Cards of the Past:

Barely two years old and I was abandoned by my parents. Due to the harshness of the economy they just couldn't afford to take care of a child. Now not passing judgment who gave up their kids because they can’t take care of them, but one thing a parent shouldn’t do is sell them to a circus to pay for next month’s rent. Sad as it may seem this is exactly what happened to me.

From the very first day they had me working in a way only two year olds can. I was dressed up as a lion and sent into a cage with two fully grown lionesses. I was the famed lion boy, a boy supposedly raised by lions in the wild. Ridiculous and dangerous that is what the public wanted and that is what we supplied.

During my time outside the cage I was forced to learn acrobatics, fencing, beast taming, showmanship, and lastly pick pocketing. Yes I was a pickpocket. I was sent into crowds of people to steal from the captivated audiences. Though it was a great rush sadly I wasn’t able to keep any of that money.

When I was eight I found my true calling as an illusionist. On our way to perform for a duke in the northern continent we ended up travelling with a group of magi’s. On our way to the north we ended up performing together and during one of their shows I was sent to help lighten the audience’s purses. It was then that I first experienced real magic. At the end of it I begged them to teach me.

Magic in this world is unique for us each person. Everyone is born with a kind of spirit object that represents their true selves. Most people never unlock their spirit object less they experience extreme conditions, however through meditation and training to control one's energy one can unlock their potential.

Even if you unlock your spirit object doesn’t mean you can use all magic. You can only use magic that you have an affinity towards.

All the magic in the World can be classified into:

Destruction

Restoration

Alteration

Conjuration

Illusion

Enigma

After a month of meditation, training, and supervision by the head magi I was able to unlock my spirit item, a mysterious deck of cards with a runes embroidered on them. After another week of testing it was revealed that I have a perfect affinity with Illusion and Conjuration magic. Because of this however all other types of magic were forever forfeited and I couldn’t learn them.

As the years went by I perfected my craft, though I had several complications in the early years learning magic. I had a perfect affinity I was no prodigy, with no teacher and little help whenever we came upon other magi’s I had to learn through my own means of trial and error. It was dangerous sometimes, like when I accidentally casted a frenzy spell on a knight, or conjured dagger rain on myself, but I endured.

When I first started illusion magic the most I was able to do was cast sentient lights that I was able to freely control. Slowly I learnt how to manipulate them, change the shape, adjust brightness, and make them generate fake heat. As I delved deeper I got stronger as well did the effect.

After the first two years I was able create a great magnitude of lights, enough to fill an entire circus tent. After the fourth year I advanced so far as to creating illusionary dimensions where I can manipulate people within a certain radius and depending how mentally strong they were. Definitely not a power you wanted any kid to get their hands on.

As well with conjuration it was a slow tedious process. I started off with a mouse familiar that had its uses. I could use it to scare the elephants when I was bored, give the lions something to play with that wasn’t me or even use it to help me pickpocket.

As I used it more I found that I could conjure other things such as hawks, dogs, and when I got really good tigers, and bears. I could even conjure items like swords, bow and arrows, shields, as well as pots pans and the other assorted junk. Oddly though no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make money. :(

Don’t you dare forget about my spirit item. After unlocking my Ancient Greed (the deck of cards that represents myself), cool name right, I decided to learn all I could about Cardistry.

My first teacher was Jack an old Three Card Monty scammer. He taught me all he knew about card sleights and how to manipulate human vision as well as other species (Did I mention there are 8 intelligent species in this world, who knew? Wait I did.). After learning all of his knowledge I then continued to learn everything I could from all the different card sharks we passed on our performance routes.

In five years I would be given my name Spade by the other performers who saw my fascination with cards.

Of course all my training and practice was done on the spare time I had while I wasn’t performing in the circus. While progressing with my skills I had to perform as an acrobat, pickpocket, and general performer. Luckily they found a new younger lion boy ;).

It wasn’t till the ring master, mistress, Gyps saw me practicing my exceptional magic while we traveled to some duke’s palace that she realize how much money I could make did she allow me to perform my special skills.

During the festivities I was known as Spade Master of the card table, but in the tent I wore a mask and was THE MYSTIFIER. I would use my magic to put on shows of wonder and for the finally I would hypnotize the whole audience and a squad of pickpockets were released into the crowd and took some “tips” from the crowd.

For years this was my life, a humble circus performer that found a break. I hope you enjoy the rest of my life story.