Completed Party Tricks

[Nephti]

17th Winter 516


Nephti smiled in front of the small crowd, grabbing hold her her cards again. The eyes of the group sparkled intently waiting. And she began to wonder how exactly she had got herself into this mess, and how exactly she was hoping on getting herself out of it again.

Because there was no way she could actually get away with this. Right?

For some strange stupid reason, though, she had believed she could give it a go, and it was embarrassing, at the very least. The whole time, she felt like she was letting them down. The man, the kids, herself. Why couldn’t she actually do a proper magic trick, proper illusions, like the ones Ionu would have wanted her to do?

Because he wasn’t her god, and they both knew it. She could have her illusions, but they would never be the real ones.

~~

She had been out in the streets, trying to attract the attention of the crowd with a few quick words and dramatic displays of her shuffling her cards, promising to give them the illusions that they looked for. But it was a bit useless, considering this whole city was an illusion, and this section of the city - the sparkling Lhavit - was more than any illusion she could ever give them.
It had gotten to the second night in that day when she finally decided to give up. Nobody was interested, not one single person had even stopped to look at her cards. Sure, the sparkling jewels may have distracted a few. The way the day changed, maybe. Or they had issues on their minds, concerning Vantha and Morwen and winter. Issues she refused to face herself, not right now.
Turning away from the street, she picked the cloak up from where she had folded it on the ground beside her, using one hand to hold all her cards while she pulled it around her. As she pocketed them and began to pull her hair up, bored with having it down all the time, someone tapped her on the shoulder - the real, proper shoulder.

“Can I help you?” she asked, forcing the corners of her mouth to twitch up as she let all the hair fall back down around her face.

“Yes! You were offering to show magic tricks, right?” The girl nodded slowly, wondering if he wanted to see, and why he had waited so long if he did. “I have a job - I’d be more than willing to pay! If you’re not busy now, that is?” She nodded again, curious. “Listen, I don’t have time to explain, I need to get something from the Bizarre, but if you want, you can meet me at my house? It’s a cottage, with a large mural painted on it, of a giant bird. It’s not hard to miss, it’s in this city’s version of Wind Reach, surprisingly? That work for you?”

The girl stared at him, a little shocked, a little unprepared, but interested, all the same. “O-Okay, then, I will. See you there?”

“Thank you!” he called out, already walking away. The girl gave a little laugh to herself, reminding herself not to be paranoid. This was Alvadas. Weird and unexplained was what was to be expected.

Slowly, she turned, deciding to attempt to track down his house as easily as the city would let her. Picking a random direction, as each and every one seemed to have a mountain in it, the girl set off on her journey.

Thank Priskil for those boots she had bought, because she spent the next few bells (or so it seemed) trampling through streets that seemed to rise and fall like mini mountains of their own, searching aimlessly.

[Nephti]

Then she arrived, the cottage just as he described it. A scent wafted out - of baking, but she couldn’t tell what exactly - which mingled with the freshly planted lavender that lined the street on the opposite side. Laughter trickled out as well, distant shouts and playful taunting from children’s voices. The man who had stopped her was there too, smoking from a large pipe painted purple which he put away as soon as he saw her.

“I’m so glad you could make it! I was starting to wonder if Ionu was ever going to let you find us!” the man’s eyes lit up brightly, the smile spreading on his face contagiously, but Nephti was too confused to match it, nodding along instead.

“Sorry, I just wanted to know.. What exactly what you hoping for?” she spoke up, trying to not scare him away with her confusion at the same time. He had offered coins, and she wasn’t giving them up that easily. Besides, she didn’t want to have got his hopes up -for something - just to take them away again. Thankfully, he continued to smile, ushering her into the cottage her clearly considered home, and nodded towards the gaggle of small children who were playing on the small sofa. One of them looked up - a spitting image of the man except sporting blue eyes and blond hair unlike the darker features he had - and gave a grin, before returning to the wrestling they seemed to be involved in.

“My son. It’s his birthday, today, you see, and I was hoping you could do a bit of magic, a little performance?” Realising the mistake in the way he phrased that, his expression darkened and he spoke again, “Not real magic, of course. I know too well how dangerous that could be. But those tricks, you had? I’m more than happy to pay?”

What tricks? The simple guessing card trick? And she knew she had another one, the story with the Emperor and the Magician. If it came to it, she could even do the find the lady trick, although that wasn’t that impressive. But that was it, and that wasn’t enough to put on a proper performance. Not one that was worth the coins he had placed in front of her, secretly showing her the contents.

