Starbright

"Much obliged." As Lorn left the room, Pelan took a seat at the table, next to a thin, wiry person with long hair tied back in a tail who eyed her warily.

"Sala," they said.

The word meant 'swift'. Pelan blinked. "Who? Me?"

"Me," they said, and grinned just a little bit, though there was no humor in it. "Sala is my name."

"Ah. Pelan. Pleased to meet you." She leaned in and lowered her voice a little bit. "Hey, what's going on in this place? Why's everyone all..." She looked around the room again. It was mostly silent. What few conversations were happening were happening in hushed tones, and many of the people here were eating in morbid silence, staring at their food.

"Same reason that we called for a Knight. You know anything about monsters, wanderer?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

That made several of the folks around the table look up at her again, this time with raised eyebrows and curiosity. She took a look at them, and said, "I take it that this village has a monster problem?"

"You could say that," said Lorn, who had returned with a plate heaped with toast slathered in butter, fried eggs with pepper, and a cut of finely seasoned deer steak. Whatever problems this town had, it clearly didn't have anything to do with their food supplies.

"Hello!" said Pelan. "You honor me with this meal." That was another traditional thing, just something you said when someone gave you food, but it also happened to be true in this case. She hadn't been given a meal this hearty since... She couldn't even remember the last time.

"People have been disappearing from their beds in their sleep, during the day," said Lorn as Pelan began eagerly stuffing food into her mouth. "Before that happens, they are afflicted with some sort of wasting illness which causes them to grow pale and cold, and they are struck with intense hunger that no food can satisfy. If you know about monsters, do you know what sort of creature could do such a thing?"

"Sure," said Pelan through a mouthful of egg. "Vampire, probably."

She realized how closely the rest of the room was listening to their conversation when half of them gasped, and a fresh round of murmurs broke out. Some of the children, especially, looked very fearful indeed. "Mama?" she heard one say with a small, quivering voice, "Did a vampire take papa away?"

"Ah! Wait," Pelan added quickly, and loudly. "You said that folks have been disappearing in their sleep? During the day? If that's the case then it almost certainly was not a vampire. They're only active at night. They don't tend to like it here in Felu Shala, since we sleep during the day and are awake and aware during the only times that they can hunt, so they all go to other places, where folks sleep at night. It's easier for them to find prey that way."

It wasn't strictly true - she had read that vampires were harmed by sunlight, but she also knew for a fact that there were at least a few of them active in Felu Shala. Luckily, it seemed to calm the townsfolk a little bit.

"Well," said one of them, "then what could it be?"

"Well, um..." Pelan took another hefty bite of egg, to give herself time to think. "The symptoms that you've described sound like Witherplague, but that wouldn't spread to just one person at a time. When a person comes down with this sickness, have you tried setting a watchperson to look over them while they sleep?"

"Yes," said Sala. "We did that with every person after the second. All six of them. No matter who who is watching over the sick person, no matter what their constitution, they always doze off for a few minutes around midday. When they wake up, their ward is gone. Torlyn was the last person to disappear. We had no less than five people watching over her, and watching each other to make sure that nobody fell asleep. The room was also locked, and the window boarded."

"Didn't help, huh?" said Pelan.

Sala shook their head gravely. "All five of them fell asleep at the same time. When they awoke, Torlyn was gone. The door was still locked and the windows still boarded."

"Spooky. How long in between each of the disappearances?"

"There has been one each night," said Lorn. "For the past eight days."

Pelan whistled. "I see now why nobody here is feeling very jovial." She thought for a moment. Vampire seemed unlikely, since this was all happening during the day. Ghosts and spirits sometimes stole people away from their beds, but they usually struck without warning - they didn't make people sick before they took them. The only type of creature that she could think of which matched all the signs was... "Tell me, Lorn, were the people affected by this sickness, ah..."

She looked at the children in the room, who were all leaning towards her with fearful faces. She turned away from them and whispered into Lorn's ear, "Were the ones affected struck with an urge for sex?"

That made them blush a deep purple, but they said, "Yes. Uncontrollably so. When the hunger strikes them, it seems that that's all that they can think about before it renders them unable to move."

