They drove until sunrise, at which point they found another motel. They stayed in during the day, and Lacy tinkered with the hotel’s clock radio until she found her way onto the police broadcasts. High numbers of disappearances plagued the country. Sightings of deformed humans with rotting skin and red eyes made local news, and nobody seemed sure of what to make of it.

Another day passed, followed by another night of driving. Gwen continued to fill her in on the long, sordid history of the Sovereignty: their feud with the Damocles Guild began in earnest during the High Middle Ages, as the Guild began conducting witch hunts throughout Europe and Asia Minor in search of collaborators with Sea People, the Infernals, and the various other monsters that roamed the surface in those days. 

“But how did the Guild pose a threat against a bunch of wizards?” Lacy asked as she sat in the passenger’s seat of the truck while Gwen drove. Danny slept in the back seat.

“Not all mages are created equal,” Gwen said. “Some of them just… Suck, frankly. Even if they’re from a powerful family, even if both their parents were hugely powerful, sometimes a mage can just be born with very little magical capacity. Usually it means you can use pyromancy and nothing else. Sometimes, though, you get my brother Tristan, who couldn’t even do that much, but I digress. Anyway, once, about a thousand years ago, some Guildsmen got it into their heads to kidnap the heir to House Koenig to try to negotiate a surrender, end the fighting once and for all. This, obviously, was a terrible plan that resulted in the Sovereignty bringing all their mages to the Guild’s original headquarters in Switzerland and massacring everyone there. Only a handful of survivors made it out, and they were basically scattered to the wind for the next couple hundred years, until the Sovereignty started relocating to the new world. This allowed the Guild to start re-establishing themselves in Europe and Asia, at the expense of the Sovereignty basically having the full run of the Americas for about two hundred and fifty years. Not for lack of trying- the Salem Witch Trials, for instance, were something the Guild drummed up to get the colonists concerned about mages in their midst. Granted, there were mages in their midst, and they had this tendency to use Native American captives for blood magic rituals, so maybe they were onto something there. And, you know, the whole kidnapping and indoctrinating children thing. But again, I digress.”

“What changed?” Danny asked. He’d woken up unnoticed, begun twirling one of his knives between his fingers. The Mackinac Bridge appeared in the distance, sprawling over the lake towards the Upper Peninsula. 

“World War I,” Gwen said. 

They came upon the bridge, and Lacy listened to the ground vanish beneath her, listened to the wind swaying the lakewater in the night. The moon and the stars illuminated the sky, a vast tapestry of cosmic light, and Lacy put her hand over her heart and felt her own light. “How do you mean?” she asked. 

Gwen elaborated, “The sheer amount of death and destruction in Europe wiped out most of the remaining monster population, not to mention most of their habitable territory. There just wasn’t as much for the Guild to do in Europe. On top of that, the colonial presence in Africa had made staying there impractical for over a hundred years, and the Soviet Union and the PRC were on the rise in Asia, plus Imperial Japan about a decade later. The Americas were the most viable option, so they all started coming over here.”

“I’m guessing the Sovereignty didn’t like that,” Lacy said. They were the only car crossing the bridge in the dead of night. 

“Oh yeah, big time. The Sovereignty had set up schools in the Americas by then, meeting places, even a central headquarters in Boston. The massive sprawls of untamed wilderness made it easier to go unnoticed.”

“Makes sense,” Lacy said. They crossed the halfway point of the bridge. 

“I’m guessing gang violence started breaking out?” Danny said.

“Oh you have no idea,” Gwen said. “A lot of people died. More than either side could afford, honestly- both of them practically bled to death on the proverbial battlefield, and as a result they declared a ceasefire that’s been in effect ever since. That was the late 1930s.”

“And now all this is happening,” Lacy said. “The Sovereignty unleashing ghouls onto the American population, trying to what- draw the Guild out into another fight?”

