Celia Bowen is one of the main protagonists of the novel. She is a beautiful, young illusionist with a gift for repairing broken things—including clocks and physical injuries—and communicating with the dead. Her mother killed herself when she was five years-old and she was sent to live with her father, the magician Prospero the Entertainer. Like her father, she can do real magic. Once her father discovers her magical gifts, he begins training Celia in the art of magic, such as repairing her bones after he has broken them. Celia remains calm throughout her training and understands the nature of her lessons. Soon after her training begins, Celia realizes her father’s intentions: to engage her in a magical battle to the death with an unknown opponent. Once she turns eighteen, Celia is sent to a circus to work as an illusionist, where she meets and falls in love with Marco Alasdair, her opponent in the fateful magical battle. Celia attempts to hold the circus together, aware that she is responsible, through her magical gifts, for maintaining its existence and safety. Upon realizing that Marco will eventually become her magical foe, and that the circus will be the venue for their battle—risking the lives of all of the people who work there—she chooses to scatter her atoms rather than fight him.