Day One Thousand One Hundred And Ninety-Three

Dear Diary,

What. The ever-loving. Fuck.

For what it's worth, those were my exact words when I saw the sunset from Battle Conn on the Black Dragon.

"Forgive me, Goddess. It took me longer than it should have to locate you."

I shook my head, turning to face Tallulah, who for her part looked... Ashamed. I reached out, and I think if she'd been the slightest bit less self-controlled, she'd have flinched. I pulled her to me, murmuring, "T, it is not your fault that I zoned out when that asshole hit me with that whammy."

"No, but you'd told me where you were. It took some time to sort out a way to find you that did not alert our host to your presence."

I shook my head as the thick, armored door opened, Saffron and Siobhan both darting forward before Furtim squeezed herself through. "Still not your fault. Speaking of our host, isn't this some kind of breach of hospitality?"

She shrugged. "A minor one. The prankster who absconded with your attention was not of his household. So he's bound to assist any guests who suffered harm, but therein lies the rub." When I raised an eyebrow, pulling Saffron and Siobhan to me, she explained, "you were not a guest of the Lord of Sun's Harbor."

"Oh. Oh, shit, did I break another Threshold?"

Saffron chuckled. "I think he might have noticed. No, you snuck into his hall, not his home, and I'm fairly certain your Blend slipped you through any defenses he might have had."

"Well. I guess that's good at least. So we don't owe him anything?"

Tallulah shrugged. "If anything he owes me a small debt, as I was forced to defend myself, but," she paused, head titling as she worked to summarize what was no doubt vast amounts of Fae protocol into something my poor Goof brain could comprehend. "he was, as noted, a prankster. A roving jester using Fairy magics ostensibly to entertain. He was ejected shortly after his theft, but his offense was ."

"Just ejected?"

She shrugged. "It's a worse penalty than one might think Underhill, although less so for one versed in Fairy magic."

"Wait, Fairy? Aren't those the weird not Fae M-Space natives?" She nodded. "So... Was that dude a Fairy?"

She grimaced, although something told me it wasn't entirely the question. "No. Well, not that I could tell. Simply versed in their magic. It is... Unruly."

"You okay, T?"

"I suspect she's uncomfortable this deep inside this much steel, love."

T nodded, and I scooped her up and pushed past the others and out of the armored Conn. "Why were we in there, anyhow?"

"To help break you free of his influence, of course."

The others followed me down to our cabin, where I carefully lay T on the bed. "Kinda surprised you didn't come riding to the rescue with your new Shape, Kitten."

I did not expect a Menace worthy pout from my tiny tyrant, nor Siobhan and Furtim both to snicker. I mean, definite different sounds, but the emotion was identical. I looked at the two of them, but both of them shook their heads. Siobhan even said, "not my story to tell."

Saffron huffed, then deflated, flopping that bodacious behind on the bunk next to Tallulah. "When Elle contacted me, informed me you'd gone missing, my initial thought, after you didn't respond to my prayers, was to look through your eyes."

"And?"

She waved me over, and when I leaned in close, grabbed me by the ear. "Never claim that you are weak of mind or will, Tabitha."

"Huh?"

Saffron's mouth worked, but nothing came out. Eventually she pursed her lips and waved at Siobhan, who explained. "Our Kitten wound up with one of her staring at the wall, utterly transfixed, for the past nine hours."

"One of her?"

Siobhan opened her mouth to reply, then closed it and looked at Saffron, who finally barked out something like a laugh. "I was Co-Located, one doing research, one managing the Grand Council. I thought to look through your eyes with the one of me researching, who lost at least a few hours while I closed things out with the Council. At which point I collapsed back to one of me, and..."

She blushed, going silent, and Siobhan said, "she lost the rest of the day like that, until the moment Tallulah put that on your head."

"Speaking of, is it safe to take it off?"

Saffron shrugged. "That's why Furtim is here. In case you reacted poorly. She, Marie, and Tallulah are among the few who can survive restraining you should someone cloud your perception of us."

"Marie?"

She smiled. "Home with the children. We've let them know that you're helping the Overlord with some things, and will be home soon."

I sighed, reached up, and looked at Furtim before saying, "if I go stupid or something, make sure this gets back on me?"

She nodded, I lifted the Cold Iron helmet off my head, and fuck all happened. No return to staring at the wall, no amnesia, nothing. Just me standing there feeling kinda stupid.

"Okay. I get that Saffron got sucked into my brain freeze, but I'm not getting how T no sold something that took me out for a day?"

Tallulah, who'd been looking better since we got out of the bridge, pulled herself up behind Saffron, leaned her chin on my Kitten's shoulder, and said, "a combination of factors, I think?"

I got a wicked impulse, slipped some tentacles around her, and lifted her up to standing. "Explain it to us?"

When she opened her mouth, I started walking her along about six inches off the floor. She blinked, looked at me, and said, "that's very distracting."

"Yeah, well. You weren't looking up to pacing."

"I'm not."

"So I'm helping!"

She sighed, shook  her head, and started talking. And moving back and forth through the room courtesy of my surreptitious tentacles. "First, I have centuries of training in resisting things of this exact nature. Centuries of training and millennia of experience."

"Fairy magic?"

She nodded. "More specifically, Fae and Fairy compulsions. While our nature gives us some resistance to certain kinds of compulsions, when they are aligned with our natures, it can be especially hard for us to resist them. Which is part of how you were ensnared, I think. But I digress."

"Me too!" She looked at me. "It's a hobby. Go on."

