After the Four Horsemen made it into the Eye, all charges against them were dropped "mysteriously" and they were allowed to continue their magician work together. They were only allowed to continue their work, of course, under certain conditions.
One: Go exactly where they are told for their shows.
Two: Don't surprise the Eye. Surprise the audience.
Three: Take on a fifth member, but still be the Four Horsemen.
This last condition didn't really make sense to them, but the 'Four Horsemen' sounded better than the 'Five Horsemen', and this new member they were to have was an amazing magician. She never shared her secrets with them, but she really was amazing.
Her name was Fayette Wills.
Jack and Merritt grinned as they watched the two girls. Henley and Fayette, after Fayette joined the Four Horsemen, had made a tradition out of baking cookies on weekends they didn't have shows. It usually took most of the day, just because neither were that great of bakers, and Fayette always had interesting things to show Henley to cause distraction.
Currently, Fayette was using illusions to make fire appear in various places of the kitchen while waiting for the cookies to bake. Baking had taken a relatively short time today.
"Okay, I made fire appear somewhere in the room. Keep your eyes closed, and I'm going to mentally message you to let you know where it is. Please tell me where the fire is," Fayette paused, "Now." Henley hesitated before responding.
"Is it above the stove?" she asked. Fayette grinned.
"Yup," she said. Henley opened her eyes, and smiled.
"That's so cool. I thought I understood illusions, but I really don't. I feel like that would be something to include the audience with. We could ask as many people as we wanted, whoever. We wouldn't have to plan it." Henley said. Fayette shrugged.
"Faye, how do you do it?" Jack asked, walking around to sit on the bar stool on Fayette's other side, while Merritt sat on the bar stool on Henley's other side. Fayette sighed.
"I'm going to tell the Eye if you don't quit asking me that. I already told you, I never tell my secrets." Fayette said. Jack puffed out his bottom lip.
"Just one secret, please?" he asked. Jack was the other main illusionist and hands-on magician in the group, and the duo often collaborated on tricks. He was glad to have another magician like him, as the others often downgraded his magic some, and it irritated him to no end. With Fayette around, they didn't want to risk offending her.
Apparently, the Eye had gone searching very hard for her. She hadn't originally wanted to join. The Eye's only enforced rules about the conditions is that to keep Fayette as happy as possible. They didn't want to lose her. Fayette never really saw how her magic was worth keeping her such a priceless gem of the Eye, but if it gave her protection, she accepted. As a performing magician on her own in New Orleans, safety wasn't always a priority. With the Eye, she was always safe.
Or something like that, they really hadn't understood the Eye's explanation.
"Tell you what: if we actually do use the fire trick in a show, and the audience likes it, if it's good for the Four Horsemen, I'll explain how I do it." she said. Jack, Merritt, and Henley grinned.
"Hey, Danny, come 'ere!" Jack shouted. Fayette rolled her eyes, and stood up to take the cookies out of the oven. Danny walked into the kitchen as she slid the tray onto the counter.
"They're hot, watch yerselves." Fayette said, beginning to put the dirty baking dishes into the dishwasher.
"Danny," Jack said, "Faye says if the audience likes her fire trick, then she'll tell us how she does it."
"What's her fire trick?" Danny asked. Fayette grinned to herself.
"Danny, close your eyes. I'm going to put fire somewhere in the room, and mentally message you where it is. Then you have to tell me where the fire is." She said. Danny closed his eyes. A flame appeared right behind him.
"Okay, tell me where," Fayette said after a pause, "Now."
"It's behind me." Danny said. The others grinned as Danny opened his eyes.
"That's pretty amazing. What can you tell me about this fire, Fayette?" he asked.
"Well, I control pretty much everything about it. It's a bit of a mind-game sometimes. Merritt might get it if I explain it. Temperature can change, size, colour. If I want, it can crackle noisily, or it will silent as a Cherokee on the hunt." Fayette said. Danny nodded.
"I guess if you all want we can do it next show. We'll try it on as different people as we can manage to find." Danny said. They all grinned. Fayette slid back into her seat.
"I love illusions." She said, "And I love tricks that I can use my hands."
"Like pick-pocketing and picking locks?" Henley asked, and Fayette nodded.
"What does that have to do with the fire trick?" Jack asked. Fayette shook her head.
"Nothing." She said, "I just really like it." Jack grinned.
"Oh, cool, me too." He said. Fayette reached for a cookie, and then broke it in half. She set the other half back on the tray, shaking her head.
"I don't know why I eat these. They're really sweet; it makes me tired." She said, taking a bite. The others laughed.
Jack knocked on Fayette's bedroom door. At night, if the group didn't hang out as a whole, she usually stayed in her room, watching movies. Tonight was one of those nights. But Danny was requesting a quick meeting on how the next show will go. And since Jack is the ''kid'', he often had to fetch the others.
Which didn't quite make sense to Jack; he and Fayette were the same age, and Danny could just yell to get the others. Danny loves yelling.
