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7 Cylus 720
"That's not fair. That initiation kills more initiates than it converts. Attunement it's nearly as dangerous." Balthazar countered as he took a seat at the table. They were in a small building that Isabella had been renting for her time in Scalvoris. It served as her home and makeshift alchemist booth though she didn't seem to have any waiting customers this trial.
"How would you know?" Isabella said sternly as she held the iron kettle out to Balthazar. He took the kettle in his left hand and held it over his right. In his right hand he manifest a blue flame to begin heating the water for her.
"I read it in a book." Balthazar replied. He wasn't lying but he did leave out that he hadn't finished the book.
"Didn't you tell me you couldn't read anymore?" Balthazar shook his head but he did not move his arms as he was still heating up the kettle.
"I can't read while I'm sitting." Balthazar corrected. "I read exceptionally well when I'm moving around."
"And so you think that just because one person said that it would be alright, you'll be fine?"
"I will be fine-" Balthazar insisted. He had a certain hubris about initiations that had grown worse with time. Having survived two already, Balthazar was certain that he'd be able to endure one more. Any doubt he had about that was shuffled from his mind by the urgency of his larger mission. People were dying and he had all but the one ability he thought he needed to stop it.
"You don't know that! You can't know that." Isabella interrupted. "This initiation is nothing like the last and I'm sure it won't be anything like the one Xanax put you through."
"From what I read in Viden, it's arguably safer." Balthazar replied calmly. "With Defiance and Rupture I risked death or becoming a monster. With Attunement the greatest danger is deafness." Which Balthazar found infinitely preferable to blindness... though he was fairly certain that he could not be rendered blind due to his Rupture spark. At least he hoped he couldn't otherwise creating portals would become incredibly more difficult for him to do.
"The greatest recorded risk is deafness but I've been through the initiation Balthazar. I've felt the pain you are asking me to put you through and trust me, death seems preferable." Isabella said. Balthazar let his eyes wander to the kettle he was holding over his right hand.The blue flame he'd manifest had grown slightly larger in his hand since the argument went underway. He couldn't burn himself with his own manifested flame, his spark naturally utilizing deference to insulate Balthazar.
"Till a few trials ago, you were convinced I meant to kill you, why do you care if I die?" It was a valid point. Isabella had fled from her home, she'd gone to far lands to make sure Balthazar could never finish the job he started the night she flayed his magic mentor. They had a complicated relationship that Balthazar had tried to fix earlier in the season but there was too much that went unsaid between them to really repair the damage that had been done. The two of them found it easier to exist when they didn't address how they'd used each other. Balthazar used her to gain magic as he meant to do again, and she had used him to peddle her drugs and get closer to Xanax.
"Murder is frowned upon in Scalvoris." Isabella said and Balthazar laughed a mocking laugh.
"Is it? You could have fooled me given the number of brutes and assassins I've had to deal with since arriving here." In truth that was entirely Balthazar's fault. If he hadn't stuck his nose into the cities troubles then he would never have had to contend with those lethal forces... but Balthazar had never been one to let something cruel go unanswered. That was why he'd gotten involved with Nellies and that was why he couldn't rest comfortably until the beast murdering children had been dealt with. "And you'd be a fool to think I don't know you're trying to start selling Pray again."
Isabella shook her head. "Pray is a drug of the past. I'm onto better ventures now." She wasn't lying. In the time since they'd last met Isabella had really committed herself to alchemy.
"Which I'd bet are just as frowned upon." Balthazar countered and Isabella- after a moment of consideration, gave a nod and a shrug. Her alchemical solutions were typically poisons.
"Joke all you want, I won't initiate you." Isabella replied sternly. At this time the kettle Balthazar was holding began to emit a lout whistling noise so he closed his right hand, dispelling the flame, and held the kettle out to Isabella. She took it in hand and poured the hot liquid into two cups before grabbing a small bowl with brown powder in it and pouring some of the powder into the cups. As the powder hit the liquid the hot water turned a milky brown which spread further as Isabella stirred the drinks slowly. "Despite everything, I care about you enough not to condemn you to death."
"And what about the children dying? What about their families? Will you condemn them?" Balthazar knew it was a low blow but he was left with few options. Balthazar and Isabella had mused about the idea of retiring together and raising a family back in the days when the drug pedaling was bringing in a lot of nels. He'd always been avid about a single child, hopefully a daughter, while she had posited that they'd be best with two so that the children could entertain each other while their parents took a break from time to time. He knew that Isabella loved children and he knew the killer hurt her heart with every body he dropped... but Balthazar also knew Isabella would never do anything about it because she lacked the combat skills she thought necessary to fight crime.
"I don't know them. They're just names on a board." Isabella's voice was so hollow even an idiot would not have believed the words she said. She sat down at the table and set the drinks down but Balthazar did not take his until Isabella had sipped from hers. Even then he switched his glass with her glass and Isabella understood why. There was a tension in their relationship that could not be ignored. Especially after Yaralon. Balthazar had run her out of another city too recently for him to truly think he was forgiven... but he needed her spark.
"No they aren't. They are children and their parents weep every night that they aren't brought home." Balthazar pressed as Isabella took a sip from the glass that had been Balthazar's until he switched them. Then Balthazar took a sip from his. The drink tasted like a hot chocolate melted into milk but Balthazar had no idea why. It was the powder Isabella had put in but Balthazar was too focused on persuading Isabella to connect those dots.
"They aren't ever coming home if what you told me about the Witchwoods is true." Isabella said, her eyes filling with sadness and dropping towards the table. Balthazar reached over and took her hand in his abnormally hot one... though it was normal for him.
"Then help me avenge them." Isabella looked up at Balthazar. "With Attunement, I'll have the edge I need to track the killer down. There is no such thing as a dead end to an Attuner." Isabella knew the truth of Balthazar's words. Even if his natural investigation turned up nothing of use, the Attunement spark would allow him to douse for a similar frequency and that would enable Balthazar to find more leads... though it meant that she would have to help him become competent enough in the magic to work alone.
"Alright. I'll do it." Isabella said in an uncertain voice. This would be the second initiation she performed and with each one she could feel her ability to do so withering. But Balthazar was right about how useful it would be in his hands and Isabella could not banish the thought that if she refused to help, she'd be condemning more children to savage deaths. Oddly enough, Balthazar did not smile when Isabella agreed to help him. A small, minute, part of Balthazar had been hoping he would fail to convince her... because now that initation was to come, he couldn't stop thinking about the pain the last two had brought him. "I'll need a few trials to prepare, can you give me that?"
"Absolutely." Balthazar replied before finishing the drink Isabella had made for him.
