That little piece of news stopped her for a moment. “Oh, really,” she said, carefully. “And why would that be?”

The man paused.  “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you.  Droids were never big on brains – maybe it felt the Blue Prince on you.”

“Mm-hm. It felt him how? Is this your standard magical-transference?”

The man nodded, brushing some multicoloured strands of hair off his shoulders.  “Which implies that Saffir is the actual target.”

“Oh, joy.” She sighed. “And if he’s run off from the hospital… do me a favour and go about ten feet that way. Don’t run off, though. I will catch you and I won’t be happy.”

“My magic doesn’t affect technology,” he told her with a slight smile.  “However, if it makes you happier…”

Murph flipped open her cell phone and made a quick call to the cop on the scene; sure enough, the boy was gone. She shook her head in disgust and put the phone away. “Of course. Of course. I hate life sometimes.”

 

As he shambled through the door of his apartment, Harry wanted nothing more than a week’s rest and a stiff drink. Seeing as how her wasn’t going to get that, he collapsed in one of his chairs and dialled Murphy’s number.

 

The cell phone vibrated against her thigh and she grabbed for it, wondering just who the hell was calling her now. If it was the same cop calling back with some teensy tiny bit of information that was going to ruin her day worse…

“Detective-Sergeant Murphy,” she said.

“I’ve got some good news and some bad news, Murph,” said Harry. “Except for the ‘good news’ part.”

Murphy stared at the phone for a moment, then said something very nasty indeed. “Do tell.”

Jaspis eyed Murphy, and took a prudent step back.

Harry proceeded to fill her in on all the juicy details on his encounter with Saffir and the vampires. “And I don’t need magic to tell me that it’ll only get worse from here.”

She stood for a moment with her mouth half-open, and then said, “He said I might get caught in the crossfire. Did you interpret that as a threat at all?”

“I don’t know what to interpret as anything anymore. But I, for one, would rather err on the side of caution.”

“Well, it’s a little late to avoid it,” she said, eyeing the remains of the droid. “I just want to know if he’s the one who sent this thing.”

“He wasn’t,” Jaspis said immediately.  “He can’t make them yet.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “There’s a thing involved?”

“Yes, there is, and apparently, your boy isn’t involved in it.” She pulled the phone away from her face and hissed, “Yet?”

Jaspis coughed lightly and eyed the sky.  “He doesn’t have the knowledge or the power required,” he replied carefully.

Murph eyed him suspiciously, but finally just nodded.

“Who’s with you?”

“I don’t know his name.” She eyed him, then lowered her voice and said, “But I think it might be someone your boy mentioned. Speaking of him, when did you talk to him last?”

“Cant’ve been more than twenty minutes ago.”*

She cursed again, and said, “If you catch up to him again, hang on to him. I need to talk to him.”

“Yes, ma’am. Meanwhilst, watch your back.”

“Consider it watched.” She hung up.

Jaspis frowned.  “Why did the Blue Prince say you might get caught in the crossfire?”

“He didn’t say.” Murph dropped her cell phone into her pocket, and tipped her head to the side contemplatively. “Or he didn’t say directly. Someone called the Wiseman is involved, apparently, and indiscriminate in his firing.”

Jaspis’ eyes widened.  “Th-the Wiseman?”  All colour had drained from his face.

Murphy blinked. “That’s what he said. I take it that’s bad.”

“Very bad.  It means he knows Saffir’s here.  I’ve got to get him—”

A blast of sunlight cut him off, lighting the city almost as if it were noon before dying down quickly. 

“The hell was that?” Murphy took a couple of steps away from the building and stared up at the sky.

Jaspis frowned.  “…Lapis…?”

Lapis. Harry had mentioned someone by that name… “Who?”

“My little sister.”  He bowed to her abruptly.  “I’ll be right back.”  That said, he vanished from sight.

Murphy opened her mouth to say something, then sighed, and slumped back against the building. “Why I even bother… “ she asked the brick. “Honestly, I don’t know why I get involved with these things anymore.”

