“Oh. I thought you were going to add more. Well…it’s very good?”

She’d gotten them for about thirty seconds. Now, though…Cara was miffed to say the least. Kids these days! She recalled that work on the birthday-entertaining circuit, never exactly huge to begin with, had dried up as well after she’d left high school.

“Have you seen better?”

She was a bit miffed. But Sasi and Culin both nodded.

“We were at the capital until we came back two years ago. They had lots of performers.”

“And light. They have places where it’s never dark. Big lights in the sky. Remember, Sasi?”

Culin stared up wistfully at the dark, grey skies. The girl nodded. She looked at Cara.

“Um…it’s very good for a [Juggler] or…[Thrower] at lower levels. But most people who perform can do more. Even travelling performers.”

“How many more?”

The [Singer] peered at Culin and Sasi. The boy raised a hand.

“The [Performer] in the capital can juggle twenty six. And she juggles shiny ones, not rocks.”

“Twenty s—impossible!”

There was no way that was possible. Sixteen would be incredibly good. Sasi and Culin smirked at Cara’s look of disbelief. Which meant, of course, that they weren’t looking dead inside.

“Yes! She has this bag of holding, so she keeps throwing them into the air. Really high! It’s like…like a fountain. She tosses them up and makes this glowing ring at night…Culin and I saw it six times.”

“Wow. Tell me about—what’s the capital?”

“Menorome? It’s amazing. It’s the best place in the world!”

The two kids lit up at once. Menorome was the capital of Noelictus. And it was everything Afiele was not.

“We went to the palace once. Everything’s bright. It’s all magical lights. Artifacts. In Menorome—it’s bright. They hang these big magic lights from poles and across the buildings so no one gets sad. And there’s always performances and such and…and…”

Sasi’s eyes were glowing as she described it. Culin, who was too young to remember as much, proudly told Cara about the adventurers.

“They have magic swords. I’m going to be a Gold-rank. Or—or a Named Adventurer!”

“That’s the best, right?”

“Yes. Named is the best. Don’t you have Named Adventurers where you come from? Noelictus has one, but we have the Hunter’s Guild and they’re like adventurers, father says.”

“Ah, well, where I come from, we don’t have Named Adventurers. But we have some Gold-ranks.

Mostly, uh, Copper.”

“…You mean Bronze-rank?”

Cara was enjoying both conversation and the children’s faces.

“Well, we call it Copper-rank sometimes. So—you miss Menorome?”

That was the wrong thing to say. Their faces fell again.

“No.”

Culin kicked at the ground. Sasi looked at Cara as if expecting the young woman to tattle if she said otherwise.