Aimless Ascension

"Circus," Gale muttered, remembering the blind girl he helped the other day. She even gave him a free ticket to watch their show. Gale had put it inside the pocket of his tunic instead of his void lock, in case he forgot about it. Sadly, he indeed forgot about it when he changed his clothes.

And they say practitioners were brilliance of mind. The statement was noted more so for scribers.

Gale was both, and the statement couldn't be more wrong about him.

"Circus?" Xiaolin lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes," Gale said. "Let's go check it out."

Gale felt some weight lifted off his shoulder as Xiaolin agreed to go to the circus in good spirits. She had no problem with the circus as long as Gale was with him.

The ticket was dirt cheap to him, anyway. He was feeling bad because he forgot someone's goodwill.

Reaching the circus, they found the show had already started, and only the VIP tickets were remaining as the circus crew was quite famous around there.

"Give us two VIP tickets then," Gale said to the man in their reception.

Silence.

The guy was lost, ogling at Xiaolin and hearing nothing of what Gale said. Gale had to tuck him on the shoulder to gain a response.

"Yes, what!?" The man was embarrassed, showing through his face.

"VIP tickets," Gale repeated, "for two."

"Ah, yes." the guy fumbled with the papers for a second. "That would be eighty iron marks."

"So expensive," Xiaolin muttered, causing the receptionist to cock his head at her.

He wouldn't mind lowering the price for her, but Gale clicked his tongue and tossed a silver coin to the man.

"Keep the change."

Gale led Xiaolin into the show, searching for their seats with his Qi sense. It wasn't that hard, even though he wasn't putting in that much effort. The seats were merely VIP in the name. The only feature it had was that it was at the forefront of the audience. Most of them were empty as people would rather enjoy the show, just paying a lot less and seating only a little further.

Gale found more people ogling at his partner. He couldn't help but shot a look in their direction, which somehow made all of them restrained as they refrained from looking anymore. At least, not blatantly as they were doing before.

Currently, there was a brilliant sword dance going on, with one male and another female dancing in full spirit. They used flaming swords for showmanship. The man was bare-chested while the woman was in readily eye-catching dresses, glittering with the hundreds of light constructs on the stage.

"Their movements are so. . ." Xiaolin said, lost for words after she barely watched a few moves. Gale reminded her to sit, and she did with her eyes fixed on the couple dancing on the stage. "This is just brilliance, so delicate and. . ."

Gale was happy with her enjoyment in the show, but immediately his attention was caught by another couple that moved in for the VIP seats.

A frown appeared on Gale's brows as his eyes met the youths.

"You!" Han Xiao grunted, eyes flaring with hate and indignation. His change in demeanour called for the attention of his partner, who was none other than Luo Qing'e.

The mayor's daughter picked her eyebrows, finding Gale in front of them. Luo Qing'e looked fabulous as always, but she looked uncomfortable with her cousin being her date.

Xiaolin clutched his palm, noticing the arrival of trouble.

"Why can't you l--" Han Xiao tried to blabber something, but Gale cut him off readily.

"Not a word," Gale said. "I'm not here to argue with you."

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes at him first and gave Xiaolin a look. He snorted and was about to argue, but Luo Qing'e dragged him off to take free seats available far away from them.

"You enjoy the show," Gale told Xiaolin, serving his shoulder for her to rest her head. "No need to bother yourself with that moron."

However, it was only easier to say it, as they found Han Xiao gawking at them intensely with his hateful eyes. He was blatantly provoking them, and even the sensible cousin he had with him was unable to stop him.

He probably took their demeanour of sticking closer together as a provocation since Han Xiao spend a good amount of his time wooing Xiaolin.

As if to provoke the young master even more, Gale wrapped his left arm around Xiaolin, blatantly displaying that Han Xiao had no chance to begin with.

Xiaolin was simply happy, snuggling in closer in the dim light.

The show went on. All of them were similarly entertaining, but none of them could invoke the same feeling Xiaolin had to see the sword dance.

Gale had been keeping tabs on the performing, waiting to see what the blind girl he met yesterday would do. He had his guesses, but he couldn't find her in any of the performances to confirm.

Reaching half-time, Gale found Xiaolin getting uncomfortable, getting all the gazes. Even Gale's glares weren't enough to stop them from sneaking glances at her.

"Should we check out other things?" Gale asked.

"Um," Xiaolin nodded.

Gale threw a lot of looks in the direction of Han Xiao and Luo Qing'e before leaving. The girl was putting her best effort into enjoying the show, but she had to check on the moron she was with every now and then.

"Such a bother for her," Gale commented as he led Xiaolin out of the tents, "babysitting that moron, even during the festival."

Even though Gale's voice was equal to a mutter within the clamouring crowds, Han Xiao heard him with his enhanced senses, as he was keeping tabs on them from the beginning.

Gale didn't bother whatever the black sheep felt about his comment, simply led Xiaolin out as fresh air hit both of them.

"What now?" Gale asked.

"The play?" Xiaolin said.

Gale was ready to listen to her every demand, but just both of their attention moved towards a lone figure next to the tent, practising for her performance.

She was catching knives out of thin air as another person helped her with throwing the knives at her.

She wasn't that good at it though. With the black clothes strapped to her eyes, she was barely able to catch half of the knives thrown at her. Not to mention she was blind to begin with.

"Ai?"