Caraval was much more than a show. For generations, people had spoken of it as if it were a legend impossible to verify. Some claimed it was a traveling theater; others, a circus filled with magic; and there were those who swore it was a game where spectators ceased to be mere observers and became the protagonists of the story. No one could describe it exactly, because everyone lived a different experience.
The creator of it all was the mysterious Legend, a man whose face and true name almost no one knew. Stories about him were contradictory: some said he possessed magical powers; others, that he was merely a master of illusion capable of deceiving every sense. It was precisely that mystery that made attending Caraval the greatest dream of thousands.
Every year, Caraval appeared on a different island, and only those who received an invitation from Legend could enter. Obtaining one was nearly impossible, so many spent their entire lives trying without success. The show lasted only a few nights and, when it ended, vanished without a trace.
Those who attended were warned of only one rule: remember that it was all just a game. However, that warning proved difficult to follow. Streets seemed to shift, buildings were filled with magic, characters hid secrets, and every decision could alter the course of the story. Reality and fantasy blended so thoroughly that it was almost impossible to tell them apart.
Since they were children, Scarlett and Donatella had imagined Caraval as the most wonderful place in the world. They spent hours inventing what it would be like: a kingdom illuminated by colorful lanterns, brilliant dresses, music that never ceased, performers capable of real magic, and gardens where any wish could be granted. For Donatella, Caraval represented freedom and adventure. For Scarlett, it was a beautiful dream that allowed her to forget, if only for a few moments.
Scarlett Dragna had spent her entire life trapped on the tiny island of Trisda, a place where the sea seemed more like a prison than a promise of freedom. Since she could remember, she shared the same dream with her younger sister, Donatella: to attend Caraval, the legendary spectacle created by the enigmatic Legend. Some described it as a circus; others, as a game where magic seemed to defy the laws of reality. It was said that those invited never forgot the experience, for during those few days, illusion became indistinguishable from truth.
Every year, when Caraval changed its destination, Scarlett wrote a new letter to Legend. She told him who she was, how much she longed to attend, and what it would mean to her to cross the gates of the show at least once in her life. At first, they were letters filled with emotion and innocence; as the years passed, they became longer, more sincere, and desperate. Each season, she waited for a response that never came.
Seven years passed this way. Seven years of writing one letter after another, watching as silence remained the only reply.
Meanwhile, life on Trisda grew increasingly difficult. Their mother had died when Scarlett and Tella were young, and since then their father, Governor Marcello Dragna, ruled the house with the same cruelty with which he ruled the island. He was a violent, controlling man obsessed with family honor. Any mistake was punished harshly, and Scarlett lived with the sole purpose of protecting her younger sister from his wrath.
In time, she understood that the dream of Caraval would never come true. She stopped writing with the hope of a reply and began to cling to another plan: an arranged marriage to a count she had never met. Though she did not love him, she believed marrying was the only way to escape her father and, above all, to ensure a future where Tella could also be safe. To Scarlett, freedom no longer had the face of Caraval; it had the face of a wedding.
A few days before the ceremony, she wrote one last letter to Legend. It was no longer a plea for an invitation. In it, she confessed that she had waited for years, that she had finally given up on her dream, and that she would soon be married. She thanked him for the stories that, though she had never lived them, helped her endure the most difficult moments of her childhood. She said goodbye, wishing him good fortune and accepting that Caraval was a dream destined to remain only in her imagination.
Scarlett believed that letter would be the end of a story that had never begun.
But a few days later, the impossible happened.
A response from Legend arrived.
Inside were three invitations to attend Caraval.
