Chapter 3

Azel bowed elaborately, sweeping his foot across the stage as he did. In an instant, the bar was filled with multicolored light that seemed to extend from the walls and floor. The audience looked around, dazzled by the sight. Rising back up, Azel turned his head toward the wall opposite the door, pointing in the same direction as if to suggest the audience should do the same. A figure began to walk out of the light emanating from the wall; an indistinct dreamkeeper clad in light cloth armor and wielding a short sword, a brilliant golden halo over his head.

On the opposite side of the room, a variety of eldritch creatures began to crawl out of the light on that side, which had taken on a mixture of sickening colors to match the army of Nightmares flooding out of it. One reared up and lunged over the audience toward the haloed hero, who moved out of the way instantly, leaving a golden trail of afterimages. The afterimage that had been where the hero stood lifted its sword and neatly ran the lunging Nightmare creature through on the blade. Incensed, the other Nightmares began rushing at the hero, who repeated the process of running and leaving afterimages. In a matter of moments, the afterimage army began to rival the size of the horde of Nightmares.

Both sides of the battle tore into each other, crowding into the center of the room. The audience watched in awe at the ensuing carnage. The battle appeared to be an even give and take: for every Nightmare that met its end on an afterimage's blade, another Nightmare tore an afterimage limb from limb, causing it to dissipate into nothingness. The hero himself continued moving out of harm's way and creating simulacra of himself as he went, receiving some light wounds from Nightmares that were clever enough to attack the creator of the images directly. Some spectators instinctively ducked for cover as one figure or another approached their table, only for the illusory entity to harmlessly pass through them.

The simulated battle continued in this way for what seemed like hours until only one hulking bipedal Nightmare and the hero remained. The Nightmare roared a guttural war cry, and the hero, tired from evading and taking occasional damage from his attackers, rose slowly to meet his final opponent. As the lumbering demon charged at its foe, the hero stood firm until the last moment. When the two were within a few feet of each other, the hero crouched down, tucked and rolled under the Nightmare's legs. Afterimages of the hero were spawned as usual, which proceeded to strike at the exposed legs of the bewildered Nightmare, sending the fiend toppling to the ground. Before it could get another chance to move, the Hero moved all around and slashed his sword at the beast, moving so as to create afterimages that would finish the job of slaughtering his enemy.

With the death of the final Nightmare, the room returned to a state of normalcy, and Azel took one final bow. The audience gave a hearty and gratifying cheer, filling Azel with a sense of fulfillment. "Thank you, everyone! That's all for the show tonight, but I promise you there will be more to come in the future! And remember, you can only find this kind of performance here, at the Dry Vein's Mirage Bar! Thank you again, and good night!" With that, he departed behind the curtain, his heart racing in excitement. His message, his art, finally had an audience.

As time passed and the bar began to clear out, Lucia sat at her table with Mead, contemplating the details of the performance. Her thoughts ranged from what kind of stories Azel must have drawn inspiration from to how he managed to choreograph an entire battle with his power. She continued to think until the bar was nearly empty, only interrupted when Azel's return from behind the curtains prompted Mead to call him over to their table.

"Azel! Over here! That was amazing! That was really all just you using your power? How'd you manage all of that?" the energetic bar worker queried, causing Azel to step back a little.

"Ah, it's kind of hard to explain it all, I wasn't prepared to have to answer questions about it…" He began, silently hoping that Mead would back down from her questioning. Before he could come up with an answer, another voice from behind the table interrupted to change the subject.

"Come on, Mead, can't you see you caught Azel off guard here?" Percy said as he approached the group, with Petru following not too far behind. "Besides, I'm sure his guest has some questions of her own." He gestured to Lucia, urging her to take over.

"I guess I do," she began slowly. Turning back to Azel she continued. "It was a great show." Azel smiled a little at this. "Using your power though? I thought you told me there wouldn't be any shady stuff," she added jokingly.