But at the same time, she was not going to just leave. This man wanted a party and a performance for his son, and she determined that she was going to give him something.

“Can I have a little bit of time?” she blurted out, biting her lip before she managed to stop herself fully, “To prepare I mean. I wasn’t expecting this - just half a bell, something like that?”

There came a quick nod. “Of course! Take all the time you need, we’ll be here all day!”

[Nephti]

She had no idea where to head or what to do. There was no way she was going to be able to make up, learn and perfect another magic trick quick enough to impress them. And would one more even do?

“Ionu, help me!” she whispered softly, knowing it was a pointless prayer. Why would he help her? Why did she deserve a response-
“I’m not Ionu, but I can try?”

Him. The girl glowered in the direction of the voice, not even thinking to look at him properly. “Go away.” A breath to compose herself. “I told you I didn’t want to see you anymore. Not after-” Her voice trembled, both knowing what she meant but neither wanting to think about. “No. I don’t want your help - even if you were Ionu himself!”

“How do you know I’m not?” There it was, that same smug tone in his voice, as if nothing had happened.

Slowly, she looked at him, trying to break free from those deep dark eyes the minute they caught her. Eyes that saw death and didn’t care, she tried to remind herself. “You’re not.”

“But you’d never be able to tell. If I was Ionu, especially.” A smile curled up on his lips, so tiny but still there. “Don’t tell me you knew Priskil immediately either.”

It was true. She hadn’t. But he was trying to distract her with foolish ideas of being gods, and not of what the gods had done.
“What do you want help with anyway?”

She wasn’t going to accept his help. Not until he apologised. Not until he actually meant it. Not until this horror show was over.

“It doesn’t matter. Even if it did, I would never want your help. Like I said, go away.” This time, her voice was firm, refusing to tremble and trying to bring about a command not a girl moaning. “I’m sure you have better things to bother yourself with.” She could see how she hurt him. His eyebrows pulled together, confused, and the look of guilt and betrayal penetrated through his expression.

“Nephti…” came the almost pleading tone, and he reached out, trying to grab her cloak. The girl pulled back roughly, eyes reading “no” clearly, then turned, marching straight back into the cottage. He couldn’t follow her there. And she didn’t care if she had no more tricks to show. What she had would do. It would more than do. As long as he wasn’t there, bothering - and reminding - her.

“Hey there, kids!” she called out, several pairs of eyes falling on her instantly, “Want to see some magic?”

[Nephti]

And so she was there, in that situation, trying to figure out what to do. Start with something easy, something she knew - the simplest trick. “Which one of you is the birthday boy?”

She knew, of course, and her eyes fell on the boy before he jumped out, massive toothy grin on his face. Of course, for him, toothy wasn't very toothy either, a million gaps demonstrating how the child was still growing. Hands on her knees, she moved down to face him at eye level. "So, tell me, how old are you today? Let me guess-" pretending to be sensing it, she moved highest hands to rest against her forehead, just beside her eyes, as her real gaze moved to the man, hoping he would help her out for this quick trick. A handful of fingers later, and she had her answer. "Five?"

The boy gave a gasp, not able to grasp how she knew nor able to put her change in gaze and the fact his father stood right behind him together to form a theory about it. "You're a witch!" he gave an excited gasp - almost too excited for a reaction to magic, no matter how fake - "Do another trick!"

Nephti gave a laugh, relieved it had worked. Now for the real trick - and one she knew she could do. Hopefully, nothing would go wrong this time around. She moved the cards into another hand, making their presence known more clearly. The little boy reached out, hoping to grab hold of them, and, to his surprise, she let him have them, watching a little carefully at the way he leafed through them, hoping he wouldn't rip or damage any too much.

But these were the old ones, the ready damaged ones. "Guess which one I have!" he squealed, picking it up and holding it to his chest tightly so she could see it. Nephti gave a laugh, rolling her eyes at how he expected her to actually know. Studying the back of the card, she pretended to look through it, but instead tried to figure out if she could match those creases with the cards. This one had a long, distinctive crease down the middle, almost perfect, a memory of a trick she had tried and failed last season. But which card had she used...

"Is it the three of swords?" she asked, "With the heart, stabbed three times?"

"How.. how did you know?" Because she had picked it for a reason. It was a card about separation and betrayal, and her story was trying to be emotional like that. Another thing that had failed. That story had been absurd. Was it a card that was chosen randomly, or was the tarot telling her something about the boy and the man?

