Act 2: Upheaval VI - Celebration and Departure

Steve laughs at Mihai's joke. "Here you go Konrad." He returns the card to the red mage.

The joke gets a laugh from Amber and Fluffle, who know the carbuncle very well by now. The rest of the table are nevertheless impressed by Konrad's trick, and they give him a short round of applause. Leon and Suzy are already discussing the various ways Konrad could have found everyone's cards, while Maryn tells Tytus he's pretty sure he's seen some peddler from the Enclave perform this trick once.

"I learned that from a Coins merc I worked with before I met these two." Konrad says.

This is when Szef Duma returns with a large bowl full of candles. "Did I miss the trick already?" he asks, disappointed.

"I think he's sending you a message, sir."

Konrad turns to Duma when he arrives. "The first one, yes, thank you for bringing the candles! With those, we can start the second."

He reaches out and grabs two handfuls of candles.

Steve feels bad for Duma and says, "I have a feeling the candle trick will be even better. You should take a seat."

"Oh well, nothing we can do about it," Duma says as he hands the bowl over to Konrad. He then returns to his seat and joins his comrades at the table. "Where's this adorable carbuncle? I wanted to pet it."

"It left," Tytus answers in a deadpan manner.

Konrad takes the bowl in his arms and pulls a sour face at Duma. "Oh, you'd better be glad you didn't get back in time for the card trick, sir."

Konrad gently levitates the bowl out of his arms and onto Mihai's lap, and then places the candles in his hands upright on the table.

"I've known him for almost half a year now, and today was the first time he let me pet him. But then, i'm a special case."

Mihai takes the bowl - "This better be good."

Duma playfully ignores Konrad and responds to Mihai instead. "I'm sure your friend will dazzle us."

Zenobiusz looks at all the candles Duma brought with him—around forty of them—and asks the red mage, "Are you going to need all of them?

Konrad shakes his head. "Just the ones I'm carrying."

He arranges all the candles in rows forming the footfalls of a running horse, then lights them all with a spell, punctuating the cast with a flick of the wrist.

"Alright, everyone please lean away."

For a moment, he stares at the embers intensely. Then, he drums his fingers on the table at various rhythms--first, the footfalls of a horse trotting and then quickening to a gallop, then a fast stanza from "La Valse A Mille Temps".

He makes the candles flicker with his mind, pulsing them to the rhythm of his drumming fingers. Each flame rises higher with each beat, as fast or as slow as the rhythm, until they're an inch away from a foot tall. Konrad takes them the rest of the way by making them all pulse at the same time to him drumming shave-and-a-haircut (with the appropriate one-two response).

He moves the candles closer together to move the flames around in synchronized patterns, until they come together into one coiling mass, which he sways around hypnotically to give the impression of a charmed snake.

"Call out shapes."

Deception 25
He tries to make this look easy

"Circle! No, square! No, pentagon! Do a pentagon!" Steve points into the air in emphasis on the last pentagon.

"No! A dodecahedron!" Amber retorts.

The people at the table watch the moving flames with wide eyes, as if they were enjoying a fireworkds show. In fact, people at other tables are starting to look at Konrad's performance.

Embers coil off of the snake. With his mind, Konrad makes curves which redirect the flames so that the coils make the lines of a pentagon. He does the same for a dodecahedron.

A star "explodes" and forms a heart, the heart melts into the shape of a ship. Waves rise over the ship and cup to form a thin ball of near-transparent flame wherein an odd shape of flame burns; a vague likeness of the Dome over Medial.

After making shapes upon various requests, Konrad coils the footlong flames back into the snake and makes it sway for a bit longer. It moves gradually faster and in wider circles, arcing out here and there, until Konrad finally uncoils the lengths of flame, which each make their own smaller arcs until they slowly recede back into their embers atop their respective candle wicks.

This all takes place for two minutes, until Konrad is completely drained and feeling a nasty headache coming on.

Steve stares in open wonder as Konrad performs for the party, oohing and awing at the appropriate times, before finally clapping and cheering at the end. "Wow, you did it! That was awesome!"

"...Ok, that was pretty impressive."

The show progressively attracts more and more attention as it goes on, and the chatter in the room starts to quiet down. After a minute, pretty much everyone is looking at the shapes of fire forming before their eyes, wondering what will be next. When it ends, almost everyone applaud Konrad for his performance.

"That was so cool!" Saria exclaims, clapping really hard.

"Wow, I wish I had picked that cantrip," Duma says.

"What is your cantrip?"

Konrad takes a bow and comes back up clutching his head. "Thank you, everyone, I hope I've made the evening memorable. Now, can anyone spare an aspirin? Goodness, it's been a few months since I got the fatigue."

"I still have some from earlier." He digs out the extra portion of aspirin powder and hands it to Konrad. "Here you go."

Duma wiggles his index finger at Mihai. "That's a secret."

"It's Earth, Water and Life," his sister answers.

"Angelika! You little—"

Now that the show is over, the clansmen and fairies start talking again, and some of them even choose Konrad and his performance as the subject of their discussion. As Konrad takes his aspirin, he notices that Angelika is glancing at him again.

Meanwhile, Amber says to Konrad, "You look pale. You're not gonna puke, right?"

"I'd buy you a round, Konrad, but the drinks are free anyway."

Konrad takes the powder and gives Steve a firm grasp of his hand. "Thank you."

He drinks one last mouthful of his water before he taints it with the tang of medication, stirs the powder in with a fork, and throws back the drink. It's when he brings the drink back down that he notices Angelika looking at him again, tempting him with her gaze. He looks down to grab a new plate for an excuse to break contact, finding a bitter respite in reaching over and forking a steak onto his plate--one of the smaller ones, considering how much he ate already.

Amber speaks up. A kinder excuse to avoid Angelika. Good manners, after all, are high on the list of things he appreciates and expects from others.

"It's just the fatigue, sweetheart, I'll bounce back from it."

He winces when he realizes what he just said. Very quickly, he looks over at Duma and says, "Hey, didn't I ask you to grab me a beer?"

"Okay," Amber replies before talking to Saria again.

Konrad's question surprises Duma, and he looks at the red mage with confusion. He then search around the table, grabs his half-finished tankard and gives it to Konrad. "Here you go!"

"What? No no no, please, I'm not going to steal your drink. Finish up, my friend."

Konrad looks around and levitates a beer from a platter and pulls it to him. The quest for another beer is complete! He continues on as he did before, drinking the beer between bites of steak.

"Well, I'm going to round up the troops and start warming up." He gets up and stretches, cracking his neck loudly. "Any requests?"