Mary couldn't believe nearly a year had passed since she had discovered her magic, today was the second festival she would attend to, only this time as a noble. Now that she had a better understanding of magic, she was looking forward to see it again, if only to get a few new runes. Because even though her mother was an accomplished mage, she was no illusionist and as such didn't know much runes in that direction. Of course while her magic practice in the last seven months had somewhat lacked, seeing she mostly cast a small light, her knowledge of runes had increased a hundredfold.

She found out her mother was a skilled witch, though dedicated to magical studies as a whole. Mary even learnt how to incant spells, though she didn't need it. Incantations weren't really a language, as every successful mage developed his own way of incanting, effectively they controlled the flow of their mana by different modulations of their voice.

It was harder to do than just control her mana directly she thought to herself. It was especially hard for their studies, as they had cover three dimensions instead of two. When her mother had cast the first real rune, she had actually used the incantations to guide her mana horizontally and used her direct control to add the depth to the rune an impressive mental feat.

They were currently on their way to the palace, arriving with two carriages that would fetch them once the festival was over. All nobles arrived an hour to half an hour before the festival started. They arrived after about twenty minutes of driving, and their carriages departed immediately after they had disembarked. After they entered the palace, they used a strange contraption to get on the walls, where a dias had been built to accommodate the nobility and the emperor. Mary and her family were among the first to arrive, and went to the far left of the stage, sitting down to wait for the next hour.

The next nobles arriving were mostly Barons and Viscounts, all sitting down somewhere different. The next one to arrive was a surprise though, she knew that person. She was one of the nobles that were present at her ceremony and she definitely didn't expect to see her here so early. Countess Foxwood looked at everyone present, and strode in their direction with purpose. She was one of the strangest nobles that she knew, her appearance and demeanor didn't match her mana signature at all. On the surface, she seemed like all the other noble woman around the dias, but at the same time was completely different.

“A good day to you Baron, Baroness how are you all on this fine day?”

“Countess Foxwood, as always a pleasure to see you, would you like to join us?” One of her brothers answered. After exchanging a few more pleasantries the countess sat down next to him, and then turned to her.

“How are you little Mary, how did you settle in your new life?”

“Things are great, it get to learn lots of new things! Why do..” Just as she wanted to ask her why her behaviour was differing from herself, she remembered her promise to not be so blunt, so she quickly closed her mouth. The countess smiled knowingly.

“That's nice to hear, is there anything you like in particular?“

“I really like the falcons we have!”

After a few more questions the chatty woman turned to Decius and began talking to him. As their conversation soon changed to boring stuff she didn't care about she search for something else to do.

Soon enough she started observing all the arriving nobles, noting that they separated into two distinct groups. The few she knew seemed to concentrate near them, not really caring about their rank all that much. Meanwhile the other group, who were in the vast majority, had a clear hierarchy that was probably defined by their rank, the more powerful the noble, the more of the lesser nobles seemed to be around. Furthermore, they were all trying to be as close to the middle as possible. Half an hour before the festival started all nobles had arrived. While those around her seemed content to stay where they were, the other group had now settled down by rank, the more powerful they were, the closer they were to the middle.

As time passed the plaza in front of them got increasingly crowded, the normal citizens streaming in to witness the event. Twenty five minutes before the festival began, Mary could feel enormous amounts of mana starting to gather in the statue in the plazas middle. She asked her mother what they were doing. As it turned out, the illusion was cast from an enchantment woven into the statue. As the illusion was too complex to cast as one spell be it enchantment or a normal one, the statues creators broke it down in several different, smaller spells. That of course added other complications, these were easier to manage though. Sadly the statue was too far away to properly perceive the mana, as her ability to feel mana had a very limited range, that normally didn't extend that far.

The only reason she could feel some of the runes at all was the quantity of mana used. Even just what she could perceive from the spell made her realize she still had ways to go as a mage. The amount of mana was astonishing really, and if the most mana consuming runes she felt were taken out, that still left huge amounts of mana that were used for the rest of the spell. There had to be an enormous amount of runes, as the mana coming from the runes and the total mana used differed greatly.

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes the mana continued to built up more and more, the spells used for the illusions being prepared one by one.

After fifteen minutes her examination of the spell was interrupted, as the emperor arrived, and everyone present, the nobles and the citizens, had to bow deeply until he settled in his throne. Considering the emperor was the ruler of the most powerful empire of the continent, he was a really unassuming man. He was about one meter and seventy centimeters tall, had the same hair most of the empire’s citizens had, and wasn't overly muscular or thin.

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There were two really outstanding things about him though. The first was his presence, that made him look a lot more powerful, he seemed to draw everyone's eyes to him just by being present. He furthermore wore a robe that radiated magic, not unlike her father’s. The countess explained her the robe was a show of wealth and power, as it was dyed in a certain red dye, that was made from the remains of a lesser dragon, a dye most nobles couldn't dream to use. While dragons were huge beasts, the amount of dye you got from a lesser dragon wasn't enough to dye the whole robe.

After the emperor sat down, the noise coming from the plaza had increased by a fair amount. Mary went back to observing the spell that was about to be cast.

