When it was clear Gharam hadn't just been separated from the group in the rapidly thinning crowd, they were forced to split up in an attempt to find her – or at least find members of staff to help locate her.

Marie-Fey sighed as she walked into the depths of the camp. It was a great deal larger an encampment than she had first assumed, it also didn't appear to have anyone working it in.

But then, perhaps they were all to be found within the big top, closing down after the show.

"Gharam!" she called, stopping at an intersection of tents and looking around.

It was uncomfortably... quiet.

It reminded her of... what?

The cottage.

Or the fleapit that masqueraded itself as a cottage.

On those days and nights when it was so impossibly quiet. When her family were out doing whatever they did during those times of nothing to do. When she could listen for hours and the only thing in the silence was the creaking of the building itself.

She clapped her hands, the sound echoing like a slap and jarring her out of her memories before they became too vivid.

It didn't make sense.

They were in the city.

It should not be possible for it to be so quiet.

This wasn't the cottage where they were beyond the outskirts of the nearest village. This was a metropolitan location.

It should not be so quiet.

She disliked that the silence could disturb her.

"Zaydan," she called, glancing behind her but he wasn't there, as she knew he wasn't since he'd gone with Beldon to search – why they chose to search together, she didn't know. She hoped one of them didn't skewer the other on a tent pole.

Letting out a short breath, she smoothed her dress that didn't need smoothing and carried on.

There was no reason to go far into the camp.

How far could Gharam have actually gone? She had been with them when leaving the big top... she thought... had she?

Well she'd been there at the end of the show, she knew that much. Gharam would have had to pass her to leave before them and she would have noticed that.

"Gharam!" she shouted, a snap in her voice this time. She was losing the warmth of the tent now and growing cold in the early morning chill. She wanted to go home.

Something moved ahead, she looked around and stopped.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Not you again," she growled.

It was that women!

That apparition! Not the one who had appeared in her mirror but the one who appeared in her room!

She stood down the path between the tents, her dress and hair drifting forlornly in a breeze Marie-Fey couldn't feel, a white light emanating from her.

"Get away from me!" Marie-Fey snarled, "You aren't real!"

The women moved forward, stumbling slightly.

She looked... so sad, even from a distance, sadness radiated off her.

"Stay away," Marie-Fey snapped, refusing to step back as the woman staggered forwards, "I don't know what you want but stay away! You aren't real!"

The women just continued towards her until she was ten feet away, and then she stopped, and pointed to her right. Marie-Fey glanced in the direction the woman pointed, then back to her.

Tears, white like stars, started to fall from the woman's eyes.

"Please."

Marie-Fey blinked, startled at the weak voice that came from the woman.

"Please... don't become one of us..." she whispered.

"What?" Marie-Fey snapped but, between blinks, the woman vanished and Marie-Fey was alone again. She stood still for a long, long moment. Then let out a sigh, planting on hand on her hip; the other pinching the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes. "How much stress am I under?" she muttered, "I'm going to have to check myself into an asylum at this rate – won't that be the scandal of the century."

She continued forwards and turned in the direction the... vision had pointed, ignoring that she was using the direction of an hallucination to guide her.

It proved her well however, because she spotted Gharam several tents down, her back to Marie-Fey with The Black Rabbit stood in front of her.

Rage Marie-Fey hadn't expected flared through her at the sight of them.

What. In damnation. Was this!?

How ready were they to ruin Gharam's reputation? Vanishing with a man she didn't know? Did she not care for her own safety? Did she not think that everyone else might worry about her safety!

"" she snarled and Gharam visibly jumped.

The Black Rabbit looked up, his face ever cast in shadow from his hat and night. But she didn't miss that smile – that smirk on his face.

She no longer cared for this man.

He no longer charmed her.

He disturbed her.

She stormed forwards, Gharam turning towards her with huge innocent eyes and Marie-Fey reached forward the second she could, grabbing Gharam's arm and hauling her away, planting herself between the ringmaster and her lady, glaring up at the man.