“Maybe,” Gwen said. “I’ve got the distinct sense it’s bigger than that, though. If my dad has anything to do with this- and I am convinced that he does- then there’s a much larger goal he’s pursuing. Hell, the ghouls might just be a smokescreen while he pursues his actual target.”

“Christ,” Danny said, unscrewing his flask. 

The bridge met land again, and they crossed into the Upper Peninsula. A small town stretched lazily in the early morning before them, and they passed through to its outer edge by sundown and checked into an inn. 

Another day passed gathering information and keeping out of sight. That night, they got in the car once more, and by the next morning they had crossed state lines into Wisconsin. A few more days of driving during the night and sleeping during the day went by, during which time ghouls were sighted in three more states. The Feds were involved, and finally, after a week of listening, Lacy heard their names on the radio. She, Gwen, and Danny were all persons of interest in an ongoing investigation into apparent domestic terrorism. Which, technically, it was, it just wasn’t exactly what they thought it was. The leader of the investigation was a woman named Azru Khan, with two more agents under her named Hannibal Derosier and Akar Bahadur.

One morning, Gwen told them they were a day away from their destination. They were deep into the interior of Wisconsin. It was different from Michigan- different trees; different air, almost- not quite as cold. They stopped at yet another non-descript motel, and Gwen told Lacy and Danny she needed to go into town for supplies.

Lacy slept while Gwen was gone, and didn’t notice her return. When she awoke, Danny was asleep on the floor, and Gwen was in the bathroom with the door open. Lacy looked over and saw her teacher in a red tube dress that stopped just above the knee, her short hair squared and coiffed, applying red lipstick to her puckered mouth. 

“You look nice,” Lacy said. 

Gwen’s eyes darted over to Lacy as she finished applying the lipstick and then popped her lips to complete the coverage. She took out a mascara wand. “For a fugitive?”

“Maybe,” Lacy said. “What’s the occasion?”

Gwen cocked an eyebrow. “Well, like I said, we’re a day away from our destination. From my compatriots. Among them is my boyfriend.”

Lacy kept staring.

“Whom I love very much,” Gwen said, applying mascara.

Lacy kept staring.

“So I’m making myself extra pretty for him. Well, mostly for me. But somewhat for him,” Gwen said. 

Lacy put a hand under her chin and said, “I think I get it.”

“Yeah?”

“No, it’s just… It took me a sec, ‘cause I’m still getting used to this whole ‘taking pride in my appearance’ thing. I guess… Well, honestly, I used to think that was something only dumb, vapid girls did.”

Gwen cocked an eyebrow. 

“I… I… I’m not proud of that- I was in serious denial-”

Gwen smiled. “It’s okay, Lacy. Many of us went through a not-like-other-girls phase. Yours just had an extra layer to it. Try not to beat yourself up.”

Lacy gulped, then nodded. Then said, “Uh after you’re done, before we go, could I use the bathroom to do my own makeup?” 

“Of course!” Gwen said. “Lemme know if you need any help.”

Lacy needed help. She handled most of it on her own, but still struggled with accidentally smearing lipstick around her mouth rather than on it. When it was over, she’d given herself a light amount of cosmetics and changed into a dark blue dress with white polka dots and a skirt that stopped just below the knee. She stood in front of the mirror and preened a bit, did a twirl and smiled as the skirt spun around her. She amused herself for a few minutes doing so repeatedly, and then she woke up Danny, who of course only needed five minutes to shave before he was ready to go. 

They left just after sundown this time, and the drive took ninety minutes before they came upon a trailer park. It was largely empty, but for three winnebagos and a box car. They got out of Danny’s truck, parked right in front of the train car. An old white man with wispy hair and the haggard face of someone who’d experienced two hundred years in the span seventy sat at the front of the box car, wearing a suede jacket and a stetson, smoking a cigarillo and staring out into the distance. He had blueprints on his lap for some kind of specialized train engine. “Hey Harry,” Gwen said, extending her hand upward. 

