Tzirret returned the grin. He remembered clearly how M'ibasa was frozen by Ma'tanza's paralysis magic. "No fair," Tzirret complained jokingly.

For a few seconds, Tzirret closed his mouth and just smiled at Ma'tanza. He was in the best mood in weeks. That seemed to sink in his chest, however, as he remembered his pendant. He wished that he had it with him. His smile faded and he turned his head to look at the sky, visibly crestfallen. He wondered whether Ma'tanza would ask about it and give him an excuse to speak about it, but La'khay's words came up to protest in him mind. He would have to initiate this.

"Ma'tanza," Tzirret started, speaking seriously and not looking at her, "Do you mind waiting here while Tzirret gets something from camp? He wants to give you something."

[hr]
Sabine stepped back into a stance to use magic in combat, like she had been taught before. As she looked at Meesei with her ward up, she felt a twinge of worry, but she had practiced against Meesei's ward for long enough to trust her.

Sabine's hand raised with fingers curled as she concentrated magicka into freezing the air and conjuring ice, causing tendrils of steam to seep down from her palm. Then, lining up her target, Sabine threw one hand forward, causing a cracking sound as a white shard spun through the air from her hand, seemingly out of nowhere, heading straight for Meesei's ward.

The same scene was repeated a number of times from Sabine, but as Meesei moved around, it was an exercise in concentration to land the ice spikes in the right spots. Not many crashed into Meesei's ward; most flew wide or shattered against tree trunks. It was not quite the same as aiming with a sling, like she was most used to. Additionally, it was more difficult than flinging the lumbering, boulder-sized ice storms that she was fond of.

After roughly a minute, Sabine had improved in leading her target, but she was beginning to look a little frustrated. She was still missing plenty of times. As a result, she overcompensated her pace to fire more spikes at once. She swiftly ran out of magicka and had to stop. "Hold on," she said, sounding drained, but not out of breath, "I need a moment."