The first Notes began reverberating off the man as her attunement spark worked to interpret his Frequency into concepts that Sephira could understand. Notes filtered to her one by one and the woman began to get a sense that there was much more to the man than she had expected. Like ink clouding water, his Frequency was heavily influenced by an entity familiar to Sephira...a Spark.
He was a mage that much was clear. The Element hurried her pace to keep up with the man and his exhausted mare, her eyes fixed on him as the Notes of his Frequency scrambled for her attention. She would have to separate them out from each other to examine them individually. Sephira cast aside the Notes tied to his spark and instead focused on a darker Note with more violent undertones. This was a deeply rooted part of his Frequency, earned by committing countless acts of...
murder. Her eyes flared to a wary mixture of gray and blue. This man was a killer, a murderer who passed from town to town, never staying long enough to be recognized before moving on to the next.
The mage settled her hand idly on the hilt of her saber as she continued to eye the man. There was a depth to the darkness in him that she had never felt within a Frequency before. Death cloaked him;
murder reverberated throughout everything that he was. He had killed all manner of living things, animal and mortals alike. It was no wonder his mare shied away from him as she had likely seen him kill before.
Strangely there was another part of his Frequency that earned a faint thread of pity from the Rupturer.
Pain; roiling internal pain and
loneliness flowed through him. He did not want this, but nor did he see any other way to exist. Perhaps it was something to do with his identity as a mage, perhaps not. More and more Sephira was beginning to feel her Rupturing Spark’s influence over her intensify. This was the cost of their power; the spark ate away at your core, your soul and changed who you were. Sephira had not understood this when she was initiated by her master but now she was beginning to understand why Elias had chosen not to push forward in his training as a mage. He had wanted to retain some of his humanity rather than trade it all for power.
Perhaps this man had traded just a little too much of his soul for that power, or perhaps his spark was simply more ravenous than hers. Regardless of any pity she held for him, Sephira knew that she had a duty to fulfill as an Element. Arresting him on the grounds of his tainted Frequency would not be enough, but now that she had completely attuned to him, she should be able to track him so long as he remained near enough to her and she retained the memory of his Frequency.
Without indicating her intent the woman stepped across Volker’s path, her black boots snapping with a sharp click against the flagstones as she placed her left hand out toward him as a sign to halt. Her right hand sat poised over the hilt of her sword as Sephira learned in to whisper something in the old man’s ear.
“It must be so taxing to move from town to town every time they start to know your face.” She said icily, her narrowed Biqaj eyes swirling with a multitude of colors. People parted around the pair and the horse, giving worried glances at the Element and the man she had cornered before hurriedly moving forward.
Sephira gave the man a trill to let her words sink in.
“I must admit, at first glance I didn’t have you pegged as a mage, but the world is full of surprises.” Her voice was strangely aloof as she stepped back to stand-up straight and peer at the darkened twilight of the Cylus sky. The previously helpful and welcoming Element had transformed into something else entirely.
“Sadly I can’t arrest you on the grounds of what your Frequency has indicated to me, we mages are only trusted for as far as they can throw us." Sephira smirked before returning her gaze to him.
“However, I’d like to extend you the courtesy of a fair warning. The next murder, the next body we find...I’ll come looking for you first, and believe me when I say that I can and will find you.”
Sephira stood there, silently noting his Frequency in its completeness as she committed it to memory. Locating him with it should be within her ability, at least allowing her to glean his direction in relation to her.
Dialogue|Thoughts
