mathias
Time: 4:45 PM
Gesindelholm
Talon walked openly among the streets of what had been collectively referred to as Trashtown. Despite this, not a single soul could see him. He had taken hold of his dominion over the Light and was bending it so that he could not be seen with physical eyes. With his mastery of Semblance, he was masking his aura and with his use of Kinetics, he was walking slightly above the ground so as to avoid leaving footprints in the dirt.
For a city that was so steeped in the grandiosity of Imperial life, he was surprised that such a ward existed at all. Every city had its underbelly but the fact that this portion of the city existed so openly seemed almost intentional to him. Kalzasi was not a utopia. It had its crumbling buildings but it also had a considerable amount of wealth invested in rebuilding and assisting its population. He did not see an abundance of that in this place as he walked the street. Along his walk, he had been tempted to intervene on multiple occasions but had thought better of it. His presence would cause more disturbance at the moment than it would solve problems.
He watched as a homeless man begged for coins in the street. The majority of people shuffled by on their way to what he could only assume were factory work or other jobs that sustained the grunt workforce of the city. The homeless man was ignored. He did not know his suffering. He did not know what had brought him to his situation. He did not even know if a few coins would be of any help to the man or how he would spend them. Talon still gave the man something. When he ceased rattling his cup and when he had huddled in on himself, laying his head down upon his knees, Talon took a few gold coins out of his belt pouch. He held them in his hand then with a flick of his thoughts created a small portal in the man’s cup and deposited the coins inside.
He saw a woman with a child upon her hip and two more huddling close to her legs. She was bargaining with a kiosk merchant for goods. She set her coin purse down on the shelf of the kiosk and turned her back for one moment in order to tend to one of her children. That momentary distraction was all it took for a thief to rush forward and snatch it from her before she or the merchant could react. She whirled, looking after the thief in shock and despair, calling out, begging him to return. Talon flicked his wrist and Hitched the stolen coin purse, he deposited it at the woman’s feet on the ground just beside her ankle. He latched on to the thief’s aura, watching it. At a glance, he could feel several things resonating in it. Looking back to the food merchant’s kiosk, Talon reached into his belt pouch and produced a few more coins. He took hold of a few steaming meat buns and portaled them into his hand. He swapped them out for the coins then turned his attention back to the thief.
Quietly he vaulted to a spot not far from where the thief had sequestered himself, teleporting just above him. He muffled the noise of his arrival with kinetics, preventing the waves of his sound from rippling outward from his body. He stood atop a multi-story building with a flat roof. Below him was the thief. He had run far in the short time that has passed between snatching the purse and Talon returning it. He was already a block away, having darted between what appeared to be several abandoned buildings and into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. Talon propped one boot up on the ledge and peered down to where the thief was pacing back and forth, hands pulling at dirty hair. Through a hole in the roof, Talon could see him fairly easily.
The thief realized then that he no longer had the coin purse in his possession. Shock rippled across his aura. Frustration. Terror. Then hunger. It was not a wrathful or twisted hunger of the soul, it was a hunger of the body.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” He was a thin man. The touch of malnourishment was evident on his form. Rippling in his aura, there was a touch of desperation. That hunger was weighing down upon him. The young man paced, pulling at some of his pockets as though he might find the coin purse that Talon had returned with a flick of his wrist.
“I had it. Where…? Fuck. I can’t go back empty handed. He’s gonna kill me.” Talon watched as the young man muttered to himself. Fear threaded itself into the young man’s aura. He watched as the young man crouched down into a fetal position and hugged his legs. He pressed his head to his knees. “He’s gonna kill me. Fuck.”
Talon teleported down into the chamber. This time he did not mask his presence. He ceased bending the Light around his form. The dust and dirt that picked up from his arrival, made the young man cough. He fell back onto his hindquarters as he shielded his face from the gust of wind. Talon folded his wings so that they sat comfortably upon his back. As he stepped forward into a shaft of light in the abandoned warehouse, the young man lowered his arm and caught sight of him. Fear was too simple a word to describe what Talon saw and felt through the filter of the thief’s aura. It was more than fear. It was abject terror. He went ashen, his eyes bugging out of his skull. He sat there on the ground, gaping at him in dread. Talon took another step forward. That broke whatever stunned spell the thief was under.