Azel paused, and his smile started to fade. "I, ah, well…" He stuttered, looking for a proper reply. Behind him, his tail began to rattle.

"Relax, it was just a joke," Lucia said quickly.

"Right, a joke, heh," Azel forced a laugh, calming down a little. "You really liked the show, though?"

"I was surprised at first when you used your power, but it was seriously impressive! I've never seen anything like that before!"

"T-thanks, I thought you might like it, and I'm sorry for misleading you. I didn't want to scare you away by mentioning I'd be doing that." Azel admitted.

"It's not a big deal, really," responded Lucia.

"Besides, what could you have even said to convince her while mentioning using your power?" Mead chimed in. "'Please come see my show, I'm gonna do something super illegal in the name of art! It'll be fun!'" Azel couldn't help but chuckle. Mead was quick to notice. "Heeey, you do have a sense of humor after all! You never used to laugh at my other jokes!"

"You never hit the nail on the head like that before," Azel replied, stifling his laughter and making Mead smile even wider. "It's the exact kind of dumb shit I would actually say without thinking it through!"

"Okay, that's enough joking around. If Mead gets any more excited, she'll hardly be able to help clean up," Petru spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "Speaking of, we should really get started on that. Gotta close up for the night. Stick around if you want, Luce. We can all talk later once the bar's empty and clean."

With resigned expressions, the Dry Vein's employees went to work cleaning and clearing the bar. Lucia watched on as Mead and Percy began escorting patrons out of the bar, while Azel set to work wiping down the tables and clearing trash from the floor. Petru took stock of the bar and counted up the lucre earned that night. When the cleaning was finished and the bar was left empty, the group moved on from the underground area back to the aboveground , the legal side of the establishment had already been cleaned by the people assigned to work in it, who had already clocked out and left for the day. With their work done, the group sat down at the table closest to the fireplace and continued their discussion.

Mead was one of the first to speak up. "So, Azel. How'd you pull that big fight scene off? It can't be that hard to explain!"

"Right for the throat, then, Mead?" Percy commented. "No mercy for our hardworking artist?"

"It's alright," Azel spoke up. "Honestly, the only hard part of explaining is that the question came out of nowhere. First, I had to overcome a major limitation of how my power works."

"Limitation? What do you mean?" Lucia was next to speak. "You filled the whole room with illusions. I don't see what kind of limitation there is to that."

"That's because I already found a way around it," Azel responded, activating his power again. "Normally, I can't send my illusions out very far from my own body." He held out his hand, which produced a spiral of multicolored light that reached upward for a few feet before straining to continue. "But if I touch something, I can make an illusion appear at any point of it if it isn't too big." He reached down and touched one of the floorboards, and in moments the same spiral of light appeared on the other end of the room."

Lucia made the connection in moments. "The ropes hanging from the walls! That's how you made the illusions carry through the room!"

"And the bow at the start of the show was the point where the illusions actually started," finished Azel, dispelling his halo. "Adding a leg sweep made it easy to get all of the ropes in one movement of my foot. Another little cheat. I don't need to use my hands to make my power work, just so long as a part of my body touches whatever I'm placing an illusion on."

"Wait, so if you can use any part of your body, why not your tail instead of your foot?" Mead inquired.

"It's for better control," Percy provided. "Azel tried making the tail thing work but found it hard to get all the necessary movements right."

"Besides that, if I was too nervous on the stage, the rattling would've made it nearly impossible to control my tail." Mead giggled at the mental image of Azel's comment. "I know it sounds funny, but it would've ruined the whole show. Better to stick to something more consistent."

"Point is, the whole thing went off without a hitch," Petru spoke up. "Pretty good for a first show, Azel. Can't wait to see what you've got planned for next week."

"Next week?" Azel stiffened at the thought. "I was thinking this would be something I'd do every couple of weeks."

"Seriously Azel?" Petru chided. "You can't have your audience go that long without anything. People these days will lose interest if you take too long to provide something new."

