Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

It was always only going to be a matter of time until the duo looked into the missing ghosts but Balthazar was in no specific rush on the trial they chose to begin investigating. He wanted to write to the others who had been at the party to see if they'd found anything yet, but he didn't. Instead he suggested they take a trip to the library for a few reasons. The first was that he wanted to check out some more books and the second was that he wanted Elisabeth to meet the woman who oddly had the same last name as the missing ghosts. The more he had come to know Rose, the less he thought she was actually involved in the mystery but it was still odd to him.

Elisabeth was a little more social with Rose than Balthazar wanted to be and so after the first few trills of them greeting each other, when he realized they'd be talking for at least a few bits, Balthazar went into the rows of books. He knew where certain books were located from his prior experiences in the library and fortunately he wasn't looking for anything new. The library in Scalvoris, at least the Public Library, didn't remind Balthazar of Viden as much as it did Elisabeth. He didn't tend to think about Viden much at all these trials other than to wonder how Scalvoris allied with them. The university was one thing, but did the alliance mean that Scalvoris approved of the way Viden ran certain... things.

Balthazar was reading through a book on woodworking when Elisabeth found him. He was pacing back and forth in front of the shelf he'd taken the book from and reading through it quickly. He had what he needed to start smithing in Haven but forging metal into a blade and turning wood into a good handle were two different things. Magic might act as a substitute for the items he made for himself since he could keep them from decaying indefinitely by supplying them with more ether. However it would not work for the things he made for others. Intricate designs would require more than just skill in smithing. He never thought he'd be as artistic as Robin, but he'd be damned if he couldn't produce a good and comfortable wooden handle for his weapons.

Balthazar took the book to Rose and checked it out before he and Elisabeth left for the docks. He opened the book and read some more of it as they walked. It was not all that riveting but Balthazar wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. The opening chapters of the book were just about the different types of wood. A general summary of the two types, hardwood and softwood, followed by a general summary of their properties and varieties within the type. It wasn't quite that Balthazar hadn't known wood could be different, but he didn't know how wide a variety of wood there was. He never really put as much thought into types of wood as he had into types of metal. It was interesting in a boring sort of way.

"I think my hobby is going to get expensive." Balthazar said to Elisabeth when they reached the rebuilt docks. He could see himself wanting to try lots of different things and the supplies wouldn't be free. However since they'd reached their location and he wouldn't be moving around as much, Balthazar put the book into his bag and turned his attention back to the task at hand. Elisabeth asked him where they should begin and Balthazar looked around the docks. It was a good question. Where to begin indeed. Balthazar could tell without reaching out, that if he did he would be able to feel a great deal of death had occurred here. Probably far too many for him to divide out where the LeFluers had fallen. Probably. Elisabeth had proposed looking at the trial through the eyes of one of the sisters and Balthazar crossed his arms in thought.

"If it works, it could be... unpleasant." Balthazar said to Elisabeth, hoping that she understood she was asking to potentially experience someone's death. "If you think it is best, do it. Otherwise we could probably talk to the harbor master about the collapse." Balthazar suggested, "He might know something about the sisters. Either way I'd rather not involve our guides until we know something new." He didn't want to admit that if Elisabeth peered into the past they might help narrow down the location of the girls deaths.

Elisabeth's notion that as long as he enjoyed the work, it shouldn't matter what his hobby cost him caused Balthazar to raise a curious eyebrow. It sounded as if she had never really lived in discomfort. There was a difference between dying, getting hurt in battle, and living in discomfort. Balthazar had been a smuggler in his younger arcs because it seemed the best way to elevate himself from the gutter. Well, that and it was the fastest way to convince Isabella to initiate him. Magic. Magic was the real path out. It was freedom to him and a chain to so many others. Then again maybe it was just the difference between their hobbies that kept her from seeing the expense. Gardening gave them things they could use around the house whereas Balthazar was better and more likely to work on weapons and armor- which they didn't quite need.

Regardless he didn't comment on it because he was still focusing on his reading so that he could tear through the pages at a decent pace. The book was just getting into the parts that Balthazar actually cared about when they'd arrived at the docks and it seemed time was running out for him to just stand and read. He understood why they included long sections about how to properly sand and treat the wood, but Balthazar was primarily concerned with the natural traits that each wood had. Like with metals, he could learn the qualities with transmutation but it helped to know what he was looking for. It seemed, however, that Balthazar was not thinking about that while he examined the list of hardwoods.

