Halloween I.F. – “Something Rich and Strange” – Day 5

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Star’s feet stopped where he was standing and he slowly turned to look back toward Beanheadings, playing all his interactions with Dom back. The conversation was normal, except for total blank around talking to those two weirdos. He’d even remembered the normal events of Starry Knight last night—Starry Knight and the Moon Maiden investigated a weird zombification case in the celestial castle. There was nothing relevant there. Nothing weird about Dom except this one thing. 

But the barista… hadn’t he acted a little odd? Inclining his head to Dom like that, coming over to take his order instead of just letting Dom do whatever. Well, Star might as well ask; the barista was probably reliable to answer a question or two, at least. Viv actually worked at Beanheadings part time and hadn’t had anything bad to say about her coworkers, and besides, Kearney wouldn’t hire someone who he couldn’t trust to at least interact safely with the public. 

Better to follow up now than let himself get too far away. He headed right back to where he’d come from, opening the door with a loud jingle.

The barista waved, seeming surprised. “Forget something?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Star headed back up to the counter and sat on it, which drew a laugh from the barista as they were suddenly more eye-to-eye. The incubus had long, jet-black hair, elegant cheekbones, soft green eyes, and tall, wet-looking white bone horns. The name tag attached to the strap of his apron said Matthias. “So, Matt, is it?”

“You can have my number if that’s what you want.”

“I’ll take it,” Star said, and let Matt write it on the back of a card. Couldn’t hurt to have. He palmed it, making it vanish to the same place his clothes went when he transformed. “I did want to ask you something, though. The guy I was with. You seemed, like, extra diffident. What was that about?”

Matthias laughed again, the sound soft and honey-edged. “Ahh, yeah. I mean. Should I not have been?”

“You’re so coy. It’s very cute. I’m totally into it,” Star reassured him, getting an amused snort in return. “My friend had some weird magic cast on him, so if you noticed anything, I’d appreciate it.”

“Mmm…” Matthias made a face at that, wrinkling his nose. “Yeah. I also smelled that on him. It’s Abyssal magic.”

“Oh fuck,” Star said. “A demon?”

“Could be. But… I wouldn’t think so,” Matthias said. “If the witch who cast it specialized in maleficia, they’d almost certainly be using Abyssal powers as a source for their magics. Like, most malefics summon and bind weak demons to do their bidding as familiars and all that.”

Maleficia was any of the so-called ‘dark arts’; the opposite was beneficia. And, yeah, Star supposed most mind control magic would fall under maleficia. “So why were you so deferential if you thought it was just some witch?”

A shrug at that. The strap of his apron fell off his shoulder. Star reached out and put it right for him helpfully, dragging a fingertip along Matthias’s collarbone as he did. Matthias grinned at him, the tip of a pointed tongue showing between sharp teeth. “Just didn’t see a reason not to be. If this guy was an ally to a demon and that’s what I was smelling, I wouldn’t want to make any enemies, and if he were a victim of a mean ol’ witch, I figured he deserved a little sympathy. A nice cuppa. Being nice and helpful is a win-win for me.”

“Fair enough,” Star said. “You’re being so nice and helpful to me.”

“That’s because you’re so cute,” Matt told him. “I wouldn’t mind a little horseplay in the bedroom if you’re ever in the mood.” 

“I have your number,” Star said, a non-promise heavy with implication, and winked. He didn’t want to give his own out. “Can I call you if I think of any more questions about it? Or—if you smell the exact same magic scent around, can you call Viv? This spellcaster fucked with my friend, I’m suspicious.”

“Viv?? Oh, sure.” Matt seemed surprised at that. “You’re the horse who runs her D&D nights?”

“I’m a horse of many talents,” Star said. “Actually, I don’t suppose she’s working tonight? I need to pick her brains about this magic stuff.”

“I can’t give out any employee information, you know,” Matt said. “You could be her evil ex come back for revenge.”

“That would be such a weird plot twist for me, the horse who runs her D&D sessions,” Star said dryly. “I’ll call her myself. I appreciate the information.”

“Sure thing. Call me.” Matt made the call-me gesture as he said it.

Star hopped off the counter, starting to head back to the door as he dialed Viv’s number. This information was no more worrying than it already had been, but certainly not any less worrying.

Viv picked up shortly before it went to voicemail. “Hey! Star! Sorry, I—Beano, down.” That was one of her dreadful cats. “Sorry, Beano’s trying to eat my pizza. What’s up?”

“I need you to meet me at Dandelion’s as soon as possible,” Star said. “I’m going there now.”

Her voice became serious. “Is something wrong? What happened?”

“A friend of mine had spells cast on him,” Star said. “I need to pick your brains and their brains and we might as well do it at the same time.” 

