Caedes has to fight with the beast just a little to keep it off of the track; it tosses its head, curling its momentum back towards the racetrack in a trained attempt to follow the crowd; but ultimately, it caves to the demands of its rider. Caedes listens to its breath as it snorts and chuffs with the exertion of the run; but gradually, the sound of thundering hooves, loading crossbows, and squabbling is left far behind as the displacer stallion thunders off.

Eventually, all which is left is the silence of the plains.

Golden blades whip across Caedes’ covered legs as the groomed racetrack transitions into the untouched and natural floras spanning King’s Valley; luckily, the riders’ uniform gives them some degree of buffer from needing to endure every off-collision with rogue thickets that the displacer stallion rushes through. The changeling gathers the reins in their hands as they look over their shoulder to ensure —

— almost immediately, Caedes’ gaze tilts up into the sky, catching the exact moment that the silhouetted form of the drake rider’s mount begins their rapid descent… not after the pack, but directly after them. Their heart might have dropped had it still been beating. “Oh, son of a bitch— you’ve got to be kidding me.” They mutter to no one in particular; they turn and press their heels into the stallion’s side, coercing it to move its legs just a little faster.

Caedes pulls the stallion’s reins in an attempt to create an abnormal pattern with which to throw off their pursuers; but with King’s Valley being so open, and the drake being so fast— it’s almost completely pointless to do so. Another quick glance over their shoulder proves that any attempt to shake them off is fruitless; they’re quickly gaining, despite the huffing and chuffing of the displacer stallion— now running at a blind speed that Caedes knows it won’t be able to keep up for long.

Zarius? Can you hear me?

When there’s no response, Caedes knows the charge hasn’t returned; they grit their teeth. It’s probably a pointless endeavor given Zarius’ distance from the blind spot anyways— what’s he going to do to help when he’s not even here? “Shit,” he starts running through a mental list of possibilities and excuses for when the rider ultimately catches up; he casts one last glance over his shoulder before—

Oh? What the hell is…

Oh.

“Zarius, you beautiful bastard.” Caedes snickers to themselves when they realize they recognize the form of a little ashen cotton ball, which scutters across the leather harness at the front of the drake's chest; they stand corrected, apparently Zarius can do quite a bit even when he’s not here. They take the distraction gratefully, pulling the horse towards an outcropping they can see on the horizon— an absolute miracle of a location on these damn open plains, given the changeling doesn’t have much to work with against an entire draconic beast out here.

If it was just the rider, things might be different... but the drake and its rider seem to be working as one.

They can feel the heaving of the horse’s sides against their boots; its mad sprint through the plains beginning to slow into an exhausted, long-striding canter after draining its endurance— but Caedes doesn’t try to push it any faster as it crests over the next hill and pushes towards the landforms in the distance, where the changeling will guide the horse behind one of the largest boulders to attempt breaking the rider's line of sight.

Caedes just manages to get the displacer stallion behind the rocks as the large storm drake crests the hill. The drake swoops up onto the top of the boulders, landing as its talons scrape across the stone surface. Its nostrils flare and there’s a scent of ozone on its breath as it looks around for the missing displacer stallion.

The rider stands up on its back to get a better vantage point. “The fuck is this shit. If you can hear me you better be ready for me to kick your fucking ass you bastard!” They needed to get back on the course asap. Every second counted.

Urging the drake forward, it jumps down from the top of the boulder and lands with a thud in the grass. As it does the displacer horse, riderless, takes off across the hills again, its gait much slower but blinking in and out of existence all the way to get away from the drake.

"Shit!" The dark elf slides off the drake's back. "Go get it, girl." She pats its neck and it takes back off into the sky and starts pursuing the horse on its own, though has a hard time cornering out in the open.

Once her drake is off, the dark elf looks around the immediate area at the base of the rocks. Didn't seem like she was willing to let her fellow rider off without answers.

"Come out! You better have a good explanation for this shit!" She stalks around, pissed right off and with one hand on her bladed whip.

