The Ten-Thousand Reale Special (2)

“Wow, it’s so cold!”

A young girl, somewhere around seven to eight, spun around in the center of the stage, staring at her open hand. A bright blue flame flickered across her fingers, jumping from one to the next. There was no pain, nor did she feel any heat, It was almost as if the flame wasn’t there at all.

Well, that’s because it isn’t. My opening act for today was something I used to do as a kid to practice my creation (illusion) magic. Not only that, but it had a sort of mystical quality that made one think, ‘wow, so this is magic.’ Sure, it was a rather simple trick, but that didn’t mean it was any less entertaining. The gasps and warm smiles from the audience said that much.

“...are you sure you’re okay, sweetie?” The girl’s mother was still a bit worried, though I wouldn’t fault her. Magic was apparently quite rare amongst the lower castes, or at least those not cast from spellstones. Honestly, I don’t think they even realize spellstones use mana for spells. Black box thinking at work.

“Yeah, mom! See? It doesn’t hurt at all.” The young girl, a bit aware of her mother’s concern, touched the flaming finger against hers. While it surprised her for a moment, the mother didn’t pull away. In fact, her eyes widened at the mismatch between what her eyes saw and what her fingers felt. See? Perfectly fine, though…

“Of course, you shouldn’t play with fire. Mine is just a little special,” I winked, emphasizing the point. It would be bad if anyone thought fire wasn’t that dangerous. Getting burned seriously hurts. Trust me, I was all too familiar. Don’t ask. It’s embarrassing.

My counterpart – or illusion, I should say – went around as usual, collecting money into a hat that was superimposed onto my bag. Given how it was the first act of the day, most opted to denote a few ones here and there. Some even put in a five if I was lucky. All the while, the young girl played around with her mother, watching the fire dance.

After that, I was planning to start the following act, but…

Ding!

“Oh! Hold on, hold on folks. It seems we’ve finally reached ten thousand reales! An amazing accomplishment for these last ten days.” Yes, the green bar had filled up fully once again, marking another stretch goal as complete. Of course, it’s actually only eight thousand due to a certain woman… man… annoyance, but I can’t let it show right now.

“Woo! What are you going to do this time??”

“Is it another shooting star sky?!?”

“No, you should do one of the ocean!”

“No! The forest in the land of demis! I heard they’re absolutely gorgeous.”

“Or what about…”

A cacophony erupted from the crowd, trying to propose ideas or guess what the special was. There were some reasonable ideas, but they’re plenty of others that were just completely impossible. Most of the time, it was because of a lack of knowledge, such as how I didn’t know what an ocean looked like in this world. However, there were a few that were just too ambiguous. Land of demis? Which one?!? Same for the forest. There was somewhere in the ballpark of four billion hectares back in my world, making finding just one like a needle in a haystack.

“Come on!”

“Tell us!!”

“Calm down, calm down. No need to rile yourselves up,” I spoke, stepping back into center stage. “All will be revealed soon, but… hmm…”

“““What?””” The audience called out. Glad they already know this call and response.

“Well, you see, I seem to be missing what I need,” I played up, leaning in. “Hmm, what to do. What. to. do…” Closing my eyes with my hand scratching my cheek, I pretended to think. Then after a few moments, I glanced over to the young girl, who was staring right back at me.

Taking two steps, I took a knee, meeting eye to eye. “Would you mind if I borrow that?” I asked with a smile, pointing at the flame I had given her.

“This?” She held up her finger.

I gave a nod in response.

“Umm…” The young girl looked between me and the flame a few times, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, she peeked back at her mother.

“You should give it back sweetie,” she said softly.

Hearing her mothers words, with a quiet hmph, she stuck out her right hand.

“Thank you very much,” I said, letting the illusory fire jump from her finger to mine. Then, with a snap, the fire flew to the ground, setting it ablaze. Instinctively, the spectators took a step back as it grew, turning opaque from the blinding light it emitted. However, slowly but surely, a shape started to emerge. Two shapes actually.

“What are those?”

“Well, one is definitely a bench.”

“But what about the other one?”

“It’s so wide.”

“A sofa maybe?”

“That high up?”

“I think I see some keys, so maybe a keyboard?”

“That’s too big to be a keyboard.”

“But don’t you see the strings?”

“A keyboard’s strings are upright though.”

“We give up! Just tell us!”

“Oho?” I laughed, seeing how close they got to the answer. “Then, let me tell you. This is actually–”

“A grand piano,” one of the audience members muttered. I had thought grand pianos didn’t exist yet, but it seemed that was only among the lower caste. Honestly should've thought of that. Grand pianos are super expensive.

I looked towards the source and saw a familiar face. She was the one who donated a thousand reales for the first special. Ever since then, I saw her quite a number of times, watching my performances with a rapt enthusiasm. She even donated a few fifties every so often. She’s probably quite high in the caste system.

“That’s correct!” I sang out. “But not just any piano. In fact, this piano…”

Plliiiiinnnkk.

Pressing down on middle C, a small firework shot out of the piano heart, exploding in the sky with a rainbow of colors.

“...can do magic.”