Six months later...

It is a sweltering day in the Malhitu Bazaar, with the sun beating down harshly from high above. Any stone not painted white is hot enough to the touch to burn skin. The sky is a perfect featureless dome of infinite blue.

Wide awnings and other sources of shade have been added or doubled-up on or extended, every market stall in competition not merely to sell their wares but to provide enough respite from the heat that anyone stops to look at their wares in the first place.

A figure in an expensive, finely-made cloak strides through the sweating crowds, before abruptly pivoting into the alley beside a restaurant. The cloak is a gleaming white, trimmed and embroidered in golden thread. The inner lining of the cloak is black silk, casting deeper shadows on the face of the figure under the hood. The cloak is clasped, revealing nothing of the body underneath, but for the flash of leather boot.

The figure heads around back and toward the aproned man standing in the shade of the awning over the open air kitchen where the restaurant's food is prepared.

"Ah good, you're here. We've got the trough filled and ready," says the manager.

Indeed, there is a large, rectangular wooden tub fill to the brim with fresh water, taking up most of the deeper parts of the shaded area. The cook, currently stirring a large pot, pauses and looks on with both impatience and relief.

The manager pulls out a handful of silver and hands it over to the figure in the white cloak.

"Ray of Frost. Ray of Frost."

Gamila sweeps the beams of icy magic along the length of the trough, expending its power evenly across the body of water with ease. The contents of the wooden tub crackle loudly as the water inside freezes into solid ice.

The manager smiles broadly. Most icemakers will spill half the water in the process of freezing it. This one's the best he's ever hired, even with the shit he gets from his sister for having anything to do with a wizard-girl.

A pair of waiting busboys hurry out to the frozen tub. They carefully detach and remove the walls of the tub, peeling them off the ice block, before picking up saws and beginning to cut the ice into more manageable chucks. One of them rubs a small chipped-off piece over his forehead, groaning in relief.

"Pleasure doing business. Same time next week?"

Unfortunately for him, she shakes her head.

"This will be the last time, actually. You'll need to find a new icemaker after today."

    "What? But..."

"I got a new job. Well, not a new job. But I can't keep pretending this is worth my time anymore. Don't worry. It's not just you. I've got two other restaurants and a lemonade cart to give the bad news, today. Good luck, sir."

She gives him a nod and sweeps away in her fancy cloak, leaving him behind before he can try to argue with her. She heads to her next destination.

Is she going to take her accustomed route between these establishments and cut through this blind alley like usual? Because if she is, today there's going to be someone blocking her way.

Big guy, plain but quality clothes, turban and veil. Clean. Very clean, and scentless. This is someone with regular access to Prestidigitation at the least.

His eyes land on the figure in the white cloak. "Where do you think you're going?"

(Sense Motive: 23)(Perception: 19)

Gamila takes him in at a glance, noticing the details. A caster, probably. And he's likely not alone.

She doesn't know what this is about, but she can see the impending violence in his eyes. He isn't here to talk. Her response is the same regardless.

"Through you, if you don't move."

"You ain't moving anything today, girly!"

As he says that, another similarly-dressed man steps into view on one of the rooftops, and two more come into the alley behind her, boxing her in.

"The ice business is our hustle, see. You been cuttin' in to our profits all summer! So we gonna show you what happens to stupid bitches who think they can take what's ours, right boys?!"

"""Right!!!"""

These absolute stooges. She literally just quit the ice business.

Would saying that help this situation in any way whatsoever?

She doubts it. These men clearly aren't in the mood for a humorous anti-climax.

She has her swords on her, but Calistria didn't give her Bull's Strength today, and the guy on the roof looks ready to cast. It's easy to make the inference. This is going to be a battle of Frost Rays, not a melee.

Gamila readies an action.

(Attack: 12)(Attack: 18)(Attack: 5)(Attack: 6)

Four voices all cry, """"Ray of Frost!""""

Four beams of icy blue magic lance out and strike at the girl in the white cloak.

What girl in a white cloak?

Gamila is gone, using her Dimensional Slide to vanish out of the trap. She darts out of the sheared space behind the ice-cabal's leader. In the same motion, she yanks at the ripcord under her cloak.

The prestidigitated white color bleeds away, returning the fabric to it's natural black color. Then the cloak splits along seams hidden by the golden embroidery, the whole garment transforming, separating into a dozen gossamer streamers that lift into the air and drift in her wake.

(Attack: 21)

Flashes of skin show through the dancing fabric as Gamila whirls around and casts at the guy on the roof, "Ray of Frost."

