Nuala groggily awoke to the sounds of birds chirping, and chattering in the streets. It was somewhere around the early morning hours, but Marigold was already quite busy. There were merchants out and about and traders were already at their market stalls to sell their goods and whatnot. It was always this busy, and even though Marigold itself was quite small and almost cozy, it was a lively place. The citizens that lived here weren’t used to getting many visitors or tourists in general, but when it came to having merchants around it seemed that they were quite knowledgeable when it came to that. Nuala was on her own for once and the Captain and left to do something else. She didn’t mind it and was even a little grateful for some alone time. She had plans to find some work or simply do something to pass time. There was nothing in particular on the Voidling’s schedule, but she had been in Marigold for so long that she wasn’t even in need of a plan.

This was a small town after all and if someone needed work she would surely find out about it soon enough. But for now she would start her day lazily and in a cozy manner. After spending so much time with someone else, the woman almost wasn’t used to being on her own anymore but certainly that would change soon. She enjoyed the silence for once and was even grateful for being on her own. It was nice and quiet and very enjoyable. Although if she had a choice, she would probably choose being in the Captain’s presence rather than alone, but the current circumstances couldn’t be helped. Nuala slowly climbed out of bed and took a look around. The room looked emptier without him here, but it wasn’t much of a bother to the rogue. She cleaned up some of her belongings and went to take a shower to refresh herself. Marigold wasn’t exactly the best place to find work and somehow it seemed that most of the missions and quests were being completed by the local guild anyways.

It wasn’t a guild that Nuala had heard much from yet but she was sure than in due time they would grow in size and influence and become more present in the country all together. But until that day came Nuala surely wouldn’t worry too much about them. It wasn’t like her to do that anyways. Once she finished her shower she put on her usual clothes, which consisted of leather pants, boots and a tight shirt. She also threw a cloak over her shoulders like she usually did and went downstairs for some breakfast. She was staying in a small but cozy in that belonged to a friend of hers. They actually went way back and Nuala had her own accommodations upstairs, although she didn’t make use of them very often. The Voidling sat down at the table and began eating. Bacon and eggs was her meal of choice, but she wasn’t all too hungry to begin with.

Nuala wasn’t hungry and if she was being honest with herself, she mostly ate out of habit. It was good to have something in your stomach, even if you didn’t actually need it. Once she finished her meal she got up and left the inn to start walking around town. Nuala figured that it would be a good idea to head for the market first. There were a lot of traders present at the moment. Some of which were actually from Marigold and Nuala already recognized their faces and their wares, but there were also a bunch of new people. Traveling merchants came around town every now and then and it was honestly a smart choice. Most travel merchants avoided cities like Dahlia on their route, and they chose to travel by boat across the sea when visiting Fiore from another country. It seemed that the summer time was a good time to sell your wares because there were quite a few of them that Nuala didn’t recognize and she was very interested in what they had to sell.

The Voidling approached a stand and casually began looking around. Most of them were selling normal items and goods such as jewelry. It would make for a decent gift, but Nuala couldn’t think of a person that she wanted to gift these type of items to, nor could she think of someone who actually had use for them. The woman herself actually prefered items of a different nature. Items that actually had a use and were magically enchanted. Of course those type of jewelry was very rare and difficult to find so she had to take her time when looking for it. Nuala was also used to paying an immense amount of money for them, although for as long as the item itself was worth it, the woman didn’t seem to mind it one bit.

Some of them were also selling food and snacks of unknown origin and while Nuala was tempted to give those type of things a try, she decided against it. Today the Voidling was looking for a very particular set of items, which was enchanted jewelry, or (as per usual) weapons. Nuala was able to enjoy weapons even if they weren’t enchanted, but perhaps she was lucky and would find something really good. There was one merchant who was from Desierto, a far away country known for their warrior and merchant tribes. The merchant carried a lot of interesting and beautiful looking weapons and some of them were even daggers - the type of weapon that Nual was interested in. In the end however, the Voidling ended up buying none of them. They were all beautiful and comfortable to wield, but in terms of sturdiness her own weapons that she currently had were definitely better. But then again, what to expect from a merchant in Marigold. Nuala quietly departed from the market and continued to walk through the city. There were a few cute shops, boutiques and whatnot but the Voidling wasn’t here to shop. She had her moments during which she was girly and cared about clothes, but today wasn’t one of those days.

Nuala continued her little trip through Marigold Town and paid careful attention to what was going on around her. She knew that every town had a request board that had flyers pinned to it. Those flyers had quests in them, as well as contact information in case you wanted to actually contact one of the clients to work out a deal. Usually she rarely made use of those places these days since she had no trouble running into jobs naturally. At least that’s how it used to be in Dahlia. But then again, Dahlia was a place that was filled with troubles and issues and with all those monsters crawling out of Aldenwald to pester the poor citizens it was really no surprise that there was always a bounty on a bunch of werewolves or vampires or whatever. But marigold was quite different. Marigold was peaceful and Nuala couldn’t help but wonder whether a person like her would actually be able to find work here.

