Things were a lot more expensive than Jethro assumed. Potions were cheaper because the Holy Knights found a new source for raw materials and placed a camp there. But everything else was harder to get. Depending on what type of person you were, how you paid for things would differ. A Knight like Jethro would lean more on credit whereas the common man had to deal with the local currency. Credit meant that you couldn't buy anything outside of verified areas and for a long time, Jethro suffered as a medic because of it. But over time, he built a different type of currency among the locals and was able to get one or two things from the black market. And because he was good at what he did, nobody seemed to care. Black market was for all the potions he didn't feel like getting with credit. He didn't mind if he was robbed when trying to purchase food.
He fixed his collar as he stared at the world outside of his carriage. There was a starving beggar chasing after them, hoping to grab a bite. There were many people Jethro was ready to pity. Beggars were certainly not one of them, especially not the ones that hang around the market. If someone wanted something to eat, they had to do something about it, even if it meant stealing, Jethro surmised. If it was a beggar that couldn't move, he would often try to help them just enough to be healthy. But his food was not something he would share. At best, water was more than enough. Jethro ignored him just as he had always done. Looking up ahead, he could see the smoke of war coming from the War Zones, designated regions that only permitted knights would reside in. There was reason to suspect that the border to the east would give way to the Koldis Kingdom, the land of the bone fairies. Despite doing their best to get rid of them, those creatures never seemed to give up. They held a grudge against Cathogary; against the men that supposedly ruined their kingdom during the golden era and against the fairies that submitted to the men despite being born of dragons.
The pride of fairies never dies, Jethro noted in his notebook. As he approached his hospital, he felt the winds shift ever so slightly. Though he had not seen war for years, he understood clearly when he was being spied on. He fished out his communication totem and sent a simple message to Eva to lock the hospital with a special seal. The seal formed against the building in an instant and Jethro stopped the carriage, walking out and thanking the driver. The driver gave a little nod and Jethro gave instructions for the luggage to be summoned inside the hospital. It might have been easier to summon them from where he came from but distance tends to fluctuate with mana cost and accuracy. Without the right balance, you could easily send precious cargo into a limbo where no warlock could obtain it. The royals claimed to have a way to do it without fail but Jethro wasn't going to accept the credit necessary to engage that system. The carriage was convenient and short summons did the job just fine.
The seal didn't prevent his luggage seeing as it had the signature of his mana cost. The driver got his pay and drove the way back peacefully as Jethro had surmised. There was no need for casualties. He was the true target. On his person was a coat that held a couple of new test tubes, small potion beakers and three surgical knives. The person observing him was still somewhere there, hiding in the trees that gave a natural camouflage to the hospital building. Jethro vehemently refused to have guards at his beck and call, seeing them to be extra weight that needed more money coming out of his pocket. So for all intents and purposes, this was a one-to-one. An arrow was shot from the darkness of the woods and Jethro barely ducked, the arrow licking his ear. Blood trickled down his face but he thought against wasting mana cost on healing. He took a deep breath and ran towards the direction he believed the arrow came from. Another arrow was shot and Jethro used his mana cost to summon it away. He then took a beaker, aimed it at one of the trees and chucked it with all his might. An arrow expertly cracked it in mid-air and mist filled the area. Jethro felt a sharp pain across his shoulder. His left arm felt numb. The arrows were poisoned. He could not afford to heal himself. He rummaged around his coat for a MP potion and found there were only three. He took a swig out of one of them, his throat fighting the nasty after-taste and he calmly waited for the effects. Three more arrows were sent in his general direction. It seemed the attacker wasn't going to wait for the mist to dissipate. But it also meant that the attacker couldn't dispel the attack in the first place.
Meaning they had no access to Light Magic. Would that mean they weren't human? That wouldn't make a lot of sense. He had non-human enemies, yes, but none who would find their way here without being caught by strict security protocols. The enemy wasn't using any magical arrows so maybe they weren't a magical user in the first place. As he remained distracted, an arrow hit his right shoulder, causing him to groan. His location was now known. He had to run. He created distance with the attacker this time to give himself time to think, running towards the hospital. If he kept getting hit with poisoned arrows, then he had to be on familiar ground. He had already given up on the notion that the fight would be quick. Several arrows were shot, each barely missing him. He quickly stopped for a moment and decided to brave one attack. Confident that the attacker would be forced to follow him, Jethro stood at the centre of the road, clearly placing himself as a target. The attacker would probably be too distracted to see the trap Jethro would set. An arrow was shot and Jethro formed a seal.
"Summoning: Redirected Healing."
The arrow entered the seal and swam right out in the opposite direction and struck the attacker, letting out a cry. Jethro learnt a few things from this. One, that the attacker was a woman. Since the arrow was now used as a healing tool, it meant he could use passive summoning as long as he wasn't too far. He took the risk of running close to the attacker just enough to summon the arrow. He was successful and nearly had an arrow to the face before he jumped away in time. Healing often revealed the type of mana one had from the platelets that would be involved in blood clotting. That meant that two, this one was very clearly lightning. Putting both of those two facts together with the fact that one person is most likely to view him as an enemy and has access to being in the kingdom without scrutiny…Three, the attacker was none other than the emissary he fought the other day. Likely, she was demoted after her actions were deemed as unnecessary hostility and now she wanted to kill him. Redirected Healing was about five to ten minutes of mana cost so Jethro had to lay low before he could return. He took his second MP potion and cursed at the fact that something so precious was being wasted on him.
"I know who you are and why you want to kill me. We can resolve this some other way," he called out into the void, hoping she would respond. He was met with silence. He cursed, took a deep breath, and tried again. "You didn't lose your job because of me. You lost your job because you decided to be impulsive. Nobody likes that. You taking it out on me is ridiculous."