She was overthinking it. It was a child's birthday. Time to add more fun.

"Your friend told me," she teased, pointing to a long haired child beside him. The two boys blew raspberries between each other, and the birthday boy began to protest.

"You betrayed me! How dare you!" Wow, she really hadn't expected a reaction to that extent. But once again, how fitting. She couldn't help smiling as she continued.

"I was joking, leave him!" she laughed, at the reaction from both of them, "Ionu told me. Do you know what else Ionu told me?"

"What?" came the clamours, from all of them. So curious, so interested - she didn't need I, she didn't need to know any more tricks. Somehow, this was working. And the girl was loving it.

[Nephti]

"That you need to clean behind your ears more," she smiled, fiddling with the coin she had managed to snatch up from her pocket with her lowest arm while the children had been distracted by her conversation. Hiding it in the palm of her hand, she reached up, hand brushing against the spiked hair above his ears and shifting it again to be in her fingers. Bringing it down, the girl opened her palm and let them all see the copper miza. "For you," she smiled, pressing it into his hand, "Don't forgot to wash!"

Amazed, he reached up, grasping behind his ear as much as he could in search for more money. "What.. how?"

Bringing out her cards, she decided that she was going to give that story one another go, because it was fun, filled up time, and if it worked, was a pretty fun trick. Setting up while the children were distracted with the coin trick, she searched through the pack, finding four cards to be her story and another three cards that she hid behind them. Once the group had settled down, she spread the cards, revealing the faces - and they even got a glimpse of the cards behind, but thankfully, no one knew what she was doing to realise that it was part of the trick.

She couldn't remember exactly how it had gone last time. Even which cards she had chosen. But if she knew one thing, it was that it didn't matter. It was the story that would make the trick better.

"There was a tower. Big, tall, but dangerous. Look," she pushed the first card forward so they could watch how lightning set the place aflame, how the people toppled out, the disaster and upheaval represented perfectly in the image. "In this tower, lived a Magician, a beautiful Empress, and Death. The Magician loved the Empress, but Death also loved the Empress. He was jealous - so jealous that he wanted Empress. So, he made magic, and went away."

As she spoke, she pushed the top card randomly into the deck. "Magic made Empress follow, because she was in love." The girl picked up the top card, attempting to slot it in randomly too. But in her movement, she stumbled with the card, and it dropped, falling face up to reveal the eight of wands. The girl panicked at the sight of the four sticks, watching the boy's look to change to one of confusion.

"What's that?" he asked, curious.

Making it up on the spot, she just started talking and didn't stop until she was happy with her answer. "It is.. she went to a wood. Like in the picture, nearly? She follow, but she is lost in the wood. Scared, alone - she wants Death and she wants Magician, but can not go back."

Somehow, it seemed to work. Continuing, she took the last card, and this time more carefully, placed it somewhere with the rest of the cards. "So Magician follow too. And then, he use magic, and call everybody back." The girl tapped the top of the deck. "And they all come back."

Picking up the top four cards, she showed them to the group. "What's that one?" came a cry, and a stubby finger pointed to the one right at the front. The girl looked. What was that one? Where had Death gone? Had she.. she had used two card, not three. Which meant that Death really was mixed up with all the other cards.

"Oops," she grimaced, putting it back, "But on way back, Death went away again. Magician was too powerful. So Empress and Magician live together, forever, happy!"

Well, that could have gone a lot better. But the children didn't seem to have noticed, running off at the mention of cake from the man. She watched them go, pattering across the floorboards and jumping up and down as they were handed slices of the sponge, decorated with bright red and orange icing. Lingering at the back, she waited until they were done to step forward, greeting the man with a large smile.

"Thank you for everything. It was a fun little performance, and I'm certain my son enjoyed it. I know I did!" Nephti blushed at the praise, knowing she had messed that last trick up so badly. "Now that the children have all had their slice, can I interest you in a piece of cake?"

Pretending to think about it, she agreed moments later, "Thank you. It looks delicious. Did you make it?"

The man laughed. "Of course not. I bought it, from the bakery in the Bizarre. I would definitely recommend them!" Slowly, he cut a piece and shovelled it onto a small plate, passing it over. The girl took a small bite, enjoying the velvety taste and took another, slightly bigger one.

"It's delicious!" she said through a half full mouth, "Thank you!"