After lunch, it was time to entertain children with the ice giant game. I wore the costume, complete of horned helmet, and made my way to a space that was used in the morning to show the abilities of esquires in training. Like that morning, Yvonne accompanied me and managed the payments and customers. Phoebe, on the other hand, had to leave us short after lunch, as she too had places to be.

We had decided that each session would last about twenty minutes and that up to twenty five kids could take part at the same time. The first hour and a half was a bit slow, with barely a handful of children managing to convince their parents to let them play for each session. The word spread fast tho, and soon we found ourselves completely booked, as parents found it a perfect way to leave their hyperactive kids somewhere where they could tire themselves out without tiring their parents.

We continued all afternoon until the sun set. By the time it was over, I was more exhausted than any hunt had ever left me. Gladly there was no lack of stalls to buy food and ale from, or spectacles to watch while unwinding from the day's work.

As we went through the stalls, we found a temporary open air theater, where a play of sort was being held. Actors would only mimic action, while a narrator told the story and played a lyre. The narrator just happened to be Phoebe, who was still wearing her ring, which meant that, for once, I could actually enjoy something like that too.

When the play ended, she joined us in our girls night out. I used the occasion to talk to Phoebe about the kids who had helped practice for the fair, figuring that she might have a way to keep them off the streets, after what Arvia had told me. She thanked me for telling her about them and told that she would see that they were placed in an orphanage whose staff she knew treated children well, using the occasion to also pitch the financing of an expansion project for the orphanage to me.

With the important talks over, we got to drinking but we didn't go all out, as we all still had work to do the next day, so we bid each other farewell at a somewhat early hour, to go sleep the exhaustion of the day off.

The second day of the fair started much like the first, and Denzel dropped by to check how things were going in the middle of the morning. After our lunch break, unlike the first day, I went to meet the town guards I had practiced with in one of the larger areas dedicated to martial shows.

The show with the guards was about twenty-five minutes long, with an half an hour rest between shows. The choreographed spectacles attracted quite the crowd of people, who amassed themselves behind the fence showing the duke's insignia that surrounded the makeshift arena.

The third day went much like the first, with the morning dedicated to arm wrestling and the afternoon to entertaining children. When the sun started to set, we went to meet with Phoebe, who had asked us to watch with her a magical lights spectacle that closed the fair every year.

As soon as the sky turned the deep blue of twilight, a red and purple shimmering oval opened in the distance behind the trees far away from the city. I turned towards Phoebe to ask if that was the start of the show, only to see her frozen in place.

"What is it? Isn't that the show?" I asked her.

"That's a gate spell," she said with worry in her voice.

She quickly summoned her lyre and played a few strings. In a matter of seconds, a multitude of insignias, identical to those that were painted over every gate of the city and I suspected represented the royal family, appeared in the air over the crowd.

She then spoke, her voice carried by the wind all over the city. "This is Magister Arcanum Phoebe Akather. Until further notice I am to assume the king's stead. What is believed to be a gate to another plane has appeared south-east of the city. We expect to meet armed hostile forces. All civilians are to evacuate inside the walls. The city guards not previously assigned to the defense of the city walls are to regroup east of the martial section of the harvest fair. All trained combatants are to report to the city guard for further instructions."

As they had come, the insignias disappeared and the chaos spread through the now escaping crowd. Ignoring the people rushing around her, Phoebe turned to me and asked, "do you have a weapon?"

"No, I've been using whatever I was provided with since I got here."

"Take this, then," she said, summoning a semi-transparent purple battle axe.

"Wait, shouldn't we all go behind the wall and deal with the siege from there?" I asked, still unsure of what was actually going on.

"If it's what I think it is, we have to close that thing as soon as possible," she said as her feet left the ground. She then motioned me to follow her and started flying over the crowd.

I turned towards the terrified Yvonne and said, "go!" before sprinting after Phoebe.