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“Wait here,” Dandelion said, moving to step out. 

Grabbing at his sleeve, Star hissed frantically, “What are you doing?” 

Dandelion blinked at him, eyes swimming in mercury. “Perimeter check,” he murmured. “I’ll see if I can get a sense of the best way in. I’ll stay well out of their reach and keep from being seen. Let go.”

Star’s fingers uncurled without any input from him. “Be safe,” he murmured instead, pulling himself and Viv more firmly back into the alley as Dandelion ghosted out, flickering out of visibility even to Star. He didn’t love it—not when Dandelion was the one these guys wanted—but Dandelion had decided and, besides, it was true that he’d be the best at it. 

To pass the agonizing wait, he closed his eyes and did a quick assessment of what their capabilities were as a group.

Viv’s primary ability was divination, obviously, but she could identify magics okay. She tended to have more access to her powers at night thanks to her bond to Thysania, but that wasn’t going to help them right now. Might as well bring her, Star decided. She knew shielding and light magic well, and Star recalled that last year she’d studied some basic attack spells. Who knew what they were or if she could actually use them? But hell, better something than nothing, and given Viv’s personality, if they went in and didn’t come out, she’d go in after them anyway. Might as well stick together instead.

Dandelion could do a lot of things, though mostly to humans and other fairies. Technically, he could command lower fae, but given that he was an exile, fairies who weren’t sworn to him had a loophole out of it. Still, he, Adrien, and Caoihme had sworn to him, so if any of them had been brainwashed to turn them against Dandelion, he could likely still command them to act under his orders. He was great at swordplay, and kept his own magical sword on his person, so he would come in handy if stealth failed and they needed to get into combat. He was also amazing with illusions, not just glamour. And he could enchant humans, but he needed music to do that.

That only left Star himself. He could do buffs and debuffs on himself and others, but not quietly; he, too, needed music to activate it. He could kick. And, if he were in horse form, he could stick someone to his body. Maybe okay for extraction, though he wasn’t sure a horse would be very manoeuvrable inside a warehouse.

Then, if they got hold of Adrien and Caoimhe and both were well enough to fight—something that he had to admit seemed implausible—they’d have a strong brawler and a master at leading others astray. They couldn’t rely on either of those things right now, though.

It wasn’t a lot, resource wise. Still. It was a good enough team for infiltration, especially when the enemy had no reason to think you’d already be there, and hopefully it wouldn’t come to a fight. 

He started as Dandelion suddenly appeared next to them as if he’d been there the whole time, biting back on a curse. Viv actually jumped with a squeak. “None of the doors are guarded visibly from the outside,” Dandelion reported. “The front door has some pretty strong magics on it. I wasn’t willing to test them. Probably wouldn’t blow us up, not if they’re expecting to bring hostages in through there, but I mislike it. The back loading area has a number of trucks already hooked up to the doors to unload, and a few empty ones, but all the doors back there are iron. It wouldn’t serve us well to enter them. Side door’s the one I feel best about. It does have a warding spell on it—I’m confident it’s a simple ward-and-alert if broken spell. We could simply go through and move fast, or we could try to remove it.”

“You could leave that one to me,” Viv whispered. “I’ve taken a few of those down.”

Dandelion lifted his brows at her. “What’ve you been breaking into, exactly?”

“Hey, what Thys and I do on date night is our business.”

Star snorted a laugh, relaxing a little. If their resident neurotic witch felt okay with joking around, things surely couldn’t be that bad. “What about any other entry points? Air ducts? Sewage?”

“I just don’t think it’s worth it,” Dandelion said, a slightly prim edge in his voice. “I’m not confident banging around in metal ducts would be subtle, and… I mean… without time to research a sewage map, would we even know how to get in? Plus. Manhole covers.”

“More iron,” Star agreed. “Side door it is. Let’s try to move fast. The longer we take, the more likely it is they’ll expect me to arrive as a hostage, and get set up to try to ransom us off or whatever they meant to do.”

Dandelion wrapped glamour around the three of them again, an encouragement to simply pass like leaves in the wind, and slid his arms around them both, leading them quickly around the corner and up the street to the warehouse. There, as Star had previously seen, was a side door at the top of some concrete stairs, with a metal railing next to them that he very carefully kept from touching. 

Viv ducked forward to examine the door, spitting into her hand and starting to trace patterns around the knob with her fingertips. Star tried to breathe slowly and deeply, straining to hear any sounds.

After a moment, Viv made a gesture like a kindergarten teacher trying to silence an unruly class, pressing down and on the knob at the same time. The door slowly swung open, casting late afternoon autumn light into the building. 

It opened into a maze: tall shelving units as far as the eye could see, from the floor to the ceiling a good twenty feet up, and almost entirely filled with boxes. Star tried to think of any other warehouses he’d been in, and realized that was simply not a type of place he spent a lot of time. Instead, he thought of the tabletop RPGs he’d run before, envisioning Shadowrun-style map layouts.

A bit uncertainly, he whispered, “It should be mostly shelves like this. Warehouses are for storage, after all. Then to the right, based on where the back of the building is, it should be the loading and unloading area. That’ll be wider open, so people can get things off the trucks. Opposite side from the shelving I bet has some enclosed offices.”

“Offices sounds like a good place to keep hostages,” Dandelion whispered, then abruptly paused, head cocking. “Hear that?”

Star did; it was just loud enough that he imagined even Viv could with her weaker human ears. Harp music, mournful and longing, slightly muffled. “Do you think the others are with the player?” Star whispered to Dandelion.”

