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What now was a very valid question to ask, but Star was tired at this point. He was pretty sure he’d thought more in the last half day than he had done in the entire last month. They had to decide on something to do instead of just agreeing that it sucked and walking away, though.

“I guess my thing is,” Star said slowly, “how do we protect you, Dom? Like, people who’ve already cast memory-altering spells on you are clearly planning to see you again. And they know you’re connected to us. Like. They could at least hold you hostage against us, or… well, who knows what they’re thinking of doing?”

Dandelion made a soft noise of agreement. “If you wanted to go into hiding for a time, I know a guy. Strong, dangerous. Lovely chap, though, a prince among men.”

Dom shook his head. “…I don’t think it has to come to that. If I need to run, I’ll let you know, but I kind of want to be preparing for the race in two weeks and I also have a training job between races. I don’t like what’s happened, it freaks me the fuck out, but so far it hasn’t been dangerous.”

Star supposed it at least hadn’t been violent. 

“What about protection spells?” Caoimhe murmured, turning to Viv. “Could that help?”

“Theoretically yes,” Viv said. “I know some witches offer their protection services as a one-time spell. It’s also possible to get marked as being under someone’s protection in a way like, fuck with this person and I’ll mess you up, but that’s a pretty open-ended offer so it tends to be really expensive, and also, most of the witches who’ll do it are the ones willing to get into spell battles.” So mostly malefics. “I can’t do it myself, my area of specialty is bibliomancy, divination through using books. But if you want, I can ask around at the Council of Twilight tomorrow. You could come with me if you wanted, Star.”

Adrien said, “Maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree here. Is there something he can use to signal to us if he sees them again? Phones are obviously no good, but if that’s easy, we can be the protection and the rescuer.”

“I can do that,” Dandelion offered. “That’s fairly simple.” He drew a little glowstick out of his pocket. Star didn’t ask where he got it; obviously, from a rave. “If you break this, it can send a signal to me. Or… er, I’ll connect it to Star instead. Then there’s no actual connection to me directly, and besides, Star’s the fastest.”

“That’s a great idea,” Dom said.

Star shrugged. He wasn’t going to say no to it, though he thought he at least would be constantly anxious waiting to feel it snap. “Go for it, boss.”

Dandelion held it up, and drew a line with his finger from Dom, to the stick, to Star. Star felt the connection take place; not a spell, but Dandelion using his powers to make that invisible line between them tenuously real.

“Breaking this if I see them seems easy enough,” Dom agreed, taking the glow stick. “If I keep it in a pocket on me at all times, should be a snap.”

Star snorted, and he watched Dom realize his own accidental joke with his subsequent wince. “What else, though? That’s as much protection as I suppose we can do without finding something at the Twilight Council or attaching ourselves too directly, but what else? 

Dandelion sat back again. “I’m tempted to go to the track to break in tonight, I suppose. I’d be interested to see if anything of interest remains. Spell residue or whatnot.”

Reluctantly, Star shook his head. “I think our chance to catch anything fresh has escaped us,” he admitted. “The track’s got magical AND physical janitors. They have to prevent anyone from trying to influence the races. Unless the janitors were lazy or paid off, or they snuck in something that wouldn’t be easy to catch, there won’t be much there now. And if they snuck in something that subtle, it’ll probably still be there tomorrow.” He sighed. “Depending how things shake out, I miiiight swing by tomorrow to see if I can talk to any witnesses, and I’ll check for anything odd if so. But it’s possible there’s nothing we didn’t just learn.”

“Well, I can come with you if you need it,” Viv said. “I’m a little too specialized to help out in all circumstances, but I’ll do what I can. My fortune-telling business isn’t regular hours, so let me know.”

“Yeah, if and when I make plans I’ll text you,” Star said.

That seemed to be it for direct planning for now. The meal conversation shifted to lighter things, though Dandelion and Dom were obviously both preoccupied. After the meal, Adrien and Caoimhe offered to walk Dom home so he’d have solid protection on the way there—without having to dangle Dandelion in front of anyone who might be watching for him. 

