7 An Open Admission

Jesse was standing outside among the crowds waiting for tickets to the next show, he was being shoved into a barrier that was holding above capacity, being poked and prodded by the swarms of people around him. He was starting to get agitated, if not by the incessant closeness of large crowds, it was the pure heat coming from close contact, it was making him tired and annoyed. That's when his phone rang, he was quick to answer when he saw it was Atlas. "H-Hello?"

"Sterling, any updates? Did you keep an eye on Barnum? Is he practicing magic in front of Mortals again?"

"I couldn't get in because of the amount of Mortals here."

"That's not what I'm asking." Atlas pressed.

"Yes sir… I'll drag him back kicking and screaming if he is." This got Jesse a few strange looks from the people standing around him who had nothing better to do than to pay attention to his phone call, he chose to ignore them, however.

"Good." Atlas' voice dipped, "When you have him in a secluded area you bring him back to me. Nobody else, do you understand?"

Jesse hummed in agreement and readied himself as people started to leave the tent, though the expressions of their faces say anything other than excitement, ones of grave concern and dread.

"Do you think he's dead?"

"He just dropped to the floor! Mid performance!"

"I hope he's okay."

These were the passing comments he heard as the tent began to empty. Jesse put the phone back to his ear, "Sir, I have to go." he hung up the phone and listened closer to the conversations of the people who were leaving. Within a few moments he had enough information to piece together what happened, though nobody could figure out a cause for the Ringmaster suddenly passing out at the end of the performance.

Jesse stepped away from the crowds and shuffled towards the back of the tent, he dipped over a barrier and slid into a gap in the tent, now his suit was dirty, stepping inside, he found himself under the bandstand seating area. He raised and ducked his head to see what was going on, but the seating panels were just thick enough that he couldn't make out what was happening. All he could see were the performers crowded around then after a few moments of chaos Ebony jogged out to the curtains, followed by Dan carrying Anthony over his shoulder, then one by one the performers scurried out. Now the stage and ringside was completely empty, the lights switched off as the last performer left, leaving him in darkness.

A lot of things were rattling in Jesse's brain, it was hard to concentrate on one thought, that was until he looked up and saw a pair of eyes reflecting back at him from the opening of the scaffolding holding up another bandstand seating.

He was eerily calm as he marched to the eyes. The figure's silhouette backed up the closer he got until the figure was cornered by the metal frame of scaffolding.

Jesse glared and lifted his right hand, he slapped the back of it with his left and white lightning crackled and sparked.

"Don't obscure me!" the voice sounded panicked.

Jesse lowered his hand holding the sparks, "So, stranger. You're a Mage…" Tobias' face could be made out from behind the sparks.

"First off, I'm gonna ask you to put that out."

Jesse huffed and did as requested, this made it easier to make out who he was talking to. "You? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"That's none of your business, boy."

Tobias glared at him as he watched Jesse flick his hand to the side and the white sparks frazzled away, he asked him again, "Why are you here?"

Jesse shook his head and grumbled, "You've been here this whole time? What happened?"

Tobias dipped his shoulders in an attempt to shrug "One minute he was running around and doing whatever, the next it was curtain call Mr. Ringmaster." he lied to Jesse and himself, he had eye contact with Anthony for a split second, he knew that Anthony had stressed himself out looking for him to the point where it gave him a panic attack, he tried to look into Jesse's eyes to see why he was there but something was making it impossible for him.

"You can't read my thoughts, boy." He smirked, "My contact lenses are a barrier for your magic."

Tobias raised a brow "That was your elaborate shield, huh?"

His smirk faded when he remembered why he was there "Why haven't you left yet, you know I'm not here for you."

"I want to make sure Anthony's alright."

"You actually care? I didn't think that was possible for your type."

Tobias gritted his teeth, "I'm not a walking stereotype of the magic I have no control over." he calmed himself before speaking again, "Yes. I care. Ant's a good guy, I want to make sure he's going to be okay. Plus he was looking for me anyway."

