Chapter Two: The Cast

Mahogany woke up in a daze. He looked around confused, taking a minute to register where he was. He went to the wardrobe to see if he could find any casual clothes. However, all of the clothes within it were circus costumes. He decided to inquire about getting some different outfits when he saw Yoka again. After trying and failing to straighten out his haggard appearance, Mahogany made his way back out into the main circus tent. The chaos from earlier seemed to have settled and all of the performers were milling about, most now wearing casual clothes instead of their carnival outfits. Upon entering the room all eyes were upon Mahogany. He found the attention on him quite unnerving. He decided he might as well approach someone, he figured he should at least introduce himself if he was to live here. After scanning the room, he recognized the merfolk that he had seen around with Yoka yesterday. They were once again in a human form instead of their merfolk one. He walked over to them.

“Hi, uh, I’m Mahogany” He said, quite unsure of what he was supposed to say in this situation.

“Hello! My name is Gaia. We haven’t had a new person in quite awhile, welcome to the carnival, you’ll find it’s unlike anywhere you’ve ever been before” They responded. 

“I’ve noticed that. There's so much magic here, I’ve never seen a magical person before, yet this carnival seems to be full of them” Mahogany stated.

“Well, it’d hardly be a good carnival without some magic,” Gaia said with a smile.

“Is this the new kid?” came a different voice from the side of him. A man with olive green skin and bright red hair strutted up to them. He had one horn sprouting out of the right side of his head and long red trails of hair that accentuated his face. The hair on the back of his head was cropped short. He wore a flowy white dress with a pink shirt peaking out at the top. To top off the outfit he had a necklace adorned with small gems, at the very center hung a ruby. Mahogany vaguely remembered seeing him yesterday as well.

“Yup! This is Mahogany,” Gaia responded, “Mahogany this is Orvin, he’s our resident plant sorcerer.”

As if to punctuate this sentence, Orvin held out his hand and flowers slowly started to sprout out of the dirt as a pale green glow slowly rose around him.

While Mahogany stared amazed at the magic Gaia scoffed and said, “Show off” in a joking manner. 

Mahogany observed the purple flowers that now peppered the ground around Orvin. Suddenly, a shoe came into view crushing some of the flowers underneath it.

“Orvin, don't be so callous, magic is special, it should be cherished not flaunted” said a man with light blue skin and messy dark blue hair that upon close inspection gave the appearance of flowing water. 

Orvin flashed him a smile and responded “I do cherish it Cornelius, just not in the way that you want me to.”

To break the tension Mahogany interrupted with a question, “So… what is it that each of you do at the carnival?”

Gaia, looking relieved to change the topic and quickly responded, “I’m a merfolk! That’s kinda it, it’s a lot of choreographed swimming and blowing bubbles to patrons. Orvin is responsible for the mystic gardens, and he also does a small magic show. And Cornelius here is in charge of the nightly waterworks show along with Mira, she’s in the back practicing right now, but you’ll meet her at some point I’m sure, she’s pretty impossible to miss.” 

“What is it that Jester does?” Mahogany asked, thinking back to the chipper person who showed him around the day before. 

“Jester does juggling and welcomes the patrons of the carnival” Gaia answered.

“But what magic does she use? It seems everyone has a show related to their magic.”  

At that question everyone within the group seemed to shift uncomfortably before Gaia gave an answer. “Well, I’m not really sure, no one knows what Jester’s magic entails, no one besides Yoka anyway, they never use it or talk about it. It is one of the many mysteries the carnival holds.”

 “I thought this was meant to be a place where magic is free to roam, why wouldn’t they use their magic.” Mahogany pushed, finding himself upset at the concept that she wasn’t taking advantage of the one place where it was safe to use any magic a person could dream of. 

Before Gaia could respond, Cornelius cut in, “You’ll find this place often leaves you with more questions than answers, I wouldn’t dwell on it too much. I’m going to go practice with Mira. Welcome to the show Mahogany.” This was delivered with surprising sincerity compared to the apathy that Cornelius displayed previously. He then turned and began walking towards the hallway that contained each of their bedrooms.

 As they watched Cornelius leave, Mahogany noticed Yoka walking towards them from the direction that he remembered her office being in. Jester trailed behind her waving as they approached.

“Good morning folks! Good to see you all getting acquainted.” Yoka said. 

As Yoka joined the group the energy shifted from joking to a more serious atmosphere, as if her presence indicated it was time for work.

