Archer took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to uncoil. It wasn't fair for him to snip at Zolya on account of Yue being difficult. He'd only just caught up with her and now she was running off again. It wasn't even that he thought she couldn't handle herself: it was about the unintentional chaos she might cause and the... [i]other[/i] elements whose attention she might attract.

[b][color=#c45302]"Hey, I'm sorry. I-,"[/color][/b] 'shouldn't have lashed out like that,' was what he was going to say before Zolya interrupted by suddenly invading his personal space. Her fingers traced the surface of the expensive linen dress shirt he'd manhandled over his frame which was only slightly rumpled from the previous day's wear. His gaze first traced the path of her touch while his eyebrows crested his hairline, and then clear ocean blue's flicked up to meet her olive green eyes as she brushed past. He couldn't suppress the swirl of luminous emotion in them, nor the rather brilliant flush of his cheeks and the involuntary silly grin that curled at the corners of his mouth. 

Deja-Vu.

[b][color=#c45302]"If she keeps talking to me like [i]that[/i], your wish to marry into the family might get realized sooner than you think,"[/color][/b] he grinned, clucking his tongue at Raudd. [b][color=#c45302]"East, towards Shieldtown. At least she's speed-limited without her suit, unless-,"[/color][/b] 'that barrier can protect her from some serious air-resistance,' was what he was going to say before the sharp [i][b]*CLAP*[/b][/i] of an over-pressure wave rolling over the building interrupted him. His eyes darted to meet Raudd's.

[b][color=#c45302]"Is that where the [i]Aegis[/i] went? What the hell kind of artifact did you guys give her?"[/color][/b] He muttered as he focused in on Yue's signature. [b][color=#c45302]"She's moving North now?"[/color][/b] He informed, while trying to figure out what could be in that area that would have attracted her attention.

[hr]

Yue blinked, eyes following the ravens and their display... or warning. For a moment her head swirled before she remembered that yes, indeed, magic was real, and that these creatures belonged to Zolya. She sighed heavily, gnawing the inside right corner of her lower lip in thought. They were probably right: vertical velocity was hard. She couldn't fly or generate the constant thrust required to fight against gravity. 

There would have to be sturdy footholds for her to push off of. She didn't think she could develop acute enough control over the shape of the barrier in the handful of seconds it would take to reach the crater wall to glide for any sort of distance.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"So, what then? Give up?"[/color][/b] She muttered, more to herself than the birds as her gaze traced the plate-gap to the crater wall some miles in the distance. Yue rolled the medallion in her palm over and over, pausing to squeeze its sharp corners against the inside fold of her knuckles after each flip.

That anxious vibration, the restless urge to move coiled around her neck, causing her to roll her roll her shoulders involuntarily. One of them cracked in protest. She could feel the individual muscle fibers behind her knees screaming as they twitched. An individual mote of dust that had been suspended in the light in front of her came into focus as a thread of luminous [Silver] waved lazily across her gaze.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"Don't think I can let this one go, friend,"[/color][/b] she informed as she stepped North with a purpose.

Threads of [Silver] peeled out of her chest wildly as she took a deep breath. She tried to recall Zolya's lesson on directing and allowing Aether to flow through her body, though... she found her [Silver] threads didn't wish to move that way. When she tried, they often got stuck part way, or tugged awkwardly against her skin.

Don't force it... what did it do naturally? Her head tilted as she remembered observing the threads crawling up the manor's cairn stone. Her Aether wasn't fluid like Zolya's or Archer's, and it only flowed when she was touching something. Yue turned the medallion up in her palm, watching her threads of Aether stitch themselves into the engravings, naturally laying in complementary support as it formed braids and lattices around what she guessed were the most important structures of the array. The occasional bolt of [Crimson] would arc down her forearm and thrum against the array, usually chasing a spike of frustration or irritation that this Aether thing just wouldn't do what she was asking it to.

She exhaled gently, rolling into a new breath. Keeping a lid on all that inner turmoil was gonna be a [i]thing[/i], wasn't it?

Yue closed her eyes as she walked, trusting the near imperceptible caramel glow from the Earth below her to keep her feet steady. She imagined thread twisting into twine, weaving into braided ropes against her skin and pulsing into the medallion. She didn't have to open her eyes to see the [Silver] complying slowly. Her eyes snapped open to that familiar tension in her irises. She was tuned in enough to feel her pupils stretching. Her hand closed tightly on the medallion at the top of her breath, and she found herself coiled to pounce. 