“Oh gods!” He screamed, scrambling away from Talon in a panicked flight of fear. Talon merely rest his hands at the small of his back. With a flick of his thoughts he created a cube of force around the interior of the warehouse, bringing the aether flux to a standstill and compressing it so that it became impassable. The thief reached his first attempt at an exit only to bounce off of the unseen wall. He stumbled back, staring at the space in shock. He whirled, looking at Talon with flared nostrils and eyes that looked wild. Before Talon could speak, the thief bolted toward another perceived exit. Again, he bounced off the invisible wall of force that Talon had put in place around the interior of the building. He tried this three more times before he rushed against the exit nearest Talon with such force that he was sent sprawling onto his back after bouncing off.
The young man did not lay there on his back long. He flipped over onto his back scrambling away from Talon. Talon did not move. He had not moved from where he stood the entire time. He continued to stand there, watching, waiting.
“Please.” The thief begged. Talon stepped toward him. The thief backed away from him until his back was against a wall. “Please. Please. Please. Please.”
The young man was out of his mind with fear as he shook and raised his hands, tears streaming down his face. Talon came to stand directly in front of him. The young man reared back and squeezed his eyes shut, still softly begging for what Talon could only assume was his life.
“Are you hungry?” He kept his voice soft. He extended a hand to the young man even though, with his eyes closed, he could not see it. The question must have caught the young man completely off guard. Talon watched as he slowly opened his eyes, blinking at him as though he was not sure what he had just heard.
“Wh-what?” The thief was breathing hard. Talon repeated his question.
“I asked, are you hungry?” Again, he kept his voice gentle. The young man was already terrified. He did not answer. He just continued to stare up at him, clearly not quite comprehending what was happening. Talon reached into his pouch and called forth one of the steaming meat buns he’d procured. He knelt down, the movement prompting the thief to press himself more firmly against the wall. Talon took out the meat bun and extended it to the young man.
“Here.” He held it up for the young man to take. The thief stared at it as though he were not sure whether it was food or poison. Slowly, with shaking hands, he tentatively took the meat bun. He slowly brought it to his chest.
“You’re not going to kill me?”
There it was. Talon knew how he looked. Dressed in the armor he had been forced into. A towering figure with silver wings, silver-white hair and mercurial eyes, marked as he was with the witchmarks and runes of his heritage, he undoubtedly looked like the specter of death itself to the human. He shook his head.
“No.” Talon spread his wings and then seated himself across from the thief. He brought out another meat bun and took a bite from it. He savored the simple but hearty flavor. After half a year of nothing but bread and water, he had come to appreciate most anything that have flavor to it.
“What do…what do you want?” The thief asked, his voice was still unsteady. Talon could hear the shakiness in it. What did he want? What had prompted him to, of all people, choose to follow a thief whom he had thwarted from stealing from a woman and her presumed children? He supposed part of him understood that thievery was often the product of poverty. Having served as an administrator for city affairs, Talon understood that most crime in underdeveloped areas of a city could be tied to simple things such as food, shelter, safety and medicine. As for what made him decide to follow this thief in particular when he could have just left him to his fate? Talon was not quite sure himself. He took another bite out of his meat bun. He spoke over a mouthful.
“To share a meal.” That was what he wanted right then. Perhaps more would come to him as he ate. He looked at the bun in the human’s hands. “That will get cold.”
The human looked down at it as if he was only just realizing he had it in his grasp. Talon saw the hunger in his aura swell. There was distrust. There was still fear. The hunger must have won out as he took a bite out of the bun. That first bite must have been like a dam breaking as the young man immediately began shoving more into his mouth.
“Careful. It is still hot.” Talon was almost certain that the human did not care. When he had devoured most of the bun, Talon pulled out a second one and extended it to him wordlessly. The thief hesitated for only a moment, prompting Talon to proffer the bun again. That was all it took and he took it, biting into it. Talon was only halfway through his first bun when he extended a third one to the human who took it. His shaking had lessened. There was more color to his face now.
“Talon.” It took a moment before the thief registered what he said and what he meant. He helped prompt him by staring at the human expectantly.
