Previously on "The Otherworlders": Having missed being captured by the guards earlier, Sebastian leads Jake and Cameron into the backyard of Prince Julian's palace, where a circus performance is taking place. 

Inside the tent, various circus acts like aerialists, mimes, and jugglers perform. However, when an animal trainer leads a baby elephant, a tiger, and a sickly polar bear out onto the stage, Jake gets enraged.

Sebastian and Cameron are then forced to restrain Jake from climbing up on stage and choking the life out of the trainer, which aside from causing an explosive interracial incident, would also blow  their cover.

**********

The boys are back in the safe room. They've been at it for hours, Cameron having taken Jake's advice and tried to alternate between blasts of fire and ice to break the lock, but to no avail. The safe is far too thick, far too fortified, for this technique to work well.

Cameron's forehead beads with sweat as he strains to maintain a steady stream of ice on the lock. After a while, he just gives up, exhausted.

Taking a step back, he shakes out his stiff and aching fingers. And then, out of nowhere he grunts and kicks the safe with the flat of his foot. "Ugh! This is pointless!"

Jake and Sebastian ― who've been sitting patiently with their backs against the wall, watching Cameron try, and fail, to open the safe ― exchange concerned glances.

After a beat, Sebastian clears his throat. "So, Cameron?" He says as he gets up. "Might there be another spell you can try, you know, something from your magical bag of tricks," he asks gently, and with a playful touch, in an attempt to lighten the mood. "I mean, perhaps you could―"

"Don't..." Cameron bites back. He clenches his jaw as he grips the edge of the safe and pushes himself to his feet.

"Look, I apologize," Sebastian pleas earnestly. "I was just thinking that maybe if you tried―"

"Sebastian!" Cameron snaps. "Please, don't start with me!"

 Startled, Sebastian leans back against the wall. He lifts his hands up as an apology, giving Cameron some space. "Honestly, Cam, I didn't mean to―

"It's fine. It's fine!" Cameron cuts him off sharply. Then bowing his head, he quietly adds an, "I'm sorry" underneath his breath. He looks up at the ceiling and scoffs as he hears Master Achebe's words telling him that someday he will become a Great Mage, the Master's voice echoing in his head like a cruel and hollow joke.

At this point, Jake springs to his feet and steps in. "Okay, guys. Let's not lose our cool," he says evenly. "There's got to be another way to do this." Frustrated, he scrubs his face, then begins to pace the room. His hands, laced together, rest on his head as he ponders how either he or Sebastian could use their powers to help Cameron crack the safe open.

After a long moment passes, Jake blows out a slow breath. "I don't know. I'm flat out of ideas," he admits with a shrug. "From what the other kids said about their missions, magic always played a key part in them finding the artifact, so―"

"So, you're saying I'm a failure. Is that it?!" Cameron quips, basically putting words in Jake's mouth.

"No! Not at all!" Jake tosses back, stung by the accusation. "I'm not saying that. And I'm not implying that your magic is useless. I'm just saying I think we might be missing something here, that's all."

"Yeah," Sebastian adds. "We just need to come at this situation from a slightly different angle. You know, figure out how Jake and I can help you." After a beat, he slants Cameron a glance. "Why do you think we're blaming you? We're not, Cam, I promise."

Mouth pursed, Cameron grunts vaguely in the affirmative. He has to admit, perhaps he's being a tad overly sensitive.

"Allright, then." Jake nods, determined. "So, if we can't use magic, or..." he adds hastily before he hurts Cameron's feelings again, "...use magic exclusively, what else can we do?"

Sebastian makes a gesture towards Jake and suggests in earnest, "Maybe you can shift and tear the safe open with your teeth?"

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Jake throws up his hands. "Unless, of course, you want to go ahead and pry it open with your fangs!"

The boys stare at each other for a long, tense moment, and then...

...they both break out into laughter, the sound of their relief echoing through the room and shattering the tension that'd built up around them like static in the air.

Cameron, however, is not amused.

He's still frustrated with his depressingly poor performance on the mission so far. "Why?" he murmurs, shaking his head slowly, feeling overwhelmed.

"Why what?" Sebastian asks.

"Why is the entire success of this mission resting solely on my shoulders?" He looks up, and then in response to the other boys' slightly insulted expressions, adds, "I mean as far as magic is concerned."

"I don't know, dude." Jake crosses his arms and leans back against the safe. "Like I said earlier, we're missing something here, I can feel it. But I have no idea what it might be." He looks up and seeing that Cameron is clearly buckling under the pressure, makes a suggestion. "Okay, look, we gave it our best shot, right? And none of us are happy about failing but the longer we hang around here, with no real plan, the more we risk getting caught. I say we call it quits for tonight and get some sleep. Let's try and come back in the morning, yeah?"

Sebastian grabs his waistcoat from the back of the chair. "Yeah, I'm with you," he says as he puts it on.

"Cameron?" Jake tilts his head in question.

Cameron looks at the boys and then back at the safe, feeling more like a loser than ever.

At this rate, he'll never master his powers, which means he'll never amount to anything more than a birthday party magician. "Me, a Great Mage someday..." he mutters underneath his breath. "Great Mage, my ass!" he hisses.

Then with a sigh, he snags his jacket and grumbles back, "Fine. Let's get out of here."

***

Two guards are finishing up their patrol for the night. Guard #1 points towards the hall where the safe room is.

"Let's go this way," he suggests. "I just want to check down this hall before we sign out."

"Why?" Guard #2 asks, pursing his lips. He really wanted to grab a drink at the pub before going home to the ball and chain.

