index finger pointed at the rest of the party. "They did it! Let's go!"

She flies towards them.

Konrad:

Knowing what's supposed to happen next, Mihai urges with an edge to his voice - "Aemilia, get Peewee out of here."

Aemilia is too much in shock to do anything right now. She looks at the others, trying to make sense of it all.

"Yep, I saw it, Blue."

Whoa. Not the blow to the back of the head Konrad was expecting. Oh well, he had it coming. He casually walks back to the ballroom, to avoid being noticed immediately and lumped in with the quote-unquote troublemakers.

Awareness
Looking for anyone with white armbands in the crowd as he comes near.

Mihai grabs for the little fairy.

"I...what?" says Steve in confusion. When the memories of the past while come flooding back he stands up quickly, causing his chair to crash to the ground, a look of pure horror on his face. "What did he almost make us do?"

"Whatever he wanted," answers Zelk with an icy tone. "And he's not getting away with it."

Peewee doesn't even notice Mihai's hand until the very last second, and by then, it's already too late.

"Let me go!" he protests while attempting to escape from Mihai's grasp. "You're bad! Let me help him!"

Songbird is still writhing in pain.

He starts to hand Peewee to Aemilia, but the shock she's still in makes him change his mind.

He hands him to Zelk instead. - "It's not over yet. Don't let go of him."

"What are you going to do Mihai?" asks Steve, watching the unfolding events in horrified fascination.

Zelk frowns at Mihai when he asks her to take care of Peewee, but a single glance at the innocent fairy is enough to pity him. She carefully takes him in her right hand, turns around to face Aemilia, and then tells her, "Follow me."

Aemilia, who is still stunned by this whole situation, can only nod and follow Zelk out of the room and into the garden. They pass by Breeze and Konrad who are walking in. The sight of her fairy friend being taken away by Zelk leaves Breeze speechless, and she can only stand in the middle of the buffet room, looking sad.

Konrad:

To Steve - "We have to secure him. He's still dangerous."

"Right. Should we take him somewhere else?"

"Not a good idea; outside is full of people. We're waiting for the others to join."

"Can someone explain to me why Zelk is manhandling Peewee? I didn't realize he was involved in this situation." He spares an unsympathetic glance down at Songbird before continuing. "Breeze, Fedler, can one of you clean up this mess?"

"Not a good idea. He sang his enchantment upon us Konrad. There's no reason to heal him just yet."

Fedler keeps glaring at Songbird who hasn't stop moaning in pain.

"I agree with Steve," replies the redheaded ranger.

"Yeah, I think so too," adds Breeze. "I don't want to see anyone else act all weird like before."

"Breeze, you ready?"