6 The Performance of a Lifetime

The next morning broke out early, luckily no protesters came to disturb the Circus, so some performers had taken the initiative to go into the city to explore, grab coffee and groceries, some to go sightseeing and others to stretch their legs.

Ebony rubbed her eyes and yawned, walking into the kitchen, she grabbed a mug from the cupboard and made herself some coffee. Once the kettle boiled she poured the water and coffee grains into a mug and sprinkled in a few teaspoons of sugar, when she sat down she noticed a timid looking young man shuffled his way in through the door. "Are you alright?"

The young man jumped and squeaked. "I'm sorry!"

She tilted her head. "What are you sorry for?"

His mop of Champagne blond hair draped over his eyes, which he brushed out of the way. "I didn't mean to intrude, that's all."

"You're not intruding, this is as much your home as it is mine."

"Ah, yeah," the young Aussie let out a nervous laugh "I'm just getting used to things around here."

"You're the fresh meat around here?" she quizzed.

"F-Fresh meat?"

"Yes, you're the kid that joined us a few weeks ago, aren't you? What was it? Alex? Andrew?"

"Ashe."

"My apologies, Ashe." She took a sip of her coffee, "I'm terrible with names." she gestured for him to join her, grabbing another mug and pouring him some coffee.

"I don't expect you to remember my name, there's so many of us here." he spoke quietly.

"Oh, I'll remember you. Once I treat your first injury the name will fit the face. I'm Ebony, by the way."

He raised a brow and nodded, he warmed his hands by grasping the hot mug. "You say that like I'm definitely going to get hurt."

"Everybody gets hurt at one point."

He hesitated again. "What's the worst injury you've seen here?"

"Death." she said with a straight face.

He sank into his seat. "D-death?"

Ebony nodded and sipped from her mug "Why do you think we hired you as a replacement? I did the best I could but there's only so much you can do when someone's suspended 50 feet in the air and the silks wrap themselves around the poor girls neck."

He was silent, taken aback by how calm and unnerved her tone was, like it was a casual thing to mention. He cleared his throat and fumbled around with the sleeves of his oversized hoodie "I think I'll go take a coffee to Anthony, I haven't really had time to speak with him properly yet."

Ebony closed her eyes and nodded, it was far too early for her to pay attention to anything more until she had finished the rest of her drink.

Ashe prepared coffee for Anthony and carried it carefully out of the kitchen and into the corridor, past everybody's room, he knocked and waited until he heard a faint "Come in."

He walked in and found Anthony on the floor wrestling with Buddy, putting him into a headlock "Ebony, give me a hand, will ya? Buddy ate my phone."

Ashe stood there awkwardly. Anthony looked up when there was no answer and froze.

"You're not Ebony."

"I'm not."

"You're not even a woman."

"Not since the last time I checked."

"You're not supposed to be here."

"I umm ...Coffee?"

Anthony wrapped his arms around Buddy's belly and pumped his fists, the small dragon coughed up the phone and spat it out.

Ebony had bolted from the corridor to scramble into Anthony's room a little too late, "Ashe! Don't go in!"

She snapped the door shut behind her once she was in the room, locking Anthony, herself and Ashe in together "You're not supposed to be in here!"

Ashe put the mug down, his voice trembled slightly "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude or upset anyone! Am I fired? I'm definitely fired aren't I?"

Anthony stood up and patted him on the shoulder, "You're not fired, don't be upset."

"I just… I didn't mean to…" his voice cracked a little bit, he hid his face behind his long sleeves.

Anthony and Ebony gave each other a silent look and both instinctively knew what that meant, that was, until Ebony noticed something.

"Wait, Ashe? You're not freaked out by Buddy?"

Ashe shook his head "Who's Buddy?"

Anthony chimed in "My dragon."

Ashe sniffed and rubbed his face, "T-that's a strange name for a dragon… I would have named him Dovakiin, or Smaug." Buddy waddled over to Ashe and sniffed at his shoes before settling down and gnawing on his laces.

