Kazimir walked down the main road in the center of Marigold. The street was lined with carefully placed buildings that all fell into order. Nothing was out of place and the people traveled along the sides, bobbing in and out of stores and cafes. The smell of coffee and mercantilism poured from the shops and saturated the air. The aroma was a siren’s call to any thirsty traveler seeking a moment of reprisal.

It was mid-morning in the city but people were already in full swing. The wind mage wasn’t looking for anything in particular. The walk was enough to bring tranquility to his mind. Being here was more of a small vacation than anything else.

A flyer clung to the side of a wall. On it was a stage and the word ‘Theater’ in bold font. The yellow advertisement was held in place by two nails, turned a different color over a long period of holding the flyer in place. Kaz pressed his hand against it and flattened it out. “Interesting.”

It told of a famous theater in the town center. A detail that had slipped his mind about the place, but re-ignited with curiosity. “May as well go see it,” he said and stopped a man that was walking by.

“The Theater, how do I get there,” he asked.

“Take this road down four blocks and make a left. But you won’t find much there. It’s really gone downhill,” the man replied and patted Kaz on the back. Before the wind mage could ask anything further, the man had already begun to walk away. Kaz opened his mouth to ask but pressed his lips back together. He would just have to go see for himself then.

He traversed the city and made his way down and to the left. More signs began to show up on the buildings around. The advertisements were as tall as a man and depicted aerial acts and famous plays. Pictures showed a filled room, with no seat empty. But all the dates showed that those were years past. The signs had been yellowed from time, and the edges had frayed. Some dropped down at the top, and no one had taken the time to fasten it back up to prominence.

WC 377

As he got closer the signs became smaller. Only the size of a single sheet of paper and each one was for different days but they were all identical. One comedy act to the next. The road was less populated by people now.

Finally, the theater stood before him. It was old stone and mortar. A great archway led into the main entrance with a ticket window on each side. The wood that framed the ticket windows was cracked and splintered. Lacrima lighting dotted the path, ready to flicker to life once the sunset. The roof was pointed and made of wood.

Along the side of the building was the history of performances held by some of the greatest talents across Fiore. The more modern the storyline became the less famous the act was as well until it became nothing but a generic comedy night with the comedian's names in small print beneath the title.

Kaz stepped forward, but no one was working either of the ticket windows. He bent at the waist and peeked through the glass. He arched his head, to see beyond the crack that stretched from one side of the glass to the other. “Anyone here?”

Silence answered him and he waited a few seconds before standing straight and walked to the closed wooden doors. They were carved doors and seemed custom made for the venue. He ran his hands into the grooves of the wood, that creaked with history. Thousands of hands had pushed these doors open, hoping to escape for even a brief amount of time into a world of imagination.

The door jolted from the other side, “Oh,” Kaz said and took a quick step back. A man wearing thin-rimmed glasses and a velvet vest rushed out of the room. The two nearly collided and the vested man stopped just shy of him.

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Total 687

“Please just take it over there,” the man said wearily. A scowl adorned his face but washed away once he saw the wind mage. “Oh my apologies. You must be here for the...comedy show,” he said the word with as much worn down disdain as a man could. “It starts this evening. You don’t need a ticket. It’s never packed.”


“Actually, are there any other performances going on this week?”

The theater man arched his brow and gave a solemn smile remembering all the good times lost in history. “I’m afraid that there haven’t been any for some time,” he brought his gaze back on the wind mage. “But you are in luck, sir. Because I intend on bringing this place back to what it once was. I’m actually…” He looked over Kazimir and could feel something different about the man than the usual people. “Would you by chance be willing for me to hire you to help get this place back on its feet. Prepare for a show that will be grand?”

Kaz looked at the old stone of the building and then over the man’s shoulder at the workers carrying props through the theater. It seemed like such a simple request. One that reminded him of the days he had first set out. Back when he was a fledgling knight helping out with deliveries and working in the forge. A wave of nostalgia tugged at him as flashes drifted through his mind like a river of memories. They moved from sprints on the beach to rowing out to help a woman take samples of the water. Even just sitting with old grandma’s as they baked cookies. It was the simple things that stood out to him now. The ones that had given him his foundation, not the grand battles.

