Vincent checked the battery of his camera. Full.

  ‘Perfect.’

  He positioned himself where he was told to, in the middle of the crowd, slightly to the left. He had been hired to film a concert and, as an aspiring cinematographer, it was a good opportunity. The pay, a free pass to the concert and 30€, was more than someone like him could ask for, it was way over the minimum wage for at most two hours of filming. The artist’s manager gave him this opportunity, and he happily took it.

  Vincent looked near the stage. There was another guy, one of his friends, who had also been hired to provide a different angle. Vincent specuted that the concert would be made into a highly edited video, probably for MyTube or a DVD. Either way, he had a job to do.

  The light dimmed and the crowd went quiet. You could hear the sound of the river sliding under the boat, and see the lights of the city reflecting on the water. It was truly a beautiful picture.

  ‘I need to capture everything. If a good concert is in my portfolio, I could nd a job really fast !’

  He had seen the artist’s name on the program, but he wasn’t familiar with Mademoiselle Cyrielle. He heard it was an elegant girl with a beautiful voice but that was it, so he didn’t expect much. However, Vincent changed his mind when a charming voice arose from the darkness. It was enchanting, like a mermaid, and with the riff of an electric guitar, the spotlights turned on. Five men were standing on stage behind a beautiful woman in a sparkly fpper gown, her hair in an updo that revealed her colrbones, barely covered by an embroidered shawl. It was still january and there weren’t any walls on the sides of the room, but her voice didn’t shake, so powerful that Vincent felt his insides vibrate with the low notes.

  The first two songs were metal, but it was far from what Vincent imagined. While he thought it would be all about screaming and bloody themes, the drums brought a wild sense of freedom, with Mademoiselle Cyrielle belting lyrics about finding your true self, and one of the band members doing the harmonies.

  “Welcome aboard, I am Mademoiselle Cyrielle and this was ‘Heavy Protector’ !”

  She elegantly waved to the audience while the staff was clearing the instruments and the band members were walking off stage. The woman then sang again, performing to various popur melodies while the crowd was singing along.

  ‘It’s better than I thought ? I feel like I used all my luck, this will get so popur once it’s out !’

  Vincent was already seeing his future as a famous cinematographer. He had been bewitched by Mademoiselle Cyrielle, and was certain that she would climb even higher. Just then, she finished a song.

  “Let’s have a moment together, just you and me. I’m not good with words, but maybe I can sing you how I feel.”

  She took the acoustic guitar a staff member was handing her, and sat on a chair with a standing microphone in front of her. The audience went quiet again, and her fingers started to dance on the chords. The melody was sweet, slow, but also a bit rough. Mademoiselle Cyrielle was singing about hope, happiness, the joy to have people around her, and the fear to be forgotten. Her voice went so low sometimes that it almost became raspy, a growl of cking self confidence. She finished the song and immediately pyed again, this time giving a feeling of excitement and expectation. It was so beautiful to see her perform that people forgot to appud. After a few more songs, she stood up.

  “I will take a quick break, but I’m not leaving you alone. Please welcome the fabulous Madame Fabergé !”

  She exited the stage and a dazzling drag queen took her pce. The atmosphere became energetic while Madame Fabergé performed flips, splits, cartwheels, various acrobatics, and all of that with high heels. A few audience members went on their phones to follow her Instantgram but, while it was impressive and an objectively good performance, there was only one thought in their heads.

  ‘When is Mademoiselle Cyrielle coming back ?’

  It was just no match for what they had witnessed a few moments prior. Hopefully, Mademoiselle Cyrielle went on stage again after two numbers. She had changed into a splendid bck robe with a train and a ce colr, giving her the impression of being a vilin queen or a dark sorceress. The audience went mad, cpping and screaming, and a lot of people had their phones raised up, ready to film the st part of the concert.

  Ensued a variety of songs, popur ones and lesser known, but all were hits of Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s a cappel videos that had stopped recently. The fans were going crazy, and the ones who didn’t know her too, it was just amazing. Even after she concluded the concert and exited the stage, the cheers continued on for several minutes, prompting Mademoiselle Cyrielle to come back and give an equally amazing encore performance.

  When it was finally over and the lights were back on, people stuck around in the hope of talking to Mademoiselle Cyrielle. But she was long gone, only Madame Fabergé and the guys from ‘Heavy Protector’ were still hanging out in the crowd.

