Escape from the market square

I landed on the offered finger, and the little hermit turned and sprinted away down the alley.

We travelled through several back-ways, until we reached an abandoned warehouse.

The tiny hermit sprinted through what was left of the warehouse’s massive main door - it was hanging barely on one hinge, leaving a gap big enough for us the squeeze through - and we were plunged into darkness.

For me, not an issue as I had Phoenix-grade night vision - apparently my mode of transport also had night vision, as she navigated the old and dusty bales of forgotten merchandise with ease.

After we exited the other side of the warehouse, the little hermit finally stopped in front of what I can only call a shack - where the tiny hermit removed her hood and turned her face to address me.

Two slotted green cat eyes looked into mine - and there were still cat ears on top of a light brown head of short fluffy hair, even  with the hood down.

"There, we’re home now!" [Cat Eared Girl]

"You aren’t Anna!"

"Eh? No, I’m Cayna - well I’m an orphan with no name, so I gave myself the same as a High Elf known as the Silver Ring Witch, who I admired in the past." [Cayna the Cat Eared Girl]

"…."

"……" [Cayna]

"You understood me!"

"You can speak!" [Cayna]

Weird, no-one in the market had understood me and last time I checked my status sheet there was nothing new - hey Appraisal-San, since when did I get a speech skill?

{{You… didn’t. Tch… Oh I see... This is highly un-conventual - and highly un-professional of SOMEONE, I must say.}}

What is it?

{{You will have to figure that out yourself. I’ve already said too much. Excuse me, I have to go register a complaint…}}

YOU’VE SAID NOTHING!!!

Sigh…

"So… who are you?" [Cayna]

"Someone who always wears the same cloak you have on gave me the name Nitram… I… also have no parents."

At this Cayna did a V with her right hand and grinned - I caught sight of longer than normal canniness.

"Oh, so we’re orphan buddies! Fight-on! And I found this cloak in a derelict tailor shop - found several of them, but this was the one that was still mostly in one piece… even then, still had to Frankenstein it up a bit using the other left-overs, before I could wear it." [Cayna]

Now that I looked at her, the mouse-gray cat-eared hooded cloak was full of repairs and permanently stained - quite unlike the always pristine one Anna the tiny hermit would always wear.

"Why did you reach out to me back there? I really thought you were my friend, Anna…"

"Eh, looked like you had caused a ruckus at the great sage’s statue and could use an escape - am I wrong?" [Cayna]

"No… but I could also have just flown UP, you know?"

Cayna lightly bopped the side of her head with a fist while sticking her tongue out a bit on the side of her mouth.

"Oh… I didn’t think about that, haha!" [Cayna]

"Well, honestly, nor did I at the time, so we’re even… do you live here?"

"Yep! This is Mi Casa and now Su Casa if you want! Well, I suppose I don’t actually own it. But no-one else wants it - too small for most of the homeless in these slums…" [Cayna]

I looked around and indeed we were in the part of the city I had seen above that was obviously slums, in the sixth and outermost ring of the city.

"Er… are we in the outer ring now? The market is in the fifth ring, isn’t it?"

"Yeah - remember that old warehouse we ran through? Seems in the past someone had built a warehouse on each side of the fifth wall and tunnelled through the wall between the two warehouses…" [Cayna]

A light went on in my head.

"Ah! Tax-evaders!"

"What? Like mafia or something?" [Cayna]

"Maybe… I’m guessing in the past there was some import tax for goods being moved from one ring to another, so some merchants decided to by-pass that - they could move their wares through the fifth wall in broad daylight simply by using that double warehouse trick."

"Oh, yeah, I can see that! Still, it sort of makes the whole city less secure… invaders would love to know about that breach…" [Cayna]

"Good point - but how are we going to inform anyone? I bet neither of us are on speaking terms with any official…"

"Yeah no… I’m just barely squeezing a living from being a G-rank adventurer… last thing some un-person like me wants to do is get involved with the city guards." [Cayna]

"G-rank adventurer? What do they do?"

"Ah, only became one an year ago - I can go gather herbs, and do small chores, like bring messages between stores, and sometimes carry deliveries around - I might not look it but I’m stronker than a gorilla! I also help old people by cleaning gutters or tidying up gardens, weeding and that sort of thing… Not very glamorous, but safe enough for someone my size…" [Cayna]

Something was ringing in my brain all this time… here was for lack of a better term a street urchin with a vocabulary that seemed a bit mismatched from their situation. This sort of nagged at me, but I could not put my finger on the why.

Anyway, I had other fish to fry…

"Hey Cayna, could you help me find my friend, Anna? I’m sure she’d give you a reward or something…"

"I guess… where does she live?" [Cayna]

"Well, technically in the endless forest, but she is visiting the university here… the Brundal Institute of something or other…."

Cayna eyes visible opened wide and her nose - which was human but very cat-like nevertheless - twitched.

