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The Cassandra Paradox

© 2026 by Feros Litae is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Chapter II: Tangency

Ashokai looked out the window of the shuttle as it drove through Maze. All the other dancers were chattering and giggling and such. The depth of the architecture always captured him. He had never been down here unaccompanied by a minotaur in some way. He couldn’t imagine getting around without one. There was so much. Getting lost was so easy. It didn’t cause him nearly as much anxiety as it used to but like many humans he avoided the centers of Mazes when he could, but he still appreciated them in some way. He could see himself living in one and getting used to it.

He was one of the two principal dancers for the show, a new principal dancer and, not nearly as skilled as the danseur noble, who was with the company’s tour coach. Ashokai himself was currently living at the dormitory at the university as a student of the magical performing arts academy. The rest of the dancers in their shuttle were also living somewhere in the city, some also at the university. Their shuttle was transporting local dancers with the company. This was going to be his last show of the season before the taking a break to focus on his studies and chorosus training.

When they arrived, a human valet walked up and opened the door. The dancers all hopped out and were escorted down an alley by minotaur security guards into the back entrance of the building. They were the first group there. There were twenty dancers with the local group Ashokai was a part of, and twelve more on their way. There was only one make-up artist, who was going to decorate all the dancers. Ashokai’s decorations were the second most complex of the entire team, the most complex being the danseur noble, who wasn’t there yet, so Ashokai went first.

He walked into a well lit room full of mirrors took off his blouse and capris, leaving just his pointe shoes and dance belt on. A rather slim looking roan bull was at the vanity picking out different containers.

“One moment, darling.” he said in a soft deep voice. He put various containers and brushes on a table next to a small round platform that Ashokai stepped on top of, awaiting further instructions. “I’m a little bit time constrained so I’m going to use tempus, if you don’t mind.”

Ashokai nodded.

The roan smiled. “Hold your arms up, dear, palms facing me, and stand with your legs spread- yes that’s it.”

Ashokai obeyed and not half a second later he was surrounded by a blur, feeling a cold prickling sensation tracing all over his skin. Then the roan appeared again, intently looking him over, touching the base of the pencil to his lip. Ashokai looked at himself in one of the mirrors moving only his eyes. There were already intricate henna floral patterns all over his body, intricate textures that looked like very complex shaded patterns to Ashokai, but to a minotaur’s eye, they showed all sorts of colors, and other kinds of optical effects. Apparently the markings showed all sorts of things when you moved them around in certain motions, and the dancers were all getting markings that were designed around their assigned roles. Ashokai’s dances specifically, were very energetic and fast. His markings were supposed to pronounce the feral nature of his dances, giving him a wild untamed demeanor on the stage. He wished he could have seen how it looks.

He was surrounded by a blur again, another cold prickling sensation as the artist rapidly put more henna markings on him, now there were more patterns more curling around his arms and legs like vines. Then texture details were added next, which took longer, and then shading details which also took a little longer, and finally some base, eye shadow, and eyeliner. When the artist was done Ashokai picked up his clothes and walked out, followed by the artist who signaled the next dancer to come in. Ashokai walked down the hall to costuming which didn’t take nearly as long. He was adorned with silver sequined veils colored faded indigo, wrapped around his waist and chest under his arms and a crown of wildflowers.

Ashokai paused in front of a mirror to check himself out before going to last minute rehearsal exercises. It was hard not to admire. He had done this show live nine times at this point and this would be the last time he gets to dress up like this for a while. His character was supposed to be seductive and it certainly showed, even if he couldn’t fully appreciate the patterns designed to tantalize the minotaurs.

They did a shortened rehearsal, mostly as a last minute check up. After rubbing rosin powder on the tips and soles of his point shoes, Ashokai went over some of the transitions on his second variation just to make sure he still had them in shape. Then cycled through first to fifth position several times to test the brand new point shoes he had and make sure they weren’t off balance.

All the dancers except Ashokai began to line up side stage just out of the audiences view as the orchestra began to tune their instruments doing last minute stretches and dusting rosin off. The danseur noble was in front, as the orchestra began to play the introduction, they all assumed the fourth position while waiting for their cue. The overture began to play, they all rose en pointe and the lead dancer entered with a bouree followed by the rest of the dancers across the stage, accompanied by an eerie chord progression on the strings and bells, sans Ashokai, who would make his entrance after two more numbers. The audience immediately applauded at their appearance, which was customary.

Ashokai would be the first to admit he had the best part in the ballet. He got to do two variations, and one character dance with the lead, all of them were very fast and also supposed to look somewhat savage and erratic, meaning he didn’t have to be technically perfect like the lead danseur, who had the most difficult and underappreciated role, even if it was the main one. Ashokai’s character, Kitchke. was somewhat of a dark horse, even in the most conservative version of the ballet they were doing. The most difficult part of playing him was the huge bursts of energy it took for all the dances. By the end of each show, Ashokai was exhausted. He could only do two shows a week, so he alternated with other dancers.