He grimaced. “I can’t tell. It’s not that precise. I can sense that they’re in the building with us, but not the specifics. It makes sense that they’d be kept all together, though,” he added, still soft, barely speaking above a whisper. “Follow the sound, and let’s hope we find all of them.”

They passed through some shelving, winding around and trying to follow the music. It wasn’t easy. The shelves were a tangle that surely made sense if you were used to the organizational system, but for new arrivals like Star, they were a confusing maze that couldn’t be seen around and were impassable the straight way due to the shelving being almost entirely iron. Still, they didn’t have a choice but to navigate it, given that the side door had tossed them right into it. The music at least gave them a direction. 

Finally, they emerged at the edge of the horrible shelving maze. Star looked around, seeing forklifts against one wall and some large open boxes around here and there. To their right, sure enough, Star could see the loading and unloading area. Most of the docks were shuttered in iron, but three of them were hooked up to trucks, the closed truck rear doors visible instead of the shutters. And right across from them were four different rooms built into the back wall, unpleasant plywood and plaster things, with darkened, one-way windows. The offices.

The harp music was clearly coming from one of the offices, the second in from the left, and the group darted across the open flooring area to it, gathering around the door. Viv touched the door and whispered, “No ward here.” She tried to turn the knob, but no, it was locked.

If the hostages were otherwise incapacitated, that’d be enough to keep them in. Nothing to do but get through. Star reached into his hair and pulled out some lockpicks.

Dandelion lifted his brows at Star. “You too?”

Star shrugged back. “I don’t ask you about your illegal hobbies,” he whispered to him, leaning in and working on the knob.

The lock clicked after a sweaty ten seconds, and he shook himself, trying to rid himself of his nerves. He closed his hand around the knob and slowly turned it.

He wasn’t sure what he was imagining—magic circles locking them in, iron manacles, a bunch of thugs with guns ready to fire like this was an action movie—but instead, Éabha, the blind selkie from the Lindwyrm’s, lifted her head. “Is someone there?” she half-whispered, her hands stilling on her bone harp.

For a second, Star hesitated. It was mostly shock, but given that Dandelion had gone to the Lindwyrm for help in Star’s name, it seemed like maybe they’d captured one of his people to get to Dandelion that way. “Éabha?” he said. “It’s me. The nixie from the Lindwyrm’s earlier. Do you… are you in need of rescue?”

Her blind eyes passed over the doorway, where, thanks to the glamour, she wouldn’t have been able to spot them even if she were capable of sight. “Yes,” she said at once. “I was—I got in trouble, and I called an old friend for help. They seemed even more eager to grab her than me. She’s called Caoimhe. She’s an elverpigen. Do you know her?”

“And how,” Star said, head spinning. 

“Do you know this selkie?” Dandelion murmured to Star uneasily.

“She was at the Lindwyrm’s,” Star murmured back. He looked around the room; it was a simple office, but to someone blind and lost, it might as well be a cage at the bottom of the ocean. Even if she got through the locked office door, she’d be in the middle of a warehouse that was full of iron booby traps, with the front door warded to hell and back and the side door in the middle of an iron maze. “Do you know where the other hostages are?”

“I don’t,” she said. “I heard something from our captors, though. Something about locking them in the iron trucks to keep them docile? I think I’m the only one they tossed in the offices. I’m not sure why. I haven’t heard anything around me for a while, though.”

Shit. That made sense. Three trucks, three of Dandelion’s sworn people to keep in iron. Any additional hostages would be put elsewhere. “Okay, great,” Star said. “We’ll get you out of here. Follow close behind us.”

“Of course. I can hear your steps.” She re-slung her harp on her back, and fell in with the group, pressing close behind.

He nodded to the other two, who solemnly nodded back. They’d known there might be other hostages; at least this way, they had a clue to where they could find Adrien and Caoimhe. 

The trucks, then. They carefully exited the office, with Star pulling the door shut behind himself so that it would at least look like it hadn’t been disturbed. Even knowing the glamour was up, the group hurried across the wide-open receiving area to where the trucks were seen to be hooked up.

Viv gestured the fairies back; the trucks were iron, after all. She knocked lightly on the first truck and heard a faint groan.

“In here,” she said, frowning at the lock. “Star, can you pick it if I hold the lock?”

This close, the iron felt nauseating. Star couldn’t imagine being surrounded by it. He just nodded. “The rear doors are iron. The lock itself is probably steel, but might have enough iron folded in that I can’t touch it. Hold it still and I’ll try my best.”

Fortunately, it was a ForemanLock, one of the easiest to pick. A few wiggles and it was cracking open. Viv slid it off the latch and hauled the rolling door upward.

Caoimhe was inside. She was clapped in iron as well as surrounded by it, wrists and ankles bound, her hollow back visible from how she was forced to bend. She groaned again, lifting her head. “…Look out…”

“We have you,” Viv said reassuringly. “Here, shit, we’ll have to get those off you, but let’s get you out of the truck first…”

Dandelion was moving forward, half climbing in despite the iron. Star reached for him to pull him back, but before he could, Dandelion’s shoulder blossomed in a spray of silvery blood.

Somehow, Dandelion only gasped, stumbling, catching himself on the iron step with a sickening sound, then swaying himself back upright to jolt away from the iron, which must have hurt worse than the injury. He reached back to his shoulder, and Star lunged forward to grab whatever had pierced him.