"Oh, Brundal Institute for the Advancement of Magic Tools and their Daily Practical Use! Or BI-AMaToo-DaPrU for short!" [Cayna]

"Ehr… yeah, that…"

"Hmmm, that’s in the forth ring, where all the upper-crust live. There is no cheat path into there that I know of - and they charge commoners an entrance tax if one doesn’t have an official pass card… afraid I barely make enough to eat one or two meals at day, so I can’t afford that tax…" [Cayna]

Hmmm… how to make money with the lack of assets we had…. And some memories of "how to magic" books that I had been a great fan of in my past life swirled into my mind.

"How about putting on a magic show at the market place? Like card reading or me appearing and disappearing between two boxes or something?"

"Oh like Riegfried and Soy, or Cavid Dopperfield, sort of thing?" [Cayna]

"No, I was thinking more like Tenn and Peller - you be Tenn and I’ll stay mute like Peller"

"……" [Cayna]

"…………"

”!!!!!!" [Cayna]

"You remember your past life, too?"

"You’re a re-incarnater, too?" [Cayna]

Eh, now I knew what had been bothering me all this time… Cayna had been referencing common things and making common moves all the time now - common only to my past life that is!

---

It’s showtime!

Today we were ready to give our first magic show!

Which sounds strange in a world where magic was a thing - but we’d be showing tricks and illusions that even the past Great Sage would have had trouble replicating for real!

It took us almost a week to gather supplies and practice - after all, Cayna still had to do her adventure work every day to be able to feed herself.

I tagged along on her jobs, although I must admit I was mostly useless  - I didn’t know anything about the herbs she gathered, and of course I could not carry anything worth mentioning. My lack of having the item box skill really keeps hitting home, doesn’t it?

Sigh…

Cayna got permission to set up our little “stage” for free at the very outskirts of the market - where the used item and junk sellers had stands.

And with “stand” I was being generous - most of the junk re-sellers just had an old cloth under their wares, and some not even that.

We had started setting up even before the sun rose - and I say we, but to be honest, it was all up to Cayna - I had no hands after all, and I was about the size of a satsuma.

Yeah, I’m starting to feel a bit useless…

Well I was integral to all the tricks, so at least that - I vowed to do my very best to make our little show a success!

The sun was now a quarter of the way up, halfway to noon.

Cayna stood on an old box, a tattered red rag in one hand that she started to wave around.

"Laddddiieeesss and gentlebeings! Our first show will start soon, please gather around and be astounded, amazed, and shocked at the wonders and secret techniques we bring from the orient!" [Cayna]

There was an orient in this world? Huh… who knew?

Well probably the people living there, but as maps were very rare, I had yet to see what this world looked like.

A small crowd gathered - entertainment was hard to come by so any show was a welcome change - which is what we had been betting on.

My turn now!

"First up I need a volunteer from the audience - how about you, Sir? You look as if no-one can pull a fast one on you - here, take these five cards and show them around to everyone - great great - as you can see they each have an animal drawn on one side…" [Cayna]

An older fellow who had stood at the front took the "cards" from Cayna, and following her instructions showed everyone around what was on them.

We had found these by chance in the ruins of what seemed to have been a schoolroom at one time - the "cards" were actually very thin boards of painted wood, about the size of a typical magazine. These five were the only ones that still were usable, and were perfect for this trick. 

While Cayna was doing her talk, I flew onto the hat of the lady standing just behind the volunteer - he had been partially chosen because of this useful perch behind him.

"Now, my dear Sir, I will turn around so I can’t see what you are doing, and you will pick one of the cards, and only show that one card to everyone around. Then put all the cards back together and let me know when you are done." [Cayna]

The fellow did as instructed.

"Ok, I’m done…" [Volunteer]

"Chirp…" - is what the audience heard coming from me. 

Of course, Cayna heard what I actually said, which was the name of the animal on the card.

And luckily, the name was written on the card, because I had never heard of, let alone seen, any of these weird and fantastical creatures.

Cayna stayed turned away from the audience on her "stage" and started to wave her arms slowly around.

"Ah, I see…. The great spirits are talking to me… I seeeeee...  yes….. it was an Oliphant, was it not?" [Cayna]

The crowd ooohed and aaahhhhed. No clapping yet, though…

"You got it, Missy…" [Volunteer]

"Thank you, thank you! Now if you could hand the cards to anyone next to you, please? Good - now whoever has the cards now, let’s make this a bit more difficult - pick two cards, show them around, then put them back into the stack - let me know when you are ready." [Cayna]

This time a young shop-girl had the cards - she picked two, showed them around, then put them all back.

"I’m ready…" [Shop-girl]

"Chirp"

Cayna, still looking away from the audience put one hand on her head, while slowly waving the other one in the air above her.

"Ah, the spirits are being noisy today…. Calm down, calm down! I sense… yes, yes, it was a Gragnok and a Perimonton! Am I correct?" [Cayna]

And this time there was a smattering of applause with the oooohs and aahhs.

Seems the crowd was warming up - although no-one had yet thrown any coins into the waiting rusty pot we had placed for that purpose.

Cayna turned around and collected the cards from the shop-girl as I non-chalantly flew to a perch at one end of a long board that for the purpose of the act we called a "table".

"Thank you thank you! Now for my next trick, I will transport my cute assistant here, this bird, from this side of the table over to the other side." [Cayna]

On each end of the board was a small cardboard box, one red, one blue.

