Torn and Restored

Chapter 7 - Seven of Diamonds

Unaware of the danger lurking in his compound, Will had a peaceful sleep. His conversation with Olivia had cleared all his doubts that he'd had on himself. He felt much stronger and was ready for the morning practice session.

He strongly believed that hard practice leads to a good show. So he treated the practice session like the show itself and always wore his grey shirt for the session. He was so attached to it. But for the first time, he thought that he should wear something else. He felt like a changed man so he thought that he should look like one. He fished his wardrobe for a different shirt. After a lot of thought he decided to stick to his second favourite colour- Black.

He got dressed and went to the kitchen. Olivia was already cooking and he gave her a broad smile as he sat down. She didn't know how to react. He was about to read the newspaper when she snatched it from him saying, "Lots of sad news these days."

Will clearly knew there was something about the show in the paper. He managed to smile and nodded.

"Where's Tarquin?"

"He's down with a fever. Nothing serious, though. Ernie left early saying he had some matters to attend to", Olivia said as she brought the pancakes she had been making.

"Ohh... Are you sure? Is Tarquin okay?"

"Yes....very fine actually. He kept joking that the world was going to end today and he had to protect himself from it. His temperature wasn't that bad but I still gave him some medicine. He'll be fine."

She knew how much Tarquin meant to Will. She got up and patted Will's shoulder giving him her 'everything will be fine' look.

Will nodded again and had his breakfast. When they were done, they left for the practice room which was situated just below Will's room. A lot of things had changed for Will in the past couple of days. He couldn't remember a single day when he practised without Tarquin. But here he was, heading for practice with the least probable person- Olivia. But he had finally decided to be friends with Olivia and he didn't want to ruin it in a day. They made it there and Will unbolted the door. The room was pitch dark. He held his breath until Olivia switched the lights on. 

Nothing feared him like darkness but he made it very sure to hide it from the others. The room looked much older than the other rooms as they hadn't touched this room when they renovated the house a few years back. He studied the walls as he moved across the hall. The Mansion had a long cavity in the walls that they used as a fire place in winter. Later they had changed to electric heaters. So Ernest had decided to cover all walls with light sapwood planks that went well with the wooden floor and roof. But they hadn't touched this room at all. Will liked it that way and walked across the hall. He gently rubbed the hearth and pulled back soot covered fingers.

Olivia went to the cupboard and took her ropes. She was still wondering how she had failed to free herself of the knot at the show. She literally had to cut herself out of the knot and she had never encountered an experience like this before. Tarquin had tied much tighter knots in practice but she could reverse them in seconds. Tarquin had been careful to tie a much looser knot as she could move her wrists a bit. But her voluntary release action couldn't help her free herself from the knot. She'd decided to practise knots but Tarquin wasn't there to help her out. She turned and saw Will take a set of playing cards. He was randomly shuffling the cards. She had never seen him perform any card tricks before, but on seeing his hands act on the cards she could tell that he had a lot of practice with cards.

"Do you perform card tricks?" asked Olivia.

Will was startled by the sudden sound and walked towards the entrance in small steps as he continued playing with the cards," Of course I know card tricks. How can a person call himself a magician if he doesn't know card tricks?".