Zack Adder was awash with emotions, not all of them his own.

  Sienna’s pride and excitement and happiness were there, of course. Those were fine.

  The strong pleasure of the taste of mouse was, on the other hand, greatly disturbing. He did his best not to let his instinctive disgust pass back through their bond.

  There was also the fading adrenaline of Sienna’s mad lunging and flipping around the room after the mouse.

  Sienna was still, by far, the most dangerous creature he’d encountered in this world. Even more than Rosimund, level 40 [Guide] that he was. At least Rosimund knew his own strength.

  Zack didn’t think that Sienna really understood his nervousness.

  It had taken all his willpower and a lot of help from [Calm Down] to sit still while Sienna chased the mouse around the room and under his bed. Luckily, the mouse had fled away from where he was sitting, and Sienna got it in the end.

  It had just all happened so fast, and so chaotically.

  But despite all that…

  He was happy that she had had fun.

  So even as he had the delicious taste of freshly killed mouse forced upon him, he felt their bond deepen, and his own sense of smell grew slightly more acute.

  “Alright, Sienna. I’ll be back later tonight.”

  Okay. Sleepy time.

  She was already slithering into her little cave and coiling up for another few days of sleep and digestion.

  Zack knew he didn’t know enough about familiars yet, but as a pet, Sienna was much better than he had feared. She didn’t require much: fresh water daily, terrarium cleaning as needed, and feeding only once every few days. She didn’t need to be walked or taken out much, either.

  She was just, well, extremely dangerous.

  Zack headed back to the Rose Theater. By the time he arrived, the matinee was over and everyone was gearing up for the evening performance.

  The Director spotted him instantly as he stepped into the lobby.

  “There you are, Understudy! Go backstage and get ready, you’re filling in for Tim—he’s caught himself a cold.”

  And as soon as he said that, he whirled off again, busy as ever.

  Tim was one of the extras, usually filling out crowds, but he had a few scenes where he handled props. He handed Ronaldo his sword in a few scenes, so it wasn’t as though there was no [Acting] involved.

  “Break a leg, Jack!” Emily called as he hurried by.

  “Thanks!” He smiled.

  He headed straight backstage and ran into Millie.

  “Oh, Millie, I had something I wanted to pass on to you.”

  “Huh? Pass on?”

  Zack explained about Jacques Lamont, the tailor, but he had barely got the name out before Millie frowned.

  “Oh no, I’m not going to work for him. You must not have mentioned my name; I’ve turned him down before.”

  “He said he was offering two fortin a day, though.”

  “Jack, maybe you’ll understand when you’re older, but it’s not all about money. If I worked for him, I’d be sewing the same things over and over and over. It’d be torture. I might whine a bit about working here, but I like working on all the different costumes and making up my own designs. That’s worth far more to me than two fortin a day.” She gave him a stern look. “If you see him again, don’t mention my name, but you can tell him I’m not interested no matter how much is offered.”

  “Alright, then.”

  Well, he tried.

  There was still an hour to go before curtain call, so he had plenty of time to get his costume in order along with the rest of the actors. He removed his false scar and applied some basic stage makeup, and that was it, he was ready.

  “Jack!”

  Ronaldo beckoned from the edge of the dressing room. “Let’s rehearse our scenes together, just run it through.”

  They got out on stage and ran through the blocking, that is, where Jack would be standing on stage, where Ronaldo would be, and Jack’s cues. He had the script memorized, but he quickly found that if he relied merely on the script in his head, it wasn’t good enough.

  He needed to be [Acting].

  Most of his cues were Ronaldo saying “My sword!” at which point Jack stepped forward and presented the sword. Easy enough.

  “No, slow down, wait until I call for it in this scene.”

  “Jack, slow down.”

  “No, in this scene, you’re eager to give me the sword, you should be moving as soon as I say ‘Fine.’”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  By the end of the rehearsal, which had seemed to last only a few minutes, Zack was much less confident in his [Acting].

  Ronaldo smiled. “Well, try to relax. It’s your first real show. Nobody expects perfection.”

  Zack gave Ronaldo a look. “The Director?”

  Ronaldo looked away. “Well, even if you’re perfect, he’ll find something to critique. Just, uh, do your best.”

  Roxy bounced up from behind Zack and glommed onto him. “You’ll be fine! Break both your legs! Nyahahahaha!”

  And Roxy and Ronaldo were both correct.

  Zack played the sword-bearer’s role without terribly disrupting the play.

  He certainly didn’t miss any cues.

  Nor did he enter or exit the stage at the wrong times.

  But the Director’s critique after the crowds had departed was merciless.

  “Jack, did you forget how to [Pose]? What was this?!” The Director mimicked out Zack had been standing on stage, stiff and awkward. “You’re supposed to be a sword-bearer! Think! Act! Inhabit the role! If you’re a sword-bearer, where are you looking?! You need to be anticipating your lord’s needs, ready to respond immediately!”

  It went on in this vein for some time, and then, at the very end, there was the faintest praise.

  “Well, it wasn’t horrible for your first show. We’ll whip you into shape. Ronaldo!”

  And the Director turned to the lead actor.

