Monica and Vinnie crept through the tent, trying as hard as possible to not look suspicious. Everytime a clown would pass them and suspiciously side eye her, Monica would wince. Her lifelong fear of clowns stemmed from one unfateful day when the Montero family visited Three Ring Isle. It had not been for fun and games, but rather because the clowns were renowned for their dagger throwing. Her legendary swordwielding father Antonio Montero wanted to show her brother, Hector, the art of weapon throwing so he brought both of them to a demonstration and when he looked away. One of the clowns with a mischevious expression threw a knife straight at her head. Strategically, it had missed her head by a hair, but the clown snickered, "I may be a knife guy, but I'm not so knife after all!"

To that day, for her at least, she had a marked distrust of clowns and their lunacy. Vinnie on the other hand, flicked finger guns at the female clowns. "Ey, you can throw a cream pie at me any day!"

Monica glared at him. Vinnie merely shrugged his shoulders. "What? I gots a thing for harlequins with cream pies!"

"I'm not even gonna make any entendres," Monica muttered. "That's your job."

Both of them heard a cabble of voices rising from the blue striped section of the tent. There was much more hubbub than the usual clowns giggling and animals roaring. Both of them hustled over to the curtain that divided the main tent from the blue side tent. "What do you mean?" a voice hissed from behind the curtain. "That the king of the Fishysauz isn't one of usssss?"

"Upon closer inspection, madam," another voice said, this one a bit weaselish in nature. "He is free of the cursed bloat we had given him."

"I can ssssseee that!" the voice hissed again. "He's fit as a fiddle and not barfing blighted vomit."

Monica's eyes widened and she turned to Vinnie. "Vinnie?! Who is this? They're talking about Phil Le."

Vinnie shushed her. "Seems we stumbled onto a whole nest of intrigue, haven't we toots?"

The female voice grew angry and gutteral. "We quickly need to infect Ssssanders or else the minisssster will have a tie when we vote! We must ensure his empire comes to fruition."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"We're advancing quickly on him, your toxicity!" the crony answred. "But we must not speak so loud. Or else ssssomeone might hear us."

Monica's brown eyes turned to Vinnie's. "I don't know who this woman is, but I got a bad feeling about this. Let us get back to Chloe before...."

"Hullo!" A booming voice said from behind them.

Monica turned around and nearly fainted. The normally tough as nails swords swinger was face to face with her worst nightmare. Standing behind them, a massive, seven foot tall clown looked over them. His entire face was chalk white, his red nose shined like a ripe tomato and her yellow teeth spread into an ugly grin. With two hands the size of ripe honey hams, he seized both of them by the throat and stomped into the blue striped tents.

Monica struggled as hard as she could and put in a brave face as the clown throttle her, but she couldn't help but squeak in horror when she saw who was behind the curtain. It was Countess Taon who had shed her dark robe to reveal an enormous octopod sticking out of her back. Its tentacles were dark and reached out at all angles. She had a sinister, and very inhuman demonic expression on her face.

"Master..." the massive clown exclaimed. "I found these two interlopers behind the curtain."

Countess Taon's mouth spread into rows of a shark toothed smile. "Excellent!" she hissed.

"Diablo!" Monica cried, pointing at the elegant woman. "I had no idea you were a Demollusk all along!"

"I wasn't alwaysssss," the countess hissed. "But when ghost blight infected the eastern sea and my city was consumed with it. The great Fienmond offered a way to live eternally. Some turned it down and became specters, but I chose the way where I could prosper! Not even the Everworld can claim my soul now!"

"So you'd rather be a simpleton for the demon lord?" Vinnie shouted. "Even a low life sea ganger like me won't settle for dat. I prefer freedom!"

"Easy for you to say," the countess guffawed. "You clearly haven't dealt with something as ghastly as the blight."

Vinnie flexed his muscle. "No way lady. I am a Demollusk myself. But I choose to live by my own free will."

"Well," the countess said. "Now you live under my will instead. I cannot have you interfere with the election of our first emperor! So both of you clowns are going in the pen!"

"Hey..." the big clown said. "Don't compare me to these non painted faces!"

"Fine," the countess said. "Both of you plain faces are going in the pen! And afterwards, we'll have some our finest hypnosquids infect your minds!"

Monica and Vinnie turned uneasily to each other. They had to somehow warn Chloe, but it seemed they'd be behind bars instead.

The countess covered up the enormous hypnosquid on her back. She faced the curtain of the main tent. "Do you hear that?" she asked. "It's time for the minister to gain absolute power!"