Engel

The Circus At The End Of The World (Engel X The Kraken)

When Kate mentioned how Claire deserved her hangover, she wanted to tell her how fun people sometimes had to suffer consequences for being sociable and fun, but that Kate could of course not understand this.

“Thank you.” Claire mumbled to Kate when she left, but doubted she could hear it if she was still around.

She attempted to return to sleep. Her headache mixed with the sounds of a circus that was waking up and the light of the sun made it difficult though. After remaining motionless for what felt like another hour without a minute of sleep, Claire had to accept the fact that she would not get better by lying here.

Maybe if she got something to help with her hangover or moved to her own wagon it would be easier. She crawled out of the hay, passed Solomon who was enjoying the sunlight and exited his cage. She made a note to herself to never sleep outside when hangover. It wasn’t the first time she had claimed she wouldn’t do that. Claire locked the cage after herself.

She headed in the direction of her wagon, but once she arrived she heard a woman screaming as if terrified from another wagon. She had to put her hands over her ears to prevent the headache from getting worse. She went inside her wagon to get some rest.

“Screaming as if she was all alone, no consideration for the rest of us...” Claire muttered as she lay down on her bed.

Unfortunately, the screaming woman had attracted more people and soon the area was crowded. Claire heard them chatting through the walls of her wagon, but she was unable to make out any words. She didn’t bother trying to sleep for long after that. Claire rose again, probably looking as horrible as she was beginning to feel.

She grabbed her lady’s umbrella on the way out of the wagon, to have cover against the light of the sun, and stumbled towards the commons area. She hoped they could give her something to eat that may stop the beating of her forehead.

Claire spotted Kate and Elijah when she arrived, waved meekly at them, and then went to ask the kitchen staff for anything they may be willing to give her for her hangover. She was given a couple of eggs and a glass of water.

“Hey guys, Kate, Elijah.”

She placed her food next to Kate and sat down. Claire folded her umbrella together, and leaned it against their table. She was about to start eating, but instead threw her arms around Kate in a hug and pulled her towards her.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” She whispered, hoping that no one else would hear, but for all she knew she was screaming. Claire’s hangover still made noises louder than they had any right to be. “I hope you don’t tell anyone I taught him that, Kate, or I may have to teach one of them a murder command to keep the secret from getting out.”

She laughed weakly after that. It was only a joke. She wouldn’t want anyone else to murder Kate if she betrayed her. She could do it herself in that case.

“It is freaking impossible to get any sleep around here today.” Claire grumbled. “Sun is shining like if we were in the southern hemisphere, not Britain and people are screaming blood murder in the morning.” She turned to Kate with a faked smile. “At my wagon, not when you woke me up earlier.”

Sacred World (Engel x The Kraken)

Avani grinned as Kasai began to play along, then she stopped walking when she turned around and began to take steps towards her while talking. She listened curiously, but the grin grew less and less confident with each sentence Kasai spoke. Finally, she was right in front of Avani again, looking down at the hole in her coat, then into her eyes and wondering how she wanted to plead. Avani’s eyes followed Kasai’s gaze, but lingered a bit longer on the hole in her coat.

Avani gulped. It was a natural reaction to being accused of a crime by someone of the law enforcement more than anything. She wasn’t afraid of Kasai using any of what had happened between them against her, mostly because she assumed she was an on-duty cop and if it got out what she had been doing on the job… well, it wouldn’t go so well for her, Avani imagined.

“Um, surely those aren’t crimes are they…?” She didn’t honestly know, but it sounded ridiculous. “You can’t get a fine for seducing an officer of the law?” Nah, she figured Kasai had to be playing with her. “Besides, I couldn’t seduce an officer unless she was willing to be seduced. I believe that’s called sexual harassment or worse, no?”

She looked past Kasai for a moment, wondering if the sergeant was really suggesting what she thought she was suggesting, or if it was her dirty mind that made it sound that way. Wasn’t she worried about finding their friends already? They would likely be in even worse shape now than they had been yesterday, unless one of them had gotten a bag with them as well. Maybe they had.

She turned her attention back to Kasai who was way too close to her now, and she was certain the woman knew it too. “That was unintentional.”
Avani pointed at the hole in Kasai’s coat, sticking to her story.