“Yeah,” Dom said. “I hate the idea of needing protection, but sure.”

“After that,” Adrien said, “I might check up on some of my lovers tonight in case it’s not just Star’s buddy Dom being targeted, but one of mine as well.” 

Caoimhe looked discomfited. “I’d best do as well. Not with lovers. People I know. It’s none of your business,” she added over her shoulder, leading Dom away.

Viv headed off next, peeling away from the group outside the apartment with another wave and a see you later, which left Star with Dandelion.

“Well, then,” Dandelion murmured, and gestured with his head. Together, they began to walk home. 

A short way in, Dandelion’s hand bumped against his, so Star took it and held on. Dandelion seemed grateful, though he was quiet, serious, his profile elegant in the moonlight as he kept his thoughts to himself.

Once they were inside, Star sighed, shoulders relaxing a touch. Home sweet home, and no sign of intrusion. “Well,” he said. “Guess I’ll head off to the pond…”

“Wait,” Dandelion murmured. “Are you willing to sleep indoors today?”

Star’s heart caught in his throat. “Sure,” he said, deliberately cool, and let Dandelion lead him upstairs. 

The mood wasn’t right for anything more, but they stripped down and slid under the covers together, and Dandelion wrapped his arms around Star, pulling him against his cool, slim chest.

“Do you want,” Dandelion murmured, “that is, I know he didn’t want to go into hiding, but if it becomes necessary for us to whisk him away, do you want to meet the person I’m suggesting hiding Dom with? I know that anyone might be having doubts about my intentions for a rival—” Rival for what? Star wondered. He supposed that having him be a dangerous link to people clearly hunting Dandelion might be enough, but weird way to put it if so. “—so whatever will make you feel the happiest.”

“I trust you wholeheartedly,” Star murmured into Dandelion’s shoulder. “But maybe, yeah, it’d be good to have the details.

“The sooner the better, if you think it might be needed suddenly,” Dandelion murmured.

“Sure,” Star said. He braced himself a little, drawing a rough breath. “Do you have any idea who these two creepers might be, based on what Dom said?”

Dandelion shook his head, his soft, stiff hair making an audible sound against the pillow. “I don’t, not from that description,” he said. “As far as I know, I haven’t made an enemy of any witches. And if it’s a demon, I’d need more than black hair and ashy skin to go off of. But… they might have known me, yes.”

“The name?” Star asked. “What was the whole Dandelion-Seeds thing about? I know it’s not your true name.” That was Asterace, which was a remarkable amount of power for Dandelion to have tried to put back in Star’s hands to close the gap between them. 

“No,” Dandelion agreed. “It was, however, my title, back when I was a noble fae who ranked highly in a court; a title I was permitted to be addressed by. So whoever had brought that up to Dom had known me when I was titled or, at least, known of me by title.”

Star dropped a soothing kiss on his bicep. “It was the other one who said it, but couldn’t the fairy have told it to them?”

“Perhaps,” Dandelion said, considering. “I never knew any brook horses personally before encountering you in the wild, but it’d be more likely for a fairy to know me by that title. But why would a brook horse be the one pushing for me to be hunted down?”

It wasn’t something he liked thinking about, but… “The brook horse could definitely be someone I know,” Star said, “but I’d have no way to know that from the description Dom gave, it was too just… yeah, that’s how a lot of us look. And, again, there’s no particular reason that I can think of for them to bother coming for me, but I was part of a herd for my early years, so in terms of, did I know other brook horses, the answer is yeah, obviously. I don’t know why they’d then ask after you, though.”

Dandelion sighed. “I know you have the general gist of what happened with the tithe.”

Under Star’s body, Dandelion was becoming less comfortable, tense and still. Star tried to play it cool, toying with his own hair against Dandelion’s skin. “Yeah, I mean, generally for sure. Like you said, you refused to hand trapped humans over to demons for the seven-year tithe. That’s pretty on brand for you. You like protecting people.”

