The black clad goblin twists and whirls, jabbing at Alaris from all directions, but she is too fast for it, and what does make contact finds only hardened shadowhunter leather.

The fairy mage crouches in the bushes moving his hands around each other in a circular swirling motion and a cloud of fog appears, masking the view of all within it.

The other hobgoblin closes on Alaris, swinging once more with its blade, but she is a dervish in the mist.

Siezing his chance, Alexi dashes in Caio's direction.

Ling's action.

Ling laughs at Alaris mocking Caio, but her laughter merges into curses when the cloud of fog appears. She backs up to get a clearer view, but she cannot see if Alexi made it out. Trusting that her comrades can handle the two enemies, she turns around and focuses on the unseelie who just appeared on the little island. Crouching behind a bush, she focuses and steadies her breathing before firing an arrow at him. It hits him in the shoulder, blood gushing out of the wound. He looks like he is about to go down, but then rights himself again and takes cover. Ling's second arrow misses him and is lost in the shrubbery instead. Come on you bastard, stay down! She casts a glance behind her, but she cannot see how things are with Alaris and Caio through the fog.

Caio zips back out from behind the little cliff, rushing past Alexi. He snaps another arrow at the mage, and has already turned back to the larger conflict by the time it skewers the faerie's heart. The fog drops from the air, and Caio smirks as his next target becomes visible. His second arrow misses this new enemy, but the other hobgoblin doesn't get a chance to even notice the archer before Caio downs the foe with a third arrow, right through the skull.

The horrid faerie monk whirls and pivots, deflecting Alaris' strikes. Another ridge-hand knocks the rapier, and a kick flies up into Alaris' elbow, forcing their seraph blade slash to miss. Taking a deep breath, though, the shadowhunter sinks into the rhythm of the enemy's attacks and dodges and lands a solid stab!

The hobgoblin turns on the spot again and dissolves into shadow, reappearing 30 feet to the north, before rushing to the shore with preternatural speed.

Alexi hurries to Caio's side.

"God, thank you. Can you get these things off me?" He asks, holding out his wrists towards him. His skin is burned and red from the constant contact with the silver shackles.

Ling's action.

You are NOT getting that portal! Ling spins around and fires an arrow at the running hobgoblin. The first one hits him in the leg and he falls. This is my chance, if I miss this shot, he'll disappear through the portal. She readies her second arrow, focusing. It cuts through the air and, as Ling holds her breath, hits the caster in the left side of his torso. He cries out in pain and draws a few more gurgling breaths, then there is silence. "I got him!!!" Ling shouts, grinning wide. She turns around and sees Caio is helping Alexi while Alaris seems to have finished off the last hobgoblins. "Finders, keepers!" She announces and starts walking over to the fey who tried to escape.

Caio nods and swaps his bow for his seraph blade. "Hold 'em taught." he says to Alexi before murmuring "Miniel" to activate the angelic weapon. Caio uses a sawing motion to try and cut the shackles themselves, realizing that cutting the chain would free the werewolf but leave the irritating metal against his skin. "Sooo, how was your abduction?" he asks a bit sarcastically.

With a bit of work, Caio manages to sear through the silver coated steel and Alexi rubs his sore wrists tenderly once freed.

"I've had better starts to the week," he admits dryly. "I assume I have Julia to thank for your timely arrival?"

Ling checks the dead fairy warrior, but finds nothing unusual other than the strange mask he is wearing. Hoping that Nikolai can make some sense of it later, she snaps a picture with her phone and then rejoins the others just in time to overhear Alexi's question. With a flick of her hair, she answers: "You have us to thank for saving you in style, and yes Julia for letting us know you needed saving. Do you have any information that can help us track down who sent them? Did they say anything while they were holding you?" While Alexi takes a moment to recover from everything, Ling pokes Alaris in the side: "Hope you don't mind that I got the kill in the end, you were pretty awesome out there," with a wink at Caio, "as were you, of course."

Caio parts his folded bow, strapped to his hip. "Yeah, we took them out quicker than I was expecting. Lets get out of here before we get another ****in demon monkey." He looks around as he says this, mostly joking but clearly there was a precedent for that sort of thing happening.

Alexi grins back at Ling in appreciation, running one hand back through his dirty-blonde hair. It's ragged and messy from his capture, and his blue eyes are weary and tinged with red. He's tall and muscular, like many werewolves, with calloused fingers that betray a hands-on profession.

