The Windcaster [Fantasy/Adventure | Featured | Complete ]

Chapter 13: Casters and Mages

"This is amazing!" Tia repeated, her green eyes glassy beneath her chestnut brown fringe. Mommu found himself dragged into the mob surrounding a flashy stage. Like all the shows he had been forced to attend so far, these were no different: raucous music, sleazy men doing quick-handed tricks to appease the crowd, beautiful scantily-clad women doing exotic dances or suggestive, provocative gestures, wild woops from the people around him. A general sense of unease fluttered in his chest again, but as always, Tia was oblivious to anything beyond the pretty exterior.

Like Tia, he had never seen anything like this before. Unlike Tia, such flamboyance and riches was making him uncomfortable. Perhaps it was Enlil's dark presence next to him that was keeping him from being swept away by the frivolity. Where did all this money come from? And where did it go afterwards? Money appeared to flow like water. Coin after coin was being tossed onto the stages or into the hats of the performers after a show – even though some of the people doing the throwing were dressed in nothing more than rags or soiled tunics.

The beauty and charm seemed so superficial all at once. He tightened his grip on the food Tia had made him buy a few minutes before: some sort of roasted meat on a wooden stick, covered in honey. It was sweet and savoury, unlike anything he had eaten before. Tia had loved it and would have ordered several had Enlil not stepped in and made her relent. He took the last bite and tossed the stick away, hoping against hope that he was not following his rambunctious partner into more trouble.

In this particularly flashy venue, the women in their flimsy dresses danced around a man who came through from under the stage on a slowly revolving platform. Some kind of grey smoke billowed around his feet as he surfaced. Dressed in a sparkling overall and a matching high hat, he was every bit the dapper, charming gentleman with his cleanly-shaven chin and slick, gelled-back hair. He spun a wooden stick in his hand – no, it was not a stick. Mommu recognised the patterns engraved all the way along its length.

This man was also a Windcaster.

Tia breathed a sigh of pleasure and anticipation.

The Wind began to gather at the base of the Caster's staff, swirling in a neat, small swirl and increasing in speed. At the man's feet were five wooden bowls, covered by a thick plank of wood. The hairs on the back of Mommu's neck rose.

The man's face was grim with concentration, his shoulders tense as he tightened his grip on his staff. The wind concentrated in its flow and quickened. His beautiful assistant sauntered on and swiftly removed the lids to the bowls. Each contained a pile of coloured dust in blood red, shining gold, forest green, ocean blue, and glittering silver.

He stood perfectly still. The crowd quietened, their breaths held and eyes fixated on the five bowls. He had the Wind wholly in his control so that it spun in a perfect, enclosed area. They could see the dust and leaves it was gathering up but they could not feel its power.

The Caster gently dipped the tip of the swirling wind into the first bowl. The small tornado immediately turned blood red, spinning rapidly but retained immaculately within the force. Sounds of awe rippled through the mass of people. He sat the twister in front of the red bowl. A second one formed and dipped into the gold dust, turning a glimmering shade of bright yellow.

At this point he stopped. Tilting his chin upwards but not letting his gaze avert from his creations, he directed them upwards so the two squat tornados stretched and thinned like baking dough. The rapidly spinning metallic dusts reflected specks of light, sparkling in the setting sunshine. He spun them together, keeping the dust particles carefully in their respective currents but allowing them to dance together in a beautiful spectacle of colour. All of a sudden, a third cyclone joined them, a dark blue jet weaving in and out of the red and gold, followed by the forest green and then the glittering silver. They took turns rushing around the Caster, chasing each other across the air in front of the onlookers like birds, circumnavigating in pairs and then spinning rapidly as a group so that the flashes of gold, silver, red, blue and green cast rays after rays of dazzling light from the sun. The gorgeous beams dazzled everybody. Even Enlil could find no scathing comment to make.