It’s not like she walked around and did just about anything. She had a reputation for being good at certain things and even better at others so when there hadn’t been a request for a hit or theft or something similar to it in weeks, she figured that it must have been due to where she was currently at. After all she had worked and lived in bigger cities before, such as Crocus, and things had always worked out in her favour there. But it wasn’t a problem for the Voidling, who simply continued on to the mission board to see where the good citizens of marigold needed help. As expected there weren't a lot of flyers. Nuala figured that the local guild was taking care of most issues and it really didn’t surprise her. It was apparently a good guild so this was kind of their job anyways. Nuala began to look through the few flyers that were actually there and one of them in particular caught her attention.

It was from the Marigold Theatre, which was most certainly the most recognizable place in town. It was quite famous for its plays and even before all the shit went down with the demons and whatnot this place used to be booked out in advance for months on end. It was really that popular. However Nuala wasn’t interested in that sort of arts and so she had never bothered to visit it. It seemed that they were struggling with some issue at the moment though, so Nuala picked up letter to see what sort of reward they could offer to her to make it worth her while. She almost couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the promised reward. Much to Nuala’s surprise, the reward they had promised was much higher than she had anticipated. But what exactly was the issue here and what kind of help was needed?

The information on the flyer was actually very straight-forward, so much that it actually surprised Nuala. It appeared that the people working at the theathre were despearte for help. It was no secret that over a year ago, the country had suffered from a large scale attack carried out by monsters from the abyss. Nuala didn’t knew the details for she was out of country when it happened, and for good reasons. As someone who was not human and probably considered a dark race by many, the Voidling thought it best to leave the country while all of that was going down. It wasn’t like she could help them and if anything, it was best if she wasn’t around to make things work. Luckily the situation had calmed down afterwards and the aftermath wasn’t affecting her too much. She did worry a lot about being called out for what she was and the last thing Nuala needed was a witch hunt that was being started for her.

Of course none of that had ever occurred and she managed to continue living peacefully in secret, at least more or less. Nuala always made sure to keep her identity a secret for it was the best thing to do that she could think of. Only a few selected people whom she trusted actually knew about who and what she was and it was most definitely better that way. Anyways, it seems that the country hadn’t recovered from all of that yet and how could it? Nuala could still see the wreckage everywhere and the people, with all due respect, were trying their hardest to rebuild themselves. But it wasn’t that easy and it made perfect sense to Nuala that they were still struggling to this day, especially a small town like Marigold. The theatre was facing a similar issue now. She knew how big and popular it once used to be and that it used to be the place that hosted the most famous actors all across the country, but apparently things had very much changed for them in that regard as well. Apparently the theatre had been abandoned after the all the chaos, and after suffering from damage and whatnot it was now simply not popular anymore.

Nuala found that to be quite astonishing, Marigold was a city of culture after all. The person who was the client in this case was a performer who was hoping to bring back the former glory of the Marigold theatre. They planned on doing an amazing show that was supposed to lure the fans and visitors back in, and apparently they needed as much help as they could to make the play and everything around it work. You would get paid depending on your job on set and the success of the play, but it was already being advertised everywhere. Of course this was very unusual for a person like Nuala, but she picked up the flyer and headed over to the theatre anyways. A job was a job and she could do just about anything for money. Without questioning it any further, the woman introduced herself to the client.

The client was an actor who had plans to make a big play, and he needed a crap ton of people to help him do that. During her first meeting with him Nuala actually learned a lot about that man and suddenly everything he was doing seemed to be making a lot of sense. He was an actor ever since he finished acting school in his younger years and he had grown up in Marigold as well. The theatre here had been his starting point and it really helped his career to pop off. He used to play and act here for years and join different plays with different people, contributing to the fame and status of this place. Apparently it meant a lot to him because it shaped his career and really helped him to get going and he figured that now would be a good time to give back to the people and the town. Marigold’s theatre of course was also important for the economy, speaking from a financial standpoint and view and so he was interested in luring people and tourists back into town.

The town itself actually couldn't host that many tourists, but so far it had worked out. He had advertised the upcoming play far and wide across the country and for once the tickets had already sold out. Now all they needed to do was to deliver a really good play so that the word would spread around Fiore that the Marigold theatre was pretty much back in business. Nuala figured that she could help him in one way or another and began reading into the play. The play was actually about what had happened to the country with the demonic incursion and all the angels attacking and what not and they wanted to make the play about how they came out victorious and whatnot.

Oddly enough, Nuala already had the perfect job for herself in mind. She volunteered to be one of the demons that had to be slain by the client, who was of course also the lead protagonist in this play. Nuala explained to him that the magic she used let he shape shift into cool forms (which was a lie of course, since it had nothing to do with her magic) but he bought it anyways and accepted the deal. He also promised her a huge reward from the sales of the tickets should this be a success. Nuala simply demonstrated a few times what she could do in terms of changing her appearance and looking scary and she even shot a few lasers to demonstrate her skill. The client was very pleased with that and together they began practicing the scene. The scene itself had to be a flashy one, but they figured it out and Nuala actually became part of the play. The play itself, which was aired a few times over the week for several guests then turned out to be a huge success and Nuala was paid a generous amount of money for her performance at the Marigold Theatre.