Luna Park's Arc

Chapter 9 of 14

Luna left the stone hut before dawn and walked back to her storehouse to take stock. She had been avoiding it for days. The lock hung open. Inside, the shelves were bare. Her costume rack stood in the middle of the floor, every pole empty, every hook traced with hanging icicles where the heat had failed. No gown. No boots. No mic stand. No banner. The rival's runners had taken everything the night the cave burned, and Luna had not let herself count the loss until now. She ran a hand along an empty hook and felt it crack under her glove. She walked to the showcase grounds with her phone in her pocket and the slot token pressed flat against it. A weathered wooden sign sat at the entrance, bracketed in iron, glazed in fresh frost. The notice was new. Strict equipment check at the gate. Every performer must present costume, props, and personal mic for inspection one hour before curtain. No exceptions. Past the sign, the half-circle of stone seating climbed in tiers packed with snow. The floor at its center was swept clean. No racks. No mic stand. No backdrop. The organizers had cleared the space for performers to fill, and Luna had nothing to bring. She sat on the lowest tier and opened her phone. She did not call her sister to ask for money. She did not search for a shop. She opened the pipeline scout's contact and typed one line. She wrote that she would perform with no costume, no props, and no mic, in the clothes she trained in, and that the check should mark her column as forfeit on equipment and pass her to the floor on skill alone. She read it twice. She pressed send before she could stop. The reply came back in under a minute. The scout wrote that the rule allowed a performer to waive equipment if she accepted a one-notch penalty in the final score. Luna typed yes. The scout marked the waiver in the system and sent her a confirmation code for the gate. She walked back to the stone hut and sat on the planks. She still had a floor to rehearse on and a song she could run clean. She had a slot at the showcase and a code that would carry her past the inspection without a single prop in her hands. She had also given up a full notch before she stepped on the stage, and the rival would arrive at the gate with a full rack and a full score. Luna set the phone face down and started the count again from the top.