Meanwhile, Zarius pushes his stolen mount as fast as it can possibly go. But given this horse isn't a championship racing steed, he's not nearly as fast as the pack had been. He looks ahead and just spots the remaining racers reappearing on the other side of the hill. No sight of the displacer stallion or the drake rider. Shit. He digs his heels into the side of the horse and pushes it to catch up as quickly as possible. 

“Really…” A voice sighs, a sarcastic edge to it; and if the dark elf were to turn, she would find the rider she’s searching for perched on one of the smaller rocks beneath the shade. The flats of their boots push into the stone, keeping their knees lifted towards their chest at subtly different heights; but if she were to look closer, she might notice a few things which appear off about them.

Beneath the elongated shadows of the outcrop cast across the planes, the rider’s form seems heavier at a first glance; shadows writhe at their outline as though welcoming an old friend back into their embrace; their voice echoes, the movement of their mouth never quite aligned with their voice; and a glint of red shimmers behind their hazel eyes as they gaze at the drake rider with an expression best described as exasperated. ^{(1. Shadow Clone)}

“I applaud your persistence; you’re very committed to…” The rider waves a hand in an idle gesture, as if searching for the right word, “…whatever it is you’re doing… But it is just a bit annoying in this case… For me, anyways. A job is a job, y’know? No hard feelings; really, you play a very nice performance; very ferocious riding, like you and your drake are one being. It's very impressive, and all that.”

The rider leans back, crossing one leg over their knee while they watch the Drake Rider; for all of the threats she’s been throwing around, they’re almost obnoxiously relaxed about this entire situation. “I’d say, y’know— the win’s all yours! Go for it!” They pitch their voice higher in exclamation, before allowing its tone to fall again. “By all means, I have no intention of heading back to the racetrack; so hey, you want the win? I won't tell if you won't; but the fact that you trailed me all the way out here off the track doesn’t seem much like winning behavior… What’s your deal with that horse, anyways?”

The dark elf stops in her tracks and stares. Her expression goes from one of anger, to confusion, and then back to just plain pissed off. Seems she's at least put the pieces together that who she was speaking to was some sort of imposter, although her anger overrides any sense of danger she should be feeling from being faced with someone who easily outclasses her in every way. 

"You fucking asshole! You've screwed me over! That horse is supposed to win!"

She draws her bladed whip and snaps it forward at Caedes as she reaches down to her boots and draws a hunting knife, dual wielding the weapons with some level of competence.^[1]

The drake is too busy trying to snatch the displacer stallion to notice that their rider has engaged in a fight with some unexpected foe. The horse keeps giving the drake the slip, though its exhaustion is starting to wear down on its ability to blink further distances. 

Thundering across the grassland is Zarius on his stolen steed. He passes the remaining races as they head to the finish line, looking a bit confused as to what happened to the drake and the displacer stallion as well as thrown off by someone riding out in the opposite direction from them. The fellblood pays them no mind and starts to get into the hillier area where the blind spot is.

---

[1] Bladed Whip; Fighting Knives (Shael - Blade: Novice)

There is no attempt to dodge, move, or otherwise avoid the dark elf’s whip; the rider takes the hit. Her bladed whip cuts through the illusion smoothly, splitting their projection into thrashing tendrils of shadow and smoke. ^{(1. Shadow Clone: Destroyed)} As the darkness collapses in on itself, the thick shadows sloughing from the rock the rider had been sitting on with the consistency of falling water, a soft and exasperated laugh sounds from behind the Drake Rider.

She’s going to need to figure this out before that drake figures out what’s going on— without the horse, the cover of the shadows, and with this rider and her draconic beast on her ass, it’s going to be hard to get back to the starting line to meet up with Zarius.

She tries not to think about that for now.

The shadows fall off of Mei’s silhouette as she steps from the darkest shade beneath the boulder. They cling to her outline like the fragile tendrils of a spider’s web and break like sinew, snapping and collapsing in thin strands off of her person. “Look, I’m not trying to start a fight, kid.” There’s a hint of impatience to the woman’s tone despite her lopsided smile— her voice is unique, no longer a bastardized replication of the rider who she’d been impersonating.

“Like I said, it’s really nothing personal; but if you want a fight so badly, I can give you one.”