  “You did much better with your sword today, both shows! That training paid off! Now that your mornings are free, you’re gonna work with Jack and get him up to par as an Understudy, starting with all the minor roles and working up to the majors!”

  “You got it, Director.” Ronaldo smiled stiffly.

  “Roxy!”

  The Director continued on with his critique and then finally released them. As soon as he cleared the doorway, Zack was surrounded.

  “You did it! Your first show! Congratulations!”

  Not only the main actors, but all the extras congratulated him as well.

  “You’re a real actor now, Jack!” Emily said, beaming.

  “And that means you’re coming to the afterparty tonight!” Roxy declared.

  “Indeed,” Vlad said. “We must celebrate the occasion.”

  “We need to put some meat on those bones!” Fyodor smiled, and Millie nodded vigorously next to him.

  “Let’s go!” Roxy bounced and led the way, all of them still in their costumes, sans stage makeup, to the venue of tonight’s after-party.

  Finney’s was a pub-style restaurant just down the road from the Rose Theater, in the opposite direction of the red-light district. Warm candle-light spilled onto the street through small glass panes and the interior was decorated in a rich darkwood and little else. A hostess led them through the main dining area to a large private room in the back where a couple dozen passionate patrons of the Rose Theater stood waiting, and then applauding as they entered. There was a buffet table along the back wall, and a number of tall standing tables.

  “Another splendid performance!”

  “Simply marvelous, Sandra!”

  “I daresay I spotted a new face on stage tonight!” one particularly sharp-eyed older gentleman said. “It’s wonderful to see William continuing to develop new talents.”

  “The swordsmanship tonight was incredible! Ronaldo, Fyodor, can you do that one sequence again…”

  The main actors split up to chat with their biggest fans, and Zack blended in with the other extras.

  “Let’s eat!” Fred, who usually played the shield-bearer role and had a particularly involved death scene at the hands of Fyodor, pulled Zack to the buffet table and pointed out ‘the best stuff’ that Finney’s had to offer. They filled their plates and gravitated to a corner with a good view of the room.

  “So,” the former secret agent said, “who’s who among all the fans?”

  Fred puffed out his chest with pride. “Well, for starters over there, that’s Cassie Bellham, daughter of a big time merchant in the Featherwind Trading Company.” The young star-struck woman approached Fyodor as they watched and asked him to sign her playbill.

  “Watch this,” Fred said, and less than a minute later they witnessed Fyodor flexing a bicep while Cassie traced his arm and shoulder muscles with her fingers.

  “Every time she comes to one of these parties, they do the same thing. Might as well be dating if you ask me.”

  “What about them?” Zack dipped his head in Millie’s direction, where she was surrounded by a number of older women and deep in conversation.

  “Ah, you need to be on your best behavior with them, they’re all barons’ wives. Real big on fashion, and they’re all big fans of Millie’s costumes.” Fred shot him a look. “If you keep helping her out with the sewing, you’re gonna get wrapped up with them, too. How’s your manners?”

  Zack frowned slightly. “Probably not good enough.”

  “When in doubt, just say ‘milady’ a lot. ‘Yes milady,’ ‘My apologies milady,’ stuff like that. Now, over there’s all Roxy’s, ahem, biggest fans.”

  Roxy was surrounded by several older men, none younger than middle-aged.

  “Oh, thank you so much!” she squealed and hugged the oldest of the men, who had just presented her an open jewelry box with something very shiny and sparkly inside.

  “Does she get a lot of presents like that?”

  “Yeah, but I never see her wear any of it. She probably just sells ‘em off.” Fred leaned in and whispered so that Zack could barely hear. “All the men are married, too. Probably some unhappy households is my guess.” He leaned back and took a bite of food.

  “Anyone famous?”

  “Meh. One’s a deacon—”

  Zack’s blood ran cold, and he had to force himself to [Calm Down].

  Someone from the Church.

  “—and the one with the grey hair’s a retired guard. I dunno the other two.”

  “Which one’s the deacon?”

  “Him, the one with the wineglass. Deacon Neuman.”

  He was an unassuming figure, with medium-brown hair in a bowl cut, with a large nose and heavy brow, but a pleasant and gentle expression.

  Zack took extra care to memorize everything about how he looked.

  Vlad was entertaining a father-daughter combo, the daughter dressed up in all black, almost a goth-like getup. He was still in his villain’s costume, and Vlad was giving the teen girl tips on laughing villainously.

  “MWAhahahaha!”

  “Close, my dear, but like this: mwahahahaha!

  “Mwahahahaha!”

  “There you go, heheheh…”

  Fred noticed Zack’s gaze. “That’s Earl Donovan, and his daughter Estelle. Their lands are way out in the boonies, along the coast past the deep forest. Not much going on out that way, so the family lives here in Fortinium almost full-time.”

  Although the largest crowd of fans surrounded Ronaldo and Sandra, the lead actors, Fred only recognized one of them.

  “Ah, that’s Giovanni Cartelone. He was training Ronaldo in the sword. I heard the Director paid him in show tickets.”

  Giovanni seemingly noticed their gazes and looked over his shoulder, glaring directly at Zack.

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