Angus first sensed trouble when he felt Papa’s hands go cold. Papa froze bare seconds after that, so it was relatively easy to deduce that something big was amiss. 

Dad noticed too, and said, “Dove?”

Papa pointed a shaking finger at a humanman in a bookstore. He was waiting to sign books with his face on them and the title, Wrongful Evidence. There weren’t a lot of people buying it.

“Let’s… let’s go another way,” said Papa.

The man at the bookstore had other plans, and called, “Taako! Taako, come on over! Let’s settle this like adults.”

Papa muttered, “Gods damn it…”

Angus said, “Papa? What’s wrong?”

“Just… someone from my past, honey. Someone I thought I trusted…”

Angus had a few memories of the Story and Song. Well, ones that stuck in his head, at any rate. He did remember that trust was a huge deal for the Twins of the Starblaster. For someone to lose Papa’s trust… that had to make him a bad man. Angus didn’t like judging prejudicially like that, so he looked out for any other evidence of misdeeds or chicanery.

One: The way Papa greeted this Humanman. “Sazed,” he said with a chill beyond the arctic. “Got your spotlight at last, it seems. In a way.”

Two, the finer print on the covers of Sazed’s book: One man’s fight against a prejudicial legal system in his own words. Angus opened a copy on the table and started speed-reading. He mentioned a place called Glamour Springs. That was one of Papa’s nightmares, Angus recalled.

Papa still felt bad about something that had happened there.

Fortunately, there was a true crime display nearby and Angus could take more books to speed-read so long as he was within sight of Papa or Dad.

It didn’t take him long to find all the errors in Mr Sazed’s book. For starters, the forty deaths at Glamour Springs was only glanced at in there, but the other books never left out a single detail. One book even had complete autopsy reports.

When Angus came up for air, Papa was radiating icy fury and Dad was all but threatening vengeance in hushed yet civil tones. “Excuse me, sir,” said Angus. “Papa? Dad? I believe I’ve found some flaws in Mr Sazed’s key arguments.”

Sazed glared down at him and tried to loom. “You’re a baby,” he said. “You can’t even read.”

“On the contrary, sir, I can and have read five books on the topic of Glamour Springs. You weren’t declared innocent, nor exonerated for mass murders, but your trial was put on hold until sufficient evidence could be gathered. I have that evidence here.”

Papa’s frosted anger eased into soft, putty-like adoration. “That’s my boy,” he whispered. “That’s my beautiful genius boy…”

Angus placed five books in a line. Anatomy of a Massacre, The Ghoul of Glamour Springs, Minds of Monsters, Deliberate or Disaster, and Mr Sazed’s own Wrongful Evidence. “Mr Sazed’s trial was put on hold because the evidence in the Story and Song is not legal evidence and only holds to Papa’s character with all his memories intact. That part is regrettably true. However… Anatomy and Deliberate both state that wizards who transmute food always focus on the taste. Which is why Papa’s -and I quote your book- ‘stupid chicken tricks’ always involved the cooked product rather than the raw meat.”

Papa started to relax. Dad started radiated pride. Mr Sazed started looking nervous.

“Since Papa has never tasted arsenic, even within the Century of Stories, I find it suspicious that the people of Glamour Springs perished due to arsenic poisoning.”

“Nightshade,” corrected Mr Sazed. “It was nightshade poisoning. The elderberries were transmuted… and Taako’s certainly tasted nightshade.”

“Only during the Century, and that episode was documented and retold,” said Angus. “Papa had no memory of the Century during the years when he was running Sizzle it Up! sir. That was definitely well-known, especially in view of Papa’s genial attitudes to people during his decade incognito.”

Now Mr Sazed was looking really nervous. “Er,” he said.

“Further, the symptoms of arsenic poisoning only resemble the symptoms of nightshade poisoning, as described in Minds and Ghoul. There are distinctive differences between the two, and the victims of Glamour Springs all perished from Arsenic, and the evidence is very plain. Therefore, we have a large number of poisonings, connected with the Sizzle it Up! show. There is definite evidence in all who died, including those found with elderberries in their pockets or hands. Papa could not have created arsenic in food, so that leaves anyone else connected with the show. That leaves you, sir, as the only viable suspect.”

The gathered crowd, who had come to watch the fracas between Taako and his ex-manager, were starting to glare daggers at Mr Sazed.

“Further, Papa had no motive at all to poison anyone, sir. You, on the other hand, were repeatedly witnessed requesting time in the spotlight and equal billing. You had a definite motive to ruin Papa’s show.”

Mr Sazed had a knife. That was when the Fantasy Mall Cops pounced. Angus might have brought up enough circumstantial evidence to resume Sazed’s trial, but a fresh, attempted murder was far more interesting.

They grow up so fast. Allegedly. They say that Elves mature at the same rate as humans, but that is not quite so. Elves don’t have growth spurts, but rather slowly progress at a steady pace from infancy to something close to their adult forms.

According to their parents, they shoot up overnight. According to outside observers, they keep pace with their Human counterparts until roughly their mid-teens. That’s when the final progress of Elven growth slows down over the remaining eighty-some years until their official entrance into the adult world.

Humans used to say that it took special training to tell an underaged Elf from a grown one. That was before a lot of vitally necessary education regarding some of the more subtle indicators of an Elf’s age. All of this meant that Sazed had no business approaching Koko during his afternoon work in the local bodega.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I was documenting daily life in the urban landscape and I accidentally got you in the shot.”

“Walkway needs sweeping m’dude,” said Koko, never stopping.

“No, no. That’s not a complaint. Look.” He showed the image on his camera, which looked almost like something by a renaissance painter. With the clouds of dust and the light streaming through them and Koko, in the middle of it, looking like some diving being with the light shining in his golden hair. “You look so beautiful, here. You could be a model.”

