[[I'm gonna sneak in a little bit of prep/response if that's okay!]]<br/><br/>Albali watched the druid avianate himself with an expression inside her hood that could have as easily been perturbed as impressed. Ain, on the other hand, was quite clearly perturbed, shifting on the witch's shoulder where he'd alighted and ruffling his feathers. He was resistant to communication from the newly fledged eagle, going so far as to open his beak and utter something in elven that sounded as mellifluous as anything uttered in the language, but was delivered in the cadence of an insult. Albali pulled back her hood so she could scowl at him properly this time, which is when he spoke to her in the same tongue. She looked from the eagle to the snake and back again, before responding in Common, "I do not think that is what he said. But I shall watch my back - all of it - as I always do."  Taking advantage of the moment's pause, she tucked her fingers into her newly purchased pouch, uttered a few words around it as it darkled out of visible existence, and motioned in tight circles around each of her shoulders. "We hurry then, since there will be no crackling and heavy breaths to slow our silent passage."<br/><br/>Once she was in position and had sent Ain on to announce as much, she drew her crossbow out from beneath her robe and cranked back the bolt, taking her time to do it silently and with natural motions, to risk her moment of surprise not at all. The next part of her plan would have to wait for just the right moment - if someone were looking in her direction it would have been as obvious as lifting a lantern from behind a hunter's blind - but she readied her coal and fur above the bolt, preparing to imbue the bolt with her antiflame at just the right moment... which nearly took her by surprise as well. When the sullen staff-bearer lifted her crossbow, Albali restrained a curse and hurriedly whispered the spell she had readied, then lifted her crossbow to aim.<br/><br/>[[cast Mage Armor. Readied and cast Darkness on the bolt, which she'll fire in the next round if it seems expedient to do so.]]