It was a bone, sharpened at one tip. 

“Look out,” Caoimhe said again, soft, dazed. “She betrayed me.”

Star flung himself and Dandelion to the hard cement ground as soon as he heard that, seeing another bone go whistling through the space where they’d just been, skittering along the inside of the truck. Viv let out a loud yelp, throwing herself into the truck for safety. Star pushed himself up just in time to see Éabha stepping into the maze of shelving, vanishing into the darkness.

“What the fuck,” he gasped, then jolted away again as another bone shiv came flying out of the shelving. This one he got a good look at as it embedded itself into the box next to his face: a tuning peg for the harp.

She might not be able to see them, but she could hear them, track them by sound. 

They had to get Caoimhe and Adrien out of here before she could get them, or take her out—which would involve following her into a maze of shelves she clearly actually did know better than they did. Either way, the door they’d come through was in there, so they’d have to deal with her sooner rather than later. 

How the fuck, Star thought dazedly, were they supposed to do that?

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Break day for my health! It’s a great time to get caught up if you’re a few parts behind. Turn-in on day 22 will be extended to Oct 24 at the usual 3:00 pm PST!

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Star closed his eyes, drawing deep breaths and trying to think through what the best next steps were. Vayne had said that it had sounded like there were other hostages, so with Caoimhe out of touch, he had to assume that she and her friend who’d needed help had both been captured. 

At the same time, the only people who would be particularly worthwhile hostages against Dandelion were people who were important to Dandelion himself. There were others who Dandelion associated with, of course, friends and colleagues, and he was a decent person who’d probably try to help others if he could. But given that they’d tried to go for Star directly, he had to assume that they were going for the people in Dandelion’s inner circle: so, the band, the only people Dandelion had regularly associated with over centuries.

It made sense, especially if you were thinking of it from a crueller perspective. He, Adrien, and Caoimhe were Dandelion’s vassals, sworn to him, and so he was also sworn to them in a way that he wasn’t sworn to any friends or family. Sídhe nobles were dangerous at best, so someone who did not know Dandelion would approach him with the assumption he was heartless behind his affable facade. Appealing to his heartstrings wouldn’t be the smart approach. Appealing to his oath as liege lord to the few people he’d gathered to his side after exile, that was practical.

Even if the enemy might have known his desire to intervene in the tithe hundreds of years to, that didn’t mean they’d assume he was a pushover. There could be many reasons to do so beyond simply trying to protect human souls: political instability, a desire for war, a desire to recruit those humans behind his own banner, who knows what they’d have thought. They might not have put it down to a soft heart.

So the people who were for sure at risk were Star himself (as he’d discovered), Caoimhe, and Adrien.

So. Yeah. Caoimhe’s lack of contact almost certainly meant she’d been captured. Star clenched his fists and released them against the anger he felt building. That was his companion, his fellow vassal, a sometimes-lover and always-friend. Calling her his sister wasn’t right, under the circumstances… but they were both people who were in the same position willingly and happily, so she was some kind of kin regardless. She was his, in a way, the same way he was hers.

Then, rescuing her had to come before any of his other hopes or plans. Star stepped into a nearby convenience store and drifted into the back corner where he was unlikely to be seen, quickly running through his options as to who to bring in to help save her.

Dom? Dom did want to help, but Dom could also be a hostage against Star’s compliance, and he didn’t have the advantage of knowing the warehouse as he would the track clubhouse. No, if he were to ask for Dom’s aid, it should be for the assault on their actual HQ.

Georgio? If what Vayne had said was true, and Star saw no reason to doubt it under the circumstances, Georgio was at least a few hours away from being able to get back here, and Star didn’t think they could afford the time. And it didn’t seem possible Georgio could be used as a hostage against Dandelion, given that the two didn’t even know each other, so there was little point calling him out here where he might get used against Star instead.

Besides, he wasn’t sure what benefit Georgio would be on a practical level. He was strong, yes, but in a best case scenario they’d be in and out of the warehouse with the hostages and not have to end up fighting anyone. If he brought Georgio it would have to be a fight. Georgio wasn’t exactly quiet. Still, he figured he’d at least call the stables to make sure the Manotaur was actually safe. Hopefully he could get him back for tomorrow, just in case, but he couldn’t wait on his plans to do it now. He put Georgio to the side and went back to running through the other people involved.

Viv? Viv was a good idea, actually. She wasn’t the strongest witch, and her wife would kill Star if Viv got hurt or worse, which was its own danger. But she could identify spells as well as any witch and that might be clutch by itself. He wanted to know what was up with the halter.

And of course, that left Dandelion and Adrien. Dandelion would insist on going, and Adrien would too, and Adrien was nearly as good as Georgio in a brawl. They were also Caoimhe’s band, so it had to be them.

Grimly decided, he texted those three about his suspicions on what had happened to Caoimhe, asking them to meet him down here. The sooner they could sneak into the warehouse, the better.

Star received immediate positive answers from Dandelion and Viv, but none from Adrien, though that wasn’t uncommon, as he often turned his phone off during hookups. Star didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to jump to conclusions just yet.

And then he waited.

Waiting was the hard part. He called the stables and confirmed Georgio was there, and asked for him to be transferred back tomorrow, which of course the stables said they couldn’t do without permission, and he told them to ask Georgio himself for permission, then hung up. Then, he bought himself some jerky and ate it between two pieces of magic bread like a sandwich, and was relieved when only a half hour later, Vivian and Dandelion showed up—they’d apparently traveled together, which was a relief. Strength in numbers, and all that.

