He moved with Vri and went through Drake's pockets, finding the compass but not understanding the significance until Vri explained it to him. Balthazar had no idea what the Immortal was talking about until the vision began. He recognized the beach but it seemed unfamiliar as well. The sand was familiar but he didn't recognize the man with the bow at first. He recognized Vri standing beside him again in the memory but it took a few trills for Balthazar to realize it was Drake holding the bow and taking aim at the skiff drifting away into the sea. Vri spoke and his marked listened. The Immortal gave good advice. Everyone had been a child once. Everyone had lived their own life and it had shaped them to the being that Balthazar killed. Drake had been many things before he'd been the Captain and now he was nothing.
Drake fired the arrow in the memory and Balthazar watched as it struck the skiff, igniting it against the darkness. Balthazar did not feel the call of the fire and so he knew he could not interact with it. This was not the present, it was the past... and the past could not be changed but apparently it could be remembered... quite well. Then the vision ended and Balthazar was alone. He took a deep breath and turned to look for Vri who had vanished, leaving Balthazar to do the work that had been promised. He had so many questions but he knew better than to ask the air. Vri was gone and once the rites were performed, Balthazar would be gone as well. Remembered by none thanks to the Immortal.
Balthazar moved over to Drake's body and began to hoist him up with a small groan. He reached out to the wind, relieved to feel it respond to his call to help lighten the load a little as the mage lifted the captain's body onto his bed. Balthazar took another deep breath. He wanted to bludgeon Drake's face in for what he'd done but he didn't.
Remember the child he was. Balthazar repeated the advice in his mind and walked slowly from the captain's cabin so he could begin organizing the rites with the crew. They needed to get the shore first. He's build some pyres and he's send Drake out on a skiff. Every step of the way he would remind himself not to judge the man Drake had become. Drake's crimes were dealt with. He deserved what the rest of them did.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ Half a Trial Later ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Balthazar stood barefoot on the warm sands of a beach in Scalvoris with one hand resting on a small wooden vessel and his eyes on the horizon where Drake's ship floated, anchored and waiting for the crew to return. All of Drake's crew, those who had and had not reviled him, stood on the shore behind Balthazar watching the mage they would never remember. He took a moment to breathe it all in, the air, the ritual, the man he'd killed. His eyes drifted from the horizon to Drake's body resting in the little boat like his father had in the memory.
"You are not what you became... I wish you the best in the next world." Balthazar took another deep breath and began pushing the boat into the water. Once he got far enough for the waves to help, he coaxed them to pull the boat for him and backed away- waving his hands gently to move the vessel further out into the water. Mary-Beth brought Balthazar a bow and an arrow. The mage took them gently in hand and sighed. He did not know how to use a bow. He had never particularly cared to learn how to use a bow when he could hurl stones with his magic. Balthazar knew he could wait for the boat to reach the edge of his range and then just manifest flames but those were not the rites he had seen. He nocked the arrow and drew it back slowly, aiming a little into the sky.
Mary-Beth cleared her throat and Balthazar looked over at her. She nodded her chin slightly, signaling Balthazar to aim a little higher, and the mage did as she suggested. He caresses the arrow with a blue flame and shot it. The little blue light flew through the sky like a comet and arched, crashing right into the sea. It had flown a little wide of the boat with Drake's body and while the wind tried to help the Defier, his aim was nothing to be proud of. Balthazar grimaced and Mary-Beth offered him another arrow. He took it, nocked it, and went through the same routine to ignite it before taking his second shot. Drake's pyre had drifted further into the water now but the elements were all working their best to help the mage. The water tried to keep the vessel in close so Balthazar did not have to take a great shot. The wind tried to help guide the arrow and the fire tried to help burn the captain... but Balthazar was not good with a bow. He missed again and a small murmur began to spread through the crew behind him. He was given another arrow and ignored the crew behind him. Vri said he'd be forgotten, so the failure would be as well.
The third arrow struck the side of the ship and ignited the pyre with Drake's body on it. Balthazar watched the blue flames spread over the ship and slowly shift to orange as the source of the fire shifted from his ether to the dry wood of the pyre. A solemn silence washed over the crew and the sound of the waves crashing against the beach became deafening. The marked mage took a deep breath a turned away from the sea. He walked off the beach and out of the lives of everyone he'd saved for good.