“If I can be any help, I will,” she said. “I’m on my — BEANO!” 

The phone got hung up, presumably in her fumble to stop that enormous beast from eating food that she’d be cleaning up later. Star assumed it was fine. She’d probably be there.

He transformed, taking off at a gallop along the city streets, sideways against the hill so that he wasn’t going much lower into the Valley, but not higher either. 

As he ran, he began to mentally tally off their available resources. So, Viv, one shit witch, dating a fairy lover. She had recently been learning magic from the Twilight Council since her bond with her lover Thysania had begun to make her magic better, though. Then, his band, all fairies. Fairies as a whole did not use magic, at least, not as in spellcasting; they used glamour as a natural resource, though some fairies did also learn magic. Glamour was different. They weren’t using ritual to create things, they were using their own intersection with the world to influence things. Adrien had less than most; he used his to enhance his strength, and he was a good brawler and a rough lover. Caoimhe could create lights to confuse the senses and lead someone astray. Also, if someone chose to dance with her, she could control them. Star wasn’t sure how he could use that, but it was possible. Then there was Star himself, who could stick people to his back if they mounted him as a horse, and also had the ability to give buffs or debuffs. Usually that was strength, though he could also buff or debuff the mind a little, he supposed, causing confusion or increasing focus.

And then there was Dandelion, who was in a league above the rest of them. He could create both powerful glamours and great illusions, was a master in swordplay, the best rider of any beast, and his music could enchant humans in many ways. As a fae lord, if he laid claim to someone and they accepted it, he could grant a human immortality or destroy their lives utterly to enhance his own, not that he would. However, his abilities were fairly limited to other fae and to humans. Witches were only part human, and he could affect them somewhat, but mostly if they consented to it. Star was pretty sure that he had no power over demons, so the spellcaster, as a witch or a demon, was a problem even for Dandelion. That said, if the other Star-alike was actually a brook horse, Dandelion might be able to do something there. Definitely their ace in the hole.

Star’s feet took him out of downtown into the residential district, and from there to the house that Dandelion had claimed. Star wasn’t sure if Dandelion rented it, owned it, or had created it out of the scraps of an old place that had fallen to ruin; any of the above was possible. It was just “Dandelion’s House”, though the rest of the band also lived there. Star, in particular, had claimed the fish pond out back, which he slept in every night.

It wasn’t huge or anything, but it was certainly still something to have en esta economia. It was a two-storey building in a late 19th century style with a gable roof and a nice porch to sit on and scandalize the neighbours with. He transformed back, leaving his clothes behind—remaining just in his speedo. He summoned his keys into his hand just as an OmegaRide car pulled up and Viv got out.

Vivian Dormer was cute, he supposed; she was a chubby woman in her early 20s who liked to wear oversized themed sweaters and colorful leggings. She had rosy cheeks and a ready smile, long ginger hair, and a general sense of attempting to seize each day with painful determination. Her current sweater had a bunch of skeleton horses on it. Star tried to decide if he should be offended, then determined that, actually, that sweater was rad as fuck.

“Hey Viv,” he said, opening the door. “Dandelion! Adrien! Caoimhe!”

No answer, but the light to the basement was on, and he led Vivian in. She kicked off her shoes in the entry, shut the door behind them while mumbling a brief expression of gratitude and acceptance of fey hospitality. She was learning a lot dating her fairy lover Thysania, Star noted.

Sure enough, one trip down the creaky basement stairs later, he was walking into something that had not quite reached full threesome status but was, at least, the intersection of a creative brainstorming session and a make-out session. It was, if nothing else, a session.

“Oh,” Vivian squeaked from behind him. “Is now a bad time?”

“Everyone’s clothes are still mostly on,” Star said, as Caoimhe, an elverpigen who always kept her hollow back straight as a board, climbed out of Adrien’s lap and began putting her white hair and white blouse right. “This is normal for us,” he added offhandedly. He didn’t want her to make a big deal of it. His band were close and he loved them. It was complicated, of course. But still. 

Adrien, a bearded satyr with curly brown fur on his legs and head, beamed up the stairs. “You’re welcome to join in,” he told her.

“I don’t think I am,” Viv said, which was wise. You didn’t scorn a fairy lover.

Dandelion’s shirt was open but he sat up and looked—well, attentive and concerned. He was tall and almost spindly, fine-boned, like he’d walked out of one of those Ted Nasmith Tolkien calendars, but his soft and fluffy white hair stood out exactly like the seed head on a dandelion. He was, as always, the most beautiful person Star had ever seen and looking at him left Star with a mix of longing and gratitude.

“Did something happen? You changed your mind but… brought Viv?”

“Hang on, boss-man, I have a story,” Star said. He sat himself in Dandelion’s lap and explained everything that had happened so far, leaving no details out.