Roof guy dives for the lip of said roof, trying to take cover. The frosty blue ray catches him in the shoulder.

"Aaugh!"

Blood spurts from his shoulder as rime encrusts the broken skin. He clutches at the wound even as he rolls out of sight.

"What-?!"

"Howdid?!"

"Ice the bitch! Ray of Frost!"

(Attack: 10)(Attack: 17)(Attack: 11)

The leader and the pair at the end of the alley all fire off another round of icy Rays, sweeping the beams across the ground and walls, leaving streaks of frost scratched into the sandstone.

Black silk bursts apart and flutters as one of the Rays passes through it, buffeting the cloth. Gamila leaps sideways and then ducks, slithering through the trio of icy energy beams, twisting her body out of the way as the spells fail to hit her.

"Expeditious Retreat."

The spell wraps her body, suffusing her limbs, and she streaks away in a superhuman sprint, racing out the other end of the alley.

(Attack: 19)

Roof guy lunches out of cover, bracing one arm with the other, one eye closed, two fingers pointed straight and aiming. "Ray of Frost!"

The three on the ground drop their spells to give chase, running down the alley in pursuit.

A flash of feminine skin obscured by a billowing trail of streaming black silk comes hurtling out of the alley and into the crowded street, gasping in pain as a Ray of Frost lances down from the rooftops and stabs into her back.

She tumbles out onto the thoroughfare, flexing to shatter the ice on her body-

flips, twists, rolls,

-comes up on one knee, her own arm braced.

(Attack: 11)

A beam of icy magic carves a shallow line up over the lip of the rooftop where roof guy is crouching; her aim is too low...

The roof guy ducks, avoiding the hit.

The other three catch up and gasp out their, "Ray of Frost!"

(Attack: 5)(Attack: 19)(Attack: 3)

Three more blue magic beams shoot out of the alley. One of them clips the feminine figure in the waft of floating cloth, while the other two carve icy trails into the crowd and the shop-fronts across the street.

The milling shoppers and shop-keepers start screaming in alarm and scattering into cover as the previously-peaceful street is suddenly filled with flying magical frost.

Gamila darts away, perpendicular to the alley, and slides into cover behind a crate.

(Attack: 7)

She pops up from behind her cover, wrapping the magic around her fingers to let off another, "Ray of Frost."

It doesn't hit any of them, but it keeps roof guy from standing up. She darts out and then whips herself through the air, vaulting over a couple of bystanders and ducking behind a sandstone pillar.

All three of the guys on the ground rush forward and shoot Rays of Frost at the pillar in a volley.

More bystanders yelp or scream and scatter. Some start shouting for the Eyes.

In their rush to shoot at a loadbearing piece of sandstone, they're now more than sixty feet away from the guy on the roof.

Gamila uses Dimensional Slide to get behind them again, then while they're busy blasting a random innocent pillar, she races across the street back the way they came, angling so that she comes in parallel to the street.

One moment she's more than a hundred feet away, under fire. The next moment, she's appearing out of a shear in the air, on the rooftop, right next to roof guy.

And she pushes him off the roof.

She slams into him at her full enhanced sprinting speed, launching him off his feet and out over the drop.

(Reflex Save: 8)

Roof guy goes flying and then falls to his doom. It's a short fall, but he hits the ground hard and doesn't get up.

The other three spin around at his cry in time to witness his brutal collision with the paving stones. They take aim at the darting wisp of black cloth on the roof, but they're out of effective range and the three Rays of Frost all miss without her even needing to dodge.

"She took out Hamtap! Get her get her get her!"

The three of them charge down the street, shooting more Rays up at the roof-edge where their quarry is visible only in glimpses.

Let's see how long these idiots will keep chasing her.

She slows, just enough to get in range to cast her own Ray of Frost, then darts ahead, out of their range before they can retaliate.

How many times can she do that before they give up the chase or die?

Like, at least five or six rounds. The three remaining icecube wizards are crazed with frustration, casting Ray of Frost after Ray of Frost, as rage at being unable to hit their target eclipses all sense.

Long enough to leave the Bazaar behind completely, and definitely long enough that one of them falls to Gamila's return-fire. Then another. Then finally the last, the leader, who falls on his face, clutching the frostbitten wound gushing blood from his thigh.

Long enough that, if Gamila doesn't keep running even after the shoot-out is over, this pair of high-level Eyes is going to follow the trail of ice and destruction right to her.

Gamila has got better things to do. She's gone.