Also, to appear bigger than I was, I had fluffed out my feathers - this would help with the upcoming illusion, and deter people from guessing the truth of the trick.

"Ah, we have a member of the most honoured market guard here - Sir would you mind knocking on this table to ensure it is solid?" [Cayna]

The bewildered guard who had just been volunteered stepped forward and knocked on the board several times - and of course it sounded quite solid through and through - which it was, but only on top!

The “table" was of course hiding a trick - it was thicker than a standard table, and hollow at the back edge for its full length, with small trapdoors on the top to allow me to slip in and out of the "tunnel". The bottom of the “tunnel” was just thin cardboard, but anyone standing around would not notice that.

Cayna picked up each box and handed them to the guard.

"Now Sir Guard, if you could verify that both boxes are empty…." [Cayna]

The guard grinned, starting to warm up to his impromptu role in the show, and pointedly looked into each box - I guess everyone has a bit of ham in them.

"Emp… empty! Both boxes are empty!" [Market guard]

Cayna retrieved the boxes and placed them carefully over the hidden trapdoors.

"Thank you Sir! Now, my assistant will enter the blue box here… as so… and then…" [Cayna]

Cayna removed a stick from her pocket - we had painted it black and pasted some coloured glass shards onto its end to make a magic wand - no self respecting mage would be caught dead with such a fake looking wand - but this, this was show business!

"I will now wave my wand over the blue box and say the magic word…. Alacazaaam!" [Cayna]

I poked my head out of the top of the box and looked at the audience - there was some laughter, which was what we had been hoping for.

Cayna pretended to push me back into the box with both hands, and I ducked down, opened the trap door below, hopped into the tunnel, and closed the trap door again.

"Ah… seems my magic is not strong enough… deer audience - if you could all say the word this time with me? On three… one… two… three… Alacazaaam!" [Cayna]

"Alacabalazamba!" [Audience with some jokers]

Cayna waved her wand at the magic word and even in the tunnel in the board that I was running along I could hear maybe a third of the audience playing along.

The blue box suddenly collapsed - thanks to a very thin thread Cayna had pulled.

”Oooohhhhhhh…" [Crowd]

Of course by now I had taken my place in the other box - the red one.

Cayna walked over to the box I was now in, tapped it twice with her fake wand just for good measure, and opened the lid - at which I fluttered up and landed on her head.

Finally proper applause broke out!

Cayna and I did a short bow to each side.

And finally a few coins dropped into the rusty old pot we had placed in front of our little "stage" for that purpose.

We ran through three more routines before taking a short break and to reset all the props for the next show.

we had timed it so we could do a show in about twenty for the five tricks we had - that was about the max anyone would stick around, we figured.

By evening we had collected quite some coins - and as expected, a few buttons, too…

---

The days before our show

While we were scrounging up ideas and materials for our magic show, I got to know Cayna better.

"So what skills do you have?"

"Skills? Like you mean just what I can do - or wait, do you mean cheats?" [Cayna]

"Well, cheats I guess - you did see some deity or other before awakening here, right?"

"No…. I don’t even remember that I died - can’t remember my old name, who I was, or if I even had any family or friends… just vague feeling I did something in engineering…" [Cayna]

Well most of that sounded familiar…

As Cayna was having to do all the building of our props, I already knew she had a really good way with tools, measurements, and just all round maker skills.

"So what does your status say?"

"Status… I don’t seem to have one - I tried all the cliche and some non-cliche ways to call it up…. But… nothing. I’m just a normal inhabitant of this world - an NPC… sigh…" [Cayna]

Ehhh?

Hey Appraisal-San - is that true?

{{Hm? What do you want now?}}

Does Cayna really not have any cheats or even a status screen?

{{Of course she has a status screen - all re-incarnates have that these days.}}

So how come she can’t see it?

{{…}}

…

{{… … ah… …}}

What?

{{Has she not tried appraising herself?}}

Eh? Why would she? She doesn’t even know if she has that skill! Well, let’s ask…

"Um… so Cayna… have you ever tried to appraise yourself maybe?"

"No - why should I? I don’t even know if I have tha…" [Cayna]

Called it - who would try something they knew wouldn’t work?

"Ohhh…" [Cayna]

Cayna stared ahead into nothingness - apparently Appraisal-San’s idea was indeed the trick.

{{Told you. The re-incarnation specialist assigned to her would have instructed her on all that.}}

First, she says no-one talked to her before she woke up her

{That is highly irregular… I’ll look into that. Why am I getting the feeling that it is yo… No, never mind.}}

Well let me know what you find out - also, why does it work when I say "status"?

{{Ah, that’s because I figured you would not think of appraising yourself, and as you have me as your dedicated appraiser, just think of it as an extra service. I will go check on what happened with your companion now.}}

Somehow I got the feeling Appraisal-San just called me dumb…

Meanwhile Cayna had a grin on her face.

"Good news?"

"Oh yeah! Nothing we can really use for our show - but I have a goal! I want to enroll in the university! Here, look!" [Cayna]

"People can’t see other people’s status screen you know?"

"Oh… then let me tell you what I’ve got!" [Cayna]

---