"A week though? Spirits, it took me three weeks just to come up with this act to begin with!"

"That's showbiz for you. You'll just have to work even harder on your next shows. I know it seems harsh, but that's just what you signed up for."

"A week… Spirits damn it all you're right though, I'm going to have to put so much more effort into this, can I even get a proper costume for my next show in that time?" Azel began to mutter to himself going over the details of his next performance.

As Azel mulled over the details of his suddenly restricted schedule, Lucia remembered something important. "Um, speaking of time, do you know if the telepad station is still open this late? It would be a long walk back to Theophanies if they're closed."

"Telepads are closed right now, sorry," Percy replied with a frown. "And there's no watercar service in this part of Ruskol on top of that."

A horrified realization crossed Mead's mind as she listened. "Wait, just how late is it anyway?" A quick glance at a clock hanging on the wall revealed it was just past 11. "Shit, I needed to be back at the towers by 10! I can't let my parents know I was watching an illegal powers show, they'd disown and kill me!"

"Whoa, Mead, settle down," said Petru. "This is as much of my problem as it is yours. If we go to your place together right now, I can make up an explanation for your parents that'll keep us both out of trouble."

Mead seemed to calm down hearing this. "A-are you sure, Mister Laurent?"

Petru smiled. "Of course, you're my best worker. I can't have you getting in trouble on my account." Mead grabbed Petru in a hug, a wide smile on her face.

"I suppose this means I'll be locking up tonight, boss?" Percy inquired.

"Yeah, I'll need you to take care of that. That just leaves Luce to take care of, then. Azel," Petru said, turning to his remaining employee. "You live close by, right?"

Azel was pulled out of his mumbling at the sound of his name. "Oh, um, yeah, it's a bit of a walk though. Wait, you don't mean…" he started.

"Take Luce to your place for the night. You're the one who got her to come up here, so you should take some responsibility for her."

Azel turned to Lucia, flustered. "W-would that be alright with you?"

Lucia gave Azel a smile. "Sure, it should be fine. It's not like you're thinking about taking advantage of a poor, defenseless girl who had no other choice but to stay at your place." The rest of the group started laughing, with the exception of Azel, whose tail began rattling slightly.

"I-I would never do something like that!" Azel blurted out.

Lucia put a hand on Azel's shoulder as the group's laughter died down. "That was another joke. I think I'm starting to see why Mead thought you don't have a sense of humor."

Azel looked down at the floor. "Sorry. To be fair, it hardly feels like a joke when someone I just met today pokes fun at my character."

Lucia's mood shifted hearing this. "Oh, yeah. I guess that was kind of insensitive. Sorry."

"You're right though, I could've tried to take the joke better. Tell you what," Azel started, already looking more upbeat. "Feel free to make any joke at my expense you like, after we've known each other for more than a day. You'll have a free pass to say whatever you want tomorrow, if you can handle one night of not suggesting that I, a literal criminal power user, am a shady degenerate." He reached out his hand. "Deal?"

The group started laughing again, and Lucia blushed. "Hey, who's digging at whose character now? One night, huh? I can handle one night, mister 'literal criminal.'" She took Azel's hand and they shook on it. "You've got a deal."

Petru spoke up as the laughter died down again. "So I take it that means you two are fine with staying at Azel's for the night?" Azel and Lucia nodded together. "Good. Now that everything's sorted out, let's get moving out. Not a lot of night left as it is, anyway."

With that, the group gathered their things and went their separate ways: Petru and Mead headed on the long road south to the Sabbaton Towers, and Percy stayed behind to lock up the Dry Vein. Azel and Lucia started in the direction of Azel's apartment, with Lucia shivering from the frigid Ruskol winds. Azel, now wearing his heavy coat from earlier in the day, seemed less fazed by the cold. The two spoke little as they winded through the alleyways, as though speaking would cost them the precious little heat they had. After about a half hour of walking they arrived at the apartment building, a sturdy-looking structure similar to most of the other buildings in the area but for its larger size to accommodate multiple individual apartments. After Azel got his keys, he and Lucia made their way inside.

