Word quickly got out about the Grand Wizard in Nocturne Castle, and moreover that he was looking to put on a display of his abilities – a show of water manipulation the likes that many hadn’t seen in their lives. Monzane didn’t really strike Marin as the type of person to be in show business, but it might’ve been because he was doing it for the entertainment of other people, and not to show off himself.

  A servant was ordered to bring the water elemental another bottle of alcohol, which he happily swigged from as Marin gave him a tour of the castle. Monzane shook hands with many kingdom denizens as he marveled at the work Marin put into the castle – or rather, his servants and workers.

  He was a big fan of the newly built courtyard, and really appreciated the size of the castle’s theater room. Marin mentioned that some of the citizens put on plays for others out of hobby alone, and that no one was formally paid to do so.

  By the time the tour was over, Monzane had finished the second bottle of whiskey too.

  “Here, you can have that,” Monzane casually handed the King the empty glass bottle. He seemed to not care what status Marin had in the castle, he gave it to him like he would any servant.

  “Would you like to perform after dinner tonight?” Marin asked while studying the glass bottle.

  “Sounds good to me. What’s cooking in the kitchen?” Monzane said back.

  “Something great, I’m sure. I don’t have the cook’s schedule on me.”

  Monzane looked around at the chamber he was in for a second, getting lost in thought. After a while, he looked back to Marin, and saw he was holding an empty whiskey bottle.

  “Oi! What a sad day it is to see you with no spirits in hand! Order a servant to bring a fresh bottle, so that you and I might drink from it.”

  “Uh… I’m not really acquainted with the hard drink, Monzane,” Marin stated, realizing the bottles were finally starting to effect him.

  “Ah, no worries! I’ll drink your half!”

  Marin wondered if he should cut the tattered water elemental off by lying about being out of whiskey, or any alcohol for that matter. After more consideration, what would be the harm though? The most Monzane would do is pass out and wake up the next morning with an incredible headache. Surely he’s experienced that enough times to know what he was getting into.

  Marin spotted a servant walking by. He handed the empty glass bottle to him.

  “Bring us another one,” he instructed him. “If we’re out of this brand, bring something else. I’m sure the grand wizard won’t mind what flavor tickles his throat.”

  “Hey, Marin,” Monzane began, “is that picture crooked?” He had been staring at a frame of artwork that was perfectly aligned. Marin had even made sure that it wasn’t slanted in the slightest.

  “I don’t think so. Why don’t we get you to dinner?”

  In the large dining hall, Marin was stationed in his typical location, the end of the center long table. Close by him was Monzane. Marin didn’t always do speeches before supper, in fact, it was not often they ever occurred, but with the grand wizard of Arkana being in their midst, they all fully expected the King to make one tonight.

  Marin stood up, ready to address everyone and share the news.

  “Good evening, everyone. I’m sure most of you have heard, but Monzane, the grand wizard who represents the water element in Arkana, has graced us with a visit today. Many of you have met him, and some have had a talk with him as well. His main reason for being here has been like so many other prominent figures – to view the castle and see what all we have to offer.

  I have been informed that the news our re-establishment out here in the Murok Mountains has reached all corners of the continent, so it is likely that from time to time we will see others visit as well. In exchange for the lovely hospitality we have shown Monzane, he has offered to put on a show for us in the theater room. It will entail a stunning display of his mastery of the water element.

  If I were you, I wouldn’t miss it. Most people never get to see the elements in action, much less from one with a deep understanding of them. He is sure to cause a wave – pun entirely intended. The show will start at eight, so you all have time to ready yourselves after eating.

  Speaking of eating, why don’t we all do that now.”

  Marin sat down as everyone clapped. The maids brought out wide dishes stacked high with hot food.

  “Ahhh, Marin. You spoil us! You didn’t have to go this far for me,” Monzane spoke as he began falling in love with the smoked meaty haunches presented before him.

  “We serve this kind of stuff every night,” Loid told him.

  “WHAT?! Oh boy, I might just move here!” Monzane said with disbelief, grabbing just a singular haunch of meat by the bone with his bare hand. He held it like cotton candy, and bit into it.

  Everyone else loaded their plates with cut pieces of haunch meat, as well as a slew of sides.

  Monzane was entirely content with just his one beast leg. He used no dining utensils, or even the plate for that matter, as he never laid it down.

  Everyone conversed as the meal went on. Monzane took the conversation by storm, happily telling tales and sharing his experiences from traveling the world.

