In the centre of Vaeltharion a crowd gathers around a stage that has been constructed the day before. What was strange was that there were no tickets. It was a free show for anyone to see.
After the sun hid behind the mountains and all of the lanterns were lit the red curtains open up to reveal a man who walks forward and stops just before the edge of the stage. He is wearing a well-tailored suit with a top hat and is holding a cane. He puts the cane in front of himself and rests both of his hands on it.
"I'm sure you all have heard the tale of magic, especially the kids in the crowd. Surely a lot of you have seen a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or perform a card trick. A sleight of hand so perfect that what you see can only be described as…magic. Tricks so bold that they do the impossible in front of your eyes, yet the magician doesn't hide anything from you."
The man stops talking. He looks down a bit confused as his top hat shifts on his head. He lifts one hand and takes the hat off, revealing a rabbit sitting on his head. The crowd already starts whispering and the children look at the rabbit in awe.
"Excuse my assistant. He's been a bit restless ever since I told him about this performance."
He throws the hat down onto the stage floor so it's laying on its side. He grabs the rabbit with one hand and shows him off to the crowd
"His name is Pablo."
He tells the crowd. Giggles are heard from the children and some parents even laugh. As he goes to put him down another rabbit crawls out of the hat. Just before the man puts down the rabbit he notices and freezes. He looks at the crowd for a moment before putting down the rabbit he was holding.
He walks over to the rabbit, the cane hits against the wooden stage, creating loud sounds in the quiet night. Picking up the rabbit with one hand, he stares at it and then back at the crowd, which is silent and very impressed.
"Well, uh, this is Maya. She is my other assistant that also likes to hide in my hat. She's very hard to notice. But my main concern is that these two were in the same hat and you know how rabbits are."
The man sighs and places her down while giggles echo through the crowd. Some of the kids already asked their parents what he meant by that. However, when he stands up straight a bunch of small rabbits crawl out of the hat.
"Oh, come on. Pablo, I'm disappointed in you."
The crowd laughs as the rabbits sniff and crawl around curiously. The man crouches down and tilts the hat, shaking it slightly. The last rabbits slide out, and the man puts his hat back on.
"My hat. Well, come on."
The man says and tries guiding the small and curious rabbits to the side with his cane. While he's doing this, he looks up at the crowd. Almost everyone is smiling, whether at the cute rabbits, the man's magic or both.
"Well, since I introduced my assistants, I shall introduce myself. I am Darian Vesmore and I welcome you to my evening magic show and this was the opening performance."
The crowd started clapping and after a moment calmed down.
"Now, with this many rabbits we need food. Since children love animals more because you adults only think about the mess they cause, the money for their food and the maintenance needed I'll need a volunteer from the younger side."
A bunch of kids raise their hands and Darian picks one from the crowd. The kid who is picked runs up and onto the stage.
"Alright, we all know rabbits eat carrots so where do we find them? Well, if you'd come a bit closer, I could show you a nice hiding spot for carrots. What's your name?"
"Melena."
The young girl, no older than ten, says shyly and walks closer with a smile on her face. Darian drops to her eye level, holding his cane by the middle instead of the top.
"Wow, you've got big ears. You must hear everything your parents try to hide. But I'm sure you like to hide things of your own. For example…"
He reaches behind her ear and pulls out an entire carrot. He quickly stands up and shows the crowd the carrot he is holding.
"Aha! Now we need at least two more, so I'll show you how good at hiding carrots Melena is. Now that you have been discovered, do you mind telling us where you hide the rest of your carrots."
Melena laughed. After a moment Darian looked at her. "No? Well, I believe you have some hidden behind your other ear!"
Darian said before reaching out and pulling out a carrot from behind her other ear. Melena laughed with the innocence of a child. Darian holds the carrots in front of him, showing them off to the crowd.
"Now, I have made up my mind and decided Pablo shall not get a carrot because of his behaviour!"
The crowd laughed and Darian waited for them to quiet down. After a moment he lowered his hand and turned to Melena.
"Well then, this is when laughs are turned into utter silence caused by awe."
He sticks his palm out with the carrots on it and after a moment of staring at them they lift into the air. Yes, they are floating. After a second, he looks back at the crowd and steps to the side so the carrots don't obscure his vision. He then puts his hands on his cane.
"Strings? Maybe. Can strings do this?"
The man started to trace an invisible circle in the air with his index finger while looking at the carrots. They went from a vertical to horizontal position and started moving in a circle.
He then walked behind the moving carrots and stared at them for a moment before looking back up.
"No strings. Just magic. Actual magic. No sleight of hand. No special cards. No secret doors. Just…magic. Mind if I pick you up Melena?"
Melena shakes her head and Darian lifts her up into his arms. This whole time she had been staring at the carrots with wide eyes and an open mouth.
"Come on, check for the strings. Wave your hand above them."
Darian says as he sticks out his cane, holding Melena with his left hand, and moves it from left to right above the carrots before pulling it back, letting Melena do the same.
Her hand passes through the air with zero resistance. She can't contain her smile as she pulls back her hand. Darian looks at her with a soft smile.
"Amazing, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Melena answers his question. Darian puts her down and pats her back. "Go back to your parents, ok?"
Melena nods and runs off into the crowd. Darian moves to stand beside the carrots.
"Why stop here? The rabbits need to eat so let's make some bite-sized pieces."
He waves his hand and the carrots stop and float, so they are in a vertical position next to each other. He snaps his fingers and the carrots are separated into eight pieces that have very clean edges, as if someone used a knife to cut them.
After he waves his hand, the carrots flew towards the rabbits and gently landed onto the stage floor. As the rabbits start eating them the crowd suddenly starts clapping and Darian waits for them to calm down. After a moment of silence, he began speaking.
"Well, why stop at carrots? Ladies and gentlemen, please, don't fall."
The man waves, stomps his foot and a darkness spread from behind the man and quickly envelops the crowd as tiny white dots start speeding around them. They go faster and grow in number until the darkness is totally white and hurts to look at it.
That's when the light fades, people start to open their eyes and look around. Some kids were even crying because of what they just witnessed. But once they notice that they are below an impossible big, bright, orange glowing ball they freeze and look directly at it. It's a star but most of the people do not know that and the ones who do still stare in awe.
"I imagine you have never seen something like this before. This is a star. We do not know what it's made of or what its purpose is, but we know that it's impossibly bright, so I dimmed it down for you. Isn't it magnificent? Something we can see with our eyes through telescopes all day but this…this is not a view, but a sensation. Allow me to show you things that you thought you'd never see or didn't even know existed."
The show felt short for the audience, proving how invested they were. When it was coming to an end Darian asked what they disliked the most. The most heard answer was that the show was too short. Darian laughed and waved the crowd goodbye. The loud clapping and whistling of the crowd were heard as he stepped behind the curtain.
"Pretty impressive illusion magic."
Said king Kurotani who sat on a chair behind the curtains. Darian turned sharply to look at the king, staring at him for a few seconds. The clapping was still going on in the background.
"Your majesty…how interesting. You know more than you let on."
"And you are a man who doesn't bow to his king. Tells me a lot about you."
Kurotani said. Darian smirked and bowed.
"My deepest apologies."
"Lying that you care about authority. I don't like liars."
Darian looked up at Kurotani after he said that in a very frustrated manner and smiled.
"Then you must hate yourself."