[Faldrass] Ash Be-Gone

[Balthazar Black]

7 Ymiden 720

The world was not the same anymore. Faldrass erupting had changed it in the worst of ways... or perhaps it had only changed Scalvoris. There was a sense of dread and doom lingering over everyone, even those who knew better because they were fortunate enough to have been there at the start of it all. Fortunate to be there, unfortunate to feel responsible for the death and destruction. Balthazar knew he wasn't to blame for the volcano erupting but he still felt like he could have done more to stop the tragedy. Yet the time to preemptive action had passed and Balthazar was left to clean up the wreckage left by the volcano. Part of him wanted to blame the Induk itself for the destruction but Balthazar's better senses knew it was not the Induk's fault... it was the fault of those who had imprisoned it... and in time Balthazar would come for them as well.

There was work to be done before that though. Isabella was safe. As soon as Balthazar was of sound mind and body- or at least as sound mind and body as he'd become, he made contact with her and gave her instructions to sail to Faldrass. The island would need all the help it could get. That was when he'd learned about the tsunami's that hit Harvardr and Almund. More destruction, more death, more damage. Balthazar had doubts that Faldrass alone had the supplies to rebuild everything they'd need to rebuild. He'd begun forming a plan to improve the Elements of Scalvoris who's been woefully under-prepared for this event but now the plan was shifting. He couldn't stop the desire to travel surging forth from his spark, but he could use it to help the island. He'd return with supplies and secrets that they could use to rebuild better than before.

But for now there was clean up to be done and Balthazar felt a compelling urge to help. That urge's name was Fuego- a small diri who'd bonded to Balthazar in the heart of Faldrass and always followed him around now. It had taken a while for Balthazar to realize people could only see Fuego if Fuego wanted them to... and he never seemed to want them to. At every turn Fuego insisted Balthazar help, and then hid behind Balthazar's leg while he spoke to the people he needed to speak to to find out where the damage was worst. He was no builder, but he was a powerful mage and now that his ether had been restored he could help out with it.

Isabella's arrival was a blessing Balthazar hadn't considered. He wanted her close so he knew she wouldn't be further injured but instead he'd recruited another mage to the clean-up effort... and a mage who he worked very well with. At the moment, the duo (with Fuego invisibly sitting on Balthazar's shoulder) had gone to the Faldrass Resort to put their combined power towards the task of cleaning up the mess. Other volunteers trickled in slowly as the mages went to work but unless someone saw and approached Balthazar and Isabella, the duo would continue the cleaning as best they could on their own.

""

[Rei'sari]

7th Ymiden, 720

Location: Faldrass


Ari'sora had a bird's eye view of the damage that had been done to the island, and what she saw made her heart sink. Was this her fault? When Ari'sora thought long and hard about it, she had to admit that the answer was both no...and yes. She hadn't caused the volcano to erupt. Faldrass himself...itself? Faldrass had. But she had done nothing to prevent it. When the Baron had called for help, she had responded...and she had been utterly useless. No. She had been worse than useless. She had had to be rescued. She had also been the cause of the delay of the group she had originally been with going into the caverns.

Would things have been different if the group had gone sooner? Why had she argued about the supplies so much? She believed that she had needed them...and had she actually gone with the group, she would still believe that she had. Was she supposed to know that their guide would be bringing extra supplies so that the others wouldn't have to? Probably. But she had never done anything even remotely like that before. And the kids books about people going into caves to search for magic lamps or rings had offered very little in the way of knowledge about what supplies were needed, or how such expeditions actually worked. Most of them hadn't had any kind of guide at all. But ignorance was not an excuse. Since she had responded to the call for help, it had been her responsibility to know.