“However, speaking hypothetically if I were to assault an officer with intent I would make sure to corner them so they had nowhere to run.” Avani put her good arm against Kasai’s shoulder and pushed her carefully in front of her, while walking, until she had pushed her back up against one of the nearby trees. “After making sure they were cornered, I would go to town on them with my superior strength or earthbending.”

She put her hand on the skin that was visible through the hole, caressing it gently and then grabbing the coat around the hole, ripping an even larger hole. Avani slid her arm inside of the coat, not just her hand. She let her hand slide down along Kasai’s torso slowly after getting it in through the hole.

“I guess it’s not so unintentional anymore.” She leaned into Kasai and whispered in her ear. “You caught me red handed, Lady Sergeant.” Avani nibbled on her ear before breathing into it as seductively as she knew how. She moved down to kiss her on the neck, sucking, and leaving a rather visible hickey.

She could eventually feel that her hand had nowhere to continue, at least nowhere that was part of Kasai’s torso. Now she had reached the belt these cops wore. She tugged at it once, finding it as tightly fastened as she had expected.

“Of course, this is speaking hypothetically.” Avani said with a teasing grin, removing her hand from inside of Kasai’s coat. “It’s not like I would ever tell an officer how I planned on assaulting her.” She took a step back from Kasai, held her hands together and stretched them out towards her. “I guess I plead guilty on the first charge, so you better cuff me before I run away.”

Avani batted her eyelashes at Kasai, then laughed.

"Seriously though, we better find our friends already." She said, realizing that if she kept teasing Kasai they would end up on the forest floor together, when they really should be looking for Mio and Kieron. Avani gestured for Kasai to lead the way, curious which option the woman wanted to get to first here.

Sacred World (Engel x The Kraken)

Avani took the can of food and the bread that was handed to her, eating with a sly smile across her face, eyeing Kasai whenever she was not busy putting it in her mouth. They were looking at each other, but not saying much before they had finished eating. Avani kept the sly smile on her lips all along. The food did taste pretty good considering what it was and who had provided them with the ingredients. It was unlikely that Republic city would care much for what they made their people eat when they were on missions, other than that it should have a lot of nutrition. She watched Kasai unfold the map, and looked at it herself. There seemed to be a body of water not too far from where they may be, if she was reading the map correctly, so what Kasai told her was hopefully true. She wanted to get out of the spirit world already, but at the same time she wished she could have entered it under different circumstances or return when it had been healed from the evil inside. “Yeah, you’re good enough.” Avani said teasingly with a wink. “I wouldn’t know if you could be a chef before I tasted something better than military rations though. I’d certainly be more interested in someone who is a chef though.” Avani finished her food, and handed the dishes to Kasai for her to put back into the only bag they had now. She gratefully took the canteen of water and drank as much as she dared without leaving them with nothing to drink later. “After you.” Avani grinned. “Wouldn’t want to miss the spectacular views that the daylight provides either, now would I.” Kasai was forced to crawl over and past Avani who was seated near the entrance. She quite enjoyed seeing her on all fours when she was this close, so Avani didn’t feel the need to move or make it easier for Kasai to get outside. She did crawl outside after her once the firebender had gotten outside and stood up on her feet. Avani regained the sly smile she had donned earlier, and looked at Kasai. “So, it would be wrong for me to attempt to seduce you without a dinner, but it’s totally cool for you to try to romance me, huh?” Her smile widened. “Or as you said yourself, the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach? I suppose that breakfast could count as a dinner if you want it too. I don’t mind either way. I’m just surprised you seemed to imply that you wanted to be a woman that I would want.” Avani laughed, patted Kasai on the back and destroyed their shelters. She figured it was unlikely anyone would be following them, but if they were there was no one reason she had to make it easy to find them. She didn’t think anyone who may want to assist them knew how bad their situation had gotten yet. “After you, Kasai. You are the one with the map after all.” Avani said, and followed Kasai. They walked for a while before Avani decided to bring it up again, letting a short laugh ring out previous to her voice. “No one’s ever said they wanted to romance me before, to be honest, so it’s kind of flattering, Lady Sergeant. But what if I enjoy the single life too much, hmm? Maybe I got ladies throwing themselves on me all the time at home, or maybe I’m already engaged. Did you think about that?” Avani couldn’t help but laugh loudly after making fun of Kasai again.

