Neo is good at not being found.
Really, she shouldn't be surprised. She and Emerald are both thieves, after all, and one of the most vital skills of a thief, one of the first things you learn, is how to disappear, how to vanish and go to ground in a safe place when there are people looking for you. It's one of the steps of a successful heist, whether you're a pickpocket or a cat burglar. After you claim your prize, you get out of there and lay low until the search dies down.
With the current state of affairs in Atlas, it's not difficult at all to hide. Between the remaining Grimm and the army fighting in the streets, one could simply slip in amongst the crowd of civilian refugees taking refuge in the underground tunnels with no one even noticing. Emerald has no idea how she's supposed to find Neo in this mess.
And even if she does manage to stumble across Neo, there's no guarantee that Emerald will recognize that it is in fact her. She could easily disguise herself to look like anyone using her semblance, and Emerald is pretty sure that's exactly what she's already done. There's no way Emerald could have lost her so quickly otherwise.
After recovering from the shock of Neo's illusion of Cinder, Emerald had been right behind her as they exited the whale through some secret passage Neo had found. She'd followed the other thief closely through the streets of Atlas, doing her best not to draw attention to the chase.
And then, between one blink and the next, Neo had vanished. Emerald knows that she's probably disguised as some random civilian that they passed, but that doesn't really give her much to go on. Just because she knows about Neo's illusions doesn't give her the ability to see through them.
Looking for the lamp probably won't help her much, either. Surely Neo would have already thought of that, and it'd be no challenge for her to mask the lamp as something innocuous. So what on earth is Emerald supposed to do now?
She needs to get her hands on that lamp, to use the last question before Neo can waste it. It can answer the questions that are burning in her mind. One of Cinder's last acts had been to claim the lamp for herself and bring it to Salem. And now it's Emerald's turn to take it.
It's what Cinder would want, right?
Now she just has to figure out how to do it. Maybe—maybe she could use one of her illusions to draw Neo out? Emerald can't see through her illusions, so that means Neo probably wouldn't see through someone else's semblance. But what would she create that would throw Neo off guard like that? Emerald doesn't know her that well, doesn't know much about her weaknesses and soft spots.
Maybe something to do with that Roman Torchwick guy that Neo seemed pretty obsessed with?
Her scroll buzzing distracts Emerald from her attempt to come up with a plan of action. She pulls it out of her pocket with a frown. Hard to believe that it has any signal, or could be working at all, in the midst of all this chaos. That's Atlas technology at work for you.
She pulls up her messages, her frown deepening. There's no messages from Mercury—not that she thought there'd be, rotten traitor. No messages from Cinder, obviously, although it still hurts.
No, the only new message in her inbox is a picture of the Lamp of Knowledge. It's from Neo, obviously, Emerald knows that even without looking at the sender. She doesn't remember adding Neo to her contacts, but apparently she did at some point. There's a smirk on her face as she stares out from Emerald's scroll.
Another message pops up. "Looking for something?" the text reads, obviously referring to the stolen lamp. "I might be willing to part with it, but only if you'll do something for me in return."
"Ugh." Emerald grits her teeth. Neo is as infuriating as ever. But this might be the only way she can find her—and more importantly, find the lamp. That doesn't make Neo's obvious taunt any less irritating, though. Especially since Emerald has no choice but to grovel to her in order to get the stupid lamp.
"Okay. What do you want."
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