The old man gave a shallow nod, but said nothing. 

“Wait a sec,” Lacy said to the old man, “I know you!”

“Do ya’, now?” Harry said.

“You sold me a radio back in Grand Rapids!”

“I sold lots of radios in Grand Rapids,” Harry shrugged.

“What are you doing here?”

“Business trip.”

Lacy opened her mouth to ask another question, but was interrupted: from each of the winnebagos, a person emerged. One stood with the tall, imposing might of a man who had evidently never eaten bread in his life. He was a wall of muscle, nearly two feet taller than Lacy and several times wider. He had dark brown skin with curly hair cropped in a short, almost managerial style. He wore a blue and green Hawaiian shirt and tan cargo shorts and brown workman’s boots. He emerged from the RV on the far left, and he carried a sword that was wider and taller than he was. The handle was nearly as long as Lacy’s entire midsection, while the blade was twice the size of her entire body. He held it at his side, blade aimed at the ground, and stepped out into the world. He surveyed his surroundings, looked up at the clear sky, cracked his neck and his knuckles, waved at Harry, and then nodded to Gwen.

“Hey Joshua,” Gwen said. 

“Gwen,” he said in an indecipherable tone.

From the right hand side came another man, shorter than the evident Joshua but nearly equal in width and musculature. He was Asian, with long black hair and light brown eyes and freckled skin, and stood around six feet flat with a wide, sturdy frame. He wore a brown suede trench coat that extended all the way to his ankles. As he walked, the insides of his jacket shook- he had weapons in there. Lots of weapons, by the sound of it. Guns, blades, who knew what else. 

Lacy heard a heartbeat rising next to her. She looked over at Gwen, who was biting her lower lip as her snowy cheeks reddened. “Hi Quentin,” she said. 

“Gwen!” Quentin exclaimed. He ran over and scooped her up in his arms in a tight embrace, which she readily returned. She laughed, and she squirmed. Lacy felt an intense desire to avert her eyes. 

“It has been too long, fair one!” he said. His voice was high and almost nasally in spite of his height and build, and yet it was also smooth and full and carried across the entire trailer park. Joshua nodded appreciatively, while Harry lit another cigarillo and started drawing on his blueprints. 

“It has, it has,” Gwen said as she settled back on the ground and shifted backwards. How she did that in high heels was something Lacy filed away to ask her later. “You look good.”

“And you look beautiful as always,” Quentin said without hesitation. “I quite like this hairstyle on you.”

Gwen ran a hand through her hair. “Th-thanks.” Was she giggling?

“Regardless of circumstances, regardless of anything, it is good to see you!” Quentin said. “As well as your companions! A pleasure, the young pair of you! My name is Quentin Jeong! I’m a member of the Damocles Guild, a mage and a monster hunter. As I said, regardless of the circumstances, it is good to meet you!”

He held out his hand. Danny shook it first, eagerly smiling and nodding along. Lacy was somewhat more hesitant, but accepted it as he shook her hand enthusiastically.  

“And I see my good friend has already introduced himself,” Quentin said, gesturing to Joshua. “Joshua Binyomin DaSilva!”

Joshua extended his hand, which was nearly as large as Lacy’s head. She shook it, and the enormous man nodded appreciatively at her and Danny as he did so. 

“Ah,” Quentin said, looking around. “But where is-”

The door to the final winnebago, the one front and center, tore open. Out stepped the most beautiful woman Lacy had ever seen. She was around five-eight or five-nine, with long, curly black hair worn at mid-back length. She had caramel-colored skin and strong shoulders and gently generous curves, and big brown eyes Lacy wanted to get lost in. She wore a red tank top and blue jeans, and Lacy had to consciously tear her gaze away from the girl’s midriff and cleavage and towards her utterly beautiful face. 

“Isabella!” Gwen and Quentin both called at the same time. 

