A Deadly Chase

Elia circled wide over Aberon, keeping an eye out, so to speak, for signs of trouble. She'd only recently returned from two years of training at New Vroengard, and this was her current...job...nothing interesting, not even a Ra'zac...wait...

Emerus, can you feel that? That mind, is shielded by spirits...

To be sure, she narrowed the focus of her awareness temporarily, and there was no doubt...a shade.

Renari tilted her head slightly to the side as she felt another consciousness brush against her own but kept walking through the crowded street. Renari's ears were mostly hidden by her hair, and her eyes were half-lidded to keep people from getting a good look at them, over her usual outfit Renari wears a green cloak. Keeping one eye on her environment Renari kept moving, looking over the stalls and paying for two pieces fruit before walking off while consuming one of said fruit.

No Elia, i totally can't feel that. he murmurs sarcastically. what shall we do?

Elia subtly directs Emerus to fly toward the shade. It knows we are here...we won't catch it by surprise...nor will we be able to direct it out of the city.

She casts out her mental net, connecting to minds throughout the city and broadcasting one warning. Run. There is a shade. Leave the city.

This doesn't have quite the intended effect, but the people DO begin leaving, albeit most in a blind panic...So Elia looks for her target and directs Emerus to get her close.

Renari curses quietly as half the city descends into panic, what concerned her more however was the dragon and rider flying over the city. Obviously the Rider had warned one or more people she was in the city, which irritated her as she hadn't planned on killing anybody while she was here. Now she had to deal with some self-righteous Dragon Rider in addition to the Dragon itself, this day had just gone from okay to terrible.

Opening her eyes fully Renari pulls her cloak off and pulls her bow from her back, an elven bow that she received as a gift before her studies in sorcery had been discovered. Pulling an arrow from the quiver she waited a moment for the dragon and rider to come into view. Notching the arrow, Renari looks the Rider directly in the eye for a moment, muttering a few words that would make the arrow explode on impact, aiming and finally releasing the arrow. She hadn't bothered aiming at the Rider, and instead aimed at the Dragon's underside. Renari didn't stick around long enough to see the results of her shot, instead turning and dashing into a side alley between two buildings and heading for one of the city gates as quickly as she could.

arrow incoming hold on
Emerus does a barrel roll to avoid the arrow and loses the shade briefly in the maneuver, once the barrel roll was over Emerus catches the glint of the bow the shade was holding.
it appears she's trying to flee the city. I believe once she makes it out she'll be lost to us forever.

"Brakka Alfrinna sharjalvi!" Elia incants, reaching out with magic to drastically slow the shade's movement, depending on her reaction, potentially to the point of stopping her completely.

Renari growls as she actively begins to fight against the spell, her sorcery working to reduce the effect as much as possible. Renari turned, drawing another arrow, notching it, working a bit more sorcery on the arrow before loosing it with a smirk. She waited until the Arrow was some distance from before turning and snapping her fingers, causing the arrow flash blindingly. Renari poured more of her focus into fighting the spell slowing her movement as she uses the flash of light to get out of sight of the Dragon and Rider, once more charging towards one of the city gates as quickly as she could.

Elia winces at the flash of light, but quickly recovers, landing Emerus in a wide street. "I'll go on foot from here, circle her and do what you can..."

Elia drops to the ground and takes off running after the Shade.

Renari, over powering the spell the Dragon Rider had placed on her, breaks into a sprint. Still heading for the gate Renari pulls a third arrow from her quiver, trying to decide what to do with it as she continues fleeing the Dragon and Rider.

Emerus shakes off the flash after letting Elia off and takes to the skies trying to circle around and keeping the shade in view, once airborne he would breath fire to try and direct the shade in certain paths helping Elia to catch up with the shade.

The fire blocks off path after path, carefully places to not burn the homes around the street, but allowing Elia time to catch up. As soon as the shade is in sight, she lashes out. "Letta ven medh rakr."

A heavy mist condenses from the air around Renari

Renari scoffs as the mist closes in using the mist as cover Renari adjusts her eye sight so that she can see 'life.' Finally deciding what to do with the arrow she'd drawn, Renari notches the arrow and draws the bow back, taking aim at the only sign of life besides the massive dragon in the area, releasing the arrow. As she released the Arrow accelerated rapidly beyond what was normal for even an elven bow, it was also surrounded by a spinning vortex of wind, a second arrow was rapidly fired at the dragon which would explode on contact, just like the first arrow she'd fired. Drawing a third arrow Renari once more starts running for the gates, what little remained of the dragon's fire from a moment ago was 'shoved' to the side. Renari broke into an all out sprint, using Sorcery to force her body to move much faster.

Elia reacts with the speed and reflexes of a rider, halting both arrows in midflight and dropping them to the ground with a muttered "Letta orya thorna" before giving chase once more.

Renari growls as she turns her head slightly to see the Rider still chasing her, a second later and a wall of extremely hot fire sprang up between herself and the Rider. Renari continued to pour on the speed, keeping an eye out for the Dragon, as it couldn't be too far. As she continued running Renari contemplated using something bigger to delay the Rider, a physical wall would be much more effective then the fire after all. There was precious little she could do to the Dragon directly with the Rider still chasing her though.

Elia gives chase on foot, shouting out to the Shade. "You cannot run forever, Shade!" as she mutters a spell, not to stop the flames, but rather to protect her for the split second in which she passed through them.

Renari's frown deepens, This is getting ridiculous... The Shade stops suddenly, turning to face Elia, tilting her head to the side slightly to purposely expose one of her ears and perhaps throw the Rider off for a moment as Renari used a bit of sorcery in an attempt to freeze the Rider's mouth shut while also locking her body in place. "Did it perhaps occur to you, that I am not here to cause trouble? No, of course it did not, you, in your self-righteousness would attempt to destroy me for merely existing. What kind of Being though would not fight, or even run, to continue to exist?" Renari had put away her bow while she was talking, drawing a pair of short swords in its place, preparing to engage the Rider in melee combat as Renari puts up a ward to provide some general safety against magic, it would buy her enough time to counter at the very least.

Elia feels the spell taking hold, and quickly thinks a counterspell. The spell breaks, and Elia's voice rises in volume as she responds. "Do not talk to me of morality and innocence while you possess and enslave an elf, shade!"

With a muttered spell, Elia raises several protective wards around herself as she draws a long, green rider sword and advances toward Renari quickly.

Renari smirks crookedly as she circles the she-elf, "Who says she didn't invite me in, little Rider." Flipping the sword in her left hand to a reverse grip Renari waited until the Rider had gotten closer before unleashing a blast of force with a roar to knock her backwards as she prepared to defend herself.

Elia does not rise to the retort, seeing no point in debating any further with the shade. Instead, as the magic dissipates around her wards, draining her energy for a brief time, she ducks low and slashes horizontally with her blade.

Renari frowned as she extended her left hand blade downwards to parry the Rider's strike while lashing out with her right hand blade in a counter, attempting to stab the Rider in the head. At the last second Renari worked a bit of sorcery to weaken the Rider's wards, so perhaps she'd be able to get a hit in before she was forced to start running again.

Elia moves her head sideways, avoiding the stab, and uses a single muttered word to knock the extended sword sideways away from her, then draws back her own blade suddenly and delivers a quick thrust to the stomach.

Renari's left hand blade pushed the Rider's blade to the side as she twisted out of the way, her footing shifting to maintain her balance. The Shade's right hand blade swung around to slash the Rider across the chest, most of Renari's attention being the Rider she was only keeping a partial eye out for interference from the Dragon half of the team she was fighting.