Excerpt: The Pyrotechnic Sorceress

The air was hot in anticipation that night in the enormous stadium, thousands of people gathered to see the unusual new act that had been advertised in the town for weeks. They were all abuzz with each other, babbling excitedly in their little pockets of familiarity about what they could possibly expect. Many of them explained that a friend of relative of theirs had seen the act when it was in their town, but when they described it, “incredulous” seemed like too light a term. Clearly, it had to be seen to be believed.
The spectators began to file into the stadium around sunset as it glinted in warm orange splendour across the whole stretch of the horizon. The act, though, was promised to not start until the dead of night; they were told by the act promoters that it would be better that way.
They wiled away the time spreading rumours to each other about just what this act was. They described things as mundane and expected (for something like this) as indoor fireworks and elaborate lasers, and quickly moved on to acts as supremely outlandish as people that danced and flew around the stadium that seemed to be made of the purest light like which they could never imagine. Ultimately, through all the hearsay and tall tales, no concrete facts could be agreed on for this coming performance.
The stadium was ovular, with a grassy floor, and it was fairly immense. Certainly no World Cup stadium, perhaps anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 seats, but it was still packed, and the banter throughout the packed house echoed feverishly across the vast space. It was an indoor stadium with a white domed roof, though there was a small gap between the dome and the back row of seats, running around the perimeter of the stadium, allowing a wide sliver of sunset through the building. It rose up through the rows of bleachers, fading as it went, before finally waning into night as the light met up with the other end of the opening.
Twilight transitioned into night quickly in the summer heat, but it didn’t seem to cause any perceptible difference to the people there. The stadium was all lit up with harsh, artificial white lighting, so that sunset had waned away just meant the fake lighting didn’t have a comforting orange hue to it, which the viewers were ultimately too excited to notice that much.
The chitchat carried on and on, whirling around thrilled and without losing a bit of momentum. The act was taking a while to get going, but impatience was the last thing on the mind of this crowd. They were too anticipating to be impatient.
Suddenly, the cold white lights of the stadium were all instantly snuffed out, accompanied by the sound of a quick gust of wind through the stadium’s PA. The crowd balked in surprise for a moment, the chatter all suddenly quieting down to a faint whispering, mainly of wondering what was going on.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” a dramatic man’s voice boomed across the stadium, “you are about to see incredible things the likes of which you could never imagine.”
The voice paused to allow the enlivened chatter to build a bit, then interrupted again.
“You may see things that you might not believe possible,” it continued on, in a mix of ominousness and glamour, “but do not be alarmed. She simply holds powers that none of us understand.”
Variations of the phrase “What we don’t understand?” whispered gently through the stadium like ripples in a puddle in the rain.
“Ladies and gentlemen…” the voice interrupted again, trailing off. Just then, a streak of light shot out with intense speed from the player’s entrance on one end of the stadium, making a high-pitched whistle as it went. All the chatter in the ampitheatre was immediately silenced as it screeched through the air, rising towards the middle of the stadium, so the almost silent whistle sounded out from end to end, uninterrupted by human voice.
Once it quickly ascended to the centre of the stadium, it exploded in an enormous and extraordinary eruption of bright pink light that bathed the entire stadium of wide, amazed eyes. One of stunted imagination might have described this explosion of light as ‘like a huge firework’, but the onlookers knew it was so much more than a firework. It’s what the Big Bang might have looked like if it was pink and much, much smaller. Particles of pink light streamed out of the epicentre of the detonation and spread out all across the stadium, pouring outwards before fading away.
“Kinsmouth Stadium proudly presents,” the announcer continued, as if the immense display of light hadn’t cut him off, “Luminitsa, the Pyrotechnic Sorceress!”
Smaller streaks of light poured out from the entrance, rendered in astounding shades of red, blue, green, purple and anything else, coiling and twisting wildly in all directions, creating a phantasmagorical rainbow of colour around the stadium. They detonated into colourful explosions after they had made a certain distance, some of them barely out of the gate before they burst, some of them coiling around the stadium several times before popping dramatically. The crowd didn’t “ooh” and “aah” like they had at so many Fourths of July or Guy Fawkes Nights, they gasped and shouted and yelped as these chromatic rockets spun all around them.
After a few moments, the swirling bands of light ceased, and the stadium was dark again. The onlookers held their breath.
A bright golden light began to pour out of the stadium entrance, brightening slowly. It was what sunlight might have looked like in a perfect world, under perfect conditions. All the eyes were drawn immediately to it, anxious to see what was creating this light.
