Sophia took great pleasure in watching the fog drift away from his eyes, his entrancement truly obvious to her until the spell faded and he quickly schooled his features back into something a bit more calm and collected. Despite his condition he did not miss a beat, impressively delivering an aloof observation taht earned a genuine laugh from the ballerina. It sounded different from the performative laugh she usually employed; her natural one more lilting, and accompanied by a hand that flitted to her chest as though to contain it.

“I was simply demonstrating my point, Mister Dempsey,” she parried demurely, having kept her own distance on the opposite railing where the platform narrowed, suspecting that he wouldn’t chase her there so easily. “Not to worry, we can retrieve your coat,” Later, her eyes added. “I only have a penchant for collecting tophats, as it is.”

With a smirk, the witch took a single step closer to him, feeling every ounce predatory. Now that she’d seen him off balance once, Soph was quite sure she needed to see it again. Though she’d allow him some time to keep guessing at what it was, and she cast her right hand towards a beam to their right. With a gesture that emphasized the proper technique to beckon something without a wand, perfected over a decade to the imperceptible flutter of a ballerina’s hands, her charm pulled on a rope attached to that beam. It soon brought them an unassuming bucket, which bumped gently into the railing to Ozy’s right. The witch dipped her fingers into the bucket, lifting from it a soft powder that glittered blue as it sifted back into the bucket.

“We used something similar in Moscow, to more convincingly represent the oppressive heat of India in our production of La Bayadère,” she murmured thoughtfully. This had been her late husband’s innovation, as it was, now belovedly adopted by magical ballets across the European continent. “Mixed in with the smallest sprinkle of a plant with properties that create a similar affect to the Confundus Charm. It helps make our guests more… open-minded, shall we say, to take a flight of fantasy with us, and better ignore the blights of the day before they arrived.” ‘Agreeable to mild and temporary intoxication for duration of performance and backstage entries’ was a term of agreement printed on the back of any performance ticket where this particular formula would be used, like Giselle.

The woman withdrew the smallest quantity of this powder, blowing gently on her fingers to direct it at Ozymandias. The effect would feel like a chilling, cool fog, which he undoubtedly felt during her final act as the Wilis.

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