Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Prologue, Part 4: Conflicting Worldviews

Coldsnap and Firebird dashed through the crowded market district with the Terminus guards hot on their tail, weaving left and right to avoid bumping into anybody while jumping, ducking, and maneuvering between the stands and buildings. As they passed by a fireworks booth, Firebird used her abilities to light a fuse near a particular set of rockets, detonating all of them and distracting their pursuers with the resulting bright explosions and blinding flashes of light. 

Coldsnap ascended to the high ground by running on ice platforms that materialized spontaneously beneath her feet; two of the four guards followed her while the other pair continued chasing down Firebird. 

The budding ice mage then conjured a large snowflake-shaped hoverboard, laid it on its side, and quickly hopped on top of it, beginning to "surf" across the shingled roofs at high speed in an attempt to escape. The two sentinels following her began to assault her with several beams of shadow energy with their staves, but she expertly weaved between every single one without suffering so much as a scratch. 

Meanwhile, the two sentries following Firebird chased her into a massive, enclosed building and initially cornered her in the middle of the first floor. However, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a concealed smokescreen bomb, detonating on the ground and greatly obscuring her attackers' vision with black smoke before silently sneaking away. 

But she wasn't done yet. After ascending the stairs on the outer wall and reaching the highest floor of the area, she charged up one of her daggers and fired a blazing slash towards the chandelier that was suspended in the middle of the ceiling. The projectile collided with the hanging rope, thus burning through it. Within seconds, Firebird had managed to drop the entire light fixture on top of the two guards, incapacitating them for good. 

She then continued to the roof and looked to her right, seeing Coldsnap closing in, as well as the two sentinels still gunning for her. She quickly hopped onto the ice mage's snowflake hoverboard and began assisting her friend by firing energy waves from her blades in the direction of the guards, but soon, Coldsnap began to sense a problem. 

"Uhhh.....Firebird?!" she said urgently. "You're melting our ride!" 

The Fire Sect mage looked down and saw that her heat was starting to cause the snowflake to thaw away, much to her horror. 

"What?! Oh, no.....what do we do?!" she exclaimed. 

"Just hang on! The portal network's nearby! They can't follow us through that; they're restricted to protecting the Grand Terminus only!" 

One of the pursuers shot another beam of shadow magic, but Coldsnap jumped onto a side wall to dodge it. The snowflake hoverboard stuck to the wall and kept advancing, while Firebird attempted to stick one of her daggers into the wall and create a "line" of flames along the side. However, both of their attackers swiftly dodged under it, much to her dismay. 

Coldsnap charged up another Ice Harpoon shot and nailed one of the guards in the chest; although they survived due to their armor, they were knocked off of the roof and taken out of the chase. 

With only one target left, the hoverboard began approaching a ramp at the end of the pathway. "Firebird! We're going to jump it!" Coldsnap yelled, just before the snowflake launched off of the pad and soared through the air with the two mages still on it. 

Thinking quickly, the powerful mage created a solid, downward path of pure ice to control their descent and direct them towards the portals that led to the different regions; four of them led to the Whitecap Tundra, Firelands, Tidal Throne, and Stonemount Gorge, respectively, while the fifth one---usually sealed outside of specific circumstances---could be configured to lead to any place on Earth.