Prologue

20th of Thraous, in the Waxing within the 1st year, 11:45 a.m.

                Alice grinned as she skipped from the electro-bus. Rick had won tickets from a raffle at the police department for Mr. Kites Circus. Reaching back, she grabbed ahold of Ricks hand and swung around in a twirl the purple dress adorned with gold animals became a blur, she had seen it while browsing the Data Hub for The Modernists Boutique though it had been a little out of what she had wanted to spend Rick had insisted claiming if she did not click buy he would go and buy it himself claiming “We may be poor but that is no excuse for occasionally treating ourselves, and besides, I think it will make you hot.” He had said with a grin before she had asked “so I am not hot now?” causing his speech to devolve into terrified sputtering.

She grabbed her husband’s face with her free hand as they paused in line for the circus, feeling the stubble above the goatee on his cheek, and gave him a deep kiss. “We haven’t done anything like this since we started dating!”

                “Well, thank Brick for giving me the two tickets he won in the raffle.”

                “I thought you won them?”

                “I said I had got tickets from a raffle.”

                “And I thought you were finally becoming lucky.”

                “I am just lucky when it comes to my wife and friends.”

                Alice smiled “Brick is such a sweet man; he needs to find himself a good wife, whom he can pass blessing on to.”

                “Well, I found the only decent girl worth marrying.” She felt him squeeze her hand and smile. “So, he may have some trouble in the wife search but we can pick him up a fun souvenir as a thank you.”

                Alice spotted performers doing tricks outside the gate to entice the passersby to enter and she began to bounce up and down. “I cannot wait for the tightrope performance! I always wanted to be able to tightrope, but my mom was like” She lowered her voice, “‘no respectable daughter of mine will wear tights and join the freakshow.’”

                “Really? That’s a brand-new story I’ve never heard before.” He said sarcastically, while smiling down at her, “Though I would still like to see you in those tights.”

                She pulled away and smacked him in the arm, “don’t say that in public.”

                “Whaaaaat,” Rick spoke innocently, “There is nothing inappropriate in me wanting to see you in those tights, in fact look over there,” he pointed at a performer moving past. “They are wearing it in public, what could possibly be inappropriate in that.”

11:50 a.m.

Rick handed the bored, heavyset older lady behind the counter the two tickets before walking onto the circus grounds. The small rain shower from the morning had made the ground muddy and slick. The smell of cooking food and bodily excretions mixed to provide a unique and rather unpleasant aroma. People jostled back and forth cursing at each other, yet nothing seemed to dampen Alice’s bubbly mood, Rick knew the city was filled with corruption, with every criminal he arrested two more took their place, and yet, looking at Alice Rick found that he could smile, he figured even here in the foul festering fairgrounds he could deal with the mud the smells and the people for her. Besides, the circus would be a needed respite before diving into investigating reports of drug smuggling at the docks.

                Rick ordered two chocolate covered apples before they entered the main circus building. The structure was Three stories tall with a spire at the top, it was stripped red and white, and it had only four windows at the top located near the base of the spire for light. On the inside was standard stadium seating, with all the rows of seats in an oval looking down on the dirt covered wood floor with three rings. Rick found the two seats with their numbers beside an old couple and sat down to watch.

                After the initial acrobatic acts came the tigers. They had great powerful bodies obviously capable of killing their handlers with ease, yet they obeyed perfectly. Jumping through the hoops and allowing their handlers to lay on their backs as they prowled.

12:00 p.m.

Alice was enraptured, the two hours of entertainment felt like only two minutes. She clapped at the feats of the contortionists, she gasped at the sword swallowers, she laughed at the clowns, and she gazed longingly at the tight rope walkers. Towards the end it came time for the Gray Men. The four of them rose out of secret doors in the ground, they looked human, yet their skin was a light gray, or ‘ashen’ as Rick would have said, and they were totally hairless.

                The handlers went up to them and proceeded to poke and prod at them, yet they didn’t attack their handler. Yet when a slab of meat rose amid them the Gray Men went crazy tearing it to shreds, the whole audience was quiet, tense the proverbial pin could have been heard if it had been dropped. Once the handlers had proven how dangerous the Gray Men were, they went up to each one and put their fingers in the creature’s mouths. Every single person held their breath waiting for one to bite down on the finger, but none did. She glanced at her husband and saw that he was just looking up, studying the ceiling, watching the gray sky roil in the distant windows up above. 

                They then began leading the Gray Men in the rows where people were sitting, some tried to touch them, some shied away and some would shout and scramble away. Alice leaned toward one as it passed, it smelled sterile, and its skin was saggy but wholly intact. She had expected them to be like depictions in the movies shambling rotting beasts whose very bites could turn you into one of them.

12:30 p.m.

Rick was relieved when the Gray men were brought back down to the rings. His wife squeezed his hand as Mr. Kite walked up arrogantly, holding a mic and began talking as the handlers sent the Gray Men back down the way they had gone. “Gray Men are not human, they are merely husks, people that have died at the Anti-Nexus, a place of no Inchemy, their souls were left trapped unable to enter the gate. But please do not be disturbed, they feel nothing, and once we are done putting on shows educating the audience on these Gray Men for the year, we will make sure their souls reach The Holy Depths. I Thank all of you for coming and goodnight.” He gave an elaborate bow that caused the end of his tailcoat to flutter like a cape before the lights blinked out and an odd buzzing filled the air.

                Rick leaned over to Alice, “He spoke of the Holy Depths and yet is he not Seffalonese?”

                “Oh come now, the moment he mentions Sar’tchan he would be taken by the Special Guard never to be seen again.”

                “That doesn’t feel right.”

                “Go to Seffalon and talk about Nextian and see what happens it’s life religion and culture are the same” Alice tugged on his goatee, “besides one man cannot change a nation, much less a world.”

                Rick just nodded.