"Oh! Yeah, I know exactly what it is, then. You folks have got a dreamrider on your hands."

Another fresh wave of whispers. Lorn furrowed their brow. "What is a dreamrider?"

"Type of demon," she said through a fresh mouthful of toast. "Do you know where it's hiding? Usually they like to set up a little spot for themselves away from where they do their hunting."

"Grandpa Nonin talked with the Sheis, and they said it's hiding in the Starbright grove!" one of the children burst out. Their parent quickly put a hand on their shoulder and said, "Hush!" but it was too late.

"Starbrights?" said Pelan, her ears perking up. "You folks have Starbright mushrooms?"

"Yes," said Lorn reluctantly, shooting a scolding look at the child. "We don't normally tell strangers about them."

"Yes, of course you wouldn't," said Pelan. "Very dangerous in the wrong hands, Starbrights." Her demeanor was calm, but her mind was racing. Starbrights! If she could get her hands on just one of those, she wouldn't even need to see that Speaker in Kolan Aun! She could go back home to Belan Telu and give it to her sister, and the two of them could finally...

Well, she was getting ahead of herself. Starbrights were usually well-protected. She'd have to convince them to let her have one, first, and that would probably be difficult.

"Mm," said Lorn. "What did you say that your name was?"

"Pelan."

"Pelan, how are you so knowledgeable about monsters and Starbrights and such?"

The true answer was that her schooling was exquisite and she had led a very chaotic and very dangerous life for the past six years. But it occurred to her that she should say something else. Something that was not true, but would go a long way towards making the plan that was percolating in her head go more smoothly.

"Well, Lorn, it's funny that you should ask that," she said with her best, brightest smile. "I take it from that dais there between these tables that this dining hall also serves as your village meeting place?"

"Yes," they said with a frown. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"And I take it that most of the folks who live in this town are here already?"

"This is the whole town," said Lorn. "You're going to make a proposal for a vote?"

She was already walking to the center of the dais. She didn't yet know what she was going to say, exactly, but Pelan was good at thinking on her feet, and indeed, it came to her the moment that she stepped up onto the cool grey stone.

"People of Bora Lys!" she said, loudly, which was traditional, but unnecessary, since everyone was already looking at her anyway. "I have told you that I am not a Knight of the Order of the Chrysanthemum. This is true, but I am afraid that I may have mislead you. I am not a Knight of the Chrysanthemum, but I am a Mage of the Chrysanthemum."

More muttering. Sala narrowed their eyes at her. "Why didn't you just say that before?"

It was a good question, and the true answer was because she didn't need to come off as trustworthy and competent enough that the village would agree to give her a Starbright before. There were only a handful of Starbright groves in all of Felu Shala, and it was widely known among those who tried to get their hands on them that they were, all of them, very carefully guarded.

And for good reason. A person could do terrible, terrible things with a Starbright, even if their intentions were good. They were notoriously hard to work with, and Pelan had read more than one cautionary tale during her schooling of alchemists and sorcerers who had accidentally killed themselves and others while trying to make use of them.

But who better to give a Starbright to than a member of the Order? They were known all throughout Felu Shala for their good sense, and, more importantly, their incredibly skilled scholars and academics.

"I didn't know that you had a monster problem before," said Pelan, the words coming out as if by themselves. "But now that I do, I have a proposition for you! I will rid your town of this creature, and in return I ask only that I be allowed to take one of your Starbrights. Just one."

She had definitely struck a chord. The elderly person in the corner grabbed their cane from beside the table and ambled over to Lorn and Sala, speaking quietly with them, and she could hear things like "It's only one. We would be getting the better part of that trade," and "If they really can rid us of the creature it'd be worth it," which only made her confident smile grow.

"I will, of course, answer any questions that you may have before you put it to a vote," she said to the room.

"Hold on," said Sala. "If you're a member of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, where's your pendant?"

"Those are only issued to Knights. As I said, I am a Mage." The lie slipped out of her without even having to think about it.