It was for her to obey her betters. Even now that she wasn't a slave any longer, she still felt that deep down. So...why hadn't she? Looking at it now when she wasn't in the heat of the moment, she knew that she should have simply backed down immediately. And yet...it was her place to provide what was needed. It always had been. So if she had gone, and she had failed to bring the equipment that the group needed...and someone got hurt or killed? That would be her fault. It didn't help that she had been on the edge of panic at just the thought of entering the caverns at all. When she had responded to the Baron's call for help, she hadn't known that it would involve going underground. She had picked the group she had thought would be looking for injured survivors. Something her ability to fly would make her useful for. And they had been...in the caverns. As well as looking for other things. Should she have backed out and asked to join a different group? Probably. But she wasn't thinking clearly at the time...not after ChiChi had gotten so mad at her. And that was her fault too.

Then she had gotten injured by her own anger, and delayed the group even more. Ari'sora couldn't help but wonder if the volcano would have erupted if she hadn't caused a delay. The others might have been able to prevent it completely if it weren't for her.

There was another thing to consider as well. If the people who had been in the cavern had had more people there, would that have made a difference? Would she have been able to help them if she wasn't so useless that she had needed to be rescued? Ari'sora would never know the answers to those questions. All she could now was to do what she had promised Sovar she would; try to be a better person. And she could do that by doing everything she possibly could to help deal with the damage caused by the eruption.

The resort she was heading to now wasn't the one that she and Ryl'ryn had stayed in, but if she could help clear away the ash that had caused so much damage, then she wanted to do just that. When she saw Balthazar and Isabella, she was relieved. She had worked with them before in the last few trials, and Balthazar was good at finding ways for her to be useful. Ari'sora came in for a landing several yards away from Balthazar, and approached him when it looked as though she wasn't interrupting anything important.

"Can I help?" she asked hopefully.

[Balthazar Black]

7 Ymiden 720

"It's too dangerous for you to try and keep yourself in the air." Isabella and Balthazar seemed to be arguing about something when Ari'sora arrived to greet the duo. There had been some... miscommunication the trial before when they were looking for a way off Faldrass to get some rest. He was under the impression she'd be leaving and she was under the impression he'd be leaving. As a result, neither of them left the island and they were here to get their hands dirty again. Her confusion stemmed from the fact he'd only just called her to the island and his confusion stemmed from the fact he was certain she said she was leaving. All that trouble for a boat... when Balthazar really wanted to return home he silently concluded he'd simply cross into the Untold again. At least then he wouldn't take up a spot needed for survivors.

"Yes, well if you'd gotten Tornado like I asked we could just-" Then Ari'sora arrived like the blessing she'd been every other trial she arrived. Unfortunately for her, Balthazar was beginning to get a little suspicious. Everywhere he went, she seemed to follow. While he didn't think Ari'sora meant him any harm, Balthazar knew a Yludih who would have done just about anything to get close enough to put a knife through Balthazar. Every time he saw Ari'sora he had to take a moment to reassess her. Was she walking the same? Talking the same? Did she carry herself the same way? As far as Balthazar could deduce, yes, yes she was. "Well if it isn't my favorite person named Ari'sora!" Balthazar exclaimed when he saw her land.

She asked what she had asked each and every time but only now did Balthazar really struggle with an idea as to how she could help. She could certainly be another set of hands sweeping away the rubble but certainly there was some better use for her? This time Balthazar didn't want her the sky. He had plans for the thick ash that would make being in the sky hazardous. While Balthazar pondered for a little too long, Isabella jumped in with some suggestions. "We are going to clear away as much ash as we can using our magics. I'll make a portal in the sky to pull it up and Balthazar here can use the wind to help stir the ash into place. I figure you could probably help a little like you did with the baron's mansion. Keep an eye out for survivors or dead and give us a shout when you see one. Do you have any medical training? Caregiving?" The implication in that question was clear. If they found wounded, Isabella wanted Ari'sora to try and help them.

[Rei'sari]

7th Ymidn

Location: Faldrass


The two people she had worked with before seemed to be arguing about something. Ari'sora was reluctant to interrupt them, so she waited to be acknowledged before getting too close. The man greeted her warmly, claiming that she was his favorite person named Ari'sora. That made her stare at him for a few trills, blinking in utter confusion.

