Naturally, Zaeli went first.

Mostly because everyone else was too surprised at the satyr’s sudden (and suspicious) compliance to do so.

“I’ve.. only ever read of Void from the local papers. All I know is that it’s some sort of new energy source?” She shrugged sheepishly, “I had assumed it was a kind of oil.”

Kezrah chuckled; they both were black, he can give her that much.

“An energy source?? Oh- ohoho no, goodness.” Vel almost felt offended,
“Such blatant misinformation. No. Void, is s-s-so much bigger than a meager fuel.”

“Then it’s new magic.” Kirin huffed, “I’ve spent half my life working on Void tech. What else could it be?”

“Th-think bigger! It’s unlike any magic ever known t-to all peoplekind!” Vel leaned in as if he were sharing a most terrific secret, voice turning a note more shushed,
“Void… is an entirely new arcane.”

Kirin stared, turning to the opposite wall to think a bit, before returning with a,
“Go on.”

Vel smiled,
“Every magic system we learned of, we know it comes d-directly from the Weave, which complacently lies adjacent to our world within e-every living and nonliving thing. Void however, chaotically lies opposite to it.”

“Opposite?” Kirin really didn’t like how much he was agreeing with the scientist, but according to everything he’s ever observed.. it made a surprising amount of sense.

“Yes! B-best as I can describe it; Void is this new, different kind of Weave. It can manipulate—or, rather—corrupt other worldly elements just like magic.”

Zaeli opened a skeptical mouth (every child and their mother knew the Weave was the only thing interdimensionally linked enough to breach otherwise uniform sciences, so to suggest another..), but Vel raised a hand,
“I’ve already ran it through multiple Fortunizian magic detectors. On EVERY setting. T-trust me, it isn’t of the Weave.”

Magic detectors worked so well, because they were based on detecting the Weave, thus catching essentially every single magic system out there.
On the lowest settings, it would just ping damn near everything around it. On higher settings, it could detect when the Weave wasn’t remaining static anymore, implying that a spell was being cast.

Basically: magic security was a bitch to get through in Fortuniza.

“Oh gosh.” Charlie could see the spin-offs now, “So this Void stuff is like, the Weave’s long lost evil twin?!”

“Er. N-no, no, not quite. There are plenty of differences! For one, magic isn’t a t-tangible element in itself. Void on the other hand, is h-highly concentrated and can actually behave as a palpable solid or liquid!”

“Aw...” What a let down.

“Furthermore, magic is everywhere. Void, is extremely rare. F-frankly, no one knows much of anything about it due to its sheer scarcity.”

“And what about you?” Kezrah pointed out, “How did you learn all this?”

“A-all my studies have been with a research group my cousin worked with, called the Sunswift Reclaimers. Samples of Void are harder to get ahold of than a n-n-nesting Phoenix! It was l-lucky I was able to get any at all from them.”

Vel then tapped his chin, remembering,
“..I also recall them telling me of the earliest recorded discovery of Void–a mere century ago. It was by a religious group who w-worshiped someone called the Whisperer. Beyond that, I know nothing else of its history.”

Zaeli cleared her throat,
“That’s all well and good, but what about the orb itself? How dangerous is it really?”

Vel, had the grace to look sheepish,
“Ah- yes, s-see uh. I haven’t a-actually... tested that out yet.”

What.

“What.”

“I-I mean! What the ‘orb’ is itself, is a focus.” Vel threw his hands up in defense,
“Yet another difference, is that while magic can be accessed by anyone sentient and capable enough to draw it, Void may only be accessed b-by a person who’s already corrupted by Void. We may not know its exact origins yet, but we do know a living channel was always needed.”

Kezrah nodded avidly, while Kirin grew tense, “What do you mean by was needed.”
Zaeli’s eyes widened, already knowing the answer.

“Well, th-that’s precisely why my invention is going to be so revolutionary! ‘Tis the very first device that will allow someone w-without Void, to access it!! A first step in a new era of arcanic resear–”

“Wait a second,” Kezrah cocked his head, “Does that mean you have found an open source of Void that doesn’t involve a living middleman?”

“Nope!”

“.....”
Kezrah was going to lose his mind, “So, all you’re basically doing. Is making a way for people to use Void. Without the voided person’s permission.”

“W-wha- no! N-no of course not I- it’s meant to–” Vel paused. “It won’t-!”
He paused again.

