81 Ymiden 719
The Pray was coming in from the Crags.
Balthazar didn't know how long he'd have to wait, but he would do it. He would sit at his campsite, nourished by fish if needed and protected by the elements, and he would watch the ships on the horizon. He would watch the shores of the beach. He would sit vigilant until he found something. But as bits turned to breaks Balthazar began to doubt the information he'd been given. He began to ponder if the blacksmith had lied to be rid of him. He began to wonder if he'd been wrong about the whole thing... but he did not leave his spot. If he was wrong there would be nothing and at dawn he would return home... or maybe he would stay longer.
Balthazar was unsure now when his watch would be considered wasted time. He was worried what fowl plots brewed in the city while he sat at the Crags watching for a ship that may never come. But he sat and watched because if he was right, he would end it here.
Discipline only carried Balthazar so far. As the sun sank and the bits began to feel like breaks, Balthazar's eyes would begin to feel heavy. His head would droop only to shoot up suddenly as he tried to fight off the sleep. Then moments later it would droop again and his eyes would begin to shut. This process repeated for a whole break until Balthazar dozed off into a soft sleep.
This failure would have been the end of Balthazar's investigation if the smugglers had chosen any magic other than Rupture magic to move their goods. The air screeched loudly in resistance to the space being torn- waking Balthazar from his slumber. The sun had fallen far beyond the horizon and darkness had taken the sky but Balthazar could still see the ship out on the horizon and the green sparks swirling into a portal on the shore of the beach.
"A Rupturer... of course it is." Balthazar mumbled, berating himself for not making the connection sooner. That was how they were moving their good in at the Crags. They didn't need to get near it. Balthazar rose to his feet, casting the two slabs of earth forming his tent back into the earth before leaping forward off the edge of the shale cliff side and blinking down to the beach a few dozen feet from the emerald portal that was tearing open. The portal expanded to roughly seven feet and a tall human came out of it carrying a crate with him but when his eyes locked with Balthazar's the portal snapped shut.
"Who do you work for?" Balthazar asked as the man lowered the crate to the floor. When he'd stood up straight again the man puffed his chest out a little to make himself seem more intimidating. It wasn't working.
"You're not supposed to be here." The man replied to Balthazar as his right hand slowly hovered down to his side. Balthazar noticed it but more importantly he noticed the dagger sheathed on the man's thigh. The man hadn't gone for it yet so Balthazar did nothing but prepare. His fingers began to twitch as his ether churned within him. The hair on his arms began to stand up and Balthazar's eyes began to emit of soft smoke that seemed to cause the man across from him to rethink his movement. "She said there wouldn't be anyone here for the drop off. You're not-"
"I heard you the first time." Balthazar interrupted. "Where are you getting the Pray? Sparks danced between the defier's fingers and his eyes narrowed on the man across from him.
"The Pray? Well it was-" In an instant the man's hand dropped to his blade. As he drew his dagger from the sheath, a blinding light flashed across the beach from one mage to the other. Balthazar had thrust his arm forward- propelling a bolt of lightning from his hand into the chest of the smuggler who stumbled back in shock, his dagger slipping from his fingers into the sand. Balthazar lowered his right arm slowly- his smoking eyes returning to normal as he watched the smuggler drop to a kneeling position. Balthazar's body felt heavy as the electricity seemed to fade from the air. Refinement was new to him but his mutation helped him find the right balance even if it taxed his ether to perform so suddenly.
"Why'd you have to do that?" Balthazar asked thought he wasn't sure if he was asking the man or himself. He hadn't meant to strike so fatally but he'd been left with little time to aim. Balthazar lumbered across the beach to the man and grabbed hold of his seared shirt and held him up. Suddenly a loud tearing noise rang out over the waves crashing into the Crags. Balthazar shoved the smuggler to the ground and turned, raising his arms as if to defend from an incoming blow but nothing could prepare him for the blow that came.
"What was that flash of light?" A voice rang out instead.
Not more than a handful of meters away from Balthazar a portal had torn itself into existence- hovering a few inches off the beach floor. Purple sparks danced off the edges of the portal which held firmly for long enough for the caster to look through and see what there was to see... long enough for Balthazar to see as well. The purple light shining from the edges of the portal provided just enough light for the duo to spot each other. Just enough light in the dark night so that they did not mistake each other again. Any less light and they would have eventually been able to convince themselves that what they saw was a mere trick of the brain. Balthazar's eyes widened and his body loosened as he locked eyes with the first and last woman he'd ever loved,
Morgan.
She looked the same as she had the last time he saw her and wore her hair in the same braid that hung loosely over her shoulder. Balthazar didn't have a moment to comprehend what she was wearing- her face captured his mind before her expression shifted from the determined brow crinkle Balthazar remembered seeing every time she began to conjure a portal to a looser look of shock, then fear. Balthazar's face shifted as well- from shock and awe to fear as he recalled their last meeting. He remembered her standing over Xanax's lifeless body as their home burnt down around them. He burned the house down. He chased her off. Balthazar stepped forward with a dazed hand reach out towards Morgan and she quickly began spinning her hand in the opposite direction she'd been going.
The sparkling purple edges of the portal began to close and Balthazar knew he'd not reach it in time to get through but it was not his nature to accept defeat. Balthazar instinctively began feeding ether to his Rupture spark and rotating his arm in a circle as he tried to keep the portal open. For a brief moment the purple edges of Morgan's portal shimmered a shade of blue but Balthazar had no idea where she was. He had no reference for the distance he was trying to rupture and as a result he succeeded in almost nothing.
"No- No! Wait!" Balthazar's outcry would never be heard by Morgan as the portal closed completely. Balthazar's eyes shifted to the ship on the horizon and he stumbled towards the coast where the tide was beginning to rise. "I'm sorry." He knew she wouldn't hear it and so there was almost no reason to say it, but it made him feel good. It made him feel lighter... then he remembered what her presence meant. He remembered the ghosts it would bring back.
But for now she was gone and he would not see her Pray in Yaralon again.
