The Invisible Event
Seanan McGuire
Gillian and October catch up
The Invisible Event is Seanan McGuire’s January 2026 Patreon reward. She introduces it thus:
(Image: A large adult female orchid mantis in profile on a hand.)
And so we move forward, in the timeline that actually happened, to see what fresh hells October and her family. These hells are mostly titled “let’s try to have some functional emotional growth,” and nobody is enjoying them very much. But everyone is trying.
This month we are in the world of October Daye. We’re still catching up with the effects of the last three novels: Sleep No More, The Innocent Sleep, and Silver and Lead. To wit, Faerie Queen Titania trapped everyone in the vicinity of San Francisco in an illusion where things were the way Titania thought they ought to be. October broke the illusion. Ever since then the folks who had been trapped in Titania’s perfect world have been coming to turns with the consequences. October was pregnant at the time, and in Silver and Lead gave birth to a daughter, her second.
October’s first daughter, Gillian, doesn’t get on with October. This started because Toby (October’s nickname) abandoned Gillian when she was an infant, and didn’t return for fourteen years. She had a good excuse: she had been turned into a fish. She spent the fourteen years in the pond in Golden Gate Park. She tried hard to make it up to Gillian, but only succeeded in alienating her further. This she did mainly by being the most famous, and possibly most admired, person among the fae. Just to put the cherry on top, Toby’s many enemies saw Gillian as a way to get at Toby. Accordingly, Gillian has gone through a lot of hardships on Toby’s account. She was rescued and is now one of the immortal fae. But it was Toby who rescued her, and it is only human (or fae, apparently) to resent that.
So the upshot of all this history is that Gillian resents Toby—unfairly, it is true, but she wants nothing more of Toby than for her to stay out of her (Gillian’s) life. Toby longs to be reconciled with Gillian.
Toby takes the occasion of the birth of her new daughter and Gillian’s new sister, Miranda, to visit and introduce them to each other. The story is, thus, mostly a conversation. No fireworks, no battles, just a long-needed conversation.