The two were silent, staring at one another. Tobias made the first move to find Anthony, Jesse coming up closely behind as they crept from under the scaffolding and off the stage and behind that big crimson curtain.

Both of them wandered down the hallway, moving slowly and trying to avoid detection whilst looking out for whichever room Anthony might be in. Jesse mumbled "There's two places he could be in, the medical bay or his own room…"

Tobias whispered "How do you know that?"

"I've been here once and took a mental note of where I was going, this place is a lot bigger on the inside."

Tobias was paying little attention and instead admiring the surroundings, the rooms which were open, including the common room, all looked cosy and welcoming, but at the same time found it strange that there wasn't a person to be seen "Which room do you think they took him to?"

"He keeps a small dragon in his room so I'm fairly certain, if he's serious about its safety, he doesn't allow anybody in there. It's more likely it'll be the medical bay."

As they reached towards the middle of the corridor the both of them spotted a door with a red medics cross on it, they glanced at each other before they snuck their way in.

Ebony had her back to the door, and instead tended to Anthony, he was lying unconscious on a clean white bed. Ebony grunted as she took off her rubber gloves and tossed them in the bin, "You know the rules, stay in your room or out of the way-" she looked up and saw the two unfamiliar faces staring back at her "Who are you two? You shouldn't be here."

Jesse checked around to see if they were the only people in the room, once satisfied he leaned in to Ebony. "We're here to see Anthony."

"I don't know if you can see or if you're choosing to ignore your surroundings but Anthony is laying down with his eyes closed in a medical bay. That's not a good sign, and an indication that something is wrong."

Tobias tilted his head "Really? Because he looks pretty awake to me."

Ebony quickly snapped her head to the side to see if he was right, to her surprise Anthony was sitting upright rubbing the back of his neck, he groaned. "I'm gonna feel that in the morning," he watched Tobias, "Y-you actually came?" then saw Jesse standing to his left and sulked "Oh, you came."

Jesse relaxed his unfocused gaze, not bothering to hold back the sarcasm. "Charming."

"Wait, you're the guy?" Ebony asked, "The Tobias guy we've been looking for?"

Jesse scoffed and jerked a thumb to Tobias. "No, that must be him."

"Then who are you- You know what? Never mind right now," she turned her attention back to Anthony. "What happened back there? You gave us such a scare."

"It was nothing." Anthony said with a smile and attempted to swing his legs off the bed, he was immediately pushed back by Ebony.

"I don't think so, Mister."

"I'm not dying, Ebony. I'm getting off the bed."

Ebony glared at him with a deadpan expression. "I dare you-"

"Ah, you said I'm not allowed to accept dares anymore."

Jesse became intrigued. "Why not?"

Anthony sat back on the bed and crossed his arms and legs, then pouted like a child, "I have no regard for my own safety or others personal safety." he said with a bored tone.

Ebony grinned triumphantly before readjusting her glasses, "So, since the both of you two came together, I'm assuming you two are Mages too?"

Jesse nodded, "That's right." and gave a heavy sigh of relief. "I was nervous for a moment, since I thought you were a Mortal."

"I am."

Jesse froze in place, after a moment or two to gather his thoughts he quickly slapped one hand against the palm of the other, the white crackling lightning sparked from his fingertips once more.

Anthony's eyes widened, he vaulted off the bed and stood in between Jesse and Ebony. "What are you doing?!"

"She's a Mortal. She knows!"

"So you're going to kill her?!"

He looked perplexed, "What? No. This isn't to kill someone, it's to Obscure."

Ebony's heart skipped a beat, though on the outside she appeared to only tilt her head. "What's 'Obscure' mean? What's with the white light?"

"It just means I'll scramble your memories so you don't remember anything about Mages."

"Oh," Ebony frowned. "Let's not do that, please."

Anthony stood firm to protect Ebony from Jesse, "You aren't doing it. She's fine. She's known for years and hasn't got a problem with it."

"We warned you about this!" Jesse argued back.