“Mahogany, can you come with me? Now that you’re rested it is time to get you binded.” Yoka said, addressing him directly. 

“Binded?” Mahogany questioned, unsure of what she was talking about.

“I’ll show you” Yoka responded ominously, motioning for him to follow. 

“Everyone who joins the carnival goes through it, it’s not too bad,” Gaia chimed in, noticing Mahogany’s reluctance.

Yoka had already turned her back and was heading towards her office. Jester piped up, “Let’s go! It’ll be fun,” the smile on their mask looked rather menacing in the torchlight of the main tent.

Despite his trepidation, Mahogany followed after Yoka and Jester, giving Gaia a nervous glance as he left. He found himself back in the trinket-cluttered office, seated in a chair across from Yoka. Jester moved aside some of the knick-knacks and perched on a table near the desk. Looking upon the desk Mahogany noticed that the items on it seemed to be more curated than the rest of the room. 

“In order for me to be able to help with your magic I need to connect you to the carnival. The easiest way for me to do so is through an item. You can pick anything, whatever you think is appropriate.” Yoka said as she gestured to all of the objects on the table. “This will be your primary method of casting magic, you’ll have to have your object in order to use it.”

“I don’t have magic though” Mahogany responded.

“You do, the magic that seems to have infected you is a part of you now. It’s in your blood. As I mentioned earlier, there is nothing I can do to get rid of it, but I should be able to help you control it. Binding you to a carnival object will allow you to use my magic to gain power over it. It is the best I can do.” Yoka said almost solemnly. 

Mahogany took this in and looked at the items on the table, actually taking them all in. There was a small hourglass, a very used looking deck of tarot cards, a rusted key, some dice, and lots of other seemingly random things. Nothing stood out to him. He closed his eyes and waved his hand over top of everything expecting to feel something, anything call to him in any way, but nothing pulled to him. So he opened his eyes back up, reached out and picked up the deck of tarot cards.

“I suppose these will work,” he said and handed the cards over to Yoka. 

“Perfect,” Yoka responded, taking the deck of tarot cards from him. 

Yoka gestured to Jester and they produced a small knife from their oversized sleeves and passed it to Yoka. Mahogany flinched as it appeared, maybe he was right to be nervous. 

“I’m sorry, this is the only way we’ve found to do this, it stings a little bit. Can I see your hand?” Yoka said and reached out an open hand. 

Mahogany hesitantly took off his glove and put his left hand palm up on Yoka’s hand. He could see the dark magic swirling below the surface of his skin. 

“In order to access your magic we have to access your blood. That way we can bind your magic to the carnival’s and my own. Would you like me to do this, or do you want to?” Yoka asked, offering him the knife. 

“I don’t know if I can,” Mahogany responded.

Yoka nodded, and then before he could react, she slashed a small line into his palm. Instead of pooling in his hand like he expected, a small stream of blood that swirled with the dark magic snaked its way out of his palm and towards the tarot cards that Yoka had placed back on the desk. He winced as the blood left his palm, the dark magic seeped out of his veins and into the cards instead. When the blood connected with the tarot cards it soaked through them rapidly turning them a dark crimson. As the color spread the corners of the cards faded to a darker black. The middle of the cards began to glow before the light slowly faded to reveal six black eyes with white irises that matched Yoka’s in the middle of each card.

Once the blood stopped coming from his palm, Jester hopped down from her perch and produced a roll of bandages that they began to wrap his hand with.

“Jester will help you learn to use your magic, it will take some getting used to. In the meantime I’d recommend thinking of what sort of act you’d like to perform for the carnival. Some of the other cast members should be able to help you out. Most people use their magic as a part of their act, but it isn’t necessary. Oh, and be careful with those cards. They can’t be destroyed now that they are tied to the carnival, but the magic in them can be severed if someone knows what they're doing so it’d be wise to keep them on you” Yoka said. 

“What happens if the magic gets severed?” Mahogany asked, while wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into. 

“It hasn’t happened before so it’s hard to know exactly what would happen, we just know it would be very bad” Yoka replied cryptically, “I wouldn’t worry too much, it would take some pretty powerful magic so it’s unlikely, just be cautious. Now, there’s work to be done, I’ll check back in with you about your act at some point. Until then try to relax and make some friends.”

Mahogany took a second to collect himself as the stinging in his palm began to fade a little. He put his leather glove back over the bandages habitually, took a deep breath, and walked back out into the main circus tent.