I had to be more careful now that we were in the city. The buildings around here were fragile, and the civilians were gawking all around us like meerkats who couldn’t see the large, lumbering monsters rushing right under their scouting noses.

Both Noel and I had slowed down considerably since entering the city. Noel was probably trying to conserve her energy, since she was still sinking a bunch of it into the blindness spell she had cast on me. And I had apparently slowed down unconsciously while I was blinded. However, I didn’t increase my speed as soon as I had my vision back. Noel thought I was blinded, and must have let her guard down a little. She might still expect an errant spell or two, although she knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t risk it now that I should be able to hear the many, many civilians all around us. As if to punctuate this thought as it passed through my head, I heard a high-pitched young fairy voice coming up from behind, asking his mommy why the elves were in a hurry.

I’d only get one shot at this. I had to come up with a way to stop her in her tracks, and hopefully to bind her down too. A bunch of possibilities came to mind, but I had to shoot them down just as quickly. I couldn’t use magic hands, because she could neutralize them with her own. I couldn’t make a ton of mud in her way, both because the road was mostly stone, and because she’d just jump over it with air magic or power through it with her momentum. I could try to cast still life magic from a distance, but it wouldn’t be as effective against Noel from this distance, since she definitely knew enough motion magic to get out of it. The only reason it worked when I was touching her was because of my high ‘wisdom’ with the spell as well as the fact I had never quite explained some of the underlying principles behind the spell to her. Back then, this hadn’t been some sort of clever deception. I just thought it’d be a pain to explain something so long-winded in too much detail. Even the minor details I had explained had been very boring and tough to follow, after all.

Elemental spells, even light, were clearly useless. Magnetism wouldn’t be very useful either, although I did realize I could’ve used some of the navigation and location spells I had used to create my maps to help me find my way through the city while blinded. I also knew a kind of motion magic spell that could have stopped her forward momentum, but it would only be for the tiniest of moments, and could be easily countered with a magic hands slingshot.

I glanced at the way Noel was zooming forward, and blinked. Yes, that was it! I focused on the way she was cutting through the air, creating a sort of whistle as she used air magic to speed herself up by reducing air resistance. I began to subtly manipulate the air, just enough to reduce the efficiency of her spell. It was easy enough because of my greater ‘wisdom’ but because I was doing it incredibly carefully and subtly, Noel did not notice at all. Her speed didn’t decrease by much. If it decreased too much, she might realize something was up and would pour more energy into her air and motion magics to speed herself back up again. She might even realize that I wasn’t blinded and I’d be back to square one.

But as we zoomed through the street and passed by a bend in the road, the distance between us narrowed. It narrowed gradually, by a fraction of an inch with every step, but it began to add up. Noel glanced over her shoulder from time to time, which forced me to keep a confused, blank look on my eyes, as if I was still blinded. But her frequent assessment of the distance worked against her. It was harder for her to notice how much I was gaining on her when there was only a slight difference between every time she looked back. Soon, I was close enough for the next part of my plan. In the distance, I could already hear the armies, the humans, and perhaps even Kelser himself approaching. All I had to do was stop Noel for long enough for everybody else to reach our position, to stall her until the proverbial cavalry arrived. All I had to do, was touch her skin!

I felt a tension against my body, as if I was being harnessed to a bungee cord. In reality, these were my magic hands, attached on either end to sturdy buildings, and holding firm to help propel me forward. At the same time, I would increase my speed in one burst, making up for the reduction that I had been faking for my blindness. I waited for the moment. We were quite close to the Senate building. I could see the imposing pillars coming up front. They looked positively garish against the rest of the city. As if looking down upon the humble people of the city from a position up above.

The magic hands pushed my body forward. A burst of motion and air magic propelled me at great speeds. I also jumped up physically from the ground, while timing a push from earth magic at the same time. At the same time, a wall of air appeared in front of Noel, overwhelming her air resistance reduction magic and making her crash against the air as if she had belly flopped into a swimming pool. Her speed decreased, while I shot forward like a bullet out of a gun. An earthen wall appeared in front of her, forcing her to drive in her heels and prepare to jump. Yet, this was also when she looked over her shoulder to see me fast approaching.

She cut off her blindness magic and began to put that magic to better use, but it was too late. Before the silver glow could flare up around her body, and before she could form a single magic bubble to make me disappear in an instant, I had rushed right up to her and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

I crashed into Noel at an incredible speed, feeling my teeth chatter as I hit something that was harder than I had expected. Noel had somehow summoned a thin wall of earth in front of her, although I shattered it like brittle glass, and still slammed right into her. The thin wall of earth did cut my momentum a little, and my already aching body began to complain even louder, but that was okay. I had made it. I had made contact with Noel!

After slamming into her, we tumbled forward like a pair of wrestling cats, skidding along the ground and clawing against each other during the fall. Noel immediately tried to summon a magic bubble, and her silver glow did finally flare up, but it was too late. I had my hands firmly on her body, one on her shoulder, the other her waist. We came to a stop right before the wall of earth I had erected to stop her, which hid the tall pillars of the Senate from our vision. We were boxed in by walls on our left and right, with no doors or windows nearby, either.

I grit my teeth, let the relief wash through my body, watched the panic flowing through Noel’s eyes, and activated my ‘still life’ magic.