Carabas

There's a grand performance starting, but I've seen it all before, so I ignore the main plot, move past the crowds and deeper into the building where it's being staged, watching the parade of characters emerging to take their places. The very last to emerge is the witch queen, behind her two enchanted attendants. Since I'm the only audience member here, she takes me aside to tell me my fortune.

As she talks, it becomes clear that she's mistaken me for a woman, and that she might not have taken me aside if she knew otherwise. When she pauses to give me a chance to respond, I keep my mouth shut to avoid spoiling the illusion; she's clearly not pleased with my silence but she goes with it. She takes a needle and draws lines of thread through the skin on the back of my hand, talks with thees and thous, and pronounces 'clan' like 'clin.' She asks whether I'll play the role of part of her 'clin', and I agree, which requires a verbal answer. Her attendants take out instruments to arrange the ends of the threads.