Ashokai assumed third position as his musical cue started to come up. He leapt onto the stage in a series of gran jetes, to the immediate applause of the audience, as the strings and brass began to flourish and ramp up, then landed a jete in attitude and spun into a grand pirouette, as a quick playful childish melody came from the flutes. He broke into a series of cabrioles and double cabrioles to the right and left, as the music began to ramp up faster as it became more playful sounding and he spiraled into a chaine of tight pirouettes combined with revoltades, and then started to do rapid barrel turns in a large circle around the stage as the music became even faster, as he broke into faster, shorter chaine turns decorated with double tours in the air, and just as the audience began cheering and clapping, he opened into a series of gran jetes, flying off into the other side of the stage just as fast as he entered, with the piece coming to a sudden end right as he disappeared behind the curtain, leaving an uproariously applauding audience behind.

He had a small bottle of pomegranate mineral water he fetched from the break room fridge backstage while he recovered. He re applied rosin to his shoes and dusted his hands off again. He could hear more applause from the audience as he saw the danseur noble finish one of his variations, ending a series of barrel turns, into a revoltade, into a grand pirouette, then pulling his limbs in to spin faster, then gracefully petering out into arabeseque ouverte and holding that position until the lights dimmed. The applause grew louder. The first act was over, and now was a twenty minute intermission. The dancers all headed to various parts of the backstage area, some to the break room, some outside for a smoke, different little things they needed to do for their nerves. The danseur noble, Stefano, gracefully slinked onto the large minotaur-sized daybed Ashokai was sitting on and put his head on the pillow and let out a winded sigh. Ashokai handed the other human a cold blackberry mineral water he preemptively got from the break area. Stefano sat back up and opened it with a hiss and a pop and took a series of large gulps, almost downing half the contents of the bottle. Then he took a deep breath through his nostrils and reclined himself again, emitting a loud belch. “Thank you…” he half breathed and whispered.

The make-up on Stefanos body was a bunch of silver painted lines in complex geometric patterns. He wore beaded black veils on his chest and across his waist, & a tiara of small silver leaves. He played the honored keeper of the saturnine, who was supposed to make sure all the others abide by the winter rituals, so the sun would rise again. Ashokai played the mischievous Kitchke, who just wanted to dance and play games, and didn’t take any of the rites seriously, and would constantly interrupt them. Ashokai also had the easiest part in the whole ballet, even if did it take a certain level of skill, he got the most resting time.

After a while the orchestra started to play the introduction for the second act and all the dancers, without Ashokai, once again lined up, this time in fifth position and glided on stage to rhythmic, mystical chords coming from the brass and woodwinds as the Second Procession began to play. Ashokai got much more action in the second act even though he had no solos. He would interlope on stage during numbers here and there, dancing around the shrine, mocking the keeper, flirting with the other saturnine adherents. He would bust into vulgar, savage, primitive looking dances, accompanied by the percussion along with occasional comedic flourishes from the brass section.

Eventually came the character dance, a pas de deux, where he and the danseur noble face off with each other. Stefano’s part started out delicate, and refined, and was an impressive exercise in pointe work and technical skill. Ashokai may have won over a general audience, but ballet connoisseurs could truly appreciate Stefano’s work. Ashokai’s character mimicked Stefano’s delicate point work. Ashokai tried his best, and did every step correctly, only lacking in enough confidence to have developed his own style for that level of technical skill, which is what his role was supposed to look like anyways. Eventually Ashokai’s character got bored from all the prim and proper dances and started breaking into various turns and spins, as the bass and strings swelled into a grand waltz. Stefano followed suit, doing a chaine of triple tours. They both one upped each other doing various combinations, until Ashokai broke into a series of wide jumping barrel turns, gracefully arcing into each landing, then circling back around, doing gran jetes past Stefano, to and fro, cycling through different arabesque positions as he hung in the air. It almost looked like he was using chorosus to hover, which is sometimes used during ballets, but not this one, there was no need. He once again flew off to the side of the stage disappearing behind the curtain, to the audiences applause.

Ashokai took his time to catch his breath. Act II was almost over. He rosined his shoes again and sat down on the day bed again, reclining on it from the side. Stefano didn’t join him this during the second intermission, instead opting to go smoke outside. Ashokai didn’t smoke cigarettes but he had some cannabis waiting for him back at the dorm. He could dance high if he wanted to probably, but he didn’t like being high while having to do stuff. It kind of ruined the whole concept of smoking weed to him, also if he brought a joint the other dancers would want him to share, which would be a terrible idea and probably get him fired. He laughed momentarily at the idea of getting all the dancers stoned and ruining the final act. All of them stumbling around and giggling while the somber music was playing.