Dandelion made an inaudible sound that Star could only feel, not interpret. “Yes, and to put it lightly, I got up into the demon’s faces to do it, and freed the humans from the fairies’ own binding. This made them not our property, and thus we could not hand them over. It was a move that made me fairly unpopular from both sides of the equation. The demons threatened war. Do you remember Ferthur from that incident last year?”

Star did; when they were rushing to deal with the shapeshifter, they took a shortcut through Abyssal territory and met a weird, blorty blood-stag-man who kept gloating about getting The Exile in trouble. However, the two fairy lords he had fetched to try to get authority over Dandelion had ended up not going along with it, and, as the group had talked about earlier, even offered to try to get his exile lifted due to the actions they’d taken that day. Ferthur couldn’t have liked that.

“Hmm,” Star said. “I haven’t, like, forgotten him.”

“He was one of the three demons who had been there to receive the tithe. The other two were Naeri the Lady of Sorrows, and Ramullin of the Wastes. None of them were pleased, and I was exiled in punishment and forbidden to reenter the fae courts.” Dandelion paused, seeming lost in the past. “This meant that I had to pass through the Abyssal lands on my way out, because I’d have to go deeper into the fae lands to get another exit from our realm and was not allowed, but the Abyssal lay right alongside. Although as part of my exile I was permitted to leave, the three demons claimed the right to torture me, each of them one per night, for every night I remained in the Abyssal until I found my way out and into another non-fairy realm. I imagine they intended to keep me disoriented and mislead me as much as possible to keep me there for many years worth of nights.”

Under Star, Dandelion was tense as a board now. Star couldn’t blame him. “Shit,” he whispered.

“Naeri had the first night, and Ramullin had the second, but I managed to escape before Ferthur had his turn; they tortured me for no more than two nights.” Nevertheless, there was a ghost of old pain and true fear around his eyes. Two nights could be a terribly long time. “I imagine that’s why Ferthur was so eager to see me get in trouble during last year’s incident.”

“Shit,” Star said again. He could taste bile at the back of his throat, and he swallowed with long practice. Easy to ignore the burn when you’re familiar with enough old traumas to know you just had to let that feeling go. “It sounds like it could be Ferthur’s doing, but…” It didn’t feel right at all. “…It’s not his style,” he said, finally.

“I agree, actually,” Dandelion said. “Last year, he was blatant and obvious about what he wanted, while also actually being very strict on following the rules of my exile and appealing to the appropriate authority, bringing in the local ruling fae forces to get it witnessed when he thought I was breaking the rules. He strikes me as a very do-it-by-the-book demon, and he always was, even back when I knew him before. Whatever’s happening here feels much more chaotic than the way he’s always behaved.”

Star nodded slowly, curling in closer, tucking his face into Dandelion’s neck. “So it doesn’t seem like it could be him. Unless he offered power to a witch who contacted him, with getting info on you being the payment?”

“Perhaps,” Dandelion said. “I’d say it’s still not his style, but it’s not as if we were bosom companions.” 

“But then, who?” Star muttered.

“Perhaps none of them,” Dandelion said, shifting around, getting comfortable in a way that Star could see he was dismissing all that old hurt and fear and was getting ready to sleep. “We have little information yet.”

“Maybe it’s unrelated to the exile situation,” Star suggested. “Maybe it’s like Stephen King’s Misery.”

“We can only hope it’s simply related to my greatest dishonour, trauma, and personal achievement instead of rabid fandom,” Dandelion said firmly, and tucked Star’s head down against him. “Let’s get some sleep.”

It wasn’t that he wanted to sleep; he had so much left to plan. What, he wondered to himself, should be his first order of business tomorrow? Check on Dom? Go to the track to find witnesses and secrets? Meet this weird friend of Dandelion’s? Follow up on spells from the Twilight Council, or even go there in person to find out if the description of the strange people Dom had given matched anyone they knew? Go to the library or somewhere else to research those demons that Dandelion had mentioned? Some other fucking thing that he’d surely think of? He definitely didn’t have time to do all of them in a day, and probably shouldn’t plan more than one or two of them, in case information changed after he’d done the first couple…

He was still trying to decide on the best order of business as he slipped off to sleep, dreaming of restless waves and the taste of human flesh.

