Glossary · Circkool

Places

The Rheinaue: The long strip of green along the Rhine in Bonn, with poplars, reeds and mist over the water. At its quiet end, on the meadow between the reeds and the railway embankment, stands Circkool.
The old willow: It leans heavily over the water, its branches touching the Rhine like fingers. On some days, the air above the reeds beyond it shimmers.
The tent: Black tarpaulin, silver lettering, nearly all flaked away: CIRCKOOL. One of the curtains is tied back to a pole, as if someone had been expecting you.
The ring: Packed earth under a film of sawdust, and above it a ceiling higher than the tent should allow from outside. By day they rehearse here; on Fridays they perform.
The wagons: Old, dark wagons in a half circle around the tent, their wheels grown into the earth. This is where the residents live, and between the wagons hangs a string of lights that is never fully lit.
The kitchen wagon: Warmer than the air outside, with low wooden beams and the smell of decades of cooking. There is tea here, and here, on the first evening, Winters tells Feo things he cannot possibly know.
The forbidden wagon: One of the wagons has a name no one explains and a door that stays locked. Those who live here do not ask what is behind it.

Circkool: A circus that appears on no city map. For the audience, a shabby show on Friday nights; for the residents, the first place where no one asks why they are the way they are.
The ringmaster: Dorian Winters runs Circkool. He knows his residents’ stories before they tell them, and he keeps a notebook of what they can do and what it costs.
The grounds: That is what the residents call the place with the tent and the wagons. Rian prefers »the settlement«, because »the grounds« sounds like a parking lot.
The shimmer: A spot above the riverbank where the air gleams as if behind an almost clean pane of glass. Not everyone sees it; Feo feels it as a pressure behind his eyes.
Graduation: Once a month, when the moon is full, someone leaves Circkool. Where to, no one says, and no one comes back.
The show: On Fridays, the red folding chairs fill with some two hundred guests. They are shown just enough that no one asks any further.
The nine ravens: They sit on the tips of the tent masts and do not fly up when someone approaches. One of them has a single white flight feather.
The jars: Behind the forbidden door, shelves are lined with jars, each with a little label and a color of its own. »Don’t touch. Just look.«

Gifts and their price: The residents can do things that have no names outside. Every gift costs something, and whoever works big pays more.
Illusion weaving: Feo’s gift: pictures that others see even though they are not there, from a sparrow to a whole room. So real that you pull your hand away.
Metamorphosis: Rian’s body does not hold its shape: sometimes an arm is too long, sometimes a leg gives out. With a roll of his shoulder he pulls it back into place, most of the time.
Pyrokinesis: With Bria, fire blooms between her fingers. On stage, it looks as if it comes from her mouth.
Shadow manipulation: Celine stands in a shadow, and the next moment no one is standing there. The shadow stays, sharply outlined on the grass.
Weather empathy: Aria feels the weather before it comes, and the weather in people. When she says wind around four, the wind comes around four.
Gravity manipulation: Ilias makes things lighter or heavier, sometimes himself. Then he stands half an arm’s length above the ground.
Voice manipulation: Damian’s voice draws people in and puts sentences in their heads that they later take for their own. On top of that, he hears every lie.
Precognition: Marius sees two tomorrows at once. He knows things more often than he would like.
Electrokinesis: Current. Anything on the grounds that hums or lights up belongs to Ed.