Arc 721, 5 Vhalar
It had happened an entire cycle earlier, but the area still bore the stains of the events preceding the Forging. The Element Hall had been quickly rebuilt, but there were still painful reminders of that trial if one knew where to look. She had been there, in the middle of a Chrien-fueled storm intent on showcasing the Immortal's rage, so in a way, Elisabeth could feel the marks of history in the very ground. The memories, burned into her mind.
The young settlement leader's business in Scalvoris Town was wide and varied. She had come to attend the Council meeting but decided to stay on a bit to spend some time with Balthazar while he was working in the area. In a surprise development, he had proposed marriage to her, and while beautiful thoughts of that filled her mind, Elisabeth had an important task to attend to that trial. One that needed her complete and utter attention.
Jacien. Spirit Deputy Jacien Raque, to be precise.
The relationship between the young mage and Spirit Deputy was complicated. Their first encounter had been at the Almund Bazaar and quite the memorable trial that had been. Things had gone sideways quickly, finding Balthazar and herself arrested and imprisoned. It had been apparent that Jacien wasn't what he seemed, but she wouldn't know the truth of that until their next meeting.
His appearance at Balthazar's trial had cleared up a lot of the confusion, although she had mainly served as a bystander. Jacien had reported to Kura on Elisabeth and her activities himself. After listening to such, she felt that neither he nor the Militant thought much of her.
It wasn't until the Forging that Elisabeth had seen Jacien for what he truly was, or at least what he allowed her to see. Her resurrection had been his doing, followed by a private berating for mistakes made during critical moments, and had things ended there, Elisabeth would have known where she stood with the enigmatic man, but they didn't.
Jacien had told her she had potential and offered her a curious thing – a job and training. The confusion that the offer caused within her was extensive, and even though she had wanted to sort things out earlier, her elevation to Haven's leader had stalled any swift conversations they might have had. Haven was the priority, and its young leader had conveyed such to the Spirit Deputy and communicated that she would follow up with him in Vhalar.
Vhalar had come, and it was time to see what the pair thought of each other now and hopefully get some questions answered.
His communication had instructed her to meet him at the Element Hall in Scalvoris Town, so she swiftly made her way to the building and inside. Quickly greeted by the receptionist, Sylvia Macklin, Elisabeth didn't have the chance to give her name before the woman gestured her to a small area with a few chairs. "Miss Angelus, someone will come to greet you shortly. Please make yourself comfortable."
Arching an eyebrow at the fact that the receptionist knew who she was, the young mage did as instructed, smiling in gratitude for the information before taking her seat.
It wasn't a moment or two before a middle-aged man came into the area and gestured at her to follow him. His expression was no-nonsense and prompted Elisabeth to quickly follow him down a winding set of hallways, which by her estimation was taking them towards the back of the Element Hall. At least that's what her senses told her, having noted the structure and size upon her approach.
Soon enough, she was led into a small, sparse office area and told to wait. Slipping off her cloak, Elisabeth barely had enough time to lay the garment on the back of a nearby chair before Jacien entered the room, greeting her with a nod as he did. Moving over behind the small desk, he took a seat, setting down a small stack of files. "What do you wish to speak about?"
His tone was stark and business-like, unlike when she had met him before. At the Bazaar, he had been pretending to be someone he wasn't, so that was understandable. The Forging, bits of fire had laced his demeanor, but then again, it had been a challenging, busy trial. The Trial, business-like, but he and Balthazar had been sparring a bit, at least in her opinion.
The Jacien in front of her was something different, and it intrigued her. "Your offer," she replied, being as direct as she could, knowing from previous experience that he valued such.
Leaning back a bit in his chair, Jacien looked up at her with an indecipherable expression. It was reminiscent of times past, looking at him but never being able to sense what was being thought or felt. It was one of the infuriating things about the man. Elisabeth prided herself on sleuthing those indicators out, but with Jacien Raque – nothing.
When he did speak, his tone remained neutral, betraying nothing. “And?" Elisabeth immediately recognized that Jacien was not inclined to give anything away for his part.
She considered the man briefly before responding. "I'd be lying if I said the offer didn't intrigue me, but I'm guessing you already know that, or else why am I here?" He arched an eyebrow a bit but didn't offer anything in the way of a response, so Elisabeth continued. "I need to know more about the Spirit Branch, though."
If her question intrigued him, it didn't show. Nothing did. He simply nodded and replied. "What do you know about the Spirit Branch?" Elisabeth considered the question carefully. What did she directly know? Not much. What did she suspect? That was a bit more.
"I suspect the Spirit Branch is the covert branch. Intelligence gathering." Her answer prompted a bit of a wry grin from the man. “Correct. Next question?" Blinking slightly, Elisabeth backtracked a moment, realizing a few things simultaneously. The question and answer session she hoped to have, wasn't going to happen as she anticipated, and that was a bit of a problem that required her to readjust her approach to their conversation. It was time to put what she knew about Jacien to the test.
Leveling her gaze on the Spirit Deputy, she began. "You offered me a job and know I'm the settlement leader for Haven, yet still took this meeting, and the offer stands. That tells me that whatever potential you see in me is not hindered by that fact, nor the job that you would wish me to do." Jacien looked at her with the same passive expression, giving her little more than a quick "Continue…" to work with.
Working her way through the situation, mentally and aloud, was tricky, especially with him listening, but there was no other way for her to approach things. "Members of the Spirit branch are mostly specialists, aren't they? Like the Fire branch but with skills more in line with intelligence and information gathering, and not so much weapons." Still, no reaction from the man, but it was apparent she had his attention.
After a beat, he looked down, picking up one of the files in front of him and handing it over. "You have some analysis skills. Let's see what you do with this." Curious, she gently held out her hand to take the file, pulling it to her and opening the cover.
Within two sentences, she knew precisely who the asset was. There were crucial descriptors that hinted at such, like "moderately skilled mage" and "Viden," but when she got to "settlement leader," Elisabeth was confident, without a name to be seen on the page - the asset was her. Her life splayed out factually upon a page, without context or life. It seemed odd to size up an individual in such a manner. Impersonal. Cold. Without meaning. Lifeless. It wasn't an accurate picture of one, and that thought brought a voice to her to mind.
"And if you truly believe that having a file on you gives me any insight into anything, you're an idiot." It was his voice, Jacien's, from almost a lifetime ago, it seemed. It had been just them, in the Mausoleum after her resurrection, and it appeared even back then, he attempted to teach her. People were complicated creatures, and since then, Elisabeth had learned. Jacien knew what was in the file on her - the black and white. His experiences with her attempted to fill in the color.
Jacien rose from the desk and walked over to the window, allowing her to read and digest while he considered other matters. After enough time had passed, he moved on. "Given this profile, how would you utilize the asset?"
Of course, it was impossible to ignore that the very person Jacien was describing was, in fact, her, and now he wanted an analysis, knowing that analyzing oneself was a tricky feat.