She was his favorite person named Ari'sora? How could that be possible? They had worked together a few times, yes...but they didn't know each other. Not really. She had only told him what her name was the other trial. Was he lying? Ari'sora couldn't hear anything in the tone of his voice that suggested that he was. That didn't necessarily mean anything, though. Wait. The man had said that she was his favorite person named Ari'sora...not that she was his favorite person. That made more sense. Maybe.

"Do you know many people named Ari'sora?" she asked curiously.

She didn't think that her name was a common one, but she really wasn't sure about that. Although she didn't know anyone else who had the same name that she did, it wasn't like she knew all that many people.

The man didn't seem to know what she could do to help, and Ari'sora's heart began to sink in dismay. Was there nothing that she was capable of doing that would help? It was Isabella who found something she could do. The woman mentioned portals, and using them to pull the ash up into the sky somehow. Magic, again. Magic seemed like it was a really useful tool if it could be used to do so many things.

Isabella said she would be able to help the way she had helped them before; looking out for survivors, and...those who hadn't survived. Ari'sora thought that that would be something she would be able to do, but the ash worried her. It would depend on how high up in the sky they were able to pull the ash. Flying in the ash would be too dangerous. Even if she could manage to do it, she wouldn't be able to see though the ash to see any survivors. But if Isabella was asking her to fly in between the ash and the ground...that might work. Maybe. Flying under the ash would run the risk of her breathing it, and she didn't see any way to avoid that. She probably wouldn't be able to do that for long.

"Do you mean flying between the ash and the ground so I can search for survivors?" she asked Isabella, seeking confirmation.

"It would depend on how high you are able to send the ash, and I don't think I would be able to do it for long."

Isabella was the one who mentioned the man's name; Balthazar. Ari'sora made a mental note of it. But she was quickly distracted by the woman's next question.

"I can help with some injuries." Ari'sora said at last.

"But not severe ones."

Like the kinds any survivors of something like this were likely to have. As far as taking care of people went...

"I work at Luna's Dream orphanage. Felicia says that I have a knack for taking care of the children that live there, if that helps."

[Balthazar Black]

7 Ymiden 720

She worked at an orphanage? That gave Balthazar some sense of the medical skills at her disposal but he wasn't sure that there was going to be many minor injuries for Ari'sora to work on here. Still, it was more medical knowledge than Balthazar had to offer. "I think you'd be better off on the ground." Balthazar was glad to let Isabella take charge of this exchange because he had begun preparing for his spells but Isabella seemed to be thinking too hard about Ari'sora's question so he wanted to help her out. "Stay on the ground and help the other volunteers try to move the rubble I can't." Isabella nodded to Balthazar and Ari'sora, deciding she agreed that Ari would be of most use on the ground. Balthazar was slowly reaching out to the wind and calling on it to do the one thing that most people wouldn't have wanted, blow. The danger of getting the wind to blow was that it would kick up the ash- but Balthazar thought it would be easier to clean the ash out of the air than off the floor.

"We're going to get started, keep an eye out for anyone who needs help." Balthazar said to Isabella and Ari'sora after a few trills of silence between them. It was time to get things going. Once Ari'sora was ready, Balthazar and Isabella would begin their work. Isabella and Balthazar began to go through an almost identical motion- moving their arms around slowly in circles while calling on different sparks to begin moving the ash. Isabella called on her Rupturing while Balthazar called on his Defiance. The wind around them began to churn and with it, the ash began to rise into the air. This was the danger that Balthazar and Isabella had been arguing about and the danger that kept them from suggesting Ari'sora fly around and look for survivors. Balthazar swept his hands to the left, then to the right, then back to the left again and the wind seemed to shift in tandem with his movement, the sudden and aggressive shift in the powerful wind pulled a large portion of the ash back into the air.

