"Apparently Four was out running errands. No fight to be had for us."

"She's usually not the kind to run away..."

"Perhaps we ought to have made an appointment."

"Might've just given her a headstart. Though she can fly so even now, who knows where she is..." 

"It'll have to be a hunt, then."

"If the fight's actually in the air - I won't be much help keeping her busy, unless you can give me a way to fly on my own."

"Unfortunately, I left all my flight packs at home."

To Five: "Exactly how the fuck does she fly, anyways?"

"She's somehow got tame wyverns - I haven't heard about any dragons, though - and she repurposed some elven airships. Those are weird as hell; they've got this giant dart thingy on top which Four says makes it float, even though that doesn't really make any sense. If she's trying to drag this fight into the air I'd bet she has a flying demon, too, though I'd be really surprised if she's already summoned it. Those things are costly as fuck."

"Four's also like, always appearing suddenly at meetups out of the clouds. No one can track her. Like, there's never not clouds when she's arriving, even in Two's desert which is normally painfully cloudless - if she can control the weather, she hasn't told any of us, buuut it'd make sense in a weird way. There's a shitton of clouds here, but you could possibly narrow down ones she might be hiding in?"

(The frigid mountains around them are, in fact, shrouded in heavy snow clouds, with further mist rapidly gathering as the temperature drops, and it's growing dark out even though it should be the height of day...)

"Well, if Eliese can drop me on her airship or whatever, then I can keep her busy. And it's not like I'll die if I crash the thing."

"Better to take the airships intact, if we can. Those would make our future travels easier."

"We'll see what happens."

"I suggest we regroup for now, and begin the search in earnest tomorrow."

"She'll get away."

"She's already gone. We didn't see any ships launch from the castle before or after the attack, or any signs of these wyverns or flying demons."

" - She's nearby. Five's right about the weather manipulation - Four's fucking magic's in these clouds. They're getting dense too quickly. I can't feel where she is, I'm not a damn dragon, but if her magic's here - she's within earshot. So like, however far away thunder can be heard from at most, shouting distance at closest. And she's smart on war, even if she's dumb as fuck on everything else. And if she feels like acting smart, she'd be close enough to get info on your powers from your attack. We don't want to give her time to figure that shit out."

"I won't be doing very much else on that scale today, but fine."

She makes a face. "Could you fight a demon right now? Like what Five summoned."

"Of course. As long as it doesn't seal itself inside a reinforced bunker. The constraint is, again, saving enough power to burn the flower out of Four."

"...I haven't used - or shown off - much of my magic yet. I can make platforms if I need to, and if we can pin down a wyvern I can turn it into something more useful for me to ride - I could do that to a bird or, hell, a mouse or something in a pinch, it'd just be more obnoxious." She makes a face. "Might be worth it so I'm not fucking around with transforming shit within Four's range. And anything I've made like that, I can use my Intoner mode through."

"That does indeed sound useful. An extra perspective to act from should not be discounted."

"Then let's catch a bird."

They might need to go a little ways downslope to find one.

Fine.