"Perhaps," Akito said with a thoughtful bite. "I prefer to think of payment as an acknowledgement. I think people appreciate something rather than nothing at all. Well, for the most part."

When the magician ducked back and around Akito, it couldn't have taken long. Akito's eyes didn't follow the magician fast enough and by the time he was back, there were changes done exactly right in the brief amount of time. The magician was a really good actor but there was something more there that it was as infuriating as during the show. It was like dealing with a video game that presented you a puzzle that developers said was perfectly reasonable and possible to solve but really required you abuse a secret glitch of some sort.

"So the Bard would say," Akito replied, still 'amiable'. "Speaking of shows, I am rather curious. Why magic? Besides the obvious of you being very good at it - which makes it even more surprising you would usually be in the back than showcasing yourself more."