@visualspice
In, two, three; out, two, three...Adelaide Alamoch daintily placed one foot in front of the other as she made her way carefully across the practice rope two of her fellow troupe members had erected just within view of the road. It wasn't anything like a highwire--maybe ten feet off the ground--but they'd still insisted on putting up the safety net before letting her up to work on her routine.
She hadn't been working at the tightrope long, but she'd thought it could be an interesting addition to her act. Maybe start on the wire, do some sort of prat fall, catch the trapeze on her way down...
"We need some music!" Carlotta, a middle aged woman who worked mainly with costuming but was seemingly putting her talents to set-pitching this bright, breezy day, called out suddenly from where she was helping three other people begin pitching the merchants' and single-patron talents' tents. At least, the ones whose owners were too busy spreading word in the nearby city to pitch themselves.
Adelaide smiled even as she rose up onto her toe and spun to face the opposite direction from the center of the rope. It trembled treacherously beneath her, but she refused to lose her step.
Breathe. In, two, three, out, two, three..."Where's the fae lad when you need him?" Snake called back in mild agreement from where he was busy juggling half a dozen blades--not juggling
literally, though Adelaide had certainly seen him do that more than once, not even always as part of the show. He seemed to be helping their old smith, Reth, move his stores.
"I do believe he's rehearsing," she called down from her perch, delciately placing one foot down in front of the other. She paused, then lifted her leg into a swift, graceful arabesque before letting gravity take her--just for a moment--and falling sideways
just far enough to catch herself with the crook of her left knee around the rope.
"Rehearsing," Carlotta scoffed. "I swear, the way he and Elea carry on, it's a miracle they have
anything to perform."
A round of raucous but not mean-spirited laughter followed her quip. Even Adelaide found herself chuckling a bit, despite the blush that lit her cheeks at the innuendo.
"Speaking of rehearsals," Snake drawled, with such a telegraphed glance upward that Adelaide had absolutely no hope of missing it. "I thought you were on leave for the next two days."
She crinkled her nose at him upside down. "Maybe I like spending my leave right here," she pointed out mildly.
The contortionist gave her a very dry look, even as she started to curl herself back up to grip her rope and lay herself out flat on her back. "We don't have a real show until the full moon--Uthlyn is barely an hour's walk! You
could go see the city you know, instead of insisting on spending every waking hour here."
"I
like it here," she protested.
"We are
at least taking you out for the night come your birthday next week!" one of the younger seamstresses who worked under Carlotta threatened cheerfully.
Adelaide rolled her eyes and turned her head to say that she didn't
need anyone taking her out for
any reason, and anyway, just what was everyone so suddenly interested in her social life outside carnival grounds for, when a sudden glint from Snake's direction caught her attention. It was just a flicker, really, like light off metal at an odd angle--but it came with that tingle up the back of her neck that sometimes accompanied her Sight.
It startled her enough that she turned toward it automatically, trying to find the source. One of the blades he was carrying...a knife? What--what
was that? And aura, but not fae, not demonic, not even divine, it was...
She'd moved too fast. Without her mask, the danger of her Sight and her profession collided abruptly, and she found herself tumbling down toward the earth.
Despite the presence of her safety net--which bounced her jarringly twice before she rolled off it to land less gracefully than usual on her feet--there were several gasps and at least one "
Addie!" as she fell.
Thoroughly embarrassed, she immediately started waving off calls of concern, and the few carnival members who had started toward her. "Alright, I'm alright, I promise," she mumbled even as she wove around them. "Just a stupid mistake, I'm fine, sorry everyone... Snake."
The contortionist hadn't been one of their family who instantly started toward her, holding his place, but she felt the way his eyes flickered over her with concern with a strangely comforting familiarity. "You sure you're alright?" he murmured. "That looked like it bruised."
She waved him away with a smile, her own eyes searching the weaponry he still held. "It's fine, really."
Damnit. She
swore she'd Seen something. Where was it?
What was it?