“Any word from Adrien?” Star asked as they approached him.

Viv shook her head, and Dandelion frowned, folding his delicate fingers together. “No, but—”

“But?” That hesitance was something Star was familiar with, a desire to protect his people and shoulder things himself. He was sure a prompt would break through it, and he was right.

“—Well, you know that I’m able to sense what direction my people are in. A rough, if not precise, idea of their location that gets sharper the closer we get,” Dandelion said, unhappily.

Star groaned, tossing his head. “He’s the same direction as Caoimhe, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Dandelion said, almost an exhalation. 

Shit. Well. Fuck. That sense of anxiety tightened around Star’s throat, tighter than any lead line could be. “This doesn’t change anything,” he said. He stepped out of the shop, beginning to walk downhill. “Our plans don’t change if it’s two people instead of one. Let’s scope the place out, at least. The warehouse should be just down this way. Is it the same direction as you feel them in?”

Dandelion closed his eyes. “…Yes.”

“Great! Cool. Well, I was going to have to check there anyway, right?!” Star muttered, throwing his hands up. “Here, Viv, take this.” He handed her the halter—albeit with a moment’s hesitation, but there was nothing in Viv’s personality to say she’d use it against him and, besides, again, her wife wouldn’t look on it happily if she did. “What’s it do besides the obvious?”

Viv let out a hiss of breath. “Uh, let’s see.” She mumbled at the rope a bit, frowning, and then glanced back over. “Well, it’s got a love spell.”

“A WHAT?”

“Devotion, at least,” Viv said dubiously. “I guess, since it’s a halter, maybe call it domestication or taming… You’d be forced to be enslaved normally by having the halter put on at all, but with something like this on, you wouldn’t look for a way out. You’d want to be his tame horse and delight in serving him.”

Star swore. “That fucker, Vayne—”

Dandelion reached out and took the rope halter from Vivian, closing his fist around it. Silvery vines climbed it, burning it away; it crumbled away into dust in his hand. He shook his palm in the air to dislodge the last of the ash and looked back at Star with mercury-shifting eyes that seemed far too placid for the show he’d just made. “Vayne may not have known about it, from what you said,” Dandelion said thoughtfully. “But I will find out, and I won’t overlook it if he did.”

Viv waved a vaguely placating hand. “You’re getting all murdery awfully early. Honestly, I suspect Enemy Number One had cast it so that the halter could get handed over to them after getting Vayne to bring Star there. Or, if nothing else, with Vayne under their control, they were going to use Vayne as the method of controlling Star. Not that Vayne was horny for him.”

“Hate that anyway! Don’t like it,” Star ground out. He shook himself, clothes dissolving into fairy matter and shifting them into the place where he kept his other belongings. One source of agitation removed, he stomped down the sidewalk in only a speedo.

“I, wh, yuh?” Viv said. “Did you have to—why is getting naked a response to this—”

“It makes me feel better,” Star snapped, and forced himself to draw a deep breath. Viv wasn’t responsible for any of this. “I’m glad you could identify the spell. Now we have another concerning thing to worry about them doing to me.”

“Mm, not just you,” Dandelion said. “As an elverpigen, Caoimhe can be forced into marriage likewise and will love the one she’s wed, and Adrien…”

With a groan, Star completed the thought. “Adrien’s leadable by his dick, yeah. All three of us have natures that put us under someone’s control, and make us susceptible to a spell meant to function alongside that.”

“Because you’re all fairies, or…well, a satyr, you’re all weak to things that force you into love and devotion,” Viv said, a bit breathless from their quick pace downhill. Viv would know, of course. She’d been accidentally wed after helping a leannán sídhe, and she hadn’t even realized it until they’d been married, what, a few days? “Though with Star, the ‘enslaving’ element is from an item, the bridle or halter, while with the others, it’s tied to actions. The halter can be transferred, but actions can’t. So it’s likely that the others haven’t had the spell cast on them yet.”

Star ground his teeth. “I bet their plan was to show it off with me and hold it over the other two as a threat.”

“I think,” Dandelion said softly, “getting there quickly has become even more urgent.”

They couldn’t move faster than they were, though, and even so the ground was flowing underfoot in a way that made Star suspect that Dandelion was spending some of his power to make distance go a bit more quickly. Maybe not for the best, not without weakening him, but Star wasn’t going to tell Dandelion what to do. He reached out and took Dandelion’s hand. “Did you recognize the description I sent?” he asked, only half to distract him. “Of the abyssal, I mean.”

“It sounds like if it’s a demon, he’s either in a human disguise that’s starting to wear off, or he’s possessing someone and their body is giving way,” Dandelion said. “With the cracks and something looking out from the outside. I mean, even in the Valley a powerful demon would stand out and be harder to cast some kind of obfuscation on.”

Yeah, magic was theoretically easier if it worked with something rather than against it. Star said, “Dandelion, you didn’t actually answer.”

Dandelion chewed briefly on his lower lip with pearl teeth. “…If it were any of those three, it’d be Ramullin of the Wastes. Cracks and heat are both what I’d think of with the Wastes. But I don’t want to say it’s certainly them. It could be someone else.”

It could be, though the motive would be lacking. Then again, Ramullin’s own motive didn’t seem the most solid, either—of the three demons who had tormented Dandelion, only Ferthur had missed the chance to torture him at all. Ramullin and Naeri had succeeded at it, if only for one night each. But of course, then, he didn’t know how the tithe getting ruined had looked politically for each of the demons, or if it affected one of them more than others.