The Circus At The End Of The World (Engel X The Kraken)

Claire tossed and turned in her drunken state, disturbing Solomon with her movements, but thankfully he was a nocturnal creature so it wasn’t like he was going to sleep much anyway during the night. He slept a fair bit either way since he loved to sleep like most of her kittens did. She dreamt surprisingly pleasant dreams when she did fall asleep. Claire talked with her big cats, learned their language permanently and went on adventures with them. There were other people featured in the dream, like Kate, Elena and a few other members of the circus, but they were in the background compared to the animals. Elena appeared as an evil witch at one point. The sound of someone shouting at her was an abrupt wake up call. “Oh my god.” Claire cried, and put her arms over her head. “Why would you scream at me in the morning when I have a hangover?” She could feel her head pounding pretty badly by then. The words that Kate had spoken sounded louder than usual, so she had to assume they were shouted. It wasn’t just the words Kate spoke either, everything was louder than usual, even Solomon’s breathing was getting to her. Claire had no idea how long she had slept, or if she had been given a chance to sleep at all before Kate was on her case again. She had dreamt at least. She wanted to yell at her friend to go away and leave her alone. It would not be the first time they had fought, because everyone fights every now and then, no matter how great their relationship may be regularly. “Solomon, attack…” Claire muttered against his fur, and was rolled over on her stomach when the white tiger got up on all four. He moved lazily over to where Kate was standing outside the cage, put his arm through the bars and tried to hit her with his paw. The whole action was done with such indifference that it was clear he was just following the words of his trainer with no real hatred or commitment behind the supposed attack. He tried to reach Kate a couple more times before giving up, sitting down and cleaning himself with his tongue. Claire had mostly trained him with that command in case she would need him in an emergency, like a guard dog, but no one else needed to know about it so she had told no one else yet. If anything, she had planned to explain it away by saying she was going to incorporate coordinated play-fighting between her big cats in one of her future shows. Solomon was a bit too tame to attack those he knew with any real strength though. “Yeah, that will teach you to bother me in the morning.” Claire mumbled to herself, while keeping her arms over her eyes to block out the blinding light. “You are lucky he is locked inside a cage. Who knows what such a wild beast would be to a human otherwise.”

Sacred World (Engel x The Kraken)

As Kasai told her to hang on and came over to her shelter once more, Avani expected her hopes of them sharing a bed coming to fruition, but she was let down with a teasing remark about how it would have been warmer to sleep with a firebender than in a warmed shelter. She stretched out her tongue at Kasai when the woman turned her back towards her. Avani closed up Kasai’s shelter after she had entered it, and then she crawled into her own, closing it up as well. She shifted the earth beneath her body, turning it soft like sand. She grinned knowing that Kasai couldn’t possibly do anything to get something as comfortable to sleep on, not when she had decided to sleep alone. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the earth. It had been a tiresome day for her. She’d rather not think about all that had happened since this morning, and she had tried her best to push any thoughts of her dead friend away by focusing on Kasai instead. His death came back to haunt her during the few hours’ sleep she would have gotten. She dreamed nightmares about how he accused her for his death, how he came back for revenge and how Mio helped him with a smile on her face. Avani tossed and turned, not getting much sleep at all, and when her nose registered the smell of cooked meat her dreams turned it into another nightmare about how it was Avani’s body being burnt, not just her arm this time. She woke up in a cold sweat, still smelling the meat being prepared. Avani rolled around in her own shelter in a panic, looking for the source of the smell while her breathing grew ragged. She came to the conclusion that the smell was coming from outside and calmed down. She kind of felt like murdering Kasai for providing her mind with such nightmare fuel though. Avani kicked the wall free from her shelter to get out, and then she walked over to Kasai’s shelter with a cold expression on her face. She leaned against it, and looked through one of the air holes at Kasai. “Well, well, look what I caught in a trap for my breakfast.” Avani grinned mischievously. “So, what should I do with the Lady Sergeant now that I have her at my mercy, hmm?” She yawned, scratched her head. She didn’t want to imagine what her appearance was like with so little sleep. Death itself may very well look better than she did, for all she knew. Avani was glad that she didn’t have any mirror. “How about I make you beg me to release you?” Avani laughed. “Oh, but Lady Avani I’ll do anything to get out from this devilishly clever trap you caught me in.” She went on, now mimicking Kasai’s voice as a response to what she had just said herself. “Anything, you say?” Avani went back to mimicking Kasai, gasping as if shocked, and put a hand in front of her mouth while keeping her eyes wide open. “No… Not that. I’m far to upstanding and full of myself to consider the thought of doing something like that with another woman, but…” She removed one of the walls to Kasai’s shelter, and crawled inside with a grin across her face. “But?” Avani stopped for a moment and looked at the cooked meat with a frown. “That gave me nightmares, you know. Maybe you should consider that I just smelled my own flesh burning yesterday when you make breakfast in the future.” She blushed briefly. “Not that we’ll ever have breakfast together after today.” She cleared her throat with a cough.

