Raoul would be confused as he heard Ceres explain through whispers what was going on at least to her. Damn, looks like this mischievous trickster has her under their devious lying hold.

Indignation in his tone the dhampir would exclaim loudly, “No Ceres this is no show at all I am no actor or clown here to dance for your fellow’s amusement. I’m here on behalf of Charon’s authorities to capture and return Morrigan Moonweaver to where they rightfully belong, a cold cell of a jail”.

However before he could wrap this up and take the upper hand of the situation, the ship caused the fellblood to fall to the floor completely avoiding his fury. This bastard must’ve been blessed the day they were born with luck such as theirs, even the world itself seemed to have fallen under their trick. He grimaced as his controlling ability did not affect Morrigan, whatever they were it seemed impossible to beat them under normal circumstances. There was genuinely nothing he could do to them that couldn’t be negated or avoided. Raoul couldn’t do any magic, they'd vanish that away and they’d even manage to dismantle his trump card. Disappointment filled his heart as the jester pranced around proclaiming their invincibility and his false role as the true villain.

No matter how strong or powerful this bastard was it didn't matter, Raoul was going to keep trying everything within his might to make sure they’d never scam someone out of their solars again. But before he could rush forward he stopped cautiously seeing as they pulled something out of their bag...a tophat? Gosh how silly, looks like their luck had just run out he thought to himself.

Deciding to just start attacking them he’d crack his shimmering scorpion whip and slammed it against their leg catching them in a lasso and pulling it back hard hoping to bind them still, "That is enough of your trickery, give it up you liar".

“That sounds like something that someone who’s participating in a show would say.” Ceres whispered, and threw him another wink. It seemed that trying to convince her anything was utterly pointless, as she was so blindly faithful in what her magical master was teaching her that it seemed like words would do nothing. Though, she noted, the criminal aspect was new. Master Moonweaver hadn’t told her that they were adding something here, but maybe it was so she would be just as surprised as the audience!

And they were certainly enjoying it. She noted with no small amount of delight the surprise and excitement playing on their faces as they applauded. This was going so well!

And as Morrigan Moonweaver pulled a hat out of their bag (which felt like the bad punchline to a joke), tossing it haphazardly against the raft’s floor, a skeleton rose up from the hat.

“Now, what do we have here? Detective and entertainer going toe to toe like they’ve got a bone to pick?”

The skeleton did a little jig and the entire audience - hell, even Raoul himself - would find themselves struck down by a bout of uncontrollable laughter. The crowd’s energy turned impossibly lighthearted. Morrigan stifled a giggle behind their hand.

“Oh, you liked that one, didn’t ya folks? I bet it really tickled your funny bones?”

Another uproarious wave of laughter.

Morrigan smirked, turning back to the detective. “Have you not realized it yet? You just can’t win, great detective. I will always come out on top.”

“You hear that? The great wizard is now ribbing him!” The skeleton slapped its bony knee.

The whip finally wrapped around their leg and they clenched their teeth to avoid hissing in pain. Blood trickled down their pants where the sudden injury made their leg flare up. Oh, did he ever get tired of this trick? Morrigan seemed to remember something similar happening last they met. They blew Raoul a kiss and approached him before pushing him overboard.

“Have a nice swim!”

Of course, in their oversight the great wizard forgot the whip that Raoul had only just recently wrapped around their leg - and as Raoul went tumbling into the water, so did Morrigan. The two fell with a great SPLASH, the single, lone boat continuing down the river rapids. 

“No that is not Ceres I promise you that there is not a single ounce of chicanery or malignancy in my heart today”, the dhampir would call out to the young earth domain apprentice trying to reason with her to no avail.

Suddenly the fellblood pulled out something strange out of their bag and from the corner of the ship a very punny skeleton with a hat appeared. Most likely another one of Morrigan’s tricks, it began oddly spitting out very hilarious bone jokes. The dhampir couldn’t help himself but just burst out into laughter as he still held onto his whip.

“Hahahahahahahaha whoo boy”.

It was so funny just the way it was just bone joke after bone joke his grip on the whip began to loose for a moment as he stood. The audience around him was much the same, almost hysterical and crying of laughter as the skeleton continued.

Raoul glared and sharpened his eyes at the callous clown fighting through chuckles to speak clearly, “Hehehe…you will pay for this injustice Morrigan Moonweaver. Win, lose, draw it doesn’t matter…hahaha…even if it takes me a millennia to capture you I will bring you in. You’re luck…ohohohoho…will run out one day”.

Raoul was powerless to fight back as the charlatan stepped up to him and pushed him towards the water. A scowl and a look of sheer hatred would appear on the dhampir’s face as he fell below the waters. They had done this round perhaps but before he could even look down at the water he saw the charlatan slowly realize that they had only managed to go down with him with the whip still wrapped around their leg. The duo splashed into the water and the boat continued to sail leaving the two of them behind as Raoul swam up to the surface.

A sly and malicious grin would appear on the dhampir’s face as he looked at Morrigan, “What was that about having a nice swim? Ha looks like as always your own stupidity leaves you the loser of today despite your evil machinations”.

He began swimming towards them yelling out angrily, “MORRIGAN MOONWEAVER WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I SWEAR TO LUNALA YOU’LL REGRET EVERY SINGLE CRIME YOU'VE COMMITTED".

At this point it seemed that convincing Ceres Celestia of Morrigan’s culpability was an exercise in futility. There was a reason she was still such a devoted student to a teacher whom she’d never seen cast a proper spell. Faith was more important than evidence, and when it came to commanding the admiration of the people that blindly followed them, Morrigan’s strength rivaled that of a cult leader.

Almost as if Raoul hadn’t spoken at all, Ceres settled for grabbing the raft and propelling the boat forward while Morrigan took care of their boat’s intruder. The mood on the boat had turned downright comical.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can’t catch an idea.” Raoul might live forever, curse permitted. And one day Morrigan’s mortal body would give way to entropy and become dust. But their legacy would live on in the stars, this much they vowed. All Raoul would have left in the end was their name to curse.

Not that Morrigan themselves was thinking of any of that. They were a little preoccupied with the present, and getting this interloper off their boat. Unfortunately, they’d forgotten the teensy-tiny insignificant little detail that was the fact that Raoul had snagged them in turn. The detective hit the ground with a SPLASH and Morrigan snickered, triumphant until they felt a sharp tug around their ankle and their weight was pulled out from under them.

“WHOA!”

The rush of air came first, then Morrigan was plunged into the ice-cold waves. Up was down and down was up and their sharp intake of air was met by stinging pain where they only found the water’s current. Desperate not to drown, the fellblood squeezed their stinging eyes shut and kicked in a singular direction they hoped was surface bound.

With a gasp they broached the surface, leaving behind a very drenched, pathetic wet-kitten looking scammer. They blew a lock of wet hair out of their face as Raoul laughed at their misfortune.

“Are you kidding me? These are archival silk robes!” Ginma, they were ruined. Now Morrigan was going to have to utilize their profits from this venture to buy some new clothes. And even worse was the fact that Raoul was coming to his senses and started barreling his way through the water towards Morrigan.

“Oh, shit.”

Morrigan turned on their metaphorical heel, keen danger senses alerting them to trouble on the horizon and they didn’t need to be told twice that the situation was turning sour. Like the devil was on their heels Morrigan started paddling, frantically carving their way after the boat Ceres Celestia was steering down the river.

And just like that, their abrupt scam was brought to a halt.