He abruptly began paying attention to where they were again and gestured the other two to a halt. “We’re here. The warehouse should be just over there.

Dandelion’s glamour slipped over the group before Star could say anything else. It would be most effective against humans, at least if they hadn’t somehow discovered one of the ways to see through glamours, but it wasn’t ineffective against other fairies or abyssals, either, depending on if they were stronger or weaker than Dandelion. It was definitely stronger than Star’s own glamour. 

Still, Star shuffled into a side street quickly, beckoning the others to do the same. Never hurt to plan for the just-in-case. “Okay, how’s it looking?” he asked, as Dandelion peeked out. 

“Caoimhe and Adrien are definitely in there somewhere,” Dandelion said grimly. “I can feel them. I can’t speak to anyone else, as none others have offered me their life to do with as I would.”

The next step would be getting in, finding the other two’s exact locations, freeing them, and getting out—hopefully before they got caught. “What about entrances, though?”

“I see a front entrance, an entrance on the side facing us, and…” Dandelion hesitated. “There seems to be a parking lot behind it, so probably a back entrance, though I can’t confirm that.”

Star nodded. So, he should try to figure out what was theoretically the best entrance to go into off almost no information, and also if they should leave Viv out here or take her in too.

“Also,” Dandelion said, a little quizzical, “I hear harp music? Maybe another captive occupying themselves, or a musically-inclined captor? Or perhaps someone just playing nearby, but…”

Right, Star reminded himself. There might be more captives than just Caoimhe and Adrien, and there might be more people involved than just the two he knew about. That was also worth considering.

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The movement of Vayne’s hand in Star’s blind spot was unbearable, and even worse was the fact that he knew that Vayne should fucking know better. 

So Star did what any anxious horse would do if a disliked person approached him suspiciously from behind: he snapped his leg back and slammed his foot into the inside of Vayne’s knee.

There was a pretty awful popping noise, and Vayne let out a yell, trying to grab onto Star—for balance or whatever else, Star wasn’t waiting around to find out. He jolted forward, whipping around to kick Vayne again, flinging him to the ground.

Vayne hit the ground hard, arms slamming to either side to try to catch himself, and Star saw properly what was in Vayne’s hand now: a rope halter. A blind rage and nausea swelled in the pit of his stomach as his gaze nearly took on a hazy, reddened sheen. “Enslave me?! You wanted to fucking tie me up? Make me yours? Fuck you!”

It looked like Vayne was trying to push himself upright, so Star kicked him in the chest again with a nasty cracking sound that was probably a rib giving way. Vayne hollered and Star slammed down on top of him, pinning him down, grabbing the halter in one hand.

It was fine to touch it; it just couldn’t go over his head or neck or his nature would force him to obey whoever had bridled him. Nevertheless, it stung to the touch, and he realized there was a spell on it, too—it shouldn’t take effect unless it was on him, or it’d affect Vayne too, but he did not like the realization and flung it down the sidewalk, away from him. “You motherfucker!” 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Vayne raised his arms and crossed them in front of himself with a painful gasp, trying to defend himself. “I’m sorry! I didn’t want to! I’m fucking sorry, okay?!”

“Is the warehouse even a real place?” Star demanded, grabbing those wrists, but not doing more than letting Vayne feel the strength he usually kept hidden. He was the same creature whether he was in human form or horse form, and he had the same strength in both forms. It was just if he chose to use it. The same weight, too, though he wasn’t going to drop twelve hundred pounds straight on Vayne’s midsection unless he had to. Not with the man apologizing and begging. “Or were you just going to take me right to my enemies instead?”

“It’s real,” Vayne stammered. “I think so, anyway, but yeah, it’s not—I don’t think it’s their headquarters, not really, I think it’s just supposed to be a drop-off point for hostages?” He stammered out a description and an address for the warehouse. “But yeah. I think they’re using the track as HQ, the warehouse is just a separate thing. I didn’t want to, Star, I fucking promise!”

Star pressed on his wrists a little too hard just to make a point. “I’m not sure I trust your promises right now.” But something Vayne had said just penetrated the haze of his anger and fear. A plural. “Wait, hostages?”

Vayne was shaking, breathing hard, and had gone a very unpleasant colour. “As far as I know. I wasn’t asking details, it just sounded like they were going after other people too to try to get what they want. I didn’t want to hurt you! I almost didn’t even lie! I did follow them, but they fucking caught me, Star, and they threatened my family and promised me riches all at the same time, what the fuck was I gonna do except go along with it? They could kill me in a fucking heartbeat, I’m just fucking human, Star, and—and then I come back and find you’ve got Georgio involved—”

Star’s breath caught. “Did Georgio know you were going to do this?”

“Georgio doesn’t know shit,” Vayne gasped. “He’s got no subtlety, he’s just a great guy who runs fast and is strong and doesn’t know when to stop talking. I wasn’t gonna risk Georgio in this shit, you’re the one who pulled him into things.”

Fuck. Star swallowed. “Is he okay?” He let go of one of Vayne’s hands, which flopped back to the sidewalk, and patted Vayne down until he found his phone, scrolling through his contacts list. Family, friends, contacts at the track, other jockeys—no Georgio. After a moment, he felt a bit embarrassed; Georgio didn’t have a phone, after all. But still, better to check.

