3 Ashan 720
"I didn't think this dress would be a good idea." Isabella said with a gesture to the purple dress Balthazar had convinced her to buy after their most unusual morning with the public image consultant. The dress was lower cut than Isabella was used to and also a little bit longer but it was a dark shade of purple that seemed to make her dark blue eyes pop... at least to Balthazar.
"But you look great in it!" Balthazar said, mimicking her gesture. Isabella rolled her eyes and took the blindfold from Balthazar's hands. She moved behind him to begin securing it around his eyes.
"See? So things work out, now trust me and stand still."
That was a brief snippet of the debate Balthazar and Isabella had before embarking on this unorthodox training routine. They were going to play an elaborate game of hide and seek. Balthazar would attune to Isabella and she would attune to him in return. Then Balthazar would wait for about thirty bits while Isabella, a Rupture mage of some skill, hid herself in the city. It was then up to Balthazar to utilize the Attunement spark to guide him to Isabella's location. Under different circumstances, Balthazar would have enjoyed the challenge, but he was still not quite comfortable with Isabella wandering Scalvoris Town alone in the later breaks. It was safer than Almund, sure, but Balthazar cared about Isabella in a way that blinded him to that fact.
So the game began, and Balthazar waited at the corner Isabella had left him at wearing a blindfold until he thought it had been thirty or so minutes, then he set off. It was really hard to tell the passage of time when you were wearing a blindfold. Balthazar was forced to track it by counting to sixty in his head... thirty times. It was an exercise in discipline and half the point of the challenge Isabella had put before him. Worse even, his counting was frequently interrupted by the shrieking tear of Isabella opening and closing portals. Balthazar hated it. He could hear the booming noises slowly getting farther and farther while he tried to count. On about his fifteenth count of sixty he forgot how many times he'd counted to sixty as a whole and started again... he counted to sixty seventeen times after that before giving in and deciding he'd surely wasted more than the allotment of time Isabella had wanted.
Tracking a frequency you were attuned to, but not next to, wasn't an entirely new experience for Balthazar but Isabella had put a lot of distance between them in a short time. He knew she was using portals but didn't want to risk doing the same... if she heard his portals he'd never be able to catch up to her because she'd probably keep moving. Balthazar turned an ear to the sky to try and get a general sense of where Isabella was going only to find that there were no more loud booms echoing from the distance. She'd hidden already?
Balthazar took to the skies with his Defiance spark, calling on his kin (the wind) to embrace him and lift him into the air. The air churned around him and a breeze slapped back and forth against Balthazar's face so he took a moment to balance himself before his real ascend began. He flew above the buildings with his ear outstretched just a little bit ahead of himself as if it would help him hear the whisper of a Frequency. It was hard to get a good sense of what direction to move in when he was moving as fast as he was so Balthazar lowered himself down into an alley to take a more careful look around.
Balthazar closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting his held Attunement sing in his ears. When you weren't in the presence of that which you'd attuned to their frequency was muted. One could have expected that much but it wasn't just muted- it was like a siren song that beckoned to you if you listened in on it closely enough... and Balthazar was listening closely. He wasn't even aware that he'd begun to walk again, he only heard the distance echoes of Isabella's frequency and his feet had taken the initiative on their own.
He turned one corner, then another, and another- it almost looked as if he was wandering aimlessly but he was not. There was a purpose and with every corner he turned the sound of Isabella's frequency became more clear... and then it became frightening. What had been a calm, perhaps even bored, melody shifted suddenly into one of panic and fear. Balthazar didn't recognize the specific shift to fear so much as he recognized that her frequency had suddenly started fluctuating greatly. Balthazar's eyes widened, thinking Isabella had bolted and was looking to get further from him, so he gave chase.
He ran passed civilians walking around and garnered odd looks as a result but he didn't care, he was on the hunt. He turned a corner to find a group of three walking beside each other and blocking his path entirely so he blinked ahead of them with a small burst of flame that caused the trio to scream in surprise when Balthazar appeared in front of them "Walk faster, you don't own the street!" Balthazar shouted as them before he went back to running. He was getting close now. He could feel it. Balthazar turned a corner into an alley and-
Saw Isabella swinging her dagger at a man in tattered robes. "Isabella!" Balthazar shouted to her. Her head perked up and then Balthazar saw the dagger in the robed figure's hand. "Knife!" Balthazar thrust his hands forward propelling a powerful blast of wind- so powerful in fact that when his mutation kicked in it felt like the wind had just slapped Balthazar across the face. Balthazar stumbled, the robed figure was thrown into the wall, and Isabella backed away. "What happened?" Balthazar called to Isabella as he jogged down the alley to meet her. The robed figure was shifting on the ground in pain a a little but began to rise slowly. It scooped it's dagger of the ground where it had fallen and moved like a shadow back towards Balthazar and Isabella.
"I was waiting here for you and he- look out!" Isabella's warning came later than the warning from Balthazar's spark and worse yet, later than he could react to it. A dagger slipped across his back, cleanly slicing flesh and drawing hot blood. Balthazar screamed a lout curse and dropped low as he turned to sweep the robed figure's legs out from under them. Arcs of electricity began flying off of Balthazar as the enraged mage turned to the downed figure. Balthazar thrust one hand down and a powerful, constant blast of wind shot out of his hand, pinning the robed figure to the floor.
"Who are you?" Balthazar asked as he held the wind blast. He wasn't moving so it was fairly easy enough to manage the wind blowing back against him. The cultist made a gargling noise and so Balthazar let up with the wind.
"We serve the Prince of-" Balthazar kicked the dagger out of the cultists hands and mounted them.
"Not who do you serve, who are you?" He asked with a hammer like first across the cultist's face. Isabella crossed her arms behind Balthazar, enjoying the show. The cultist refused again with a rude word towards Isabella and so Balthazar cracked him across the face thrice before he asked again. "Who are you!"
"A servant." The cultists replied in a daze. Blood and broken teeth filled the cultists mouth. Balthazar didn't have the hardest hit, but he had hit the cultist a lot by this point.
"Yeah I got that part." Balthazar raised his fist and Isabella grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Who do you work for?" Isabella asked.
"I do not speak with whor-" Isabella released Balthazar's arm. Balthazar's hands wrapped around the cultist's throat and he began to squeeze.
"Don't call her that. I just got her to buy that dress." Balthazar growled as he strangled the cultist.
"The Church..." The cultist choked out "of Eternal... Mercy." Balthazar loosened his grip on the cultist's throat and stood up.
"Who's that?" Balthazar asked Isabella.
"No idea." Isabella replied. Balthazar looked at the cultist now gasping for air on the floor. He gave a quick kick to the ribs to knock the cultist onto their back again.
"Who's that?" Balthazar asked the cultist.
"We serve the Prince of Eternal Mercies." The cultist grumbled as they reached into their robe. Balthazar was looking at Isabella and didn't see the subtle move, but he would not forget what happened next. The cultist sprung from the ground towards Balthazar who turned, fast this time, and fired a bolt of lightning from his palm into the cultist's chest. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air and the cultist slid across the ground. Balthazar and Isabella took ready stances and moved towards the dying cultist only to hear his final words whispered solemnly. "Isn't is... beautiful..."