"You forget, my dear," the woman said with an easy smile. Pyre's Fortune cast a haunting violet glow on her slitted face. "Luck itself is on [i]my[/i] side."

The earth and splintered wood around her boots dried and crumbled away.

Catarina's skilled and precise lunge ... missed. As if her target had moved suddenly, the mage's best efforts were made to seem the fool's effort. Through spell and stab, lunge and strike, the most improbable outcomes again and again made the snake-faced woman appear untouchable. "You [i]don't[/i] have the map. [i]Do[/i] you." Her smile hadn't faltered. She turned Pyre's Fortune in her fingers. "I suppose I don't need you then."

The door slammed open with a sound like a gunshot. The Dragon -- in his gold and weathered silks and graying lace -- stood grinning terribly, the map rolled in a glinting fist. "Ifrit!" he greeted the snake-faced woman.

The woman tilted her head slightly, her smile thoughtful. "Ifr[i]ae[/i]," she corrected him gently -- and she returned her eyes to Catarina with a beautiful smirk. Luck would always love her, as long as she had Pyre's Fortune -- and Luck had brought her the map she desired.

The Dragon held the rolled map close to his chest, his eyes steady on Ifrae and his grin unchanged. "I'm not about to get into range while you're holding it," he called across the tavern at her -- and his eyes shifted knowingly to Catarina. "Once it's back in its box, we'll talk."

"Just one more loose end to tie up, first," Ifrae begged charmingly, and with a glance at Catarina she willed that it would suit her very much if the mage simply ended herself in that moment.

((this is late bc I wrote myself into a corner, hahaha. Feel free to conclude as you see fit!))