She stays! But other things leave the stage…

Her gaze remains down for some seconds. Slowly looking up she fleetingly catches your eye, but though her blush is still at full strength she straightens and smiles, giving a small bow. ‘Seems like she’s willing to take this gracefully. That takes some self-confidence…’ you muse. The audience appreciates this and renews the applause.

In spite of how she seems to be taking all this, she clearly wants her clothes back, as she discretely begins to pull on the “rope”, one handed of course. Meanwhile Drake continues to bask into the public’s approval, but his movements across the scene and gesticulations are being suspiciously effective at preventing Cassandra to retrieve her clothes.

Her attempts get more frantic, and a stronger try is countered by another well timed pull from the magician. The combination is a bit too much for the girl who almost loses her balance. The sudden step exposes her legs almost to the crotch, but her grip on the coat lapels doesn’t waver enough to get a full exposure. Once recovered, she glares at Drake.

“I’m sorry about that, but what were you doing?” he asks as he keeps his distance, ensuring the “rope” is still taut.

“Getting my clothes back! No need for my underwear to flap in full sight.” she complains, grabbing at her clothes again.

“Sorry my dear assistant, but it’s up to the magician to provide the appropriate clothes for his show. After all, it's important to maintain the theme in the set.” he answers as he waves the clothes-chain around, still preventing her to hide the underwear.

“But I guess you are right, no point in keeping your street clothes around for the spectacle.” Just as his phrasing (and possible implications) registers, Drake give another pull-shake to the rope.

All the clothes seem to break apart in hand-sized pieces, prompting a dismayed cry from Cassandra. This turns into a surprised squeal as each piece flaps and a cloud of adequately colored butterflies move to circle Drake.

The audience shares the squeal, with quite more admiration than her, as he directs the swarm in a few lazy circles. You join them into a new wave of applause. ‘That is definitively a top-notch trick’ you think as you notice that even the sleeve tied to the rope is missing, and… yeah, there flies a small group of blue butterflies that are an exact match to what’s left of the coat. You are not sure if she has noticed yet, she is looking at the undulating cloud with the mouth open in shock.

“Don’t you worry about them; your clothes will be waiting for you once the spectacle is done.” Drake says raising his voice above the renewed applause, as the insect cloud circles them a couple of times and disappears through the curtains to where you presume the backstage is. Cassandra seems startled but mollified by the comment.

You are not so sure if she should stop worrying: you could have sworn that more blue patches crossed the curtains than there was flying around them. The coat is definitively shorter now, the edge well above her knees. Again she seems oblivious to this last change, still clutching the top closed with the right hand.

“Let’s move on” says Drake taking her free hand and guiding her towards the cabinet, walking backwards. Her widening eyes confirm that she hadn’t noticed the lack of sleeve until now. Distracted, she misses how the bottom of the coat flutters, threatening to open up to her sex but (unfortunately) they reach the cabinet without extra exposure.