Vayne let out a loud groan, tried to shift his position, and swore instead. “He’s fine. I didn’t lie. I got him loaded up in the trailer and had a friend bring him to a stable outside of town. Equine Equinox Haven. You can look it up. I just wanted to keep my bud out of it if they were threatening me.”

That was disappointing; Star could have used Georgio’s brute strength and, (he had to admit to himself) his support and friendship. But the rest of what he was doing might not be suited to someone with a bull’s body, and if he had time, he could always go fetch him back. “All right. Okay, Vayne, I’ll believe you. Tell me what happened with the guy. What did they look like?”

People were stepping across the street to avoid what was happening here, but Star was fairly confident nobody was going to call emergency services until Star did. This was the Valley, and if someone was getting a beat-down from a person who clearly looked fae, that was business they didn’t want to get involved in. The police wouldn’t want to either. 

Vayne coughed, and clearly regretted it. “Fuck, Star. I followed them, like I said, but when I rounded the corner after them they were right there. They were… terrifying. Something about them just, I knew that they would be willing to do every terrible thing to me if they wanted to, and any threat they made I knew they could carry out. I’d have done it if they didn’t offer me wealth but they did a full, a full stick and carrot thing. They want your boss, Dandelion. They thought as a jockey who you knew, I might be a good choice to try to get you as a hostage. They asked me to bring them one of the track’s halters, and they’d make sure you’d never get it off if it was on, they just needed to prepare some things and would bring it to me. That’s why I needed an hour, because they did. They were there when I called you and were listening to me set up the meeting, Star.”

“Oof,” Star breathed. He sat back, finally.

It didn’t seem like Vayne was willing to move again under his own power anyway. He sighed. “I thought you might figure out what I was doing. Should’ve realized it’d be the same in your human form as in your horse form.”

Star attempted to divert guilt off before he could really feel it. If he hadn’t acted quickly, what would have happened to him? And even after the first kick, Vayne had tried to grab him. His own safety had to come first. “What did that person look like?”

“They are not a person,” Vayne muttered. “They were… listen, I’m not kidding that they were hard to look at directly, but their skin was…cracked. Like the whole thing was a clay mask. They looked human but there was something else looking out from inside them. They were too tall. Their hair was so long it was like a cape. They had a height that went on over their head. I don’t know what the fuck they were but they weren’t human and they weren’t a normal monster like you.”

“Too tall,” Star muttered. That had been mentioned before. Cracked skin. “Abyssal, maybe?”

“What, a demon? Yeah, I’d believe it,” Vayne muttered, closing his eyes. “Being close to them was like every worst thought you’d ever had came bubbling to the surface.”

Yeah. That sounded abyssal. Star shuddered. “Okay. I’m gonna call you an ambulance.”

“Okay,” Vayne mumbled, quiet, almost petulant. OHIP would cover the ambulance and whatever hospital stay he needed, and, given his line of work, there’s no way he wouldn’t have his own insurance to cover other recovery care. For clean breaks, magical doctors might even be able to fix him right up within days, and most of those were covered under private insurance, if not the provincial plan.

Still, no need to be totally rude about it. Star dug out the bread he’d got earlier and peeled off a slice, putting it in Vayne’s mouth. “Eat this in the meantime. It’ll kickstart your healing.”

“I’m gonna puke,” Vayne warned him around the mouthful.

“Don’t.” Star got up and dialed 911, letting them know that he was at the corner of Elm and Buller with someone who had broken his leg, maybe some other injuries. When he hung up, he looked down at Vayne on the sidewalk. “You’re not gonna tell them I did this.”

“Fuck no,” Vayne said. He sounded meek now. “A shitton of locals probably saw me trying to halter you anyway. There’s no way it’d go in my favour if I tried. You’re not going to tell others? The track? …Georgio? I want to go back to racing, and… you know…”

“Maybe not,” Star said. “I’m not in the mood to make promises right now.”

“Please, Star,” Vayne said quietly. “I was fuckin’ scared.”

Star didn’t want to feel bad for Vayne. Instead of answering immediately, he went over and picked up the rope halter, skin crawling, and tucked it away. He didn’t like the idea of keeping it with him, but he disliked the idea of leaving it out here even more. Besides, it might be a good idea to take it to someone who could figure out the spell on it. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “I get it, Vayne, I do. But it’ll kind of depend on if you help them more after this.”

“Sure, yeah,” Vayne said to the sky. “I get that. We can circle back after this all shakes out.”

Star snorted and stepped around the corner, digging his phone out. His hands were shaking despite himself, and he quickly messaged the group chat about what had just happened.

Then he scrolled through the messages he’d gotten since he’d previously sent his update: Viv said she’d try to get out there, but was caught up with a client. Dandelion had just dropped Dom off at the Lindwyrm’s and was very worried now, and was asking how it went—well, asked and answered. Dom likewise was asking if he needed to come get Star. Adrien said that he had just gotten invited over to another girl’s place, but could ditch if needed, so he at least seemed fine.

But there was no answer from Caoimhe, who’d last said she’d gone to help a friend, no other details. No updates at all.

She might still be fine, he reminded himself. And he had more info now: an address for the warehouse, and the fact that the track seemed to be their HQ. Trying to assuage his worries, he tried calling her. 

It went right to voicemail, no answer, as if her phone were off.

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Of all the options, meeting up with Vayne did feel like the most promising. Someone claiming they had actual information about the mysterious Person In Black, rather than Star following up on threads that only might lead somewhere?

