[Haven] I'd Hammer Out Danger

[Balthazar Black]

18 Ashan 721

It had been a busy trial for Balthazar Black already and the trial had only begun. They were not more than a few hours past sunrise and Balthazar had made the rounds a few times already. He spent the early morning convincing Nadeem to sell the bust of Almund back to Kaden, which Nadeem only agreed to after Balthazar offered to pad his rations (at the expense of Balthazar's own.) Balthazar considered using a threat and keeping the bust for himself, but he did not feel it was what a leader would do. So he persuaded and negotiated and convinced Nadeem to make peace with Kaden. Most of time he was doing that, the builders continued to work on prefabrications for the walls which confused Balthazar to some extent. It looked like they were making no progress. He approached the head worker about the issue but was assured that they were working as fast as they could and that if they worked faster they risked injuring themselves.

"Well what are they doing right now?" Balthazar asked, gesturing to the workers off on the side nailing wooden boards down to a large rectangular wooden frame.

"They're building a wall." The head worker said with mild irritation in his voice. Balthazar was being a lot more hands on than most of their jobs, or at least that was how he interpreted the irritation.

"I thought walls, you know, stood up. Stopped wind and cold and everything." Balthazar countered, probing to see what he could learn about their methods. The head worker turned and narrowed his eyes at Balthazar.

"That wall will stand up, stop your wind, cold, and whatever. But you wanted it built fast so we're making the walls first and we'll put them all up together at the same time. It'll go faster."

"And it'll hold if there is a storm?" Balthazar asked, looking up at the sky for a moment and thinking about the hail. How long before that hit again? How long before something worse came? They were out of Cylus but when did that ever stop strange weather in Scalovris?

"Why don't you leave the building to us Mister Black? I have it under control." Before the man could argue he heard a loud commotion from within the settlement.

"Balthazar!" Balder's voice called out as the guard rushed over to the man who could already see what was about to be reported. "A flame leapt from a torch and-"

"I know, let's go," and they were on the move. Balthazar getting a little bit ahead of Balder and not needing the guidance because he could see the smoke beginning to rise. "Was anyone inside?" Balthazar asked as they ran through the settlement to the slowly burning wooden building.

"I'm not sure."

[Elisabeth Black]

18 Ashan Arc 721

Another trial of doing what she could to help the settlement. It was almost a routine now. Meditation. Defiance. Sword practice. Unarmed practice. Walking around the settlement to sort out what she could, she was always on the lookout for anyone that might need an extra pair of hands. For the most part, she left Balthazar to do what he needed to do. He always knew where to find her should he need something.

Standing at the edge of the sand, staring across the beach, Elisabeth was in the middle of her Defiance session. She had already been down to the water to listen to its voice and practice coaxing. Back up on solid land, she wanted to work with wind a bit. Closing her eyes, the young mage settled her mind and focused on the space around her. The winds were calm that day, so it was the perfect time to practice calling and coaxing with wind. She knew wind’s voice but knowing it didn’t mean it was any easier to hear yet. It still took time to make that connection. Every time she called to an element, it became just a little easier but she still had a long way to go.

It took a bit or so, but soon enough, she found wind’s voice. It was possible that it was a little more stubborn than times before because the winds were calm – she wasn’t sure. Elisabeth noted to ask Balthazar about that when she saw him later. But calling was only part of the exercise. Now it was time to try and coax. She had already successfully done so with fire and water so theoretically she knew the process…but as she was finding out, each element had its own way of doing things. She needed to figure out what wind needed from her.

Trying to hold her connection to the element, she held out her hand. Fire and water were different – they were elements you could see. Wind? Not so much. She felt silly holding out her hand but that’s what she had done with the other two, so it was a start. In her mind, she visualized pulling the wind to her, wanting to feel it on her face. Of course, that didn’t work. At all. Instead of letting go though, she redoubled her efforts. Come on now…please come see me. Pleaseeeee….

And that is when her mind flashed red.

Blinking a bit, she rubbed her eyes and shook her head. Suddenly, that jumpy feeling inside of her returned with a vengeance. Elisabeth had explained it to Balthazar in Viden and they had concluded that it was probably her spark…but since meditating and using her magic, it had settled.

