Vanishing Act

Vanishing Act is the third Widdershins book. It sees the return of Harry and Sid as leads and the beginning of their formal partnership as hunters. It also introduces Verity Cunningham and Lei Feng, initial antagonists who later become allies and the protagonists of Sea Change. The Deadly Sin of this book is Pride.

Blurb
When a gifted assistant to a mysterious magician goes missing, famed bounty hunter and chain smoker extraordinaire Harriet Barber is called in to perform her own brand of magic by finding the girl before the next matinee.

But now she finds herself sharing the stage with old rivals, an unknown masked man, and various mechanical menaces, not to mention a young wizard hoping to make her solo act a double.

This show may go on longer than she'd expected...

Plot Summary
After narrowly avoiding serious injury facing down The Zookeeper in London Zoo, Harriet Barber returns to Widdershins concerned she is stretching her luck too thin and feeling in need of a break. She doesn’t get one though, because as soon as she’s through the door her sister, Florence de Montfort, bursts in and demands she get changed. While she was gone, Florrie received a letter from Sidney Malik, and replied to it on Harry’s behalf, inviting him round.

When Sid shows up, he’s excited to see Harry again, and says he has a favour to ask her, but it would be best if she accompanies him to a magic show at the Royal Theatre first. They watch the magician Chung Soo perform a bullet catch trick Harry becomes obsessed with trying to figure out, then head backstage. It’s revealed that Chung Soo is the stage name of Sid’s childhood friend Tim Chiang, who got him into stage magic originally. Tim has asked for Sid and Harry’s help because his cousin and stage assistant, Lei Feng, has been missing for a week. Harry agrees to take the job for her usual rate and a look at the gun from the trick. She’s unsure about letting Sid help, feeling he will just be put into danger, but Sid manages to convince her to at least let him help search Lei’s dressing room.

While investigating Lei’s dressing room, they are interrupted by Harry’s former hunting partner and current rival Verity Cunningham. She’s angry to find herself replaced by Sidney, especially because he’s a wizard. They chase her to the basement, but it turns out to be a trap. They’re attacked by a swarm of mechanical beetles and a mysterious masked figure who traps them in a trick cabinet. With Sid’s knowledge of stage magic, Harry is able to get out and after a brief internal debate she decides to let him out too. Sid takes home one of the mechanical beetles to examine overnight and they agree to meet at the office in the morning.

The next morning Sid explains how he met Lei a few years ago when he had just started at the University of Widdershins. Tim was touring the country with Lei as his assistant and paid a visit while performing in Widdershins. On reaching Widdershins, Lei discovered she was actually a wizard, and Sid taught her some basic summons while flirting with her. Tim wanted to use the imbued creations in his show, but Lei refused as she thought it cheapened her mechanical skill, which she was very proud of. They argued but eventually decided to do things Lei’s way and left Widdershins. Lei and Sid lost contact after that, but from Tim’s letters Sid got the impression him and Lei had never got on well after that disagreement.

Sid confirms the mechanical creatures that attacked them were Lei’s creations, imbued with the same sort of magic he taught her, so he’s worried the masked figure has taken Lei and is forcing her to build these things. They have a lead in the form of a shopping list Sid accidentally stole off Verity, which only has one item remaining – gunpowder.

They visit Pontefract Castle, the closest gunpowder magazine, and find the guards knocked unconscious by Verity, who is stealing gunpowder with the masked figure. When she notices Harry, she kills the lights and shoots after them, separating Harry and Sid. Harry follows the masked figure and the gunpowder back to town, leaving a note for Sid with Gren warning him not to follow. Meanwhile, Verity taunts Sid, saying Harry is just using him and he should leave before she makes him. Sid manages to set off all her smoke bombs and escape, but is upset by her words. He gets the train back to Widdershins with Gren, and learns Princess Victoria is visiting Widdershins today. Guessing the parade is the masked figure’s target, he hurries to find Harry.

On the cart, Verity argues with the masked figure, saying she’s not handing off the gunpowder until she finds out what it’s for. The masked figure stops at a workshop and Sid catches up with her. He recognises Lei’s voice inside and when the masked figure leaves, they burst in. Inside they find Lei, who seems glad to be rescued by Sid. She explains the masked figure has been making her create the insects, the mask to control them, and some sort of brace to hold the gunpowder.