Isabella’s red-painted lips curved into a smile. Lacy’s heart fluttered. Next to her, Danny snickered. Lacy kicked him in the shin. 

“Isabella Ramirez,” the girl said as she approached them. “Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Lacy O’Sullivan,” Lacy said, gulping and trying not to lean forward as she spoke. “Nice to meet you too!”

Danny introduced himself as well, and the lot of them built a campfire in the park’s pit. The day turned to night, and they gathered around the fire and slow-roasted a chicken over it. 

“So what are we contending with, precisely?” Quentin asked. He sat across the fire from Gwen, looked directly at her. 

Gwen sat to Lacy’s right, while Danny sat to her left. Isabella was directly across from her, while Joshua sat between Isabella and Quentin knitting a scarf. 

“Best I can tell,” Gwen said, “My father is planning something. Ghouls have been appearing all throughout the northern half of the country, and even heading as far south as Los Angeles.”

“Further, actually: Mexico City,” Isabella said. 

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. Guild bulletin posted it this morning. They’re trying to keep things stable and underwraps, but there’s a lot of stuff going on down there right now. People going missing, dead bodies showing up in the street in broad daylight.”

“What’s he hoping to accomplish?” Lacy asked. “Your father, I mean? Is he just trying to spread chaos or what?”

“Must be,” Danny said. “Simplest explanation is usually the right one, yeah?”

“Usually, yes,” Gwen said, “But in this case I doubt it.”

“How’s that?” Danny said. He was taking all this in stride. Good for him.

“Because my father doesn’t do things like that,” Gwen said. “He has a reason for everything he does, or at least a self-justification. There’s nobody better at convincing himself he’s the hero of the story than Alistair Albrecht.”

“So what’s his angle then?” Lacy asked. “World domination?”

“Honestly? I’ve given it a lot of thought, and yeah, probably.”

There was a pregnant silence over the campground, save for Harry whittling on the deck of his box car.

Lacy laughed. 

Danny laughed.

Everyone gave them a collective look of annoyance, and the strangulating silence brought Lacy’s amusement to a thundering hault. “What?” Lacy said.

“I’m serious, guys,” Gwen said.

“No you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“But there’s no way he’s after world domination.”

“What makes you say that?” Joshua asked.

“Because it’s completely ridiculous. Nobody actually wants to take over the world!”

“The Nazis wanted to take over the world,” Isabella pointed out. “And the Soviets. Napoleon. The British Empire. The Spanish Empire.”

“Yeah, but that’s different- those are whole systems of government hinged around taking over the world- a political philosophy,” Danny said, taking a swig from his flask. 

“And you don’t think a 1500 year old clan of necromancers part of a secret council dedicated to covertly controlling the world’s magic could have something like that?” Gwen asked, her face as blank as marble.

Lacy took in the four sets of blank stares greeting her. She turned to Danny for support, but he’d developed an incurable fascination with his shoes. She stared into the fire, listening to it crackle. “You gotta admit, it sounds a bit… Much.”

“Lacy, you’re a wizard,” Gwen said.

“And we’re part of an organization of professional monster hunters,” Joshua said. 

Lacy stared intently at the flames. “You have a point. Do you, uh, think there’s some kind of, uh, philosophy motivating all this, or is your dad just insane?”

“Sadly I don’t think those options are mutually exclusive,” Gwen said. “I don’t know his reasoning though. I wish I did- it would make all this a lot easier to predict- but he always kept his cards close to his chest.”

“So what do we do?”

“We raid my family’s school, get some information.”

“Excellent!” Quentin said. “It’s finally time to visit the enemy compound. My fair Guinevere, you can lead us to this dark academia, can you not?”

“I can indeed,” Gwen said, eyeing Quentin in a way that made Lacy blush. “We’ll start heading that way tomorrow- it’ll be a bit of a drive though. It’s in Colorado.”

“The mountain west!” Quentin said. “Excellent.”

