Here and gone again
Sep. 15th, 2015 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bitterguardianSeptember 15th, 2000 (Local time)
There is no questioning that finding each other through the Nexus has been a boon to Max and Balthazar both. Of course, before they found each other they got by; Merlin did not choose people for his apprentices who would simply lay down at the first difficulty. For close to a thousand years, they each survived, but that's not to say it was a happy existence. In finding each other, they have each regained the brother they thought lost forever.
Since they found each other, both old sorcerers have led much brighter, happier lives.
Horvath is in a cheerful mood, when he steps into the back room of the Arcana Cabana via PINpoint. He's brought a bottle of wine, and calls out as he arrives. "Bel? Hadn't seen you in the Nexus, this week..."
His words trail off, because the building feels hollow. Cautiously, he emerges into the front room, and finds everything more or less in order- for a given value, because Balthazar tends towards gently chaotic clutter at the best of times. The front door is locked, but it was not done by a human hand. He makes his way upstairs, and doesn't curse at the difficulty, and finds Balthazar's pets fed and watered but desperate for attention.
There are small magics in place, in case the Nexus should keep Balthazar unexpectedly, enchantments tied to clockwork to ensure the animals don't starve. Enchantment to lock the door if the place is empty. Enchantments to take care of the place for a short while, if Balthazar can't- for whatever reason, be here.
And he isn't here.
The bottle of wine is forgotten, and Horvath scours the place for clues, but there's no sign that Balthazar left in a hurry, and in fact there's no sign he even left at all apart from the fact that he simply isn't there. His coat and hat are, though. Things are spoiling in the fridge but no sign that he was expecting to be away for a while. There's no note, no message of any kind, magical or ordinary. Upstairs, downstairs, Horvath searches the place until he's exhausted, sits and pets the animals, then gets up and searches again.
In the end, it's more luck than anything else that leads him to the vase, and there painted in the poor souls depicted as trapped within he finds Balthazar's face.
And his own.
There's nothing to be done to hurry up the spell that keeps Balthazar and Horvath's alternate trapped there for ten years. The urn is older than either of them, and unsafe to tamper with. He can't do much of anything at all, except ensure that the pets get good homes with associates of Balthazar in this world, and that the taxes are paid up and the whole building layered with protection magics. All he can do for his old friend is keep things in order, and safe, and wait.
Ten years out of a thousand is not so much.
It feels like an eternity.
There is no questioning that finding each other through the Nexus has been a boon to Max and Balthazar both. Of course, before they found each other they got by; Merlin did not choose people for his apprentices who would simply lay down at the first difficulty. For close to a thousand years, they each survived, but that's not to say it was a happy existence. In finding each other, they have each regained the brother they thought lost forever.
Since they found each other, both old sorcerers have led much brighter, happier lives.
Horvath is in a cheerful mood, when he steps into the back room of the Arcana Cabana via PINpoint. He's brought a bottle of wine, and calls out as he arrives. "Bel? Hadn't seen you in the Nexus, this week..."
His words trail off, because the building feels hollow. Cautiously, he emerges into the front room, and finds everything more or less in order- for a given value, because Balthazar tends towards gently chaotic clutter at the best of times. The front door is locked, but it was not done by a human hand. He makes his way upstairs, and doesn't curse at the difficulty, and finds Balthazar's pets fed and watered but desperate for attention.
There are small magics in place, in case the Nexus should keep Balthazar unexpectedly, enchantments tied to clockwork to ensure the animals don't starve. Enchantment to lock the door if the place is empty. Enchantments to take care of the place for a short while, if Balthazar can't- for whatever reason, be here.
And he isn't here.
The bottle of wine is forgotten, and Horvath scours the place for clues, but there's no sign that Balthazar left in a hurry, and in fact there's no sign he even left at all apart from the fact that he simply isn't there. His coat and hat are, though. Things are spoiling in the fridge but no sign that he was expecting to be away for a while. There's no note, no message of any kind, magical or ordinary. Upstairs, downstairs, Horvath searches the place until he's exhausted, sits and pets the animals, then gets up and searches again.
In the end, it's more luck than anything else that leads him to the vase, and there painted in the poor souls depicted as trapped within he finds Balthazar's face.
And his own.
There's nothing to be done to hurry up the spell that keeps Balthazar and Horvath's alternate trapped there for ten years. The urn is older than either of them, and unsafe to tamper with. He can't do much of anything at all, except ensure that the pets get good homes with associates of Balthazar in this world, and that the taxes are paid up and the whole building layered with protection magics. All he can do for his old friend is keep things in order, and safe, and wait.
Ten years out of a thousand is not so much.