His wife has been on a tear lately about having another kid, and as much as he enjoys the sex, adding one more to their brood on his Royal Guard's salary will just add more pressure for him to snag a promotion before the end of the year. "Seriously, why?" he asks as he slumps against the wall. "Why make the extra rounds when we could wrap the night up early."

"I don't know," Guard #1 says as he stretches his neck and peers down the hallway. "There were some kids hanging out there earlier. I just want to make sure they didn't take anything."

He looks over at Guard #2 and says, "You heard about what happened to Henry, right? He was fired because that ugly silver ashtray — you know the one that looks like a flattened pile of horse shit — it went missing from the anteroom during his watch. And I'm up for a promotion in the next few years. I can't afford to get sacked because of something as stupid as that."

"Neither can I." Guard #2 shrugs in agreement as he turns and follows Guard #1 down the hall.

***

Back in the palace safe room, Sebastian reaches out and grabs the doorknob, then freezes. Jake and Cameron watch as he starts to back away.

"What? What's wrong?" Jake asks.

With his enhanced Vampyric hearing, Sebastian can hear the guards headed their way. "Um, guys." He warns. "I think the guards are coming!"

"Crap!" Cameron says in a panic. "What do we do?"

The boys quickly scan the room and realize there are no windows, just one door leading out into the hallway where the guards are coming near. Once again, they're trapped!

Jake looks up and notices an air vent sitting above the safe, high up on the wall. It's just wide enough for them to climb into.

He points up.

Sebastian follows his gaze, then shakes his head. "Oh no, you can't be serious..."

"Serious as a heart attack." Jake replies with a sly grin.

Cameron agrees. He leaps up onto the safe, bringing him eye-level with the vent. With a twist of his fingers, he magically loosens the screws and removes the grille. Hopping down, he gestures urgently for Jake and Sebastian to climb in.

With Sebastian's help, Cameron is the last into the shaft. And hearts pounding, the boys breathe a sigh of relief until Cameron suddenly realizes the grille is still lying on the floor.

Shit!

As the guards' voices get closer, Cameron whispers back to Sebastian. "Hold onto my legs!"

"What?!" Sebastian whispers in return.

"I said, HOLD MY LEGS! I've got to get the grille back onto the air vent!"

"Oh, okay, okay!" Sebastian wraps his hands around Cameron's ankles and Jake, having heard Cameron's request, clamps onto Sebastian's ankles as well.

Cameron leans out of the air vent at the waist and spreading his hands wide, creates a vacuum with a reverse wind spell.

Shakily, the grille begins to rise.

Ugh! 

He didn't think it would be this heavy! And although he tries his hardest, it remains stuck, suspended in between the floor and the ceiling.

Cameron sucks in a deep breath and grunts, then with one final tug, he dislodges the grille from its point of stasis, swooping it up just in time to catch it, right before it clatters against the metal frame.

As fast as he can, he secures the grille back to the front of the vent, and using his Minor Magic, screws it back into place and shuts out the light, just as Guard #1 opens the door.

The guard flips the light back on.

He looks around the room, suspiciously, trying to see if there's anything out of place.

There's not much there to begin with: the folding table, a few chairs and the safe itself.

But something still feels off.

Dragging his fingers along the table, Guard #1 makes his way over to the safe. He bends down and inspects the lock. He reaches out to touch it, then jerks his hand back. "Damn! It's freezing!"

Guard #2 bends down, scrutinizes the lock, and then stands. He didn't see anything out of order. Hands on hips, he says, "Okay, so it's freezing. I'm not surprised. They've always got the air conditioner cranked up in this room... only the gods know why."

Guard #2, who's shorter than Guard #1 hands his rifle to his compatriot and scrambles up onto the safe. "Here..." he says, reaching for the vent.

As Cameron watches the guard's hand slowly coming towards him, his eyes go wide. If the guard looks up now, he'll see Cameron's face between the slats.

He closes his eyes and silently pleads, 'Don't look up, don't look up, don't look up!'"...now as you can tell," Guard #2 says to the other guard, "you just need to make sure this thing is closed properly at all times..."

Damn it!

He's too close! Cameron can't even whisper a spell, which means that if something goes wrong, not only will they fail their mission, but they'll also get caught!

Cameron suddenly recalls an old cloaking spell. It's long and complicated and usually needs to be recited out loud. But there were some instances where powerful Mages where able to cast the spell using only their thoughts. Kind of like how Inez did it when she pulled the JMT spell on the guard the girls encountered on their mission.

But he's not a Seer. And his skills outside of controlling the elements and Minor Magic have always been limited.

Then he remembers something Master Achebe told him in one of their first trainings.

"You have a gift, Cameron. And you must learn to master it, not fear it."

This one small statement of faith gives Cameron the courage to try. 

He breathes in as quietly and deeply as he can, and clearing his mind, he focuses all of his energy on the cloaking spell.

There's a moment of silence, and then...

...the vent snaps shut!

And after a beat, Guard #2 concludes with "...and then the room will no longer be an icebox. You see?" 

Cameron can hear the guard's voice retreating as he slaps the dust off his hands and jumps back down to the floor.

"And there you have it!" Guard #2 proclaims proudly. "Problem solved! Now, let's go sign out so we can grab a brew before I have to go home to the missus."

Guard #1 frowns, unconvinced they've addressed whatever was bothering him.

He peers up at the vent and then down at the safe, and rubbing his chin, thinks for a moment.

Feeling something's amiss, but seeing no evidence that anyone's been in the room in ages, he finally turns.

He reaches out to shut off the light, and still wrestling with a sense of unease, he closes the door behind him. He follows Guard #2 down the hall to sign out for the night and make their way to the pub before the bartender calls for final rounds.

**********

A/N - Sorry for being a bit late today. I think I'm all caught up now. 😊

Until next week!

~ Paula ❤️