Anthony groaned as the early morning sun beamed through the small slit where the curtains separated, forcing him to roll over onto his belly, he rolled onto something lumpy that jumped up and squealed. He threw himself off the bed and onto the floor, staying silent, he held his breath until he saw Buddy's snout poke over the edge of the bed, sniffing for his owner.
"You almost gave me a heart attack," Anthony let out a sigh of relief, Buddy shuffled onto his back, wiggled his little body then stuck his tongue out.
"You're mocking me." Anthony grumbled then stood up and got changed into some fresh clothes, some worn out jeans and a t-shirt, his hair was a mess, just how he liked it. He tossed his old shirt at Buddy, the small dragon squirmed from the fabric.
Anthony smirked and stuck his tongue back out at his pet, suddenly his attention was grabbed by the disturbance outside, yelling and hollering bounced from wall to wall. "It's still morning. How are people crowding outside already?" he asked, expecting some response from Buddy, instead all he got was a cute head tilt and a curious look, he pulled on a pair of his boots and went to see what the noise was about.
He was met by a large crowd of people, they seemed angry and outraged. Shouting loudly and hurling abuse at the performers trying to calm them down and reason with the scores of people. Tempers were flaring and then that's when fists began flying between protestors and the performers, a group of three burly men barrelled down on Dan, two pinning him to the ground while the other punched him several times in the face and gut, his fellow acrobat partners, a man with a body-building type physique and a slender, yet muscular woman launched themselves at the men in an attempt to help Dan. An older woman swung her bag wildly, hitting Sebastian in the face with enough force to give him a nosebleed, blood had been spilled, this was enough to get Anthony angry as he approached the fighting groups "Hey! That's enough!"
The fighting paused momentarily, enough time for Anthony to part his way through the crowd and pull apart his performers to safety, away from the hecklers and violent thugs, this seemed to anger the crowds more.
"Bunch of freaks!"
"Yer master's calling yer!"
"Filthy heathens! Using Witchcraft!"
Dan held a hand over his battered face, his eye was swollen shut, his lip bloody and busted open "What the hell is your problem? What's this about?!"
A woman who had been pushed by a trapeze artist screeched at the top of her lungs "Don't act dumber than you look! This Circus is blasphemous!"
By this time Anthony had calmed his breathing "What are you talking about?"
"Our children came to see your shows last night and ever since they've been talking nonstop about witchcraft and magic!"
Dan looked to Anthony and Anthony looked to Dan, both of them sharing the same expression of Are you kidding me?
Anthony patted Dan on the back and helped him up "Look, crazy people. If your kids are coming to a Circus and not believing in magic afterwards, then I think that says more about your parenting than my ability to entertain."
A man with an incredibly square jaw chuckled "Obviously not or your show would be more popular."
"This coming from the jarhead protesting said Circus? Now leave before I pull out my magic wand, then you'll all be in trouble." Anthony taunted.
The crowds began to bustle and depart, a few shouts and curses here and there as Anthony lead his performers back into the tent, the only person that seemed to be injured was Dan, the others had cuts and a little bruising, Sebastian was fine once his nose had stopped bleeding, Anthony lead Dan to the on-call medic.
He guided him to the medic's office, which was on the opposite side of the corridor to everyone's bedrooms, when they walked in, they were greeted by a middle aged woman with mouse-coloured hair, her face was delicately painted with freckles under her eyes and around her cheeks, her thin glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose. She was hunched over a desk filling out paperwork when she heard the door open, she swiveled around on her seat and looked up at Anthony guiding Dan to a medical bay "What happened here?" she rose to her feet and hurried over to them, snapping on some blue latex gloves.
"Long story." Anthony gently pushed Dan's shoulder down to sit him on the bed.
"I'd prefer the short version." she examined his face, reaching behind her to grab tissues and wipes from a trolley behind her to soak up the blood trickling from his lips.
"Lunatics think we're magic, can you believe that, Ebony?"
She gave him a look, paused for a few moments then turned behind her and sterilised a needle. "Lucky for you it's only a small cut, and a black eye. Looks worse than it is. Hopefully it might shut you up for a little bit." She injected him with some anaesthesia, cleaned the wound and made a few stitches to the tear in his lip.
Dan managed to mumble "Can I perform tonight?"
"Absolutely not, now go to your room and lay down, try not to eat or drink anything for a few hours, but if you have to, water."
Anthony looked mournful "Dan will be missed by some."
"I'm right here."
"But not by me."
"I'm not dead, you idiot."
"Sometimes you can still hear Dan's voice on cold and lonely nights."
Dan gave him a playful punch to the arm, he thanked Ebony under his breath before hopping off the bed and walking out, leaving Anthony and Ebony alone together.
