Royal Academy Diaries II

Circus ⚜ Ch. 6

A few months passed, and when the snows cleared another buzz quickly went around the school.

Andrae was in the dorms doing his law and government homeworks when Vlastik stopped by.

"Hey Drae! You'll never believe it. The gypsy caravans are coming to Vanera," he said excitedly.

Having known a few runaways that had come to the circus over his childhood, he knew the real name that they preferred. "The Roma. Strange to have the circus and the Roma both come in the course of a year."

"It is. Anyway, I've gotta tell Taji and Amaro. Maybe we can go later? If they let us."

Andrae tossed a balled up piece of homework at him to get him to leave, and he could hear his friend chuckling as he walked away.

A couple hours passed, and the group of friends got together to go see the caravan. Try though he might, Andrae couldn't get ahold of Kezia in time for them to leave. 

They took a cab down to, ironically, the same large open field they'd gone to before. The caravans were arranged in a semicircle, with booths set up from drop down windows. Much of the town was there, going around to the booths and watching performers and dancers.

Andrae couldn't help but feel somewhat at home with all the bright colours, smiling faces, and people whose home was each other. 

"Woah! Look at these horses!" Sahir said. 

The others looked to see them leading the last of the horses to a clearing in the back. They slipped around the back to go see them. 

"These things are massive! It's foot is bigger than my head!" Taji exclaimed, tentatively stroking the gentle giant's nose. "Nice monster horsie..."

Andrae chuckled, standing towards the back. As he watched and laughed, he heard something.

"Psst. Care to have your fortune?"

He glanced over his shoulder to see a woman sitting at the back of a caravan vehicle. She looked like a quintessential Roma fortune teller, likely by design.

"For how much?" he asked tentatively.

She thought for a moment. "You feel familiar. There's a connection. Why not this - to satisfy my curiosity as much as yours, I'll do it for the price of a flower."

He looked down and saw a cluster of small pink wildflowers. He picked them and walked up to the caravan. "Is this sufficient?"

The woman ran a finger along the soft leaves and smiled. "It is. Come. Let's find out what the future holds."

He climbed into the cart and sat down across from her. On the table between them was a crystal ball, emitting a soft glow. The woman hummed and waved her ringed hands over it, murmuring softly in another language. 

She opened her eyes and said, "Let's see what the universe knows." The crystal looked to churn with stormclouds for a moment before shadows became visible. Her eyes widened in surprise right off. "Is this a circus tent I see? Could it be you too are a traveler like me?"

Andrae smirked. "Well your crystal seems to work. That's good."

The woman chuckled and looked deeper. "I see now confliction, desired distance, and fear... And in your future I see... I see spinning. Turning. Dancing. I see two worlds drifting from their homes, but I see strings between them. Gold strings. Pride. I see a door, two doors, both bearing a name in gold. A star and a hammer..." She took a breath as the magic faded. "How curious..."

"How curious indeed." Meeting the woman's eye, he asked, "What does it mean?"

She smirked and shook her head. "Only you know that."