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Star quickly realized that everyone was looking at him to be the one asking questions. He shied back, pushing himself against the padded booth bench, his hands splayed on the table. He hated taking point. He wasn’t made to be a leader in anything, he’d often told people. Dr. W had things to say about that, too.

But it made sense. Star was the only one here who knew Dom at all, let alone what might be normal for him, or for the track, or anything else. He stretched his neck anxiously, turning to Adrien, then Caoimhe. “You two, keep an eye on the room. If someone can feel the spell being disturbed, they might find us.”

“I don’t think they will,” Viv said, but didn’t actually argue when the other two leaned back on their seats, scanning the opposite sides of the room. Well, Adrien leaned back. Caoimhe, always stiff, just kind of tilted. 

He made eye contact with Dandelion, his lord’s liquid mercury eyes shifting and rolling uneasily in the confines of their irises. “Be ready to jump in if you need to,” Star said, and gestured to the spot beside Dom. Dandelion nodded, and shifted over there. 

Good. Now Star could keep an eye on both of them, in case Dandelion recognized anything Dom was talking about. He didn’t think Dandelion would deliberately withhold information, per se, if he thought it was relevant, but he was pretty sure Dandelion might avoid talking about something before he was very sure it was relevant, and this might give Star something to ask him about deliberately. Dandelion didn’t tell Star much about himself. 

Star drew a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s start a bit earlier, with your morning. Why’d you go to the racetrack in the first place?”

“I woke up late. I was drinking my coffee and eating breakfast while doing a sudoku,” Dom said. This with confidence; Star was sure this was before the spell had started. “I got a call from the track about a scheduling conflict that would be easier to deal with in person.”

“From who?”

“Heronika.” That was the scheduling manager, so that tracked. “There was a lane double-booked in the race we’ve got in two weeks. Somehow, it had been put down for both us and for Vayne and the Manotaur. Since the rest of the race was set, she wanted to see if one of us was willing to bump out to the next local race.”

Ugh, the Manotaur, whose actual name was Georgio. Where had Jack Vayne even dug that guy up? Star hated racing him. He wasn’t even a horse, he was just a guy with a bull’s body and a man’s head, and he talked like fucking Randy Savage literally all the time. Star wasn’t even sure it was a bit. The cow just had no grace. Unfortunately, so many of the other mounts in the magical league were also not technically horses, so the Manotaur stayed. 

Well, if nothing else, it gave more potential leads. Not that Star wanted to talk to them. “And that meeting did happen?”

“Yeah. Vayne and the Manotaur were both there. We worked it out. Jack got his entry fee waived for the next race.”

“Why’d I not get a call if fucking Georgio did,” Star complained.

Dom snorted a laugh, relaxing just a little. “I mean, I don’t think Georgio got a call. I don’t think he can use a phone. I think he just went wherever Vayne did.”

“No, it’s discrimination. Nobody ever calls the horse.”

“Focus, please,” Viv said, as the invisible spell-eel—the speel, Star decided—gave a thrashing. “I can only hold this so long.”

Star sighed. He was so bad at focus. “Dom, did you find it odd you were asked to go in instead of just dealing with this online somehow?”

“Not too odd. It was inconvenient, though; it did have big ‘this could have been an email’ energy, but it may have been more convenient for Heronika, if not for us.”

Star wasn’t convinced it hadn’t been a setup, somehow, to get Dom out at the track in the first place. But Dom could only answer from his own perspective. “Okay. It was after that where you met these two mysterious strangers.”

“Yes,” Dom said, a bit more hesitantly. “When I was leaving that meeting, Halle told me someone had asked to see me. I got your call right after that asking me out for coffee.”

Dandelion glanced at Star. Star tried to keep his own gaze on Dom’s face. “Right. You’d said on that call that ‘someone asked for me’ but you didn’t think it’d take long. And you didn’t remember what happened next.”

“I don’t remember,” Dom agreed. “But you’re going to ask me anyway while the spell’s, uh, caught.”

Star nodded. He tried making his voice a bit gentler. “So someone asked to speak to you. Who did you talk to? What did they look like.”