He was looking for the woods that mentioned incredible durability because he thought it meant that they would bend well, but that was only because he'd skipped the section on treating the wood to bend it for things like bows. Instead he found himself lingering on the page with a list and properties. His eyes jumped over a few dozen different varieties of wood that he didn't recognize before landing on something he had thought was a metal. Ebony is a wood? His brow furrowed and Elisabeth kissing him on the cheek distracted him for a moment. She claimed that it couldn't be any worse than what he'd shown her and Balthazar shook his head.

How could one death compare to what had happened here?

Before he could voice anything he might have said on the issue, Elisabeth mentioned the names of the four sisters and their odd link to the four elements. If he had as many children as Raine, he might have started naming them that way as well. Still, the timing of it all was a little odd to him. "Unless the four sisters somehow turned into the Induks of the island, I'm not sure what that means for our investigation. It is good to consider moving forward though." The induks were remarkably themed around the elements as well. If it was either coincidence or the serendipity of nature, it wouldn't help them. If it wasn't... he still didn't know what to make of it.

He took a step back and waited for her to use her ability. Well... he peered back into the book and began taking a few steps back and forth so that he could read more about ebony being a wood. Ebony was apparently brighter on the outside because there was a difference between certain layers of trees. The exterior most layers were softer and brighter in color. Supposedly they were the most living part of the tree. The sapwood. Eventually the wood grew harder, and in ebony's case especially, darker in the middle. The book called that the heartwood since it was at the heart of a felled tree.

It was about there that his reading stopped entirely because Elisabeth seemed to have been hurt. Fuego hadn't said anything, nor had Crow, so Balthazar knew immediately that they were not under attack. Whatever the ability had done, it seemed to have had a negative effect. Didn't they always? At least it wasn't just domain magic that hurt. Balthazar moved over to where she was sitting on the dock and he knelt down beside her. "Are you alright?"

Elisabeth didn't respond when Balthazar asked if she was okay and the mage's immediately thought was to do something which would force her to abandon the vision. Her nails were digging into her legs and her breathing was abnormal. Whatever she was looking for, it wasn't worth the damage it would do to her. He made that decision on his own and prepared to shock her with a small burst of electricity. Not quite a full bolt of lightning, just a little... spark. Something to shock her back into their world and out of her vision. No one had ever tried it on him, but he was curious to see if it would work and he was worried about what would happen if he didn't try.

He began to generate the sparks between his fingers, mixing fire and wind into lightning, when suddenly Elisabeth's eyes snapped open, she gasped for air and her hands reached out. Balthazar dispelled the lightning with more speed than he'd conjured it and his hand found Elisabeth's arm, helping to pull her up to her feet. He gave her the time she needed to gather her breath and calm her mind. He didn't ask questions because he knew she would tell him what he needed to know. All she needed from him for now was help standing and an ear to listen to what she'd found.

"We should have known that would happen." Balthazar said when Elisabeth mentioned the rush of the dead that had threatened to overwhelm her. Far more than their target had died that trial and far more than their target were probably still wandering Idalos. "Take your time, from here we rely on our experience, not powers." He listened carefully as she described the scene to him and various different theories came to the mind of the mage. Based on what Elisabeth had described, Ingis was probably somewhere beneath the dock when it collapsed. It didn't tell them anything about her sisters. No hint as to whether they had been together or not when it happened... only where Ingis had been.

That was fine. They could find them each, one by one. They would begin with the one who Elisabeth had chosen- Ingis. Balthazar set his book in his satchel's side pocket and crossed his arms in an effort to help dedicate his focus to the current problem they were facing. They had information, but not a lot. Certainly not much more than they'd started with. They knew roughly where she'd died and now they knew for sure that she was dead. "I think we can deduce that Ingis was beneath the docks when they collapsed, but figuring out why could be just as important as finding her." Balthazar suggested, based on what he head heard. Elisabeth reported Ingis seeing something large falling towards her but still having something beneath her feet. Sand, probably, or whatever soil was beneath the dock.