She sighed, then smiled as I took the opportunity to massage her calves and feet a little as I walked her back and forth. "That's very pleasant. At any rate, along with that training, I was an invited guest in the Hall of the Lord or Sun's Harbor. As such, the defenses of his Hall protected me as well. Finally, I did not, as you mentioned, 'no sell' the effect. I lost perhaps a few moments, enough that at first I thought your silence was because you'd chosen to pursue him. Most of the guests did so as well; no more or less than might be lost to someone asking for attention with no magic at all, really."

I nodded. "Okay, so you got the minimal effect. Why did I catch the whammy so hard again?"

She nodded, then paused with her mouth open until I started moving her again, including the ongoing foot massage. "The precise opposite of my situation, really. First, you'd come into the Lord's Hall uninvited, which weakened your innate defenses against Fae and thus Fairy magic to an unknown degree. In addition, the defenses which protected me may have seen you as an intruder and had the opposite effect to protecting you."

"They could tell I was there when I was Blended enough for you to have trouble finding me?"

She shrugged. "They are not sapient. No matter how you Blend, a caltrop would still lame you."

"Eh. Depends if my defenses are up."

"A Cold Iron caltrop?"

"Okay, okay, point taken. Anything else?"

"Other than how much I'm enjoying this, despite it being utterly undignified?" I took the 'no move, no talk' hint and started her moving again. "Thank you. At any rate, you've no real training in how to resist such things, and as the Imperator discovered, Co-Location might have helped you from being overwhelmed, but you were not. Also, whereas my nature is more or less neutral as regards fascination, your own..."

She trailed off and looked at Saffron, who nodded and said, "I believe the term I read, and have heard you use, is hyperfixation? Perhaps hyperfocus?"

Tallulah added, "so you are particularly susceptible to attacks on the Mind designed to fascinate."

"Well. Shit. Really hope nobody caught on, because that's a big glaring weak spot."

Saffron shrugged. "I doubt anyone did, and better we find out about it with some random prankster than while dealing with an actual enemy."

"Any progress on that Shape yet?"

She shook her head. "Not enough to be useful. Elle?"

"Yes, Kitten?"

Saffron pursed her lips, then turned to me and patted her lap. "Bring her here."

Ever obedient to my wife's desires, I gently set Tallulah on her lap. I also spread the lower extremity massage to everyone in the room. I mean, not myself. Doesn't work like that. But all of them, including Furtim, relaxed, groaning a little. "Need bigger chairs."

I shrugged. "Sorry, Furtim."

She shrugged and dropped into a tailor's seat. At that point Saffron said, "now, Elle, could you see your way to assisting with my research?"

"Of course, Imperator." Saffron raised an eyebrow. "Of course, Mistress." Kitten's other eyebrow went up. "Of course, Kitten."

I loved seeing that little smile curve Saffron's lips. "Much better."

"Unfortunately, not only am I not truly an expert on compulsions, fascinations are a subcategory with which I've almost no experience."

Something about her words popped an idea into my head full formed, but I kept it under wraps, because even with the Black Dragon's hull between us and Scrying, I figured I could solo this one in particular. Well, mostly. Karen?

Goddess?

Get the oubliette ready, I'm gonna need it soon.

Yes, Goddess.

Now that we knew I wasn't gonna wind up going tharn again, we all headed back to the Homestead. Okay, Furtim had to head back to the Conquering, because the Legion needed its Prefect. And we didn't leave immediately, because Saffron thought the room needed some long tall Sidhe Lady flavoring, and once we did that it just seemed gauche not to include Furtim. So weird, the difference between 'I have no drives to do this, but I enjoy it as a hobby' and 'my drives are purely procreative, but I enjoy being included for social reasons'.

Takes all kinds, I guess.

At any rate, headed home, where Marie had the kids cooking pizza. Each and every one of our kids had made at least one pizza, and they came out as varied as you might expect. Lots of focaccia bread, some basically Sicilian thick crust stuff, but four of the girls managed that perfect thin Neapolitan crust. Ria was a no brainer when it came to 'follow the recipe exactly', and if I didn't expect that out of Lindsey, I'd kind of learned to expect unexpected competence out of my little woodsy girl. I guess Daya's whole maker thing gave her an edge; she's been focusing on using her hands, and I guess that translated. The real surprise wound up being Isadora. Apparently she's got the whole dough spinning thing down.

Dreamt of my Archmagi fascinating one another in my Maw. Just staring at one another as they sank beneath the surface, dissolving without ever breaking eye contact.

In the morning I split myself around like I normally did. One of me training Cadets in how to do unto others; specifically in pairs today. A couple of me watching over and playing with the kids. One each in the Overlord's Keep, Academy Infirmary, and Homestead Kitchen. Another half dozen doing Academy Maid things, and I snuck one of me into each of the other Academies in full Maid regalia, but Blended enough to watch their process; I wanted to help, not fuck shit up.

And one of me on Treachery Rock, who right before the end of the day, thought, Saffron? Scrying Room. Karen? Oubliette.

Before they even replied I was in the Scrying Room, standing in front of one of the unused mirrors, shaping a Scry.

On somebody I'd apparently been hyperfixated on for a whole fuckin' day.

The Scry cleared, handed the shape to Saffron to hold it in place, then Co-Located to the other side with my Blend at 'I never existed', grabbed the dude, Translocated back to the Temple of Love and dropped him into the oubliette. The moment he appeared, Karen flipped the trapdoor shut.

I leaned down to look at him as Saffron showed up at my side. "You might think you're in trouble, and that might ordinarily be true, but it seems my wife is in need of a specialist in fascination magic."