Dom closed his eyes like it would help him recall. “There were two people. Yes. One looked like a young woman. She seemed like she might be a brook horse like you. Similar long greenish-blue hair with weeds in it, a lean figure like she was built for speed. She hung back, though. Didn’t do much of the talking.”

Star chewed the inside of his cheek briefly. He did not like that. “And the other?”

“I’m… not sure, even now,” Dom admitted, sounding worried.

“Maybe the person was also disguising themself. If they had a spell on themself, we wouldn’t be able to get around that,” Dandelion suggested.

Dom nodded. “Maybe. I remember bits only. I remember their skin was dull. Not white, or black, but… pale, ashy brown. It read as unhealthy to me.  Black hair, I think. They seemed… tall? Too tall. Or, hm, rather, a sense of being bigger than the space they took up.”

If they’d had a strong magical scent while they’d cast magic, or were carrying enchanted items, that might give that impression, Star thought, though he kept this to himself. Humans couldn’t smell it consciously, not the way other folks could, but maybe they sensed it unconsciously somehow. Or perhaps it was something else.

“Their voice was really soft,” Dom added, after a moment. “It’s hard to focus on the words they said, but I remember the timbre. I’d noted it at the time because it was such a change after being in a room with Vayne and Georgio.”

Star folded his own hands on the table, clenching them on each other. Now they were getting to the meat of the situation. “And what did you talk about?”

“First, they confirmed I was the Dominic Toulali that raced on Son, That Ain’t Right. After I said I was, it was the only time the brook horse woman spoke up, I think,” Dom said, a bit uncertainly. “She said it was a stupid name and you had no dignity or ability to take things seriously.”

A bit irritated, Star shook his hair out. “I resemble that remark.”

“Then, they…” Dom seemed reluctant to say it, his black eyes sliding briefly to Dandelion before shifting back to Star. “They asked if it was true that my mount also performed in a band under the leadership of the sidhe lord Dandelion-Seeds-Fall-Careless-to-the-Earth.”

Dandelion straightened at that, frowning, the shifting liquid movement of his irises stilling as he began to watch Dom even more closely.

“I said, I mean, I hadn’t heard him by that name, but yes, he performed with Dandelion and the band the Merry Gentry. They asked if I knew him, and I said no, though I might meet him later. That interested them. They pushed, and…” Dom bit his lip. “I can’t remember. Fuck.”

He wasn’t the only one having trouble. Viv’s hands rose from the table and she frantically grabbed again at the invisible speel, apparently just barely grabbing it and pinning back down.

“Okay. I’ll ask you,” Star said. “When you said you might meet Dandelion later, they pushed. What did they do?”

“I think they encouraged me to do so. Said it would be good for a young man like myself to get in the good graces of a sidhe lord,” Dom said, lifting a hand to rub his head. “They asked what I knew about him, but I didn’t have anything more to say than I already had. They asked what I knew about you too, Star, and… I… didn’t have much more there either. I said not a lot, I didn’t want to reveal the little I did know. They asked me again and… I think… I mentioned that you’d sworn not to kill and eat humans any more?”

It wasn’t exactly something Star talked about much one way or another, but yeah, Dom knew that, obviously. Still, he didn’t like the idea of a prouder brook horse than himself knowing it. Not Dom’s fault, though. “How’d they react?”

“Surprised. I said it was one of the reasons I’d initially trusted you enough to ride you. I …maybe it was the brook horse, maybe the other one, one of them said I was stupid. Fairies could lie, it was just rude enough to that they usually didn’t. I didn’t answer. They didn’t ask about how we met, so they don’t know anything about that, though. I kept that much back.”

Star remembered how thick Dom’s voice had been with tears, how miserable and afraid he’d been when they first met. He reached over and squeezed Dom’s hand. “It’s fine. You didn’t share any secrets.” Because he hadn’t given Dom any, he didn’t say. He wondered if Dom was as shockingly aware as Star was right now of how he’d never told Dom about his own past.