"How many people do you know who go beneath a dock for any reason other than to hide something?" Balthazar asked Elisabeth, somewhat rhetorically. He was explaining the reasoning behind his deduction. Elisabeth had suggested they visit the harbor master and Balthazar saw the sense behind it, but he couldn't help but wonder a little longer about Ingis being beneath the docks when they collapsed. He wanted to look there. He wanted to see if he could divine anything with his abilities. There were so many dead. So many killed in this one place that the stain of death was almost too much to decipher, but he could try. More importantly, if he focused on the area beneath the docks where they believed Ingis could have been, Balthazar might have been able to figure out if anyone was there with her.

"Yes. We should talk to the harbor master. I'm not sure it'll be the same as the one from the collapse but he might be able to help us narrow down locations. We can't be sure the new docks are aligned exactly like the old docks, but if we figure out exactly where the old docks are I should be able to determine how many people were with Ingis when she died- and who it was." Balthazar agreed. "Though if it overwhelms me as it did you, we should go to the Elements about it. There might be troopers who worked in the relief effort who can give us a more accurate picture of what happened."

Balthazar saw nothing to gain by pressing the point about the danger and the backlash from using her abilities. She'd tried it. She'd felt the cost. Now they knew a little more than they had before. Whether or not it would actually contribute something to their investigation was difficult to tell but they had the information all the same. He could feel many of the emotions she had stirring inside her do the the link that they shared through his mark, but he did his best not to focus on them. It felt invasive whenever he did. He knew he did not like when she sought to interpret the emotions he did not vocalize so he gave her the courtesy of not doing the same to her. They'd endure. They always did.

Elisabeth suggested that Ingis might have not been hiding, but instead hiding from someone and Balthazar gave a small shrug. It was difficult to really tell and given they were looking for four daughters and not just one, it might not have helped their case. He could feel it now. The doubt. Every time he investigated something he became certain of one course of action- one historical narrative, and then shortly after he began to doubt even the most firm of the conclusions he had drawn. Maybe she wasn't under the docks? Maybe the vague imagery that Elisabeth had seen was simply the product of the ability trying to make her trial more difficult.

"We have the benefit of hindsight. They did not. We should find out more from people who were there during the collapse. At the very least, it should help us get into their mindset when it happened." Being able to empathize with the victims of a crime was a powerful tool. Being able to empathize with the criminals was even more powerful. To have the power to put yourself into the shoes of anyone was the ability to see a situation from every possible angle. However before any of that they needed to speak to the harbormaster. He would know the most about what had happened... hopefully. Balthazar wasn't certain he agreed that the girls were seeking shelter but they'd find out. If they were looking for shelter, beneath the docks didn't seem the best place to go.

Elisabeth took the lead of the investigation quickly, which Balthazar felt a little strange about. He knew she liked mysteries and puzzles but as soon as you burned a witness with the wrong interaction it was difficult to get them to cooperate again. Balthazar could lean on his social graces and when that failed he could intimidate, but he wasn't sure how Elisabeth would fair. She was very familiar with a select group of people given her time on Faldrass compared to the rest of the islands. She knew, almost without fail, how to maneuver those people. The rest of the islands were different. Had they been in Egilrun they would have had little chance to discover anything. Regardless, jumping in front of her now that she'd established herself as the lead wouldn't do anything but make them seem disorganized and that was not an image they wanted to present.

Discovering that the harbormaster's wife had died in the collapse gave Elisabeth pause where Balthazar saw opportunity. Vri had blessed the mage with many gifts and one of those such gifts could be used to help the man bear the weight of his loss. Balthazar could give him respite from his sorrow. Not forever, but at least for a trial. One trial without feeling the heartbreak should have been invaluable to anyone. Elisabeth suggested that they needed to be careful with him and Balthazar shook his head slightly. "Not necessarily. His sorrow could make him receptive to others going through the same things. He lost his wife. LeFluer lost four of her daughters. If we overstep, I can help him in a way most others can't." Balthazar pointed out knowing that he and Elisabeth often viewed emotions differently. He didn't particularly mind forcing the man to relive the worst trial of his life. Elisabeth probably wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

Before long, Elisabeth had lead them to the harbormaster himself and Balthazar stood quietly behind her while she went through the normal introductions. He could hear in her voice that she enjoyed referring to him as her husband but he didn't let his mind wander to that. He focused on the conversation, using his investigative skills to weed out whatever he could from the man's reactions and words. He listened for signs of lying, watched for small shifts in composure and body language, and kept an eye on the world around them incase something suddenly changed or revealed itself to aid them.

