If everyone knew that the true path to the Root can be shown to to you by any street performer currently eking out an income by simple sleight of hand, they'd go insane. That is the summary of my more or less immortal journey throughout the ages, with the crystallized wisdom that I painstakingly earned through hard work and multiple near-death situations that I found myself in. All those millenia of knowledge stored inside a single sentence, and most do not even know what it means. Shame really, what mages have deteriorated into nowadays.

You see, all performers well-versed in so-called 'street magic' know that the main selling point of their performances is the illusion. Of making their audience think that they could do everything with a simple flick of a finger while the rest of the machinery goes unnoticed. There is a certain thrill in the craft, a back and forth going on between performer and audience, and all of it boils down to the adaptability of the performer at a given situation. If you are wearing nothing but a simple short-sleeved shirt whilst doing a card trick, then use the tablecloth. If there is no tablecloth, then use the palm of your hands. If your hands are tied however...

...Now, that is where the Magic begins.

Many Magi believe that fooling the World is impossible, that it could detect intrusions in its Reality Marble and eliminate them without impunity. If that is the case, then the venerated Kaleidoscope and Blue, beings who have reached Akasha and returned as Magicians, should be detected the moment they appear back on Earth. Yet, why does the Counter Force not respond immediately? The answer could be seen every time magecraft is used.

It takes time for Gaia's effects to manifest on the World.

Now, the rest of you might say that you have already studied this before, that you have already learned this in Magecraft 101. It is, after all, the underlying principle as to why magecraft works in the first place. Even though Gaia could erase any potential breaches in its laws, the fundamental laws of reality see to it that the process is not instantaneous, as long as the breach is sufficiently large enough.

Yes, there are fundamental laws that even Magicians adhere to. Do you really think that Zelretch could simply access a world line without any repurcussions?

In any case, how does this relate to my earlier statement regarding the fact that illusions are needed for street magicians to succeed?

Everything really.

You see, imagine yourself as the performer, the street magician. Now, imagine the audience as Gaia itself – albeit of course, with a gun directly pointed at your head just in case she notices a little mishap with your performance. Not a great critic, I know, but it is an apt comparison compared to the other ideas floating in my head when I wrote this thing. So, now you're sufficiently motivated to ensure that you do not fuck up when you're doing your magic tricks. In essence, this is how every mage back in the Age of Gods took their craft– with complete and utter focus on every single piece of their performance, in order to make sure that they live for the next event.

This is also the same method that I used in order to evade the Counter Force, and reach Akasha without so much as a harmful wisp of wind on my face. It is also the same reason as to why those uppity Magi back at the Clock Tower call my Sorcery the 'Denial of Nothingness'.

After all, when reality deludes itself into thinking than an object is supposed to exist there even though it really isn't supposed to be there, then what else can you call it other than 'Denial' itself?

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- Bree, Magician of the First, describing the Essence of his Sorcery amongst the Kaleidoscope and the Blue