"That whole rule about Mages was made to keep everyone in-line and you know it," he didn't break eye-contact from Jesse "people are capable of understanding and accepting us. The fact that some of us choose to live with them is proof of that. These rules are outdated from a time when both humans and Mages and Mortals didn't know any better. Times have changed and both worlds need to know that....You don't understand-"

Jesse studied him for a few seconds, the lightning crackling in his hand was becoming more intense by the second, "I don't understand." then the lightning dampened and zapped into nothingness. "But the fact that you jumped in my way knowing I was going to Obscure her makes me wonder why you're so passionate about Mortals."

Anthony and Ebony blew a collective sigh of relief before Anthony smiled, "Now that's settled-" he turned and threw himself at Tobias, tackling him to the ground and pinning him down by sitting on his back and yanking his arms, like some cheesy wrestling match. "I have never been so stressed in all my life looking for someone!"

Tobias yelped as he went down and scrambled in a pathetic attempt to fight back, with not so much success, "It's not my problem you gave yourself a panic attack!"

Anthony growled and yanked harder at his arms, Tobias managed to flip over onto his back and kicked Anthony in the chest, the both of them sprawling and grappling one another. Ebony and Jesse just watched awkwardly.

"So," Jesse mumbled, "Is he always this stupid and immature?"

Ebony shrugged, "It varies." and rolled her eyes. "I'm going to have to patch up whoever gets hurt either way." she walked over to a sink, filled a beaker with water and dumped it on both of them, they stopped fighting "Ebony!" Anthony moaned, soaking wet.

She put the beaker back into the sink and pointed to Tobias "You need to keep things to yourself and stop invading people's minds like you do."

"Yeah!" Anthony smirked.

Ebony then pointed at Anthony, "You need to stop acting so immature."

Tobias grinned. "Yeah."

She spun around and pointed at Jesse, "And what are you doing here?"

"To drag Anthony back to the High Sages to be murdered."

Ebony, Anthony and Tobias stared at him, speechless.

"But I'm not going to."

"I know the High Sages don't like me but I didn't think they'd want me dead."

Jesse shook his head "They think you're too much of a risk with your Circus, they want you out of the limelight because they're threatened by you. It's just bad timing with Mages going missing."

Anthony stood up first and held a hand out to Tobias to help him up, "So, you're not going to take me? Why the change in heart?"

"Because, quite simply. You're an idiot. You're more of a threat to yourself than to anybody else. I couldn't justify it to myself to have you killed."

"You pity me."

"I didn't up until five minutes ago, so you only have yourself to thank. It saved your life."

Anthony smiled then frowned "I'm not that stupid… Am I?"

Ebony was quick to change the subject, "So why are Mages disappearing again?"

"You want the truth?" Jesse glanced at the three of them, "It's exactly as Anthony said, to keep sorcerers in-line. The Mages going missing is the High Sages way of scaring Mages into complying."

Tobias shook his head in disbelief, "Mages have been killed by Mortals. Why would they do that to their own kind?"

"Scare tactics and fear mongering. Mages are becoming fearful of Mortals which is inciting some to take laws into their own hands. Conflict between Mortals and Mages is what the High Sages want because they know we will win, resulting in the Mortals becoming subservient to Mages."

Anthony sat down and ruffled his damp hair,"So that's why they want me killed? I'm so much of a powerful threat they think I'm going to overthrow them."

"That's not the case at all."

"High Sage Barnum has a ring to it, doesn't it?"

"I've arrested people for less than that." Jesse frowned.

Tobias cleared his throat. "So, why do they want him killed?"

"Because when I brought you before them they expected you to double-down to them but you didn't. They saw that as defiance and they didn't like that at all."

Ebony tensed up. "That's warranting murdering someone?"

Anthony hopped back into the bed and crossed his arms and legs once more, "Those are the 'refugee's�� the news is talking about."

Jesse nodded, "Yes."