The Circus At The End Of The World (Engel X The Kraken)

And just like that, Claire had somehow talked both Kate and Elijah into going to bed. Well, if they wanted to turn in early that was up to them. It was boring to say the least, but she wouldn’t let it get her down. Not that she cared much for Elijah, but she wondered why Kate was so dismissive of her since she talked had with her cats. She headed towards where some of the other members of the circus could be heard, chatting, laughing and drinking. Solomon followed as if he was a well-trained dog, not a three hundred kilo heavy tiger. “Gimme some of that.” She said to a woman with tattoos all over, pointing at the bottle in her hand. Claire knew her name. She couldn’t remember it right then though. The woman handed her the bottle with a laugh, after drinking some more of it first. Claire drank what was left to calm her nerves and become more sociable. She had socialized with the performers and crew members often after successful shows. The alcohol made her more interested in interacting with other humans. She passed the first half-hour with them by listening to them speak and joining in with the laughter. As she got more booze into her system, she began to inject her own voice into the conversation and joke with them. The evening turned into night in their company. Solomon was as welcome as Claire among them, even more so almost. At first he enjoyed being the centre of attention and having people pet him, but soon he retreated to lie down behind Claire and take a nap. Elena joined them at some point. There was an awkward mood when she did. Some of them didn’t feel like joking as much, which was probably because they had told jokes at her expense. Claire couldn’t help but notice that Elena behaved a lot less confidently than she had during her act or even compared to her normal self. Elena left before long, likely realizing that she wasn’t entirely welcome among them. Claire remained seated, but soon began to yawn and doze off. She was prevented from falling asleep in the spot by Solomon who kept pushing at her with his nose or his paw. It was getting on her nerves, so she gave in to the tiger and got up on her feet to find a better place to sleep. Claire mumbled her drunken farewells to the few of the group who were still socializing, and then she stumbled away from them towards the cages of her big cats. She was too drunk to feel particularly frightened of the dark or what may be hiding in it. The night was beginning to turn into very early morning as well, so the grey light was slowly replacing the darkness. Claire let Solomon into his cage and was about to head off to her own wagon, but figured there was no need for that. It wasn’t like the movements in the shadows she thought she had seen scared her or anything, but she would be more comfortable sleeping with her big boy. Claire reopened the door to Solomon’s cage, climbed inside and double checked that she had locked it after her. Finally, she laid down next to Solomon in the hay, who put his paw over her protectively and she felt a lot more secure.

The Circus At The End Of The World (Engel X The Kraken)