The intermission music started to reach the end and the dancers all came back from their stress release rituals and lined up, in third position with the leader dancer in front, and Ashokai in the back this time. This time they all twirled around as they did turning pas de bourees across the stage as the Third Procession began to play, a sorrowful strange melody on an oboe accompanied by a harp.

All the dancers had assumed the begging pose to the full moon, one by one, except Ashokai, Prince Kitchke, who had his arms folded facing the audience.

In the original work, it was just a series of dances, and at the end, the winter moon invited the silly prince to come dance with her forever instead of spoiling her rituals. That was obviously a very revised version of old pagan human rites and mythology. Truer to the ancient stories and practices, the moon became offended that her rites were spoiled and some went unperformed and in her merciless anger, she cast the world into an eternal winter night, and only would allow the sun to rise again after one of them sacrificed themselves to her.

After several numbers, involving various dances with the other dancers, while Ashokai’s character sulked on stage, came Ashokai’s final variation as all the other dancers exited stage left. It was a seven minute dance that started out slowly with pointe and pose work continuously around in circles while the strings and woodwinds wove a mysterious, foreboding chord progression.. He began do bouree turns in tight spins as the woodwinds sped up and adopted a different melody, just as unsettling, to the consistent staccato of an oboe, and the string section switched to pizzicato. The ballet director and choreographers told him during this part, he was supposed to act like he was going into a trance, without any further specific instruction, so he did what he thought looked, well unnatural. He was still consciously going through his routine, and had making intentional motions, but the routine wasn’t that strict at this point. He loosened his neck and limbs while he twirled around giving himself an off-balance appearance, as if he were a marionette. Then the woodwinds section shot up with high notes as the timpani drums started to boom rapidly, as Ashokai burst into a series of different types of chaines, turns, and pirouettes, while adhering, if you could call it that, to his off-balance style. The bassoons began to play a dark, menacing sounding theme, while the strings pierced the air with a wicked, devilish tune, like the playful tune in Ashokai’s earlier dance, but this time in a different key, as if the score were mocking him. He began twisting and turning around with and empty expression on his face, whipping his torso and limbs around faster and faster. As the strings, woodwinds, and brass all sounded in staccato in unison, still over the pounding timpani, he began to slow down, still doing turns and spins, looking off balance but keeping steady. The brass section repeated the leitmotif from his earlier dance once again in a different, sinister sounding key along with the staccato of the other sections as his silhouette twisted itself into contorted shapes against the huge silver moon on stage. As the timpani broke into a thunderous roll he did a few more staggered spins, holding his body and limbs more still simultaneously, making sure to take a deep breath, until he finally dropped to the floor in front of the moon, trying his best to take tiny breaths so he looked lifeless.

Right after the spotlight on him faded to black, he immediately took a huge breath as the audience went mad with furious applause. It was far below a display of technical skill, at least Ashokai thought, but the concepts were so new and they worked so well. Now all he had to do was remain on the floor until the ending.

After the applause died off the next number began to play, a mournful, sleepy sounding serenade as the other dancers slowly filed on stage, throwing various flower heads from baskets onto Ashokai as he lay there, and circling back to the side of the stage behind the curtain, leaving Ashokai buried under a pile of flowers, and Stefano on stage kneeling in front of him, to perform his final variation, another delicate series of pointe and form work while the symphony began to ascend into a triumphant finale and the string section swelled into a romantic cascade, adhering closer to the original score but with a more dramatic, modern flair, and he broke into a series of rapid, wild looking, twirls, and spins as a tribute to the fallen prince as the sun rose on the stage and all the other dancers came out rapidly spinning and twirling dropping down to their knees, one by one, the danseur noble last, with their arms raised, honoring the sun and held their poses as the symphony ended on an exulting final note and all the lights faded, leaving the dancers in blackness. The audience roared with applause as the curtains dropped.

Ashokai rose out of his pile of flowers and brushed some petals off while the dancers all filed around to the stage in front of the curtain to the audiences applause. Stefano took Ashokai’s hand and they both walked out on the stage in front of the other dancers smiling and waving, as the audience renewed their applause while holding hands. They joined hands in the middle with the rest of the team, and took a bow. They all headed to the foyer to greet the guests and patrons after they filed off stage.

Only most of the dancers stood to greet the guests. The touring team, the danseur noble, and Ashokai had to for every show, for the rest of the team it was optional. A gold colored minotaur, Decius, Stefano’s master and the owner of the company was standing next to his human, with his arm around him, and they both posed and smiled as people took photos. Stefano received three bouquets of roses from patrons as they passed by and shook the dancers hands. It was mostly the connoisseurs who met the dancers afterwards, meaning that Stefano rightfully got the most attention. Occasionally a minotaur would compliment Ashokai, who would always blush and thank them with a graceful smile. While the guests started to file out, one of the human staff members came up with a huge bouquet of roses, looked at the tag on it, and handed it to Ashokai.