Tobias became wary of Jesse's sudden morality change, "You came here to take Ant back, why are you suddenly telling us all of this? You're a City Guard, you work directly under the High Sages. You of all people is someone we shouldn't trust."

"He's got a point." Anthony shrugged.

"I work for them, it doesn't mean to say I like what they're doing."

Anthony shrugged again, "He's also got a point. So why would you risk turning your back on them and telling us this?"

"Honestly," Jesse sighed, "I don't agree with what they're doing, but if I suddenly quit they'll get suspicious, things will add up that I was last with you lot and they'll no doubt kill me, along with you three and anyone else who crosses them."

Ebony made solid eye contact with Jesse "So you're relaying what's going on with us in the hopes that we can do something about it?"

He shook his head, "Not exactly. Truth be told, I'm fairly conflicted as to what I should do. On the one hand I have a good paying job, but on the other hand the morals are questionable and people will get hurt in the end."

"So, where do we go from here?" Anthony tilted his head.

"This might be ridiculously naive of me," Ebony pinched the bridge of her nose, "but I believe him. I think the two of you should stay here to avoid detection, and so we can keep an eye on everything."

Tobias dipped his shoulders, "I'll be honest. I have no money."

Anthony raised a brow and gave a light-hearted laugh. "The sign outside says Circus, not Hotel, you dope."

Tobias' eyes flashed with ecstatic joy. "For real? Aw, man. You're the best!"

Anthony grinned "We travel constantly so there's no chance of anyone catching up to us. Plus, I can see what Ebony means, you both seem like pretty genuine people."

"Why would you be willing to help strangers?" Jesse seemed baffled by the concept, he assured himself there had to be some sort of catch.

"I wouldn't be much of a human without some sort of humanity."

Jesse was openly stunned, his mouth slightly agape.

"We're a little short on space right now," Ebony readjusted her glasses to the bridge of her nose once more. "But if you two are okay sharing a room we can fix something up for you."

Jesse puffed out his chest, "We're not in immediate danger, you know we don't need protection, right?"

She nodded and smiled "You can still do what you're doing, come and go as you please, but I look at all the options and possibilities. One of them I can see is that these 'High Sages' will find out eventually, then where will you go? They'll probably know everything about you. Except this, this is a secret between the four of us."

"Five." Anthony said.

"Five?"

Anthony nodded. "Five. Ashe will probably need to know what's going on."

"Who's Ashe?" Jesse questioned.

"He's a guy we hired as an Aerial Silk performer a few weeks back. He's a Mage too, we found out a few hours ago."

"I'm not sure," Ebony shook her head . "He's rather shy and nervous."

"Fine, we won't involve him unless we have to." Anthony jumped back off the bed, "Alright, we've all had a little bit of a rough night so I think it's time I make you guys somewhere to stay."

Anthony led Tobias and Jesse through the corridor and stopped a few doors away from his own room, "Last time I checked this one was empty." he swung open the door. Inside it was just the shell of a room, no furniture, no beds, not even a window. Tobias tried not to look too disappointed, "I'm having second thoughts about this."

"You mean you had a first thought?" Anthony sneered as he shut the door, and waited a few seconds. When he opened it again it was completely furnished, looking much larger on the inside than it should, the two beds were on opposite sides of the room, there was now a window, only a small one, but it looked brand new, a couple of nice wooden wardrobes and even a desk and chair close to the window which leaned more towards the side that Tobias had already claimed as his, the room itself was a nice shade of red and decorated in a sophisticated style that screamed grandeur. Both Tobias and Jesse stepped inside, slowly spinning around to get a good look at their new home, Jesse shot a smile to Anthony, "This is incredible."

"I look after my own. My Circus and everyone in it is like a family to me."

"I call top bunk!" Tobias dived onto the bed he had silently claimed.

"These are single beds…" Jesse seemed confused.

"I don't care what it is, I call this side."

Anthony rolled his eyes and spoke with heavy sarcasm, "You kids figure it out for yourself," he stretched and stepped out into the corridor to give them privacy "I've had a long day so don't wake me up unless someone's on fire. I do love it when that happens because it's usually me."