But something also felt odd about this, and Star wasn’t sure if it was like with Georgio, where he’d just misunderstood the person without getting to know them, or if it was valid. It just felt like it might be some kind of trap. That could be paranoia speaking too, though. Ultimately, Vayne would also have an investment in solving this. The track he raced at had been taken out of commission, and it wasn’t clear if it’d be in any shape to reopen by the time of Vayne’s next race. 

The best bet, Star decided, was to go there early and scope the place out, try to get a view of if it was a proper trap or not. He had the covert cake, which lasted an hour, and Vayne was supposed to be there in an hour, so it seemed like the perfect match.

Just for safety, he sent the group text an update of where he was going, and asked if any of them were able to come spot him and keep an eye on things from a distance. There were ways to neutralize fairies, after all, and no amount of advance planning would do any good if someone came at him with salt or iron. Having a backup against problems was common sense. But—they were also all busy, he remembered. The only one who hadn’t been was Viv, who at least had the advantage of being a witch rather than another fairy; maybe she’d be able to come watch from a distance. Better than nothing.

He received the address from Vayne and did a quick search; it appeared to be a coffee shop—not Beanheadings or anything like that, but a place called Parallelatte that he hadn’t been to before. That was a good sign; Vayne was offering a neutral space for them to meet up, and one where there’d likely be other people around. Star began to head that way.

When he was about ten minutes away, Star took the covert cake out and gave it serious consideration—after all, he had only one slice—for about seven seconds before shrugging and eating it. Better to use it now than save it for an eventuality that might never happen, not when he had his own glamour to fall back on for later break-ins. Plus, he’d expect people to be around for a trap, and not for a break-in! If he wasted it, he wasted it.

Besides, he didn’t want to get any closer before eating it—he didn’t want to run into Vayne too early and lose his chance to scope things out, or otherwise tip off anyone who might be setting up a trap.

It was an odd sensation when he ate the last bite, as if the world was suddenly crisper than usual, and his own awareness of himself more hazy. It was like shifting from actually inhabiting a body to being in a first person camera—although, when he focused, he could still see himself; he wasn’t invisible, just… forgettable.

He tried to shrug off the uneasy sensation of not knowing where his own body parts were, and continued on to the coffee shop.

It turned out that walking around a city during the day when you couldn’t let yourself bump into anyone or let your shadow cross them was a challenge, but he still made it to the address with relative speed. He checked out the inside of the building first, nobody noticing him even when he slipped behind the bar to make sure there wasn’t someone hiding there, or when he walked into the back area and found only boxes of coffee and similar things, no suspicious spell circles or anything of the like. He checked each booth carefully, even those people were at, trying to be conscious of his body and shadow enough to not let them touch anyone even while he was having difficulty focusing on them himself.

Certainly everything seemed safe, but Star couldn’t quite shake the uneasy feeling. Perhaps it was just the desire for everything to be narratively convenient and for the cake not to be a waste, but he didn’t live this long by not following his instincts. Sure, he knew that was the anthem of every horse, who did not stick around to confirm if leaves fluttering in the wind weren’t deadly, but…

He slipped back outside the coffee shop and positioned himself so he could see up both directions on the street, in case a trap were likely to be set there instead, and waited, trying to teach himself patience in a quick, easy lesson.

And about 15 minutes later, he saw Vayne start to walk around the corner and turn back, talking to someone just out of sight. Star’s heart suddenly pounded, and he pushed away from the wall he was leaning against, walking toward them. He couldn’t move too quickly, not without risking interacting with other pedestrians or getting hit by traffic that couldn’t see him, so he was still approaching when he saw Vayne reach out of sight and take something from the person Star still couldn’t see.

It wasn’t clear what it was Vayne took; it looked like some bundle of cords or cables. Vayne opened his coat and shoved them into an inner pocket there, said something, waved, and headed up the street. Twelve seconds later, he passed Star unknowingly, heading toward the coffee shop.

Star broke into a run, but by the time he rounded the corner, whoever was there before was gone. He took a deep breath, trying to scent the air and get a sense of whoever it had been. He just got a melange of normal city smells, especially for down into the valley, a background hit of fairy magic, monsters, demons, blood and rust and vampires, sweaty fur and lycanthropy, and the occasional human smell, nearly drowned out by all the others. Whoever had been there hadn’t used a spell to get away or he would have smelled that stronger than anything else, they’d just either had a place to go—a getaway vehicle, or a nearby alley or street they’d intended to turn down—or were themselves invisible and unseen now.

That was not a great thought. Star walked a bit further up to look around corners and in alleys, but he wasn’t seeing anything, and he gave up. He let himself cross into the direct line of another human, letting the cake wear off—it was about to run out of its expected duration anyway—and headed back up to the coffee shop.

Vayne lifted a hand and grinned when he saw Star enter, beckoning him over. “Hey man. Good work this morning. I heard all about it.”

“Aw, shucks,” Star said, sliding in across from him. He declined a drink just in case, though he did watch a little longingly as Vayne took a big drink of his own coffee. “I just happened to have the right biology to help out there. If it were fire we’d be fucked.”

“Hah!” Vayne snorted. He was a small man, pale, with slightly shaggy brown hair he often wore slicked back like a greaser. In general, actually, he dressed like 1970s Travolta was his personal idol.  “Nothing anyone could do about that one, yeah. About that…”

Star sat back, watching Vayne seem to think through his next words. “About that?”