  Vincent finally put his camera in the bag.

  ‘Wow, it was just… Wow… Honestly, forget about the pay, just seeing a concert like that was enough. I can’t believe I have such a video, it should become my heirloom !’

  His friend ran to him, his eyes shining with excitement.

  “I can’t believe we got to see that for free, it was so good ! I hope I filmed it well, if I captured even 10% of what happened here, it’s a guaranteed hit !”

  “I know, right ?”

  Vincent was still looking at his bag in disbelief.

  “They have to edit this well… You know what ? Let’s just do it ourselves. Call our friends from audiovisual css.”

  He clenched his fists, filled with determination.

  “We need to make this into the best concert video the world has ever seen.”

  ***

  Cyrielle was looking out the window in Julie’s car, ignoring her incessant rambling about how good the concert was. She was still shaking. Contrary to what everyone had seen, Cyrielle had almost puked when she first walked on stage and discovered several hundred people looking at her. It was both a traumatizing and eye opening experience.

  ‘If they liked it, it’s a relief. But more than that…’

  She had seen blue characters after exiting the stage, almost making her forget the encore performance.

  [Congratutions, you have correctly used an important opportunity and accumuted positive karma ! Path of Destiny rewards you by offering a gift.]

  It was puzzling on several levels. The st time she had seen ‘positive karma’ was the day she peeked into the truth, and learned that helping people or simply being nice to them was considered as positive karma. But she didn’t interact much with people today. Unless…

  ‘Is it because I didn’t go on stage alone and invited ‘Heavy Protector’ and Madame Fabergé ? But I didn’t do it with any good in mind, I just wanted to gain some time and perform less… Does it still count as long as the result is good ?’

  She wasn’t sure what any of it meant, but if she could act as she usually did and still gain positive karma, it was as good as it gets. She stored these thoughts in the back of her mind and spun the wheel.

  [Congratutions, you have earned the rainbow gift ‘Ability upgrade’. Would you like to proceed or spin again ?]

  Something weird was happening again. A rainbow gift on the first try ? It was odd, as if ‘Path of Destiny’ had something in mind. She shrugged and accepted the prize, waiting for the ‘Which ability do you want to upgrade ?’ message. She wasn’t sure where to use it, but since she had decided to work on ‘Home and Attire design’, it was the obvious choice. However, the strange things didn’t stop.

  [Calcuting positive karma… Using a small amount of positive karma to give a hint : Use the ‘Ability upgrade’ on ‘Modeling’.]

  Cyrielle’s eyes widened.

  ‘What ?! You can use positive karma this way ? Is it a type of money to buy hints ? Wait, more than that, why ‘modeling’ ? I only did one photoshoot, and will do more solely for my Intantgram page !’

  She mentally took a deep breath. ‘Path of Destiny’ was never wrong, it even knew things that would happen in the future, and seemed to be aware of different timelines where it didn’t exist. She couldn’t take this hint lightly.

  ‘Either way, the only thing I know how to do is follow people’s advice, be it Julie or you. Use ‘Ability Upgrade’ on ‘Modeling’.’

  She felt warm again, but did not sense anything different. She would probably need to use the ability or dispy it with ‘Path knowledge’ to see the changes.

  ‘It was already good before, I wonder how it will be now. By the way, does it mean a modeling opportunity will come my way soon ?’

  ***

  “Do we confirm this board ?”

  In the conference room of a fashion magazine, several people were looking at the slide of a presentation. It was not a major journal, but its long history and good reputation had brought together some big names of the industry like Jean-Louis Volmin, a former photographer for Vogue.

  “Yes, I think we can confirm.”

  On the slide, there were several tiny pictures of women. Under the ‘first choice’ text was Cyrielle’s head. A strict looking woman pointed to her.

  “Contact Mademoiselle Cyrielle first, I got the number of the CEO of her talent agency, which is also her manager. Seeing her rising fame, she might already have a tight schedule, and the photoshoot is in ten days. Be sure to get a clear answer before moving to the second choice.”

  The assistant nodded and ran outside the room, phone in hand. The strict looking woman, who was the editor-in-chief, leaned against the backrest of her chair, pursing her lips.

  “I really hope she is avaible. She totally corresponds to our concept, from her looks to her story.”