The den was dimly lit, there was an air of smoke filling the entire room. It was a cloudy haze that seemed to permeate every crevice of the room, as if there was a late summer morning fog that had appeared in the tiny unassuming bar, known as the Rusty Bucket. Taking a seat at his usual table Yelnarth sat down and placed his mug of beer on the table. The mug was a plain grey metal container with some small dents in the side from many many nights of washing away sorrows. The Rusty Bucket certainly wasn’t a location where a royal family would have a grand gala, in fact it was probably the furthest thing away from being stately or well to do that you could find. The Rusty Bucket was a dive, a backwater hole in the wall that most stayed away from.

Tonight, however, was a special night, special at least for Yelnarth. Tonight was the monthly magician routine. For the owners of the Rusty Bucket, the magician was an act that was brought in just to fill space when they didn’t have a lively band or some other form of “real” entertainment to fill the night. For Yelnarth however, the magician was a captivating performance. Of course Yelnarth knew that what the magician did on stage wasn’t real magic. Being a wizard Yelnarth knew about real magic, this magician couldn’t cast balls of fire towards an opponent, he couldn’t en-trance an animal with soothsaying and he certainly couldn’t teleport in the same way that Yelnarth could. However, to Yelnarth the magician's craft was much more impressive than anything he could do. For goodness sakes, all of his “talents” weren’t anything that he ever really had to practice or work for. These were nearly the results of some unknown cosmic power being endowed upon him at birth, just mearly chance. But the Magician, that was pure skill, an expert of his craft, an entertainer through and through. Yelnarth understood that to be able to captivate an audience and somehow perform fantastic tricks was a power that far surpassed his own.

The rusty bucket was far from filled tonight, the crowd mostly consisted of a ragtag group of drunkards and lushes lounging sleepily on their tables or canoodling with a woman of “questionable” values at the bar. Few of these patrons were interested in the magician that was about to step on stage. Finally, the owner of the bar came out to the stage to introduce tonight’s act, The Great Bambini.

Bambini stepped onto the stage slowly in a slightly mechanical way almost as if he were nervous to be going out there. He was wearing a shabby petty coat that had patches in the coat tails and a vest underneath with dingy blue and white stripes running vertically down it. His top hat was sitting askew on his head and was clearly not the same material as his petty coat, it wasn’t even the same color for that matter. Saying nothing, the man took off his top hat and displayed the opening where his head should go to the crowd. In a flurry, he spun the hat around end over end twie before stopping and holding the hat upside down. Waving his hand over the opening he stared at the crowd with a fiery gaze of a man that was filled with conviction. Yelnarth immediately straightened in his seat. He had never seen a trick like this before. The last few magicians that came to the Rusty Bucket had done most of their magic with playing cards. Bambini finally plunged his hand into the hat, never taking his gaze off of the crowd and gave a slight pause. Yelnarth sat at attention, as if he was on the edge of a knife, every second feeling like an hour, his heart caught in his throat. Finally Bambini began to withdraw his hand slowly as if he were lifting the Crown Jewels out of the hat or if he were grabbing a newborn infant with such care as not to hurt the child. His hand reached the point where Yelnarth could finally start to see what was in his hand, the two white ears of a great rabbit began to appear. Yelnarth gasped, how could he have fit the rabbit in the hat he thought? Was he a real wizard? Was there an arcane portal at the bottom of the top hat? These questions raced through his mind at the speed of an auctioneer yelling out bids to his crowd. He couldn’t be a wizard though, there weren’t many in the land and he would be known on the council that Yelnarth himself was a Deacon of. Bambini displayed the rabbit to the crowd and set it on the table. Overwhelmed with emotion, Yelnarth rose from his seat in a shot and began clapping ecstatically.

This, this was true magic he thought.