But not at that moment.

Something wasn’t right, she just didn’t know what anything was trying to tell her. Looking around, she turned back toward the settlement and saw what it was. She wasn’t sure how it had happened but somehow, a nearby building had caught on fire. The young mage immediately ran towards it, hearing the shouting a few trills later by others that had noticed. Balthazar would be there momentarily. Elisabeth started looking for a way to ascertain if anyone was inside. It was certainly on fire and sending up smoke, but the flames seemed to be contained to the top and were spreading slowly.

Not wasting time, she threw her cloak on the ground - giving the flames one less fuel source should she get close enough to catch fire – and grabbed the door of the structure quickly, securing it to make sure it couldn’t close behind her and to vent the smoke. Stepping just inside the door to see if there was anyone inside that needed help getting out, she tried to peer through the smoke. She and Balthazar had protection from flames – the others in the settlement did not. How much protection she had, she didn’t know but she was the first to get to the building so it had to be her. Her voice was loud as she called into the space filled with smoke, “Is anyone in here?” Putting her arm over her nose, she tried to keep out as much of the smoke as possible.

[Balthazar Black]

18 Ashan 721

Balthazar and Balder, occasionally mocked as the B team by Silk and Ronan, rushed quickly through the settlement towards the source of the smoke rising into the sky without wasting many more words between them. There was no point in asking more questions Balder did not know the answer to and if Balder knew something important, he likely would have volunteered the information to the man. It would not take them long to cross through the settlement to the burning building but in that time Elisabeth would have already found the structure empty of life. Suspiciously so to someone like Balthazar and yet equally suspicious to someone like Elisabeth who would see a torch sitting abandoned in the middle of the wooden floor.

However all that mattered for the moment was that there was no one inside. They could investigate the cause of the fire later when they'd put it out. Unfortunately Elisabeth's mastery of the elements did not quite extend as far as Balthazar would have liked it to. She could not dispel the blaze with a wave of her hand as Balthazar would ave been able to if not for his sentence. The fire seemed to grow and Balthazar's mind quickly formulated a plan. They needed to act quickly before the fire spread further than they could control. Every trill it burned, they lost some more of the shelter. It wasn't long before buckets of water were being brought to the scene. Settlers had run down to the beach, scooped the saltwater into buckets, and run back up to the settlement to splash the water across the fire.

Most of Haven had gathered around to see what happened and if anyone was hurt but Balder, Silk, and Ronan were there to keep everyone back from the building apart from Elisabeth, who by now they knew was given some special treatment. Was she a guard? Did she want to act in their role? They did not know. All they knew was Balthazar didn't like when they were rude to her... and that she seemed to be trying to help.

"Elisabeth, what happened here?" Balthazar asked Elisabeth as he took a bucket and splashed it across the floor of the building, washing away the lingering flames burning across it.

[Elisabeth Black]

18 Ashan Arc 721

Luckily, her scan of the structure revealed no trapped persons, but her observant eyes caught the outline of an abandoned torch lying on the ground in the middle of the space. Quickly, she grabbed it and pulled it out of the structure as Balthazar and Balder arrived. Coughing due to the smoke, she tossed the torch on the ground and turned back around to face the building. There wasn't much she could do, but she had to try. Holding up her hands, she listened for fire, finding it fairly quickly....and did something she had never asked before. Waving her hand gently, she asked the fire to slow its spread, defying its nature. Come onnnnnnn.....slow down, slow down, slow down....

Sapphire eyes found their way to the torch she had tossed down but held her attention and ability on the structure until the fire was put out by the water from the settlers.

When the mage asked her what had happened, she shook her head and tried to explain the best she could. “I was over by the beach when something got my attention.” Elisabeth didn’t want to try and explain the flash of red in her mind that had prompted her while others were around. “I turned around and saw the building on fire and just ran. I didn’t know if anyone was inside, so I secured the door and checked. No people…just that abandoned torch on the ground inside.” The young mage did not offer her opinion in public but Balthazar knew her well enough to know that she had already formed one about the suspicious set of circumstances and it was the same opinion he would have. There was no reason for her to say it out loud.