Claire’s mood was dampened a bit when Kate said she thought it was bizarre. She could understand where she was coming from, but it was great too…right? She had wanted to fully understand her kittens for as long as she could remember. She understood most of their body language, but there were moments when they would do something she did not entirely grasp the meaning of. Maybe the bizarre part was not that she had understood them, but that they had appeared to only her as if they were speaking her language and she had spoken to them in turn. Elena entered the ring eventually, and Claire remained with Kate while their boss carried out her own act. “Oh, so that is incredible, but when I talk to my cats it is bizarre.” Claire huffed and muttered to herself. "Double standards.” Kate was right that Elena’s act was incredible though, but Claire’s had been great too. She hoped so at least. It had been for her, so maybe she should not care so much what the others thought. It was rare to be satisfied with your own act, but she felt like she was this time. Claire had to watch as Elena cut the two boys in half, blood pooling on the ground and screams filling the big top. She was too taken by what was happening in front of her eyes to simply look away. Her stomach threatened to turn inside out and make her throw up as that part of Elena’s act came to a conclusion, with the two boys being combined into two new forms. “Were you using fake blood as well then, Elijah?” Claire asked. Her jaw dropped as Elena began to chant and summon shadows around her. Maybe that could explain the strange occurrences taking place, but Claire thought that would be the really bizarre event here if it was all caused by the devil himself. No, that could not be. Besides, she would rather not believe in what the Christians claimed to be the truth. She had travelled the world too much for that. The shadows dispersed into the audience who still thought everything tonight were extravagant illusions. Claire wished she could think that too. She held Kate’s hand tightly when they had to walk out into the ring, and join Elena, who now seemed a lot less like a lioness and a lot more like some kind of monster. She squeezed her hand a couple of times too, but let go when they each had to do their finishing tricks. Solomon joined Claire and she felt a bit more at ease after that. Claire went with Kate and Elijah to the outside of the big top, with Solomon walking quietly and obediently right next to her side. She raised an eyebrow at Kate’s outburst. “What, you mean the bizarre illusions?” Claire joked, then laughed half-heartedly while looking over her shoulder, worrying that there were more of those “illusions” waiting for them in the dark. “I don’t think it was anything coming from hell like you claim, Kate.” She laughed again, shrugging her shoulders. “Maybe it was just something in the food that we ate which made us imagine it all, right? Right!?” She had sounded more panicked repeating that word than she had intended. Claire didn’t want to think about the implications of what was going on. She hoped that Elena was not truly as much of a monster as she had demonstrated tonight. One night was enough for this. She could understand wanting to attract a crowd for their stay in London, but this was pushing the limit of what was acceptable. Surely, some of the performers might consider leaving the circus and joining another one if this went on? Claire didn’t want to leave, not without her cats at least. “Maybe we should all get some rest and hope it doesn’t repeat itself…”

Sacred World (Engel x The Kraken)

“Agreed then.” Avani said, and sat down for a second to rest her legs. She had been interrupted at the worst possible moment. Kasai had definitely kissed her back, and she even thought she had shivered under her touch. Avani giggled when Kasai brought up who had come on to whom. It was different from her loud mocking laughter, and quite feminine. “Yeah, I doubt she fell for that. Maybe if she hadn’t heard me trying to seduce you it would have been easier to shift the blame.” She stood up and followed Kasai through the forest once more, but now it became harder to see where she was putting her feet. She focused her eyes on the flame Kasai carried. “I wonder how long she watched us before she said anything…” Avani whispered mostly to herself. “Suuure, Lady Sergeant. I bet you earn more money than me though.” She said with a snarky tone when Kasai suggested they decide who buy dinner for who with a competition, but then changed her mind about being snarky and coughed. “Not that it matters since you’re going down either way.” Avani grinned cockily. “I always win. Besides, I think you’d have a problem with where I’d get the dough from to wine and dine such a fine lady.” It was an honest concern for her, even if she did have a legitimate job it didn’t pay nearly well enough to take out someone like Kasai for dinner. She didn’t mind doing some less legal work on the side for quick cash, but Kasai was a policewoman. “Heh, I suppose that could help with securing a second date if the first one goes bad.” Avani giggled again. “Oh, I’m sure you’d love the chance to put someone like me in handcuffs and do with as you please...” Avani blushed at her own comment after thinking about it, and went silent after that. As they kept walking in silence, it was what occupied Avani’s thoughts. She wondered if Kasai actually did have her own set of handcuffs for private use, but mostly she thought about what that could result in. When they stopped, Avani yawned. She felt exhausted at that point. “Yeah, Mio will be pissed though, probably thinks we just resumed where we left off.” Avani moved her feet to create another shelter like the one before. It was smaller, but should still allow them to sleep in. She got down on her knees in front of the opening to it, crawled halfway in and remembered that she had only made one. She blushed and backed outside on all fours, then used her feet to create a second one for Kasai on the other side of the clearing. “I almost forgot, sorry.” She said while yawning. “I’ll close it up securely after you. Oh, and I am sure your friend is fine. Mio wouldn’t say we for no reason. I don’t think she’s gotten that well acquainted with the spirits.” Avani just smiled with a tired expression across her face. After walking those last hours with questionable thoughts filling her mind, part of her kind of wanted Kasai to pounce her or enter her shelter, but she also knew she was too tired to take any advantage of such a situation. She needed to recuperate her energy to be able to rescue their friends too as Kasai had pointed out. She supposed it would be nice to sleep next to someone for the first time in a few months at least. Well, not counting passing out from pain and blood loss earlier.

