Sulfur and ammonia, the stench of the chemicals clung to the air coupled with the macabre scent of burnt flesh, a smell that simultaneously reminded one of a hospital and a barbecue. Three bodies lay torn asunder and charred on the streets of Tiber city, jagged black lines burnt into the surrounding brick walled alleyway. Sebastian Thorn was familiar with such scenes of flagrant violence, the handy work of an unlicensed mage, lightning was what had turned these people into charred corpses and burned the lines of dancing snakes into the walls, the question was why. What was the motivation for cutting down three innocent civilians, it only put the unlicensed mage at risk. There was something more to this story, he could feel it in his blood, the static spark of the arcane.
It was no wonder the Bureau of Magic License & Registration had called upon his services, there were none in the organization better suited to the task, if one wanted to hunt a mage one simply needed a more powerful mage. Arch Magus, the strongest rank any known mage could posses, their power could bend reality it's self, Sebastian Thorn was the only mage in the Bureau to hold the title.
Over the years he had faced discrimination from his peers, a mage who killed his own kind, still with the danger rogue mages posses left him with no choice. You could not simply let individuals capable of swallowing entire cities with flames walk unchecked. Ten years ago he had born witness to such madness, a city engulfed in darkness, it's inhabitants slaughtered in the streets by mysterious shadow like beings, he could easily remembering the splashes of blood with each step down streets laden with corpses, at the center of the carnage, a boy. A boy seeming near the age of eleven, should have been in school, was standing a midst such revolting destruction with a smile and glowing red eyes. The nightmares of that smiling face splattered with crimson haunted him on occasion still, the power of an mage was a double sword that could save humanity or destroy it. He had taken up the title of a Witch Hunter after the destruction of Blackwall in the event that became known as Walpurgisnacht, night of the witches.
Sebastian idly twisted his mustache whilst looking over the crime scene, standing beside him was a slightly bedraggled looking young woman with alluring auburn colored hair pulled into a loose bun, a pair of glasses half way down the bridge of her nose. A light smattering of freckles was scattered across her cheeks, her angel bow lips had an unexpected plumpness to them, she was far more cute than beautiful. Dressed in an elegant white blouse and a black skirt that tightly hugged her figure, clearly she had been called during off duty hours to greet him at the train station.
Elizabeth Blackwell, age twenty two, liscencd magician rank sorceress, proved to be excellent at artifice, clairvoyance, and alteration, graduated top of her class. She was unusually powerful for some one of her age, it was only recently that she joined the local Bureau office as an investigator. Even still she had a reputation of being a hard nose no nonsense investigator dedicated to her job, regardless of it's dead end thanklessness, she was little more than a gear in a bureaucratic machine. This was her first real chance to get a head of the slog of the daily grind, to free her self from the reputation of the rookie that flaunts her powers. It was not incompetence that stifled her progress, but jealously from her co workers bosses who were no where near her match in raw power.
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No one wanted to entertain an out of town Bureau big shot, to hand hold and guide some soft handed posh boy with out the slightest clue as to the realities they faced in the field, but still grasping at straws she might, she seized that chance with zeal.
Sebastian Thorn, they had delivered the intel at the last moment, she had poured over the files during the carriage she had sequestered of short notice from the bureau, what little of the files was not magically encrypted was quite obscure. She had expected to at least have his operation report, in stead was a series of threat analysis and his personal details, he was rated black, It was the color coded system the Empire used to keep track of licensed mages to determine the amount of damage they could inflict if they went rogue, Black was rated at the level of a natural disasters, a force that could wipe a city off a map.
He turned out to be a handsome gentleman, dressed pair of jet black slacks, beneath a herring bone vest he wore a dark wine colored dress shirt, a long overcoat of black garbadine twill came down to he heels of his dress boots. His face bore sculpted appearance with high cheekbones, almond eyes emerald in color shined in the light, his hair was cut shorted and combed a part on the right side. At the corners of his temples she could detect the faintest traces of gray in his dark brown hair, some to she could notice sparsely in his well trimmed beard. It was his smile that distracted, a dark knowing grin that seemed to infect you with it's charm, she felt his eyes scour her as if he could read through her petty ambitions, he expected little of her. That of course was nothing more than her insecure delusions clouding her mind.
"What do you think" she inquired in a flat tone whilst idly trying to ignore the smell filling the alleyway. His answer was quick and to the point, "rogue mage", he had been like this sense they first got in the carriage together, terse. "Yes, but what else can you tell us, you're the specialist here†she instantly bit back. "This is not going so well" she mentally in defeat before taking in a second wind. "Hmm, he's at least wizard class but highly unstable, these patterns indicate a wild release of magic, but is that really the case. For such an erratic patterns it certainly has some symmetry to it, one inexperienced with have a much more disorganized spell form, we're liking for an experienced underground mage" he explained with that disarming smile. She wasn't sure how he could discern that from this mess, but this was simply above her pay grade. Her usual investigations were into counterfeit artifices.
"There is little more to gain here, come lets leave" Sebastian spoke with an outstretched hand like the proper gentlemen that her mother used to speak about when they were still part of the aristocracy. "To where" she inquired with her face awash with confusion. "To grab a drink, you're already dressed the part milady" his suave deep tone washed over her wrecking her common sense and took his hand in silence. Sebastian pulled her as close as he led her on a gentle strolled out into a city getting ready for the twilight, public houses where one could find food and drink were lit up with crystal laps that glowed with a soft white light. Free from the stench of death she could smell the scents of food vendors roasting meat in portable carts, it was a common scene in the lower quarter of the city that where the working class people lived. It was not often she came to such a rough area but her own powers gave her a confidence that only doubled with the man beside her. He picked out a fairly quiet public house tucked away in a corner, a mom and pop shop with mostly local patrons, the atmosphere of freshly cooked meats and gentle wood smoke was inviting.
They sat at a table by the hearth, the food was a hearty spiced stew of beef, a once tough cut slowly cooked till soft and tender, she couldn't deny that there was a certain richness of flavor in the otherwise simple cooking. They shared the meal in silence, two strangers mesmerized by the long awaited meal as neither of them had had time to eat. It wasn't until after the meal and Sebastian was relaxing with a tumbler glass with the latest fashion, a cocktail of liquor, sugar, and bitters, that he looked at the plain if cute faced young woman and wondered why a sorceress was doing stuck in the back woods of the empire working in obscurity. "What's your plan" she inquired whilst idly tilting her glass gazing into the fire light reflecting from its surface. "Simple, I'm going to flush out the rats" he stated with a wild fierce smile that sent shivers down her spine.