Drowning Utopia

Chapter 1: Barnes Brothers Traveling Circus Troupe

Tessa had heard the story a thousand times; The Natives, specifically the Jotnar, Omale, and the Mir, had previously been subjugated and forced off their ancestral land. They successfully retaliated and conquered several of the southern colonies under the leadership of their religious leader, the Shaninbo, in a brief conflict known as Vera's War. However, the enslaved Colonists fought against the Omale, overthrowing their self-appointed 'King Vera the Tyrant.' Once the southern colonists finally received assistance from their homelands, the retribution against the Natives was brutal and swift.

Yet, another war quickly followed—the Liberation War— as the Imperial Powers tried to reassert their control over their wayward colonies. In an unprecedented move, the Omale and the Colonists formed an alliance and resisted the combined forces of the old-world Empires. Thus, the climactic fight at Galsong between the Coalition and the Imperial Loyalists. The focus of the entertainment. The crowd cheered as their side won the conflict. The miniature fireworks display over the battlefield gave them one last light show singling the success of the newly founded republic.

Tessa sighed as the machine came to rest, feeling the cramped crawl space with stillness once more.

"All right, folks. strait this way to the next act!" Marcus directed, waving them to the next quartered-off section of the massive tent. After the onlookers left, he tapped on the stage floor, "They're gone. You can come out now."

The hidden hatch popped open, revealing Tessa Copperfield. With sea-green eyes, a button nose, and a pleasing freckled countenance, her lean figure complimented her otherwise charming, all-be-it grease stained face.

Tessa had been reassured (and equally chided many times) that she was pretty when she attempted to be presentable. But as the young woman crawled out from the trapdoor covered in the gritty oil and gear grime, she was the image of a destitute ragamuffin rather than a lady.

"Did it work?" she asked, squeezing her hips through the trap door, careful not to damage the miniatures around her.

"Like a charm. Thank you, Tessa. I owe you one," Marcus said as he pulled a few hidden levers. The mechanical gears under the stage responded to the inner electrical workings fed from the control panel, the battlefield resetting to its original position.

Tessa smiled, feeling pride in her work. "It was not terribly complicated, just a cut wire and a bad fuse."

"Yes, well, you certainly saved my neck, all the same." He tipped his hat as he leaned against the stage.

"No worries. Any time." Tessa slipped behind the curtain to the back alley, past several other acts in progress in tent one as the show's patrons were circulated from one performance to the next through the "Hall of Wonders." As for herself, Tessa sped along to the other side and out an exit into the fairgrounds.

The place was a party, as chaotic and wonderful as any other. Tessa smiled as she dodged past her fellow performers and queues of eager patrons waiting in the yellow gleam of the torches and the gentle pale glow of the twin moons, The Sisters, hanging in the sky above.

As Tessa rounded the corner and ducted past another tent flap for the changing room, she passed by a stage where a cheer went up from the audience. Peeping through a hole in the seam of the tent fabric, she could see the familiar frames of a man and a woman bowing before one of the larger crowds as another man in a red cape exclaimed, "Give it up for the Marvelous Marlow Twins and their death-defying acts!"

The twins bowed before the audience, Donny, drenched from the water tank, and his sister, Lonny, a bit scorched from "the furnace," but nonetheless, all in one piece.

The twins clambered backstage as Tessa went for the changing room.

"Tess! You're filthy!" Lonny exclaimed, "What happened? And why aren't you ready yet? You're on in ten minutes!" she grabbed a towel and tossed it to her brother.