Beneath the drake rider’s feet, the shadows start to ripple and thrash; a serpentine form rises from the smoke and shadow, dark droplets falling from its silhouette like drops of rain; it lunges at her, splitting apart like the petals of a lily, in an attempt to bind her legs where she stands. ^{(2. Shadow Binding)}

Regardless of the success of the shadows at play, Mei spins the hilt of her dagger from its holster on her belt; she clasps the jeweled haft in her palm and rushes the dark elf.

The dark elf's anger once again is replaced with a look of confusion as the clone is destroyed. She glances around, her guard raised, anticipating something to happen. 

Her eyes lock onto Mei as she steps out of the shadows. Her eyes narrow as she tries to parse out what exactly is going on and what she's up against. She can at least tell that this woman uses some sort of shadow magic, so staying out of the shadows is likely the best call here. 

"Oh, yeah? Well, you sure as hell have done a bang up job of avoiding a fight," she hisses. 

The young elf takes one step back, increasing the distance between herself and shadows the rock cast onto the grassy field. Thankfully the sun is still pretty high in the sky, limiting the shadow's reach. She widens and braces her stance rather than backing away in retreat.

Despite her logical train of thinking, she doesn't consider the shadows she casts herself. Perhaps it was her own inexperience having never faced someone with Mei's skillset, or it was just an oversight in the midst of combat.

The shadows wrap around her legs and prevent her from moving. The surprise does make her nearly lose her balance as she tries to pull away but then she sees Mei rush towards her. She draws the whip back and makes another snap at Mei's face, hoping to make her flinch from at least the glint of the incoming bladed lash as she raises up her fighting knife in a defensive stance. 

While the pair engage in combat, Zarius keeps pressing the horse forward and manages to make it to the blind spot. Once there, he looks around, unable to immediately tell which way Caedes would have gone since the trail the displacer stallion left through the tall grass wasn't exactly consistent. He starts heading up the crest of a hill off the race track to try and get a better vantage point. 

He tugs on the hood and connects to Caedes mentally, a bit of concern comes through in his mental message. 

Caedes, are you okay? What has happened with the displacer horse and the drake rider?

---

[1] Red Rogue Hood

The crack of a whip redirects her advancement; Mei pulls to the side sharply, but not sharply enough. The redirection sinks the bladed whip across one of her shoulders. It snags the fabric of her uniform, biting into her skin as it cuts through upon being pulled back. The grass beneath Mei’s feet is slick, causing her to slide; and she lowers herself to the ground to stop the sideways momentum by digging her fingers into the earth.

No blood seeps from the wound left behind, but Mei feels the pain very clearly; and the long sleeve of her rider’s uniform drapes as it hangs onto her arm by only a portion of what it had before. “I'm not the one that started throwing around a whip.” she mocks; but with the sun rising high in the sky, and the overcast weather beginning to clear…

She’s really at a disadvantage here; it truly is a shame she just can’t keep her mouth shut to stop exacerbating the situation.

The woman pulls back in a slight retreat just as Zarius’ voice comes through their mental connection; in the moment, it’s unexpected, causing Mei to tense.

Zarius? ^{(1. Red Rogue Hood)}

Her voice is different; mentally, it answers back in the same voice that Zarius would be familiar with as Mei’s; rather than the rider’s mimicked tone, or Caedes’ own. There’s an edge to it that’s harder to read; exhaustion, or exasperation; maybe. Her answer comes staggered, as if the mental connection is not the only thing she’s focusing on —

— and it’s not.

Without missing a beat, Mei’s shadowed person flickers out from existence— shadows consume her figure and cause her physical form to fall into an incorporeal void of swathing shadows and writhing tendrils. ^{(2. Shadow Walk)} She reappears diagonally from the rider, in a shallow shadow cast by one of the opposite boulders surrounding the outcropping, in an attempt to catch her offguard.

The drake rider followed me off-course; she was too damn fast, I had to get off at an outcrop, but the horse took off into the plains.

As she rises and the shadows fall away, Mei switches her dagger between hands; she grabs its bejeweled hilt in her left palm, ignoring the sting of injured muscles flexing with the motion; and grabs the narrow end of a throwing knife between her fingers from their hidden location beneath her belt. By the time she’s standing, she flings her uninjured arm forwards; sending a throwing knife zipping towards the elf’s arm— the one holding the whip— in hopes of incapacitating it to make the fight of range less one sided.

