Himlin, Emreldian Hunter

Fifty-foot-tall trees tower over the bustling crowd. People flow in and out of the trunks of those trees, which have been carved into buildings.

Himlin crouched above the chaos, feet planted on a high branch and sharp eyes scanning the crowd in the town of Aston. In a moment, he caught sight of a hooded figure. They looked behind themselves before ducking behind a pair of larger trees and disappearing from view. Himlin tensed and sprang to another branch, getting lower and closer. He spoke into a stone at his mouth, "Target spotted. Alley of Gymlek's and Falla's."

Himlin wasn't a big fan of the clunky Quartzi communication tool, but it was convenient and cheaper than a fully arcane version.

"Roger. Expect backup in five minutes." A burly voice replied from the communicator. Himlin understood that these 'minutes' that the Travelers talked about were close to his own time period of a 'gow'.

Himlin swung from branch to branch, flipping and crouching atop the branch when he was within earshot and eyesight of the alley. While technically an alley, the space was relatively open. His target had four or five different paths to run in an emergency. And his target wasn't alone. Another hooded figure stood in the alley. While the initial target's cloak was a verdant green, this new stranger's cloak was a midnight black. If not for the dappled light, even Himlin might not have seen them. Himlin decided to nickname them Green and Black.

"Have you been followed?" Black asked. He had a soft masculine voice. Himlin had heard that voice before. He'd been tracking Black for a while now.

"No. The relic is coming off empty." Green replied. Their voice was hard to place.

"You have it?"

"Yes."

Himlin leapt to another branch to get over Black. He could now drop right on top of the cloaked man and paralyze him with twin poisoned daggers. Himlin got a glance of long blond hair under Green's cloak, and an elliptical Emerald over their ear.

"Give it to me." Black demanded.

"You have my gold?" Green asked, a flirtatious glint in her eyes. Himlin could finally place Green as a girl. Elven by his guess.

Black sighed, and pulled a brown sack from his belt, dangling it by its drawstring. It looked full, making Himlin guess about 1000 gold. If this were a relatively common magic relic, that would be about right. But Himlin had never heard of a relic that could detect people.

"How much is that?" Green asked.

"More than enough to keep your mouth shut."

"One million gold."

Himlin nearly fell off his branch. A million gold was nearly unheard of. You'd need to be a hoarder or a Gemguard to have that kind of money. What was this relic?

"Quarter million." Black bartered, returning the sack to under his cloak.

"This thing's one of a kind. It's worth at least three-quarters." Green countered.

Black grumbled. "I only have a thousand on me right now. My supplier can at most provide half a million."

It was Green's turn to sigh. "I'll take your thousand now, and I'll expect the other half million by next week."

Black nodded, and extended his hand with the bag again. Green removed the Emerald earpiece with a flair, and exchanged it with the sack of gold. This was Himlin's chance.

He dropped from his branch, for a freefall of about 30 feet. His two daggers flashed at the back of Black's cloaked neck.

Black slumped forward and Green retracted with a shriek. Himlin felt the shock from landing hard on his feet, but he didn't have time to hesitate. He leapt forward, two daggers flashing out again. Green evaded one, but the other blade clipped her forearm.

She retaliated with the arcane words for an entangling vine, meant to trap Himlin, and turned to run back out to the street. Himlin channeled his racial skill, fading from reality as the vines grasped at him. The vines shrank back into the ground as Himlin ran after Green, tackling her and sending the money bag flying. He swiped her with his daggers, making sure that she couldn't run from him. Her muscles froze, and he slowly got off her back.

He looked down at Green with something akin to pity. She glared back at him with hatred.

He returned to Black, and picked up the Emerald earpiece that had spilled from his hand. The oval Emerald was attached to a soft golden hook, which was shaped for a person's right ear. He pocketed it for future examination.

Himlin then touched his current earpiece communicator. "Targets nullified. Awaiting support for removal."

"Origin confirmed?" a female voice replied.

"Target 1: Traveler, foreign timekeeping. Target 2: Native, Prime Target." Himlin pulled Black's hood back to confirm as he spoke.

"Arriving in four." the man from before confirmed.

"Scout, are you certain he's Prime Target?" the woman on the earpiece asked.

"Yes, Longshot. Full visual, voice match, Terminology match." He pulled up the man's sleeve, finding a tattoo of a black snake surrounding a spherical planet. "Chaos mark confirmed."

"Geez, Scout. I know we're on a mission, but if you could speak any less monotonously, that'd be great." Another voice, very young and feminine, spoke through the earpiece.

"You know him, Medic. It can't be helped." The woman called Longshot replied.

As the two continued to banter over the communicator, Himlin renewed the paralysis on both of his targets each gow, slightly overlapping the effects to make sure neither could move. Between doses, he leaned against the back of Gymlek's shop with his green scarf pulled up to cover half of his face. His sharp eyes only left each target as he reset the paralysis. After eight repeats of the process, a burly man in heavy orange armor came around the corner.

"You're late, Tank." Himlin said tonelessly.

"There were too many people in the street. I think I bulldozed a few people on the way here." The man huffed.

"Don't take your time. They're almost back. Black first." Himlin pointed to the man in the black cloak.

"You've kept them like this for five minutes? Woah."

"Seven gow."

"Yeah, yeah." Tank grumbled. He tied the man's hands behind his back and took his weapons: a crossbow and a couple daggers.

The paralysis wore off as Tank grabbed the daggers. Rather than struggle, he spoke an arcane word, poison resist. A split moment later, Green was on her feet. She shouted a slowing curse in the Old Language, and ran back into the main street with the bag of money in hand.

Both Himlin and Tank were caught in the spell, their movements slowed with a heavy imaginary weight. Himlin knew it was imaginary, this force weighing down on all of his limbs, but he could not shake it. Tank slowly raised a hand to his communicator. His speech was slow and echoed to Himlin, who heard him in person and through the communicator. "Target one escaped. Target two restrained."

"I saw that," Longshot replied, "Hit you with a slowing debuff?"

"Yes."

"Stand by. Medic in one."

As soon as he received that message, the man in black dispersed into mist. The misty form grinned and dodged strikes that Himlin and the tank made at him. He resolidified and sprinted into the forest, being lost from view in a moment.

Perhaps half a gow later, a short girl in mottled green robes emerged from the forest. As soon as she had visual on Himlin and the tank, she spoke a few arcane words. Himlin felt the force dissipate as quickly as it had appeared.

Himlin nodded his thanks, while the tank said it rambunctiously.

The young healer's eyes flitted to the collapsed ropes with a touch of pain. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder if we're the bad guys."

The tank and Himlin said nothing. And Himlin knew it was for different reasons.