"What is the meaning of this!?" she snarled, and he threw up his hands in an innocent gesture that was ruined by the grin on his face that said he was laughing at her.

"Now Lady Rais, all innocent, I promise," she said.

"Innocent?" she spat, taking a step forwards, stepping right into his personal space and making him step back. "Innocent! There is nothing innocent in separating a lady from her company without informing her company of where she might be! There is nothing innocent in stealing a woman away into the night!"

She shoved a finger in his face, her fury radiating off her like a poison, forcing him further back as she kept moving forwards.

"I swear if you laid one hand on her, I will bury you! If you harmed her in anyway, this will be the last show you ever preform!"

"My Lady!" Gharam cried, grabbing her arm and trying to wrestle her back. "Nothing happened! I swear, it wasn't like that!"

"And you!" Marie-Fey spat, rounding on her, "You are not even supposed to be seen by the outside world! If you treat your freedom with such reckless abandon, I will send you back!"

Gharam shrank away, visibly shocked and upset, staring at her.

"Lady Rais," The Black Rabbit asked in a placating tone, "It really was all very innocent."

Marie-Fey turned to him and his smile turned her blood cold. It was wide and white and like a devil before humans.

"Believe me, Lady Rais, if I wanted to do something to this woman, you would not have found her," he said, before his smile humanised again. "And yet you have. What do you think I could possibly do to this young lady?"

Marie-Fey stared up at him for a moment, before her glare returned, even darker than before as she faced him properly.

"What can you possibly do?" she hissed, stalking forwards, "Do not dare ask me that with that smile that says you know exactly what evils you could do." She reached forwards, The Black Rabbit glancing at her hand before she grabbed the front of his shirt and wrenched her down to his level, staring into the dark glass of his mask, impossible to see through. "And do not insult me by asking what you can do with that ridiculous grin on your face when I know exactly what could be done. When I know exactly what horror can be brought on my lady. So once again, I warn you, if you touched her, I will bury you. The last man I warned lost his sight – my warnings are not idle threats; they are your last saving grace."

The Black Rabbit looked at her for a long moment, then his smile changed. It shrank but it looked... satisfied?

He reached up, pulling her hand from his shirt and straightened, smoothing his clothes out with casual care, dusting himself off before turning to her again and pulling something from his inside pocket.

"I assure you, I didn't lay a hand on her," he said and held up a black envelope, glowing white ink scrawled along the front – a crest she didn't recognise on the back. "I was asking her to pass on some messages."

Marie-Fey looked back at Gharam, who quickly held up a second envelope.

"I hope you're not expecting an apology just because you tasked her to be a messenger," Marie-Fey said, turning her dark gaze back on the ringmaster but he just shook his head.

"No, I don't. I understand your fears, this world is not a kind place. I do not expect you to apologise for responding appropriately to it." He neatly broke the seal of the envelope as he spoke and slid out the content, holding it out to her.

After a moment, she reached out, took the card and looked at it.

Her eyebrow rose.

It was one of the fortune teller's cards. She turned it over and recognised the constellation that had appeared in the air at her fortune.

"I thought it best you keep this," The Black Rabbit said, "You did not have long to commit the pattern to memory. Having more time to study it will heighten your chance of survival."

"What did she mean?" Marie-Fey said, looking up from the card, "Why would I have blood on my hands?"

The Black Rabbit just gave her a blasé shrug. "I know no more of the fortunes than my audience does," he said, "My fortune teller gave you the means to survive, that is the most important thing."

He grinned again.

"And you are one of Them, after all. Your futures' are harder to predict in the grand scheme of things. It's never as simple as who to marry and business dealings."

"Them? Who them?" Marie-Fey asked, frowning.

The Black Rabbit appeared surprised for a moment, before his grin returned.

"Who?" he repeated, "Why, the Leigh Legends, of course."

Marie-Fey stared at him and he laughed.

"You don't think a single family can face so much enchantment without drawing attention, do you?" he asked.