She’s pissed about it. The drake’s distracted for now; but it’s only a matter of time before it figures out what’s happening here.

Shit. Zarius breathes as he receives Mei's response. He needed to get the changeling out of there immediately, but even as he crests the hill he's still a fair ways from the rocky outcropping.

A glint of silver on the horizon in hot pursuit of a disappearing and reappearing black dot reveals that the drake has yet to give up its chase on the displacer horse. The fellblood drives the stolen mount which is frothing at the mouth and drenched in sweat to race towards the rocky outcropping. 

The drake rider pulls at her legs in a futile attempt to free herself as Mei retreats back to the shadows. 

"You bitch, you should have kept your business out of mine!" She shouts back out of frustration at the changeling. 

A moment of anxiety overwhelms her as Mei's form dissolves before her eyes. 

"Shit. Shit. Shit!"

She tries desperately to slash at the shadows binding her legs with her long fighting knife just as the thrown blade sinks into her other arm. She shouts in pain and makes a blind swing backwards with the lash.

Fortunately for Mei, her range of motion is greatly hindered by her inability to turn around fully and from the paint shooting up her arm from the knife imbedded in it. A blot of red seeps through the fabric of her shirt as the wound weeps fresh blood.

The dark elf glares back at Mei and places two fingers in the corner of her mouth while keeping a hold on the hilt of her fighting knife. She lets out a sharp piercing whistle which rings out across the plains. 

Zarius perks up to the sound, but he's not the only one. He glances off to where he last saw glimmers of the silver scaled drake and notes that it is no longer following after the shrinking black dot of the stallion. Instead, it is rushing back towards the outcropping. 

She hits her target, but not without consequence; Mei pulls back, narrowly missing the blades of the whip when the elf lashes back at her. The changeling grits her teeth, stepping back towards the base of the boulder and meeting the dark elf’s furious glare with narrowed eyes.

She watches as the dark elf lifts her hand.

The sharp, piercing whistle which follows sends a cold chill throughout her body; a wave of anxiety claws at her chest and tightens her throat. She looks quickly over her shoulder towards where the drake had last been; even without seeing the massive beast hurtling back towards its master, she knows exactly who the rider is calling.

... and her mental connection with Zarius has already been tapped.

Shit.

“You couldn’t just keep this between us, could you?” She hisses at the dark elf; Mei pockets her dagger— notably, fumbling her first attempt— through the anxiety that comes with a massive draconic behemoth approaching the outcrop at top speed.

Given the way the drake bends willingly to the drake rider without argument, they clearly have some kind of bond.

… And it’s going to be pissed.

A familiar sight by now to the dark elf, and a signal of her disappearance to follow, the shadows begin to lap at Mei’s silhouette; thrashing tendrils pulling the scowling woman into the darkness at the base of the boulder; and out of visibility of the dark elf and the drake. ^{(1. Dark Form)} She knows her limits; and like hell she’s about to pick a fight with a draconic beast of that size.

She can be recklessly confident, but she likes to think that she’s not that stupid; she’s not about to die today before she can finish this god damn mission and return to Zarius.

The sound of thundering hooves approach before the sound of heavy wingbeats. The seemingly riderless horse wheels around the boulder and nearly takes out the immobile dark elf in its charge. 

"Fuck!" The dark elf pulls back sharply, finally tearing her legs free of the weakened shadows and landing on her ass in the tall grass. 

Zarius pulls the horse to a sharp stop and looks down at the injured and frustrated drake rider before glancing around for Mei. He keeps his own invisibility up which only makes the horse's sudden appearance all the stranger.^[1]

Not immediately seeing Mei and having no other way to communicate silently, Zarius shouts out. "We have to go."

The dark elf just stares at the panting, sweat dripping horse with the most incredulous look on her face. "THE FUCK?! YOU HAVE A TALKING HORSE?!"

She pushes herself back up onto her feet and clutches the end of the throwing knife before pulling it out. She winces and glowers at the seemingly sentient horse.