"It's because he's my little Buddy."

Ashe smiled "Maybe Dave."

Anthony frowned "Why Dave?"

"It's not what you'd expect from a dragon," he spoke quietly "when you think of a dragon you think of something majestic. Naming him Dave could put a false sense of security."

"He's not a Dave, and he's barely three foot tall."

Ebony shook her head in disbelief "Are you two serious right now? We have a problem here!"

Anthony took a moment to think, he glanced over to Ashe. "This dragon doesn't concern you at all?"

"No, it's not the first one I've seen."

Anthony and Ebony's jaw dropped "What do you mean it's not the first? Where have you seen one before?"

"My family used to have one as pest control back home."

"You're a Mage?!" Anthony and Ebony yelped together.

Ashe flinched at their abrupt reaction "I-I didn't know it would be a problem, I'm so sorry!" he retreated his face back into his sleeves again.

Anthony rubbed his hands against Ashe's shoulders in an attempt to comfort him, "No, no, no. It's the opposite of a problem." he couldn't hide the gleeful smile over his face. "You have no idea how comforting it is to know there's another Mage here."

Ashe spoke quietly "Well, actually, I've been wanting to say something to you since I got here."

"Wait, you knew I was a Mage from the beginning?"

Ashe shrugged "Not immediately, when I saw you perform for the first time, appearing from thin air in a ball of fire, that's when I knew for sure. You're an Elemental? Legacy? Or Adept?"

Anthony hesitated to answer "I um… It's complicated. What's your discipline?"

"I'm just an Elemental," He smiled and snapped his fingers, a small flame conjured in his hand as fast as it wilted away in only a moment. "nothing fancy."

Anthony tilted his head "What brought you here anyway. Mages usually stick together."

Ashe sighed "I… um…I ran away from home. I figured since I'm on my own, I might as well make a fresh start, so I came here and found you guys pretty much the first day I arrived."

"Aw, Ashe." Ebony softened. "We're your family now."

Ashe's smile glowed "Thank you," he turned his attention to Ebony "so, you're a Mage too?"

She shook her head "No, just Anthony."

"But don't you think Mages could make the Circus better? If people knew maybe we wouldn't have to hide?"

Anthony's eyes lit up "See! He understands it!"

Ebony sighed "Now isn't the time to discuss this, Anthony."

"Actually," Ashe dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone "now might be the best time to talk about this sort of thing."

"What do you mean?"

He tapped his screen a few times and showed the both of them a news article that read:

SUSPICIOUS 'REFUGEES' REMOVED AND DETAINED INDEFINITELY

Ebony raised a brow "That's been on the news for a while now."

He scrolled down further, "It's not exactly what you think it is. If you compare it to Mage websites..." the news articles that followed headlined as:

MORTALS 'ALLEGEDLY' MURDERING MAGES IN NEW WAVE OF HATE CRIMES

"I don't understand" Anthony read the articles, looking puzzled as he read.

"They're not refugees, they're Mages." Ashe took his phone back and stuffed it into the front pouch of his hoodie "There's a rumour going around that the High Sages have something to do with it and are rallying up support to retaliate if we're exposed to the Mortals."

"So what does that mean?"

Ashe looked nervous, "If it's true, we're all in trouble. Nobody's safe, even if you're neutral and want nothing to do with the conflict that might happen, the High Sages will label you as a traitor."

"That's not a problem," Anthony shook his head "If Mortals and Mages put their differences aside-"

"I'm not too sure about that," Ashe sighed, "There's a dangerous Mage, Talim. He's a very powerful Adept. He doesn't distinguish between Mortals and Mages, but word spread that he wants to expose magic to the Mortals."

Anthony smirked "See, yet more Mages."

"So he can enslave and rule over them." Ashe continued.

Anthony's smirk disappeared "... Mages who are insane."