He could tell that Elisabeth was trying to be vague with her word choice to Erik. It wasn't how he'd have approached but until it failed, Balthazar wouldn't interject himself. If she succeeded with her method, she'd feel better about herself and her work than if Balthazar stepped in. Plus, it was harder to blame him for bunging it up if he didn't interject or say anything. However when Elisabeth only asked about the configuration of the docks, Balthazar added something. A question that he thought might help them get into the mindset of the lost. "Apart from just that, was there any reason to think the docks were unstable in the trials leading up to the collapse? Reports I've seen have been mixed. What exactly caused it?"

Balthazar lingered behind Elisabeth as she continued to question Erik and he put his focus into determining if the man was lying or telling the truth- a skill he had picked up some time ago while working as a detective. Erik seemed genuine. Very genuine. There was little reason to believe he was lying and even less reason for Erik to lie unless he was hiding something- but it seemed he had nothing to hide. Erik offered to and then took the duo to his office where he was willing to show them old diagrams of the docks which had collapsed. Balthazar followed Elisabeth and continued to let her take the lead. Elisabeth might have considered herself the better socialite, and Balthazar couldn't argue with that description, but he had his own way with the words he chose to use... not that it would help here. He tended to do better at prying information from people than he did at talking normally with people when he was investigating.

Erik quickly countered what Balthazar said about conflicting reports and the mage's eyes narrowed. Everyone was never really everyone. Even then, it was highly unlikely that everyone knew the true story and the truth about the strange almost-cult of Defiers who had been involved. Balthazar didn't. Balthazar would have to correct some of his sources all the same. He had to remind them that he did not ask for information out of amusement. Particularly Callipo, but perhaps it was a mistake to take the polarizing paper writer's word at face value. He could easily have been spouting off rumors someone from Rharne or the Empire told him. Regardless, Balthazar disliked how Erik treated the event as public knowledge when it was probably only really known to those who'd been affected by it, and even then there was probably more to it than people knew. He didn't like when Erik offered a hand to help Elisabeth across a small breach in the dock either but he was less concerned about that then the potential that his information network was letting him down. "I know that daughters disappeared and their mother's ghost wants them found. I know that more than just the docks collapsed. I know it was not natural, but the level of damage was something... organized. I'd still prefer to know what you do. I was in Yaralon when it happened so I ask again, what exactly caused it?" He said a little sternly as they walked into the office.

"How did you rebuild the docks so quickly? Where did the resources, wood and workers, come from? A personal curiosity." Balthazar asked Erik while glancing at Elisabeth from the corner of his eye. He was hoping she took note of Erik's answer because it could have helped her figure out how to get Haven a dock. The settlement could expand more easily if they had a place for ships to go. It was also one of the only ways they'd be able to get involved in commerce unless Balthazar managed to link it to the mainland with blood magic portals. Then again, it would probably be easier to link it to Hopetoun than the mainland. Distance was difficult but it was not impossible for Balthazar to cross from Faldrass to Almund via a portal... just limited. He only had about one of those in him and it was more like a powerful blink than a sustained gateway.

Regardless of the answer, Balthazar moved on to address what Erik had said about the names on the list of casualties. It wasn't the most useful information since it could have been figured out by visiting the garden itself but it was better than nothing. He could figure out where they fell and the manner of their death at the garden if it really sat where the old docks had been but he risked being overwhelmed as Elisabeth had, or finding nothing at all if the change in scenery would impact his abilities. Elisabeth made her inquiry to Erik while Balthazar examined the schematics that had been set out for them to look at. Unlike her, he'd be able to recall every detail so he made a point of looking closely. It would be beneficial for them to know exactly where each part of it had been. "Do you have a layout of the garden that replaced it? For comparison."