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Total 989

“Yes. I’d be delighted to thank you,” he remarked. The man looked puzzled for a moment that Kaz had thanked him and rested a hand on the wind mage’s shoulder.
“Let’s start with moving some of these props around. We have a stage to build. Can you use a hammer?”

They walked together back into the room and made introductions with the stage crew. The comedy act was already on stage practicing their show with a microphone in hand to an empty audience. But the dedicated group of stagehands crowded around backstage with hammers, buckets of nails, and stacks of wood. They worked through smiles and sweat. They hoisted up the wooden frames and held them in place. Kaz hammered in nails to fasten them together. The man that invited him climbed to the top of the makeshift gazebo and sat on the constructed beam. “I’m Mark by the way.” He finally introduced himself and hammered into the frame, getting it ready for the cloth top to adhere to it.

A stagehand slipped his grip on the beam and staggered back kicking over a bucket of nails. Kaz reached out snagging the back of his shirt and pulling him away from the pile of iron spikes. The beam that Kaz let go wobbled and bumped a man on a ladder. A fourth stagehand dashed forward and steadied the ladder. Everyone paused as if to make sure the structure itself wasn’t going to topple. Amidst the silence, Mark began to laugh, “Well no one got hurt. Looks like you all should be in the show next.” They shared a jovial laugh and helped each other dust off the fear of starting over. The team hammered and sanded for hours on end until finally the Gazebo was finished. The structure had support beams and a curved top with a small point that circled around it.

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Total 1301

The group stepped back and marveled at what was done. Kaz crossed his arms and nodded toward Mark, who was standing with a smile ear to ear. All their faces shifted when the wood creaked on the creation and it wobbled. All at once they swallowed and raced to it, but not before the wood beams buckled and nails popped out, sending the creation crashing to the ground.

With heavy hearts, they looked at the pile, “Well. At least we know how to do it better now. From the top right,” Mark reassured them. Together they sifted through the wreckage and pulled everything back up again. The sunset as they hammered through the night, switching off turns taking quick naps. The gazebo was easy to put back up now that they had all the parts in place, and they finished hours before they stopped working. But the momentum carried them on to the other projects. Sawdust littered the floor from finely crafted wooden props. Kaz sat next to two others, and plunged a needle through thread one after another and pulled the string tight to patch up the gowns and garments. The needle entered haphazardly and Kaz winced in pain as he stuck his finger. He pulled his hand away and shook it in the air, “ow ow ow,” The other two chuckled and soon Kaz joined them.

The sun rose on the misfit group of workers as they had finally all collapsed into a deep sleep. One slumped over a wooden chair and another passed out beneath a pile of finished clothing.
Kaz leaned back in his chair, resting his eyes. A gentle nudge on his shoulder woke him. The wind mage yawned and stretched his back as Mark stood next to him with bags under his eyes but a lively smile. A look of a man whose dreams were inching closer.
“Hey Kaz, can you do me a favor today?” he whispered so he didn’t wake up the others and nodded for Kaz to follow him. The wind mage leaned forward and a large piece of cloth slid down his body. It was a long strand of cloth that was yet to be cut apart to make into clothes. Someone had laid it across him. He shook his head and stood, taking the fabric and laying it across one of the workers that snored away on the ground, curled up with a hammer.

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Total 1708

They stepped away from the group and into a hallway. “What do you need,” Kaz asked and reached down to tighten the laces of his boots.  

“I want this to be a magical moment. I have something big planned, but there is something vital that I need. Do you think you can go into town and pick up this,” mark extended a folded piece of paper with some items scribbled on it?

“Yeah,” Kaz replied and took the note. Flipping it open with his thumb he quickly read it and looked back at his comrade. “Fireworks huh,” he said with a grin.

“Exactly. What better way to let people know that we are back in business. For real.” There was a new vigor in his tone and pride in his chest. He took off his glasses and cleaned the saw dust out of the edges.