Sacred World (Engel x The Kraken)

Avani felt warm when Kasai implied that she thought she was beautiful, but then the little cop had to ruin the feeling by speaking more words. Of course she had to find some reason to put herself above Avani. She turned her eyes away from Kasai, thinking she need not bother with the woman if she was going to be like that. It wasn’t like it was the first time someone had told her she was stupid though. Just because her interests were of a more physical nature, didn’t mean she was without a brain. “Come to think of it, weren’t you supposed to buy me dinner? I remember you mentioning this morning how you couldn’t wait to put your hands on me. I mean, I did think you meant it as a threat but now I can see I was mistaken in that assumption.” Avani smiled, having run out of laughter, and feeling no need to further mock Kasai. Right then anyway. Avani wanted to continue moving, to save Mio as soon as possible, but she couldn’t deny that her body was tired even if they hadn’t walked particularly far. She should be able to press herself some more without suffering injuries or worse. She turned to look at Kasai when she pointed out the obvious that they had light. Did she really think Avani was that dumb? Still, she couldn’t deny that the light lit up Kasai’s feature in a striking fashion which reminded her of why she found her appealing to the senses. Well, other than the ears, having to listen to her was getting on Avani’s nerves. Avani stepped closer to Kasai, invading her personal space this time. “Yes, a small spark.” She put her hand around the flame. “If nurtured, who knows, perhaps it could create a fire that lasts longer than anyone would have expected.” Avani looked into Kasai’s eyes while speaking, and moved her hand to brush a couple of strands of hair out of the sergeant’s face. “Earth could be used around it, to stop the fire from growing into a wildfire that would only cause harm to those seeking heat.” She slid her hand slowly down Kasai’s cheek, neck and left it resting on the hole she had accidentally created before. “I think we’ve suffered enough today to seek the heat, and forget our irreplaceable losses for a second.” She spoke the words into Kasai’s mouth, as she’d leaned that close and shut her eyes for a third kiss. “Wow…!” Avani heard Mio shout, and when she noticed a see-through projection of Mio in the clearing as well she pushed Kasai away from her and straightened her posture. “She came on to me!” Avani pointed at Kasai, trying to defend herself. Mio had almost lost concentration when she had found those they had been worried for, in the act of starting god knows what, but she regained it and kept her voice monotone and deadpan instead of filled with the rage she had to suppress. “I was worried sick about you, Avani, but it seems you’d rather, how did you put it? “seek the heat and forget the others”!?” Mio felt her projection fading, but she concentrated as much as she could to prevent it from doing so. "I guess you saw your chance and took it as soon as you two got a moment together. Were we just in the way for you all along?" “Of course not, Mio. We’ve been walking for hours trying to find you! She said we should stop and was all like pretty in the light and stuff…” Avani facepalmed herself. She didn’t need anyone else to tell her how awful that sounded. “I don’t have time for this.” Mio said in her deadpan tone, while shaking her head disapprovingly. “I think we’re at some kind of lake. I can see water. We’re pretty high up too, maybe in some kind of nest for these odd winged spirits? I’m not sure.” “That’s not much to go on.” Avani said, but the projection faded and disappeared as she spoke. So she was left alone again with Kasai, who she had now actually tried to seduce instead of simply kiss. She wished that Mio would return, but she didn’t.¨ “I don’t know which is best. I’d say we keep moving for a few hours more. I’m used to pushing pressure on my body. You don’t need to worry about me.”

