Temple Palace

Chapter 1: Tracer

Trey jumped forward and smashed his fist into his opponents face. The guy fell down unconscious and several whores rushed forward in a cloud of frills to see if he was okay. Trey shifted backwards, blending into the pulsing crowd to get away from the onlookers. As he moved he took a deep breath in of the tavern smells of sweat, bad alcohol, and smoke. It was too much for his dizzy head to handle.

He shrugged on his jacket and left in the confusion. Outside the air was cooling off, the way it always did at night in Central City. Muggy hot during the day, and icy come evening.

He made his way through the streets, avoiding all the loose cobble-stones and potholes. This late at night there were only a few people brave enough to travel the streets, their heads down low. The city was quiet, but he had the suspicious feeling someone was following him. He'd been having that feeling a lot lately. 

He whipped his head to the side as he sense some one moving rapidly towards him. A shape jumped out of the shadows at him and his old dream started again, the one where someone chases him through the night, but this time the person talked.

"Wait—Trey don't run. It's me!" Tomas put his hands on his knees and panted. "God, I didn't mean to scare you. Didn't you hear me yell your name?" 

Trey shrugged at his older brother, and turned to keep walking. "I must have been lost in thought." They continued down the road towards the Base. Tremble Base was the military center for Matres. There, training of new recruits and experimental weapons testing took place. It was also Tomas and Trey's home. 

They walked up to the gate where the guard on duty instantly recognised them. He buzzed the order for the gates to open and the massive gears started pulling up the two tonne gate that separated the Base from the citizens. 

Trey was about to walk through when a black figure caught his eye. It had moved only slightly from the shadows a few blocks back—as if peering around a corner. 

"Hey, I'm gonna stay out a little later," he said, backing away and making sure not to look in the direction of the figure.

Tomas turned around surprised. "The Chief wont be happy if he finds out."

Their father was never happy when they stayed out too late. He encouraged them to go into taverns and practise their fighting skills, but he didn't like them being out after the guards stopped patrolling the streets. When everyone who dealt in risky business came out to play.

"Well," Trey said, "It's a good thing he's not gonna find out." He turned and continued on down the road. He hunched his shoulders in his jacket, weary of the cool breeze. A few seconds later the shape broke away from the wall and followed him.

He continued to pick up his speed but didn't turn to look around at all. He slowly followed the streets in a loop, coming closer to the tavern area he had just left. Drunken people littered the street just outside the building, huddling in the warmth and light of the doorway. As he approached, he recognised the man he had punched—and the guy recognised him also. 

"Hey! Get back here you little git!" The man pushed himself up off the ground and started to run angrily towards Trey. Obviously he felt recovered from his blackout.

Trey took off running with the man in pursuit. He tried to match his speed to the drunk man and staggered a few times, as if he'd been drinking harder than he really had. 

He could see an unlit alleyway was approaching. Trey swerved into it and then immediatly ducked into a shadowed doorway. He pressed himself back in the small crevice and slowed his breathing down. A few seconds later the man came around the corner and continued down and exited the other side.

Then a small figure dressed all in black entered the mouth of the alleyway. It looked around and realised the man had left out the other side. The figure sprinted towards the exit. Trey calculated it's speed and then when it was about to pass him he shoot out his arm and grabbed it. 

The figure tried to scream before it realised that Trey's hand was on its mouth and a knife was pressed at it's stomach. With surprise, Trey became aware of a very obvious fact.

The figure was a girl.

"Why were you following me?!" He demanded.

The girl didn't struggle or make any move to bite his hand like most people would. She stayed perfectly still and breathed in and out through her nose. Trey removed his hand from her mouth and shoved back her black hood. The girl was about his age, with very blonde hair that shimmered in the dim light. She winched as if in pain when his eyes scanned her appearance, committing it to memory. 

"I wasn't going to hurt you," she stated calmly.

"Then why were you following me?" He released her from his grasp and turned her so that her back was against the wall. His dagger moved to her neck. She met his eyes without seeming nervous at all.

"I just need to talk to you."

"Yeah right. Did my father send you? Is this a test?" He began to pat down her black clothes, looking for any knives. Everything she had on was black, from her cloak and jacket, to her boots and gloves.

"I think you'll find I don't have any weapons," she said.

"I think you'll find I don't trust anything you say." A minute later he stopped, empty handed. A small smirk reached her face for just a second. He glared and asked another question, "Why were you following me?" 

"As I told you before," she said, "I just need to talk to you."

"Right," he said. He pulled his knife away for a second, then put it back. While it had been off her neck she hadn't tried to break away at all. He removed it once again and sheathed it back in his boot.

"Why at night?" He asked backing away from her. "If you wanted to talk, why not approach me during the day?"

"My name is Tek." She stuck out her hand for him to grab. He put his hand in her small palm cautiously, "and you're Tracer."

"I prefer Trey." 

She nodded and took her hand away. "I know."

He led her back to the tavern district and slipped in the back door of a quiet run-down place. If they were going to talk he wanted there to be witnesses, in case she tried to attack him. They made their way through the smoky room to a small corner table. They had barely sat down when a busty ale girl arrived with two mugs. She gave Trey a particularly special smile.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" He asked after taking a small sip. Tek pushed her mug to the edge of the table with disgust. She stared curiously around the tavern, her eyes taking in everything. She kept her elbows neatly on the table, her posture perfect in the wobbly chair.

She looked up and held his gaze, until it was too much and he had to look away. He took another sip and pretended her blue eyes hadn't gotten to him. Something about them was so familiar, but he couldn't remember what.

"What do you know about the Realms?"

He looked up surprised. "That's what you brought me here for? So I could tell you a fairy tale?"

"No." She didn't look away from him and he was forced to move his gaze to the wall.

"A legend, a magical country. Beautiful, splendid. Of course no ones actually been there. It's said to be across the River Sea, but no one's ever survived the journey."

"What if I told you I crossed the River Sea?"

He imagined the River Sea in his head. The rush of water that was continuously rising and falling as it poured in from the poison ocean. The waves were so rough that a boat would capsize and be smashed into pieces in under five seconds. It was a favorite way of committing suicide. "Impossible. The waves kill in seconds. If you don't drown, you end up impaled on a salt crystal on the bottom of the river bed. Of course, both ways there's no way to retrieve your body."

"Well," she said, her eyes claiming his, "I crossed the River Sea. And so did you."