Page 45 of The Opening Act is Death
•Appearance:Pale, lithe frame, eyes like obsidian mirrors, always in black leotard with blood-red tulle. Her pointe shoes are sewn from flayed satin and always stained.
•Signature:Dances with knives embedded in her limbs, bleeding for every encore.
•Origins:Rumored to have danced herself to death in a cursed theater and woke up here. The Carnival offered her a role she couldn’t pirouette away from.
•Motivation:Control. She lost everything once — she’ll never be powerless again. Keeps the performers in line with grace and violence.
•Weakness:Music. When the music box hidden in her carriage plays… she’s no longer in control.
•Relationships:
•Corvan:Fascination, irritation, temptation. She can’t tell if he’s a threat or a mirror.
•The Carnival:Lover. Cage. Religion.
Corvan (The Escapist)
•Real Name:Corvan Rue
•Role:Master Illusionist, Escape Artist, Architect of Doors
•Appearance:Tall, gaunt, ink-stained fingers. Eyes too knowing. Wears a black duster with silver keys sewn into the lining. Always smells like smoke and old books.
•Signature:Never performs the same escape twice. No one knows where he goes in-between vanishing and returning.
•Origins:Claimed he once escaped death itself. His shackles hang in his tent like trophies or warnings.
•Motivation:Freedom. He’s still trying to escape… but from what, he won’t say.
•Weakness:Mirrors. Something inside them knows him too well.
•Relationships:
•Visha:Envy, desire, fear. She’s what happens when you stop running.
•The Carnival:A riddle he hasn’t solved. Yet
Carnies (Supporting Cast):
•The Laughing Twins— conjoined knife-throwers with a taste for blood.
•The Mirror Maiden— trapped in a mirror, shows people their deaths.
•The Marionettist— controls corpses like puppets on strings.
•The Fire breather— can only feel warmth when he’s burning something alive.
Sixty Four
CARNIVAL CUSTOMS
Every day, performers offer part of themselves to the tent.
•A drop of blood before breakfast.
•A coin in the Mouth of the Crowd.
•A kiss to a mirror that never shows you.
