About

The lights snap on before you can think. You are standing in the middle of a glittering ring, confetti drifting down like snow that forgot which way was up. Your hands are wrong - too smooth, too bright. A spiraling horn catches the tent lights above you. Caine is already watching. Something about this place hums with a frequency that does not quite sit right. The performers smile too long. The tent goes on further than it should. And somewhere in the flickering dark at the edge of the ring, something that used to be a performer is mouthing words you cannot yet hear. The circus needed a new act. It got you. Whether that is good news for the circus - or very bad news - has not been decided yet.