Then emerald sparks began to dance in the air as Isabella conjured the ingress of a portal in the sky with a powerful vacuum pulling the ash into it- but where did the ash go? It was beyond Balthazar to dig a pit deep enough to store all the ash but it was not beyond the duo to move the ash from the damaged resort. The egress to Isabella's portal formed a few hundred feet away- as far as Isabella could see, and it spat the ash back onto the floor into a slowly growing mound. They'd have to move from section to section of the resort employing this method but it would help them clear away the ash. Balthazar kept the wind moving to keep bringing up the ash and loose rubble that could be easily moved and Isabella kept drawing it in through her portal and expelling it into the pile.

Ari'sora, if she was vigilant, would notice the bodies long before Balthazar and Isabella who were focusing on controlling the magic at work to ensure they didn't hurt anyone with the debris they were pulling through the portal. With the first layer of ash hefted off the crushed resort buildings, the death beneath became clear. Limbs seemed to stretch out in each direction among the rubble. Pale, cold limbs that were no longer clawing to try and drag themselves to freedom. The limbs of the dead. Far more dead than one would have expected from one building.

[Rei'sari]

7th Ymiden, 720

Location: ---


Balthazar told her to stay on the ground, and help the others move the rubble that he couldn't, so Ari'sora did just that. Every step she took sent a flare of pain through her feet, but she ignored it as best she could. Having had several trials to start healing, the cuts on her feet weren't enough to hinder her in her work, but she did feel it as the one on her right foot broke open once more, and started bleeding.

When Balthazar began sending the ash up into the sky, Ari'sora was grateful that he had told her to stay on the ground. She had envisioned him somehow using magic to send the ash high up into the sky then having it slowly fall down once more. That would leave a clear space between the ash and the ground. But that was not the case. The ash was rising up from the ground into the sky, before going...somewhere else. There was no way she would have been able to fly while all of that was happening.

Moving rubble was hard work, and Ari'sora knew that she was going to feel it later. But it was a good kind of work. Ari'sora felt like she was really being of use in the efforts to help the others. They were making a difference. And once the ash and rubble was cleared away, perhaps the resort could be rebuilt. But if that was going to happen, it was a long way off. Before that, there might be survivors to be found. And there were definitely going to be bodies that had to be found so that they could be properly buried.

Ari'sora paused in her work, and looked around to see how the others were doing. That was when she saw them. Pale, still limbs sticking out of the ash and debris now that the first layer had been removed.

"Over here!" she cried as she raced over to where the dead lay partially buried.

There were a lot of them. So many limbs sticking out of the ash that it looked like a horrific forest of death. How many people had died here? Far more than Ari'sora would have expected to see in a single room of a fancy resort like this one. What was even more disturbing than the sheer number of the dead was the condition that they were in.

Ari'sora would have expected to see bent, broken, ragged limbs, all injuries that one might expect to see in people that had been buried alive. But these pale limbs were painfully gaunt. Judging by the thin limbs, Ari'sora knew that if the torsos that belonged to these limbs were free of the ash they were buried in, their ribs would be painfully visible. Had they all starved to death, trapped as they were in the buried ruins of this collapsed room? With the sheer number of dead, that seemed unlikely. Surely most of them must have died when the resort collapsed, and the few survivors that survived the initial disaster would have starved to death in the time that had passed. The resort was known for being a retreat for the most wealthy members of Scalvoris. But no one with limbs as gaunt as these was wealthy. What was going on here?

A sparkle of light caught Ari'sora's attention, and she moved closer in an attempt to see what was causing the unexpected sparkle. Around the wrist of one of the arms was a manacle. Ari'sora's eyes widened as she stared at the piece of metal. She knew what it felt like to be chained; knew what it meant. The painfully gaunt limbs suddenly painted a very grim picture...far worse than the untimely death of so many people. Was she right about what she was thinking? Had all of these people been slaves? How was that possible? Slavery was illegal in Scalvoris!

