“Ahahaha! You were invited to your friend’s birthday party, and you need advice on what gift to give him?!” Bedauern smiled widely at the reddening Rue. He reached his hand out towards where he believed his brother to sit and had his hand summarily smacked. This caused him to have another bout of laughter in his brother’s face.

“I was thinking maybe a sword? Wait… big brother, you know that us Royals do not have ‘friends’! Your teasing is too much.” Rue complained while he slumped back towards his heavily cushioned seat.

“Then your presence is ‘present’ enough, is it not? You do not need to give a gift to a child that has everything, especially as you are, as you say, a ‘Royal’. Attend his strange party with a battalion of Guardians, and that can be your present to both him and the Prefects that are certainly going to feel overwhelmed. Nothing sets a pall over a party quite like unruly guests. Added security is likely precisely what your friend needs. Also, this way you can flaunt your power within Pecunia.”

Rue just sighed at his brother’s words. He stared into Bedauern’s milk-white eyes and tried once again to see if he could catch his brother ‘pretending’ to not be able to see, but was left disappointed. Though Bedauern was born blind, Rue had thought for years that perhaps, just maybe, it was an act. After all… why could magic grow back eyes, but not grant vision? Is the fact he was born that way really so significant to magic that it refused to fix him? Not even the Lady Forrester could help, as she did not know what his vision was missing for her to add it in. Obviously, experimenting on Royalty would be a no go, so instead the middle Prince was left blind for life.

“Syron is not my friend, brother. He is an uncouth hoodlum… and one with more political power than even myself. Why else would my own Guardians not even come to assist on the day he nearly slew me in a duel?”

Bedauern’s face clouded over at the mention of the ‘duel’.

“Little brother, I do not know why your Guardians did not step in that day, but I assure you it is not because you were abandoned by His Majesty. I have heard your theories and I disregard them as brainless. Even I can see that our father would not forsake you so willfully. There is a political agenda involved and we are simply not privy to it. Next time you duel the brat, beat him senseless. Sometimes even friends require a rough touch so as to not look down on someone of your standing.”

“He is not my friend! Were you born deaf too?!” Rue yelled with shame on his face as he left to visit the Armory.

* * * * *

Syron wrung his hands a few times as he paced back and forth inside a house sized tent.

“Young Master… are you nervous?” A nearby concerned Renee asked. Kasumi tsked at her like it was a ridiculous question.

“It’s… well, it’s a lot more people than I was emotionally prepared for. I’ll be alright.” Syron announced with a sigh. Renee just frowned and tried to think of ways to help him.

“You could try public speaking tricks? I heard once that if you imagine everyone as naked, you would not feel nervous anymore.”

“Yes, that way I can stand in front of thousands of people… AND have a boner. That’ll make it way better.” Syron replied with a laugh, relaxing slightly. It wasn’t what she was going for, but Renee took the win anyway.

Dong… dong… dong… dong… dong… dong…

“Six bells… let’s get this show on the road.” Syron slapped himself a few times, then vanished from view. The sounds of a dozen hurdy gurdies and a base drum were created and played from the stage set up next to the tent. Syron raced up the steps to a silent crowd as he smiled big and jogged across the stage to the center.

“How is everyone doing tonight!?” He shouted out in to the crowd, his voice amplified to reach even the back corners. The silently stunned crowd just stared at him in confusion. Not missing a beat, Syron just continued into his prepared monologue.

“I have a hell of an event planned for you all tonight! First will be a concert and a new entertainment business announcement. After that I’ll be telling you all about the future plans for Myth. Finally, the masquerade will start. Illusionists will be changing various people’s appearances and then we’ll have a ball. I’ll also be dancing, and I look forward to interacting with you all personally. So now… without further adieu, the first song of the night!”

The music quickly but steadily lowered in volume until it was quiet in the plaza. After a few seconds pause, the drums and hurdy gurdies started up again, though this time in a different beat. Syron produced a small black cone with a half sphere on top of it and he started singing into it. Dazzling lights of varying shapes and colors started spinning and shining on the stage.

“I’m falling… down into my shadow. Struggling to hold my breath, while I await the deadly night…”

From within the crowd, various people in the crowd started jumping, cheering, and pumping their arms. Steadily, the rest of the crowd started to get into it too, the mood becoming infectious as they started tapping their feet and bobbing their heads to the musical genre they had never once experienced before. By the time Syron had hit the third chorus, over half of the crowd was cheering and toddler-dancing in place. He no longer needed to make the illusionary crowd members rave.

“Fairy Blue, for you I crush the stars… and put them on display!”

