When I finally looked up at her, she was once again formed by wrinkles and grief. The events I saw in the crystal ball had long ago come to be, and the woman has since carried the guilt of it all being because of her. That was why she had called upon me and hoped I would be drawn into this case. She held a responsibility to end this show of sorrow, but she could not do it alone. Thus, she explained to me the present case, and her plan to end the ringmaster’s reign.

     “Please, sir. Even now, he employs the watch’s power. I am sure a new juggler, yet another slave to his abuse, has filled the old one’s place. He has created a future and punishment for himself far worse than the one he has tried to escape. He cannot see what he has done to himself. They are all still in essence him, despite taking on separate lives as their own people. But he is their slavedriver, and with his power, he cannot feel the pain he is inflicting upon himself. His future never got brighter, or at least not for all of him. The tyranny of the old showrunner lives on through the poor man. His dreadful past has only been changed in that now it is the present of all his slaves, tortured and dehumanized by their master. The ringmaster has become the very monster he feared… a beast that must be put down.”

     The old lady’s voice quivered with emotion. She was suddenly washed in a new sadness. I tried to understand, placing a reassuring hand on her knobby shoulder, and allowing my mind to comprehend it all as she waited in a moment of silence. “I-I have harmed him by giving him the power to harm himself. Now I must hurt him once more to heal him. He is not a bad man. He is just a man who does not know any better… who does bad things without understanding. He can still be saved… he must-” she cut off, tears finally reaching her eyes. I was still at a loss myself, but her determination inspired a resolve within me.

     “Madam, I do not understand why you have come to me, of all the men you could have gone to. Nor do I pretend to not be overwhelmed by this mystical affair. But you have my word, I will help you. If the ringmaster can be helped, I will try and do so, for your sake. However, I do not see how you expect to save a monster. If it comes down to it, I will take the matter into my own hands: and I doubt you will like where the brute winds up.” The elderly woman accepted this, solemnly, but relieved.

     “Now I do not have the power to place him behind bars, I’m afraid. He is a clever man, and this matter is too complicated for the courtroom. I am afraid the only way we are going to tackle this is from the body rather than the head of the snake.” I took a pace away from the booth, standing up and stretching my legs. “I could sneak in a conversation with the circus troupe. Try to turn them against their master. If they are treated as slaves as it appears, I am sure they will applaud a chance at rebellion. I can give them the help and courage they need to perhaps end their fight themselves. Perhaps finding the bodies in the river and their testimonies to their master’s abuse will be enough to end his reign of terror.”

     The mystic agreed to my plan, though I remember feeling a hint of suspicion. She would no doubt have devised a scheme of her own in all this time, and while oblivious of it, I knew she had. My going off by myself to stop this was indeed what she needed of me all along, and I was playing along with her plan. Yet she had not told me this until long after I had set out on my part of the ordeal, unknowing of the events I left behind to occur without my presence. Now the mystic has recounted it all to me, the story in full.