  It turned out that while Monzane was a Grand Wizard, he surprisingly spent almost all his time away from Arkana. He only went back for major meetings he was forced to attend in requirement for his position.

  Other than that, he journeyed everywhere. He loved sight seeing, visiting old ruins, and exploring the land. He toured cities throughout the entire continent, taking in the different cultures. It was why Monzane was so early to visit Nocturne, visiting places such as this one was something he did for fun.

  As the meal went on, denizens slowly started leaving as they ate their fill. Monzane finally rested the devoured meat haunch on his plate, showing just the thick bone left. He leaned back and gave his large belly a pat.

  “That was the best I’ve eaten in a week or two,” Monzane admitted. “Methinks its time for a nap,” he declared.

  “What about the show you’re doing?” Marin asked.

  “Oh! Right!” He sat back up, then clapped his hands twice. “Servant!”

  One of the finely dressed servants standing against the wall came to him.

  “Another bottle of your good stuff. If you’re out of that fancy whiskey I’ve been drinking, I’d like me a rum. White’s fine, but I prefer gold,” Monzane commanded.

  “Right away, sir.”

  Marin still had not gotten used to Monzane’s bold character. He easily commanded Marin’s own servants around like they were his. His personality struck a fine balance. He was a generous man who did for others just because he felt it was the right thing to do, but at the same time, he was not afraid to take the things he wanted. It seemed sometimes even without approval, especially with Marin’s Arkana files he lifted.

  By the time eight o’clock rolled around, Monzane had drank enough to begin losing his spatial awareness. His walking was staggered as he tried making progress down the hallway.

  “Are you quite alright?” Marin asked him. “Do you understand you have a show to put on in a few minutes?”

  “Yes! Yes of course. Now, this is the way to the theater room, correct?” He stumbled out.

  “You’re actually walking away from it,” Marin informed him.

  Monzane spun around to face the way he had been walking from. “Right, I knew that! I was just checking that lovely vase over there.”

  The theater room saw the biggest attendance it had seen since Marin first built the castle in the early 600’s. Almost every citizen of the kingdom found themselves sitting in the massive auditorium. Even by Max’s decree, most of the guards on shift were allowed to abandon their post if they wanted to watch the show.

  With so much of the kingdom in attendance, Marin hoped that Monzane wouldn’t fall flat on his face and let out a large snore. Monzane swore that the drinking would make the show that much better, but Marin wondered how that could be possible.

  In one of the top balconies of the theater room, Marin presided himself in a chair. He looked around in the other balconies, and noticed all the other administrators of the kingdom in each of them. As he began taking note who was there, he realized Eisen was nowhere to be seen.

  Marin thought that perhaps the doctor hadn’t heard the news due to his complete seclusion in the basement, but then realized that even if he knew, Eisen wouldn’t care to see. He was entirely satisfied in just working on the potion, and some elemental making water figures was probably not that impressive to him.

  Helva waved at Marin in a balcony opposite to him. Marin nodded in return.

  After a several minutes of unexpected wait time, the heavy red curtains of the stage finally began to part. All the talking in the theater room died down.

  Standing in the center of the stage, was none other than Monzane in his old gray robe. The straw hat on his head covered his eyes, and he stood firm with the bamboo walking staff in hand.

  “...Water,” he began.

  He held his hand out. A small pillar of floating water manifested above his palm. It wiggled as the liquid fought the invisible force that kept it in place.

  “...The liquid of life, the flow of civilization.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He quickly shut his palm, and whipped his arm around. The water grew in volume as it trailed to follow his hand.

  Everyone in attendance was fixated on Monzane.

  He rotated his hand in a quick motion, causing the floating tube of water to spiral in a spring shape. The way he manipulated the water was cool enough to see, but even Marge could accomplish the same tricks.

  “Long ago, in a time before our knowing, mankind fought over this simple substance.”

  Monzane stepped back, and the water balled itself, growing in volume rapidly. At this point, the amount of water pulled from the power plane was getting beyond what well-versed elementals could handle.

  Monzane now needed the aid of his staff to continue controlling the amount of water he had generated.

  “BEHOLD!” He thundered out. He whipped his bamboo staff around, and the huge sphere of water lowered itself to the stage floor, splashing and spreading out.

  Everyone in the front prepared to get doused, but Monzane expertly kept all the water from leaving the stage.

  The water splashes started structuring themselves and formed into familiar shapes. Incredibly, just out of the water Monzane created, an entire town with many villagers took shape.