As he sang the song, various people had differing reactions. Some simply thought that the song was interesting, but not really what they like… it was a bit too much. Others thought the song was amazing, and it would change musical history forever. Some… just thought Syron Forrester was pathetically love sick. The rest desperately wanted to know who he was singing about specifically. ‘The rest’ being Renee, Kasumi, Beyeth, and Aleala.

The song wound down and the lights dimmed back down again, leaving only Syron spot-lit in the center of the stage with his head down and his hands empty. As the song ended, the crowd also went silent, waiting for what was next to come.

Breathing heavily and shaking his head with a rueful smile, a broad smiled Syron looked up at his stunned crowd.

“So that’s music now. As a public announcement, starting tomorrow, I’ll be taking auditions for any talented individuals that want to sing up on stage just like this. It was amazing doing it myself this time, but phew… I dunno if I have what it takes to be a rock star. If you can belt it out and have the ideas needed to really shine up on stage, come to Myth and fill out an application. If we like what we see, you’ll get a time for an interview slash audition to show me what you’ve got. I don’t care who you are… commoner, noble, monster, figment of the imagination, whatever. If you desire to entertain and have the presence to pull it off, I’ve got a paying job for you.”

Syron paused a moment and allowed his message to sink in. He was a little worried if he hit the amped up crowd with too much information at once, they’d forget some of the important points.

“Continuing on the trend of me hiring people… Illusionists, enchanters, and activators… come to Myth and apply as well. I have big plans and need a lot of help to make it happen. This is sustainable, continuous work for those with those aptitudes and the talent to utilize them.

“As for Myth, we are releasing a guidebook for the two lowest level Missions with explanations on how the game works in practice, as opposed to just being a rule book. This will include monster stats and loot tables as well, so even experienced players may be interested in obtaining it. Within the coming weeks, we’ll hopefully also be expanding our services for premium members. Currently, a player is only able to play at their own home establishment unless they want to reroll a new character for every Myth branch store. This is because your character sheet is held, secured, and maintained by our staff to prevent tampering. I’ve been working on a fix for that, and with any luck, players will be able to have a version of their character sheet they can take to any store!”

Syron was raising his voice and hyping the crowd like he was trying to sell them on a pyramid scheme… to varying results. Mostly, people didn’t seem to understand his strangely overbearing energy. Interestingly, however, they didn’t seem to mind.

Hahh… if only I had a tag line worth shouting and convincing them to shout back at me…

“Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for, Illusionists, get ready to earn your pay! The masquerade begins… NOW!” As Syron threw his arms down like a race was about to start, he threw the whole plaza into solid darkness. There were a few surprised screams here and there, but mostly everyone was just anticipating what was to come next. When the light returned, Syron was no longer on the stage. However, a full orchestra was. They immediately started playing a modified and overly dramatized version of the current most popular folksy tavern song.

* * * * *

“What do you think, Lassy?” A young-looking, thickly muscled man with dark hair, scarred face, and a huge claymore strapped to his back quietly asked the younger-looking woman next to him. She was seated daintily in a café across the plaza from the stage, happily sipping from a large mug full of foamy goodness while wearing a long, flowing dress decorated with blood red and black shapes.

“I think we should visit this place next time we’re in Pecunia too. This is very decent grog. You should try some too, little brother.” The woman replied. Her brother just waited for her to continue, knowing that if he interrupted her, he’d just have to wait even longer to find out what he actually wanted to know. After all, he was good at his things, and she was good at hers… and they currently needed hers.

“Ahuh.” That was all he said. He continued his wait patiently, given that he’d become quite proficient at patience throughout his life. As the minutes drug by and his little sister continued to sip calmly at the huge tankard, he expanded his magical senses to scan half the plaza with ease. The illusionists hired to work the venue were doing a pretty stellar job of changing everyone’s appearance, though perhaps some were having a bit more fun with it than they strictly should have. More than just a few men and women had their appearances swapped and tweaked, throwing some confusion into the mix for which dance role they were supposed to be filling. If one was a man and only knew the male dance moves, but looked like a busty tavern wench… do they line up with the women?

After a few failed pickups from men and women alike, eventually the crowd stopped trying to flirt with the people they couldn’t properly identify and instead just tried to enjoy themselves dancing. Since it was a masquerade, many people were also wearing masks too, though for some reason the illusionists never altered what the masks looked like. This enabled some people to figure out where their friends and families were located.

Eventually Elder Queen Lanasa, Timeless ruler of the Queendom of Spiral, finished her mug and set it down with a contented sigh.

“I was able to verify that he is in fact dual-souled. Given that he is also introducing crazy ideas one after another... well, odds are that the kid is almost certainly from another world.”

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