Most people would think of a magician as a silly looking man with a top hat, a suit jacket adorned with tails, strange looking pants that seem to extend the length of the legs, and a wand. Well, that description isn't entirely cliche, as some magicians do carry this garb. However, there are a few with their own style and meter. Some have their own techniques, others shared. Most, if not nearly all, are illusion. Very few, are truly magic. This is the story of Erik Browden, an aspiring young performer and a historian in spare time. His story starts in Lomedor's Wilwarin Pub, on a cheery night. Erik is performing his staple tricks, but, something truly magical happens. It may not happen tonight, or did it? One thing is for sure. It is something that changes his life forever...

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The crowd clapped and laughed in unison as Erik stepped onto the stage. Well, it wasnt really a stage. More just an empty space where people moved away tables and chairs, where everyone in the pub could get a clear view. Still, it made a stage of sorts. Erik smiled at his soon-to-be admirers, and took a breif bow. In his hand was a bouquet of flowers, and in the other, a coin. Two classic tricks to be performed which would amount to a very clever one. The crowd cheered him on, and then silenced so as not to miss a thing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, how are you feeling tonight?" he asked, getting the mood of the crowd before going on. "Royt drunk ere fella! Har har har! replied a stout man near the back. He laughed heartily at his own joke, and then clumsily knocked over his mug and spilled what beer he had left. The man stopped laughing and frowned. This was unexpected, but of course, a good magician always took advantage of such things.

"Why, your beer seems to have run away from you sir! Shall I fetch you some? " replied Erik, as he stepped off the 'stage' and worked his way through the tables and chairs. The bar patrons watched him, as he held his flowers and shiny coin. Erik stopped, and handed the flowers to a young woman. This distraction allowed him to take the mug of beer she had, which was replaced with the coin. As everyone was gawking at the romantic and flirty gesture, Erik concealed the beer under his cloak. He held it in place with his left arm, which he crossed across his chest. His right arm held his chin up, as if he was regarding the situation. Strolling nonchalantly to the drunken, and dumbfounded man, Erik produced the beer from under his cloak and handed it to him.

"Thank ye mate, say, where didya get that brew from?"

"Its a secret, but, I assure you it will taste especially well." replied Erik, and winked.

Xlyesia speculated the environment from the back of them pub, watching as drunken merriment roared on through the night (as it does every night at the Wilwarin Pub). Xlyesia wasn't the kind for alcohol; he wanted to stay in his right mind. At the moment, he had been watching a performer trick a drunkie into thinking a newly-brewed drink had appeared. The performance was an obvious one, but illusionizing the act for clouded minds was of great ease. Xlyesia eyed the performer, apparent of his peculiar expression. The performer was of about regular height, and he had a fit build, but something poked at Xlyesia through the back of his mind. Something Xlyesia knew had a special uniqueness to it. He tugged at his mind, trying to recall if he remembered the man from somewhere, but the click never came. So Xlyesia stared at the man, tugging at any memory of him he could get his grasp on. Yet no memory existed.

A half hour later after watching the man, he resided to a chair at the bar and examined the non-alcoholic options. "I'll have a cup of dark tea, please." The bartender, retreated to the shelves, and reluctantly returned and said, "Apologies, we be all out. Can I get ye anythin' else, mate?" Xlyesia peered around for an alternative, and said, "A hot chocolate." When the bartender left to create the drink, Xlyesia returned to his observing. He always was the curious kind. The bartender returned, mixing the mug of hot cocoa with a wooden spoon and said, "Here 'tis, mate." Xlyesia tasted the drink. "Thank you." And he left for a table closer to the performer. When he found a table for one in the second row, he relaxed, and enjoyed the show. Yet that little thought of the performer from before still rung in his mind, and he shrugged it off, and sipped his hot cocoa.

A dark figure watched the merryment from the darkness of the corner. His cloak draped over his head, the lights from the show glistened in the man's eyes as he narrowed them. To his side leaning against the chair he was sitting on was a longsword glistening from the fresh cleaning and sharpening the blade had recieved that day after his latest case. He crossed his arms and said nothing as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He smelled the beer and liquor on the humans and shook his head. "Meaningless little welps...They can't even see what lies in front of them. How sad it is that the Goddess of Life wasted her time and energy on such meaningless creatures." he whispered as it was drowned out by the Magitian pulling out a beer keg from his cloak.

The demon knew well that it had come from the woman. He truely was a pethetic spellcaster, and an even worse magitian. He probably can't even manage a simple minor heal spell let alone an illusion. Atish thought. The demon watched in amusement at how easily these humans were entertained. He looked at his blade and touched it gently. It was still wet from the washing that it recieved from his most recent killing. To him his victum was only granted one thing, the knowledge they died on a well kept blade.

For his next trick, after amusing several young ladies with petty jokes, Erik decided to take an assistant from the crowd. Now of course, you would be thinking, the assistant is already in on the situation. Not this one. In fact, the man whom Erk picked was entirely at random, and, this in fact would be the man that changed his life forever. Was it now? Or later? Did it hapen at the same time? Perhaps it would be better to sit in and find out. This story could well last into the night.

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Erik moved among the crowd, performing various distractions in order to acheive certain goals. First off, taking a person's coin purse from across the room would be the next act. A rather tricky one, as Erik would need a illusion inside a distraction to perform it. And of course, without the aid of true magic, it would be impossible alone. The plan was simple, but very nicely veiled so as to prevent discovery from the audience.

