The inability to communicate with anyone other than his creator had never bothered Abraham.

Nothing ever bothered him, you see. How could one bother a lump of clay?

Abraham existed solely for Basha's protection and for whatever she ordered him to do.

Nothing ever bothered him, that is, until he viewed the red eyed man in the crowd.

Abraham had attached himself further to his creator's side as the man came closer for the magic trick.

He was a preditor. The golem could tell that much with what small amount of sense he had. A preditor that would no doubt try preying upon his creator.

As soon as the red eyed preditor was out of his sights, the clay man really couldn't care less about anything again.

He 'spoke' when spoken to, kept to himself when otherwise, and overall remained empty-headed.

Until the preditor showed himself again, that is.

It had a small person with it this time.

Abraham had seen children before, of course, but never a child that acted so much like a grown man.

The golem stared at the pair as they questioned Basha, occasionally asking the young woman questions himself.

The magician should not have been able to be followed.

He kept staring and moved as the preditor did, thrusting his arm out in front of his creator's face just as a shiny object lodged itself into his clay flesh.

Abraham tore the knife from his arm and stared at it for a few moments before hurriedly stuffing it into the front pocket of his slacks.

The golem had an affinity for shiny things.

Other than the fact he was her servant, it was the reason he stuck to Basha like glue. The magician always gave off a familiar shining aura unlike any other human he had ever seen.

Abraham had always wanted to just pick the smaller woman up and keep her safe and sound inside his pocket, where she would be his to stare at whenever he liked.

It was the one real thought that truly belonged to him.

"Coincidence?" Basha asked, almost jokingly. "I believe in many things, monsieur, but coincidence is not one of them. Just as it is no coincidence that you are here to give me back my prop. Just as it is no coincidence that you have a vague understanding of what Abraham is."

The magician glanced at her golem and Abraham stared at her.

Tell me to and I will crush them.

Basha glanced back at the mysterious pair, then at Abraham, then back again.

"Attendez jusqu'à ce que je vous dis." She breathed.

"Wait until you tell him what, madame?" The child smirked at the dumbfounded magician. She obviously hadn't expected him to be so fluent in French.

Basha groaned and rolled her eyes. "Fine then. Now, Abraham!"

The magician threw down her arm and a burst of white smoke filled the room just as the golem lunged.

While the smoke disoriented the child, neither Abraham nor the preditor were affected by it.

For a brief instance the man and the golem were locked in a battle of strength, but when the man reached up to destroy the name carved into his forehead, Abraham reared back and sent a hard punch to the man's handsome face.

By the time the smoke cleared and the red eyed man had recovered, both the magician and her creation were gone.

♤♡◇♧☆

Basha fell to the roof of a building a few blocks away with a groan, her back resting against a chimney and her head in her hands.

A cold sweat had broken out along her skin and she felt as though she were sitting in fire.

Abraham watched as the magician tore the wig from her head and groaned, running shaky hands along her scalp.

This was not the first time the woman had collapsed after exerting herself too much and it most certainly wasn't going to be the last.

The sickness is back. The golem noted dumbly.

Basha let out a humorless laugh. "It never left, mon cher."

You need the circus doctor again.

Another dry laugh as she situated her wig on her head once more. "I'm not sure if I can make the journey in my condition at the moment. Just... Take me down to the street. It will pass eventually. It always does."

The golem nodded and gathered his master into his arms before jumping down into the alley below.

The slums were a dangerous place to be in for a weakened woman dressed as scandalously as Basha was in her costume, but she had Abraham so she really didn't care.

Lecherous eyes of all races followed the bounce of her long white legs while wary ones eyed the giant of a man that carried her down the streets.

It wasn't often that the magician came down through these parts, so the road only became more and more congested as poor people came running to witness the beauty and her beast.

When the streets finally became too clogged to move without trampling someone Basha let out a shaky sigh.

"There is no break for me, is there?" She murmured with a pained chuckle, but smiled at the crowd anyway.

"Namaste! Hello! Bonjour!" The magician called out, lifting herself up to sit on Abraham's shoulder and flourishing her ghostly pale arms. "I need a volunteer from the audience to help me perform a magic trick!"

For the second time that day hands were raised in excitement.

Basha looked around, but not for long. A particularly excited Indian man was shouting and jumping, waving his hand as high as he could. The whole process made it easy for Basha to see the expensive silks and jewels he was adorned with under his heavy cloak.

"You, monsieur!" She called out, pointing to the Indian man with plum colored hair.

The man cheered in excitement and ran forward through the crowds, a calm white haired servant behind him.

Basha smiled at the rich Indian man as Abraham set her down.

"And what is your name, monsieur?"

The man grinned, putting his hands on his hips. "I am Prince Soma Asman Kadar! Twenty-sixth son of the Raja of Bengal, and-!"

"You hear that, folks?" Basha called, cutting him off. "It looks like we've got a prince on our hands!"

The crowds began to laugh, making the young Indian man pout.

"It is true! Agni, inform this woman of my status!"

The white haired man stepped forward, but was cut off by Abraham. The golem stared down at the Indian man, as if daring him to get closer to his master.

Basha let out a laugh, wrapping her arm around Prince Soma's shoulder.

"It was but a joke, mon prince! Do not take a jest so seriously!"

The prince still pouted, making Basha sigh.

She then grabbed the cloak from around his shoulders and spun it off of him, exposing all the fineries that adorned his body.

The crowd gasped; Agni took a step forward; Abraham again cut him off; and Basha still just smiled.

"Now, is anyone in the crowd familiar with the saying 'Now you see me, now you don't'?"

Nobody in the crowd let out an affirmative, making Basha's grin widen.

"Well, now you see me." She threw the cloak up into the air as a white smoke billowed from her feet. The cloak hung for a moment before gliding down over the magician and the prince.

Agni coughed and tried to reach his master, confused at how the large man was no longer guarding him.

He stumbled forward into an empty clearing just as a disembodied female voice called out.

"Now you don't."