Coleman is not so vain as to think that the Heart will fail without him. He's not here to kill King Dragon or set right the abuses of the monarchy. The shifting pathways to the depths of the Heart are littered with the remains of train eggs and the knights that failed. If he and Sasha don't make it, the only ones to mourn him will probably be the crew of the [i]Mighty Natascha.[/i]

But, as he feeds the nugget of coal into Sasha's burner and receives the answering purr, well... Well, the Vermissian's gonna fail with him. It maybe wasn't his fault that Wormwood imploded while he was there, but he [i]was[/i] there. Ain't it at least his job to make sure that things don't entirely explode just 'cause he wasn't good enough?

Over his thoughts, though, he can hear the screams, feel the wind. The Carnival is heaving, the screams of tormented passengers turning to screams of joy from the clowns. Something is wrong. The world is red and white and--

He eases the throttle forwards, and Sasha's steps turn to a run.

He should be running away. Sasha comes first, right? If she's crushed by something, then he's not going to be able to help anyone. But if he runs... 

If he runs, it's every train for themselves. It's scrabbling over dwindling resources. It's "not my problem." 

The world bleaches white and red as he approaches the screams. Bones and crows and clowns, a fury of winds, the Ringmaster in all his glory, like skin stretched over something that's forgotten how to be human, and above it all...

Below it all, Jackdaw and Wolf behind a donut card. Lucien, dangling limply from a fist made of all the wrong bones.

And somewhere in there, a path that lets all of them get out alive.

[5,6,+1. [b]12[/b] on Look Closely.
-Tell me about the Ringmaster. How could they hurt/help me?
-What will happen if I join in on the Ringmaster's side?
-Tell me about the things summoned by [i]Victory of Crows.[/i] How can they hurt/help me?]