"Hey, Faye, Danny wants a meeting real quick." He called through the door.
"Jack, hey, could you come help me?" Fayette called back. Jack opened the door, and walked in.
"I got my hand stuck between the bars out here." Jack walked onto Fayette's balcony. Each of the Four Horsemen had a balcony in the house, and they were often used.
"How'd you manage that?" Jack asked, going to help her. She shook her head.
"I don't know. And I can't magic myself out." Fayette said, feeling defeated. Jack carefully unstuck her hand, then smiled at her.
"There you go. And don't worry, I won't tell the others." He said. She smiled back.
"Thank you." She said, "It's frustrating, because I can do really complex tricks, and then I get myself stuck somehow, and I can't unstuck myself. I don't get it. It's like I can't do magic on myself; even the simplest things." Jack shrugged.
"It's okay. I don't think the others can either. Maybe Henley, because that is her magic. I only can because that's how I got out of scrapes in Brooklyn."
"Well I could do it before I joined the Eye. How do you think the New Orleans criminals never caught me? They're everywhere down there, and the police can't catch all of them. So I had to look out for myself. I was pretty good until the Eye started interfering." She said. Jack grinned.
"Well now you have me, so it's all good." He said. She laughed, agreeing sort of, and followed him out of the room and into the den. The others were waiting.
"Oh good, you two finally showed up," Danny said, "Next time, Jack, if you want to get her alone, don't use me as an excuse. The shows are always a little more important than relationships." Jack looked up at Danny, surprised, as did Fayette.
"What?" they asked simultaneously. Danny rolled his eyes, and Merritt and Henley exchanged grins.
"Never mind. Okay, so this is the run-through. It's tomorrow night, at the Kentucky YUM center. The Eye says we have a full house, so it'll be the perfect place to try Fayette's fire trick. Any particular way we should pick the audience?" Danny asked. Fayette nodded.
"They numbers on their tickets. We don't have interference with that, so no one could call it fraud. We can have one of the ticket-masters tell us what the number range is. Then we could each pick a random number. We'll do it five different times." She said. The others nodded.
"Not bad, we'll do that," Danny said. Fayette rolled her eyes. After another thirty minutes of discussion, Danny called the ''quick'' meeting to an end.
"Now go to bed. We have rehearsals tomorrow morning at nine." He said, standing up from his chair, and heading down the hall to his room. Henley and Merritt exchanged good-nights with each other and Jack and Fayette, then also disappeared down the hall. Fayette stayed in her chair, lazily drawing smoke trails in the air with her finger. Jack was watching her, thinking hard.
"Faye, what do you think Danny meant?" Jack asked.
"When?"
"When we first walked in."
"Oh. I dunno. If it matters that much, you could go ask him. He loves explaining stuff to you and I because he's older and therefore thinks he's wiser. You'd have no problem getting an answer from him."
"Aren't you curious about what he said, though?"
"I dunno. I mean, it was a little surprising, but we are magicians. We're supposed to have trucks up our sleeves, and expect the unexpected. That's how magic works. Anyways, if I asked, Danny would just stall. He'd beat around the bush for a few minutes, then give me an indirect answer, and disappear. As much as his ego loves bossing us, Danny really doesn't like the idea of somehow upsetting me. It's like he knows that there are things he could say to make me mad."
"Danny would get in trouble with the Eye if he made you mad, so he has reason."
"Well, yeah, but he has all the wrong ideas of what would make me mad. He dances around me, it seems, to keep his tail in one piece. I'd rather have a direct answer, and be a little upset than an indirect answer and getting frustrated."
"Well, I'll talk to him, and let you know. How's that sound?"
"Sounds great. Can I just sleep out here? My chair is pretty comfortable. Danny's meetings always make me sleepier than they should, and walking back to my room just seems like a lot of work right now."
"You'll mess up your back sleeping in a chair, no matter how comfortable. Surely your chair isn't as comfortable as your bed anyways?" Jack asked her, grinning. Fayette shrugged.
"Well, no, but it's still a comfortable chair. I could sleep here quite nicely. One night would not kill me." She said. Jack shook his head.
"I could carry you to your room, you know." He offered. She shrugged.
"You don't have to, though. And I'd prefer it if you didn't."
"Why?"
"You know why."
"Still. I'll carry you back to your room. I can do that." He said. Before she could respond -because he knew he was fighting a bit of a losing battle- he picked her up. He swiftly walked back to her room, and dropped her gently on her bed.
"There, now you can sleep, and I won't have to worry about you." Jack said. Fayette half-smiled, unable to fake annoyance.
"You're mental." She said, throwing a pillow at him. He laughed, and threw it back.
"Can I have a hug?" he asked, and she nodded. He gave her a quick hug, which she returned, before she crawled up to her favourite spot of the bed. After she tugged her blanket around her, she snapped her fingers, and the lights went out. Jack laughed.
"That's still so cool." he said, closing the door behind him as he left the room. Fayette smiled to herself as she fell asleep.