"And you are not the Knight that we asked for, but you just happened to stumble upon our village after we sent out the call?" asked Lorn suspiciously.

"Yes. A happy coincidence."

"I think that you're lying," said Sala. "The stories say that all of the members of the Order carry the Chrysanthemum pendant."

Before she could respond to that, one of the townsfolk behind her said, "I don't care if they are lying. If they can bring Torlyn back to us, I will vote to give them whatever they want. They can have all of the Starbrights."

There were mutterings of agreement throughout the room. Most of them seemed to share this sentiment, it seemed.

"You understand," came a quiet, creaky voice from the front of the room, and Pelan saw that it was the elder with the cane, "that if we give you a Starbright, and you do harm to the world with it, then we are culpable in the eyes of the Sheis."

"I assure you, grandparent, that I intend to do no harm to anyone with the Starbright. It will be treated with care and used only for a good purpose." That one wasn't even a lie.

"Well, Mage, you seem to be confident in your ability to defeat this creature," said Sala. "Tell us, in your estimation, if the monster plaguing us is a dreamrider, as you say, is there even any chance that our missing friends and loved ones are still alive?"

That... made Pelan hesitate. She could have continued to lie. It probably would have improved her odds of leaving this town with a Starbright in-hand if she did. But...

No. She wouldn't lie about that. In the past six years she had done some things that she wasn't proud of, but she wouldn't go that far. "I... Cannot promise that they are. I can't know for certain. But what I can promise you is that if they are, I will do everything that I can to bring them back to you, safe and unharmed."

Oh dear. The room had gone silent. Off to her side, one of the townsfolk began to gently weep, and Pelan's conscious caught up to her. What was she doing? Was this really worth it? Even if she-

"Well," said Sala. "What have we got to lose? The motion at hand is to give Pelan here a Starbright if they succeed in ridding us of the creature that has been stealing us away. All those in favor?"

Everyone in the room raised their hand. Everyone, including Sala. Including the children, who weren't even old enough to vote.

"Well, that's that," said Sala. "May the Eight bless and guide you, Pelan."

--

Pelan's thoughts were chaotic as she made her way to the edge of town. They had told her the way to the Starbright grove, and told her about the strange magic that prevented them from approaching it. Demon magic. She would be able to handle it, she was sure of it, and that would likely be the hardest part of this whole thing. Dreamriders were easy, after all.

Oh, they were dangerous, to be sure, but the thing about dreamriders was that they were all practically champing at the bit to jump into the world from the Otherplace, for nothing satisfied them like the mortals who were so abundant here. That meant that they would usually take any means that were available to them to get here, and those means were often... Shoddy. Most of the time, the only thing keeping a dreamrider in the world was a thin string of magic. Cut the string, and they were thrown back into the Otherplace.

Pelan was no archmage or, indeed, a Mage of the Order, but she was was able to do such a trivial banishing. Dreamriders could be very convincing, but it only took a thought and a moment to get rid of one. She wasn't worried about that part. She was thinking, now, about the townsfolk who had already disappeared. Eight of them...

Different people were more or less resistant to the magic of a dreamrider, but even the weakest-willed folks could fuck a dreamrider once and be mostly fine. (And fucking was really all that a dreamrider ever wanted to do, really.) Pelan knew this from experience. Once you were done, you would find yourself exhausted, and perhaps with a hazy memory of the fucking itself, but after a day or two you'd be back on your feet and feeling as well as ever.

If you did it twice within a few days, though, you'd find yourself growing pale and clammy, shivering with cold even in the heat, and you would start to get hungry, craving the touch of the demon again. Food would no longer taste pleasant, nor would having sex with anyone but the dreamrider, though it was common for their victims to quite voraciously attempt to slake their thirst with anyone who would have them. These were the symptoms that had tipped Pelan off when the villagers had mentioned the strange sickness, for they were quite unique to dreamriders. No other creature that she knew of could affect a person in that way.

