25 Vhalar 721
There were plenty of crimes in Scalvoris, but he was looking for specific crimes during a specific time. He was looking within the season that Philip Carey had been murdered and the Watch had been left without a watchman. Most of the crimes he heard about came out of Almund but that was because crime was higher there. Balthazar was not sure why, but he did want to find out. Almund was where the Militant worked so Balthazar thought it ought to have been more secure, not less. For the moment he was content to keep his focus on the murderer. He was better at finding those than most other types of criminals. Among the many names Balthazar read from the different reports he was allowed access to and the information he was given by his friends, two stood out more than the others.
Berlwin Shnifer and the Bone's prophet Efah. The latter was found dead in her shop on the 38th of Ymiden and the former had disappeared around the same time. Balthazar suspected Berlwin might have been murdered for only a few bits after learning about his disappearance. However when he looked at the larger picture it didn't make any sense that Berlwin would be dead and his body would not have been found. Efah was found. Philip was found. Berlwin worked in poisons so it wasn't a stretch for Balthazar to think he might have done something nefarious. Balthazar wondered about the condition of Efah's body so he took a trip to the Element Hall in Almund to apply to see it or the report about it. He was prepared to use his abilities to witness Efah's death and seek clues but when he arrived at the Element Hall and asked the receptionist for a more detailed report on the fortune teller's death, he was asked to sit and wait.
That wasn't unusual. He couldn't expect them to just have every file on hand. However he did expect to eventually be show the file. Instead another Flame Trooper approached him and extended a hand. "Trooper Black?" The man asked in a somehow stern but welcoming voice.
"Yes," Balthazar replied as he reached out and shook the trooper's hand.
"I understand you are looking into the death of Efah Chazon," he didn't sound as welcoming this time, "We appreciate your willingness to help, but the team for that investigation is already full."
Balthazar could interpret what he was saying but he didn't like it. His brow furrowed and he opened his mouth just slightly before stopping and rethinking what he was going to say. He couldn't argue if there were already Elements on the case and they didn't want him involved. It didn't change that he'd spend a good while pondering the timeline of the events, the people who went missing, and the things he knew already to try and put together the puzzle. He didn't know the trooper speaking to him now and he felt that was intentional. "I understand. If anything changes, I'm sure my record show that I can be invaluable to a murder investigation- as long as I know what is going on. I am at the Element's disposal, always." Balthazar gave the other trooper a nod and received one in exchange.
"Thank you for understanding, Trooper Black. May the Immortal's smile on your trial." The trooper turned to leave and after Balthazar got over how uniquely unusual the man's departing words were, another question came into the detective's head. He was a detective, there was no such thing as a coincidence.
"Would I be permitted to look into the disappearance of Berlwin Shnifer?" He called after the trooper who turned on his heel rather promptly. The trooper mulled the question over in his head for a few trills and then shook it.
"I believe it is already being handled as well."
"Odd, isn't it? That a poisoner disappears the same trial that Efah is found dead in her shop? Even more strange that it all happened the same trial the heroes of the forging regained their memories, isn't it?" Balthazar was poking just to see the troopers reaction but the trooper gave nothing away. He was either in the dark or very good at playing dumb. The trooper shrugged.
"Maybe, but it's being looked into already, Trooper Black. Have a good trial." And with that the Flame Trooper left. He did not turn around again and Balthazar did not call out again. He got the message. Leave it alone. Understanding the message and being able to do as he was told were two entirely different things though. Even if he wasn't captured by the intrigue of the missing people and the murders, he would have been taken by the intrigue of the Elements explicitly- or at least as explicitly as he'd ever been told before, telling him to leave it alone. As he walked back to his room at the inn he was staying at while he worked in Almund, Balthazar found himself fixating over that question.
Why wouldn't they want his help? Apart from his failure trying to find out about slavery in Scalvoris, Balthazar had successfully closed almost every case that he had worked on. The only other outstanding case being the ongoing investigation into the rupturing mage who was on the loose flaying people. The brothel, the pirates, the shape shifter and the Haven thief among a few of the more noteworthy crimes he'd solved in Scalvoris that came to mind. He had a good record marred by one monumental mistake that could have been solved with communication... so why were they trying to shut him out now?
He returned to his room at the Knights Rest and sat down in the middle of the floor with his legs crossed. He let his hands rest, facing upwards, on his knees and he took a few deep breaths to clear his mind. He cut away the distractions with every inhale and with every exhale, the information he knew about the cases and his theories became more prominent in his mind. He envisioned a room with white walls and on the walls he imagined the papers with all the details he remembered. The reports, the faces of those who were involved that he'd seen, descriptions of those who he had not. Next, the empty spaces on the walls filled with the memories of the cases he had worked. He needed more space. The walls were not large enough.
He envisioned himself standing in the middle of the room as the walls slowly expanded and surrounded him. He turned to look from one memory to the next but he did not see all the lines connecting them. He had to place the lines... just like he had placed everything else in his mind. He had all the pieces laid out before him and seeing it, the scope of it all, he made a decision. With a wave of his imaginary hand, everything on the walls was cleared away and replaced with a single sentence. It's being looked into already.
He opened his eyes, destroying the fake world he'd made in head while meditating and rose to his feet. There would undoubtably be other crimes for him to look into and if not work, he could go back to Faldrass and check in on the Sentry and Elisabeth. Balthazar walked over to his collection of books and scrolls on magic and the books on Immortals (Vri, Famula, and the Twins) then picked up one of the scrolls on magic. He was slowly working his way through each of the written texts and while he only needed to read it once to recite it all, he intended to give them a few reads so that he was sure he didn't miss anything. The books on magic had been disappointing in regards to the magics that he already had a spark for. While they were useful in that they encompassed all domains, Balthazar felt that he already knew a lot about magic... and he knew he had no will left to try and absorb another spark so what he learned about the domains he did not know was useful in terms of his investigative repertoire.
What he did find interesting about magic came from the three scrolls that he obtained as well. He had often wondered why abilities granted to him by Faldrass and Vri did not warp his being in the way that the sparks did. Vri's mark was shown on his hands and it did not spread like his mutations. It did not change him as it became more a part of him. The scrolls explained the difference between domain and divine ether through the relationship between the host and the abilities. Marks were powered by ether that was given to the host by an Immortal so they functioned in a more symbiotic way. Domain magic was powered by the hosts ether, which the parasitic spark drew upon to cast the spells. That was why he had never overstepped while channeling Vri's domains but he frequently overstepped while using domain magic. It was symbiosis instead of feeding a parasite.
Balthazar couldn't help but feel a negative connotation every time he read the word parasite. Magic did and could do so much good... but he could not argue that the relationship was not parasitic after learning the distinction between the two forms of ether. It didn't quite explain to him how the Induk's abilities worked, or how the abilities gifted to him by other spirits did, but it gave Balthazar a bit better of a framework to move forward with as he read his books- and most importantly, it kept him from poking his nose in an investigation he knew he was not wanted in.