[color=#CE2B95][i]Right. Clear my head. Don't think too hard about it. Just do what feels natural, the Aether will fill in the rest.[/i][/color]

Her foot sank inches into the Earth before it started to push back, and her chest slammed into that familiar wall of pressure. She was ready for it this time, ducking her head into it. She imagined creating down-force like her suit would to counteract the strong lift, and the barrier seemed to comply as she angled her body into as flat of a profile as she could while retaining her balance. Clouds of vapor roared over the contours of her shoulders, roiling over her spine as the barrier formed a sharp spike just slightly ahead of her, reinforced with a lattice of [Silver] Aether.

Yue pushed, feeling her foot skip across the broken concrete before achieving friction. She lurched forward, punching through the pressure as a violent cone of white vapor roiled around her waist and thrashed against her thigh as she forced her knee up to her chest.

She streaked across the bleak empty outside of ShieldTown as a plume of curling dust ripping savagely across the landscape, punctuated by periodic explosions of dirt and debris as she skipped across the ground. Long trails of vapor streamed intermittently from her fingertips as she made minor attitude adjustments between steps.

The downforce eased only slightly as the slope of the crater began to increase sharply, and her steps became taller and taller leaps. Finally, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, she was perched on the peak of the sturdiest boulder she could pick out on her approach. It shattered beneath her as she rocketed upwards along the crater wall, her eyes flicking back and forth rapidly to pick out footholds and the barrier angled so that she was nearly crushed against the cliff face by the downforce.

The morning sky, which had just been a brilliant thread moments ago was rapidly expanding to fill her vision. If she could just stay super-sonic past the half way point she should have enough inertia to clear the surface... Yue braced herself for a final push, angling towards what looked like a shallow overhang she could get traction on, though her breath stuck in her throat when she reached it. A trick of the light against the weathering of the rock made it look like there was more to grasp than there was. A quick scan told her there wasn't any other anchor within reach that would allow her to keep her inertia, so she had to commit: there was no aborting at this stage.

Yue's foot slipped and she wobbled unsteadily for a moment, and the momentary lapse of concentration caused the braided lattice of [Silver] threads to buckle and unravel. The barrier lost its curated shape, and she skittered across the cliff face as she tried to re-shape it. Streaks of vapor shrieked over her wildly as the shock cone closed in over her shoulders and she was slammed into the cliff face by the shockwaves. The breath was knocked from her lungs and the medallion spun from her fingers.

She managed to protect her face with her arm, hot sparks dragging along her skin as the lattice of Aetheric threads rapidly unraveled. She pushed away from the wall before any serious injury was sustained. The sharp corners of the medallion dug into her palm as she reached out and grabbed it just before it spun out of reach. The damage was done: she was bleeding speed rapidly, and flailed awkwardly as she hit the apex of her ascent. Her fingertips only just brushed against the corner of the plate ceiling before she started falling.

Yue managed to control her descent by angling the barrier to keep herself pressed against the cliff face and sliding down. Towards the bottom where it became rockier she pushed away from the wall and skipped unsteadily across the rocks until she slammed hard into the dirt, sliding the rest of the way. She stared at the sky through the distant plate gap for a long minute before she pushed herself slowly to her feet and began walking at a normal pace towards ShieldTown... she needed a minute to catch her breath after that.

[hr]

[b][color=#7270db]"Hey Dean... are there any Rogues on your roster that can go super-sonic?"[/color][/b]

[b][color=#8DC73F]"No... [i]Silver Fang[/i] is our guest, though. [i]She[/i] could."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#7270db]"Our surfacer is Silver Fang?? Fuck. She's making a run at the Plate Gap."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#8DC73F]"Hah. It was never a question of 'IF' she would try, only 'WHEN.' Easy money."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#7270db]"I'm flush from the Scarhide bet. 50 she makes it."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#8DC73F]"Actually the minimum bet on that pool is-"[/color][/b]

[b][color=#7270db]"Well, raise it 50!"[/color][/b]

[b][color=#7270db]"Oooooh! That looked painful..."[/color][/b]
[b][color=#8DC73F]"Oooooh! That looked painful..."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#7270db]"... Fuck."[/color][/b]