By the time he reached the practice grounds Tynian was already long gone, the only sign of his passing being the small pile of materials neatly stacked to the side. Several children had already gathered chatting happily in small groups throughout the area.

Adding his burden to the pile of materials he stretched a little before wandering over to Justain.

The prince was wearing a bulky shirt that failed to hide the dull brown leather armor he had strapped on underneath. It was readily apparent that the armor was highly uncomfortable as he kept shifting with an unpleasant look on his face. His efforts were made exceedingly difficult by the bandage wrapped around his hand.

Ilse and Anna stood in front of him, talking in a subdued tone of voice. As Orchid reached them he caught the end of their conversation.

“… movement of their soldiers is why they’ve increased security around the festival. They’d be fools to attack us right now but something has given their entire army the confidence to act.”

“Is that why Justain is wearing armor today?” Orchid asked as he reached them.

“The spawn filled thing is too big for me.” Justain replied while shifting around again. “The Illati are moving their forces along our southern border. Reports came in yesterday that two of their war princes had departed for the Florenzi fortress with reinforcements. Marshal von Ziegler has reinforced our side of the Lichten pass and has requested the deployment of the entire 2nd Army for support.”

“That’s thousands of miles away though, and they’ve always been eyeing the pasture lands in the south. This sort of movement isn’t new. They do something like this every year.”

“The Archivists have said there’s a chance of assassination attempts against key figures across the capital in the run up to the festival, but I have no idea what they’re basing that on. Either way my father isn’t willing to take any risks. That’s why there’s armor and guards.” He gestured around him and Orchid could see a dozen stiff figures of the Royal Guard watching the Prince and his surroundings.

“Not much we can do about it.” Orchid shrugged.

Ilse had been watching him closely and suddenly reached out to touch his forehead, causing him to flinch backwards.

“Are you well? You’re looking very pale.” She asked.

“Fine, your master used me to practice her healing techniques.” He told her bitterly.

“What did you expect Orchid? Even I wanted to throw you into the ocean to rot.” Anna’s normal calm behavior was nowhere to be seen.

“It was just a prank, Anna.”

“The powder took forever to get out of my hair!” She screamed.

“It’s only hair.” He muttered.

Anna’s glare forced him into silence and he crouched, muttering silently about the unfairness of it all while the others spoke.

Realizing that no one was going to sympathize with him he sighed and took the note from Kat out of his pocket. Interrupting their conversation, he explained their discoveries yesterday and the events of the morning before handing the note to them. They all gathered together, huddled over the note trying to decipher it. Not gaining any understanding, they started arguing about what possible meaning could be within that note.

“She drank his soup.” Rock said from over Justains shoulder.

Screaming in surprise Justain fell forwards. A blur of motion and 3 guards stood in front of him weapons drawn with the prince protected behind them while they searched for threats.

“As always, the Crybaby Prince.” Ilse snickered.

“He was just surprised people. Let’s get back to our work.” Anna said. Her glare now transferred to the prince and Orchid felt immense relief. “You should toughen up Justain. A prince who hops at every noise he hears won’t be able to do anything.”

The guards quietly walked back to their positions sheathing their weapons. Rock lifted the collapsed prince like a drowned cat while Anna continued to lecture him.

Feeling sympathy with the dangling form, Orchid asked.

“What do you mean Rock?”

“Must have served the soup in a mug. She was distracted, didn’t pay attention and drank it.”

They collectively shuddered at his analysis.

“Poor girl” Anna whispered. The normally tough Ilse was shaking and Justain was on the verge of tears.

* * * * * * *

They all gathered around The Professor when he arrived. Sitting in a half circle with him at the center Orchid elbowed the restless Justain to sit still. The Professor was a little distracted because of Katerina’s poor health and he had told Orchid that she insisted that he attend the rehearsal. They had all struggled to remain silent in the face of the absurdity he presented. That someone so knowledgeable could be so blind about his own cooking ability was astonishing. The hardest thing was that he remained inordinately proud of his skills and thus made it impossible for anyone of his friends to tell him the truth.

“Today will be our final rehearsal before the festival next week, so today we’ll set up the illusory formation to make sure that all our performances match the prescribed movements. I know that I’ve explained this many times but we’ll go over the history of the performance one more time.” Lots of groans could be heard from the children. “Alright I’ll be brief, no history then. Just the details of the performance.” Orchid booed from the crowd until he was hit in the head by Rock. With a glare at Orchid, The Professor began his explanation.

“Approximately 5000 years ago, during the age of the Gods, Jors Kale was born, the man we now know as the Veil Master grew up alongside his arch nemesis Atlan deLay the Silver Knight under the tutelage of the Church of Astrea. It is believed that at the time, many churches flourished across the continent under the protection of the Levaine Imperium. Records indicate that…. “

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“Boooo” Orchid hissed, interrupting the explanation. “You said no history!”

Another smack from Rock against his head.

“Ow, what was that for? He promised no history.” Orchid complained.

“No interrupting.”

The Professor laughed in good humor and continued.

“Anyway, this performance is based on the final battle between the Veil Master and the Silver Knight. Their two armies met somewhere near this location and the battle dragged on for days, the magical struggle changing the landscape as we know it. The magical forces that they could utilize at the time was far beyond what is now understood and some of its effects can still be seen today at the danger zones and restricted magical spots across the continent. We have evidence to believe that the battle lines extended all the way west to the Savigne hills and east to Atlans Forest meaning that this one single battle was fought simultaneously throughout half the continent.

Since this city is the site of the Veil Masters death, they erected the market square in his honor once the Gods powers waned. Thereafter they imbued it with a series of illusory formations that they’ve used for performances since then. Rather than get into detail about it myself, Orchid will explain how it works before setting up the practice set.”