"What, but... but Val was given a normal prediction about business," Marie-Fey said.

"And who knows where that business deal will take him? The lady he is courting is from a stunning land of enchantment, as we saw," The Black Rabbit said.

"Rosalia was given a prediction about childbirth!"

"Lady Rosalia is already a legend, even if she did not cast the final blow, she defeated the enchantress Lucinda. And her children are unlikely to be normal."

"Then Antoinette. She was given a prediction that had nothing to do with her. It was about her son!"

"Was it?" The Black Rabbit asked, smiling, "All that was said was she would have to help someone through the halls of the Royal Society. It made no mention of her son, and there is no more formidable woman than the oldest Leigh to lead the legends."

"Constantine—"

"Shall come into contact with enchantment in his own time."

"... Then my father."

The Black Rabbit laughed at that. "Your father married Evelynn Kentworth, more famous in the realms of enchantment than any of your siblings or yourself. He might not have known that, but that makes him a legend in his own right."

Marie-Fey just gaped at him. "My... my mother?" she said, staring.

He grinned. "You have a legacy to live up to. Your generation is not the first, and it shan't be the last. My fortune teller gave you the means to be one of those legends, I am giving you the means to remember it."

"Marie-Fey!"

Beldon's voice was hard and sharp on the night air and all three looked back to see Beldon and Zaydan coming towards them, their breath white in the cold as they stared between the trio.

"Are you alright?" Zaydan asked, first reaching for Marie-Fey then looking at Gharam.

Gharam nodded quickly, her eyes huge as she looked back at Marie-Fey.

Zaydan took in her expression, then moved up beside Marie-Fey, his arm slipping around her waist as he glared at The Black Rabbit.

The Black Rabbit looked right back at him, then seemed to give him a passing glance up and down.

"I have your fortune," he said, gesturing to the envelope Gharam held, "Are you sure you don't want it?"

"I don't want it," Zaydan said, his voice like a growl.

"Shame, it's interesting," The Black Rabbit said, shrugging before studying him closer. "You'll never be anything if you don't fight for what's yours, you realise?"

Marie-Fey felt Zaydan tense, his arm tightening around her, but The Black Rabbit was already moving, easily sweeping past, heading straight for Beldon, moving so fast he backed Beldon up until he collided with the sturdy wall of one of the tents, the mere two inches he had over Beldon giving the appearance that The Black Rabbit somehow towered over Beldon.

"You, on the other hand," he said, leaning forwards, clearly too close for Beldon's comfort as his eyes darkened. "You are the legend unlike any before or after you."

"Excuse me?" Beldon said, his voice low.

The Black Rabbit smiled. "You could have made an amazing part of the collection," he said simply, then straightened, rocking back on his heels, his smile widening. "But no. You're too dangerous. Too... what is it? Too wild. How do you survive in the army, you're not designed to follow rules."

Beldon didn't answer him and The Black Rabbit just shrugged, turning and walking away.

"Although," he said as a thought occurred to him, holding up a gloved finger, "it is a funny thing."

He looked back at Beldon, head tilted to look at him.

"It's very odd... aren't you supposed to be dead already?" he asked and Marie-Fey stared at Beldon.

Beldon's eyes turned black. "I made a deal," he said, voice as dark as his eyes.

The Black Rabbit laughed. "Ah, us humans and our deals with gods, dangerous things those. Oh well, goodnight ladies and gentlemen. Fair well and sweetest dreams."

And he simply strolled away, turning the corner at the intersection of tents and was gone.

Those left behind were silent, then Marie-Fey rounded on Beldon.

"What does he mean, you're supposed to be dead already?" she snarled.

"Are you alright?" Beldon instead asked Gharam, who nodded quickly. "Good, let's return to the others."

"Beldon!"

"It doesn't matter, Marie," Beldon said, looking at her, "it really doesn't."

"It sounds like it does!"

Beldon just shook his head. "Come along, let's join the others. I want to find Luka," he said and strode away without waiting for them.