Swiping hair out of her way, she noted her fingers coming away with grey streaks, realizing she must have ash on her face. Speaking quietly, she glanced at Balthazar and began walking towards the water. “I’m going to go wash my face. Excuse me...”

Walking down to the water, she kneeled and scooped up some water into her hands, splashing it on her face. Cold. Very cold…but it felt good. She repeated the process a few times over before grabbing the corner of her cloak and drying off her face, hoping that the ash was gone.

[Balthazar Black]

18 Ashan 721

Elisabeth's report was brief and to the point, something Balthazar thought was unusual for her but also something he was not going to press in light of the discovered information. A torch had just been sitting there? Alone in the building with no one to accompany it? That struck Balthazar as strange. He looked to the charred floor of the building and his eyes traced the damage up the wall. There were dark spots on the wall as if the heat source had been held there before it fell and rolled across the ground.

Balthazar had little doubt that the torch had started the fire but how exactly? Elisabeth was gone before Balthazar had come to the end of his train of thought, having dismissed herself to go wash the ash off her face. In his personal opinion, ash was a good look but he said nothing of it because his mind was churning. She walked away and as soon as she was gone, Balder was beside Balthazar, assassin the damage that had been done as well.

"There is an arsonist among us." Balthazar whispered to Balder, causing the guard to fix him with an uncertain look.

"And they just cost us a building." Balder asked in a similarly quiet tone.

"No, I can fix this. Gather reports, I want to know the names of everyone who was seen near this tent in the last break. Find out what you can and report to me after, I'm going to fix this and then take Elisabeth's statement." That wasn't true, he already had her statement, but it was an easy way to excuse himself from the situation at hand. Balder nodded to Balthazar and moved to spread the orders among the guards while Balthazar turned to address the Flame Trooper he typically ignored. "You should note, this is not domain magic." He said before stepping a little closer to the building and placing a hand on the outside of the wall.

He took a deep breath and reached inward to a gift he'd been given by a spirit he had not known greatly. Not Falsehood's guise or favor, but Lovalus's. With the paradigm cuffs on his hands his connection to domain magic had been severed but his connection to Fuego was proof of concept enough for him to believe it had not severed his spiritual abilities. Well... he hoped it had not. He took another deep breath and pushed his hand against the wall a little bit harder but nothing happened and he began to worry. One more breath, a little more focus, and thing sheet of purple flames engulfed the charred building. The Flame Trooper seemed surprised, then they seemed angry. How was that not a Defier breaking his sentence? The trooper moved forward to stop Balthazar one moment but paused when they saw the flames were not destroying the building, but instead repairing it. As slowly as the fire had consumed the building the first time, it now restored it to an untouched state. It took a few bits and when he was done, Balthazar stumbled backwards slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, you're going to report it, I know. Let the Albarech decide if that is destructive enough to warrant stronger paradigm." Balthazar grumbled before moving on to find Elisabeth. He and his shadow moved swiftly down to the beach where they found Elisabeth drying off her face with her cloak. Fortunately the beach was empty enough for them to speak openly- or at least more openly. "Thank you for helping." Balthazar said before asking, "Did you see anyone near the tent on your way over or just the crowd watching the fire?"

[Elisabeth Black]

18 Ashan Arc 721

She knew it wouldn’t take long for him to circle back to her. In truth, it was part of the reason she had left for the beach. Elisabeth had wanted to get out of the way and wash the ash off, but the settlement offered extraordinarily little in the way of privacy. The young woman was smart enough to know how to get space if it was needed though.

Rising as she heard his approach, she finished drying off her face as he offered thanks. “Of course. I think the elements warned me. Something flashed in my mind right before it happened. The color red. I can’t explain it. It prompted me to turn and see the firet. After that, I just ran. My brain didn’t even kick in until I got to the tent. I knew someone had to go in and check for people and while I don’t know how much protection I have against fire, I knew I had more than others.”

Sighing a bit, he asked the question she knew was coming. Shaking her head as she let her eyes gaze over his shoulder at the settlement. “I don’t remember seeing anyone right there. Shouts from nearby but no one in the immediate vicinity. That is the other reason I went in – I knew no one had yet. I think I was the first there due to my proximity, but I didn’t look behind the building. It is possible someone was there.” Elisabeth couldn’t discount that. She had been focused on the structure and ascertaining if it was occupied.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others…but you already know what I think.” The clues were leaving little doubt...and the thought made her angry in a way she hadn't been in a while. Someone in their settlement was putting others in harm's way and undermining what they were trying to accomplish. Why? For what purpose?