The Professor took a seat and Orchid replaced him in front of everyone.

Hisses and boos came from the group as he stood in front of them. Standing straight he flicked his wrist in a gesture that made his sleeve billow in what he felt was a dramatic gesture and cleared his throat loudly to suppress the heckling.

“Less drama, more talking.” The Professors cool voice cut through the Noise.

“Right. Listen carefully people, for I shall say this only once. The formations in the market square use our movements and acting to power a series of special fields that recreate the illusion of the final battle that The Professor told us about.

Many times.

Many, many times.”

“Less sarcasm” The Professor interrupted.

“This is my speech so I will talk the way I want to.” Orchid cheerfully responded, confident that there was no one in this group that could set up or explain formations at his level. “We don’t really understand how all of it works, but what we do know is that the closer we are to the script as described in the Veil Scrolls, the more realistic our performance will appear to the audience.

For some reason the formation only works with children under the age of 15 who have a certain degree of magical strength, which doesn’t really make sense since the power for the formation is drawn through the movements and not from the performers abilities.”

“Less technical details.” Rock said laconically.

“Do you want to do this?” Orchid was getting a little irritated by the interruptions.

Rock shook his head and gestured towards The Professor who happily said “Now you know how it feels.”

Coughing, Orchid continued his explanation.

“So, in short, stick to the spawn-cursed script and move properly and we won’t look like idiots. Today I’ll set up a practice set that was copied off the original formation, it’s quite powerful but can’t create the illusions for others to see, only the performers. That’s it.”

The Professor stood up and added.

“We’ll take a short break while Orchid sets up and then we’ll start our practice.”

As the group separated to chat once more, Orchid dragged Rock to do his heavy lifting as he started to set up.

The materials for the formation were a series of spikes and disks, 29 of each, that had to be laid out in 4 concentric circles such that if a radius was drawn from the center to the outermost circle it would only pass through one disk and one spike.

Walking to the approximate center of the grounds he measured out the various radii of the circles and started to drive the spikes into the ground before linking each circle of spikes with a trail of mana. Repeating the process for the disks he verified that the entire system was set up and followed the procedures he’d read in the formation scroll to test that it was capable of channeling mana properly. Taking out the silver-plated keystone of the formation he placed it in a shallow divot at the center and linked it to all the circles of spikes and disks.

The keystone flashed twice to show that it was running properly so he called out that he was done.

Everyone gathered within the bounds of the formation and they all moved to their respective locations as per the Veil Scrolls. Once everyone called out that they were ready, Justain started to move and speak his lines.

“What ails you Jors? Why do you not face me on this field? Your allies cannot hope to defeat……”

As he spoke, the formation lit up in a series of bright flashes before the world around them started to warp. The sight and sounds of the practice grounds were replaced by those of a massive battlefield.

Justain vanished to be replaced by a man in silver armor.

Orchid heaved a sigh of relief knowing that the formation was working properly.

As Justain finished his lines Orchid moved forwards to begin his own, their two soliloquies the opening act of this dramatic performance. One of the few remnants of two long dead men who had changed the entire continent through their actions and beliefs.

* * * * * * *

Once their practice was completed satisfactorily they gathered to discuss whether there were any improvements they could make. Pleased with the rehearsal The Professor dispersed the group and quietly joined Orchid as he started to remove the formation.

“Kat managed to finish deciphering the scroll. She guarantees that there’s at least a significant degree of accuracy and the information that’s in it is …. Interesting to say the least.” The Professor whispered.

“She worked on it even when she was ill?”

“No, she was done yesterday night itself, the cipher was all the complexity that was there in the scroll.”

“Let’s gather the rest of our friends and once I’ve cleared up we’ll discuss it.” Orchid said.

Once he was ready, Orchid joined Ilse and Justain while The Professor brought over Rock and Anna.

The Professor took out the translation and passed it around.

“I didn’t know that there’s a repository from the Fallen Kingdom right underneath the city. How is it that it wasn’t discovered till now?” Anna asked.

“According to this you need that scroll and the Passphrase before even being able to see the entrance, let alone go through it.” The Professor said.

“This location though…” Justain mumbled. “It’s under the Red district. Specifically, it’s under the Sisters of Sin.” His encyclopedic knowledge of the continents geography and politics had always made him a successful diplomat, none of them would claim to know where to travel as well as he did.

If only he wasn’t such a crybaby.

“The brothel?” Ilse was surprised.

Justain nodded. “It’s currently run by Black Eyes gang, the Fiendhand syndicate they call themselves.”

“We’ll need to own the place before we can explore the repository. It will be way too risky to sneak in, especially if it’s as large as this claims.” Orchid said, he glanced at Justain.

“It’s necessary. We’ll do it. What’s the plan little Purple?” The Princes voice was solemn.

“Details can be worked out tomorrow, but you and Ilse won’t be involved.” Ilse looked like she was about to fight, but Anna’s hand on her arm restrained her reaction until Orchid could explain. “The prince is now injured and under guard plus we can’t let the authorities get wind of this. Magical artifacts will go into possession of the guilds directly so we have to be careful. The old hag is going to be watching you Ilse, especially if there are assassins wandering the streets. As the Ice Witches disciple, you’ll be a prime target. I’m sure some of the guards here are for you and not only Justain.” Ilse nodded in a resigned fashion knowing he was right.

“The rest of us will gather tomorrow at the Rusty Bucket. This will actually help us with one of our problems.”

He smiled, shadows flickering across his face giving him a sinister cast.

“There’s no way that they can avoid this sort of temptation so, I think it’s time we trapped a Rat.”

They looked at him in shock.

Orchids smile deepened.

“So, what say you my comrades? Ready to move into the business of Crime?”