By the time Asadi arrives, Rashad has rammed into another wall and slid down it, gasping for air in exquisite terror and utterly forgetting that he meant to leave quickly and discreetly. He hears a voice through the pounding in his head but his brain is unable to match it with a memory until she's on him, dragging him upward despite his gibbering protests. The blow comes as a surprise and as a confirmation of his fears, and he raises trembling hands uselessly against her only to be struck again. There's a crunch that resounds inside his head as white-hot pain shoots from his nose and sparks fill his vision.

His body hits the floor like a sack of potatoes, but his bloodied face is already starting to knit itself back together, slowly enough not to be visible to the naked eye but quickly enough that it's unfortunate that he's unlikely to remember to reset his broken nose in the correct configuration within the next half hour. Rashad lets out a wordless, garbled yowl as flames spring up from nowhere to lick along his skin. "Get away!" he shrieks, blindly flinging a fireball in her (very) general direction.