“At that point, my phone rang. I guess it was one of the times you were trying to see why I was held up? I took it out to check, and the one with black hair—oh! They were wearing black too, I think. They reached out and gently pushed my hand with the phone back to my side. It stopped ringing. They talked a little more, nothing new, just encouraging me as a great racer, someone they really wanted to see come up in the world, and how sponsorship with a sidhe lord could be a big step for me, stuff like that. It’s all hazy, but I remember feeling very encouraged.”

Star couldn’t just ask something like anything else and get an answer, but he wished he could. Even though that spell was no longer on Dom or they’d notice, it sounded like there’d been a second layer of one, encouraging him to talk more, maybe influencing his reaction to them in the moment. “Did they ask to see you again?”

“I … not exactly,” Dom said. “But they said they looked forward to hearing how it went, so I guess they plan to meet me again at some point soon. The one with black hair said, I remember the phrasing exactly on this one now, said, ‘We can be really good friends, I think.'”

Weird. No reaction from Dandelion either, beyond a deepening frown. Star sighed. “Well, fuck that guy,” he said. “Dom, do you have any idea what point in the conversation the spell was cast?”

“No,” Dom said. “It could have been any time in there, I didn’t see anything.”

Dandelion spoke up, voice soft. “A lot of witchcraft can be done ahead of time and imbued in objects, if someone knows something’s going to happen and can prepare. It’s done for faster or quieter casting.” Viv nodded her agreement.

Star made a face at that. Great. “Based on when you talked to me first, I’m guessing it lasted about half an hour? Forty minutes?”

“About that,” Dom said. “The rest was general politeness, I think. Inquiries about what it was like to race here and stuff like that. They didn’t seem interested in the responses to those, exactly, and I don’t think I said anything that wouldn’t have been easy to get from someone else.”

Padding to give time for the spell to take effect? More likely, they were making it seem like a normal conversation to anyone else passing by, Star thought. There were always people around at the track, even when there was no race on that day.

“Then they told me to leave, and I guess I left first,” Dom said. “Once I was outside, all I was thinking about was not being late to coffee. And then I was late to coffee. You know the rest.”

“Just in time,” Viv muttered. “Any last questions? I can’t hold this beast much longer.”

Star couldn’t think of any. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake as he shook his head. Viv released her grip with a groan.

Dom straightened, putting a hand back to his head, presumably as the spell popped back in there. “Ugh,” he complained. “The weirdest part of this is that I remember what I just told you, but I no longer remember those things happening to me.”

“Be careful to keep the two separate,” Dandelion warned him. “It’s easy for humans to replace their own memories with things that someone tells them. Fairies take advantage of this often. Perhaps not relevant here, but I shouldn’t like to see you confuse yourself that way.”

“Mm,” Dom said, a bit uneasily. “Well, in this case it was definitely a spell, since…” He gestured at Viv.

“Speaking of,” Viv said, holding a hand out, “can I see your phone? If there was a spell on that too…”

With a hiss of suddenly concerned breath, Dom dug it out and handed it over. Viv turned it over in her hands a few times, then offered it back. “Nah,” she said. “The spell on you was very defined. I’m certain that its only purpose is to block your memories of interacting with those two people. No spell on the phone, though. It looks like the spellcaster just used it as an energy battery when they touched it. Witches definitely can do that. Not sure about anything else, though,” she added.

Their meals arrived just as Dom took his phone back, and everyone fell silent until the server was gone again. “I didn’t see anything odd around the room,” Caoimhe said.

“Me neither,” Adrien said. “There’s a really cute couple two tables over, though.”

Star glanced, in case he was trying to code-word that it was their guys, but no, it was just a young couple who was almost certainly on their first date. He rolled his eyes. “Thanks. Not what I wanted you keeping an eye out for.”

“I can multitask,” Adrien protested lazily. “Wonder if they’re looking for a third.

Dom kind of poked at his noodles, clearly not willing to be drawn out by a satyr’s bawdy banter after all that. “So… now what?”

It was a good question. It’d be nighttime once they were done here, and getting rest would probably be a good idea unless there was something they could specifically do at night. It’d give him time to talk to Dandelion alone if he wanted to, also. 

