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🎵 “Fire burning in hell with the cry of screaming pain
Son of heaven set me free and let me go
Sea turn dry, no salt from sand
Seasons fly no helping hand
.......
Someone, someone has drained the colour from my wings
Broken my fairy circle ring” 🎵
~Queen - My Fairy King~
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After driving to Michigan, Sam and Dean meet up with Castiel. They spend the last day and night trying to ignore how much time seems to drag. All that’s left is to wait until the next dawn.
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The next day they arrive at the location where the ley lines criss-cross over St. Ignace. Sam, Dean, and Castiel enter into the aether, into the land of the fae.
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King Oberon and Queen Titania appear. Oberon appearing as rather androgynous and immediately winking at Castiel. Something about the royal couple seems familiar to Cas, but now isn’t the time to focus on it.
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When Sam steps into the faery circle a barrier goes up. Obviously, Dean has an immediate issue with this.
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Once Sam and Castiel convince Dean that they can stop this if absolutely necessary, Sam steps back into the circle. Two Seelie fae, a leprechaun, and a clúrachán, the Welloch who freed Castiel from The Empty all sit down with the King and Queen outside the circle.
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The chanting begins. As the ritual proceeds, Sam’s is violently dragged from his memories in the Cage back to the present as the the remnants of Lucifer’s grace that have attached themselves to his wounded soul as torn out of him painfully while the nectar of the gods works in an attempt to heal new damage.
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The queen presses Castiel’s hand to the surface of the barrier, teaching the angel to offer what he can of himself to try to assist Sam. Still, Castiel notices something strange about the queen, but once again it is put on hold.
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As Dean pleads with Cas to ask what’s going on, the pieces of archangel grace that are dragged out of Sam’s torso wrench him backward into agony as a scream is wrenched out of his throat. Castiel has nanoseconds, taking a chance on using angelic communication with the queen while he charges at Dean to hold him back from attacking the fae in order to stop the ritual.
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The Queen speaks into Oberon’s mind. We learn that the king’s real name is Harut. The royal couple use a silver knife to slice their hands open, using their own blood and some of their own grace to assist in removing the last bits of Lucifer’s grace from Sam’s soul before it can harm him further.
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As the barrier falls once the ritual is over, Castiel rushes forward to heal Sam. It takes a moment but Sam does become responsive. Dean feels immediate relief, but he still doesn’t trust that this might not fall apart any second. After a decade of things falling apart, can anyone blame him?
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Whether it’s just because his characters -- his children -- are so engrossing to watch or because he realizes some of his old secrets are about to become known, Chuck has a single-word response to what he sees.
