She could see that there was something wrong, though she couldn't figure it out exactly what. He said it was his old age but whenever somebody said that, it seemed to have to do with more of something sad that happened in the past then their actual age. Everybody at the camp looked so down and she couldn't find a single sign of happiness among the entire group. So Attie decided she would do something about it. 

"I'm fine." Attie claimed, "But now I have a new quest. Follow my lead, if you don't mind helping me." 

The girl began to walk towards a long short stool and picked it up before heading towards the bonfire. She placed the stool a few feet in front of the campfire, careful to not let it get close enough to burn. Hopping onto the stool, Attie held out her hands and held out her hands as though she was receiving something. Suddenly her hands began to glow and three apples suddenly appeared. 

"Ladies, gentlemen, and gender non-binary friends! May I have your attention please!" Attie said as she began to juggle the three apples, "Welcome to the first ever show! My name is…Dawn Angel and I will be an entertainer for you tonight with my assistant Icarus!"

She didn't know what kind of stage name to give him so she chose just to call him by his normal name. The only reason why she gave herself a different name was because it wasn't as exciting and the whole point was to be interesting enough to distract these people from the troubles of the war. It also helped that her name went along with the outfit that her fashion expert friend had given her so she stuck with it.

The people sitting around the bonfire looked up at her in surprise as they weren't expecting any kind of performance. The guards and people in charge didn't mind as she wasn't doing any harm and might actually help the soldier's mood. Attie snatched the whip from her belt then threw the apples into the air with her left hand. Using her whip, she snapped the whip at each apple, cutting each one in half. The halves of the apples fell into some of the soldier's laps. Attie gave a small pose before moving on. 

"And now my assistant and I will perform a new trick." She said hopping down from the stool.

Attie looked towards Icarus to see if he was up for playing as the assistant role. She wouldn't force him to do anything he didn't want to but she would appreciate his help. 

Icarus just went along with whatever his eccentric partner was planning. He didn’t know for certain what she was planning, but he had quite a few tricks of his own that others likely wouldn’t expect. After all, he was a reserved man, but there were children in the audience. ”All right, all right, you there! Sir, please toss me three apples and be prepared to be amazed!” he stated as one of the men in the audience tossed him a trio of apples that he began to juggle. 

Once he got into a rhythm, he stopped looking at the apples and asked for another. Even as he continued juggling, he asked for yet another. Now that he had five, he was ready to begin his part of the show. Summoning a bit of his mana, he summoned a shadow puppet from under his cloak. A long, shadowy hand reached up and snatched an apple from above him, out of his field of view but in full display of the crowd.

He faked his surprise and performed a double-take as he looked up, astonished at how he now only had four apples. Another moment and another of the apples was snatched away, this time from the other hand of the shadow puppet. He turned around and looked at Attie, demonstrating he was unaware of what was happening. With his back turned toward the audience, the shadowy creature began to juggle the two apples as it summoned a third arm to bring an finger to its mouth to tell the crowd to remain quiet.

The process repeated until Icarus was down to one apple, the shadow puppet holding all the apples behind him. At last, Icarus held onto his last apple and pretended to toss it up, looking up to see the shadowy hand in front of the audience. Acting shocked, Icarus reached back with his other hand and pulled, revealing the short shadow creature with multiple arms. At the same time, both of them shouted and the creature vanished, returning into his shadow. As the crowd erupted into laughter, Icarus took a light bow with the creature popping out once more to wave before Icarus released the magic that had created him. ”It’s on you, now,” Icarus told Attie as he patted her on the shoulder after walking away from front and center of the stage.

Attie smiled wide in delight as she got to watch Icarus perform his fantastic tricks. She watched as he used his shadow to both create magic and humor for the audience. Looking over to the soldiers and refugees, she could see their spirits rising as they watched Icarus with great interest. The children were sitting in front of the parents on the ground while the elders had comfortable seats. She even got to see a few smiles among the crowd as they watched Icarus intently. Her little plan was working but there were a few things that she had left to do. A man with a lute had caught her eye and she began to head towards him while Icarus was busy entertaining the crowd. Reaching the stranger, she whispered a few instructions to him and gave him a few silver coins to compensate for any of his troubles. Once Icarus was done, she and many others in the crowd gave him an applause. Attie gave Icarus a thumbs up before standing upon the stool again.