After a few moments, a woman ran headlong out of the stadium entrance and out onto the field. She was a somewhat tall woman with long, perfectly dark hair, and what appeared to be like an incredibly deep tan. Even from the distance that everyone was looking at her, they could tell she had intense beauty and character, the kind archetypal of the legendary gypsies of old. She was wearing a dress of incredible colours arranged in remarkable patterns. It was very classical dress, made from what was probably quite a simple fabric (or, strictly speaking, many, many simple fabrics), appearing like it was created by the purest of cultures. Anywhere you looked on the dress, a pattern drew you in, and it seemed like that pattern was the only thing in the world of any interest until your eyes trailed off a bit and you saw another one even more captivating than the last. It was a long and dramatic dress, the hem riding up just above her ankles, presumably so it wouldn’t be trailing in the grass. Not much could be discerned about this woman from the great distance everyone was seeing her, but some of it was obvious enough, because the perfect, incredible golden light seemed to be coming from her body, as if she was the source of it. The centre of the intense gleam followed exactly along with her as she ran to the centre of the stadium. She was smiling broadly, as if she was having as incredible a time as the people watching her. As she got to the centre of the stadium, she began to spin in place with astounding grace. As she spun, the light seemed to shrink and curl up to her outstretched hands, which were balled up into fists, concentrating to an unbelievable intensity as they shrank around her, into her fists. Just as they curled up into bright, burning pinpoints, she opened her hands, and they exploded instantly with an incredible boom (that seemed to emit from the sound system), flooding outwards and filling the stadium. The watchers were pushed back into their seats as this light streamed rapidly past them, like it was a physical force.
One the light died down, and the viewers’ eyes readjusted, they saw that the woman in the centre of the stadium was still glowing, but this time with a more simple white light, one just designed to let her to be seen rather than to display her. Her entrance was applauded wildly. Some of the more cynical members of the audience kept looking all around them to see where this light could be coming from that it could be so precise. She motioned the crowd to be silent, and the clapping slowly died down.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show!” the woman called out, her voice booming through the PA, “I am the Pyrotechnic Sorceress!”
The applause sounded out again at this announcement, but the crowd eventually shushed themselves back when they detected that she was about to say something else.
“You may have heard a lot about me,” she said cleverly, “but let me assure you, only the good things are true!”
A warm laugh rang throughout the stadium. Once it petered away, the Sorceress began to pace around slightly, like she was having a conversation with the 2,000 or so people that were watching her.
“You might be wondering how they’re actually pulling this off,” she began, “is this dress luminescent, or something? Have I borrowed some of the Blue Man Group’s equipment? Do we have a really good lighting technician? Whatever’s going on, the production for it must be ridiculous!”
A slight murmur rose up, everyone agreeing with each other about what she was saying.
“I’m not sure whether it would be disappointing or amazing,” she started up again, “but I’m afraid this is just all me. There’s no tricks, there’s no technology, there’s no gimmick… it’s hard to believe, but…”
She suddenly shot her hands up above her, and tall turrets of bright blue and red light shot up out of her hands, high into the air. They rose up instantly into the sky and blinked out as soon as they reached the stadium ceiling in a sprawling choreography of light. The sound system made melodious “bong” and “bing” noises in time to each column being created. After a few moments of this, she ceased, and stared ahead of her.
“…After tonight,” she intoned teasingly, “you’ll believe anything!”
The crowd whooped excitedly at this promise.
“I should also let you know,” she continued, “though what I do might look dangerous, I can assure you all that you’re perfectly safe.”
She drew back her hand, like she was about to throw a hell of a curveball, and a small ball of fiery red light began to form in her hand. An ominous noise like an electric motor charging up was playing through the stadium. Once it reached its crescendo, with a sly smirk, the Sorceress thrust her hand forward, and ‘threw’ what looked like an enormous fireball of deep red light. It rocketed towards the stadium seats, the onlookers gasping in horror as it soared threateningly towards them. It hit them square in the face as it streaked towards them, flooding their vision as it collided with them.
Soon, though, the light left their vision, and they didn’t seem any different or any more dead than they had been. Puzzled, they looked around, and soon saw the ball of light cutting rapidly around the stadium, through the audience. It passed harmlessly through them, though it certainly gave everyone it passed through quite a start as the great red light shot through them.
The light rounded the stadium seating once, passing through nearly everyone, before finally pitching upwards into the air, back towards the centre. As it rose, it began to curl in on itself, its long red tail curling around it as it twisted through the air. It began to drop towards the Sorceress, and she slowly held up both her hands to the tumbling comet. The corona around the Sorceress’ body seemed to fade into the same shade of red as the fireball drew closer and closer. As it fell down at her, it suddenly disappeared as she seemed to ‘catch it’ deftly, the light around her snapping immediately back to its simple white. She was crouched down after she had caught the terrifying flame, completely still, like it had been difficult to catch, or like she was smothering it. The crowd watched with bated breath.
She stood up slowly and turned around. Both her hands were clasped. The audience all leaned forward collectively.
With a coy smile, she opened her hands, and sparks of red light scattered out of them, hovering about before finally fading away. She brushed her hands together in a satisfied way, kicking up more sparks.
“My light is completely harmless,” she assured them, “it can’t hurt you or help you. A lot of terrifying things might happen tonight, but let me assure you that both you and I have nothing to worry about.
“Now, with that in mind, let’s get started!”
This declaration was met with raucous applause, and the performance began.