 

Lapis Lazuli fell to her knees, breathing heavily, one arm held protectively over her abdomen.  “Th-that’s what… you get,” she panted, glaring at the burnt husk of the thing that had attacked her.  Using this world’s magic was exhausting, but she dared not use what little power she had been granted by Nemesis in her condition.  And she couldn’t help but feel that her power had fuelled more than a little of the spell she had used…

“Lapis!”

A strong arm wrapped around her shoulders, and Lapis Lazuli gratefully leaned against her older brother.  “Hi,” she said, smiling up at him.

He didn’t smile back.  “Lapis, what happened?  I think the entire city saw that light!”

She shrugged.  “A vampire decided that I’d be a nice snack.  I disabused it of the notion.”

Jaspis was silent for a moment, then sighed.  “Come on.  I told the nice cop I’d be right back, and I’d rather not have her angry at me.”

“…cop?  Jaspis, what’s going on?”

He didn’t answer, helping her to her feet and leading her to where he had left Murphy.

Murph opened her eyes when she heard them arriving, and widened them a bit. “Goodness,” she said, a touch caustically. “I didn’t think you actually would come back.”

“I keep my word, Detective,” he replied, keeping his arm around his sister’s shoulders.  “Lapis, this is Detective-Sergeant Murphy.  Detective, this is my little sister, Lapis Lazuli.”

“You’re the first,” Murph muttered, looking the girl up and down. Young, visibly pregnant, and visibly exhausted, she looked awful. “You look like your day was as long  as mine. My sympathies.”

Lapis Lazuli opened her mouth to say something, but her brother was faster.  “I think I will take you up on that protective custody after all,” he said quietly.  “It would seem that the Blue Prince isn’t his only target.”

“Erbeprinz Saffir is in danger?” Lapis blurted, staring up at Jaspis.  “Why didn’t you say so?  I have to—”

“You, sister, need rest.”

Boy, that conversation sounded familiar. “Let’s go, then,” she interrupted, as tactfully as she could. “You can fight it out in the car.”

A brief spate of that weird Germanic language between, then Lapis sighed and nodded.  It was strange – the pair of them didn’t look like siblings, save for the black star adorning each of their brows.  Again that bow from the man – who still hadn’t given her his name – before he said, “Lead the way, Detective.”

“Right, then,” she said, slightly nonplussed by the ease with which he’d agreed to this. She’d been expecting a fight. “In that case, I’d like your name.”

He grinned lazily.  “Well, it had to come out sooner or later.  I am the Verdant Lord, Jaspis of the Dark Star clan.  Well, what’s left of it.”

She barely even blinked. “That means absolutely nothing to me. You are aware of this, I assume.”

“Of course.  I figured I’d get the title out of the way.  Though my ID has me down as Jaspis Morgenstern.”

Something had been kicking at Murphy’s brain since he’d told her his name. It finally gave up on kicking and charged screaming and on fire into the front of her mind. “Jaspis,” she said, sharply. “So where were you last night? Say, around eleven.”

“I was teasing the Prince,” Jaspis replied easily.  “And warning him that he shouldn’t relax despite being on another planet.”

“Teasing,” Murphy said flatly, “does not usually leave gashes six inches across.”

“You never met my cousins.  Frankly, Detective, it wasn’t the wounds that put him under – and I wasn’t anticipating him using so weak a shield.  He knows my power and how much he needs to use when dealing with me.  I miscalculated.”

Murphy eyed him dubiously. “That isn’t the story I got from him. I’m tempted to charge you with assault and battery, Jaspis.”

Jaspis shrugged.  “You could.  Of course, by now the evidence of his wounds are gone.  And with any luck, he’ll be back on Nemesis before dawn – and the Wiseman with him.”

Lapis Lazuli touched her brother’s arm.  “Jaspis… he doesn’t know how to heal yet.”

“…damn it, I’m supposed to remember everything he couldn’t do when he was nineteen?”

“Hospital got photos,” Murph said, with perhaps a faint touch of smugness to the tone. “Ridiculously fast healing is for the doctors to figure out. What the hell is Nemesis?”

The siblings exchanged a look, then Jaspis nodded.  “Nemesis is the tenth planet,” Lapis said quietly.  “However, it is so steeped in negative energy that it is very rare for it to even show up on scientific instrumentation.”