  Marin was now baffled. The amount of brain power needed to create such a detailed display was beyond what he thought was possible. Everyone in attendance sat on the edge of their seats in awe at what Monzane had somehow molded.

  “There were an ancient people – many consider them to be the ancestors of everyone we know today. They thrived off this one source… Water…”

  Monzane stomped his staff. The small water people began moving about as if life was playing out on this miniature, aquatic scale.

  “Everything went well, until a man rose to power, wanting to control all the clean drinking water for his own gain.”

  Some of the water making the background hills erupted into the air, forming into a man who held his claw-like hands open over the village.

  “...Much is typical of humanity.”

  Monzane swung his staff, and the villagers began melting down into regular pools of water left and right. Eventually all of them were gone.

  “The man thought he had won. He thought he had succeeded. But little did he know the results of his endeavors would wipe out humanity forever. That is when the fabled DRAGON APPEARED!”

  Monzane actually looked like he was starting to break a sweat. He grasped his staff with both hands as he raised it into the air, guiding all of the water back up.

  The volume of the water began growing even larger.

  This was getting to the point where only the most accomplished water elementals could keep under control this much water at once. Even Marin was now on the edge of his seat, watching what the grand wizard of water was truly able to handle.

  Monzane let out a grunt as he whipped the staff, and the water began twisting, and snaking out into a long tube. It began carving itself into immense detail.

  Small, pristine scales began lining the floating snake of water. Arms and legs grew from it, each ending with several claws. The front side formed into a head, that of a dragon, with long whiskers growing away from the snout.

  It was absolutely gorgeous. Within several more seconds, Monzane’s sculpting had resulted into a full one-to-one scale of a serpent dragon, with every detail matching those drawn in history books.

  That alone was impressive enough, but everyone was ready to pass out from shock when it started snaking its way through the air, floating above the audience, and flying around to the back of the theater room.

  As beautiful as it was to watch, Marin looked back at Monzane, who had one hand clutching his staff, and the other openly clutching the air, straining hard to keep the water suspended above everyone, and in the shape of a dragon. If he faltered in even the slightest, the entire display would drop from the air and potentially drown some audience members.

  The dragon worked its way around the expansive room, before making its way back to the center stage where its conductor was.

  Everyone marveled the creation. It was truly something they had never witnessed in their lives, and likely never would again. It was inspiring, and it showed just what power someone could accomplish with a little talent and a lot of hard work.

  “And do you know what this dragon did?!” Monzane yelled out to the audience.

  “What?!” Someone yelled back.

  “Are you sure you want to know?!” Monzane’s strained voice blasted out.

  “YES!” Several people demanded.

  “HE GOT HIM!!!” Monzane smacked his bamboo staff into the stage floor. When he did, the dragon obeyed, and went headfirst to the destination.

  It smashed into the wooden stage planks, erupting into a tsunami wave of water. It violently spread in every direction in front of him, dowsing the entire audience in water. Even Marin and those on the highest balconies got wet from the mist in the air.

  Marin stood up to see if this had been an illusion or real. Had Monzane really just drenched the entire kingdom? Or was it another play?

  The water drained, and soon, the entire audience was still, dead silent, and wondering what the heck just happened.

  Everyone was unpleasantly soaked. No one knew what to think.

  Then suddenly, Monzane held his open palm out towards the audience. He stomped his staff, and watery mist started rising off of everyone in the chairs. It all came back to his hand, where it began returning to the plane that Monzane had pulled it from. This process continued for a minute before he had pulled every drop of water that had made them all wet.

  Everyone was fully dry, and in the same status as before the wave of water hit them. They all looked down at their clothes, pulling on them, bewildered that they somehow went from soaking wet to completely dry.

  They all then looked to Monzane. He removed his straw hat, showing a balding head, then bowed to the crowd.

  The full audience broke out into a roaring applause. People began standing up while clapping. It was the greatest thing they had ever witnessed.

  There was not a single person who wasn’t impressed at the talent of Monzane. The show he had put on was nothing less than legendary.

  “Thank you, thank you everyone,” Monzane said, placing the hat back on his head.

  Everyone kept clapping. The applause was not dying down anytime soon.

  Monzane bowed a few more times just to appease the crowd, but after a moment, he began to exit the stage.

  Marin sat back down, shaking his head in disbelief. It truly was a great show. He wondered how long it took Monzane to practice all that and get it right.

