Bailey reaches the circus fence in New York, winded from running through the woods, and is startled to find it unchanged in appearance but wrong in every other way: the gates display a sign reading Closed Due to Inclement Weather, and the familiar scents and sounds are replaced by silence and the nauseating odor of something burned and soaked.

Unable to slip through the bars like he did as a child and finding no one waiting for him, Bailey climbs a nearby tree and makes a risky jump over the tall fence. He lands hard in a tent path, bruising himself and getting coated in the circus’s white powder, and stands alone among still tents and windblown leaves.

Drawn to the courtyard, Bailey is surprised to see the bonfire is out and the iron cauldron nearly filled with rainwater. There he meets the contortionist, who introduces herself as Tsukiko, and Bailey recognizes her from performances. Tsukiko tells Bailey he is late and implies someone “will not be able to hold on much longer,” while stating that Poppet (Miss Penelope) is “indisposed.”

Bailey notices the courtyard’s ground has become unnaturally dark and muddy, and he kicks a black bowler hat near the dead bonfire. Tsukiko refuses to explain fully, calling it an “explosion,” but answers that the tents did not burn because of “Miss Bowen’s” precautions. Tsukiko identifies herself as an emissary and insists Bailey’s questions must wait for a meeting with someone else.

Tsukiko leads Bailey through the muddy passages to the tent labeled Fearsome Beasts and Strange Creatures and Wonders in Paper and Mist. She stays behind in the courtyard, and Bailey enters the tent alone, following her promise that he will soon learn more.