The young woman didn’t mention that the jumpy feeling inside of her had returned with a vengeance. Something about the event or situation was agitating her spark - possibly her anger. The young mage was new enough to magic and coexisting with a spark that she was still trying to sort out how to best appease it. Balthazar had enough to worry about. They could discuss her spark later.

[Balthazar Black]

18 Ashan 721

"Probably some form of calling." Balthazar said in a dismissive manner when Elisabeth mentioned seeing red just before the fire. Voices and colors were not typically what Balthazar associated with the elements but he knew by now, having worked with a few Defiance mages, that it was different enough for all of them. In light of the most recent issue to crop up, Elisabeth's magic warning her about the elements as it was supposed to did not surprise Balthazar much. "You're right to think we are more resistant to the elements but don't make a habit of running into burning buildings. It won't end well every time." Balthazar advised as he considered Elisabeth's more elaborate report of the events that had transpired before the building combust.

It didn't give him much to work with but Balthazar would do his best. He hadn't even begun to ask himself why this had happened because the why did not matter to him at the moment. For now all he cared about was who had done it and he had a small suspect pool of thirty settlers and a work crew. He knew the work crew hadn't done it because he'd been with them while they were building and he could similarly assume it was not Balder. However that left many, many people to consider and to question. People Balthazar did not have the time to question if he was going to keep watching over the building process to learn the little things he could. Even if they did not explain it to him, while he watched them work he recorded the memories perfectly into his mind.

"Someone was in there before you. The burn pattern was off. Someone had to start it, whether or not they meant to." Balthazar said in a quiet but stern voice. He did not know if it was intentional, but the arsonist had avoided many of the powers Balthazar had that would allow him to detect their crime by sparing lives. If someone had died, Balthazar might have been able to find more but instead property was damaged and that was all. Forgivable under other circumstances but Balthazar knew was it was like to enjoy fire. This would probably not be the last one if he did not act. Then again there was the chance that it was an accident. Perhaps someone had been trying to light their torch in the tent and something went terribly wrong. Balthazar had heard reports of small fires breaking out here and there but nothing damaging until totrial. He didn't have enough to work with and for the moment the danger had passed.

"There is nothing we can do about it now. I'll go give the area another look and then head back up to the build. Keep an eye out. You're good at getting people to talk so maybe see if you can when you get the chance. Or join me at the build and see if you can learn anything. They aren't the most conversational workers but they're good."

[Elisabeth Black]

18 Ashan Arc 721

There was an understanding now that there were certain matters he couldn’t advise her in for magic manifested differently in each mage. All Elisabeth could do was explain how her spark and the elements communicated with her but none of them were the same ways they spoke to Balthazar. Very different, it seemed. There was an intense curiosity as to why that was, at least in her mind, but it wasn’t the right time to go down that particular rabbit hole.

The warning about running into burning buildings and the nonchalant way he said it probably would have bothered others as well, but she wasn’t others. She was finally beginning to understand, to a minor degree, how his mind worked. The fact that he mentioned it meant it was something important enough to say. Balthazar didn’t say things that didn’t matter to him. Nodding her understanding of that point, they moved on to more important matters.

They both had their own thoughts about what had happened, but he was the seasoned investigator. Elisabeth didn’t like any of it. Regardless of the intentions of the person, others could have been hurt and she wasn’t about to let that happen. And it was time to tell Balthazar that.

Calling upon what she had recently learned about him, the young mage did her best to explain her thoughts, considering him with a contemplative expression. “I have more and better skills than your guards, Balthazar. I can see things many others can’t – with the exception of you…and you are spread too thin trying to deal with everything. If we are going to stop whoever is doing this, you need to utilize me more in that capacity. If nothing else, you at least know my motivations and intentions are sincere. One less thing to worry about. Just think about it.” Hoping that her words were concise enough, she let him mull that over before addressing the next topic.