  When the applause finally ended, everyone began talking among each other about what they had seen. The theater room was filled with praise and laughter over Monzane’s play. Eventually, people started leaving, and the castle guards helped file people out of the room in an orderly manner.

  Marin went to leave, and saw Loid by the staircase that went to these upper balconies he sat at.

  “What did you think of that?” Loid asked him with a large smile on his face. “Ever see anything like that at Arkana?”

  Marin chuckled. “I can’t say that I have, and even if I could remember my past, that would still probably be my answer.”

  The program Monzane had played out lasted just a little less than half an hour, but it felt like so much more than that. Marin finally caught up with the grand wizard, who was outside the theater room, shaking hands, and accepting the thank you’s of the entire castle.

  Many lingered on to ask him more questions about his craft, and how he learned to hone it so well. He was happy to talk to them all for a while, but soon it was becoming obvious that he was growing fatigued quick.

  Marin finally commanded the guards to move the rest of the citizens along to finally give Monzane a break.

  When they were all gone, just Marin, Monzane, and Loid remained.

  “...Whew. You got a great people here. I think I need another drink,” Monzane stumbled out.

  “I think bed rest would do you better. What say you?” Marin tried.

  “Ah, yes. Perhaps. Perhaps that would be best.”

  Marin directed Loid to give the Grand Wizard one of the best guest suites they had on the top floor, close to Marin’s own quarters.

  The king had in his grasp Monzane’s arm, guiding him up the many flights of stairs to the higher levels of the castle. Loid had gone ahead to prepare the room. With Monzane finally introduced to his bedroom, he bid the King and his right hand man a good night, and quickly crashed on the royal bed, not even taking the time to get tucked in.

  Marin and Loid headed back to Marin’s quarters for a spell to chat about what had happened, and what course of action they would take tomorrow.

  The next day, Monzane awoke with the announcement that he would be leaving after breakfast. Marin walked with him down a tight hallway towards the dining room. On the way, he saw Doctor Eisen who was actually out of his basement home, looking for the king.

  “Doctor! Good Morning!” Marin declared.

  “Who’s this?” Monzane asked, trying to work through his eternal hangover.

  “Our Kingdom’s doctor. He is the one trying to develop the immortality potion,” Marin explained.

  Eisen and Monzane shook hands after a small introduction.

  “Well, since you understand Marin’s current predicament, I won’t have to be subtle,” Eisen began. “Marin, I have researched the Hallicent Blossom enough to know that dry samples will work just fine. It means we can retrieve them at any time, without worry that they will expire.”

  “That is good news,” Marin said.

  “The Hallicent Blossom, you say? The one at Saanvoleg Temple?” Monzane asked.

  Both Marin and Eisen were surprised Monzane knew about it.

  “Yes, it is a vital ingredient to the potion,” Marin explained.

  “I can go get some for you,” Monzane offered.

  Marin almost couldn’t believe his words.

  “No, I couldn’t possibly ask that,” Marin humbly responded. “You’ve done so much for me already.”

  “I’m due a trip to the Ubora Desert, it’s been a while for me,” Monzane continued. “Saanvoleg is quite the interesting attraction. I know the flowers are deep in there, and it wouldn’t be easy for someone inexperienced to try and retrieve them.”

  Marin looked to Eisen, who seemed equally shocked. Eisen just shrugged.

  “I mean… If that’s something you’d enjoy doing, I suppose I’ll take you up on it,” Marin finally gave in.

  It seemed like the generosity of Monzane had not exhausted itself just yet.

  “Perfect. I can be down there in a week!” Monzane declared as he continued walking to breakfast.

  “A week?!” Eisen spat out. “That’s in southern Grandom. You’d need at least two months to get down there!”

  “I can fast-travel,” Monzane said back without turning around, and still walking.

  Marin and Eisen walked with him to stay close.

  “And how’s that?” Eisen added.

  “I can turn into mist and ride the weather patterns,” he easily responded.

  “That’s not possible,” the doctor said back, believing Monzane was joking. “Only shadow elementals can disperse their body.”

  Monzane suddenly turned around, and raised his hand at them.

  His fleshy, skin covered hand became transparent, and soon looked like the very same water Monzane was molding last night.

  Eisen ripped off his glasses and stared closely to confirm what he was seeing.

  Marin felt a shiver run down his spine, if that was even possible.

  The skill Monzane was showing them defied the current understanding of the elements. His actual hand became water.

  “Let me remind you both I’m a Grand Wizard, not a regular one. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that no one else on this planet can do.”