“Matty.” Talon arched an eyebrow. “Short for Mathias.”
Talon bit into his meat bun and chewed.
“Are…are you going to turn me in?” The tremor of fear returned to Mathias voice. Talon shook his head.
“Who was going to kill you?” Fear spiked in the human again. He quickly tried to cover it up.
“How…? No-nobody.” Talon pinned Mathias with a stare as he took a slow bite into his bun. It had the desired effect and the human looked down. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.” That made Mathias blink. Talon did not look up to see his face but he could feel the young man staring at him. He finished his bun. He reached into his pouch and called forth a few gold coins. He did not have to guess at what or who Mathias was hiding. He knew enough about the workings of crime rings to know that Mathias was likely a very low man on a totem pole. That coin purse had likely represented his ticket to both a meal and safety. At least for a time. Talon had robbed him of that. Just as Mathias had stolen from the woman and her children on the street.
“Here.” He held out his fist to the human. Mathias drew back slightly, clearly still not very trusting of him. It took a moment but eventually the thief opened his palm. Talon deposited the coins into it. Mathias went wide eyed. It was enough to cover what Talon hoped would be a sufficient day’s thievery without arousing too much suspicion for the young man. With the coins gifted, Talon rose to his feet. He turned and began walking away. He heard the shuffling of feet, a small curse and Mathias shout.
“W-wait!” Talon paused. He turned slightly so that he could look at Mathias over his shoulder. “Why are you helping me?”
Talon thought on that. He had been in the Imperium since…he did not really know when he had arrived. Not the day specifically. In that time he had only suffered. He had experienced pain. He had experienced despair. He had been broken and had even lost his husband, having been forced to send him away in a moment of desperation. Talon realized that, staring at the human, dirty and too thin, underfed and looking at him with a mix of disbelief in his eyes, he could see something else within them too. It was small. Very small. But it was there.
“Be safe, Mathias.” Talon dropped the kinetic barrier around the building and vaulted out of the warehouse.
He was a prisoner of the empire.
But even prisoners could bring Hope.
Searing 56, 122
Time: 4:45 PM
Gesindelholm
Talon walked openly among the streets of what had been collectively referred to as Trashtown. Despite this, not a single soul could see him. He had taken hold of his dominion over the Light and was bending it so that he could not be seen with physical eyes. With his mastery of Semblance, he was masking his aura and with his use of Kinetics, he was walking slightly above the ground so as to avoid leaving footprints in the dirt.
For a city that was so steeped in the grandiosity of Imperial life, he was surprised that such a ward existed at all. Every city had its underbelly but the fact that this portion of the city existed so openly seemed almost intentional to him. Kalzasi was not a utopia. It had its crumbling buildings but it also had a considerable amount of wealth invested in rebuilding and assisting its population. He did not see an abundance of that in this place as he walked the street. Along his walk, he had been tempted to intervene on multiple occasions but had thought better of it. His presence would cause more disturbance at the moment than it would solve problems.
He watched as a homeless man begged for coins in the street. The majority of people shuffled by on their way to what he could only assume were factory work or other jobs that sustained the grunt workforce of the city. The homeless man was ignored. He did not know his suffering. He did not know what had brought him to his situation. He did not even know if a few coins would be of any help to the man or how he would spend them. Talon still gave the man something. When he ceased rattling his cup and when he had huddled in on himself, laying his head down upon his knees, Talon took a few gold coins out of his belt pouch. He held them in his hand then with a flick of his thoughts created a small portal in the man’s cup and deposited the coins inside.
He saw a woman with a child upon her hip and two more huddling close to her legs. She was bargaining with a kiosk merchant for goods. She set her coin purse down on the shelf of the kiosk and turned her back for one moment in order to tend to one of her children. That momentary distraction was all it took for a thief to rush forward and snatch it from her before she or the merchant could react. She whirled, looking after the thief in shock and despair, calling out, begging him to return. Talon flicked his wrist and Hitched the stolen coin purse, he deposited it at the woman’s feet on the ground just beside her ankle. He latched on to the thief’s aura, watching it. At a glance, he could feel several things resonating in it. Looking back to the food merchant’s kiosk, Talon reached into his belt pouch and produced a few more coins. He took hold of a few steaming meat buns and portaled them into his hand. He swapped them out for the coins then turned his attention back to the thief.