“Are you sure it’s for me?” He asked. The other human nodded and hurried off. Ashokai looked at the tag. His name was in the “To:” subject line but the “From:” space just had a line across it.

“A secret admirer?” Stefano asked beaming at Ashokai.

“Ah… uhm.. I guess.” He said, still caught off guard.

“From one of the royal florists too.” Stefano said, observing the wrapping along with the tag. “Looks like you caught the attention of someone who has connections.” He didn’t know how Stefano could tell, but the man had received so many flowers in his life time, he probably knew a thing or two.

“These are probably for you, they probably mixed our names up.”

Stefano laughed. “You know you really need more confidence in yourself since you’re now becoming a celebrity.”

Ashokai was mortified at Stefano’s unfunny joke. “What?”

“Your picture has been all over the papers since the first week, love. Didn’t you know? I’m surprised you didn’t get flowers before.”

Ashokai blushed furiously. A celebrity? Him? He smelled the large red rose at rhe center of his bouquet. He would have to check the newspaper later. Stefano was probably exaggerating or just straight up messing with him.

After most of the guests left the foyer, Ashokai walked down the hall to one of the exits the local dancers were walking out of. He looked around for a moment and found his day clothes neatly folded on a nearby table, and gathered them up with his bouquet. He entered the shuttle that was waiting outside for them and took the back right window seat, put on his seat belt. The dancers began to chatter as the shuttle took off towards the university first. Ashokai turned his head to look at the glittering skyscrapers pointing into the night still holding his roses. Who gave them to him? What was he even doing? Was he really becoming a celebrity? He didn’t even have minotaur to watch over him. What did that mean? Had people been treating him differently and he just didn’t notice? Is this why Vadim was so interested in him? Was it Vadim who sent him the flowers?-no. The wolven didn’t care about social status, and they had been doing stuff way before ten weeks ago.

“Did any of you see Stefano’s face when Ashokai got roses?” The entire shuttle burst into laughter.

“Oh my god, please be nice.” Ashokai said, cringing in exasperation, hiding his face behind his roses. Stefano really wasn’t that bad, just a bit snooty at times. He was a grandmaster chorosus virtuoso, and principal ballet dancer. He had helped build his master’s company. He had a right to be that way.

“Guys leave Ashokai alone, he’s a celebrity now. Making him cringe will cause wrinkles.”

Ashokai emitted a guttural noise half between a groan and a scream into his bouquet as everyone laughed again. He changed his mind. Stefano was a total bitch and deserved this and worse.

Ashokai waved goodbye to everyone as he stepped out of the shuttle with a few of the other dancers and they all headed to their separate dorms, bidding each other good evening. He along with the other dancers had slipped his day clothes on, and left his stage costume back in the shuttle.

When he got to his dorm room he walked in on Vadim who was completely naked and in the middle of taking a toke from his waterpipe. Vadim handed him the water pipe. Ashokai put his flowers down on the bed and took the bong. He gently coaxed a thick column of smoke from the smoldering bowl, then pulled the bowl out inhaling a sweet, herbal, lemony taste, and handed the device back to the wolven, who took another toke, cashing the bowl, then he put it on his nightstand.

Ashokai moved the flowers to on top of his dresser and slipped out of his clothes, revealing his intricate henna tattoos. He was about to turn around to head towards the bathroom for a shower until a wet nose pressed into his backside as large furry hands grasped his waist, thumbs hooking into his dancer belt.

He gasped as Vadim pulled his belt down and gave him a long steady lick with his large tongue from between his buttocks to the back of his neck. He turned Ashokai around, and gently pushed him down on his back on the bed, pulling up Ashokai’s legs and spreading them, and buried his muzzle into Ashokai, exploring him with his tongue, while firmly gripping his body,. Ashokai whimpered and tensed up as Vadim fucked him with his tongue and growled. He could see Vadim’s red girth swell past his head and drip pre-cum. Ashokai was already rock hard.

“Aaahhh… nnnnhhh.” he let out a moan as he gripped the sheets. Vadim re-positioned himself and Ashokai, letting the humans waist sink down to meet his loins, then he penetrated him, slowly at first to let him adjust, then he pushed in all they way and started giving rapid thrusts. He leaned over and kissed the human, explored his mouth, pinninh Ashokai to his bed, steadily fucking him while he whimpered in pleasure. They both came in unison. Vadim’s knot swelled inside Ashokai as the human came all over his belly fur. The exhausted humans eyes closed as the wolf lay down with him, still inside him, wrapping his arm around him, then a blanket around them both with his other arm. They both fell asleep.