Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

"It's a little strange, but I'm sure the people are adjusting to it." Balder said in a low voice to Balthazar who was standing at the edge of the Ashwoods with his hammer, wailing on a tree to practice his form. The people had been told of the change in leadership the night before when they returned from the Hopetoun celebration. Balthazar and Elisabeth thought it would be best for them to wait until everyone was in a good mood before they dropped the change on them. "It isn't as if you two haven't been running the settlement together." Balder pointed out. Silk pointed a sharp finger at Balder.

Silk chimed in thinking that it would help, "Exactly! So what difference does it make if we call her the leader? You two are still-"

"If it didn't matter they wouldn't make us go through the effort to change it. If nothing else it is a symbolic 'chew sand.'" Balthazar cut Silk's momentum out from under her and brought the hammer around with two hands into the side of the tree. He had to swing with the full weight of his body to do real damage to the wood. Hammers were, as he'd figured out, more top heavy than swords and axes were. He brought it around on the left for a two handed swing and it hit with a loud thud, then he followed the momentum of the hammer bouncing off its hit and brought it around his body to swing it from the right with both hands. He liked the speed he could move a blade with using two hands but with the hammer he really had to aim because the weight forced him to commit to strikes. It was slower than a sword but it hit harder.

"Maybe they just wanted you back in the Flame Tro- keep your back straighter or you'll hurt yourself." Balder, the one most familiar with axes and hammers, advised without answering Balthazar's question. Balder and Silk looked at each other to see if either one had an answer but they seemed not to.

"I still don't understand why."

"We don't know, Balthazar, just ask the Albarech."

"The Albarech isn't who I'll be working with." Balthazar responded bitterly as he adjusted his posture a little and held the hammer in front of him in both hands. He imagined the tree was an opponent which was the only way to really gain anything from this form of practice, and he brought his hammer up in a sweeping motion before stopping half way through and waving the hammer in the air a little. It was easier with a sword but the general motion of a riposte seemed like it would work. Balthazar swept the hammer up again with both hands and rather than bringing it up and around into another swing as he usually would, he pulled his elbow in and thrust it forward into the tree. That impact was more jarring and Balthazar shifted the hammer into one hand to shake out his other. He'd always felt more comfortable with it in one hand given the smaller size of the handle but he was trying to perfect all forms of battle with it.

"Is that why are you so angry?" Silk asked a little nervously.

"I'm not angry!" He shouted, angrily, as he drove his hammer down into the tree with an overhead swing. He pulled it back and repeated the same strike three more times in quick succession before slowing down. "I'm disappointed."

"You'll have to forgive us for thinking otherwise." Balder said with a gesture to the tree Balthazar was striking. Balthazar sighed and nodded.

"Fair point." Balthazar shifted the hammer into his left hand and shook out his right arm a little. Every impact had a shock that a blade did not and he was getting used to it still. Balthazar placed one hand on his ribcage just beneath his left arm and attempted a few swings with his off hand. Simple swings, overhead, front hand, and backhand swings but nothing frivolous with twirls. He did not have the dexterity with a hammer yet to do anything more than the most plain but he was paying attention to the way that it felt in his hand. Focusing on learning helped him not focus on other things. Balder and Silk looked towards each other again for support and this time Silk lead. They were guards but unlike the Flame Troopers who had been monitoring Balthazar, the trio of Silk, Balder, and Ronan had worked closely with him throughout his time as the leader. They were friends and they could tell their friend was upset but they did not know how to fix it. It was easier now that he was not also their boss but that seemed to be the root of his anger.

"Do you think Elisabeth can't do the job?" Silk asked.

"No, no," Balthazar stopped swinging into the tree and turned to face Silk, "it has nothing to do with my faith in Elisabeth's ability to lead. She will be fine and if she isn't, I'll be back to sort you all out for not listening to her." Balthazar grinned when he said it, prompting Balder to laugh and Silk to smile. He was joking and they knew it... or hoped. No one there thought that he would ever have to because they were all confident that Elisabeth could do the job.

"Then, shouldn't you be happy?"