"Anthony?" Jesse turned to him "So does this mean your magic is something to do with conjuring? An Adept?"

Anthony couldn't help but shake his head and grin as he walked away, "You'll never find out, Jesse." and disappeared into his own room.

The early morning air was chilly and had a harsh snap to it, the fog had settled and the last remnants of frost began to evaporate. Tobias and Jesse had woken up later than everybody else. Both of them dragged themselves out of bed and went about their morning rituals and routines. Jesse's phone started ringing, he didn't need to look at the caller ID to know it was High Sage Booker. Tobias watched him dig his phone out of his pocket and answer.

"Yes, sir?"

Atlas didn't sound best pleased "You were quick to end the call last night."

"There was a minor difficulty...Too many Mortals around-"

"Then why didn't you obliterate them?"

"I…" Jesse fumbled his words "I don't know what to say, Sir-"

"I want you to say you found Barnum and have him here in my office by the end of today."

"That's easier said than done, Sir-"

"Let me put this simply, Sterling. I'm losing my patience and there have been developments, if he's not here by the end of today you'll be joining him." before Jesse could say anything in response the phone clicked and the call ended.

He glanced at Tobias "It's not what you think-"

"You don't know what I'm thinking."

Anthony sat on the benches watching his performers carefully, making sure they were in the right places and their timing was exceptional, making mental notes to himself about corrections and improvements to make. Ebony wandered over to his direction, took the seat next to him and handed him one of the two cups of coffee she held in her hands. He thanked her and took a sip, letting the first mouthful touch his soul.

"How are things looking?"

"Pretty good." Anthony placed the hot drink beside him on the bench. "Although Dan's slacking." he raised his voice loud enough so Dan, who had just finished doing stretches to warm up, could hear.

"I'm sorry, Mister I'm-sitting-on-my-arse, what did you just say?"

"Did I stutter?" Anthony had that sly grin on his face again, "You heard what you heard."

Dan took a few steps towards him before Ebony grunted, "I am not breaking you two up from your horsing around again. Seven times during rehearsals the other day I had to do that."

Dan paused where he was and realised he wasn't in the mood for a scolding right now "Your words hurt, you know, Anthony?"

"It hurts me to see you."

"See me what?"

"See you at all, I didn't know my eyes itched as much as they do when I look at you."

"This is why nobody wants to talk to you." Dan said lightheartedly and went back to preparing for his routine.

Ebony sipped her coffee, "I really wish you two would stop, you stress me out so much."

"You love us for it, we keep you in business with constantly doing dumb stuff to hurt each other."

Ebony hummed quietly, "Are you worried about things?"

"I found out last night that powerful people are trying to kill me, what do you think?"

"That's a yes."

"I'm worried you're all going to be dragged into things if the High Sages catch up to us."

"Catching up to us is pretty much impossible, you said it yourself."

He laughed nervously, "I can't believe my bull is so good it convinces even you."

She felt cold. "You lied?"

"I didn't lie, I'm confident they won't catch up but there's always a small chance I'm not right."

"You're not doing anything to comfort me."

He gave her that charming smile of his "Ebony, let me worry about the mess I get myself into, you just worry about patching us up if we hurt ourselves."

Ebony rolled her eyes, "You mean when you hurt yourself."

Anthony shook his head, all of a sudden he bolted to the rehearsing performers with incredible speed and stamped his foot down on a rope just in time, a large sandbag weight had become loose and was moments away from crushing Ashe, who was unaware of his surroundings as he warmed up.

Anthony panted and yanked the rope down with him as he fell to his knees in exhaustion, Ashe spun around and was surprised to see him "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" Anthony took a greedy lung full of air "J-just keep an eye on the ropes and stuff, okay?"

Ashe's eyes followed the rope he was holding up to the sandbag dangling above his head, his cheeks almost glowed red from embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry."

Anthony smiled. "No worries, just be careful next time."