“So obviously, you know Georgio and I were both down at the track when that all happened,” Vayne said. “The thing is, I was following that person in black.”

Star sat up a little straighter at that. Vayne really might actually have some solid information for him. “You were? Why?”

“The day before,” Vayne said, “something weird happened. I don’t know if Dom told you, but he and I were called in to try to sort out the track double booking. When Georgio and I headed out from that, we went to pick up some of our stuff we’d already deposited by the paddock. On my way back, I saw some people talking to Dom, and then he wandered off like he was in a daze. It was weird, I noticed it first because one of them looked like you, but a chick. And the other was really hard to… to remember or notice what they looked like? They saw me, and I asked them what was up, were they new riders signing up here, and… then I have this big blank.”

“A big blank,” Star echoed. “That’s what happened to Dom, but he wasn’t even aware of the blank to identify it until I showed him proof.”

“That’s the thing, I don’t think they did as good a job with me because they hadn’t meant to talk to me first, maybe,” Vayne said, tone thoughtful. “And no insult, but Dom is a nice guy. He thinks the best of most people. Me, I’m a suspicious fucker. You know?”

Star kind of shrugged. He wasn’t going to just insult the person giving him info, but also, yeah. “It’s kind of your reputation.”

“When I left, all I had a sense was… there were people, I met them, and we talked about something to do with the track mix-up and all that. But I’ve been spending the last day trying to pick apart my memories. I still don’t have much,” Vayne added. “But when I saw that person in black at the clubhouse again I was like, fuck, I gotta see what they’re up to.”

Star leaned forward. “What’d they do?”

“They cast some kind of spell,” Vayne said. “I can’t pick that up the way your kind can or anything like that, but there was mumbling and a bit of hand motion and right after that all the screaming started so, yeah, spell. I figured that there’d be people at the track who could handle whatever happened so I followed this guy.”

Shit, this was juicy. “You followed them?? To where?”

“See, that’s the shit,” Vayne said. “I followed them way down into the Valley, super near the gate, and they went into this old like… warehouse? I figured they must have been using it as some kind of HQ. But I wasn’t stupid enough to follow them into it. I headed back, trying to figure out what to do with the info, and heard about everything that had happened. EMTs and newsies and police everywhere, Georgio being paraded around like some prize bull, everyone saying you were the hero of the day. Kind of got into my head a little about it, like, phew, this person had done something way bigger than I realized that I just walked away from, you know?” He finished his coffee, crumpling the cup as he lowered his hand back to the table. “So after you called to check in with Georgio, I made sure he was safe and out of it and had a good think. I hadn’t known for sure if you were in on it with them, since one of them looked that much like you, but it sure didn’t sound like it from what you were talking about him. I figured, you seem to be investigating this, I don’t know what else to do but tell you about this. I met up with friends to get some stuff to protect myself with in case that weirdo comes after me, but I don’t think I was seen, I just don’t wanna make myself more of a target.”

“Whew,” Star said.

Vayne nodded. “Phew,” he echoed. “So, you wanna know where that warehouse is?”

Slowly, Star nodded, tucking a loose strand of seaweed-tangled hair behind a slightly-pointed ear. “Yeah, I do. I don’t know for sure what they’re doing here, but I know it’s no good. Can you text me the address so I can head there later?”

“No, because I walked there and wasn’t keeping track of road signs, but I can show you where it is,” Vayne said. 

Secondary location, Star thought instantly, though the storyline added up, actually; Vayne hadn’t been anywhere around helping, even though Georgio had come to the track with him originally. And Georgio had mentioned that Vayne had talked to the Suspicious Duo the day before, too, which also fit his description. Sure enough, getting handed something could have been just a way to protect himself, too. 

Nevertheless… “You can’t just describe it?” Star asked. 

Vayne waggled a hand. “Not reliably. You know how things shift around in that tangle near the gate. It’d be easier to see the landmarks and go from there.”

That was also true. There were entire websites devoted to tracking how things shifted near the gate. ‘Old antique store that was there one day and gone the next’ wasn’t just a horror trope, it was daily life. “Fine, we can go there, so I can at least learn where it is. I can always go back later. Now’s good for you?”

“Now’s good,” Vayne agreed. “Can I ride you?”

“Mmm,” Star said, hesitant. “I’d rather not, nothing personal—”

“No, no, I get it,” Vayne sighed. “Bad knee’s just sore from the long walk up and down hill earlier. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get going.”

Vayne tossed his cup toward the garbage, missed, and got up anyway, heading out. Star kicked the cup up to his own hand and tucked it away while miming throwing it out. He was pretty sure at this point that Vayne was on the up and up, but if he wasn’t, having his saliva—or any part of the man—might be useful if they needed it later.

He followed Vayne out the door, the other man opening his jacket and letting the cool air in after the warmth of the coffee shop. They walked together in silence for five, then ten minutes. Vayne’s walk grew a little more unsteady, starting to approach a limp, the unbalanced walk of someone who was feeling a bit tender. It left him a couple steps behind Star, still visible in his peripheral, but not quite walking with him on the sidewalk.

“Hang on,” Vayne said suddenly, voice unsure. He reached to catch Star’s arm, then his other hand came up higher, just a shadow out of the corner of Star’s eye. “You have something in your hair.”

Star tensed. He didn’t like not seeing what Vayne was doing and wanted to pull away, but also didn’t want to offend the irritable man, not if he could provide—or withhold—a direct path to where the Suspicious Duo might be using as their home base…

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