Cities were on high alert after news had spread concerning Gehennic practices within the carnival. Though Lester sent a personal letter to the Gehennic Order explaining that nothing had gone awry, the Order sent back a reply that was as eloquent as it was prodigious in its chastisements of ‘bold deceits’ and ‘unabashed lies’. Though Scotland Yard was fooled long enough to allow the carnival to make its retreat into the countryside, the Order had felt the unseen ripple from the disturbance of the portal opening in the mortal world.
The lives within the carnival were haunted, most of all. It was the uncertainty. Even Lester began to wonder if her years of authority meant anything. How fragile it all seemed, torn apart by a single, horrific accident. As if a human’s body were to somehow make use of a single bird’s skeleton. Though these legs were already fractured, wings clipped and beak splintered.
Maybe the greatest trick of the whole show was that they had all fooled themselves into thinking the carnival possessed a power that somehow grew beyond their individual capabilities.
Ivory and Kayn’s footsteps fell in parallel in the damp path of a forest that had no name. Lester had the train stopped in the middle of nowhere so they could gather themselves after what’d happened.
“We will need to recruit more ghosts,” Kayn said. “The carnival can’t survive without them.”
“You know something’s wrong when ‘hire some desperate youths’ is not in the business plan of a circus. It was charming at first. But this?”
“Ivory, you understand more than any of us that the dead are more reliable than the living.” Kayn reached for his hand but he wrenched it away, huffing and combing through his hair. The evening air turned his breath into mist.
"I told you my stance on this,” he said. “We damned those souls to Gehenna in precisely the wrong conditions.”
“Now that’s not fair. You know as well as I do that many souls are fit to live, even thrive, in Gehenna. Astra would be a sorry alternative for somebody like me!”
“But that is a choice for them to make. The gate acted like a parasite. It changed them before they had a choice. It took their free will and tore it shreds!”
“So what?”
“So what?” Ivory yelled—something that visibly shocked him. He murmured an apology and gestured for Kayn to continue.
“They don’t have to decide if they like it or not, if the gate affected the personality of their souls … turned them into something they weren’t. Well, now, they won’t mind. In any case, what’s the difference between servitude to us and freedom in another realm?”
“That remains to be seen. This is not a matter of logic, but intuition. I can explain how, well, how wrong all this feels, now. What I am telling you is that so long as that hat is inside, I won’t risk the salvation of wandering souls still deciding their place between worlds.”
The ghost courter’s chest was heaving. There was a certain chill in the air that was precisely the kind that suited his demeanour. Brooding. How he ever ended up at the carnival always marvelled her. “You always had a heart I never had.” Lester caressed his face with the back of her hand.
“No,” he replied, righting his spectacles. “You lost a part of yours.”
Only silence could serve as an adequate reply. She retrieved her hand, wishing it was a monetary transaction that could be reversed. Kayn smoothed out her mantle and nodded. He wasn’t wrong.
Just several yards away was a wan glow. At first she thought it was moonlight cutting through the trees, but as she continued to observe it, she saw that its color shifted to a deep orange. It was rare for Kayn to see ghosts. Dealing with bodies was enough for her.
“What about that one? Surely, we can start with a forest spirit,” Kayn said.
“Will o’ the wisps? Jack-o-lanterns? They’re no good,” Ivory replied.
“Why’s that?”
“Don’t you know the stories? They always lead to something bad.”
Kayn took his hand and began in the direction of the lonely orb patrolling a grove. “Let’s go towards it.”