"Would you be? If everyone who you thought had faith in you decided you were a failed experiment?" When he said that, the guards seemed confused. They couldn't understand because he had done as he asked. He didn't let the settlers rest on the laurels of Saoire and Faldrass looking out for them. Balthazar took a deep breath and shook his head as if to dismiss the topic. "It's complicated. I'm happy for Elisabeth and lets leave it at that?" The guards nodded. She was their new boss after all. "I'm going to head into the Serenity Garden for a little while before I pack, if anyone needs me I'll be there." Balthazar said, excusing himself from the group. Balder and Silk nodded to the former leader who took a few more practice swings before tying his hammer down to his belt and heading off towards the garden.

It did not take long for Balthazar to find the spot he was looking for by the jubiplant field where he and Saoire had spoken before during her unexpected visit. He knelt down in front of the field and took a slow breath in through his nose that he blew out through his mouth. Every cycle that passed it seemed like he was forced to confront and deal with enormous changes and it seemed like he never quite lived up to the expectations placed on him. Having the settlement ripped from under him and given to Elisabeth was only the most recent offense. It hurt that part of him wanted to support her while the other part of him was jealous. He'd spent so long getting to know the people and someone who was on another island decided he wasn't doing a good enough job.

It didn't matter now. He'd been offered his old job back and even officer's training. He accepted both because he knew it was easier to get around the island with a badge than it was to get around on his own, especially after his scalvwing was left to die in Almund. He thought about staying in Haven and becoming what he and Elisabeth called "Captain of the Guard" but didn't because, in part, he knew he could make more money working for the Elements than Haven. Moreover he knew he could solve crimes on a larger scale than he could in Haven. Helping people, solving crimes, it was what he did well. As much as he hated the way the situation was being handled from so far away, he couldn't deny there was a lingering appeal to getting back to how things had been.

Well, almost how they had been. He was given the same job that landed him in trouble in the first place and he was given that job without the benefit of his magic to guide him along. He was a Flame Trooper because his magic made him a specialist in that field but without it he felt out of place. Now it was his marks that made him unique and he did not feel like that the purpose of the marks. It felt wrong to think he was in his branch by default rather than merit. A lot felt wrong about what was happening and so Balthazar did the only thing he thought would bring him comfort. He went somewhere he thought he could find answers, his memory... well... not his memory.

The Serenity Garden gave him the peace and quiet he needed to focus on the things he couldn't quite manage on his own. 'Peace of mind' being the most prominent illusion in his life. He didn't know if he had any real peace of mind apart from his conversations with Elliot since he'd been released. There was always some anger or bitterness mixed in. He could never quite push everything else away but in the Serenity Garden it seemed like a clear mind was simply a matter of time. He knelt by the field and he closed his eyes. He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, slowly consuming the aroma of the plants in the field and with it, some calm. He remembered having done something similar in the settlement when he returned from his trial but he was looking for a different answer now. Not 'how do I help the people move forward' but instead 'how do I move forward?'

He sat for a long while with nothing in his head but that question and it felt... good. The absence of intense thought was unusual but pleasant to the former mage and after probably a break of sitting and meditating, a sequence of images flashed through Balthazar's mind. There was a woman holding his hand but it was not his hand- the skin was older and had a hint more leather to it's look. There was a tattoo on the back of the hand as well but Balthazar only noticed it in passing as he listened to the exchange between the two. He is your brother, the woman said hurting him will do nothing but hurt your family. She squeezed the man's hand.

It's not about the family, it's about what is right. The man said in anger. The woman's thumb gently stroked the back of the man's hand and she shook her head.

Hurting your family is never right. The woman said before the strange cloud of images passed away from Balthazar's mind. He opened his eyes and took another deep breath, still sitting in the jubiplant field. He thought on the vision he'd seen for a while in that same place. He thought about the notion of family. He thought about a lot of things. He looked back down the path he'd taken to the jubiplants and after a few trills decided to linger in the garden for a little bit longer. He felt better there than he did in Haven now and he wanted to enjoy it while he could. There was work to do when he got back to the settlement, there was work for everyone, not just the leader.