83 Ymiden 720
He heard the groan of the dreamer who's dreamscape he'd crossed through in the other room and his eyes watched the doorway he'd come out of in fear that the dreamer had woken. He felt Nimue's lips moving against his hand a moment before her teeth bit into his finger and he pulled his hand away. "I'll shut up, I get it, keep your hands to yourself." Nimue whispered-shouted at the mage, her golden eyes and furrowed brow looking similar to an angry Balthazar. Balthazar gestured for Nimue to follow him. Balthazar grabbed his spear and the two of them slipped out of the house.
Now the mage walked down the street with Nimue still materialized in soft flesh beside him. She was getting better at holding a full form but she was no expert yet. It gave her skin an unnaturally soft look that Balthazar was fairly certain Isabella was jealous of. "Where are we?" Nimue asked as the two of them trekked through the rain. Strong winds whipped against them but the duo pressed on in the dark. Balthazar's breathing was ragged and after a few dozen trills of looking around he had an answer for the ghost.
"I don't know." Balthazar admit. He'd never been where ever he was now. It was intriguing and frightening. The rain was slowly drenching him but the defier did nothing to stop it. He had no idea what the laws of the land were or what was thought of mages so he was trying to play it safe. "I don't recognize any of this."
"That's not helpful." Nimue groaned as she looked up at the lightning in the sky. "Do you feel that? The lightning? I've seen you use your power but I don't understand it." Balthazar looked at the curious specter asked. She'd agreed not to possess him and in return he'd agreed not to test his magic on her anchor. Granted he had agreed to that after attuning too it. She'd never attempted to take control and use his magic but Balthazar knew the thought had to have crossed Nimue's mind.
"Yes... and no." Balthazar replied. "I can feel the elements here. I can feel the turmoil they're in, but I don't know how to stop it. I can influence them, but not on the scale you're thinking of. I can't dispel the storm."
"Then you had better hurry up and find an inn." Nimue said as lightning struck not too far away from them. Nimue looked towards where the flash had come from and then looked to Balthazar. "If you get struck by lightning, will it kill you?"
"Maybe." Balthazar said as the street they were walking on came to a row of buildings that turned out to be shops. No inn. Damn. They kept walking through the rain. "Maybe not. Hoping for a new anchor-bearer?" Balthazar inquired with a little peek into Nimue's frequency. The frequency of a ghost was a strange thing. Every note Balthazar heard seemed softer than the notes he heard in the living and yet they were there. The notes did not blend as well as they did in the living but they tried. Nimue's frequency was nothing like the specter from Viden's. It seemed more... pleasant.
Nimue smirked at Balthazar, giving him no real answer, and they walked on in silence for a little while. Silence let Balthazar think about what to do next and Nimue didn't mind a little of it. Sometime Balthazar even talked a little too much for her and she took breaks from him in the Beneath. Then again sometimes she demanded he go drinking a little too often so he went into the Veil to escape her. But for now they walked in silence, both content to merely look at the new city around them. Nimue had not traveled outside of Yaralon often so she had no idea where they were and even the more world-wise Balthazar couldn't place the city.
After a little walking, Nimue seemed to notice something a little unsettling about Balthazar but she didn't say anything for a few bits until finally she caved. "Balthazar?" Nimue broke her silence and the mage turned his head slightly toward her as he walked.
"Yes?" He said, waiting to hear what she had to say.
"Why aren't you blinking?"
"What?" Balthazar turned, blinking his eyes rapidly and feeling a cooling relief come over them. He hadn't even realized it but Nimue was right, he hadn't been blinking since they stopped talking. "I don't know. I feel... strange." Balthazar couldn't explain it but he hadn't felt entirely right since exiting the Untold... or maybe since he went into it? "I'll be alright, just keep looking for a place to rest." And he marched on with Nimue a little behind him.
"I told you that place was dangerous." Nimue said.
"And I told you it was the fastest way to get around." Balthazar reminded the ghost as they finally arrived at a tavern. Balthazar took a moment outside the tavern to soothe his Defiance mutations, the more noticeable ones, and then he walked in with Nimue. He didn't want another incident like Quacia so he tried to make it a little harder to tell he was a mage.
"It doesn't matter how quickly you get around if you're body fails." Nimue pointed out. She seemed concerned and Balthazar thought it was because she was worried he'd die in the Untold with her anchor... which admittedly was part of why she didn't like the risk. "What about the portal magic? I've seen you make portals. Why not make one to whatever city you want to go to?"
"It doesn't work that way. I'm trying to explore. I've never been to the places we're trying to go... or at least I haven't in a long time." The inn had a fairly open floor plan with a few tables and benches around the front and a stairway in the back leading up to the rooms. There was a man behind the counter with a book and a large mustache. Balthazar and Nimue approached the mustache behind the counter. "Any free rooms?"
"Sure. Up the stairs, third door on the left. Three silver nels a night and I'll need a name for the ledger." The mustache seemed to stare at Nimue as it answered Balthazar's question.
"Wesley." Balthazar paid the man for three nights because he was really hoping to be somewhere else by then and the man gave Balthazar a room key. Balthazar went up the stairs with Nimue following close behind and he found the room the man had directed him too.
It wasn't great. The bed wobbled but it was comfortable enough and there was a chest for his things but Balthazar just set his bag down beside the bed and leaned his spear against the wall. He put Nimue's dagger on the desk knowing she'd be able to move it if she wanted to go down to the bar at any point in her materialized form. He looked human enough to pass for one when the men and women were drunk enough and she enjoyed feeling alive again. She couldn't drink, but she could syphon the emotions off the drunks and it was almost as good.
Balthazar turned his focus inward again and rustled his Defiance spark. He could feel it beginning to awake from attunement's soothing effects and the slow glow began to spread through his skin again as his mutations reappeared. Balthazar pulled off his wet shirt and kicked off his wet boots before plopping onto the bed.
"Guard duty?" Nimue asked with a groan.
"Guard duty. I've got some work to do. Someone chatty is bound to be dreaming about this place." Balthazar said as he closed his eyes and shifted to get a little more comfortable on the bed. "Feel free to go to the bar if you want though. No one knows I'm here yet."
