Kyle rubbed his temples, desperately trying to process all this information. Both the threat against his life, and the abridged version of her story she'd given him. Actually, not so very abridged. She was talking incredibly fast, stumbling over her words, and it occurred to Kyle that if her story was true, she hadn't been able to talk to anyone in months. Not and have them listen to her, anyway.

"Okay," he said, holding up his hands. "I believe you. But let's go through this a piece at a time. WHO did you hear say they were trying to kill me?"

"An Asian girl with really pale blonde hair," Valerie said. "She was talking to a guy in a long red robe with a hood. Not like bright red, kinda muddy red. The smoke was bright red. Oh, I didn't tell you about the smoke. When he was done talking to her he kind of disappeared into it. Fell into it, really. Almost like a hole opened right underneath his feet and he just dropped down. He..."

"That was fun!" Jenny said, walking up to Kyle, breathless and a little sweaty from her dancing. It was so nice to just cut loose for a while."

"Jenny," Kyle said a little reproachfully. That was uncharacteristically rude for her.

"What? I kept my top on! You made me promise to only do that dance without my top on on private!"

"It's okay," Valerie sighed. "She doesn't even know I'm here."

"Oh right. I forgot about that."

"If you're forgetting about my topless dancing I need to work harder," Jenny smirked, pressing against his side. "Tell you what, maybe we could slip out and I can give you a private show to remind you? And after I'll do the thing where I..."

"Talk about this in private!" Kyle said hurriedly.

"Relax nobody can hear us." She gestured to show how nobody was paying attention. Unfortunately this meant almost hitting Valerie in the face, who just kind of ducked back and shrugged. "But it's cute when you're shy."

Jenny kissed him on the cheek.

"Actually I was kind of interested what she was going to say," Valerie blushed.

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"You aren't helping," Kyle groaned.

"What?" Jenny blinked. "What's going on with you? You're acting weird."

Kyle turned to Valerie.

"What happens if I make eye contact with you and talk to you directly while she can hear?"

"She who? Kyle, what's going on? You're acting like..."

Jenny's eyes lost focus for a moment.

"Whatever, it's not important. How about that private dance?"

"Like that," Valerie shrugged. "I'm not just invisible. Whatever this is makes people forget about me of the start to suspect someone might be there. It's pretty thorough."

"But I don't feel anything like that anymore. Meaning once you break through it, it's broken."

"Nooo don't say that!" Jenny pouted. "We've known each other less than a year, you can't be losing interest in me already!"

Kyle grabbed the sides of Jenny's face.

"Oh good this is more like it."

"Jenny," Kyle said, turning her to look at Valerie. "I need you to listen to me very carefully, and believe what I say. There is a girl standing right there."

"A.. what? A girl?"

"Yes, a girl. Standing right in front of you. Believe it. Focus on it. Valerie, you focus on Jenny, like you focused on me."

"I mean I'll try," Valerie said. "But I'm still surprised I got through to you. Uhm, hi Jenny, I'm Valerie, I've been following you guys around for a while."

"Huh? Wait, I almost heard...I think I CAN see something. Like a shadow or an outline...."

Jenny's eyes lost focus for a moment again.

"It's no good Kyle, I'm never any good at optical illusions. Maybe it's genie eyes, they could work a little different from humans? Let's go sit down somewhere..."

"See? As soon as she starts to notice it makes her forget." Valerie slumped. "I bet even you'll forget, eventually. You'd better write down what I said about someone trying to kill you. But don't write down that I exist, you might forget about the note."

"To hell with that!" Kyle snarled. Jenny said something, but he held onto her head and grabbed hold of their connection. He forced the thought down it, and even as he did he could feel it slipping away. Felt whatever magic kept Valerie hidden try to keep the thought from taking hold. But he poured all his power into it. To his surprise it took ALL his power. It was like fighting Sylvanandra again. Worse. He'd never felt pressure like this before. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He could barely breathe.

And then the pressure broke, and he felt the thought ram itself into Jenny's mind. She blinked and stumbled back, then looked straight at Valerie.

"Huh? Wait...are you...have you been there the whole time!?"

"Oh my god you can see me! TWO PEOPLE can see me!"

"Who are you? No, wait! Kyle called you Valerie! I'm remembering...I'm remembering the whole conversation now. You were right there and I just ignored you! I'm sorry that was super rude!"

"I think I'm cursed, don't worry about it."

"Oh wow. That's incredibly powerful magic! It must have been so tough for you."

"I was living with it....but listen! Somebody's trying to kill Kyle!"

"Oh!" Jenny raised a hand with pinkish magic sparkling around it. "Well let's go deal with that! And then we'll figure out how to introduce you to your other friends."