A week or so passes while our heroes lay low wondering if a dragon is going to appear and eat them. It doesn't. Magda is mostly healed up from being chewed on by a lion-dog. It's late September.
Aloycius calls Dill and tells him he should look up this guy Miles who used to be such a party animal. He also calls Miles and asks him to look out for Dill. This will take a bit of doing. So that Friday night, Dill goes to Mallory's and is a bit surprised when Mallory doesn't card him at all but tells him to go into the back room... where there are a lot of fae. He asks Pricilla (who he has met before at MIT) who Miles is, and goes up and introduces himself. Desiree is also there, and the three of them talk some. Then Miles is called away to talk to someone in the front room. Desiree meanwhile briefs Dill on things not to ask Miles about.
Miles meets a Swedish model type guy named Allen, who has somewhat of a dancing-around-the-point discussion with him about their mutual enemy - the KOT department. Allen represents some people who want information on the KOT, but they don't have the computer hacking skills to get it. They do believe they can help a hacker get in, though. Although he doesn't come right out and say it, Miles is left with the impression that Allen is a space alien. Really, how many Swedish male models do you know who drink sugar water? Allen seems to think that Miles and the fae are extradimensional aliens. Whatever. Miles says he'll see what he can do, and Allen tells him where he is staying.
Milton, meanwhile, is at a function and finds out from a Chinese business associate that Mr. Li's funeral was the day before... his daughter, who no one knew existed, will apparently be inheriting the business.
Maggie is watching movies with her kids when she sees a red glow out in the woods. She calls Miles to tell him to come over (he brings Desiree and Dill) and heads out into the woods herself. There are three demons there, having just come up from Hell looking to find out information about the sword. They're very up front about it, and Magda fills them in with what she knows about it. Apparently Bertiel and friends are pretty much beating the stuffing out of demonkind. Magda asks if this will bring about Armageddon early, but they don't know - apparently opinions are mixed. Miles and the crew arrived and are much less cavalier about dealing with demons. The demons thank Magda and head back to Hell.
Afterward the four fae sit around on the back porch talking until
they are interrupted by a pair of shadow figures that attack Dill.
One is killed, and turns out to be just that - a shadow figure. The
sunsword destroys it.
After that, everyone heads home.
Dill spends the rest of the night with a hair of a demon (left behind in the woods) and discovers that it has genetic material, and that he can inject it into yeast. Cool!
In the morning, nothing happens because most people are sleeping late, but by noon Miles is having lunch with Milton and talking about Allen. They arrange a meeting for that evening. Meanwhile Dill discovers that demonic yeast is a problem, and tries a lot of things to eradicate it. Eventually Baron Mechanisman shows up with some blessed liquid nitrogen and that finally kills it, but things are touch-and-go for a while. Everyone else is left with the impression that the demon hair caused a pile of trouble, as when Dill asks for help to dispose of the remains he leaves out the part of the story where he performed demonic gene-splicing. They arrange to have that happen on Sunday.
Desiree visits Sir Ten, who is trying to find a new court wizard for Boston. Discussion turns to the Duke and his deepening madness. Desiree suggests that it could be something nefairious again, and they have Miles come look over the Duke. He's pretty mad, all right, mumbling in a chair in front of the fire. Miles discovers that the divided land of Boston and Cambridge is too much for one Duke alone to deal with - at least this Duke - and the combined weight of the land is driving him mad. They discuss having him abdicate, which would restore his sanity, but it's hard to figure out how to have him do that in his present state. Miles is also unsure whether Sir Ten would be a good Duke... maybe his divided nature would allow him to carry the Duchy... or maybe he'd just come apart more quickly. Miles promises to figure that out, and then some action can be taken. Desiree is able to get through to the Duke a little, and he seems to be willing to put down his burden as long as there is someone else to pick it up.
We stop just before Miles and Milton's meeting with the space alien. Tune in next week!
Player Notes: