“I'm pretty sure, that you're not supposed to tell me you're cheating.”, I said, surprised that the old man would be so blatant.

“I'm not.”, the old man said. “But, if you guess where the ball is, the payoff will be much bigger than before.”

“And what would the payoff be, old man?”, I ask. It had to be much bigger than before if this would be worth it.

“If you guess correctly, I will tell you a secret. A secret that you would love to hear”, the old man said. “And, please, do call me Kairos.”

Do you think we should do this?

The secret part sounds fishy, but it would pass the time.

I´ll take that as a yes.

“Okay, Kairos, I accept your offer.”, I said.

“Splendid”, the man said, with a nearly vibratious smile. “Now, let's begin!”

He put away the earlier metallic ball, and, very carefully pulled out another ball from his jacket, this one reminding me of Hel´s Runic, teleportation balls.

At the moment that the old man pulled out the other ball, I felt a slight fluctuation in Mana. I couldn't confidently tell, where it came from, but I was guessing it had something to do with the man in front of me. To be safe that I could tell, where the next mana fluctuation came from, I turned on Mana-Sight in my left eye.

The old man put the ball under the middle cup and began moving them around. It was the same as before, with the cups slowly accelerating, before becoming almost a blur.

It was what happened next, that surprised me. With my Mana-Sight turned on, I could see that something peculiar was happening with the cups. Every few seconds, they would have a slight hue of Light-Blue Mana around them. I couldn't recognize the type of Mana it was, but I at least knew, how the old man would be cheating.

The cups continued before shuffled around for just a little while longer before the old man stopped.

“So”, he said. “Where is the ball?”

Again, I simply reviewed my memories and quickly found the answer.

“It is under this cup”, I said, pointing at the cup to the right.

The old man lifted the cup, revealing nothing but empty air.

“You would have been correct in your guess”, the old man said. “If, I hadn't cheated of course.”

Well, that was a waste of silver.

“That's a shame”, I said. It wasn't any huge loss. “So, where was the ball.”

“Oh, it's quite close to here. You might even see it before the night is over.”

-----------------

Having quenched my desire for games, I moved on to the other parts of the festival.

Or, I would have like to.

“Jack!”, I heard a muffled voice shout from behind me. I look back to see if I could find out the origin of the voice but find nothing but a moving crowd. I stand still to see if the voice appears again, but nobody announces themselves.

Might have just been our imagination.

It isn't the first time, and it definitely won't be the last.

I continue walking down the line of booths, hoping to get to the petting zoo. Just as I begin getting glimpses of some whipping tails, a hand grabs me and pulls me to the side.

“Look, sir”, I say, not even looking at the guy. “I'm a very busy person, and I don't have the time to be pulled aside whenever one such as you please.”

I look over at the person who pulled me aside, before realizing my mistake. The person who stood before was none other than Eros himself, who was having a rather hard time keeping himself from laughing at me. I look around, expecting Elora to be nearby, but don't see her anywhere.

“Where's Elora at?”, I ask, mildly worried.

“Oh don't worry about her.”, Eros said. “She is over at the stage, preparing for her show. She wouldn't tell me what it was she was preparing for, but it's beginning to seem like she will be doing something big. Also, your friend Maxime, promised to watch over her, while I got out to find you.”

“Why would you have to find me?”, I asked.

“Haven't you realized? The show will start soon. You need to look at a clock once in a while.”

I look over at one of the clocks on one of the lamps and quickly realize that I had spent some time with that old man. Time seemed to have flown by.

“Sorry, I didn't notice it.”

Eros clapped me on the shoulder.

“Don't worry about it. What we have to worry about, though, is getting there before Elora´s turn. I don't think either of us will survive to miss that.”

Oh, I couldn't agree more.

We hurried past other people, with Eros leading the way to the stage.

How quickly we got there bewildered me. How I didn't even realize the size of this place, even more.

The stage itself seemed to made of obsidian, with it reflecting light everywhere. It was raised a couple of meters above ground level to help those in the back to see. Behind the stage was a building, with curtains that allowed people to get on and off the stage.

Around the stage, in a wide arc, was the audience, who all had seating arrangements in the form of benches. The benches were divided into almost twenty long lines, with a capacity to house almost a thousand people, from my estimates at least.

As we had arrived later than most people here, our seat wasn't the best in the world. We were sitting in the back to the right. The first person, a blue-skinned man, had come on stage, and would soon begin.

“Nervous?”, Eros asked, out of a sudden.

“For my turn?” He nods. “No, why do you ask.”

“Because your right hand is holding onto you thigh rather tightly.”

“Fine.”, I said, releasing my grip on my thigh, causing my fingers getting color to them again. “I am nervous. Not a little. Very”.

The blue-skinned man had begun his performing. He seemed to be showing off his physical abilities, doing a lot of acrobatic stunts.

“Well, you shouldn't. With how much time you've spent on your show with Metis, you don't have any reason to think that anything will go wrong”.

He just jinxed it, didn't he?

Yes. Yes, he did. He doesn't even realize what he's done. May God save us all.

“Yeah, you're right”, I said, ignoring a certain voice inside of me spouting about inevitable doom.

