The Magician: Interlude
A little story in the middle before the main story resumes, not much else to say. Any ideas for other magician's tricks I can adapt to the story are welcome.
"DankΓ© schΓΆn, Hamburg." Silver shouted to the crowd, feeling as if he could fly on the adrenaline he was feeling. He waved to the crowd with both hands, but the stage manager was signaling from offstage. He gave one last triumphant wave before leading the band offstage. Once back in the dressing room he addressed the band.
"Guys, that was amazing. Shayna, shame on you for insisting you don't have time to practice." The target of this last remark shrugged as she disappeared into a cordoned off area to remove her costume.
"I practice when I can. It's often the only thing that keeps me sane after those interminable board meetings." This got a chuckle from the other three. The banter continued as the three changed and cleaned off their makeup. When they finished they gathered in Silver's room for a drink. The four of them were sitting in a comfortable silence, when Shayna spoke.
"So, Silver I hear you set aside your silly tricks and started getting serious about magic." Silver glared at Ken, who pointedly ignored him.
"Yeah, I've produced a few rabbits." Shayna rolled her eyes.
"Come on, give." He shrugged and thought for several moments. He barely reacted in time to catch the deck of cards that Ken tossed him. Silver saw that it was unopened. Again Ken ignored his glare and he focused his attention on the cards. He shuffled them and rose to approach Shayna. Holding out the cards at arm's length she picked one. After looking carefully at it she returned it to the pack. Silver stepped back to shuffle the cards and then divided them between Ken and Ted.
"Alright, why don't the two of you pull out every other card starting with two, but leaving the face cards?" Shayna seemed about to object, but Silver pressed a finger to his lips. Once they were finished Silver continued.
"Okay guys add the cards in your pockets." They looked up blinking, but both checked their pockets and pulled out two aces each and Ted pulled out the nines, while Ken the threes. Shayna glared at him.
"Okay Silver, I get the point." He grinned.
"Lay out all your cards guys. Now you'll find Shayna's card isn't among them. Shayna, shirt pocket." She stared blankly before checking the indicated pocket. She frowned and pulled out the queen of spades. She shook her head and dropped it on the table.
"That's not my card." He nodded.
"Okay, right pants pocket." Again she found a card, another queen, but of diamonds this time. As before she shook her head.
"Still, wrong Silver. Care to go for three?" He grinned.
"Other pocket." This time it was the queen of clubs. She laughed.
"Okay, I don't know how you got these in my pockets, but none of them are right." He laughed and pointed to her. Suddenly she felt something rubbing against her inside her panties. A hand went to her pants as she struggled not to moan out loud. A small sound escaped as the card flew out of her panties and into his hand. He held the queen of hearts triumphantly.
"Is this your card?" She glared, but this quickly shifted to laughter. Soon all four were helpless with amusement. Finally a bit teary eyed Shayna managed to speak.
"Alright that was good, a bit tedious before the reveal though." Silver shrugged.
"Sometimes you have to bore the audience before you can wow them." She rolled her eyes dramatically at him.
"Maybe, but that was still a card trick, got anything more impressive?" He was about to answer when he got a text. He grinned when he read it.
"Actually they're bringing up some props, for the show, but I also have some tricks in mind. Speaking of which, Ted could you get your collection." Ted looked up to the ceiling and after several moments looked over to Silver, nodding. Ted rose to return to his room. The other three sat quietly waiting. There was a knock on the door. Silver called out.
"It's open." The door opened and several uniformed workers brought in two objects, one a basket about three foot by three foot, and the other was barely small enough to fit through the door, but they couldn't see what it was as it was covered by a sheet. After they left Ted returned with a large case. Silver pointed to the floor by the basket, which he had moved to the center of the room. Silver stood with the basket between him and the other three.
"Now for my next trick, could I have a volunteer from the audience?" Shayna looked around into the eyes of Ted and Ken before groaning.
"Honestly guys? Really the 'lovely assistant'?" She looked back and forth between them before speaking again with a sigh. "Fine. What do you got Silver?" With his usual grin Silver pointed to the basket and lifted the lid.
"Climb inside, my dear." She briefly glared at him.
"Alright, but if you "my dear" me again I'll feed you your guitar." His grin twitched slightly, as if to suggest her threat was not entirely being brushed off.
"Good, good now if you'll climb inside, I'll turn you into a pincushion." She stopped suddenly, foot just inside the basket.
"What?" He pointed to Ted's case, which they knew contained a chunk of his sword collection.
"Trust me." Now his grin widened to reveal teeth. Again she sighed.
"I'll do it, but leave off that used car salesman routine." She stepped into the basket and slowly lowered herself into it. Once she was in Silver put the lid on. He dramatically pulled out a katana from the case, Ted's pride and joy. Ted tensed noticeably, but didn't say anything as Silver thrust the sword through the basket. Ken's breath caught in his throat, but he also remained silent. Silver with exaggerated intensity tapped the basket.
"Still there Shayna?" Her voice was somewhat muffled by the basket, but otherwise was clear.
"Yeah, when are you going to start?" Ted and Ken snickered, struggling to suppress laughter.
"Shayna, I have already started, maybe I better add a few more blades." She didn't respond and he pulled out a fencing saber, a cavalry saber and a scimitar and in rapid succession thrust them into the basket. Once again he spoke to her.