Sapphire:Sessions:20181006
Neville, Alastor, Chalker, and Shawna return to Sapphire a few hours past sundown. Alastor goes to Genly Torrez' office, where he finds some information about the Apothecary Conspiracy. Torrez had had a 20 minute meeting with Caleb Bond the week before, and had made a note: "Research this guy."
Chalker and Shawna go to a guard station and instruct the guards to take Torrez into custody and interrogate him for collaborating with PDG. They proceed to the mercenary guild, where the guild master shows them papers "proving" he vetted their employer, Tate Patel. Chalker tells him he'd been 'touched'; Shawna says the guild master needs to hire someone to check for such influences, and Chalker suggests Relinda.
On his way home, Neville sees a bright green flare. Investigating, he finds Ahn-Lee crouched beside an unconscious woman, checking her wounds. Picking the woman up over his shoulders, Ahn-Lee remarks, "You're a few minutes late, Neville." "I've made my quota." "Everything was going so well... It's been an odd night."
Jeeves opens the front door of Envoy Manor just as Ahn-Lee reaches it. Ahn-Lee calls for his favorite healer, Patrick, who examines the woman and begins treating her injuries. The woman wakes up suddenly and tries to reach for her knife. Ahn-Lee: "I thought you were better." Woman: "I am!" "Why are you there and I'm here?" "We almost got him. I was fighting four men, took down three of them, then that mage did something and the fourth man knocked me out." "He sent out a force wave, then some big green light, then said 'I don't have time' and teleported away." The woman looks up at Neville and introduces herself as Kimtri.
Neville writes in his new journey book: Ahn-Lee has a girlfriend. She's bleeding in the Manor." Chalker writes back: Were you followed? Neville: Ahn-Lee didn't say anything.
Approaching Envoy Manor, Chalker and Shawna note at least four groups of watchers: Two priests of Asseraah, one of the older Copper Kids, a group from the Greater Bicarn embassy, and another group hired by some merchants. Fed up, Shawna angrily orders the priests back to their temple with a warning to stop spying on Chalker and his associates.
Chalker checks Kimtri's aura and tells her there are no magic effects on her. Kimtri: "There were eight bodyguards and a mage protecting the mark, Daniel Ward." Chalker: "Why aren't you dead?" Kimtri: "I don't know."
Ahn-Lee: "The mage was going to stab me with a wand, so I took his stuff." He'd had six pouches distributed symmetrically at his waist, and Ahn-Lee grabbed the three from the left. He displays the objects: a crystal orb ("golfball") about 2" in diameter, a whirling top, and seven manastones and a piece of blue glass shaped like a pecan.
Ahn-Lee realizes he has two sets of memories: One where the job went easily and concluded successfully, and the other where he confronted the mage in front of the door to the Green Lantern Tavern. The mage spun his staff, generating a green light, and said, "Weary traveller, are you ready to die?" Ahn-Lee stabbed the mage in the chest; the mage pounded his staff on the ground, repeated "I don't have time," and vanished.
Alastor recognizes the name Daniel Ward; "Jules' boss, Tiny Small, did business with him." Ahn-Lee: "Tiny Small was killed by the Assassins Guild... but... that contract was cancelled." Trying to resolve the discontinuity in his memories is giving Ahn-Lee a headache.
Kimtri speaks up, "The contract was for... Aumli, Gamwis Aumli, a minor mage in the Mage Guild..." Chalker: "That wasn't the right name, was it?" Kimtri: "I can't focus. I gave the wrong name." She describes the mage as young, attractive, average height, blue eyes and brown hair. Ahn-Lee draws the symbols he saw on the mage's staff and wand. Shawna points out that one of the symbols is a rune related to time magic.
Shawna casts Seeker on the pecan and gets a location -- a small tavern in Sapphire, a year and two months ago. The pecan pulses and the golfball spins 1/4 turn. Neville: "Maybe he went back there to hide." Ahn-Lee: "Fourteen months ago was about the time the Tiny Smalls contract was taken out." Chalker observes, "Janus is the Second Chosen of Time, but he's not active now."
Neville picks up the pecan and studies it. Within he sees reflections of the small house he rented soon after he came to Sapphire. "That didn't happen," he thinks. The pecan heats up and the golfball moves slightly. Neville turns the golfball back the other way but nothing happens. Upset, Neville storms out to go check on his house.