But… what should his next steps be on this, anyway?

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Star heard himself thinking about all the things they could do to Dom and if he should let it happen and huffed in irritation at himself, sinking down against Dandelion’s chest like he was some kind of throne to sprawl on. “Hang on here. I think ultimately this has to be Dom’s decision.”

“There is a chance he may not choose… correctly… if he is enchanted,” Caoimhe pointed out, concern starting to edge into her dreamy voice. 

“No, Star’s right,” Dandelion agreed, and Star tried not to wiggle like he’d been patted and called a good boy. “Yes, perhaps, if he refuses all aid, or acts odd about it, we may want to intervene and judge according to what will best protect him from it. But we cannot simply do these things to him without his permission, either.”

Star hopped up, getting space between himself and Dandelion before he could do something embarrassing like fawning or something. “I’ll call him.”

He headed up the stairs to get some privacy, though he was pretty sure at least some of the others would sneak halfway up to listen. He sat in the kitchen, absently playing with one of the little uncanny glass trinkets Dandelion was so fond of, and dialed.

“Hey!” Dom said, picking up almost at once. “I charged my phone.”

“I see that,” Star said, grinning a bit. Modern phones were more convenient but lacked cords to twirl like you were in an 80s romcom, so he let go of the glass bauble to wind some of his hair around a finger instead. “Anything weird that you noticed about it?”

“I don’t know. I guess, a little. My charger was still set up and the cord was over the bed, which I’d made” Dom said. “Which… meant that I’d been charging it on there after waking up this morning, and yeah, I remember doing that. I should have headed out with a full charge. I don’t know how the battery ran out so fast. Going dead, I guess.”

It was as good a lead-in as any. “Dom, I’m going to be very serious with you right now,” Star said. He closed his eyes. He’d let Dom put a halter on him before. Dom already could control him whenever it was on. He trusted him on the track. He’d trust him here. “I swear on my soulless heart that I’m not trying to trick you or play a joke.”

“Star…?” Dom’s voice had dropped too, also serious. Definitely worried. “What’s wrong?”

“I genuinely think you’ve been ensorcelled in some way,” Star said. “I talked to Halle and she saw you talking for a while with two people. That’s exactly when you lost time. One of them looked kind of like me. You’d remember that normally, right?”

Dom was uneasily silent. 

“If you’re forgetting other things and it wasn’t just this afternoon, you should let me know now.”

“No,” Dom said, slowly. “My memory’s great. You know that.”

“My strategical racetrack genius,” Star agreed, frowning down at his fingers in his own hair. Some pond weeds had ended up tangled in it again. He began to work them out. “I think that whatever they did drained your battery. Maybe on purpose, if they found out you were expected somewhere and didn’t want to be interrupted. Maybe they just absorbed energy and it was a useful source, I don’t know. But also, you swung really fast from kind of wanting to meet Dandelion to being super eager.”

“He’s just so important to you.”

“Yeah,” Star said softly. “And if it didn’t align completely with whatever happened with those two people you don’t remember, I’d be super stoked right now.”

Dom was silent for another few long moments. Uncomfortable at best, Star imagined. “So I’m not coming over for dinner, huh?”

“That’s the thing,” Star said. “I’ve told everyone and they’re worried too. About what this means and why and how and all that, sure, but also about you.” He didn’t think that was wrong. Dom probably didn’t mean much to any of them on an individual basis, but they knew that Star had inexplicably put his life in Dom’s hands, and would care about him by proxy at least while the two of them were so entangled. “We do want to meet. We have a few options…”

Star ran over the options they’d already discussed, pros and cons: Dandelion could try to view the events through Dom’s eyes, but that could be harmful if the spell couldn’t be bypassed easily that way. Viv might, or might not, be able to suppress the spell at all, but they probably wouldn’t get a lot of direct information that way. “Personally, I’m leaning toward the latter,” Star said. “Viv failing to suppress the spell would just fail, and any info is better than none. I mean, I trust Dandelion with my whole being, but it might leave him open and vulnerable to someone trying to attack him, and we don’t know if it’d work fully or do something unexpected.”