Exactly at midday, the doors in front of them stated to open with a loud noise. Soon enough the illusionary dragon stepped out of the gates, and repeated everything like he did last year. Now that she wasn't distracted if the dragon was real or not, she could fully appreciate the skill of the enchanters that created this illusion. Of course she had never seen a dragon in her life, so she didn't know how lifelike it was, but it was an impressive display of magic nonetheless.

Like last year, the illusionary dragon ‘created’ flames that showed the empire’s history.

After the show was finished and the crowd in front of them had dispersed, the noble’s carriages started arriving as well. Most of them would be attending to various different balls that were hosted by some of the capitals nobles.

That wouldn't be their activity for the evening though, as the Baron’s family, except Decius, didn't attend to balls.

Instead they were going to visit one of the new film theaters that came into fashion in the last years. They used illusion magic to show events or stories on a big canvas in the front. The costs were affordable for normal citizens, at least the standard variants, as they only showed two dimensional pictures. The one they were visiting was a high class one, way more expensive but also more impressive. They were looking at a stage from above, where the illusions were displayed, the characters voices intoned by unseen speakers.

The adventure they were watching was about one of the first successful quests to hunt a lesser dragon, a feat managed decades after the first kingdom had been founded.

“And so our group set out to find a lesser dragon, not very hard to be honest, the beasts were everywhere to find really. There is one major problem in fighting a dragon or any flying creature really. It can easily fly away. Finding the beast's lair is one of the best ways to force it to fight, as you can be sure it will return there every other day. So we did just that, searching for the lair of a lesser dragon.” They could see how a team of twenty people consisting of all the different races tracking the movements of a dragon over the course of a few days.

After it left its lair on the next day, the adventurers prepared the dragon's lair, creating a false floor, that would trap the dragon in a big underground chamber which they excavated by magic. Obviously facing a lesser dragon was insanely dangerous no matter how you did it, and its size gave some obvious benefits in the enclosed space of the cave.

“I can hear it returning, prepare to spring the trap!” With a loud crack the ceiling crashed just like intended, the dragon plummeting the twenty meters and landing with a loud sound. The dragon roared in anger and pain, its serpentine eyes leveling on the intrudes in its lair.

“Drosk, Dox get its attention!" The two imposing lizard-people, already in front of their comrades ran at the dragon with defiant cries that were equally aggressive and terrified. The dragon, already in pain from the unexpected fall, snapped at one of them, swinging its tail at the other, while the tail got avoided, that snout easily got the unprepared lizard, killing him instantly. The other adventurers hadn't been idle though, and just as their teammate go eaten, the mages and elven sorcerer finished their first spells, the rangers finishing the last part of the rest of their traps.

The dwarves threw several mythril cables over the back of the dragon, securing them in prepared holdings, severely limiting its movement and stopping it from retreating at all. The mages spells mostly impacted of the dragons scales without effect. The spell of the elven sorcerer had one though, he had used icemagic, a combination of fire and water magic, and the ice seemed to be extremely uncomfortable for the dragon, as it shook itself even more than it did after being trapped.

With the chains impairing its freedom of movement the remaining lizard managed to avoid all of the incoming attacks. The dwarves took out their crossbows and joined the rest of the rangers in attacking the beast with arrows, trying to hit vulnerable spots, namely the eyes and the soft scales where the legs joined the torso.

The arrows were dipped in a potent venom that would further limit its agility and thin its blood. The mages, seeing their spells were mostly useless drew water out of the air and drenched the monster, while the elf froze the water after it flowed between its scales. While all that wouldn't severely limit the dragon in itself, all effects combined meant they would eventually succeed.

Something the monster seemed to realize as well. And as a result, with a defiant roar the dragon seemed to regain its powers and ripped the chain’s attachments out of the wall ignoring the lone lizard at its feet, throwing itself at the mages that were causing the pain. Most of them managed to get away in time, but one of the humans got ripped apart by the dragon and one of the dwarves got squashed in its wake.

“It got Brelda and Nervurn!” one of them shouted in shock.

“Fan out, so it can't get all of us at the same time!” Their leader shouted.

"Dox get its attention again!”

After the plan had failed, the fight evolved into chaos, the adventurers all having to concentrate on surviving for the most part, and only rarely getting off a well placed arrow or spell.

It got noticeable though, that the dragon got tired, the paralysing venom starting to show its effect. After half an hour of constant fighting, the dragon finally succumbed to its numerous wounds.

The adventurers slid down the walls, disbelieving looks of shock and satisfaction on their faces.

The scene faded into black and a different scene followed, the return of the victorious adventurers to their city. The city itself was small, perhaps only the size of the capitals noble district, but it seemed every inhabitant was on the streets to greet their returning heros. Their packhorses laden with the materials they harvested of the dragon body. They were escorted into the king’s keep.

Upon entering the throne room the remaining adventurers fell to their knees.

“Welcome back my subjects, I see you managed to defeat the beast, though I do not see all of you?”

“They died, your majesty, when the beast ripped the attachments out of the walls.”

“Then we have to mourn their loss and feel sorrow for their loved ones! Now is not the time for sorrow though, we must honor their sacrifices for our kingdom and celebrate this day, for we killed a dragon!”

The film was over soon after and Mary had to admit she really liked theater, its organization was incredible, the skilled narrators and expertly crafted illusions being worth the cost.