“I’ll get it done.”

“Thanks. Just bring them to the back entrance when you get back. I have some techs coming today that can do the rest.”

Kaz nodded and tip-toed by the sleeping workers until he was outside and back on the streets of Marigold once more. A flock of birds flew overhead and in the early morning hours, they were some of the only signs of life that stirred in the city. The wind mage headed towards the place, Mark told him about and held his hand over his mouth as he yawned from the long night before.

The road led to a small building with crates piled on top of one another and scattered around the front of the building. There were so many, they almost overtook the small wooden building. Kaz knocked on the door and it snapped open.

“Oi, you must be here for the theater shipment. Bout time. Here ya go,” the man spoke, barely taking a breath between his words. He gestured toward the large pile of crates that were already stacked on a massive cart. Kaz looked back but the man was already inside again.

With a shrug the wind mage took the handles of the mana poured cart and drove it back to the theater’s back door. It was opening as he rode up and two stagehands were ready to unload.

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Total 2084

Over the next few days, the team worked tirelessly on the project. Kaz mending broken components and tied sandbags down to ropes and levers as a group of performers practiced day and night.

On the final day, posters were plastered all around town. The sky turned into stars. Kaz stood in the backstage area, looking out at the audience hall that slowly filled with patrons. Mark was standing on the stage and turned toward Kaz with a nod. They had made the first big step. The people poured in as numerous as the countless nails it took to bring the stage to life. It reminded him even more of all the adventures he had been on, and about passing the torch to others, as young stagehands took to work.

The curtain was down and the performers were taking the stage and others slid in the props and false stairwells for the show. The roof was open and men on rafters stood ready with the firework show.

Kaz slipped away with some short farewells to the team and made his way up into the rafters and sat on a metal walkway next to some firework cannons. Mark scrambled to get them together with his astute clipboard in hand, and as the curtain call came, he stood to an audience eager for something new. He stepped forward and the show began.

The wind mage sat with a smile on his face as he watched dreams come true. The finale was drawing near and he lit the firework canon next to himself. The sky was lit with multicolored explosions. It was then a pain gripped his chest. A sixth sense told him to look up, and standing on the edge of the open roof, illuminated by fireworks was him. The leader of his clan.

“You always had a soft spot for these things. Let’s see how you feel when I rip it away,” he said as cold as he ever was and raised his hand to the heavens. A storm began to brew and the winds picked up.

Kaz dashed up to the top and stood on a metal beam facing the man. Without words, he stared him down. “It’s about time we finish this,” he said as a tornado formed overhead. The audience gasped at the sudden change of weather. The funnel of terrible wind bore downward.

Kaz dashed beneath and sent his own tornado upwards colliding with it. Fireworks burst around them, casting shades of blue, gold, and red around them along with rains of sparks. The tornadoes’ clashed and shook the railings. The crowd cheered thinking it was part of the show now. Kaz’s hands tensed and his face held fury. The two mages rushed each other with a symphony of wind. They sprang from one walkway to the next and flipped through the air. Vacuums of wind ripped through the air and blades of wind sliced at their garments. Every shot directed upwards, to preserve the people below.

The whirlwinds of winds clashed and the two pushed all their mana into it. The rafters tore and the firework cannons erupted before they could be shot off. Kaz’s arms tensed against the pressure. And with a final push, he could breathe long enough to see an opening. He dashed to the side and was on his opponent within seconds. The tornadoes that had clashed whizzed by him. Kaz placed a hand on his old clan leader's gut. “You won’t live,” he whispered and let lose a fierce burst of wind. The blow sent his clan leading rocketing into the air but he was shrouded by a barrier of wind. Before Kaz could follow up, his enemy cast an obscuring cloud of wind and vanished.

The crowd erupted in applause and Mark stood awestruck but soon joined in with the audience and gave an approving nod. The bloody and battered Kaz nodded back. His past had finally come back to him, but the theater was safe and the crowd was elated. The wind mage collapsed on a metal walkway that overhung the theater and rested.

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Total WC 2756