"What? Why would he do that? What makes this guy want to do that?"

Ashe shrugged his shoulders at Ebony, "I'm not sure, some people say that he has a vendetta against Mortals for some reason, other people say that he sees Mortals as subservient to us."

"You're very educated on what's happening."

"Well, I kind of have to, I have a family in very… High places and it's their business too."

Anthony and Ebony exchanged the same momentary look of despair until Ebony spoke first "This is more than we expected. This is beyond us."

"We can't do nothing, Eb."

She huffed "We have our own problems right now, and by we I mean you. You have problems. Getting that Tobias kid to stay quiet is your priority."

Anthony sighed "Yes, we'll fix that when he comes."

"If." Ebony glared. "If he comes."

"He'll come, I'm positive."

"But what if he doesn't?"

"Well, then we'll have double the amount of problems that will keep me up at night. Double one is two, Ebony."

She scowled at him, "Just get yourself ready for the show tonight." she turned her attention to Ashe, "And you-"

"Keep my mouth shut and my magic hidden."

Ebony smiled "See, Ant. Why can't you be a good Mage like Ashe?"

"I'm bad to the bone, honey."

"You still cry at the Lion King when Mufasa dies."

Anthony looked offended. "I'm not a monster, Eb."

Later that night the show became underway. Every seat was filled and crowds even gathered outside the tent, hopefully anticipating a second show and eagerly awaiting to buy tickets. Circuses were a novelty, especially in the industrial area of Central London they were staying in, which drove large crowds quickly.

Dan was just about to finish his performance, he was holding his female partner in the air as she did a handstand, the both of them grappling the others hands to maintain balance and precision, Dan knelt down in anticipation then hurled his partner in the air, she flipped twice and managed to fit in a twist, something they hadn't practiced beforehand, but she managed to stick the landing and grasped Dan's hands once more. Once the crowd began to applaud he let her partner down, both of them gave a bow. The spotlight shining on them lifted up above to show five aerial hoop performers starting their part of the show, intricately twisting and contorting their bodies in and out of the hoops while balancing their weight to not fall, all while suspended at a frightening height. Back on the ground Anthony was dipping and dodging between the various acts going on at once, stopping just before the knife thrower bombarded flaming swords at the poor girl attached to a spinning table, then taking a running slide underneath the fire-dancers tossing flaming torches to one another, he dodged them effortlessly and with suave sophistication. Some might argue that this could be confusing to watch, too many things going on at once to concentrate, it was apparent that Anthony had a talent for choreography.

On the surface it looked like Anthony was just very flamboyant and hyperactive by the way he moved, but in reality he was searching the crowds, moving graciously from one side of the audience to the other, though him being the Ringmaster, it didn't look out of the ordinary doing it, after all, it was his job to grab the audience's attention, and he did that without even trying. Anthony tried scanning the crowds, then he saw him.

Tobias smirked and leaned against the bandstand, off to the side and away from everybody else. A million thoughts raced through his mind and before he knew it he found himself centre stage pulling the show to a close.

The spotlight was on him and he forced a smile through gritted teeth. Suddenly everything became so real, his breathing became shallow, god it was so hard to breathe, his heart thundered in his chest and his mouth became dry.

He watched the crowds but couldn't hear their applause.

All he could hear was his heart throbbing, he heard it in his ears as his breath became heavy.

Just a few more seconds and the sound will come.

Any sound. He'd welcome booing and insults at this point.

He bit his lip and his eyes, eyes wading to where Tobias was just standing, but he was gone.

No sound at all.

Panic attack.

Ashe had noticed Anthony was silent, usually he was energetic at this point, he had swung down from his aerial silk to strike a pose with the rest of the performers to officially bring the show to a close. He glanced over and whispered "Anthony? Are you alright?"

That's when Anthony felt light headed.

He felt sick and everything became a blur. The only thing he could hear were echoed gasps followed by his faded name being called out.

Then everything went black.