Koko smiled in spite of himself. So far, only his moms had called him beautiful. Even his sister said he was the ugly one and they were identical. “Aw, that’s sweet of you. And a good pic. Pity I’m not paid enough to buy a print.”

“Oh, I’m not selling,” he said. “I’m Sazed Baker, and I was hoping to hire you.”

Koko brayed laughing. “For reals? Me?”

“Sure. You can start by signing this release form so I can put this picture in my art book.” Sazed offered a reasonably thick sheaf of paperwork. “This is boilerplate stuff. Permission to use and reproduce this image as an unpaid civilian, bla bla bla. Everyone has to sign it. It’s horseshit. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Uuuhh… I have to run this by my moms…”

Sazed appeared shocked. “Come on… we’re both men of the world. You don’t really need your mommy’s approval for everything do you?”

“Legally yeah. I’m like sixteen.”

“Sixteen? You? I’d never have guessed. I had guessed you were way older.”

Koko blushed. “Yeah? How old?”

Lulu appeared like a demon or an avenging angel. “Boss says stop standing around and looking pretty. Your turn in the stockroom.”

“Aw, Lulu…”

*

Lulu didn’t like the guy that Koko was already stupid in love with. Much though she’d never admit to loving her brother, he had a tendency to fall into love like the KT meteor into the Yucatan. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings about Sazed but…

There was something hinky about him.

Which was why she pulled Aunt Sno into the kitchen for some hushed and urgent girl talk while Koko continued to wax lyrical about his favourite topic - Sazed.

“You know how you’re always telling me to watch out for guys?” said Lulu. “You should have been warning Koko. This dude? Sazed? He might be like a semi-famous photographer and shit but… some of the stuff he says? Some of the stuff he does? I get hackles like anything.”

“I did try to warn Koko,” said Aunt Sno, sipping at her semi-eternal cup of coffee. “Some people just can’t be told.”

“I caught them in the stairwell last night, kissing. And it wasn’t what you’d call an innocent kiss. It’s like…” she groped for the correct reference frame. Her moms kissed like they were giving their hearts to each other. Angus and Agatha kissed like they were each others’ water in the desert. “You know those old movies where the guy kisses the girl to shut her up and you always yell about it? That. And Koko always melts like warm butter.”

“Okay, that’s a borderline thing, I can’t really–”

“His hands went inside Koko’s clothes, I swear.”

Aunt Sno nodded. “That, I can investigate. I know the right questions to ask a victim. Don’t stress, okay? I’ve been looking out for you two since your mother…” She didn’t say, Fell victim to a plague and left you as orphans. That was unspoken history by now. Including the part that made Aunt Sno technically the twins’ sister.

Lulu fixed up some snackabobs that would distract Koko. They were all used to Sno’s lines of questioning and knew all her tells by now. Keeping Koko from picking up those lines was part of her job at this point. All part of protecting Koko from what felt really, really hinky and gross.

*

Koko felt like he could fly. Sazed loved him and wanted to share him with the world. Show everyone how beautiful Koko was.

It was like a game. Wear this, pose like that. He got to wear makeup and had people styling his hair and he felt like a superstar and, after a particularly good shot, Sazed would kiss him and it felt like magic.

Which was why it was such a shock when Aunt Sno burst into the studio with a whole dang task force. Some of them landed on Sazed. Some of them landed on the hair and makeup people. One of them wrapped Koko up in a big cloak and took him out of the building and into a counselling room.

That was when he felt like an idiot because they showed him what Sazed had been doing. For every artistic shot that Sazed showed Koko, there were like twenty that were…

Gross…

Pornographic.

They even read out and interpreted the contracts that Sazed said were ‘boilerplate’. They were gross consent forms to acquiesce to ownership. They were illegal, of course, but Sazed could have used them at a later time to make Koko think that he was property.

All of which would be evidence in court.

Koko didn’t know when his family turned up, but gods, he was glad they were there. Moms and twin sister clustered around and held him safe as he sobbed. He spent what felt like forever repeating, “I loved him…” over and over.

He’d never questioned why the artists working on him were all older men. He’d never wondered about any of the poses or the wardrobe or… anything.

“You were right,” he finally murmured to Lulu. “I’m an idiot.”

“I’m sorry I said that Koko,” she said. “You’re not an idiot just ‘cause some nasty old man had you fooled. He said things you wanted to hear. He was running a con.”

When Sazed came down, he was in handcuffs, and bruises were on his face and arms. He’d been stupid enough to try and fight his way out.

Koko had a good run-up, and kneed him square in the crotch. “YOU ASSHOLE! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!”

“That’s assault,” said someone in the periphery.

“I didn’t see anything,” Aunt Sno glared at the speaker. “And neither did you.”

The gigantic ass had poisoned him against any kind of love in his future. He had to be careful and wary about anyone he liked from that day on. He couldn’t trust. not outside his family. Not for years.

Aunt Sno provided regular updates. He was in solitary for his own protection. His court date was incrementally delayed because they had to find a lawyer who even wanted to defend him. Someone shanked him in prison. He was no longer allowed to have cameras.

Koko could feel a little better knowing that that man would spend the rest of his life in a box without touching anyone, eating nothing but pre-packaged food because so many people wanted to kill him and poison looked like the best way to do it.

Sazed would never reach fame. His published photo journals were burned. Only a handful were kept as relics in sealed archives. So that others would learn how to spot anyone like him in the future.

Koko spent a decade dying his hair so that he wouldn’t look like the famous “Angel Sweeping” photo, which was everywhere with, or without context. Waiting for the world to forget him as he grew a shell around his heart and a cynical sting to his world view.

He would never trust anyone who started a conversation about how beautiful he was. Never again.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 8]

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