Kilniara clapped her hands together in glee as she expressed her own happiness, “Epics!”
At the center of the square and the pinnacle of celebrations, was a group of what appeared to be magicians, actors, and criers. Each of them seemed to work together as a team to put forth a spectacle that Joe quickly found to be very fascinating. The girls quickly pulled him through the variety of entertainers throughout the square and headed straight for the center. Joe found the movement towards the center proved to be quite easy, despite the crowd of people and entertainers. Like great tentacles of some kind of octopus, massive corridors of moving people directed the traffic inward and Joe found himself caught up in one of these, somehow known and found by the girls as they directed him towards whatever was at the center.
The path swirled towards the center as inefficiently as one would expect of the twisting turns of tentacles and Joe found the whole travel towards the center a bit disorienting. Despite that, the girls seemed to know exactly what was happening and easily directed him towards the center where they joined a swirling crowd and soon came to an ever slow moving eddy. Once they arrived, Joe found himself captivated.
The whole event seemed to be incredibly well-rehearsed and machine-like in its working. There appeared to be three or four sets of people, each set having a small group of magicians, actors, and criers. Some groups were larger, others were smaller, the size seeming to be dictated by the number of actors or parts necessary. This lead to some of the groups combining or separating as needed. The actors seemed to be purely in charge of acting out the part, but none actually spoke in any way, nor were they particularly well groomed, dressed, or good looking. The actors would come before what Joe could guess were magicians who somehow draped in illusion over them. The illusions were so strange that Joe found himself avidly focused on them, absolutely fascinated.
While each magician was unique in their magic, all of them seemed to take several moments to mark the actors at specific areas of the body. Most of them seemed to target the elbows, wrists, torso, waist, and head. Sometimes magicians would include the knees, and on rare occasions, the feet. It took a bit of time, but Joe quickly realized that the magicians were marking vital locations to pin their illusions to, targeting the joints of the actor so that they could appropriately layer their illusion over the body of the actor. The reason the magicians seemed to ignore the legs took longer, but the epiphany came to him easily when he noticed that the illusions that did not use the legs were all illusions that showed dresses or long robes, covering the legs. The only time the magicians seemed to mark the legs were when the illusion had need of showing the legs directly.
Each magician, however, seemed unique in their magic. Some magicians seemed to drape their actors in shadows which then took on color. They were able to give their actors a more solid appearance, a heavy physicality that shone through their illusions. Others caused light to shimmer into existence around the actors. The light took on a glowing aspect that somehow didn’t detract from or overwhelm the details of the image created by the illusion. The illusion took on a fairy like ethereal quality that glowed and made the actor seem to be overtly magical. Still others had illusions that seemed liquid based as they flowed over the body and turned the actor into what really looked like a very subtle impressionistic painting or a bad invisibility effect. There were even several other forms of illusion using clouds or mist and one that had slabs of earth or stone shaping itself to the actor before coloring itself appropriately.
Joe found the whole magical illusions startling in its blatant use of magical powers overtly visible for him to see and study. But it wasn’t only the magic that fascinated Joe. The actors also proved to be quite adapt playing their part, although they focused entirely on the physical movement of their part. The criers played the part of voice acting and the narrator, describing events or the main parts of the play. All three paired up well, with the actors pausing at appropriate moments to allow for lines, playing the part of speaking heroically, if a bit over the top. In fact, the whole thing was over the top in everything: visuals, acting, and lines. The costuming was overly vibrant and gaudy. The acting was overdone, with dramatic poses and dumb pauses for comments or inner monologue in the middle of fights. And the lines were overly verbose and way too dramatic. Despite that, Joe found the whole event entertaining and even a bit nostalgic, as he felt that he was watching TV or a movie. Joe felt a wash of homesickness come over him. Man! I miss… entertainment… it’s been… months! Almost a year!
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Joe smothered his sigh as he saw the two girls proved incredibly entertained, avidly watching what was happening. And to be honest, Joe really wasn’t certain what was happening. Each of the events seemed to be short vignettes of fights of some famous person with a different monster of some kind. Some fights were incredibly short, with the fights over with a strike or two. Other’s seemed to be played up, with the monsters deliberately enhanced, described as incredibly dangerous, powerful, or important in some way by the criers. Usually, such descriptions led to a more involved fight, with the actor flying around the stage with amazing skill in physical combat or playing the part of a magician flinging balls of magic across the stage at the monsters on the other side.