As soon as the door closed shut Ebony glared at Anthony "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything! Why do you always assume I did?"
"Because I know you well enough, Anthony. You cause trouble-"
"I don't cause trouble, I happen to run into trouble, there's a modest difference between the two."
"Anthony!" she growled
He gave a defeated sigh "I had a visitor last night, well, not so much a visitor as a guy broke in and kidnapped me."
"Kidnapped you?"
"A few drinks at a bar counts as kidnapping, right?"
Ebony somehow managed to look even less impressed. "Just get to the point."
"I don't know, this guy who works for the High Sages. I got hauled to them yesterday for showing magic to mortals."
"I told you that wasn't a good idea! I told you that you'd get into trouble if you showed magic to Mortals!"
"But you're Mortal and you don't care."
Ebony took her glasses off to rub them against her pure white coat "I do care, but I'm not like the other Mortals and you know that."
"I don't see why this is a big deal, you're the perfect example to show that Mortals can accept Mages-"
"Anthony, I was very young and it came as a shock to me the first time I saw magic. Seeing your Father conjure into a ball of fire then put himself out with water he gathered from the moisture in the air was traumatizing at first, and that's not even mentioning your Brother turning into whatever creature he felt like to scare me."
"But you're fine with it now."
"That's not to say that everyone else will be, Anthony." she put her glasses back on her nose and gave an empathetic look "I know your heart's in the right place and you just want everyone to get along but that's not how the world works."
"I know." Anthony's eyes were fixated on the floor.
"Those High Sages," Ebony softened her tone "they're like the leaders of each country here, right? What did they have to say to you?"
"Pretty much everything you just said."
"Maybe you should listen to us."
"I know."
"Because being a Mage is one thing, but you're not exactly a Mage, Anthony."
"I know what I am, they don't-" he hesitated.
Ebony stared at him "I know that look."
"That wasn't a look."
"Anthony, I've known you since you were a pleasant surprise your parents brought home one day, you can't hide things from me, I know when you pause mid-sentence and have that look on your face you realise you've screwed up somehow. What did you do?"
He bit his lip. "Someone knows."
"Knows?"
"About that secret."
Ebony just stared at him, unable to utter a word.
"You're mad at me," he slowly positioned himself so the bed was in between himself and Ebony "I know that look. You're about to yell at me."
"You let somebody know about that?!?"
She jumped to her feet and pushed the stool she was sitting on to the side. Anthony scrambled from side to side, trying to avoid whichever way Ebony was about to run at him "See! I knew you were going to yell at me!"
"I'll do more than yell at you!"
She picked up a stack of paper towels from behind her and hurled them at him. Anthony dodged them by ducking behind the bed. "It's not as bad as you think!"
"You know people can't find out about that! And here you are telling people like it's something to brag about?!"
"That's not what happened!"
"Then what? How did it happen?!"
"I was drinking at a bar-" he dodged a pen being flung at him "It was his magic!"
Ebony stopped herself from grabbing any other objects "What? What do you mean?"
"It was this guy, he knew things about me, I didn't tell him anything. His magic was knowing everything about a person just by looking into their eyes or something."
Ebony relaxed her stance a little bit "You didn't tell him?"
"No."
"But he still knows?"
"Yes."
"That's still a problem, Anthony. He could have told anyone by now."
"He promised not to-"
"Oh, well. A guy you met at a bar promised not to tell a potentially life changing secret because he said so."
"When you put it like that it sounds kinda dumb."
"I wonder why that might be."
"I pleaded with him not to say anything and he said he wanted something from me but didn't tell me what he wanted."
Ebony shook her head "He knows your secret, and you didn't call his bluff or even bother bribing him… Anthony, I'm sorry but you didn't inherit the brains in your family. I thought that would have been common sense in the first place to at least deny it, but it is you we're talking about here."
"Give me some credit, Ebony. I'm not that bad."
"You set yourself on fire the other week to impress a woman."
"I was successful, wasn't I?"
She rolled her eyes "I was the only woman you spent the night with, treating your burns, and I wasn't impressed."
"Still spent the night with a beautiful woman." Anthony smirked.
"Take this seriously, will you?"
"I am, but there's nothing I can really do until he comes asking for something."
"Why can't we just move away? That way he can't find us."
"Our Circus is pretty distinct, I'm sure he'll find us no problem."
"You always manage to get us into trouble like this."
"I'll handle this, I promise."
She folded her arms together. "Why can't you do normal things guys your age do? You really should be thinking of settling down and maybe starting a family. What happened to that girl you were dating a while ago?"
"Which one?" Anthony could feel her sharp gaze setting on him, judging him.
"Amber, I believe her name was."
