“Thank you, thank you!” she said in a grand voice, bowing in front of the applauding audience. “Now remember, we’re here for the rest of the week! The show wouldn’t be possible without you!”
With one last wide gesture, she backed behind the curtain. She swapped places with Natharie, who soon came to give directions for the departing crowd.
“Sounds like we made a new record,” Umi remarked when she wandered closer to him. “I didn’t think the applause could get any louder.”
“Oh, that’s barely the beginning of what they can do,” she said with a smile. She sat down to start washing off the face paint. “You should’ve been there when Dad was leading things. You’d be able to hear it from the center of town, even if we were on the edge of it.”
“I think you should give yourself some more credit. I’m confident the only reason they ever cared that much was because you were there.”
“Come on, I don’t think I’m that great.” But she glanced over at him and he was smiling; there was nothing joking about it. The realization that he was being perfectly honest made her blush and quickly turn away again. “You deserve some of that praise, too. No matter where you were before we met, you’re a lot better at acrobatics than you look.”
“With a teacher like you, I doubt I’d be anything else.”
Then Miskunn walked up and interrupted them by asking, “Hey, do you usually allow people backstage?”
Sukeena looked at him to see who he was referring to; someone a little older than them, who failed at any possible test of being subtle about her wealth, was standing next to him. She seemed nervous, glancing around and occasionally back over her shoulder, but it couldn’t have been Natharie that she feared.
“Well, usually, they have to get past Natharie, but…” Sukeena was a bit louder and more confident when she looked at this stranger and asked, “Is there something we can help you with? Did you talk to Natharie before you came here..?”
“Is Natharie that grumpy one?” the stranger asked. Once they all more or less have their signs of confirmation, she shook her head. “I avoided her. She tried sending me back on my way. I need to talk with you, and not her, so that’s what I did.”
“Yeah, I think we should probably send her back out,” Umi said, unimpressed. “I can’t imagine what someone like her really needs from people like us. Looks like she’s got everything she could want back home.”
The stranger very obviously didn’t like that. “What? No! Don’t just send me away! Where’s all the kindness you must’ve shown every other… unique person that’s here? What makes me any different than them?”
“Do you really want an answer to that?” Umi mumbled.
Sukeena gently nudged him, then brought her attention back to the stranger. “Maybe we should take a couple of steps back—start again with names. I’m Sukeena, this is Umi, and he’s Miskunn. Over there are Detu, Orith, Miho, Ilathy, and Nillie. It sounds like you’ve already run into Natharie. What’s your name?”
“Theisi,” the stranger admitted. “Theisi Charraell, the youngest daughter of a minor Jaden lord. But… I suppose, none of that should matter… especially since I’m about to ask to join you.”
Miskunn and Umi seemed to think of the same thing, but the former got to it first: “I don’t think someone like you would be able to handle a life of traveling.”
“Well, there’s no reason she can’t try,” Sukeena pointed out confidently. It earned her Theisi’s small smile of thanks. But Sukeena wavered a moment when she remembered to add, “As long as you’re most likely not going to be wanted by someone. I think you can probably guess why that’s something we should be avoiding…”
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“Well, he might. The man doesn’t seem to know when ‘no’ is the only answer he’s ever going to get.” Theisi soon acknowledged, realizing everyone’s looks, that the answer wasn’t going to help her. “You won’t have to worry about it. That’s why I came to you. He’s wealthier than my family was. If he thinks I’ve run off somewhere he would’ve assumed it would be somewhere fancier, perhaps at the homes of friends or family. I’m sure the thought of me being with simple performers with even simpler backgrounds would never cross his mind.”
“Who’s ‘he?’” Sukeena prompted cautiously.
Theisi, for better or worse, gave her answer in a more roundabout way: “I didn’t sign up to be some richer nobleman’s trophy. I’d made a promise to myself long ago that I would forever be like Lady Samone—powerful, beautiful, influential, unmarried—and I intend to keep it.”
Unfortunately for whatever information Sukeena might have been able to get out of her, Natharie was done giving farewells to the guests.
She gave one look at the four of them and with a deep frown asked, “Who’s this and why is she here?”
“If you’d bothered to finish a few moments ago you’d know that by now,” Theisi muttered. She declared, louder, “I’m Theisi, and I’m talking with your ringleader here to let me join you.”
“I was going to get you,” Sukeena said quickly in order to keep the blame off of anyone else. “I think she could stay with us if she wants to. I don’t… exactly understand what it is that she’s running from, but I say we can’t just leave her to deal with it on her own.”
“At least drop me off somewhere else,” Theisi offered in a near-desperate tone. “If you think I’m not going to be useful to you, or too much of a risk, then just let me come with you for a little while. Once I’m far enough away in a place he won’t think to look, you can leave me and forget we’d ever known each other.”
Surprisingly, Umi stood behind Sukeena on this one. “Just a few weeks won’t do anything. I’m pretty sure we’re all running away from something, given that we’re all here—people who’ve got something to lose by staying put might as well stick together.”
“Do I want to understand why you’re going along with this?” Natharie questioned skeptically.
Umi just shrugged. “I like ticking off noble assholes as much as I can.”
“At least for a little while?” Sukeena tried. She knew that all she needed was a little more time, then she’d win Natharie over. This kind of over-caution couldn’t last forever when she could see that there was no reason to be worried.
Theisi nodded. “And you’re probably interested in performers, aren’t you? I left my wealth behind, but I’m not completely worthless to you. I’ve practiced several different kinds of dance over the years—I could perform in your shows. At least that way you’ll get something out of helping me.”
Sukeena eagerly turned to Natharie. “Come on, it’s got to be worth trying now, right? This is getting old! You’ve done this with everyone but Miskunn! Can’t you try to not immediately assume the worst? Please?”
“So you didn’t realize,” Natharie said in an emotionless near-whisper, “that this is around where it happened?”
Sukeena hesitated far too long to make it seem natural to the others. She didn’t say anything—she didn’t want to say anything, knowing it might tell too much. She didn’t want them to know. She didn’t want them to think it was better to leave.
Theisi must have heard it, given the look she had, and suddenly Sukeena felt very aware of how close the rest were. All of them could overhear whatever she could’ve said, or at least be able to piece it together.
But she was lucky enough to have Umi stand behind her. “Come on, Natharie. I think you can think of better ways to try to justify yourself than that. Just admit that you really don’t have any reasons not to let Theisi on at this point. It’s not going to hurt anyone. Continuing arguing about it isn’t going to make things any better.”
Natharie really did seem like she’d considered arguing, but ultimately sighed. “Perhaps you’re right.” She glanced at Theisi with eyes that still weren’t welcoming. “I may have been wrong about you. Our route has us going up to the Plains—at the very least, you’ll come with us up to there. If your talent is worth anything, you’ll be able to stay when we go through Tramos and back into Qizar.”
Sukeena took the first opportunity she could find to take her mind off the past. “You mean it? That’s great!” She quickly got up and went to take Theisi’s hand. “I’ll properly show you to everyone else. It’s a little late today, but you can start showing me what you can do tomorrow. We’ll be able to think of a way to include you in the show in no time!”
Theisi seemed just as shocked as Sukeena was excited, because the most she could do was breathe, “Thank you.”