Murphy blinked. And blinked again.

“… you know, I’ve heard some pretty wild things from Harry. But nothing tops that.”

Jaspis took up the story.  “Our people were banished from Earth for some crime or other hundreds of years ago.  Probably a century or so from now.”

She said nothing, merely regarded him with a sceptical expression.  The man smirked.  “You do realise that our hair is naturally coloured this way.”

“Nice to know. I’d ask why but I was never any good at science.” She said this somewhat on autopilot, the rest of her brain busy working on a problem. She couldn’t take them to the station now, that was obvious. Asking Harry to look out for them was a possibility, but she couldn’t pay him, and requisitioning payment would cause problems.

She watched the both of them thoughtfully.

Jaspis merely looked smug, damn that man, but his sister was saying something to him in a low, worried tone.  His face turned slightly graver as he listened, then he replied back in that vitriolic-sounding language.  Only a few words she understood: “Saffir”, “Wiseman”, and oddly enough, “Sailor Pluto.”

This was all Harry’s fault. More so than usual, that is. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and thought. She didn’t want to take them to her house, and the station was out of the question… finally, she sighed, and took the left turn that would take her to Harry’s apartment.

Finally, Lapis sighed and said in English, “I told you, Jaspis.  The baby is fine.  I didn’t use my power against that thing.”

Murphy swallowed down a grin. “That sounds like a familiar argument.”

“It really isn’t,” Jaspis said.  “We didn’t have any problems with the local supernaturals before last night.”

“I meant,” she said, “the baby. I have brothers myself.”

“Are they all overprotective like this big lug?”

“Hey!”

Murph didn’t try and hide the grin this time. “Alex is. Jason knows better.”

Jaspis fell silent, growling something under his breath.  Lapis glared at him.  “That was rude!”

“Dare I ask?”

“Wars aren’t conducive to good manners,” Lapis replied.  “He’ll learn.”

“You’re at war?”

“No,” Jaspis replied.  “We were.  My clan lost.  I decided to take Lapis to Earth rather than see her wed to some low-ranked Black Moon noble and her b—”

Lapis had covered Jaspis’ mouth with her hand.

Murph snorted and barely restrained a nasty remark about marriage. “I wish my brother had the same foresight,” she said, instead. “We’re almost there.”

“Good,” Lapis said quietly.  She glanced at her brother, then returned her gaze to her hands.

Jaspis poked at his wound from the droid and winced.  “This is gonna be interesting.”

 

—‡—‡—‡—

 

Harry was currently trying to catch up on some much-needed rest. He was having what he had calculated to be the sixth or seventh longest day of his life, as he reckoned.

It was about to get longer. Murphy contemplated the door, decided it would be easier to get Harry to open it for her, and knocked.

“I don’t see why we can’t just teleport in,” Jaspis complained.

“I told you, we can’t.  He’s warded it,” Lapis hissed.                          

Groaning a bit, Harry got up, ran a hand through his hair, and pried the door open.

“Hiya,” Murph said. “You look like hell. Feel up to protective custody?”  Behind her he could see the blue-haired girl from last night, as well as a tall young man with hair that made Lapis’ look normal.

Harry cocked an eyebrow upon seeing the girl. “Nice to see you again,” he said.

She smiled sheepishly – she was a lot darker than she had been yesterday.  Still pale, but more human-looking.  The man beside her bore enough of a facial resemblance to her as to be related somehow, in addition to sporting a mark identical to hers on his brow.

Harry turned his gaze to the man, taking in his features. “I’ve received some peculiar warnings recently,” he said, “but at the moment, luckily for you, I’ve no idea who to trust.  I’m going to let you give me a reason why it should be you.”

The man grinned.  “I haven’t tried to kill you.”

“And he saved my life,” Murph added. “Or he tried. Can we come in? I think Lapis ought to sit down for a while.”

“Sit down? What do you… “

Jaspis moved his sister from behind Murphy so Harry could see that she was quite noticeably pregnant.

It was at this point that Harry averted his gaze slightly downward.