“Yeah,” Dom said. “Okay. I’ll meet you, and I agree. We’ll try this thing your friend Vivian can do, I guess? Like you said, if this is actually some really winding way to get someone to Dandelion, he shouldn’t be touching it directly. Also, I don’t like the sound of ‘potential harm’. That is how people get killed down there.”

“So true, bestie.”

Dom snorted a laugh, sounding reluctant, despite himself. “So what’s your address?”

If this is actually some really winding way to get someone to Dandelion… Star sat up straighter, banging an elbow into the table. “Oh shit, you shouldn’t come here, right?”

“…Damn. No, you’re right. If they found me once they could do it again. Then they’d have your address.”

“Third party location,” Star said. “Somewhere neutral where we can still get dinner.”

“How about Hanger 7?” Dom asked. “It’s a restaurant, bar and grill sort of place. It doesn’t usually get active until later in the evening, and there’s these big, curved, C-shaped booths, so we can have privacy too.”

“Fantastic call. Love it,” Star said. Dom had mentioned it before to other jockeys and workers at the track, he recalled, though Star himself hadn’t gone there with him. It was a normal place for him to suggest, and Star truly did not think that someone would think far enough ahead to plant other locations in his brain, anyway. Plus it’d be hard for a strange witch to start something there. “Meet at six?”

“I’ll be there.” There was enough of a pause that Star wasn’t totally sure if he’d been dismissed, then: “Star?”

“Yeah, Dom?”

“Thank you.” He said it quietly, almost awkward. “I’m kind of freaked out, but it means a lot that you were honest and gave me a choice here.”

Star’s sweaty hand was sticking to the table, he realized. “Of course. You’re my guy.”

“See you soon.” This time, Dom did hang up.

Star brought the news of Dom’s choice back to the others, and they spent the rest of time just preparing a little, Dandelion upping the glamours around himself to deflect spying eyes, Viv researching on the internet to try to make sure she had the spell right, and the other three, Star included, just kind of getting ready for a normal dinner hangout. Ugh, clothes. Star picked silk pants that flowed around his legs and a graphic tee with ATTENTION HORSE written across the chest.

Then it was time to go.

Hanger 7 was exactly as Dom had described it: dark rooms, music just loud enough to make it hard to hear other people, and mostly-enclosed booths that let them all look at each other. Star introduced Dom to the others, and Dom and Dandelion eyed each other up with the way that guys got when they both cared about the same person and didn’t know each other yet. They declined to shake hands, but Dom said it was because if this spell thing had an effect he didn’t want it to trigger on touch.

They ordered drinks to start with, and once their drinks came they then ordered entrees, knowing it would buy them time without any servers stopping by while their meals were cooked. Then Dom groaned, “Okay, I’d like to get it over with, I am really freaked out.”

“Yeah, I get you,” Viv said. “It’s fine. We can do it right now, have a nice meal after. Put your hands in mine and try not to think about anything in particular. You’re gonna start to feel like you’re dreaming, if this works.”

“Cool. Not at all nerve wracking.” He put his big hands in her tiny ones, and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths.

Viv held them for a few moments, chanting softly, and Star smelled the sudden sharp pumpkin scent of her magic. Slowly, she pulled her hands back from Dom’s, looking all to the world like she was holding a very squirmy invisible eel that she was desperately trying not to let go of. She pinned it to the table with her palms. “Okay,” Viv said, in that carefully-enunciated way of drunks and of spellcasters mid-spell. “I can’t take it off entirely. It’s suppressed, but not cancelled. Dominic won’t remember things directly himself, but if you ask questions, he may be able to actually reach answers this time. Only what he’d actually have known or heard or seen at the time, though, it’s still him we’re interrogating, not the spell.”

Shit. What should they ask?

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No new part today—having a real time of it and just need a rest day. <3

The turn-in period for your suggestions on Day 5’s part is extended until Oct 7 at the usual time (3 pm PST). That’s right, you get a whole extra day, so give it a read and send me your comments! 😀

Here’s a picrew of Star to tide ya over.

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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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