"Fuck you and your fucking talking horse, you aren't getting away that easy!"

She whips the knife at the hind leg of the horse, a clumsy throw from someone definitely not trained in throwing projectiles as Caedes is, but the horse is so tired that it's an easy target. It neighs shrilly in pain and bucks, throwing Zarius off. He manages to land safely, but the horse is now even more useless as a quick get away option.^[2]

"For the love of-" Zarius sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

The fellblood turns on the drake rider, walking up to her.

"We need her to call off the drake," he calls to Mei who he assumes is still in the area. 

Her eyes catch the parting of grass and she backs away quickly.

---

[1] Invisibility
[2] Cats Grace

“What the hell?” Mei’s voice is quiet and restrained; it’s barely an audible murmur from between her lips; but when she sees a horse barrel around the corner without a rider, she is understandably caught off guard by it. One of the stray horses from the race, maybe? It doesn’t look like one, though.

She remains and hidden in a spot farther from where she had been standing when she disappeared, when —

— she realizes the straying horse is not actually riderless.

Zarius?

Mei’s chest tightens when she hears Zarius’ voice; she perks up, pale gaze locking onto the horse. A confusing wave of relief and anxiety washes over her; the latter of which only spikes when the dark elf pulls out her throwing knife and chucks it at the horse. It’s, perhaps, the worst throw she’s ever seen— but it hits its target, spooking the exhausted creature— and causing it to start bucking.

She searches the area with her eyes for evidence of the fellblood’s wellbeing— finding it in the unnatural separation of the grass some ways away from the horse. On one hand, she’s relieved Zarius is here; on the other, there’s a drake barreling towards them at lightning speeds; and gods knows she doesn’t want Zarius to be caught up in it.

She turns her eyes to the dark elf who begins to back away from what she can only assume is Zarius; which… is perfect, actually. She emerges from the shadows of one of the smaller outcrops at Zarius’ prompting; tendrils of shadow separating from her in fragile strands; and rushes the elf while she’s distracted with the unknown presence.

Prior, it was difficult to get within arm’s distance of her, because of her use of the whip; but she uses the opportunity now, while her back is turned and her attention captured; to attempt to lay a hand on the dark elf’s shoulder.

“All of this fighting is really unnecessary, don’t you think?” She prompts; upon contact with the elf, the visible portions of Mei’s hands would begin to darken, creeping up her forearms like a black gradient. ^{(1. Beguiling Charm)} “Perhaps we both got off to a bad start; why don’t you just call off your drake, and we can talk this out like proper adults?”

The drake rider goes to turn around and slash at Mei when the changeling's hand lands on her shoulder. Her body goes rigid and her eyes wide as the magical influence takes hold of her.

After a moment, she bites her lip and gives Mei a frustrated look, but the previous anger is replaced with something else now. Panic.

She throws down her blade roughly and falls to her knees, gripping her head and barely holding herself together.

Zarius wasn't expecting that reaction. "What did you-"

A roar like thunder interrupts the situation as the drake descends on them. The massive creature lands heavily before Mei, Zarius, and the drake rider. It bares it's needle-like fangs and the scent of ozone wafts on the wind. There's a slight glow to the underside of its throat scales as it glowers down at them. Even Zarius' invisibility doesn't help him this time as the creature's nostrils flare.

Zarius clicks his tongue in annoyance. This situation was still bad. The girl was an emotional wreck and wasn't calling off the storm drake. He drops the invisibility and holds up his hands.

"Easy. Your rider is fine."^[1] He keeps his tone even and calm. Unlike like with Ebony, the chunk this thing could take out of them would be nothing short of a life threatening injury.

The drake growls and its tail lashes out behind it. The wings are kept held out, as if the drake was making itself appear even bigger which was very much unnecessary. The thing already towered over them…casting plenty of shadow as a side effect.

The doesn't escape Zarius' notice. If they had to fight this thing, at least Mei would have something to work with.

"Hey, tell your drake to back off."

The girl wipes her eyes and looks at him, "who the fuck are you?"

Zarius blinks, whatever Mei did may have pacified the dark elf to her, but that hardly extended to the fellblood. He lowers his hands.

