Unto the breach.

Valerica is in the courtyard within the castle.

"Dearest daughter! How lovely of you to join me. I must say that I was expecting a bit more time before someone joined me here."

"You left the door open."

"Tsk. How careless of me."

"Give me the scroll and I won't tell Harkon how to find you."

"Are you threatening me, daughter? I'm so proud."

Elana growls.

"Now, now. Manners."

"The scroll." Her mouth twists. "Please."

"Hmmm." She taps her lips. "Why don't you introduce me to this tasty little morsel you've brought along, first? Is she why dear Sigrid failed to contain you?"

"Sigrid was overconfident and a fool. As she always was. You should not have trusted her."

"Alas. But it is not a problem I will face again. Perhaps I will make this delicious bit her replacement."

"You can't have her."

She laughs.

"I'm Elana's," she says, flatly, eyes narrow. (She bites down insults and a few challenges that come to mind; she doesn't want to escalate if she doesn't have to, but - she dislikes how this woman is tearing into her Elana.)

"Ooh, spicy. The girl for the scroll," she says to Elana.

"I will kill you before I let that happen."

"Oh, marvelous! You've finally found someone."

"Enough!" she snaps. "I did not come here to banter. Give me the scroll and I will allow you to hide the year here. Or I will take it from your corpse and deny Harkon your blood that way."

"You are growing. But I am not yet ready to cede to you, daughter. Come take it, if you think you can."

Elana shoots a glance at Lace, a bare incline of her head-

She tenses during Valerica's speech and bursts into motion even before Elana's signal, shooting toward Valerica, focusing on speed over weaving, drawing her sword and preparing to swing it even as she sprints. Her eyes are on her enemy, and she should see any attacks coming, she's gotten familiar now with the motions associated with spells - 

(Valerica has a bit less than one second to react before she's in sword's reach of Lace - the courtyard is not, actually, that big - Lace's mind is working faster than her feet - the best humans can draw, aim, and shoot a gun in less than half a second, Lace knows, even less if they anticipate what's coming, if they're world class - she's unsure about quick draw on magic - )

Valerica sways impossibly out of reach and pushes off to jump further away, covering with quick-flung spells, lightning and ice.

Lace dodges most of it, continuing to harry Valerica - keeping her focused on Lace and on the retreat, even if reaching her is hard. She keeps accelerating a bit, too, pushing herself. (What she needs is to sit down with a blacksmith and reinvent the gun.)

Elana is weaving some kind of larger spell in the back.