When Aurora Circus arrives without warning, Karolina and her friends go for answers. Inside the tent, wonder turns sharp when a performer begs them to uncover what the circus is hiding.
Aurora Circus arrived without warning, rising at the edge of town like a bruise in the fog. By nightfall, its lanterns had bloomed in red and violet over the fields, and the first notes of a brass fanfare drifted through the streets. Adults who should have known better kept stopping to stare.
Karolina met Adam and Sonia at the gate. They had come for the spectacle, or so they claimed, but the rumours had already done their work. Someone had seen one of the performers vanish behind the tents the night before. Someone else swore the Master of Illusion could make a person forget their own name if they looked at him too long.
Inside the main tent, the air was thick with smoke, resin, and the bitter sweetness of crushed herbs. The ring filled with impossible figures: a clown with a blank white face and eyes too intelligent to be painted, an acrobat hanging in midair as if gravity had given up, a man swallowing burning roses one after another while the crowd applauded with nervous delight.
Karolina clapped with the others, but she could feel something wrong in the seams of the performance. The smiles lasted a fraction too long. The lighting shifted whenever someone stepped out of line. Every curtain seemed to breathe.
Then the music stopped.
The arena lights dimmed to a narrow pulse, and the Master of Illusion emerged in a black cloak edged with silver thread. His eyes caught the light like polished stone as he swept his gaze over the audience. "Tonight," he said, his voice low and certain, "you will witness a number no one has ever seen before. But be warned: not everyone is prepared for the truth. Who here is brave enough to cross from dream into waking?"
Adam glanced at Sonia. Sonia did not look away.
Karolina was about to answer when something touched her wrist from behind. A hand, cold and trembling. She turned.
It was one of the performers, the chimera artist, her face pale beneath the stage paint. Her lips barely moved. "Help me," she whispered. "Before he notices I'm still free."
Across the ring, the Master of Illusion smiled straight at Karolina, as if he had been waiting for her all along.