“Fame, yes. Some people really want fame. They want everyone to hear their music and love it, and I get that. I get it. But they pay a high price too. Everyone knows their face, everyone knows their business. I never wanted that.”

“Ángel,” said Oberon gently, “your picture was recently on the cover of Us Weekly.”

“I know! Isn’t that crazy? I didn’t mean for that to happen. I especially didn’t mean for reporters and photographers to start following my friends and ex-boyfriends around, hounding them with questions.” He let his voice grow serious. “Listen, if you’re a reporter, could you not do that? We’d all be grateful, okay? Yes, I am gay. Yes, I am friends with Oberon. We play music together sometimes. No, I’m not going to talk about my personal life, not just because it’s no one’s business, but also because there are scary people out there. None of us intended to become targets. Including Oberon.”

“It is my biggest concern,” said Oberon. “By being my friend, you and your friends have been exposed to danger of violence. Neither of us really anticipated that, when we started this podcast. That was foolish of us.”

“Last time you made a public appearance, people threw Molotov cocktails and set fire to the building you were in.”

“Yes. I would like to make more public appearances—since we started this podcast we have had many invitations to do live interviews and events. I would like to listen to live music. But we get death threats too, and it’s usually very dangerous. Not only for me, but for everyone nearby.”

“Because people want to kill you,” clarified Ángel.

“I think most people don’t. There are a few people who are angry. Perhaps they are afraid. But most people understand that, like you, I am just a person who wanted to spend my life playing and studying music. When the opportunity came to travel to another land to study music— Imagine what an exciting opportunity that was! What musician, what scholar of music, would not go to learn about music from another people?”

“Not me,” said Ángel. “Too scary for me.”

“Well, but I did not foresee the Molotov cocktails. And certainly, I did not foresee that my friends”—Oberon purred the words—“would be in danger too.”

“So we’d like to thank all of our listeners who support this podcast,” said Ángel, “and who understand that we’re— I mean, I know it’s funny, because he is a magical being from a different world. But we’re just people who like music. I’m not a fame-whore. He’s not a monster. He’s a scholar, and I’m his friend, and that’s kind of the most important thing.”