First, Erik would ask an assistant from the crowd. Next, while performing various tricks with the assistant, he would clue in the assistant on the final trick. One of the second to last trick would require the assistant to enter the crowd, and give him the chance of snagging the bar owner's coin purse. The assistant would return to Erik, slip him the money, and then Erik would take it from there. However, there did seem to be two people in the crowd who stood out. Possibly because they were not drunk, and one of the two had a sword in clear view.

The nicer of the two, a pleasant looking elf, was enjoying the show from the bar. He ordered a drink while Erik did the dove trick. (A dove was concealed in his coat the whole time, and released from a set of strings by a certain arm movement). The meaner one, who actually appeared somewhat demonic in nature, was clearly un-enthused with him. Which would he pick as his assistant? The nicer one was much more likely to play along, so Erik decided on picking him. If he volunteered... Erik hoped he volunteered.

"For this next part of the show, I would like an assistant from the crowd please! Would any person like to volunteer?" many people began to bustle about, waiting for a person to jump up and run to Erik. They were used to magic shows, and expected a pre-set assistant no doubt. When nobody ran up, they realized that there was none, and a few brave souls raised their hands.

Please elf, please please please....

Xlyesia sipped his warm refreshment, hoping to at least to gain some energy back from the difficult hike he had endured while traveling to Lomedor. He glanced back up at the magician, hoping for a little bit more amusement, and perhaps a light bulb would turn on in his mind, bringing back the urging familiar face of the magician. He took another sip, smuggled two of the soaked marshmellows within his mouth, then returned his attention to the mini stage.

"For this next part of the show, I would like an assistant from the crowd please! Would any person like to volunteer?"

He heard the magician's voice boom throughout the pub. This had been maybe the fifteenth time this night the performer had asked that question. It seemed yet like another pointless, yet obvious illusion, and he didn't want anything to do with it. He sucked at his mug for another marshmellow, and then looked back at the magician. Something seemed strange, for the performer was staring straight at Xlyesia. He seemed to have a burning urge in his expression, yet Xlyesia wasn't sure what for. Does he want me to assist him in this act? Xlyesia thought. At first it seemed pointless, but yet Xlyesia made a decision of helping out the performer. Who knows; I may find out if I have seen him before. He thought once again.

"I'll do it." Xlyesia called out. Everyone in the pub turned toward him, and he strode forward towards the peculiar stage. At that moment, cheers rang throughout the bar, and he couldn't help but force a grin. He stepped beside the performer, and made a little whisper. "I'm all yours."

The cloaked figure watched the magitian preform lame trick after lame trick when finally the magician asked, "For this next part of the show, I would like an assistant from the crowd please! Would any person like to volunteer?" The Demon did not bother to look up. He had no interest in the lame excuse for a spellcaster. He looked back at his blade, it was fully dry now so he sheathed it and propped his feet up against the table in front of him. "I'll do it." said a voice. The demon looked up to find the elf in the center of the stage with the magitian. He turned away not interested in what the man had in mind and closed his eyes, the sound of cheers filled his ears as he nodded to a very light sleep.

Out of Character: Sorry writers block, hope it is usefull.

This is where things got desperate for Erik. He couldn't fail here, and everything his family had learned and taught him would have to be used. True magic. Not just cheap parlor tricks, no, the real thing. However, Erik wasn't sure if he could really do it. Let's see if he does. I won't ruin it for you, but I am sure you have your suspicions.

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Erik was filled with releif that the elf had decided to help. Nobody else in the bar looked all that excited about being an assistant anyway, but Erik had to do something to get them excited. If he didn't, then his career would definitely suffer for it. Erik pulled a white dove from under his cloak, and held it out. The dove perched on his finger, peering at the crowd as the crowd stared back. It cocked it's head slightly, and cooed very lightly. A young woman muttered, "Awe, its so cute." The dove heard the praise, and cooed again, slightly louder. It stretched it's wings and got settled. The dove was entirely used to this.

"Folks, this is my good freind Rasp the Dove. I call him rasp, because if he tries to coo any louder, it doesn't sound too pleasant. I recovered this fine bird from a trader at the dock." explained the Illusionist, as he gently stroked Rasp's head with his finger. Erik walked off the stage breifly, and grabbed a chair that was not being used. Everyone immediately became more curious. Setting the chair on the stage, he beckoned for his elf freind to sit on it. For this first trick, Erik would use a few spells in tandem. This would be difficult, as it would drain a decent amount of mana. Luckily, he recovered quickly. By the time the trick was done with, he would be able to do another.

"Allow me a minute to bolster my assistant's courage please..." he said, and leaned to whisper in Xylesia's ear. Im going to set the chair on fire. When I do, count to ten and then walk to the back of the bar. Don't worry about anyone seeing you. And trust me. That's important too."
Stepping back, Erik explained what he was about to do. "Ladies and Gentleman, I hope you didn't eat too much tonight, because I am about to barbecue this elf!"

The audience laughed, they thought it was funny that the poor young elf had gotten lured into a trap such as this. Concentrating a spark in his hand, and touching the wooden chair, it soon caught fire. Quickly, Erik grabed Xylesia's shoulders and used another spell. Known as Walk on Fire, any person under it's effect would be made immune to flames. "Pretend your actually getting cooked, it will be fun" whispered Erik. People in crowd began to gasp, others laughed some more.