Dandelion looped his arms around Star, leaning his pointy chin on the bun that Star had his hair half-up in, and listened. “Well. That’s terrible,” he said, finally.

Caoimhe had gotten Viv a soda, and she popped it open, the fizzing sound punctuating that statement. “That’s… weird,” Viv added. “Who do you think the expected target is? Dom was the one who was approached, from what you said, like, they sought him out. Don’t know what they talked about. But you say he was weirdly insistent to see Dandelion? And obviously, like, I don’t know the guy but I’d bet there the thing he’s most known for at the tracks is being a jockey who rides a nixie. Like, that’s dangerous.”

Nixies were most famously known, like their cousins the kelpie and each-uisge, for drowning and eating anyone who dared to ride them. Star shifted uneasily. That left out a whole realm of folklore about nixies falling in love, or teaching music, or just being really sad and naked under waterfalls. But it’s true that it was what Dom was best known for: risking his life riding Star. “That’s true.”

“And you’re also known for being in Dandelion’s band. I know Dandelion has enemies,” Viv said, “but do you, Star?”

Star scoffed. “I can’t imagine I do. I lived a boring life with the herd doing the things nixes do, and then got up and left one day randomly when Dandelion found me.” He’d been crying at the time, grieving someone his herd had killed and he’d been forced to eat. “I’ve spent the rest of the time at  his side. No time to make enemies.” He paused. “What do you mean, Dandelion has enemies?”

“I mean, you were there,” Viv said, apparently taken aback. “Last year, with the Lanternfish and the fairy realms?”

Oh right, that had been a whole thing, Star thought absently. Thysania had got herself into some trouble with a shapeshifter ruining her life, and Dandelion had asked the band to help her and Viv out, so they had. It was how he’d met Viv in the first place. They had cut through an Abyssal shortcut to block the shapeshifter getting to the fairy realms, barely avoiding violating Dandelion’s exile from the courts. But when it had come out that they were SAVING the fairy realms, the fairy lords had backed off. “Didn’t one of those guys even say he’d try to get Dandelion’s exile lifted? I can’t imagine they’d be mad about whatever he did still.”

Dandelion shifted a little uncomfortably under him. “Well, no, those two specifically might not. I might have other enemies back at court. Or… remember the demon we ran into?”

There had been a demon, Star recalled, yeah. He’d recognized Dandelion and blamed him for something, and was the one encouraging the fairy lords to try to get Dandelion executed for violating his exile. That wasn’t good, though he wasn’t sure why it’d be related a whole year later. “Yeah, I remember. What had you done to piss the demons off?”

Dandelion sighed, hugging Star a bit harder. He put a kiss on the top of Star’s head like a crown, and leaned his cheek there, mumbling a little. “The fairy realms border the abyssal ones in the Otherworld. We’re neutral to them, and stay neutral by giving them a tithe of human souls every seven years to fill out their armies and their coffers.”

Viv nodded. “I’ve heard something about the fairy tithe before.”

“It’s a bit famous. I was young and foolish and thought I could save the world, so I stopped one of the tithes. It nearly caused war, and I was exiled. But that was a mere hundred human souls, and happened hundreds of years ago. The tithe would have happened at least 50 times since then. I don’t know that it’s related. Then again, devils like their due.”

Star groaned. “I guess. That’s an enemy to keep in mind, anyway, though it sounds like it’d more likely be a witch, and I don’t see why they’d be mad about that. But… what’re we going to do about Dom, then? Should we keep him away so whoever’s got hooks in him doesn’t get more info about you? Or should we invite him in and try to do more to help him?”

“I might be able to unveil what they talked about,” Dandelion said slowly. “I can see the past through another human’s eyes, if they’ll permit it. But if it’s blocked, I might have to force memories through the spell. That would be painful at best, and harmful at worst. And I can’t guarantee I’d succeed, depending on the methods used or the strength involved. Ah, though I might be able to get more information that they didn’t think to block, and get a shape of what happened through the blank space of it. That’d be more delicate, less painful, but less likely to get us any direct information—only bits and pieces”

“Maybe I could suppress the spell?” Viv offered. “I wouldn’t be able to get anyone else in on this safely within a few hours, especially not if someone on the Council might be involved. But I’ve learned at least a little in the last year. Though, uh, without seeing the spell myself, I don’t know.”

Was that something he could agree to? Or let Dom agree to it, even if he wanted to do it, if there were a risk it might hurt him? What if interfering with the spell might let those involved know that they were in on it? What if they knew they had the right target if he let Dom and Dandelion meet? But on the other hand, leaving those hooks in Dom might be dangerous in itself. Who knows what leaving magic actively cast on him could lead to…

[Long one today, sorry! Lots of info to go over.
But next up could be some action 😉
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