an undead heart that doesn't beat

There’s a lot of references to the Lady in the Carnevale so I think there was some kind of connection between the two - so here’s what I think

The Lady needed children for her youth (as we saw in the LN1 DLC) but wasn’t getting many, obviously she’s on a ship so there’s not gonna be a lot of kids except stowaways and the kids they already had stored there (the boarding room we see RK in) She finds out abt the carnevale (somehow) and makes the conclusion that a carnival would attract a lot of children, so she goes up onto the flying carnevale (idk how, perhaps once The Maw has docked on the next stop the pick up Guests the Carnevale is nearby, after all the carnival-goers do bear a striking resemblance to the Guests) and she looks around. She notices that Kin are obviously the ringleaders of sorts so she goes to the big top and watches the show to scope out what she’s dealing with. There, she sees that all the performers are children (Rusty & co perhaps? Along with the child we are juggling in that chapter of LN3)

After the show she goes to find Kin who is currently scolding a child for messing up the performance, about to sic Mini on it. The Lady makes herself known and demonstrates her Nome powers while draining the child’s youth. 

The deal is something along the lines of “Let me steal the youth of the bad performers you have and I’ll turn them into Nomes for you, also I have food that’s literally irresistible and you have more mindless customers for my ship, let’s work something out”. Kin are more than happy to make this deal as they can tell the Lady is much more powerful than them, and getting rid of bad performers so easily while also getting offerings is a great deal for them. 

They strike the deal and each time a big top performance takes place, the Lady comes to visit and punishes each child that failed their task, leaving a Nome and bringing offerings with her, porcelain statues (hence why there are so many, but only in the Carnevale chapter), food, etc etc. Once she begins to frequent the Carnevale, She begins to have her own room, full of mirrors that are inevitably smashed (a room we see in-game) where she can take the children to kill and keep an eye on her appearance in privacy. eventually, Kin realises they’re running out of performers to offer the Lady, even though they’ve resorted to offering up the good ones. 

Once they have one performer left, they decide to lie to The Lady and tell her there are no more children, in order to be able to keep their Carnevale going. The Lady storms past Kin into her temporary quarters there, she is angry, tells them to get more children or they’ll be sorry (something like that) but the argument is interrupted by the last remaining child trying to sneak by. Enraged, she instantly grabs the child, using her magic with such force that all the mirrors in her room and the lights flicker. 

Once the light turns back on, she in gone, and there is a Nome left on the floor. She returns to the Maw, upset her best source of youth is now dry. Kin are now devastated they have no performing troupe (hence why we don’t many child performers in LN3, despite Rustys group consisting of multiple children) and switches to doing performances with the audience instead (the box sawed in half with the visitor inside)

I’m posting this now as the trailer for the DLC has just come out, and it’s set mid Carnevale chapter - and we briefly see some very familar shadowy figures…

These look almost identical to the Shadow Children that antagonise RK throughout Secrets Of The Maw, the only difference being the masks they wear don’t seem to be porcelain like The Lady’s, but rather something tied around their heads? Perhaps they were left by the Lady, either as an offering or revenge