Quietly he vaulted to a spot not far from where the thief had sequestered himself, teleporting just above him. He muffled the noise of his arrival with kinetics, preventing the waves of his sound from rippling outward from his body. He stood atop a multi-story building with a flat roof. Below him was the thief. He had run far in the short time that has passed between snatching the purse and Talon returning it. He was already a block away, having darted between what appeared to be several abandoned buildings and into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. Talon propped one boot up on the ledge and peered down to where the thief was pacing back and forth, hands pulling at dirty hair. Through a hole in the roof, Talon could see him fairly easily.
The thief realized then that he no longer had the coin purse in his possession. Shock rippled across his aura. Frustration. Terror. Then hunger. It was not a wrathful or twisted hunger of the soul, it was a hunger of the body.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” He was a thin man. The touch of malnourishment was evident on his form. Rippling in his aura, there was a touch of desperation. That hunger was weighing down upon him. The young man paced, pulling at some of his pockets as though he might find the coin purse that Talon had returned with a flick of his wrist.
“I had it. Where…? Fuck. I can’t go back empty handed. He’s gonna kill me.” Talon watched as the young man muttered to himself. Fear threaded itself into the young man’s aura. He watched as the young man crouched down into a fetal position and hugged his legs. He pressed his head to his knees. “He’s gonna kill me. Fuck.”
Talon teleported down into the chamber. This time he did not mask his presence. He ceased bending the Light around his form. The dust and dirt that picked up from his arrival, made the young man cough. He fell back onto his hindquarters as he shielded his face from the gust of wind. Talon folded his wings so that they sat comfortably upon his back. As he stepped forward into a shaft of light in the abandoned warehouse, the young man lowered his arm and caught sight of him. Fear was too simple a word to describe what Talon saw and felt through the filter of the thief’s aura. It was more than fear. It was abject terror. He went ashen, his eyes bugging out of his skull. He sat there on the ground, gaping at him in dread. Talon took another step forward. That broke whatever stunned spell the thief was under.
“Oh gods!” He screamed, scrambling away from Talon in a panicked flight of fear. Talon merely rest his hands at the small of his back. With a flick of his thoughts he created a cube of force around the interior of the warehouse, bringing the aether flux to a standstill and compressing it so that it became impassable. The thief reached his first attempt at an exit only to bounce off of the unseen wall. He stumbled back, staring at the space in shock. He whirled, looking at Talon with flared nostrils and eyes that looked wild. Before Talon could speak, the thief bolted toward another perceived exit. Again, he bounced off the invisible wall of force that Talon had put in place around the interior of the building. He tried this three more times before he rushed against the exit nearest Talon with such force that he was sent sprawling onto his back after bouncing off.
The young man did not lay there on his back long. He flipped over onto his back scrambling away from Talon. Talon did not move. He had not moved from where he stood the entire time. He continued to stand there, watching, waiting.
“Please.” The thief begged. Talon stepped toward him. The thief backed away from him until his back was against a wall. “Please. Please. Please. Please.”
The young man was out of his mind with fear as he shook and raised his hands, tears streaming down his face. Talon came to stand directly in front of him. The young man reared back and squeezed his eyes shut, still softly begging for what Talon could only assume was his life.
“Are you hungry?” He kept his voice soft. He extended a hand to the young man even though, with his eyes closed, he could not see it. The question must have caught the young man completely off guard. Talon watched as he slowly opened his eyes, blinking at him as though he was not sure what he had just heard.
“Wh-what?” The thief was breathing hard. Talon repeated his question.
“I asked, are you hungry?” Again, he kept his voice gentle. The young man was already terrified. He did not answer. He just continued to stare up at him, clearly not quite comprehending what was happening. Talon reached into his pouch and called forth one of the steaming meat buns he’d procured. He knelt down, the movement prompting the thief to press himself more firmly against the wall. Talon took out the meat bun and extended it to the young man.