"I don't need you preaching to me about the ethics of my job, Jethro."
She still had her job, Jethro noted. So more than likely she was demoted to the level of bounty hunter. It was a brutal rank, with nobles demanding anything under the sun for demoted emissaries to do at nearly half their original cost. She had more than enough reasons to feel cheated. But…
"You had a choice. You chose to attack me even if you knew you had no reason to."
"Did you suddenly forget that you committed treason?"
Yes, keep her talking.
"I explained my situation. You didn't want that. You wanted a fight. You wanted to prove you could do what you wanted to a knight like me because you held a powerful rank, correct?"
Silence.
"You're goading me into an argument. I don't have time for that. You can make this quick or I can do this the hard way. Either way, I'm getting out of here with your head in a sack."
"No, you're not," Jethro said confidently. "I have a dream, a goal I have to accomplish, and I don't care if people like you get sacrificed in the process. I will accomplish it. So we can talk right now or I can find-"
An arrow was shot near where he was. Her decision was made. Jethro felt his limbs return to form. If she could not be reasoned with, then he had to return to the hospital for more supplies. Out here, he was going to be helpless soon. It wouldn't be long until his mana cost returned so he might as well start. His race was methodical. He had been trained to run across a field of cannon fire during his first few years. Arrows were a lot smaller but the concept was the same. Keep the attacker disoriented and ensure they never have a clear line of fire. It didn't matter if the road to safety was short. Make it longer and survive. Keep obstacles in their way and keep the movement random. And when random became predictable, switch gears and hide. He made it about halfway before his leg was shot and he hid. He yanked the arrow out and kept running. His speed was slower and an arrow punished him for it. He was hiding again and forced to chug one final potion before getting back. Only a fifth of the journey remained. Another arrow to his left arm. She was getting annoying at this point. He limped towards the entrance and summoned a communication seal to ask to be let in. The seal was taken off and the third arrow in a row hit him, slowing him down even further. She was now in plain sight.
"Last time, you used my mana against me with that annoying blade of yours. How does it feel to be at death's door, Jethro?"
The doors opened and Jethro limped to the reception.
"Oh no, you don't."
In a blur, she blitzed past the space between them and caught Jethro, pinning him to the wall right before the doors to the reception. Eva was on the other side, ready to attack when the bounty hunter forged a lightning blade and placed it on Jethro's throat.
"I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you."
Eva smiled.
"He's already in the hospital, bounty hunter. You've lost the advantage you had."
Jethro formed a weak seal on his arm and Eva boosted it with power, threatening her to her mortal limits.
"Summon: Stupor."
The bounty hunter's eyes widened as she found herself outside the hospital. Eva quickly replaced the seal. The bounty hunter charged and constantly found herself getting back to her original position. She tried to attack with her arrow but found that even that got reversed and she would always be in her starting position. Once the seal fully formed, she shot an arrow right as Eva's mana drained but the arrow dissolved in the seal. The bounty hunter forged a blade to cut through the seal but Jethro fished out one of his blades and showed it to the bounty hunter. It wasn't Wood Chipper but she didn't need to know that. With just a little bit of mana cost broken down from his fingers, he could sell the idea of the blade. The bounty hunter stood down and decided to camp near the hospital.
Eva rushed to Jethro's office and came back with an MP potion. Since Jethro couldn't use his fingers, she forced it down his throat. He vowed to never have an MP potion for at least one year. That disgusting taste would probably ruin his palette for the entire week. He limped to his office and fell to the couch near the door and slept for a little while. Right before he lost consciousness, he saw a communication seal form.
"Fine. You're right. I'm not going to try to kill you again. For all I know, things could be worse than they are now. And you seem to have friends in high places anyway. I have a problem. If you trust me by the time you wake up, I'll tell you all about it. You're the only one that can help."
Jethro ignored her message for now. He could always deal with it later.
*************************
"Killing people before getting them to join your campaign is pretty unique, I must say," Jethro said, drinking a cup of tea.
"I get it! I get it! Alright! Killing you was a bad idea. Could you stop lording it over me already? What matters is why I wanted to kill you."
"So if I know why you wanted to kill me, then I should be on board with what you want? Is that it?"
"Look, you don't have to agree. But whatever mission I have with me…it could end the campaign in the East to take over the regions of the War Zones here."
Jethro's ears perked up. She had his attention.
"Go on."
"We don't have the support of the wood elves right now."
"Nor would we need it."
"You know how to be a fighter, Jethro. Every strategist in the War Room knows that the only way to secure this side of the war is to be on the wood elves' good side, even if temporarily. We can pick a fight with them some other day."
"Whatever. I don't care about them. But if they can fix this mess, then your plan has to be solid to hook me in."
"My intel suggests…look could you please stop slurping your tea?"
"It's a habit. If you'd rather go about your mission alone, that's fine by me."
"My intel suggests that there's a young elf, half human, who can't sing the ancient song of the tribes."
"That doesn't sound like our problem."
"But it does sound like a problem we can fix. We only need to get to the Ancient Baobab and from there, he can get his voice back."
"And where would that be?"
"The Land of the Spirits."
Jethro spurted out his tea, recalling a conversation he had with someone earlier. His mind was suddenly rushing with information he couldn't understand or place. He slowly found his bearings and gave his attention back to the call.
"So you want us to leave immediately?"
"You have a week to decide. I don't mind doing this alone but I know I'm going to need a medic for this one. And as much as I don't like you, I don't like being with wood elves that I trust even less."
"You will have your answer in a week. Now, get out of my premises. You'll scare away my customers."
And with a whoosh, the call ended and the bounty hunter was gone.