"I don't know, she just sort of ran off into the Parisian sunset."
"Ah, well, it wasn't meant to be. Don't worry, Anthony. We'll find you a nice girl for you to settle down with."
Anthony rolled his eyes then turned his back and walked away. "You're being very pushy."
"You don't get into trouble when you're in relationships."
"I get distracted."
Anthony shoved his hands into his pockets and walked back to his room at the end of the long corridor, he entered his room and rested his back against the door, closing his eyes momentarily with his head tilted towards the ceiling. His eyes flitted open and he saw Buddy shivering on the bed, even though his scales were the darkest shade of black they looked pale, not taking his violet eyes off something that was on the other side of the room. Anthony followed the little dragon's gaze to figure out what he was looking at, he peeked around the corner to see a figure looming in the dark corner. Anthony snapped his fingers, a ball of fire erupted in the palm of his hand, the flames sat steadily in his hand and illuminated the room and revealed the tall figure. She was a very beautiful woman, her skin a gorgeous Espresso colour, which only made her Opal eyes pop, her stunning hair as dark as ravens wings, long and flowing and her deep purple dress hugging that tight figure of hers, showing curves and skin in all the right places.
"Pandora," Anthony looked like he had seen a ghost, he flicked his hand to the side, the flame wilted away into nothing. "you dropped by to see me."
"I did, and you greet me with fire," She took a couple of graceful steps towards him. "you seem surprised."
"No, no. I just feel bad that I forgot to roll out a surprise party for you. They were all out of cake that said Stop stalking me.
"Should have tried the bakery down the road, they do that free of charge." She snorted, moved to the bed and sat down, attempting to ease Buddy. She stroked her fingers over his back, he was soon purring. "Your dragon is so skittish around me."
"No, he's skittish around people that aren't me."
Buddy wiggled upon sniffing around Pandora and mellowed onto her lap, laying down and letting her rub his belly.
Anthony stood awkwardly. "Why are you here?"
Pandora didn't answer at first, instead she was more focused on scratching her nails against Buddy's scales "I've heard rumours."
"That's not surprising, you are known for your gossip."
"Just my gossip?"
"And for cutting a good deal."
She nodded, happy with the answer he gave. "The rumour is that there's trouble brewing between the Mortals and Mages."
"What kind of trouble?"
"The Mortals are beginning to find out about Mages again."
"Again? There was a first time?"
"Witch trials from all over the world throughout history were the result of Mortals discovering careless Mages who exposed magic to them."
"So what does this have to do with me? An award? I'd give myself an award for doing good things. I'd even take a participation trophy."
Her gorgeous eyes glazed over him "For once this isn't about you, Anthony. It's about the whole magic community. Mages and Mortlas alike are in danger from themselves."
He groaned "I'm not a part of that community, so why is this my problem?"
"It's everyone's problem, Anthony. When you made the deal to become a Mage you took along all the responsibilities that go with it. It's everybody's problem. Everybody is at risk here."
Anthony pouted "Surely if it was that big of a problem, we'd be hearing about it from other sources."
"Surely not. The High Sages want complete control of the situation and the Mages that do know want to keep their people calm so as to not panic."
"So what do you want me to do? Give up everything? Magic? The Circus?"
"I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is be wary of your surroundings and who you talk to. People are watching you."
Anthony grinned "I wouldn't be a good entertainer if people weren't watching me."
Pandora narrowed her eyes and eventually grinned, "I do love your wit," she plucked Buddy up from her lap and gently set him down on the bed, standing up she rolled her shoulders back "I like you, Ant. Out of every poor unfortunate soul that happened to be desperate enough for their desires to ask me to strike a deal, you're my favourite… Which is why I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Is that a threat?"
"Take it as a warning. Things are about to change. I don't know whether they're for the better or worse but you are one of the few people that have connections to both Mortals and Mages alike."
"What are you talking about?"
"Believe it or not there are Mages out there who are the opposite to you. Mages born to Mortal parents and feel like they have no place in the world. My advice to you would be to seek these Mages out, if you can."
"How do I do that?"
Pandora smiled "You'll know."
He didn't have the chance to open his mouth before her body contorted into smoke for a brief moment, then ashes fell from where she stood. He tried to gather his thoughts and compose himself, then flopped onto his bed, burying his head in his pillows, muffled screaming coming from underneath him. Buddy scratched the scales behind his neck and tilted his head as he watched, making a small yipping noise. Anthony lifted his head up "Buddy, I've had a long and complicated couple of days. Can you not see I'm loathing in self pity?"
Buddy sat there and made another yipping sound, Anthony rolled his eyes "How selfish of me, would you like to self loath and wallow too?" the little dragon crawled under his chest to comfort him.