“Here.” He held it up for the young man to take. The thief stared at it as though he were not sure whether it was food or poison. Slowly, with shaking hands, he tentatively took the meat bun. He slowly brought it to his chest.
“You’re not going to kill me?”
There it was. Talon knew how he looked. Dressed in the armor he had been forced into. A towering figure with silver wings, silver-white hair and mercurial eyes, marked as he was with the witchmarks and runes of his heritage, he undoubtedly looked like the specter of death itself to the human. He shook his head.
“No.” Talon spread his wings and then seated himself across from the thief. He brought out another meat bun and took a bite from it. He savored the simple but hearty flavor. After half a year of nothing but bread and water, he had come to appreciate most anything that have flavor to it.
“What do…what do you want?” The thief asked, his voice was still unsteady. Talon could hear the shakiness in it. What did he want? What had prompted him to, of all people, choose to follow a thief whom he had thwarted from stealing from a woman and her presumed children? He supposed part of him understood that thievery was often the product of poverty. Having served as an administrator for city affairs, Talon understood that most crime in underdeveloped areas of a city could be tied to simple things such as food, shelter, safety and medicine. As for what made him decide to follow this thief in particular when he could have just left him to his fate? Talon was not quite sure himself. He took another bite out of his meat bun. He spoke over a mouthful.
“To share a meal.” That was what he wanted right then. Perhaps more would come to him as he ate. He looked at the bun in the human’s hands. “That will get cold.”
The human looked down at it as if he was only just realizing he had it in his grasp. Talon saw the hunger in his aura swell. There was distrust. There was still fear. The hunger must have won out as he took a bite out of the bun. That first bite must have been like a dam breaking as the young man immediately began shoving more into his mouth.
“Careful. It is still hot.” Talon was almost certain that the human did not care. When he had devoured most of the bun, Talon pulled out a second one and extended it to him wordlessly. The thief hesitated for only a moment, prompting Talon to proffer the bun again. That was all it took and he took it, biting into it. Talon was only halfway through his first bun when he extended a third one to the human who took it. His shaking had lessened. There was more color to his face now.
“Talon.” It took a moment before the thief registered what he said and what he meant. He helped prompt him by staring at the human expectantly.
“Matty.” Talon arched an eyebrow. “Short for Mathias.”
Talon bit into his meat bun and chewed.
“Are…are you going to turn me in?” The tremor of fear returned to Mathias voice. Talon shook his head.
“Who was going to kill you?” Fear spiked in the human again. He quickly tried to cover it up.
“How…? No-nobody.” Talon pinned Mathias with a stare as he took a slow bite into his bun. It had the desired effect and the human looked down. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.” That made Mathias blink. Talon did not look up to see his face but he could feel the young man staring at him. He finished his bun. He reached into his pouch and called forth a few gold coins. He did not have to guess at what or who Mathias was hiding. He knew enough about the workings of crime rings to know that Mathias was likely a very low man on a totem pole. That coin purse had likely represented his ticket to both a meal and safety. At least for a time. Talon had robbed him of that. Just as Mathias had stolen from the woman and her children on the street.
“Here.” He held out his fist to the human. Mathias drew back slightly, clearly still not very trusting of him. It took a moment but eventually the thief opened his palm. Talon deposited the coins into it. Mathias went wide eyed. It was enough to cover what Talon hoped would be a sufficient day’s thievery without arousing too much suspicion for the young man. With the coins gifted, Talon rose to his feet. He turned and began walking away. He heard the shuffling of feet, a small curse and Mathias shout.
“W-wait!” Talon paused. He turned slightly so that he could look at Mathias over his shoulder. “Why are you helping me?”
Talon thought on that. He had been in the Imperium since…he did not really know when he had arrived. Not the day specifically. In that time he had only suffered. He had experienced pain. He had experienced despair. He had been broken and had even lost his husband, having been forced to send him away in a moment of desperation. Talon realized that, staring at the human, dirty and too thin, underfed and looking at him with a mix of disbelief in his eyes, he could see something else within them too. It was small. Very small. But it was there.
“Be safe, Mathias.” Talon dropped the kinetic barrier around the building and vaulted out of the warehouse.
He was a prisoner of the empire.
But even prisoners could bring Hope.
"I am Hope."