She hoped that the missing villagers had only had sex with the dreamrider twice, because if you did it more than that, things started to get bad. Three times in close succession and you would be too weak to walk, unless you were in the dreamrider's presence, and you would start to forget more important things. Things like your own name, and the faces of your loved ones. Depending on the person, sometimes those memories never came back. Four times, though... Pelan had never heard of anyone living through four encounters with a dreamrider.

The thing was, dreamriders knew what they did to mortals. If they just staggered out their encounters, fucked one person then moved on to the next, then the next, and so on, they could have all of the sex they wanted without draining anyone to the point of harming them. But they never did. Once a dreamrider got a hold of you, they fucked you until there was nothing left. And that was why she didn't hold much hope that these missing people were still alive.

She hoped she was wrong.

She found the grove without much difficulty. It was hard to miss the magic emanating from it, when you knew how to feel it. When she closed her eyes, she could see the glow of the Starbrights even from far outside of it, but she could also see... Something else. Other magic, hanging like a fog over the whole place. A spell of repulsion, probably, from what the townsfolk had described. Typical dreamrider demon-magic.

It was hard to get rid of demon-magic with sorcery. Beyond her abilities, anyway. Just as she suspected, this would be difficult. She would have to use Speaking. Her body couldn't handle very powerful god-magic, and half the time the Sheis didn't grant her requests in the first place. It was the only way that she was going to be able to do this, though, so she had to try. "Krolosh Shei," she whispered in her Voice when she came to the edge of the spell, "please disperse this magic so that I can confront and banish the demon plaguing this town."

Nothing happened. Pelan furrowed her brow. She knew that she had been heard. The Sheis always listened, even if they didn't always respond. She tried again. "Krolosh Shei, I know that I didn't entirely tell the villagers the truth back there, but you know that if their friends and family are still alive, I will do my best to see them back to their homes. And I really will banish the demon. Surely that can only be a good thing?"

There was a ripple in the air and a quivering in her chest as Krolosh's magic worked through her. The fog didn't disappear, but when Pelan closed her eyes again, she saw that there was a sphere of light surrounding her. It cut through the fog of magic around the grove, rendering it ineffective on her. Hopefully.

"Good enough," she said, and she started to walk towards the invisible lights in the distance.

--

Most of the folks in the dining hall had left, once they had sent Pelan off. Nobody had been sleeping well lately - after all, none of them knew who was going to be next - but there was still work to be done. The farms needed to be tended to, at the very least, and the town's clothes washed, and the bathhouse cleaned.

Lorn was still there, though. He couldn't focus on work today. Not after that. Nonin was there too, muttering quietly to himself while leaning on his cane, as he often did. Sala was idly braiding a bit of her hair - a nervous habit of hers.

"I still don't believe that they were part of the Order of the Chrysanthemum," said Sala after a while.

"Nor do I," said Nonin. "I hope that we have not made a mistake."

"All we can do now is hope," said Lorn. "Hope and wait."

More silence... Until there came a knock at the front door. They all rushed to answer it at the same moment. Sala would have lived up to her name and made it there first, but for the fact that Lorn had been sitting much closer. He opened the door, hoping to see Pelan's round face and cheeky grin, but...

Only one of the people who greeted him at the door was grinning, but it certainly wasn't cheeky. It was more like a soft smile than a grin, really. There was no mischief in it. They were quite average in appearance, from the neck up, at least - blue skin, the color of the sky on a clear day, snowy white hair, golden eyes - all very mundane. From the neck down... Well, it was hard to miss that chest. They seemed to be quite proud it - their robe was fastened in a way that showed off quite a lot, and there was quite a lot to show off. That robe was also embroidered: there were words stitched in all along the hem. At a quick glance, Lorn noticed the names of several of the Greater Sheis, Vela especially. This person was a Speaker, then.

Their companion, though... Lorn had never seen a person who looked quite like them. They were short, for one. The top of their head barely reached the level of Lorn's chin. More striking, though, was their face. Their ears were round, not pointed, their skin was a deep reddish-brown in color, and their hair was black, tied up in a loose, messy bun. Even more striking than that was the armor. They wore a suit of mail made out of glinting, silvery metal, and on the gorget there was an engraving of a many-petaled flower.