"Yes," he begins, but then falters and stumbles to one knee, clutching at his side.

"Ugh," he grunts, grasping at his wrist once more. "The silver, it's in my blood."

Alaris slams their rapier into the ground to clean off the faerie blood, and shoves their seraph blade back into its place. Muttering under their breath in frustration, the shadowhunter sheathes the rapier and asks, "Do we need to check out the one who called in the fog before we go?"

When Alexi collapses, the paladin springs into action. "Caio - check that fog-calling goblin creep now! Ling - help me get him up. We've got to move." Alaris sticks a shoulder into Alexi's armpit and pulls him back into a leaning, standing position.

Seeing Alexi in pain, Ling quickly gives the goblins a once over, but finds nothing but a few useless fairy bone blades. "I've checked out the masked guy and these, you should probably take a quick look at the guy on the island, yeah. Then let's head back to the institute." She walks over to Alexi and slings his arm over her shoulders. "My absolute pleasure, Alaris!"  To Alexi, she says: "Let us get you back to the institute, we have medicine there. Don't worry, we won't let you die on the way." Ling gives him a bright smile and winks.


As they leave the grove, half carrying Alexi, Ling grabs her phone with her other hand and texts Nikolai: "Got Alexi. Julia could have said he was hot, would have hurried more! Also, weird fey mask *attached image* - any ideas? Meet us at Insitute in the morning? xxx"

Caio runs and leaps over the stream into the bushes on the other side. He crouches down for a moment then stand up holding the strange staff. "Finders keepers!" he shouts to the others, waving the weapon. "Actually, maybe Nikolai would want it." he says once he's back standing next to his companions.

The staff is unpleasantly slick and oily to the touch as Caio grasps it, but doesn't otherwise seem untoward.

The shadowhunters quickly leave Sosnovka and hop on a tube south into the city. It's around one in the morning when they crack the church's big double doors and slip inside.

"Home sweet home!" Ling announces in the Insitute's entrance hall, stretching her arms. "I'm ready to hit the showers and get some sleep! Alaris, help me get our guest to the infirmary first? Hopefully they'll be able to patch him up, at least until Nikolai gets here."


Once they arrive in the infirmary and set Alexi down on one of the simple, old fashioned hospital beds, Ling sends Nikolai another quick text to update him about Alexi's silver poisoning. Then she shouts at the top of her lungs: "Natasha! We're back and we got a puppy, can we keep him? Come see, I think you'll like him!" She grins, pleased with herself.

The tell-tale flip-flap of slippers on the cold marble floors of the Institute announces the arrival of Natasha. Her dark, rusty curls are tied up in a messy bun, and from her fluffy pink dressing gown and the look on her face she's just jumped out of bed.

"Ling!" She hisses. "Speak quietly! Dmitry and Katya are sleeping. Now, by the angel, why is there an injured werewolf in our infirmary at one in the morning?"

Alaris pops out from behind the door and says, "Boo!!! Hi, Natasha! Missed me?" With a wink, Alaris strolls towards her and replies, "Poor fellow got silver poisoning from some faeries. We put down the faeries and brought him to your oh-so-skilled care."

Nikolai rubs his eyes as he reads over all the various reports and conspiracy theory websites; to the mundanes these people are 'lunatics' or 'crazy', but he knew the truth. 'Mammon? Interesting...' He looks up as his cell phone buzzes with a text message from Ling. He opens the photograph and looks closely at the strange mask. He would love to get a closer look at it in the morning. He replies to her message with one of his own. "Thought I was the only man for you, Ling. :( Nicely done either way. I will be there first thing. Also, found some references to Mammon with the calling cards left behind. Keep your eyes open. See you in a few hours."

Natasha shoots Alaris a glare that is cold as Siberian snow.

"Are you high, hyper from some downworlder rave, or both? You're all bouncing around like children after too much sugar."

She shakes her head to moves to the Alexi's side to inspect his wrists and look for any other wounds. His skin has begun to turn an ashen grey.

"This is bad," she says, hurrying to a nearby cabinet. "If the leader of the Newsky pack dies in the Institute..." her voice trails off as she concentrates on drawing a syringe from a glass bottle of transparent liquid.

"Somebody get his shirt off."