“Wasn’t he terrific?!” Attie exclaimed with infectious enthusiasm, “Now I would like to present a new friend to you all. Please meet the bard, Evrin!”

The man with the lute walked up near the stool. Attie jumped down and gestured for Evrin to sit. Once he did, he began playing the lute and creating a bouncing tune that anybody could dance to. In fact, there was one little child who was already dancing to the lute. The child’s dancing was clumsy and made no sense but the little girl was enjoying herself. Attie flew towards the child and landed next to her, holding out her hand to the child so that they could dance together. Neither of them were dancing with real moves but they both were laughing and having fun. An elderly man came over to join them in the dancing. Then a middle aged woman soldier. Then a refugee man. Soon the group who were once huddled around the fire were dancing with glee and laughter. Attie had taken the chance to slip away from the dancing crowd to find Icarus. She looked at the bonfire group who were having fun then looked over to Icarus.

“Well, I guess now it’s time for me to go.” Attie said, “They are just holding down the fort here and aren’t expecting any major attacks. And there aren’t any other jobs that they can give me. The body count was really the last one. They need blacksmiths and farmers far more than people like me at the moment. So I’m going to head out to the next camp and see if anybody else needs help. What about you?” 

Icarus watched as Attie began to divert the crowd’s attention and remove herself from view as her actions generated a veritable festival. It was mildly astonishing how even a minute amount of positivity was able to alter the moods of people that had likely given up in the face of the current scourge. Alas, the people of this world often found themselves facing existential threats and Icarus attributed this indomitable spirit to be the reason they continuously prevailed and rebuilt. He knew, given time, they would bury their dead, salvage what they could, and rebuild their homes and nations greater than before.

He didn’t quite know how to respond initially. Icarus understood that this was likely where they would part ways, but he had his hands full with other places in need of assistance. There were areas of Canelux and Parvpora still in the middle of war for survival and his time here had been more of a rest than anything truly productive. Surely his acquaintanceship with Attie would prove useful at some date, but for the moment, he was resigned to parting ways.

”I do believe the situation here is relatively stable compared to some of the other continents. I’m liable to step off into the swamps and use a gate to see the situations around the world and chip in where I can. My home in the Void will take quite a long time to completely clean of these creatures, but I’ll do so in due time. Until then, it was good work out there and feel free to ask one of the gods if you need to find me. I seem to have a habit of running into them when I don’t even plan to,” he explained, detailing his future plans and how to contact him should the need arise. With that, he summoned a bottle of whiskey from his home and pulled the cork, taking a hearty sip before offering a drink to her.

Attie listened as Icarus explained where he was headed to next. She was a little disappointed that they would be going separate ways so soon but it was to be expected. Canelux of all the places was hit the worst, as it was closest to the Void. Parvpora and Onnen were a bit further away so they weren’t being hit as hard. After she was done with the next camp, she had plans to travel to the Bohar Plains. Suddenly, Icarus summoned a whiskey bottle and offered some to her.

“No thanks.” She politely declined, “Well I suppose this is where we part ways. There is still one more camp I have to visit before I head to the Bohar Plains. But before I go, I want to give you a little gift in case you might need it.”

Reaching into her satchel, she pulled out a medium sized glass bottle full of a pinkish red liquid.

“It’s a health potion.” She explained, “It’ll be able to heal you up quickly. It’s useful in case you need to heal but you can’t leave the battlefield.”

Attie was mostly giving him the potion because she knew that he would need it. Unlike the soldiers here, he seemed to be a loner. Loners often received more injuries than people in a group. Attie knew this from experience. She spread her cosmic wings and began to lift off the ground. Turning to Icarus, she gave him one last wave goodbye. 

"See you around Icarus." She said with a smile, "Until next time."