"Something..." Ari'sora fell silent as her voice failed her.

She swallowed hard, and tried again.

"Something is very wrong here."

She renewed her efforts to remove as much ash and rubble as she could, suddenly desperate to free the dead from the collapsed resort.

[Balthazar Black]

7 Ymiden 720

Balthazar could feel his ether draining but no numbness had set in yet. Numbness always seemed to be the first warning and from there things only got worse. He loosened his command of the wind to let the element act of its own accord for a few trills while Isabella's portal sucked the rest of the ash from the portion of the buildings they were working on. Ari'sora called out and the two mages let their spells fade completely. Isabella shut her portal with another booming snap in the air and Balthazar released the wind from their conversation. He stumbled slightly and Isabella was quickly there to catch him.

"I told you to be careful." Isabella scolded the mage she held upright in her arms. She could feel him stifle the chuckle at her concern for his health. She knew was reckless at heart and it would take more than a scolding to change that. Balthazar took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind of the distractions and pains from the past so that he could continue to help. Isabella was wrong. He could do this.

"There are more important things." Balthazar pushed free and moved towards Ari'sora who had begun desperately digging to try and move aside the rubble the mage's had not been able to. He saw the bodies and was driven by the same impulse as Ari'sora to help. He lent his physical strength to Ari'sora, helping her move the heavy rubble trapping the dead. He did this knowing it would not bring them back but not caring. Death was a mostly permanent state but the living had to grieve and they could help with that. Eventually Isabella joined in as well, pushing aside rubble with her hands as they all dug into the ruined room.

What happened to them? Fuego's voice chimed in Balthazar's mind as he saw the manacles on the starved dead.

I'm going to find out. Balthazar replied as he looked to Ari'sora. "What do you know about this place?"

[Rei'sari]

7th Ymiden, 720

Location: Faldrass


Ari'sora worked feverishly in her efforts to free the dead. With the man's help, she was able to free one of them. It was a woman who looked about the same age as she was. Looking at the dead body, Ari'sora knew that she was right. The dangerously skinny arm was far from all of it. Every rib in the woman's chest could be seen clearly through the rags that she was wearing. No rich person would ever wear such things. No rich person would even let their servants wear such horrible things for fear of being accused of being a bad employer and not being able to hire anyone else. Hell...no rich person would even be willing to have such dirty rags in their presence. And then there was the manacle chaining the poor woman to something that was still buried. No. This...this was no rich person staying at a resort. This was...her. What she had been before she had been rescued when Ren'zar was arrested.

Ari'sora's emotions raced as she stared at the woman. She wanted to help this nameless woman. Wanted to help her the way that she herself had been helped. She wanted that so much that it hurt. But...it was too late. And that was wrong.

The man asked her a question, and she looked up at him, her eyes catching even the slightest breeze as she tried to focus on her surroundings so she could gather her thoughts. It took her several trills before she trusted herself to speak.

"Not much, really." she said.

She swallowed hard before continuing.

"Before...before all of this happened, I came to Faldrass with my friend, and one of my children. We were staying at the Spirit's Rest Oasis. But we heard about this resort. It's...it was a playground for the wealthy. Somewhere for them to go and be pampered for a while. We heard people say that you could find anything here...if you were willing to pay enough. I don't know how much of that is true, though."

Ari'sora turned back to the woman they had freed. Too late, her mind reminded her. Too late to be saved. Too late to be rescued from a life of pain. Too late for...so many things. In some ways, this could have been her. Oh, she had never been in danger of being buried alive back then like this poor woman had been. But if Ren'zar had not been arrested, she might have ended up starving to death, or dying as a result of one of Ren'zar's punishments.

"These people...these people were not guests here." she said slowly.

"They were not wealthy, pampered people. You don't restrain resort guests with chains. Wealthy people don't starve like this. This...this is wrong."

