>>5148469The others hurry off to make their own preparations and, like a second skin, you slide into the coin-festooned silken attire of your alter-ego. You stuff your feelings into a box deep inside, and you don the effortless, haughty confidence of Kamunu.
“It’s good that you’re back,” Mina says, as you step out of the washing-up room where you typically get changed. The cat-like humanoid, madam and founder of this place, watches you with her usual unreadable gaze… But you sense, faintly, that she too was concerned.
“It’ss good to be back,” you say. “Now, let’sss entertain ssome patronsss, shall we?”
Taking to the stage is like coming home, in many ways. It is, at least, a welcome distraction from the stresses of life-and-death battle, the rigors of demon hunting, Irinnile’s constant hunger, and… And from the whole matter of Edwin. You focus on mastery, on grace, on stage-presence and on your body. You tune out everything else and just let yourself be a purely physical being for a time, with your mind focused only on manipulating your movements. Only at the end do you begin to weave in your signature ribbons of golden light and fractal rainbows—illusion as the capstone of a beautiful, tantalizing dance. You still have it, and the crowd clearly appreciates your return. The coins scattered or rolled across the stage attest to your continued dominance of the dance-floor!