Everyone stared at him as the pause dragged on far, far longer than anyone oughta expect out of a scientist.

At last,
“...Hm.”

Flat, “Yeah.”

Vel jumped out of his seat, “Believe me w-when I say it was only ever meant to stabilize the c-chaotic properties of Void! As well as to strengthen it, a-and increase.. av-availability…”

A nervous chortle, “M-my uh, my sponsor.. may have been m-more or less vague with the p-purpose of his funding.”

Zaeli frowned, “Does your sponsor happen to go by the name Felderwell?”

Vel squeaked.
Like an itty bitty mouse, “H-how..?!”

“Nobles. Creepy underground meeting.” Zaeli sighed, mindful of time. “Is that, all we need to know?”

“No. There’s one thing he didn’t answer.” Kirin turned to Zaeli, oddly serious,
“..It can be weaponized.”

“Wha- the orb?”

He shook his head, “Void. Orb will just make it way more accessible to those who aren’t voided.”

Zaeli looked rightfully wary as Kezrah returned the orb to his poncho, who received no objections by Vel whatsoever, “...Could you elaborate on that?”

Kirin and Kezrah exchanged looks, before a clamor in the hall was heard.

-*-

“Ssson of a fury.” Calico grumbled, carefully collecting themselves off the surprisingly comfy ground. They stretched, getting used to the new mass on their body before figuring out where to shift it.

Once satisfied, Calico began the trek back to the university, because they’d be damned if they weren’t going to find out what in hell’s sake a bloody carnival was.

They recalled Charlie offhandedly calling it "the happiest place anywhere" during one of her cartwheel sprees; a praise beyond enticing. And Calico figured they deserved something amazing after almost disintegrating to death today.

Not even amazing–it’d better be mind-fuckingly spectacular.

-*-

The purple-blue hues of dusk began to creep in, comfortably settling between the crooks and crannies of every fairy light draped building in the capital.

In exchange for Vel’s silence, most agreed to let him follow their seamless escape out the university, silently parting ways and leaving the group cast in that evening’s purple-blue before long.

Replacing the day’s bright and bustling events, nightly festivities cloaked the city’s atmosphere, tinged with a different flavor of celebration (and that flavor might’ve been alcohol, who knows).

Zaeli had yet to receive her answer on how Void could be weaponized due to an interrupting passing guard forcing them to flee, but her relentless curiosity felt no panic this time.
Maybe because part of her had already succumbed to staying, if only for a little while longer.

There was clearly much left to be discovered here. Not only with the peculiar scrabbles for an invention still shrouded in mystery, or bizarrely secretive meetings underground, but with every character now standing beside her.

Two strangers coincidentally touched by Void, a shapeshifting jester with just as much of a meaningful face as the tabaxi without one, and—

“I LIVE.”

Everyone by now had grown keen to the sound of rustling leaves, tree branches snapping and giving way to a sight Kirin really had thought he wouldn’t have to see again.

“Oh gods no-”

“Oh gods yes.” Calico appeared in tired triumph, grin sharp and slightly more delirious. “It’ll take more than an allergic reaction to get rid of me!”

“Evidently.”

“Cal!” Charlie clapped in relief, “I was wondering where you were! Are you..”
She took a double take.

“You… uh. Look, taller!” Charlie tapped her chin, incredibly unsure of how to introduce the next obvious observation, “And er. You’ve gotten more..”

Big? In very oddly specific parts of your body?? Within a span of a few hours???

“..voluminous!”

“Why thank you.” Calico nodded in obvious approval with the way they sculpted their new body mass, “I stopped by a buffet.”

“Oooh, nice! What’s it called?”

Calico turned to stare at Kirin for an unnervingly long amount of time, before the hexblood gave up in a ragged sigh,

“...Jaimie’s.”

“Huh, don’t think I’ve heard of that one.” Charlie deliberately decided to not ask how Kirin knew that and Calico didn’t, instead outstretching her arms,
“So! Carnival anyone?”

Calico pumped both fists into the air.

-*-

Now for the most part, everyone still had questions of course.
Lots of it.

But everyone also seemed drained enough (maybe sans the jester) to save anything serious for later dissection, running with the assumption that they’ll speak after the show Charlie was steadily building up their expectations for (apparently deemed as the number one traveling circus act on their side of the globe; not too shabby).

