Balthazar impressed by the turnout. The process for the trial had been described to him, he'd even been walked through some things but he couldn't have imagined this. Balthazar did his best to stay social. When one conversation ended, he often found a way to move to other topics. Eventually the mer he was speaking with left to go and get another drink while Balthazar- tired of discussing the ocean and how it felt to use his magic to command water, chose not to go with him. In a brief window where Balthazar did not know who to speak to next, when he genuinely felt like the fly on the wall at the party, the young human woman approached him. Balthazar stood a little straighter as she neared him and smiled when she said he was looking good.
"You're not looking half bad yourself, Silk." He replied before she leaned in and spoke in a tone that made Balthazar feel as if they had a secret the rest of the room would kill to know about. A pretty fun tone to speak in. But the words she said intrigued Balthazar more than her tone. A special operations working with the Council? With or for? Then Silk backtracked slightly by calling it a rumor and Balthazar shook his head.
"Rumor or not, someone had to have the idea for it to get out there." Balthazar replied to Silk in a tone matching her own with his head lowered slightly closer to her
"Now I glow, so I'm certainly the brightest, hopefully you can be the best. Thank you for letting me know." With a smile and a kind nod from Balthazar and a wink from Silk, the informant was gone.
Balthazar looked around the room again with new eyes. Curious eyes. But before he could do anything with the information, they were all summoned into the Hall. Balthazar hadn't been in a lecture hall for a long time, if he had ever really been in one... it was hard to tell with the strange dreams he'd been having. Balthazar followed the mass into the room and found the seat with his name on it. He sat down and looked around for Silk but he knew of no organizational method that would put Black by Silk so he gave up and refocused on looking for those of importance. If by chance they made eye contact, he would not look away... even if it made him feel somewhat odd. Balthazar would give a nod and keep his head turning while he waited. When the speeches began, Balthazar tried to listen. They were encouraging but all and all not the most entertaining.
Balthazar's mind wandered to the speech he dreaded most of all, his own. He knew that what he said at the lectern would determine how people saw him, or if they saw him. If he fumbled this speech he might easily become the least remarkable Element in this batch. It wouldn't matter in the long run, he was determined to do good work, but it would be a setback he'd rather avoid. He didn't know what he really wanted to say, he'd practiced with Isabella but she always mocked him and so he hadn't made a lot of real progress. So he'd resolved that he would watch the others and try to steal the overarching ideas they proposed. He would craft a speech from pieces of the rest of the speeches like some mad wordsmith... but then his name was the first one called.
Oh... damn.
Balthazar received his pin in a trance and walked towards the lectern with no idea what to say. His hands gripped the sides of the lectern and the color would have drained from his face if not for the fact his mutation's glow always gave him a little color. Balthazar looked out at all the people in the crowd and then back towards the Militant, trying to figure it out but he couldn't. So he told the truth.
"Thank you for allowing me to do this. Thank you, all of you, for trusting me, and the rest of the initiates totrial, to help bring justice and order in these trying times. I wasn't born in Scalvoris, I've spent most of my life traveling since I became a mage, but this land is unlike any other I've been to. It's resilient. It can endure hard times. I know that the last few trials have been devastating. I know that many families still feel broken, but I promise to do everything in my power to fix it." Balthazar paused for a moment.
"I promise to root out evil where ever it hides, so that the people of Scalvoris can sleep safely again. Thank you." And he moved away from the lectern.
It was only part of the game, but Balthazar hoped he'd done enough. He'd have to be on the lookout now. If he wasn't approached, he'd have to find out who was doing the approaching. Fortunately for Balthazar, he never had to put that much thought into the endeavor. Not long after the party began, Silk returned to speak a little more with Balthazar about their new jobs. Her speech had been a good one but Balthazar did not commit it to memory. He heard it but he did not listen. He was watching the room to see who was taking notes at the time. While the two of them were talking and milling around the room to try and keep bouncing from once social circle to the next. They weren't exactly a team here- each one had their own personal gain in mind but it didn't hurt that they were looking for the same thing. They both got it. Before long the Flame Deputy, Marcus Needwell approached the duo with an offer they were perhaps a little too eager to accept. And so Balthazar Black joined the Flame Troopers.