“Do you guys… Want me to do anything?” Everyone turned to look at Danny as he said it. It was a fair question they’d avoided considering- Danny had been dragged into all this against his will, even more so than Lacy to an extent. And he didn’t have any magic at all. 

“Well what can you do?” Isabella asked. 

“I know how to shoot,” Danny said. “And I’m pretty good with a knife.”

Isabella raised an eyebrow and considered this, then looked over at her friends. Joshua nodded sagely, while Quentin gave a thumbs-up. “We can work with that.”

“Cool,” Danny said. 

He’s taking all this really well, Lacy said. Relatively speaking at least. I suppose that’s a good thing. “So how much did Gwen tell you guys about me?” Lacy asked. They all looked at her, and Lacy immediately flinched and tore her eyes away. After a few moments of silence, Lacy realized they still expected her to talk, and so she said, “About who I am, and what I… Bring to the table.”

“Not much,” Joshua said. 

“Evidently, young lady, fair Guinevere found it most appropriate for you to advocate for yourself in these endeavors,” Quentin said. 

Isabella didn’t say anything, simply looked Lacy directly in the eyes. Lacy looked away first, stared at the fire, wafted the woodsmoke. Then she looked back to Isabella, not taking her gaze away from the beautiful girl.

Lacy tapped her hand to her chest, and her Star emerged. It hung in the air above her, and soon began to orbit her, shedding blue light. Everyone stared at it in awe, save for Isabella, who stared at it with an expression Lacy couldn’t quite read.  

“There’s more,” Lacy continued. And she told them, then, of everything. Of Drew, and the ghoul, and the first time she’d seen her Star and the first time she’d met Gwen; of the ghouls who killed her parents, and of her training with Gwen, and of her dreams of the Pale and her kingdom in the ice, and the Chosen One. “So,” Lacy said, “If I had to guess, given what Gwen’s told me about her father, I’d say that he wants to get his hands on this thing.” She pointed her index finger upwards at her Star. Its blue light mixed with the orange-gold firelight, weaving and threading together in a high-contrast tapestry. 

“I’d say that’s a fair assessment,” Gwen said. “If that Star is what it seems to be, then yes. He wants to steal it, and he wants to use it for himself to further his plans.”

“His plans of world domination.”

“Yes.”

“It still sounds insane.”

“Yeah, I’m with Lace on that one,” Danny said.

Isabella snorted. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I guess.”

“It beats the alternative.”

“Which is?”

“Dying!” Isabella said with a cheerful smile.

Danny took a moment to dwell in the silent aftermath of those words before he burst into another fit of hysterical laughter. Lacy blinked rapidly, while Gwen turned and gave her a look as if to ask ‘is he always like this?’

“More or less,” Lacy said. Everyone looked at her- she’d said that out loud without realizing. Dammit. “Anyway. Is it even possible to steal someone else’s Star? I thought they bonded to your soul, or something like that.”

“It’s usually not possible,” Gwen explained. “But there is a way. My mother knew it. Probably she taught it to Dad, using the Starlight Vault. It was in the sub-basement beneath the dungeon.”

“You guys had a dungeon?” Danny asked.

“Yeah. For my dad, it’s completely on-brand. And the Vault was where we kept the Stars my family stole, held hostage while we tried to bond them to our own people. And knowing him, he’s been thinking about precious little else the last decade, or however long he’s been planning this. Heck, knowing him, it might go back to before I was even born. Before any of us were born. All I know is that my father doesn’t stop until he gets… Not what he wants, but what he thinks he needs. What he thinks all of us need.”

And with that, Gwen turned her head up to the sky and looked to the stars. Lacy looked up as well, at her own Star as it hung low. She reached for it, and she felt another hand in the far distance reaching for it as well. Perhaps that had always been there, and she either couldn’t or wouldn’t see it previously. Some strange, monstrous mandible, using her Star for… Nothing less than what it was intended for. 

Maybe it wasn’t as much of a stretch as she thought.