Almost immediately after entering the apartment, Azel went to turn on a space heater in the center of the room. Lucia looked around at the apartment, which had only a few furnishings including a couch with a blanket hung over the back of it, a coffee table, and some small bookshelves. The shelves were loaded with a number of books on various topics, though a considerable number of them appeared to be fiction and fantasy stories. A small corner kitchen was off to the right hand side of the door, and there was a pair of doors on the other side of the apartment, no doubt leading to a bedroom and bathroom.

When he was finished turning on the heater, Azel turned to Lucia and spoke up. "Well, this is it. Home sweet home. The heater should start working in a bit."

"It looks pretty nice, small but cozy," Lucia noted. "The heater will be nice, how do you manage with the cold up here anyway?"

"It's pretty rough, especially in the winter, but you get used to it. Easier with a thick coat."

"One without holes for wings, right? I think you forgot about that little detail."

"Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. And for making you have to stay here tonight. The invitation was kind of a spur of the moment thing, so I didn't really think any of this through."

Lucia shrugged. "Hey, it's fine. I came without much of a plan, so it's just as much on me that we had to do this. Next week, I'll make sure to plan ahead for how to get home, and maybe opt for a thicker coat."

Azel's eyes widened. "Next week? You'll be coming back for the next show?"

"Why not? It was a good time, even with the scheduling problems. New experiences, new friends, what's not to like?"

"Well, I guess that means I have to make the show even better next time, knowing you'll be there to see it." Azel smiled. "Oh, I guess while we're planning ahead, it would be good to know when you need to get to the telepad station tomorrow."

"Even if we get there as early as possible, I'll probably end up late for work," Lucia admitted. "Probably better to get there right when it opens though."

"Right when it opens, then." Azel confirmed. "And you can have the bedroom tonight, it's the door on the right. I can take the couch for the night."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to force you to be uncomfortable."

"I don't mind. You're the guest, right? Take the bed. More room for your wings, and besides, the heater's in this room so I won't have to worry about being too cold."

"Okay, if you insist. I guess this is good night, then?"

"Yeah, good night. Can't wait to hear what kind of immoral monster you're going to suggest I am for letting you have the nice bed tomorrow."

"Hey, I don't have to make jokes about you. For all you know, I could wake up and say you're next to the Spirits in terms of morality."

"Ha! Now that'd be a joke!" Azel laughed, heading to the couch to lie down. "Well, good night again."

"Good night, Azel. It was fun. I'm glad I came." With that, Lucia headed over to the right door and made her way into the bedroom. The room had very little furniture in it other than an end table with a lamp on it as well as the bed itself in the corner. The bed was fairly tidy and had a number of blankets piled on it to combat the cold of the night. Pulling off her coat and laying it at the foot of the bed, Lucia climbed in under the blankets, stretching her wings out as she contemplated the events of the day.

A brand new experience of a show using powers, dangerously illegal but excitingly liberating in its novelty. A new group of friends, including Azel, the dreamkeeper who made the show possible. And most enticing of all, the thought of it all continuing through the coming weeks, adding some much needed spice to her life. As she grew more tired in the warmth of the bed, Lucia smiled and drifted to sleep, thoughts of the future floating through her mind.

In the other room, Azel lay on the couch, covered with the blanket he pulled from over it. Like Lucia, his mind was also racing with ideas. He had taken his first step in making his show of powers, and it felt amazing. He jumped mentally from new concepts for where he could take the show in the coming weeks to thoughts about how much more he'd been actually interacting with the people around him and how good it felt to actually get to know them better. Azel was sure there would be struggles and stress ahead, but for the rewarding feelings he got from just putting himself out there today, he felt the trouble would all be worth it. While he thought, his exhaustion from the day won over his excitement and he fell into a restful sleep.