Walking a Tightrope

A set of panel stories from The Root of Evil. A free literary work. At the end of the nineteenth century, Vasha's father took him aboard the Far Seas, sailing from the East China Sea through the South China Sea, then on to the Bay of Bengal, across Arabia and the Red Sea, and finally to Fawyniana. After his father died, his father's friend Dmitri Aleksandr and his wife, Helena, took care of him and gave him a little brother, Karami. After Dmitri and Helena passed away, Vasha and little Karami depended on each other. He made a living in town with the craft his father and Dmitri had taught him. He also found work at a circus as a tightrope performer. On Verona Street in Fawyniana stood the town's opera house. Anastasia, a dancer at the opera house, often passed through the dressing room beside the printing room, crossing paths with him. He always kept his distance from the singers and dancers. Everyone in town knew why: a beautiful, talented young singer adorned herself for a reason. Whether she was fulfilling a calling to display her talent, marrying a local young gentleman, marrying a baron or viscount, or even becoming someone's mistress, her romantic ambitions were incompatible with those of an ordinary locksmith or clerk. Theme: A paean