The blue-skinned man had finished his performance, receiving an applaud for it, and leaving the stage, letting an extremely thin, tall woman on the stage.

“Oh shit. I'm after that lady.”, Eros said. “Gotta go, man. I´ll see you later.”

Having that said, Eros hurried away, heading towards the right side of the stage, where a small door was. He knocked on it and was let it in. With Eros out of my eyesight, I focused back on the tall woman, who seemed to be summoning an infinitely long snake crawl out of her left palm. The snake seemed to shift colors, depending on the angle you looked at it. After some time of doing this, the snake's head moved through towards the woman's right palm, entering it. Then, the woman clapped her palms together, and the rest of the body exploded, turning into rainbows that raced across the sky for a couple of seconds.

After getting applauded, the woman left the stage, letting Eros move on the stage, a large bag with him. I wondered, what was in the bag before I realized it.

Please tell me, he isn't doing, what we think he is doing.

He did exactly, what we thought he was doing. First, he took a short dagger and began juggling it with one hand. Then, a double-sided ax. Then, a long-sword, a Warhammer, a mace, and then an assortment of nearly fifty other weapons. He juggled all of them like there was no tomorrow.

And that was just the beginning. After getting the final weapon out of the bag, he began using his magic. It was small things at first. A spark of light floating around, some abstract forms moving around the weapons, and other things like that. Then, two identical copies of him appeared to his left and right. All three of the forms were in complete sync, with even the weapons being the same place.

It was amazing. He must've had to memorize each and every move that he would be doing, and recreate them simultaneously! His coordination skills were through the roof!

Eros ended the show, putting all of the weapons into the bag again, before giving the stage to the next participant, Elora.

She walked over to the middle of the stage, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

Before long, half a minute had gone by, and nothing had happened. But, then, something did.

An explosion of color burst out from Elora´s back. The colors split in two, and shaped themselves as wings, before going on her spine. They flapped powerfully, couple of times, before they split up again, becoming hundreds of hundreds of small glowing butterflies. They spread out into the audience, with almost every person there having a butterfly to themselves. One flew towards me, span around my head a couple of times, and flew up in the sky, joining the many other butterflies. They merged, turning into a massive mass of color, before, for an instant, turning into something I could only describe as the opposite to a black hole.

And, with that, the performance was done, and the audience grew wild with applause.

Time to go get ready.

But, there are still three other people before me!

Which gives you plenty of time to get over, and prepare your performance.

Fine.

I get up from my seat and walk over to the door, which Eros had entered. After knocking on it, I was let in by a professional-looking old woman. She asked for my name, and, after getting it, said I needed to hurry.

It felt like seconds before I was herded over to the entrance of the stage.

As the person before me left the stage left, I walked on it myself. I went to the center and sat down on the flat glittering floor. I would need to concentrate if I wanted to do this correctly.

I went inside myself and grabbed a handle on my whole pattern. It was time to do a Full-body Shapeshift.

I started with my lower body, completely scrapping my legs. It would be easier to recreate than redesign. Then I demolished the top of my body, as I didn't need those either. My brain, I kept, of course, but it was kept inside of a support Pattern through a gate, leaving me access to mess around with everything.

I thought back to how the Pattern, that I would be making, was made. I didn't understand much of it, but that wasn't important. What was important, though, was that I could make it.

As I finished with the last detail of it, I solidified it, and immediately felt a plethora of unfamiliar sensations. I would have opened my eyes, but I didn't have any. There wasn't any need for them.

I could feel the vibrations through the air, deciphering them to see, what was around me.

I had turned myself into a mixed Elemental. I made myself float, by creating my lower body out of Fire- and Air Elementals and my upper body were made out of rock- and water elementals, allowing me to create a flowing mist around my whole body. Constantly, my body whole shifted around, the different colors blending for just a second, before splitting apart again, and revealing a new pattern.

Now, show them what we have been working on.

I raised my arms. First, I released the mist hovering across my body, sending it up into the fire. And, then, I set it on fire.

I didn't just let it burn, of course. With the help of a few extra Patterns added into my Fire-abilities, I could manipulate it, even after releasing it.

While my artistic skills weren't anywhere skilled, I could, with the assistance of many hours of practice make something that looked just slightly realistic.

I made the previously untamed-looking fire, into a fully-fledged dragon, which I made fly around a couple of times, before dispersing it.

I bowed to the audience, who were clapping, for some reason, before turning back into my regular human form. I slowly walked off the stage, letting the next person on.

When I was sure that I was off the stage, and that the audience couldn't see me anymore, I leaned against a nearby wall, taking deep breaths, as I began sweating.

That Dragon had taken a lot of Mana to make. I was pretty much completely drained of mana.

But, I was happy. What I had spent so much time training had finally taken form. I had completed a Full-body Shapeshift! I had completed it before, while training for this, of course, but there was something special about doing it publicly.

Looking to my right, I saw Eros walking towards me.

Something was wrong. On his face, there wasn't a cheerful grin that wanted to congratulate me. There was one of strained tensity.

“What's wrong?”, I asked.

“It's Lily, Elora´s maid. She's gone.”

A rolling sound comes from the corner to the stage. I looked at the source and saw a rolling runic ball.