After picking up some supplies from the office, Harry, Sid, and Lei follow Gren to the Anchor. They find the people inside knocked out by Verity, and several masked figures setting up the gunpowder around the Anchor. Lei says she can disconnect the gunpowder safely, but is scared, and asks Harry to lend her her gun. Harry and Sid go down the ground level alone, and overhear Verity arguing with the masked figure. She rips off his mask to reveal a clockwork robot, and immediately starts arguing with Harry instead.

Unnoticed, Lei picks up the mask, uses the robots to capture everyone, and shoots at Harry, who falls over a barrier out of sight. Lei then does an evil villain monologue about her amazing plan to blow up the Anchor and get rid of magic, letting her prove her mechanical skill is more important. She’s interrupted by Harry who is not dead and reveals she survived by using the bullet catch trick. Everyone starts arguing, and the combined emotional surge summons a Pride malform, encased in metal armour with the gunpowder still on its back.

Pride sense the parade and becomes jealous of anyone else receiving attention and breaks out of the roof of the Anchor. Everyone rides on its back and comes up with a plan to stop it hurting anyone. Sid says he can’t desummon it before it reaches the parade but he can help it break free of the metal binding it, but he needs a distraction. Verity runs ahead, insulting Pride, while Sid works on breaking the binding. They jump off and Harry clears the crowd by firing her gun. Princess Victoria emerges from her carriage to see what’s happening just as Pride is about to explode, but Harry tackles her to safety just in time. Free from the metal, Pride is released and disappears. The crowd cheers for Harry saving the Princess, Verity arrests Lei, and Sid goes home alone.

The next day, Tim pays Harry for her services, and encourages her to take on Sid as hunting partner. Harry is grumpy, but tracks down Sid in the park and makes him a job offer, which he happily accepts, and they have a snowball fight.

Characters

 * Harriet Barber (Main character)
 * Gren
 * Florence de Montfort
 * Sidney Malik (Main Character)
 * Tim Chiang
 * Verity Cunningham
 * Lei Feng (Antagonist)
 * Pride (Deadly Sin)

Cameos / Minor Characters

 * The Zookeeper
 * Frank (Hunter's society)
 * Benjamin Thackerey
 * Heinrich Wolfe
 * Princess Victoria

Locations

 * London Zoo
 * H. Barber Office
 * The Royal Theatre
 * Pontefract Castle
 * Widdershins Anchor

Website
After Vanishing Act finished, Kate ran an adaptation of Puss in Boots she did for the Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales anthology. This was taken down afterwards so there is no website bonus content available anymore.

Book
The print and PDF books include 4 pages of development sketches and the historical basis for Tim's character, and 4 pages of extracts from Harry's journal about her first case with Sid.

Release
Vanishing Act was released mostly on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule between October 22nd 2012 and May 24th 2013.

The Kickstarter campaign for Vanishing Act ran between August 5th 2013 - September 4th 2013 and £10,532 was pledged by 480 backers. The unique rewards for this campaign were a Royal Society of Bounty Hunters lapel pin, an A5 print of a poster for Sid's magic show, and an original Widdershins page (since pencils and inks were still done physically at this point).

Easter Eggs / Trivia

 * The Royal Theatre advertises 'Zathras: The one man show!' which is a reference to Darken, Kate's previous webcomic.
 * A couple resembling the 10th Doctor and Rose from Doctor Who can be seen leaving the theatre after Tim's show.
 * Wolfe and Ben can be seen heading to the parade together. We don't often see them together without Mal so I think it's extra cute to see them hanging out.
 * An advert for Hotel Gula from Piece of Cake is on the wall in the Anchor.
 * A woman resembling Nora Fenton is visible in the crowd at the parade. The man and child she's with look different to Geoff and Cassandra in Find the Lady but this could be an old design.
 * On the back of Tim's paper there's a partially cut off headline reading 'Local Hotel Set To Close' referencing the Hotel Gula and the events of Piece of Cake.
 * Tim's character and stage name are based off 'Chung Ling Soo' - the stage name of William Ellsworth Robinson, a white American who pretended to be Chinese for his bullet stopping trick. Tim's surname Chiang is taken from an old Doctor Who episode 'The Talons of Weng Chaing' which was likely inspired by Chung Ling Soo.