Le Cirque des Rêves marks its thirteenth year with a private, lavishly colorful reception at Chandresh Christophe Lefèvre’s London town house on Friday, October 13, 1899. The circus’s inner circle attends along with select guests, including Herr Friedrick Thiessen. Chandresh gives Poppet and Widget two orange kittens, whom they name Bootes and Pavo, and the party features black-and-white courses that reveal bright colors when cut.

Chandresh delivers a long speech about dreams and family, briefly unsettling the room when he remarks that everyone seems not to age except the Murray twins. Dancing follows, with Mr. A. H. (Alexander) staying peripheral except for one impressive waltz with Tsukiko. Isobel tries to reach Marco, but he avoids her; Marco’s attention remains fixed on Celia, whose gown shifts colors to match those around her.

Late in the evening, guests pressure Celia to perform, and she relents by making Tsukiko vanish from the dance floor and reappear moments later in the library inside a lantern-festooned sarcophagus. As the party continues, Marco pulls Celia into a shadowed alcove near the elephant-headed statue; he changes his face to the one Celia remembers from their earlier intimacy and admits how much he has missed her, nearly kissing her as the air warms and rose petals stir.

The moment breaks when Alexander appears and asks to speak with Marco privately. In an empty game room, Marco confronts Alexander about the contest and his enforced anonymity, admits he loves Celia, and demands to know when the challenge ends; Alexander says it ends only with a victor and notes a previous challenge lasted thirty-seven years. When Marco declares he quits, Alexander insists Marco is bound to the challenge and to Celia; Marco throws a billiard ball that shatters stained glass and storms out, leaving Isobel close enough to have overheard.

Marco goes straight to the ballroom, seizes Celia, and kisses her publicly with forceful magic that whips the air and blows open the garden doors. Immediately afterward he releases Celia and walks away, and the room’s memory of the incident blurs into confusion blamed on heat and champagne, leaving Celia trembling. Alexander exits in anger; Widget follows him to a window and realizes a disturbing detail: the man in the grey suit has no shadow.