39 Ymiden 720
They Isabella had decided that for professional reasons they should not be seen in public together. He was an Element- an increasingly known Element, and she was a criminal. People would talk. It would damage both his relationships and her own if anyone found out they were still talking. It hadn't mattered before but it seemed to matter to Isabella now. Balthazar didn't complain. He was just glad to be able to speak with her more often. It was nice to talk about their trial every few nights. They did both lives interesting lives.
They were just friends. It was odd but it was what they were at. He knew she'd be mad if vanished for a long time without explanation- not that she wouldn't immediately used the bond of Balthazar's Rupturing initiation to spy on him and find out where he went. So he came to say goodbye. She'd been in a field of flowers when they met and they'd walked a long way together to end up in this cave of stone. They talked about everything and nothing at all, but now they spoke of dreamwalking.
"I don't think I can take you with me. Not yet." Balthazar replied. He wasn't asleep like Isabella was. He didn't need to be anymore. He was not merely walking from one dreamscape the next and pushing his mind further through Emea into the Veil. He could do that. Most times he visited Isabella in her dreams he too was sleep somewhere in Scalvoris, but not tonight. Tonight he needed his body with him because tonight he set out to find another place. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't have a specific desire to get anywhere. He knew that when he landed, he would establish contacts, find valuable resources, and move on quickly. He only needed to remain wherever he ended up long enough to learn what could be of use to the Elements... and to him.
"That's alright. With my luck, we'd end up in Quacia and there is nothing there worth seeing." Isabella mused as the rigid stone hallway began to take a more defined shape. The walls that had once looked somewhat like a cavern tunnel slowly shifted to brick and now the hallway was lined with various wooden doors. Every door was different shape and size but the duo walked on down the hall.
"It can't be that bad." Balthazar had never been to Quacia but Isabella made it sound like the armpit of the Idalos.
"It's creepy. Besides I don't want to go with you until you know where you're going." Isabella pointed out as the hallway finally came to an end. A large arched door with a handle that seemed to sprout from the wood sat in front of the two of them now but they turned to each other.
"Meh. The surprise will be half the fun." Balthazar insisted, looking to the door for just a moment before looking back at Isabella.
"I would have thought you had enough surprise for a lifetime." Isabella countered and Balthazar grinned. She was right. More right than she could know... but he wouldn't admit it. To her or to himself.
"If I'm lucky I'll end up in Yaralon. I've been missing the duels. I wanted to be a Darstrion, did I ever tell you that? Maybe I could work toward that while I'm gathering resources."
"You kill most people in duels. I don't think that's a productive way to make informants."
"It really just depends on who you kill. Some people will do a lot to thank you for getting rid of a problem in an honorable way."
"Not exactly honorable." Isabella countered. Balthazar couldn't argue against that. The duel system was well crafted but there were flaws. At a certain point some people became virtually untouchable because of their physical prowess. Balthazar wasn't exactly there but he was better than your average Yari when it came to a real fight.
"Fair enough." He surrendered to Isabella and then a silence began. A silence that seemed to echo off the long stone hallway walls behind them. Balthazar looked to the door. Then Isabella did.
"I should go now." Balthazar said as he broke away from Isabella, moving towards the root-like handle off the door. Isabella nodded and stood a little straighter, watching him walk to the door. "You'll look after Tornado won't you? And my house?" Balthazar asked. He'd come into quite a few possessions he actually cared to keep last season. Isabella silently nodded and after a trill Balthazar turned back to her. "You can use some of the alchemy kit as well but if you use up all of something, please replace it this time."
"What do you mean 'this time'? I always replace the things I use!" Isabella insisted.
"Then where are my potion bottles?" Balthazar asked. "I remember how many the kit came with and I know that there are three missing."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Isabella clearly did know but Balthazar wasn't going to keep prying.
"Just take care of my things." He said.
"I will, I promise." She didn't step closer to the door Balthazar stood beside because she didn't want to risk anything going wrong.
"Thank you, Isabella." Balthazar turned to the door and placed his hand on it. This would be the way into the unknown and he would go alone.
"Be careful." She said. Balthazar turned back and smiled at her. He was worried too. Then he turned and opened the door, stepping into the Untold.
How could he describe what philosophers had dubbed "the Untold?" It was no easier to describe Balthazar's experience once he passed through the door than it was to describe quantum physics to a caveman. Balthazar saw a field and an ever shifting world around him. He walked on grass that turned to cobblestone with one step and pavement with another. When he looked around he saw buildings and he saw trees but they moved. They were there and then they were not. There was a blue sky, then a red sky, then a green one. Everything shifted. It moved and Balthazar moved. He moved forward... everything else just... moved.
It was chaos, pure and unadulterated. Balthazar couldn't make sense of it and he didn't seek to. Instead he kept focused on his task and on the path ahead. Find a dreamscape. Find a dreamer. Find someone far, far from Scalvoris. Find something interesting. He walked along a path he did not see for a long time before he began looking for doors out of the Untold place he was in. He found himself in a dying forest surrounded by trees and the mage blindly walked forward in the charred trunk of the largest tree in the forest.
He emerged in a library with dozens of unfamiliar faces sitting in tables that had been arranged in rows. At the head of the rows, a man stood on a small stage delivering what was probably a very inspirational speech but Balthazar did not listen to it. He was not interested in the speech. He'd come to travel. The man on the stage noticed him and seemed shaken for a moment so Balthazar crouched by one of the tables to make it look as if he was sitting and the man returned to his speech. There were no open chairs to sit at but it didn't matter because Balthazar rose to move again. He crossed quickly to a wall and pressed his hand against it. Idalos. This was never the easy part. Balthazar pushed through the wall, crossing out of the dream and into the real world.