A gentleman would not have gawked, but Harry couldn’t help himself. After stammering for a few moments, Harry managed to say “What… is that?”  He pointed at her swollen belly for emphasis.

“Well, you see, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much… “ Murphy began.

Harry shot Murphy a glare. “I saw her yesterday and she most certainly did not have one of those.”

Murphy propped her hands on her hips and glared. “Dresden, I knew you were dense, but don’t tell me you managed to miss that.”

“Actually, he probably did,” Jaspis said calmly.  “I used an illusion to hide her condition.”

Harry blinked, momentarily awestruck. “… okay, everything else aside, I’m impressed. The both of you may come in. I do hope one of you knows what’s going on better than I do.”

Jaspis extraordinarily waited for the two women to enter before following them in, giving Harry’s height an impressed glance – the man was taller than most Nemesians!

Murph greeted Mouse with a smile and waited courteously for Lapis to sit before claiming half the couch.  Jaspis elected to lean against the wall, keeping an eye on his sister while waiting for their host to speak.

“Have a seat, help yourself to the fridge, and start talking.”

“Straight to the point.  I like him.”  Jaspis shifted, cursed, and added, “Where to begin?”

“We start simple. What exactly are you and blue boy doing here?”

“Lapis and I, to put it simply, are refugees.  I thought the Blue Prince had been sent to capture us, but I was… mistaken.”  He shifted again, then sat on the floor.  “So I don’t know why he’s here.”

Harry mulled this over. “Capture? As best as I can gather, Saffy’s been trying to avoid you.”

“With good reason,” Murph put in. “I still haven’t heard a decent excuse for the assault and battery.”

The nickname threw Jaspis momentarily, though his snickering stopped at Murphy’s words.  “Pre-emptive strike,” he told her.  “Reminding him that refugee or not, I was still a force to be reckoned with.  Only he was the wrong Saffir.”

Harry took yet another moment  to process what he was hearing.

“The wrong… “ She stopped. “Harry, tell me it’s bad form to drink on duty and that I may not have a beer, please.”

“Yeah, what you said,” said Harry, swiftly fetching two. “What exactly do you mean, the wrong Saffir?”

“You forgot a ‘no,’“ Murph said, taking one of the beers anyway. She popped it open and turned a flat, unnerving stare on Jaspis.

The siblings exchanged a glance, then Jaspis sighed.  “She’s going to kill me for admitting this,” he muttered, then confessed, “Lapis Lazuli already let slip what we are to you, Dresden.”

“Yeah, she may have mentioned something along those lines. What I didn’t get a chance to mention is that the local authorities frown upon that sort of thing.”

Jaspis waved that off.  “The Guardian let us through.  It’s all legal.”

“The what?”

“The Guardian of Time,” Lapis said softly.  “Chronos’ daughter.  I still don’t know why she let us through, but she did.”

Murph twisted around so the others couldn’t see her, and mouthed, “White Council?” at Harry.

Harry shook his head in response.  She arched her eyebrows, and settled back into her seat, staring at her beer thoughtfully.

“I told you we’re refugees,” Jaspis said.  “My clan rebelled against the ruling clan, and we lost.  Horribly, I might add.  However, the Saffir that is here has not yet experienced that rebellion – so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to him.  He won’t experience it for about two years or so.”

“Duly noted. Continue.”

Lapis Lazuli took up the story instead.  “My husband was killed in the last of the fighting,” she said, one hand resting gently against her abdomen.  “As the daughter of the rulers of the Dark Star clan, I therefore had one sole use – to be wed to a noble of the Black Moon clan in order to give them a claim to us.”

“And I’m guessing you were not too happy about that.”

Her lips tightened, and her other hand joined the first one.  “Perhaps if Saffir was the one I would have been wed to.  But the odds of that happening approach zero.”

“I wasn’t about to see my baby sister treated like a prize,” Jaspis said.  “Instead, I gathered what energy I could and transported us both to the Guardian’s domain.”

“Tell me more about this… ‘guardian’,” said Harry, complete with air quotes.

“We can’t,” Lapis replied.  “Technically, we’re not even supposed to know about her.”           

