A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan

These texts are excerpts from the novel "A Star Shall Fall," revealing a complex fantasy narrative set primarily in 18th-century London. The central conflict revolves around the Onyx Court, a hidden society of faeries led by Queen Lune and her human-faerie Prince, Galen St. Clair, who are desperately trying to avert a catastrophe threatened by the return of a comet that houses a monstrous entity known as the Dragon. The excerpts detail their efforts to use a combination of faerie magic, mortal science (particularly involving Dr. Andrews, Henry Cavendish, and alchemy), and political maneuvering to save both the Onyx Hall and the city of London, all while facing internal threats from rivals like the treacherous Lord Keeper Valentin Aspell and the dissident Sanists. The narrative tracks Galen's growth from a naive Prince into a decisive leader, his complicated relationships with Lune and his mortal fiancée, Delphia, and the eventual, tragic sacrifice he makes to defeat the Dragon by binding it to his mortal body and destroying himself along with the creature.