The Long Con

The kiss had caught Avorra off guard, though for some reason she can't explain, she oddly relished it. As the thief took off into the crowd with her coin, she eyed the box that he left. Opening it revealed a handful of nothing. How dare he pull such an old trick? She looked at the crowd where the thief had disappeared, and took a moment to collect her senses. She could smell the blood in the air from every beating heart. It didn't take long to find the one that was beating erratically fast, but it was getting further away. She concentrated on stirring the fog that she was infamous for. The fog that signaled the dark presence within Dairsmuid, the so-called Shadow in the Mist, the creature that everyone knew of but nothing more.

Black clouds clung to the ground, and suddenly every heart started beating faster. The crowd went into a panic and started vacating the streets. She couldn't spot her thief, but she could still track his scent. Using her hedge magic, she conjured up more of the mist to redirect him towards her. Her figure would appear in front of him, behind him, all around him. Multiple Avorras now proliferated the market, but they were all illusions meant to herd the thief back to her. She wondered what his reaction was. How it felt being followed to the end of the world with no feasible escape. She let her illusions chuckle at the man, hearty laughs of a deranged mage.

She smiled and waited for her prey to come to her.