"Listen. Give up on the race. The other racers have already crossed the finish line by now. You, and your boss' horse lost."

She gets her teeth. "Fuck you."

She then looks at Mei, a more pained expression on her face. "They won't let this slide. They'll-" her voice cracks. "They'll take her away."

Zarius looks from the dark elf to the storm drake and then to Mei. "How long do we have?" There was no way this spell or whatever it was would last forever, they needed to come up with a plan, and fast.

The drake watches them closely for any threatening movements towards its rider, ready to attack given the command.

---

[1] Animal Handling Novice

When the drake rider collapses, Mei takes a pace back; the panic in her eyes catches her off guard given her behavior towards them thus far, but she hardly has a moment to consider it. No sooner has she offered Zarius a vaguely uneasy glance, with every intent to tell him that she’ll, ‘explain later’, the earth shudders beneath them.

Mei glances towards the storm drake as it descends, wings outstretched, and throat glowing with the remnants of electric energy.

“Woahhh, girl…” Mei puts her hands up in a similar, surrendering gesture; invisibility won’t help them here; and she watches nervously as Zarius flickers into view. The shadows cast across them would normally be comforting, but there’s something ominous about this one— an uneasy feeling passes over her that she can’t quite put a name to while she flicks her gaze between Zarius and the drake’s aggressive stance.

She takes a slow breath before she turns her attention to the girl; her brows furrow slightly when she looks up at her; and a rare sliver of sympathy embeds itself in her unbeating heart. “Not as long as I’d like,” ^{(1. Beguiling Charm: 2/3)} she admits to Zarius, lifting her head just enough to offer Zarius a frown; her eyes flick between he and the drake once more. “A few minutes, maybe… at best.”

She slowly stoops down, holding out a hesitant hand towards the drake, “I’m just going to talk to her, okay? Okay…” When she’s managed to get to the girl’s eye-line, she crosses both arms over her bent knees. “First of all: cursing him out isn’t going to get you anywhere; what's done is done.” she starts, “It wasn't anything personal towards you; job's a job, but..." She lets as much warmth into Mei’s voice as she can possibly muster; it’s not usual for her, and it feels weird coming off her tongue— but truthfully, she doesn’t know how much time they’ll have for… this.

“If you want any possibility of help, you're going to have to call off your drake and just talk to us. Who’s they, and who are they taking away? What was your deal with that woman back in Thunderhoof?” Mei rests her palms against her thighs as she draws her arms back in, “Keeping secrets at this point isn’t going to help anyone, don’t you think?”

Zarius glances over his shoulder at the hills back towards Thunderhoof. Any moment there could be an entire cavalry headed their way to find out what the hell happened to their prize winning horse and their little cheat. Time was running out, but there wasn't much they could do to rush the distraught drake rider.

She takes a few breaths to calm down before answering Mei's questions, the charm still holding on for the time being. "The Red Riders. They...they've been harassing the Dvoryanin. I was trying to help but...if I don't do what they say they're going to take Indra."

Zarius glances at the silver storm drake, assuming that the name Indra belongs to the looming creature. "Surprising that they would be able to threaten that seeing as you could easily flee. Their horses cannot keep up with a drake either."

The young dark elf shakes her head. "They'd just find the Dvoryanin and wait for me to return to them."

"Then do not return to them," Zarius says simply. 

"Easy for you to say!" She snaps at them. "I don't have anywhere else to go! They'll catch up eventually..."

The fellblood sighs and looks at Mei. This isn't their problem to do anything about. But they'd also revealed themselves to this elf now. She would sell them out in a heartbeat and that would make doing any other work in King's Valley more challenging in the future. Their options were limited. Silencing her wasn't off the table, but the drake would be harder to deal with if they threw it into a rage. Mei's influence was going to wear off, they had to do something and get the hell out of here. 

Zarius sighs. "We can figure this out later, but for now we need to flee on the fastest option we have at our disposal right now." He turns his attention to the drake and steps towards it. "I will handle the drake. Mei, please get her to come along quietly, whatever that looks like." He figured he didn't have to explicitly tell Mei what to do, she was pretty good on picking up on cues and intent.