Well, people did talk to her – that was true. She wasn’t sure how much they would reveal to her, but she could try. Glancing at him, she nodded and responded. “With the exception of the guards. I think you need to find out where they were and I’m not the right person to ask that question.” Her experience with the guards was mixed and she tried to stay out of matters regarding them because of it. Getting in-between them and Balthazar didn’t seem to be a wise idea. He was the settlement leader. She...was not.

“When you are done looking around, I’ll meet you at the build site. Be careful, please? I don’t like the feel of any of this…”

[Balthazar Black]

18 Ashan 721

Balthazar gave Elisabeth a strange look when she professed that she had more and better skills than the guards. Of course she did, she was a mage who'd been trained by him. A mage who knew Balthazar for more than a season would arguably become better trained than most people and it was not because Balthazar was a good teacher. In time Balthazar would train them all and they'd stand on more equal footing but for the moment, sure she was better at fighting than them. However was she better at farming? Fishing? Building structures from raw materials? He needed skills outside of those that he had to make the settlement thrive and most of Elisabeth's skills were skills he shared as well. Useful skills but mostly when it came to battle. Perhaps they should become raiders. "The ability to see and to interpret what you see are very different." Balthazar pointed out. She'd proven to have a more keen at spotting things but his mind was still more adept at putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "You aren't one of the guards, you can't poke around officially like them. I'm hoping that means more people will talk to you but like you said, I'm spread thin so I'm leaving the investigation to you and the guards for now."

"I have found kidnappers across the islands, one arsonist in a collection of thirty people won't be difficult. Especially if you're as good as you let on." Balthazar said after Elisabeth expressed that she did not like the way the situation felt. He turned and began making his way back up the beach towards the build to get back to watching over the workers. His eyes and ability to generate light would have been useful to them if it hadn't been stolen.

When he was done? What had she meant by that? He wasn't going to go investigate now. That was what Ronan, Silk, and Balder were there for. However he did not like the sense of distrust growing between the guards and Elisabeth. He did not like that he was being put in a position where he would have to choose a side and he knew that they would not like what Elisabeth had said about her skills. Still, he didn't know what to do about it for the moment. There were other issues to deal with. People could learn to like each other when they weren't at risk of freezing to death. It was discomforting to think Elisabeth would point fingers at his guards, three of the settlers he'd trusted with the most responsibility, but he knew they would point a finger at her. He could hear their arguments now. 'Is she really in control of her magic?' (Ronan) 'Perhaps it was an accident.' (Balder), and 'She probably just wanted to get your attention.' (Silk).

He knew it wasn't her. He knew it wasn't them. Intuition had served him well in the past and now it told him that the cause of this fire was not someone so close to the man. He'd have known by now if it was. Nothing happened in Haven without him catching wind of it shortly before or after. Soon someone would report something useful to him. Many people. He'd have to sift through the lies and the truth to figure it out but until then he would just collect reports and focus on fighting the cold.

[Elisabeth Black]

18 Ashan, Arc 721

As he walked away, she was left with the sense that he didn’t understand how she felt. That was fine. It wasn’t a unique situation for them. Elisabeth was just exhausted thinking about things for the moment. Her mind went and went and went – all the time – and for some reason, she was tired. Maybe it was all the moving and figuring things out that she had done in the past cycle. Maybe it was the spark. Maybe it was simply all the training. The young woman didn’t know and really didn’t have the emotional capacity to figure it out at that moment.

There was work to do.

Slowly walking towards the build site, she considered the idea that they were all stressed. Stressful situation, stressed people. For that, she allowed herself some slack…and Balthazar as well. The young mage was trying to help the best she could, and she knew he was doing everything possible for the people. They were both doing what they needed to. But trying to figure out the best way to show him that she appreciated him? That, she had no clue about.

Elisabeth wanted to give him a moment to breathe and let the weight of the settlement, amongst other things, slip from his shoulders. Just one moment. He was always trying to take care of people and make sure that they had what they needed, but she wanted to do that for him too.

She just didn’t know how.

Kicking the sand a bit, she let her own mind go and remembered why she was there in the first place. Balthazar. He was the priority to her. She was there to help him and she needed to get back to it.