"Is there a way to do the first without making them KOS for my new friends, or into being just like my new friends?" He asked.  He had no interest in taking away the lives and making them only dream of ever getting to see the sun again.

"I've heard rumors of one other way, but the process of becoming a demon, if it even works, is much worse."

Abe grunted ambiguously.  "Any chance you know how to make with the forgetting, then?"

"Your friends are better at that than I am," Sparrow says. "And that doesn't hurt."

Abe nodded, though she couldn't hear it through the phone.  He was glad to have a possible solution... but mildly frustrated that there was nothing he could do himself.  He promised himself that he would find another solution some day.  "Alright.  Thanks again, Sparrow.  I don't know what I'd do without you."

He dialed Dean's number.  Whether he got an answer or voicemail, he said, "Hey Dean, it's Abe.  I've got a problem that apparently you can help me fix.  Mind if I ask you some things about stuff you can do?"

Dean answered on the third ring. "Hey man, what's up?"



"Sure thing, I'm probably gonna have to clear it through the boss, but as long as she's cool with it I can tell you what I know"

"Just wondering if you can make people forget things."  Abe said.  "Beyond that, I'd rather no one beyond our group knew about it."

There is a slight pause on the end of the line. "Sure thing, one sec..."

About a minute later Dean came back on. "Yeah, we can. I'm still getting the hang of it, and it's not guaranteed or anything, but we can do it. So far I've only ever done it right after, well, you know." Dean wonders inwardly what the odds are of somebody tapping their phones. This is the first time he is discussing this sort of thing other than face to face.

"Did something happen?" Dean asks after a beat.

Abe was finally beginning to feel some hope after several awful minutes.  "Something I don't want to talk about over the phone happened a long while ago, and something else sort of happened recently.  You available in the next little while?  I'd like to meet up somewhere private with someone who needs to forget some things that I also don't want to say over the phone."

"Sure...let me clear it first, we are kind of attached at the hip these nights. One sec" Dean was away for a few minutes this time and comes back on the line. "She says it's cool, as long as I'm not gone all night. Training schedule is pretty packed. Where do you want to meet up?"

Abe completed the circuit of the block and before opening the door again, he answered Dean's last question by naming a park not too far away.  "I'll see you in a few."

He re-opened the door to his family home and approached his mother wherever he could find her.  "Mom, can we go on a drive for a bit?"

"Sure. Where are we going?"

"Just to talk.  About things no one else needs to worry about."  Abe said.  The first part was a lie, and he knew his mother would almost certainly know that.  But he hoped that the second part being true would mean she'd follow along anyway.  "I'd like us to talk to a friend who can help."

Once they were in the car he was more explicit. "A friend can help you forget that Shadowland - the supernatural side of things - exists.  Then you and the rest of the family will be safe from any kind of trouble for knowing about it."

"I have never been in any kind of trouble before," Cathryn says. "Why would I be in trouble now?"

Abe frowned.  "You've never been in danger before because you had no connections to Shadowland.  I was hidden as a human and Oberyn was nowhere to be seen."

He continued.  "But I booped up and was freed to be myself.  People out there know about me, and Fae are apparently valuable for their abilities.  So, when people look into my background to find more, and they instead find out that you all are human, I expect that things will go badly.  I've been told fatally badly.  I suppose instead of you forgetting about Shadowland, we could fake my death, and I could change my name and never come around anymore.  But I feel like that would be harder for all of us."

"Why would they look? And if they did look, why would they look here instead of there? He took me there once. It's a magical place."

"There?"  Abe asked.  "How did he get away with taking you where ever there is?"

"How should I know," Cathryn asks. "He showed where he lived. I didn't think there was a problem with that."

"What the... "  Abe was now officially as - or more - bewildered than his mother.  Either there was something else going on here, or Oberyn had ridiculous pull somewhere from what he understood.  "I'm gonna make a quick call, mom, and see if we can get to the bottom of this."

He dialed Sparrow. "Hey Sparrow - are there ever any exceptions given about the first rule of Shadowlands?  Mom says Oberyn took her to his homeland before I was born and that there were no problems then or ever since for her knowing things about things."

"Hi Abe," Sparrow says. "Oberyn is your father," there was incredulity in her voice. "When it comes to rules, we aren't any different than other people. There are always some that don't think the rules apply to them. Or not in that specific situation. And as long as no one knows about it, no one knows about it."

Abe's mind was swimming at this point.  "So, is it fair to say those rules don't apply to Oberyn, or is this situation a time-bomb waiting to go off when someone finds out about it or has it in for him?"

"The rules apply to everyone," Sparrow says. "But if it hasn't come to light in 20 years, it likely wouldn't have. And as long as no one knows who your father is or that your mother knows more than she should have, no one is going to go looking."

"Thanks again, Sparrow.  I'll see you later."  When she had said goodbye or any last words, he hung up.

"Well, mom, some good news: it seems that it's possible that Oberyn had the standing to skirt the rules until and unless anyone learns that I'm his or that I'm yours.  I'd like you to meet a different friend, just to confirm whether you've got another exception, or whether I should start making some back-up plans in case we are ever found out.  He should be able to tell if you've got an excuse of your own for knowing, so no back-up plans would be necessary."  He waited for her response before reaching out to Tom.

While he waited, he texted a cancel message to Dean but also included a request to meet up with him early the following night to help Jayne forget some things.

"You sure will," Sparrow says and you end the phone call.

"I told you everything would be fine," Cathryn says.

You call Tom.

Tom answers after a second. "Hey, Abe. What's up?"