So on they wandered the carnival tents and booths instead, piling hard sweets, popcorn, and cotton candy (very cleverly advertised as “The Sugar Weave” for the occasion) all into their arms before the show was finally set to begin.

After their shared adventure, Charlie more than gladly pulled a few strings to grant everyone a free front row seat, insisting that the tickets were more than made up for the opportunity to infiltrate Fortunizian police for some “good ol’ illegal improv on the go as I always say!”

She shortly disappeared behind some red curtains, gleefully waving goodbye only to return five minutes later, smack in the center of the vast, circular stage alongside the spouting ringmaster.
Cue your classic carnival music;

Like clowns out a clown car (not that there weren't any clowns in the show), a neat stream of performers began to flood the space, getting up close and personal with the audience as much as possible.

Flyers climbed up the gigantic tent’s spires, leaping and swinging on trapezes with graceful confidence, no visible net in sight.
Knife throwers brandished their weapons and cleanly landed every blade on a dizzying spinning wheel, either nailing the center with scary accuracy, or avoiding the hapless person attached to the wheel by a gripping hair.

Sword swallowers, pounds of confetti, aerial dancers spiraling suspended silk ribbons, balloon animals constructed in the speed of light before floating up and popping at random intervals; a world renowned flame spitter who drew fleeting images of ancient creatures with nothing but fire as their paints, unfurled right against the magical fire barrier protecting the audience so that those closeby could feel the blistering warm on their faces, but only reach a hand out to press against a painless canvas of cackling light.

Calico quickly picked up on the “fascinating ritual” of clapping or stomping your feet at every impressive performance, and began vigorously doing so for every single movement under the firefly spotlight.
True to their wish, this was spectacular. Mind-fuckingly so.

Kirin was far more excited for every act than anyone really anticipated, enthusiastically whistling and cheering the performers on because “you know, the only acrobatic shows i’ve ever been to were uptight as fuck and boring”.

Kezrah and Zaeli had simply never been to a carnival in the first place, but both were beyond enamored by the brilliant talents overtaking their senses, briefly making everyone forget about what just happened mere hours ago.

It was easy to relax from the day’s worries when, paradoxically, the show was so overwhelming.
Groups of different specialized performers would launch their acts simultaneously, then rotate around so the audience could get a taste of everything, all while the ringmaster’s voice clearly rang out to highlight a particularly amazing feat or momentarily draw everyone’s attention to this and that and here and there and–

Finally. It was Charlie’s turn to shine.

So far, she had a somewhat comedic and sneaky role throughout the show, hurriedly painting her masks and openly morphing to mimic or blend within any given group.
Every so often, she’d mime a mini melodramatic with her fellow workers, clearly shifting in front of the audience before intervening a sideliner in a scripted but delightful turn, taking over the occasional dance or balloon animal or sword fight to outdo the previous trouper, or to simply deliver a silly gag; a true jester.

Now on an elevated stage, Charlie prepared herself as the surrounding performers became the audience, hustling against the stands to make way for what everyone assumed to be the last performance.

After a lengthy drumroll, an entire train of archery targets were rolled out from backstage, spinning perfectly on their sides around and around Charlie continuously as she slipped out her daggers.

All of them were mythril-shaped, handles ending in little loops for each finger to hook through, and as the targets only rolled faster, Charlie began to do her own little spin, counter clockwise to the whirling tornado of bullseyes.

As the colorful circles of each target began to blur, so did Charlie, arms fanned out to showcase all her daggers as she spun far more like a ballerina in aerodynamic tights than a court’s fool in baggy clothing.

Right as it became clear the audience was collectively holding their breath, Charlie released the daggers, all ten of them.

One of the performers cast a fairly advanced spell to levitate every target up and rotate it, slowly spinning them around the room as Charlie wound down from her spinning.

At last, the audience stood up in a roar, excitement only climbing higher as each target swung by, confirming that each of the daggers’ satisfying thunk had indeed landed dead center, all ten of them.

Roses were thrown. Leftover confetti was thrown. Calico had even thrown the buttery popcorn seeds at the end of their bag by the handful.

Charlie soaked it all in, graciously bowing and waving as she went around to collect all the daggers.
Once done, the audience sat back down, chattering and reeling from the show, already wondering about the aftershow fireworks.

..That is, until the ringmaster snapped their fingers, and all the performers returned right back to the field as if nothing happened.

The show was far from over, and no one could be more pleased.