Chương 68: Sunken Vials

"Today's the big day, huh?" Albert sipped on his tea while rubbing the marigold pendant on his neck. The sun glistened through the windows, reflected further by the bed of flowers at the base. The combination of the sweet fragrance and the soft light was an alien feeling Evel couldn't quite get used to.

"It almost felt like it would never arrive," He replied, his face bruised from the abuse Albert had dished out on him just a few minutes prior. Today was the ninth day since he paid off the debt of his four workers. It also marked the first day that the circus would be open. It was deliberately placed on a Sunday to try and catch as many people on their day off as possible.

"You seem excited." Albert placed down his empty cup and pushed back his wooden chair. Evel sighed.

"Do I have a tell?" Acting was a core component of being a magician, so he thought it was one of his strengths. Somehow, Albert always had a read on him. Albert chuckled, cleaning up the cutlery from the table.

"Well, I was pretty excited when I made progress on my first job, so I can't imagine it'd be different for you."

"I got that Prachar information, didn't I?" Albert clicked his tongue.

"200 credits on your very first task. It annoys me how good your luck is. And that's after all the Agent and Anonymous fees."

"Luck wouldn't be too bad to have…" Evel finished his own meal and helped clean up. He neatly stacked all the cutlery onto one plate, then stacked everything else on another. After handing them off to Albert, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial filled with a grey liquid. He sighed.

"Most people don't fully use up all their Energy when they train, you know. If you just left a little lingering at the end, it would be significantly less painful."

"I can handle it." Albert gave him a pointed, lingering look, then silently retreated to the kitchen with the plates. Evel walked out on the woollen carpet by the fireplace and sat himself in a lotus position. Taking a few steady breaths to calm his body, he unscrewed the cork on the vial. With a burst of aura, an illusory, transparent hand appeared above his head and began gently floating around. Evel brought the vial to his lip and gulped it in one go. Bitter.

He closed his eyes, focusing absolutely on his connection with Eth. It took a while for the vial to do its job, as he had learned last time, and his mind couldn't help but claw at some sort of escape. Maybe this sunken vial was a dud? Maybe he wouldn't be able to train as hard just this one time? Maybe he didn't even need the vial's effects? Evel groaned as his thoughts were immediately answered. It wasn't a dud.

The searing pain travelled from his stomach to his heart, then it slowly spread out to the rest of his body as well. It wasn't so bad just yet. The issue was when he ran out of Energy. He tried his best to stifle his groans, but as the scorching pain spread further and further across his body, his groans transformed into yelps. Then, as the last of his Energy waned, he once again fell back into screams, raw and jagged.

The combined pain from the headache of running low on Energy and the torture of the sunken vials resulted in something terrifying. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. His screams increased in intensity for another minute… Then they completely stopped. Evel pushed himself off the ground and collapsed on the carpet. With a sigh, Albert returned to the room. In his hands was a flowerpot with nothing but dirt.

He placed the pot on the couch seat in front of Evel. A warm, powerful aura filled the room. Soon, a green sprout poked through the soil and grew quickly into a leafy plant with a green bud at the head. The soothing aura intensified. The plant's bud opened, revealing the first splash of colour, before finally fully blooming, the petals transforming into a bright yellow. Evel couldn't help but be mesmerized by the flower's simple beauty.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Albert asked, his aura fading away.

"Hm," He weakly replied. Albert's core ability was simple: He could grow flowers, which would absorb his own Energy, as well as any impurities for growth. In this case, it helped get rid of the residual effects of the elixers. After his advancement to Weaver, the flowers also acquired an extremely useful healing effect that not only calmed pain, but more importantly, the mind. Sunken Vials. When he had read about them in the introduction catalogue, he had already decided he'd use them.

They provide a big burst of Energy into your core, meaning the training session would be extended much further than its normal maximum capacity. It was exactly what Evel needed to be able to keep up. It had a nasty side effect of contaminating the core, but there were services available to get people who were able to clean all the pollution created. Albert was one of these people, and luckily for Evel, he offered to do it for free on the condition that Evel took a maximum of one a week.

It was an easy decision to make. Despite wanting to be stronger, the pain it caused was terrifying to face, so he welcomed the respite. Evel pushed himself off the couch and to his feet, dusting off his pants and adjusting the collar of his coat.

"Thank you again," Evel bowed. Maybe he really was lucky.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Albert lightly waved before his eyes travelled to the horizon out the window. Evel left through the front door. His walking was a little staggered, but it was a small cost for the low price. Around the time he arrived in the city proper, he'd be back to walking normally. Evel approached and crossed the metal bridge with no issues. The guards on Sunday were new, but they must have heard stories from their colleagues since they didn't even attempt to stop him.

The big show would be starting in a few hours, and Evel still had some preparations to do, so he paced through the alleyways to get there as quickly as possible. Throughout this week, he had been spending the day after he finishes his training with Albert on giving his employees the best possible magician training they could get. He was satisfied with the results. Clara had become a reliable assistant, already well-versed in his tricks.

She showed a desire for more responsibility, which Evel eventually planned to give her once her strength and frame had fully recovered. Toan proved surprisingly talented in the arts, becoming their de facto head of set and costume design; he practiced card tricks from time to time, though he lacked a natural knack for them. Yuna, on the other hand, was a little slow to learn. While she hadn't found a specific specialty yet, he could tell she was making a genuine effort. Mateo was the most impressive of all.

He had a real affinity for cards and was already pushing past the basics. His fingers were still a bit clumsy, but he was already a master at drawing attention elsewhere. Getting trained in the morning, training others during the day, and training himself during the night. It was busy, but seeing the amount of progress had just made him want to work harder.

"Hey, Eth." A worker waved at him from the food stall he'd often get lunch from. Evel lightly nodded and continued walking towards the colourful tent. By now, he had managed to get used to his new name, despite how… unorthodox it was. As he arrived at the tent, he made sure it was standing okay. A few days ago, some rain and heavy winds had ruined small portions of it, causing him to almost regret not requesting a sturdier building, but with a day's worth of work, everything was back to up and running.

The tent came with its own major benefits. It was really cheap. And all that extra Riak Agent was willing to offer, he could spend on paying off more people's debts. Five people were a good start, but they'd quickly need more. Evel pushed aside the curtains on the tent to see his four colleagues already practicing. Clara was performing her wobbly cartwheels, Toan and Yuna were in the midst of stitching together some costumes, and Mateo was practicing some sort of card trick — a false shuffle?

Hopefully, it was supposed to be something else. The moment Evel stepped inside the room, all four of them immediately stopped what they were doing and walked over to Evel.

"You alright, Eth?" Mateo asked, his eyes wandering to his hands. Evel followed his gaze to find his right palm trembling. He placed it in his pocket and smiled.

"Yes, how are the preparations coming along?" Mateo reported first, "I've gotten pretty familiar with the lines and the tricks. As long as we don't try anything brand new, I should be alright. As for tricks, some card tricks are okay, but juggling takes a while to get the hang of." Toan was quick to follow, "Costumes are done, just making the other ones you said to get started on. We're gonna shock the world!" Yuna gave a firm nod, "All of the equipment is maintained. There probably won't be an accident." Probably?

Clara kept it brief, "I'm ready."

"The posters were made?"

"They were… but my drawing isn't quite…" Mateo trailed off. A strong feeling of nostalgia washed over him as Evel clapped his hands together and addressed the four of them at the same time.

"That's fine. Alright, guys, we have a few hours left until we open up, so we'll do one final dry run." The first performance would soon be underway.