The Circus At The End Of The World (Engel X The Kraken)

Claire smiled at him when Eli grinned. At least he was not too traumatized by the horrible event that he had gone through, or maybe he was good at hiding it. She noticed how Kate reacted to his grin, so she figured it was likely the latter of the two. “I’m glad you’re both alive.” Claire said, with a guilty expression. “Despite what I said earlier today that it would be fun to see you hit him, it wasn’t as funny as I’d imagined.” “Oh, isn’t it so wonderful, Kate.” She exclaimed when Kate mentioned what had happened during Claire’s performance. “I could understand Solomon, and Sheila and Scar. Scar has got an excellent singing voice, who knew!” Claire calmed herself down quickly when someone else approached within earshot. She didn’t want others to hear her talking about how she had spoken with her animals, because then she’d be in an asylum before long. “Ah, yes, it is indeed strange.” She grinned excitedly at Kate with her whole face, when she was sure no one else was looking, but hid the expression as fast as it had appeared. Elena had changed the order of the performances so that she was last. Well, next to last if you counted the part where everyone was supposed to enter the ring together, take a bow and perform some basic tricks. The show had been somewhat unforgettable already with some of the illusions and magic she had exerted upon the acts. Now it was her turn though, and she would be damned if she let her underlings upstage her. No, she had a special surprise at the end, not to mention that the act she had prepared for this show was different than anything she had planned previously. She entered the ring once more, but she had changed clothes since when she had introduced them in the beginning. Elena was wearing a rather nomadic getup, with pearls, braids and a fur coat. She had visible tattoos and jewellery made of bone. It was more fitting for her personality and her act than the black suit and top she had worn when doing the introduction. Elena began with some minor albeit extraordinary effects, like setting fire to a napkin and freezing the fire itself, planting a seed and having it grow into a bush in front of everyone, swallowing a hissing snake and then pulling it out of her arm. These all got the audience’s attention like nothing else had that night or maybe in their entire lives. She felt smug and showed it with a confident posture. “For my next trick, I will have two assistants.” Elena said. Two young boys that worked at the circus doing a number of different chores walked into the ring to join the magician. She put the boys into two separate boxes, that only showed their heads and their feet, which she locked. Elena picked up a saw and held it so that the audience could see it. She began to saw through one of the boxes. At first, it was like any other instance when she had performed the trick, but soon the boy in the box was screaming in pain and crying. There was blood dripping out of the box, forming a puddle on the ground. Elena kept at it until she had sawed the box in half. The boy had gone mad by then, and his friend in the other box was clearly afraid when Elena stepped up to saw his box in half. The same thing happened with the second boy, he screamed in pain, and blood stained the ground beneath the box. When Elena had finished sawing the boxes in half, the four of them began to move around in a circle before they stopped. The boys had been wearing different shoes, so it was easy to see that it was not their original boxes that had paired up together. However, Elena went through with the act of putting them together, changing their bodies into new forms that combined the two original ones. She opened up the boxes to reveal that the halves of the bodies had indeed been switched. The audience had mixed reactions to this. There were a few who threw up, thinking the illusion was way too real. There were those who were appalled. The majority of them cheered, whistled and clapped frantically though. The first boy passed out, and had to be carried away. The second one ran away screaming as if death itself was giving chase. Elena bowed. She pulled out the book that had helped her improved tonight’s show from within her coat, opened it up and read the passage she had been trying to pronounce right earlier that day. Her voice turned into chanting, taking a much darker tone than usual and spouted utter gibberish to anyone listening. Unfortunately, she didn’t get it quite right this time either. Instead, she sounded as if she’d been possessed by a demon while chanting and a number of shadows began to manifest themselves around Elena. She forced the book to close with pure willpower, but it was too late to contain the shadows. They dispersed into the audience and disappeared out of the big top. She got a pale expression on her face, fearing whatever she had unleashed as she had honestly no idea what they had been. Thankfully, the audience thought it was another illusion. Londoners weren’t particularly bright. Elena could finish her act, pretending that everything had gone as planned. Everyone entered the ring to take a bow to the audience and finish as they always did. The show ended without any further complications.