There are times at which two individuals come into conflict for personal reasons. There are times when two individuals come into conflict as two amongst many, on opposite sides of a war. There are many ways for two individuals to come into conflict... including amongst them the whimsy of fate. There are those confrontations that begin and end, and the victor isn't entirely sure why they were fighting to begin with. It is in these confrontations that the gods play their games, make their bets, toss their dice.

There is no way for a mortal to beat the gods in these games... except perhaps to cheat. And to cheat fate is no small feat. Few have managed it, and lived to tell the tale.

The breeze on the Cordelian border, in an isolated location in the mountain rage known as the Snapdragon's Spines for the incredible defensive advantage it had once granted the nation that it rose on the edge of, was chilling despite the bright sunlight that radiated down from open skies. Though the sun was bright, the sky was only a dull greyish white in tone -- it had been a long time since Aelora had seen a blue sky. At these heights, however, even were it a scorching heat wave the wind would still put a cold tinge on the temperature. Few animals made their homes up here, but this was one of the few areas where signs of life were prominent amongst the harsh landscape.

A deep green forest rose in a minor valley in the range, the peaks towering above it, but despite the green presence there was little in the way of habitation. The isolation of the forest meant that even the elves would have been hard pressed to make a home here, too far from usable land and too difficult for traders to access. Those that did dwell up here were tribal, almost feral - their nature was ambiguous, and even spiritual, but for one thing that was certain. They were not to be disturbed.

And so of course, who was to be found up here, traipsing her way through the forest with little regard for what she trod on? None but Emma Armelle. Disturbing things.

"Bloody spirit elf-fae-snob things," she muttered as she waded her way through undergrowth. "Of course they don't need our help-" here the blood mage put on a heavily exaggerated accent, her voice high pitched and overly 'proper', "-'because we're the ancient guardians of this forest! We're untouchable! Silly mortals and their silly wars! We have no idea what we're talking about! We still think that the sun is a god!'"

Emma paused to glare at a tree. "I'm well aware that you're following me. Bugger off, or I will continue to make callous comments about your culture until you attack me and get yourself killed."

The tree glared back -- or more accurately, the heavily camouflaged elf-like woman hanging from its branches did. Green skinned and slightly translucent, with a hard-to-track aura around her form, there was definitely something spiritual about her. Which, of course, Emma couldn't care less about. Without comment, she dropped from the tree and shot Emma a hostile look before stalking back in the direction that she had come from. Emma rolled her eyes and made a rude gesture at the back of the woman's head before continuing onwards.

Some time, and a lot of green stuff later, Emma emerged out of the forest into a small clearing. The mage took a breath of mountain air, glad to be out of the gloomy woods and able to see the sky again. The clearing ended a short distance away at a sheer drop down into a deep ravine, with shallow water trickling over sharp rocks at its bottom. The ground had a thin coating of grass for a few feet from the forest's edge, but the green slowly turned yellow before dying out completely as it approached the rocky edge.

Emma paused at the edge of the grass to look out across the view from the vantage point - an impressive landscape of the fallen nation of Cordelia was spread out before her, and if she focused hard enough she could just about make out the ruins of the capital. Closer to her position, nestled in the main valley that provided access to the kingdom from the North, was her destination - Kirkhaven, the last bastion of the nation's resistance. There she could take a portal back to Tai'emroth to report her assignment's entirely too predictable failure.

Tapping the end of Valdasine, her bladed metal staff on the ground, Emma readied herself to move on ... but something gave her pause. The mage narrowed her eyes, tightening her grip on the weapon and scanning the area.

"Alright, the next annoying green person that decides to follow me is going to get the business end of my staff shoved somewhere that it hurts." she called out, warily looking for likely hiding places. "Let's not make this any harder than it has to be, I'm leaving."

"Now that's just unsporting."

Emma smirked as the assault of rocks lifted from the ground and began to fling themselves towards her, and she reacted quickly. Swinging her staff around, Emma slammed her free hand downwards through the air in the direction of the rocks from one side - catching about half a dozen of them in a crushing force that tugged them down into the ground, where they dug into the dirt with a chorus of thuds. Even as the magic was acting, the mage was already moving. Now with an angle free of projectiles to use, Emma darted towards it to evade the remaining rocks.

With a quick scan of the area, it was evident to Emma that her attacker was concealed somewhere out of sight. Well, two could play at that game.

Her staff lighting up brightly, Emma drew her hand in to her chest with two fingers extended. Holding her staff out and downwards, she channelled magic through herself, her eyes and fingers briefly glowing with a pale blue light. It took only a few seconds before her spell's effects became evident.

Spiralling outwards from where the mage stood burst an unnaturally strong wind, carrying with it shards of ice and snow that clung to the form like glue, heavily impeding movement and quickly resulting in the freezing of most life-forms. The rocks and trees near to where Emma was standing were quickly sheeted in ice as the magical blizzard expanded outwards to consume a good half of the ledge.

Now herself concealed, both visually by the blizzard and perhaps even disguised to Whisper's mind by the confusing mass of ice chunks and snow that swirled around her, Emma was able to focus on finding her enemy. Parting the swirling mass in order to clear her field of vision as she looked this way and that, Emma readied herself to take on some of the cover.

"Can't hide behind things all day, you know." Emma called over the blizzard's roar. "Eventually you'll have nowhere left to run. And then the real fun starts. Ever wondered what it's like to be killed by a blood mage before? I wouldn't recommend it, as far as ways to go, go. It gets nasty at parts."