“Where are we going?” Adelaide asked as they ran down the streets. “We're supposed to be looking for the terramancers controlling the golems!”

Nadier replied, “The fastest way for us to find them is to find the Ha'Lof.”

She replied, “You mean Nintarin?” Nadier turned to her with a cocked brow that asked how she knew that name. Adelaide snidely remarked, “I follow the news.”

“From your trees?”

“Yes, from my fucking trees.”

“What does that word even mean?” Nadier asked of the insult.

“I don't know. The Watcher didn't tell me. But I love how it just sails out the mouth.”

The dark elf sighed as they turned the corner on the empty street. With the rest of the city gathered at the aeronium pond and them travelling at the speed of an occasional teleport, they did not expect to have any company. Speeding towards the centre of the city, the Council Chambers could be described simply as a giant stone box. The width and height of a third of the cavern, the building was a towering twenty stories tall and wide, with cells of windows embedded over the sides like hives.

“There!” Nadier pointed. A sole window on the highest floor had the bright flicker of flames.

“I thought dark elves didn't need light?” Adelaide asked.

“We don't,” he confirmed. “It's a signal.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder and they teleported towards the glow.

They reappeared within the eloquently polished room. Opaque white drapes surrounded the king-sized bed. An ornate clothes stand stood to the corner with a set of similar looking black dresses. A marble dresser and silver rimmed mirror was the most extravagant of the furnitures in the room. A single candle stood flickering on the table, casting an almost blinding display of dancing shadows across the night stricken under world.

Adelaide noted, “There's no one here. Maybe she escaped the city?” She pulled apart the drapes to the bed to find an empty frame. Not even the mattress was left.

“That's not possible. Not without an aeronium coating.” The dresser he inspected was relatively empty. Save for a comb, a few pieces of jewellery, and sparse hairbands scattered around. “We destroyed the gate, so she can't go anywhere.”

“Nads,” Adelaide called. He walked over to her as she picked up a letter stuck under the frame of the bed. She handed it to him.

He unfolded the letter and read the contents before passing the paper back to her. “It's for you.”

“What?” she replied in surprise. Taking the letter, she read the contents out. “Demon Eyes, the two terramancers are kept on the third floor of the Eastern Pillar. Third window from the right. Heavily guarded. When the candle runs out, they will step out of the balcony.” She lowered the paper. “Why is she telling me this?”

Nadier stepped to the window which faced the Eastern Pillar. “She must know you're the best archer on Eltar.”

“I am not,” she replied, taking the letter to the fire after memorizing the contents. She joined him at the window.

“Just because you don't like archery, doesn't mean you're not the best,” he insisted. She had been hearing him remind her of her skill with the bow for decades.

Adelaide huffed. “There's another part at the end. It's for you.”

“What did it say?”

“Wanderer, when this is over, head north.”

“North of the city?” he questioned.

“Doesn't say.”

They stood silently for a moment, contemplating the cryptic message. Nadier then instructed, “Forget it. We'll figure that out later. Let's focus on the matter at hand.”

Spiralé, her custom bow, hung at her side. A small leather holster on her left waist held the bow tight with a simple notched metal clip. As she joined Nadier at the window, she unclasped the weapon and held it in her left hand.

The bow had a green reijidium metal cable tied to the nocks that ran the face side of the limbs to the grip. The cable was further tied evenly at eight different points along the bow. Made of dark caraco wood, the bow had a onyx gleam to it. The cables ran into the grip, the latter of which was wrapped in lined leather, save for the a small port on the right where the arrow would later rest against her fingers. A small rubber roller sat within the port. At 1 plitz length, the long bow was three quarters her height when strung.

She reached for the arrows from her quiver at the right of her waist. Two half plitz long arrows with just a finger from the tip at full draw were chosen. One was held dangling between her index and middle fingers while the other by her thumb and the string.

Nadier unloaded the neverite from his dagger, uncapped the vial, and poured the contents onto the sharpened tips of the projectiles. Since they were aiming for mages, it was a needed addition to penetrate their outer magic shells.

Adelaide aligned her first arrow against the string but refrained from pulling. Her thumb was the only limp on the bowstring. The shaft rested on her left thumb and against the rubber piece of the grip, her index notching the arrow from dropping out. The second arrow was held strong between her index and middle fingers. Then, they waited. She took aim without raising the bow, getting a sense for the distance between them and the pillar half a city away. She counted the windows. Third from the right, third floor. Just below the line of sight given by the other buildings with only the top half of the balcony visible over barren rooftops. The cave was cool but breezeless and they could hear the scrambling of thumping steps from the panic across the city.

Then, the candle light was snuffed by darkness. The head of two figures stepped out onto the balcony of the pillar. She raised her bow at a high angle, lifted her left index from the arrow, pulled the bowstring with her right thumb, and released the shot in one quick motion. The stretching of the limbs of the bow pulled the metal cable of the limbs, stretching into the grip. The small coil within the grip revved. On release, it whirled, spinning the rubber piece on the grip, reducing friction of the arrow against the handle and giving it a slight but game changing boost in spin and power.

In a split second after firing, she had slipped the second arrow out from between her fingers and notched against the string and onto her thumb. The first arrow was halfway through the air, now descending from its arc. Again, she waited to pull. Holding onto a draw only reduced the power of the shot.

A fifth of the distance left in the first arrow's journey, she finally drew the second one. The second was aimed straighter than the first, without the angle up. She did not need it. She fired. Just as the arrow scraped past her holding arm and the fletch brushed against her left thumb, she focused, and teleported the projectile across the city.

Even from their distance they could see the first arrow with the weight of gravity penetrate the left mage's throat. The second arrow reappeared right before the other target, piercing clean through the skull and exploding out the other end. The two bodies crumpled where they stood.

She turned to Nadier with a grin.

The dark elf asked, “Was that so hard?”

“It's not as fun as a fight.” She clipped her bow back onto her waist holder. “There's not much challenge when I'm using a bow. I still prefer my axes.” She tapped said weapons which dangled from the back of her waist.

Nadier sighed and shook his head. “You're just like Watcher and Light.”

“How so?”

“Monstrously strong.” His brows crooked as he noticed. “When could you teleport arrows?”

“First time trying. I had the idea after Watcher told me I could teleport objects,” she begun her explanation. “When I teleport, I don't lose any momentum, so I thought the same could go for all cases.”

“You bet the future of the continent on a test run?”

Deadpan, she replied, “Yes.”

Silently, he ran his hands through his hair and rubbed the nape of his neck. She could almost see Nadier's head exploding at the revelation. Adelle could not help but let out a soft laugh at the dark elf's discomfort.

Nadier exclaimed softly, “You and Watcher are going to kill me.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder and affirmed him, “Not today.”

They teleported out of the room.