A look of confusion briefly passes across Emily's face, before she gets it under control, and responds with a sleepy nod.

She rubs the sleepy seeds out of her eyes — partly as a reflex action upon waking up, and partly to give her a moment to compose herself.

"Right — do you have a plan?" she asks.

"Keep holding my hand, so I can teleport us out if I have to," Concordia tells her. "But otherwise — he's not actually doing anything. If we pretend we don't know he's there, we might be able to walk out, and then make a run for it."

She really wishes this had all happened next month, when she would have been capable of setting things on fire.

Emily nods with determination, and then regrets it. 'Act natural' is a surprisingly tricky instruction to follow in her half-sleeping state.

The two girls rise, stretch, and make a slow and unhurried break for the door, holding hands the whole time.

The man watches them the whole time, at one point typing on the phone screen. As the girls leave, he follows them, but doesn't attempt to interdict.

As Concordia and Emily enter the hallway, they see the headlights of a van parked near the main entrance to the residence.

"... which way, do you think?" Concordia asks Emily.

Emily briefly closes her eyes, trying to visualize how things were laid out when they came in.

"There was ... a curb, I think, between the van and the left hand side. If that's their van, and we run that way, they'll find it slightly harder to catch up," she offers.

"Right."

Concordia pushes open the outside door, shivering at the biting cold the gesture unleashes.

"On the count of three. One, two, three!"

The girls break into a run.

The double doors pose something of a problem to their tail, who is still trying to remain unseen. When the girls run, the man following them is behind a closed door, buying them valuable seconds.

Chaos erupts. Tires squeal as the van takes off at great speed, but it's pointing in the wrong direction and has to make a three-point turn in the narrow street. The man who was following them gives chase, but the automatic door shuts in his face, buying the girls a few seconds. There's an alleyway nearby that leads deeper into the university campus, and they run as hard as they can.

The man gets out, along with a tall, thin woman who seems to be working with him. As the girls tear into the alleyway, their pursuers seem to be gaining.

"Fuck!" Concordia exclaims, when a glance back shows that they're failing to outpace them. If she were on her own, she might have a better chance. But Emily is neither as tall nor as athletic as she is, and they need to stay together.

"Through there!" Emily suggests, pointing at an alley that might do for losing their pursuit.

Or it might be a dead end, but probably only if the story actually needs them to meet the people who are chasing them. And Concordia can teleport if they're cornered.

It's not a dead end. Better yet, it ends in bollards which should block the van. An open courtyard is before them, with a few trees and bushes. Streetlights and the crescent moon provide dim illumination. There are precious few places to hide, although there are some dumpsters that might serve as cover. There's also a fire-escape which they could climb, and on the other side a blue column, a little taller than a person, illuminated by a blue light on top. At eye level is a speaker and a red button labelled PUSH FOR HELP.

Emily has never actually visited a college campus, and so is not already familiar with the blue-light emergency phone systems that started popping up after the passage of the Clery Compliance Act in the US (and presumably appear for similar reasons here in Canada).

But it's not a complicated concept.

Emily slams the button as they go past, shouting "Help! They're chasing us!" without slowing down.

There's a click and a tone, and an alert voice says "Who is chasing you?" to empty air. The thin woman stops and begins speaking into the phone, but Emily and Concordia are already out of earshot. The man continues to give chase, not slowing down.

They could cut across the courtyard, where there's a street that is still busy despite the late hour. To the left is a row of buildings, separated from each other by two-metre-wide pathways. In front of them is still more of the campus.

A crowd of people sounds pretty good to her right now. On the one hand, they might have to dodge people. On the other hand, whatever magic the mage is using to hide himself clearly isn't absolute, and enough people paying attention to him sounds like it could be a good thing.

She gives Emily's hand a tug, angling across the courtyard and for the street.

The pursuer stops short as they approach the street, seemingly unwilling to get within public view. There are not many pedestrians at this hour, but there are still a lot of cars. A light turns red, and the cars stop.

The man speaks into his smartphone. "They're on St. George Street, too many eyes on them for the likes of me. See if you can get there in the van." His voice is raspy, inhuman.

The thin woman approaches him, and they begin having a hurried conversation, too quiet for Emily to hear.

"They don't want to go after us in —" huff "— in public," she relays to Concordia. "Or, not all of them, maybe some of them can."

She fights the urge to stop and bend over, the pain of stitches in her side informing her of how out of shape she is.

Let's see. They want somewhere that cars can't go, that will have lots of witnesses even so early in the morning, and, ideally, that will let them get away quickly ...

Well, when she puts it like that, it's obvious. She looks around to see if she can spot a way down into the subway.

There's a sign indicating a subway station a couple blocks away. 

The thin woman starts moving towards them. She's not running, only walking swiftly -- as if she's trying to act casual.

Emily isn't afraid of drawing attention. She tugs Concordia's hand.

"This way!"

They race down the blocks, dodging pedestrians.

The few pedestrians still on the street are easy to dodge. "Listen, we can just talk! Stop in an intersection or a cafe! My friends will stay at a distance!" the woman calls, jogging after them.

The girls can probably make it to the subway station before she catches up.

... that sounds very reasonable. For people who watch sleeping girls invisibly. But it's not like they were really supposed to be there either ...

"She wants to talk," Emily says. She pulls to a stop and doubles over, trying to catch her breath. "Let's — Let's hear her out, but be ready to duck down there."

She subtly points to the subway.

"There will be lots of people down there and other ways out."

Concordia makes a dubious face. She doesn't know what's going on, and she doesn't like it. But she also doesn't think Emily can actually run much farther.

She tries to think how to formulate "is this woman hostile to us", but the "to us" qualifier is something she hasn't quite learned how to phrase yet. Instead ...

SELECT * FROM people WHERE violent OR NOT trustworthy

The woman lights up. So does Concordia, and Emily. So do most of the pedestrians, and a fair few drivers. And the first guy to chase them, who was following invisibly behind the woman.

... okay, yeah, that's fair. Uh.

"That invisible guy is still here," she warns Emily, stepping a bit in front of her and resolving to keep an eye on him.

Straight up violence is probably what she's most worried about, but anyone who fights monsters probably counts. And so would, for example, the city guard or her instructors.

It's not perfect, but the people are getting closer, and she feels like she needs some kind of indication about whether they should really be letting these people approach. What if she tries ...

SELECT * FROM people WHERE cruel

A couple of drivers and someone two blocks away and moving away from them light up. Neither of their pursuers do.

That's ... mildly reassuring. She decides to trust Emily on this one. For now — she's still poised to run if needed.