"You live here?" I wondered, staring up at the London townhouse.

Certainly it was lavish, far more so than any place I had ever lived, but somehow it didn't feel like the home of an Indian prince.

"Yes! Just Agni and myself!" My new employer hummed proudly as Agni unlocked the door.

I furrowed my brows to look at him. "No other servants?"

"Nope! Just us!"

I stared for a moment longer before it donned on me. "Ah, so it's one of those kinds of relationships you have."

Now it was Soma's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?"

I shrugged. "You two are... oh how do you say it in english? It's faygalah in Yiddish. Gei? Faygalah? Oh, what's the word I'm thinking of, Abraham?"

My creation stayed silent for a second.

Homosexuals?

I snapped my fingers in triumph. "That's the word! Homosexuals!"

Soma tilted his head in confusion while, at the same time, Agni's head whipped to face me, his normally exotic tan skin nearly as ghostly pale as mine and taking on a slightly green twinge.

"No! It is not that sort of relationship!" The butler shouted, shaking his head and his hands.

Soma pouted. "What's that? Agni, tell me what that word means!"

The butler took a shaking breath and opened the front door. "I shall inform you later, my prince."

Soma was still pouting as we entered the townhouse.

"Agni, I'm getting a snack. You show my new magician to her room." The prince pouted, walking towards what I assumed to be a kitchen.

The white haired butler shook his head and mumbled something under his breath about the prince ruining his supper, but smiled kindly down at me.

"Right this way please, Miss..."

"Basha Pascal." I supplied as we began our acent up a flight of stairs, Abraham carrying my luggage behind us.

"May I ask where you are from, Miss Pascal? You have a very lovely accent." Agni asked as we passed the landing.

"Paris, France originally. I moved here a few years ago."

"And... Mister Abraham?"

"A golem. I created him in France and brought him with me as... security, you could say."

We stopped at the top of the stairs on the second floor and Agni gave me a questioning look.

"A golem is a guardian made of stone or clay with a spirit artificially attached to it. It will do your bidding as long as you give it a name." I explained as we walked through the halls. "But, if the spirit trapped inside ever learns its master's true name, it will be able to break free and try to kill that which locked it away."

We stopped in front of a door and I smiled calmly at the butler.

"Names hold power, Monsieur Agni. Don't be so quick to give out yours."

I was still smiling at the Indian man's astonished face as Abraham opened the door to the room and we stepped inside.

"Bonne nuit, Monsieur."

♤♡◇♧☆

Ciel Phantomhive couldn't help but let out a yawn as the carriage pulled up to his London townhouse the following day.

He and Sebastian had little luck trying to find the magician, Madame Pascal, and her clay puppet the previous night, and that morning had led only to dead ends as well.

So now here they were, taking a break at the town house.

"CIEEEEEEEELLLLLL!"

The boy groaned. Of course Prince Soma would still be here, he shouldn't have hoped otherwise.

As the young earl stepped out of the carriage, he was bombarded by the older boy trying to tell him at least twenty things all at the same time.

As they walked up the path, Sebastian calmly greeting Agni along the way, one of the prince's ramblings stuck in Ciel's mind.

"Wait, what did you just say about a magician?" The young earl questioned, stopping just in front of the door.

Prince Soma smiled excitedly. "Just come watch!"

As soon as the townhouse doors opened, the group was met with a display of colorful lights and smoke creating a scene that looked to be almost from a fairytale.

Ciel Phantomhive stared in awe, as he couldn't recognize his own townhouse anymore. The foyer looked almost identical to the main tent of the Noah's Ark Circus, and oh the music playing made him feel as though he had never left the troupe.

High above them, balancing perfectly on the chandelier, was a woman with white hair dressed in a provocative white costume that seemed to shimmer in and out of focus.

"Bonjour, mon prince, monsieur Agni!" The woman called out in a familiar french accent.

This left no doubt in the young Phantomhive's mind; this woman was once a part of the circus troupe that abducted so many children. And, judging by her skill level, she was more than likely a first ringer.

And none of them should be kept alive.

Ciel watched as the woman jumped off the chandelier, only to vanish in a puff of smoke half way to the ground and reappear before their very eyes in a deep bow.

Without looking up, the woman snapped her fingers and in a blink of an eye, the townhouse had returned to its usual lavish state.

The magician stood from her bow as Prince Soma began his over the top applause and smiled, only to have it faulter as her eyes locked onto the two guests.

"Madame Pascal." Ciel Phantomhive smirked. "It is an absolute pleasure to see you again."

Basha took a shaky step back, earning questioning looks from both Indian men.

"Abraham!" She shouted suddenly, retreating even further.

The golem was before her in a heartbeat, his clay face twisted into a scowl and stone eyes glaring at Sebastian.

"That man attacked me!" Basha yelled, grabbing the two Indian men and pulling them to a safe point behind Abraham's large frame.

Before anyone could think of reacting, Basha had already thrusted a hand out in Sebastian's direction and murmured a quick word in an ancient sounding language.

The magician's palm glowed white and Sebastian found himself being thrown back into the doors with a force unimaginable for a woman of Basha's stature. The heavy wooden doors cracked and gave way with the force of Sebastian's expulsion and the butler found himself laying outside on the townhouse's front steps, surrounded by the broken wooden fragments of the front doorway.

The three remaining humans in the room could only stare in shock. It had all just happened so fast.

Basha nearly smirked at her accomplishment, but the blood she could feel gathering in her throat made her do otherwise.

The magician coughed, splattering bright blood against the once pristine tile floor. The red liquid seeped down her chin and she coughed again. This time she couldn't stop after just one.

She could feel blood and bile mixing in her throat and her eyes began to tear up with the force with which she hacked.

Abraham turned, but the golem was not fast enough to catch his master before she collapsed onto her hands and knees in order to vomit up the blood that was blocking her airways.

"Sebastian, call a doctor!" She thought she heard the one-eyed child shout as she was finally able to take a breath.

With fading vision, Basha raised her head to see the prince who had hired her, panic clear as day on his face.

A pair of arms, she didn't know whose, encircled her, raising her off the floor and into someone's chest.

As soon as she was high enough, the magician looked over to give Prince Soma a tiny smile and reached a weak hand across the gap between them and behind his ear, producing a coin for him to see.

He was still a child, after all. And children shouldn't have to see what she was going through.

Don't go. Abraham's voice called out to her as she lost consciousness.

Don't go...