As the day passed, the monsters became bigger and scarier, the heroes grew in stature and power, and the fights ever more elaborate. While Joe found it entertaining at first, he soon grew bored, then disinterested, then finally exasperated. He kept it hidden well, but somehow Gwenvair noticed and tugged on his arm while tapping Kilniara.
“Let’s go. These are only the small fights! We won’t see anything important until the third day anyway!”
Kilniara proved reluctant until Gwenvair mentioned the third day and then proved more than willing to move on.
“You’re right! I really want to see the third day!”
Gwenvair giggled, “The clan Epics are more easily enjoyed anyway.
Kilniara gasped at that, and her eyes gleamed as she became entranced, “Clan Epics? Truly?”
Gwenvair laughed, “Of course. I invite you all!”
Kilniara leapt into the air with joy and all three quickly left the area. Joe was bemused, but too grateful to really complain, and they soon found themselves wandering once again, but this time Joe found himself drawn towards the smell of delicious food, as his hunger began to gnaw at him.
One edge of the massive square as well as the dozens of alleys and streets that emptied on the same side of the square lined with restaurants and hundreds upon hundreds of street food stalls and street restaurants spilling into the streets, turning the streets into narrow snaking paths between the hundreds of food vendors. They didn’t choose any of the sit down restaurants and wandered through the street stalls which were selling finger foods and sweets.
Joe proved selective in his snack choices, picking out only a few things that looked interesting or delicious. Gwenvair proved about as reserved as Joe, but nowhere near as selective, buying a little bit of everything while Kilniara, after looking at Joe and getting nonverbal approval to spend a ridiculous amount of money, took a little bit of everything, dragging Gwenvair after her by the hand as she raced from stall to stall purchasing just about everything she saw on the street. The two girls didn’t eat a lot, but they took a little bit of everything and Joe watched on in bemused shock that grew as they drove from stall to stall.
Their exploration of the food stalls took them closer to the outer city and Joe ended up leading them out into the outer city. Heading through gate caused him to tense up and he reflexively sent out a monster sense. It, of course, returned empty and Joe calmed and he resumed placing his attention on the celebration.
The outer city was quite a bit more crass and wild, rowdy in their interactions with one another but still polite. The food and entertainment was simpler and of poorer quality but Joe still found all of it enjoyable. They wandered on throughout the day and as lunch came upon them, Joe began seeking out a place to eat.
“Getting hungry?”
The two girls didn’t say anything but Kilniara looked towards Joe, “Are you?”
Joe nodded with a smile, “I am.”
Gwenvair glanced at Kilniara and both nodded, “We aren’t exactly hungry, but we wouldn’t mind joining you for a meal.”
Joe replied, “That sounds good. Anywhere you would like to eat?”
“I’m fine with anything,” Kilniara quickly offered.
“I as well,” Gwenvair agreed.
Joe nodded, “Do the guilds sound good?”
Kilniara perked up at that and quickly nodded, “Yes! I could eat there.”
Joe smiled, “Then we’ll get you some appetizers? Snacks? While I eat?”
Both nodded at that and headed to the guilds to have a meal before ending the day by heading back to the clan city shortly after. All three enjoyed the rest of the day back at the villa before eating a light meal for supper with the Matriarch then retiring to the sitting room. They all enjoyed the evening in easy conversation for a time before the Matriarch headed home and Joe found himself alone with Kilniara and Gwenvair. Kilniara grew more intimate after the Matriarch left, cuddling under his arm and claiming his side. Gwenvair sat on the other side of him on the couch, not really touching him and seeming a bit more nervous, which made Joe nervous and concerned. Still, it was an enjoyable evening and Kilniara distracted him enough to forget and relax.
They stayed up late, talking and enjoying each other’s company. So much so that Joe was surprised that despite Gwenvair’s position as a third wheel, he felt no frustration and was still able to enjoy close moments with Kilniara despite her presence. When they were heading to bed, the boys finally showed up and they all went to bed.
* * *
<Chapter 87 Continued>