Perhaps because the new year was approaching, the circus had plenty of visitors even though it was neither a festival nor a holiday. Clowns with broad smiles painted on their faces wove through the crowd, performing all sorts of silly antics that drew bursts of laughter. →
Since the circus show had yet to begin, Helibel dragged Sifa into the tents selling pies, pancakes, fruit pies, and alcoholic drinks. The girl was clearly excited, and the smile never left her face.
Apart from pouting in protest when Sifa stopped her from having a second alcoholic drink, Helibel was in wonderfully high spirits that afternoon, entirely unaffected by the smog.
"Sifa, Sifa, let's go there!" Holding a Desi Pie, Helibel pointed at a tent ahead with a sign that read "Fortune-telling Hut."
"You believe in that stuff?" Sifa had not forgotten that his younger sister belonged to the Apprentice pathway. Its Sequence 7 was Astrologer, at which point she would gain divination abilities herself. There was no need to seek someone else out for a reading.
"It's just for fun. Come on!" His sister bit into her pie and dragged Sifa straight toward the Fortune-telling Hut, without the slightest concern for behaving like a lady.
The hut was dimly lit. Inside sat a woman wearing the pointed hat of a rustic magician and a classical black robe, though her face was painted with red, yellow, and blue greasepaint.
Seeing customers enter, she raised her head and asked, "Would you like a reading?"
"Yes."
Helibel pushed Sifa down into a chair. "Ma'am, please give my big brother a reading."
"Of course. What would you like to divine?" the rather tall-looking woman asked with a smile.
Sifa shrugged and said casually, "My fate, I suppose. Or my future?"
"No problem." The woman in