Harry rolled his eyes. “Fine. But you should know that the local wizards, if they know about this Guardian, worry little about it. I don’t know what it’s like where you’re from, but mucking with time is punishable by death around here.”

Jaspis smiled wryly.  “Usually transgressing in her domain garners the same sentence.”

“Just so we’re clear. So, you’re here now, and I can’t say I blame you. So what now?”

Jaspis shrugged.  “I just want to get Saffir back where he belongs.  Especially as the Wiseman seems to know he’s here.”

“Something tells me he might be a tad adverse to this idea,” muttered Harry.

“He has to go back,” Lapis replied.  “If he doesn’t, he won’t be on Nemesis to make droids for the Black Moon clan.  He and Jaspis won’t do battle.  It would be a paradox.”

“Okay, time out,” interrupted Harry, making the accompanying gesture.  “So Saffir makes these droid things, right?”

“Ja,” Lapis replied curiously.

“And it’s one of these things that jumped Murphy, right?”

Jaspis nodded.

“And you just said that he didn’t make this one.  You can probably see where I’m going with this.”

“Who made this one if he didn’t?” Murphy asked. “I’d like an answer to that one too, come to think of it.”

“Saffir didn’t learn to make droids until he was nearly twenty-one,” Jaspis answered.

Lapis shuddered as she added, “He learned how to from one of the Wiseman’s books.”

“So this Wiseguy. He makes droids. And from what I can gather? Stupidly powerful.  Two plus two is… “

“Sixteen,” Murphy said. “You’re missing a motive.”

Jaspis grinned.  “No, we’re not.  Saffir has never gotten along with the old man; it’s the only thing he has in common with my clan.  I imagine that the Wiseman sees Saffir as a threat.  Can’t say I blame him.”

“A motive for going after Saffir, we have,” Murphy replied. “A motive for going after me, we don’t.”

“Wrong place, wrong time?” suggested Harry.

Murph shook her head. “No, I think it was deliberate. He,” she nodded at Jaspis, “suggested it was because it caught some of Saffir’s magic on me.  Which begs the question of how that magic got on me in the first place, but we’ll let that go.”

“That’s why you always wash your hands afterwards,” said Harry, smirking a bit.

“You’re supposed to be helpful, Dresden, not snide.”

Lapis smiled.  “The Blue Prince likes to keep track of people he’s met.”

“Okay, so if you’ll mind me repeating myself; What now? Have we considered trying to approach Saffir peacefully and explaining the situation?”

“Maybe once I heal up a bit,” Jaspis replied, gesturing to the blood-stained makeshift bandage.  “And once my sister has had some rest.”  This earned him a glare from his sister.

“You’re free to recuperate here. I am going to go look for the blue bastard.”

Murphy rolled her eyes and muttered something uncomplimentary about men who charged into things without thinking, then said, louder, “You boys go and do that. Somewhere else.”

“You’ll need me to find him,” Jaspis told Harry as he struggled to his feet.  “Unless you managed to get some hair or blood of his.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? If he sees you with me, he might think I’ve turned against him and vamoose.”

Jaspis grinned and ran a hand over his bi-coloured hair – and where his hand passed over his hair, it turned brown.  “I have a few tricks of my own.  It should fool him long enough for me to lock him down so you can talk to him.”

“… alright. But let me make one thing clear.”

Without meeting his eyes, Harry grabbed the collar of Jaspis’ shirt and yanked him close. “If it turns out that you’re yanking my chain and this is all some sort of trap, I will wreak vengeance upon you like an enraged grizzly. Comprende?”

“Absolutely,” the younger man replied, reaching up and removing Harry’s hand from his shirt.

Lapis rolled her eyes.  “Next thing you know, they’ll be pushing power at each other to see who’s stronger,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Boys,” Murphy said, without heat. “Compare sizes outside, please.” She paused a beat, then said, “Now.”

Snorting, Harry pulled his wrist free from Jaspis’ grasp. “Come on, let’s get moving before they start doing each-other’s hair.”

“Good plan,” the other replied.  “Lead the way, O Great Wizard.”          

“I will, thank you!” said Harry, dramatically marching out the door.