Cristoff felt a knot in his stomach loosen slightly as his fingers passed straight through the clown. Of course, this did not mean they were out of danger, but it was clear that the number of adversaries was considerably smaller than had been first apparent. Nevertheless, he certainly did not underestimate the magician – for although he had failed to determine his position, the strength of his magical ability was now even clearer to Cristoff. In his attempt, the name “James” had somehow rooted itself into his mind; for reasons unknown to him, he seemed to believe that was their enemy’s name. 

Moving on from the clown, Cristoff next attempted to brush past one of the onlookers, clearly out place in this mad carnival. As Cristoff approached him, his arm just beginning to stretch out, a shrill screech made him turn his head around, just in time to avoid a crow that had swooped at him from a rooftop. Before he could gather his wits about him, he was already at the threshold of the inn.

The sight that met them was most unexpected – but then, Cristoff would have been more surprised if it hadn’t been. An image of a man – dressed not very differently from the illusions in the carnival – appeared, flashing and moving around the room. He could tell the puppeteer was nearby, but as he saw the six children standing on the boxes, he checked his first thought, which had been to disable the magician’s magic just long enough for one of the others to stab or shoot him in a vital point. It was clear they had no way of saving the children in such a manner. 

[b]"Welcome to my Carnival. Now before any of you are so foolish as to try and attack, these six lovely children are standing on boxes of hard illusion, bear in mind that the nooses around their necks are not. If you approach them I will drop the boxes and they'll have a very real hanging." [/b] 

Cristoff considered attempting to detect the magician’s position once more, but it was obvious that it would not help them very much in their current position. The disembodied voice spoke once more; this time, three identical illusions leaned on the second floor railing.

[b]"This carnival is special. Within it there are several big surprises waiting to annihilate the town, but I am not without a sense of fair play. For each I have created a main attraction. IF you can defeat the attraction, you can reach the surprise and put an end to it. But there are rules!" He pointed dramatically. "One person to each attraction, attempt to work them as a team and i'll set off the surprises early and if you survive you'll have to be the ones to explain to Queen Alexandria how you got her family annihilated so thoroughly. There are four attractions. One each."[/b]

The man pronounced the names of the attractions: [b]"Gauntlet De Pendules. Galerie des Glaces. The Circ De Cauchemar, and the La Galerie Tournage."[/b]

Cristoff did not speak the language, but [s]Google Translate told him[/s] he could roughly guess at the meaning. It was clear that Tristan should take the ‘La Galerie Tournage’, as he was the only one among the group with any degree of experience with ranged weaponry, but he looked so frightened that it did not seem to Cristoff he would be able to play his role. He wished he could say or do something to comfort his little brother, but alas, it was all he could do to keep himself from panicking. It was with the feeling that he was sending Tristan to his death that he suggested he take the La Galerie Tournage; there really was no other choice. They were now in the magician’s power.

After a short discussion, the rest divided up the remaining attractions between them, and Cristoff – believing his knowledge of geometry and tracking would assist him – chose to subject himself to the Galerie des Glaces – the Hall of Mirrors, or so he believed.