With his attention on the drake, Zarius focuses much the same way he did with the woman from before. The creature's nostrils flare as the energy coming off the fellblood shifts to something far more menacing. Zarius utters something under his breath and there's a whiff of smoke tinged with brimstone that wafts in the air. It's reminiscent of the scent that permeates Darkveil City thanks to the ash clouds billowing from Mount Drakolt.

The tension rises and there's a crackle of static in the air before the drake's body shudders and the wings lower, going from a tense defensive posture with its hackles raised to a more docile stance.^[1] It lowers itself to the ground and waits for them to climb onto its back. 

Zarius coughs a bit and covers his mouth, the burning sensation in the back of his throat subsides only a little. "Come on, we should go quickly."

---

[1] Profane Command

“The Red Riders?” Mei repeats; she frowns, tapping her fingers against the curve of her knee while the rider explains— vaguely— the situation she’s in. Admittedly, she doesn’t do a ton of business in King’s Valley; most of her time spent here has usually been spent in travel, not work; but even she understands the reputation the Red Riders hold to the locals. She remains quiet while Zarius and the rider exchange words; her pale gaze shifts from one, to the other, brows furrowing slightly as the back-and-forth furthers between them. She casts a look at the drake in its fury, before she offers Zarius a tired, quizzical look from over the rider’s head.

This is practically a portion of their line of work. The Red Riders are holding her hostage over blackmail— something that Mei has seen, even partaken in, time and time again in Darkveil— to the point that the sympathy she feels simply isn’t as strong as it could have been otherwise.

She could take the weepy girl out— it would get her out of their way, sure— but it would put a much bigger problem in their hands with the drake… yet, in the same breath, they can’t let her go lest she rat them out.

Mei lets her head drop in exasperation; she runs her curled fingertips through her platinum hair as she lifts her gaze again, brows furrowing. “You’re going to what?” she objects, her tone discontent and bewildered by the simple statement that he’ll take care of the drake; but the atmosphere around Zarius shifts, distracting her for a moment.

There’s something familiar about the menacing aura he gives off in the moment; and the brimstone which lingers in the air draws Mei back, albeit briefly, to the alleyways of Darkveil lit by blue flame.

When… when did this start happening, actually?

The drake starts to back off; and then it lowers, docile, as if it were never hostile to begin with. She’s never known Zarius as a magic user; but this is certainly… this is not usual, is it? Does she not know Zarius’ abilities as well as she’d thought she did?

It’s not the first time she’s caught herself lingering on the question since the night of the red rogue; but on the terms they’re at now, she can’t bring herself to question him more than usual.

Mei blinks, casting her pale gaze down at the rider and purses her lips; she reaches out and grasps the girl beneath her chin; unwilling to keep Zarius waiting for too long. “Sorry about this,” she apologizes, her voice unapologetic in its tone; in a blink, Mei’s eyes glaze over in shadow. “It’s for your own good; and ours; that you don’t put up a fight.”

Zarius would recognize the shadows that lick at the rider; an inky swath stains Mei’s pale skin in ebony from her fingertips to the joint of her forearm; and shadowed veins pulse beneath the elven woman’s skin as she utters something fiendish and inaudible beneath her breath. The rider’s eyes would glaze over the same shadowed colour, as whatever charm Mei had put on her before fades, replaced by control. ^{(1. Beguiling Charm 3/3; Curse of the Hag 1/3)}

When she blinks again, a wave of exhaustion sinks bone deep into her, dropping her tense posture without her consent; she hopes she can focus on maintaining the rider until they get to where they need to go; because her generous use of pulling magic from her host is beginning to take its toll, and likely will continue to do so the longer she needs to maintain.

Mei furrows her brows, grimacing slightly as she releases the rider from her grasp and pulls herself to her feet.

“Right… Yeah, let’s go,” she agrees, escorting the rider from where she’d collapsed, to the back of her own drake, before she steps up and onto the big beast, herself. She breathes a sigh as she turns, extending an open palm to Zarius to help him up. She lets the tone of her voice soften somewhat with the exhaustion, a mild concern breaking through her usual, omnipresent snark. “You know, that cough of yours sounds like it’s getting any better, Zarius.”