[Balthazar Black]

7 Ymiden 720

The earth moved aside a little easier when Balthazar pulled at it than it seemed to move for the others but Balthazar didn't want to see what he was finding as he dug. With each passing moment it grew worse. He saw more and more bodies buried beneath the crushed resort buildings. Ari'sora's words only caused the breadth of Balthazar's dread to widen. This was bad. Very bad. So bad in fact that he knew he would have to file a report about it and he rarely volunteered to file reports. Isabella dug with a vigor similar to both Ari'sora and Balthazar which she hadn't been doing before the bodies began to emerge. They all knew what this meant and for a few moments they were all willing to forget that it was too late to save any of these people.

Balthazar stopped digging long enough to absorb what Ari'sora had said. His despair slowly shifted to anger and sparks danced off the tips of his fingers for a moment before he crossed his arms over his chest to hide it. A playground for the wealthy where an innumerable number of emaciated corpses in chains had been uncovered? It didn't take a genius to figure out what had been happening.

"Slaves." Isabella said what the rest of them seemed unwilling to. "These people were slaves."

"We don't know that-" Balthazar interjected as he continued pushing aside earth and rubble to uncover more of the dead.

"What else could it be?" Isabella seemed angry that Balthazar was contracting her. "She is right," Isabella gestured towards Ari'sora, "This is unnatural. This is a crime!"

"Maybe, but we can't assume anything. I'll report it to the Elements and the Council for further investigation. If needed I will get to the bottom of it myself but all we can do for them now is take them out of the ground." Balthazar shot back a little more aggressively than he meant to. He didn't like the feeling that he was making excuses for slavers and he was furious that this had transpired in Scalvoris but he didn't know what they could do about it now. They'd come to clean up the damage and there was still much of it to be cleaned. He could be as mad about it as he wanted but it would take a force greater than two mages, Ari'sora, and some volunteers to do anything about it. For now all they could do was dig.

Why would someone do this? Fuego's voice echoed in Balthazar's head and he looked to the flaming rock sitting on a pile of rubble.

We will find out. But not now. Balthazar looked towards Ari'sora. "What do you think? Should we keep digging or leave them here to seek out higher justice?" He was all for higher justice, but there was probably a better time.

[Rei'sari]

7th Ymiden, 720

Location: Faldrass


When Isabella said the word that Ari'sora had been avoiding, she nodded. Slaves. These people had been slaves like Ari'sora herself had been before she had been rescued by the Elements. How could a resort like this get away with owning slaves when slavery was illegal? With Ren'zar, no one had known that Ari'sora even existed before she was rescued. She had been born to a slave, and she was never registered as such herself. Her birth had never been registered at all, and since she had never been allowed to go to school, and her former master had been very careful to prevent anyone with authority from learning about her existence, no one had.

But this..this was different. This wasn't just one slave kept carefully hidden from the world as she had been. This was a resort full of people being kept as slaves. Did the Council know about this? Were they allowing it because this resort catered to the wealthy, and as such was beyond the laws somehow? If so...that was wrong.

The man's promise to tell the Elements and the Council about what they had found was reassuring. Someone needed to do something about this. These people deserved justice even though they were no longer alive to be rescued. And perhaps more importantly, this should never be allowed to happen again.

When the man asked her if they should keep digging, or leave the slaves here and go seek justice for them, Ari'sora just stared at him for several trills. She wondered if he was joking at first, but she realized that the question was a serious one a few trills later. Once she realized that, she had to wonder what the man was thinking to even have to ask.

"We should keep digging." she said softly.

"These people deserve justice, but that can wait until they are free of this, and are properly buried. That's...that's all we can do for them now. Justice is important, but it won't matter to them because they're dead. It's important to make sure that this can never happen again, but this comes first." she said fiercely.

With that, she went back to digging as fast as she could. The sooner these people were freed...all of them...the better in her mind.