An Eagle in the North

by Galenus

In the frozen wastelands of Jormag's realm, a wrecked airship lies thousands of miles away from its projected course. In the Durmond Priory, a young Sylvari engineer finds a forgotten letter detailing an expedition to recover the lost Spirits of the Wild. And in Lion's Arch, a Norn corsair tries to stay one step ahead of her past.

An Eagle in the North

by Galen

Prologue

The twisted wreckage lay upon the snow, splintered planks and shattered spars scattered over the landscape. A few broken propellers and scraps of linen identified the wreckage as that of an airship, though it would never fly again. The final moments of the dirigible had been violent indeed, having impacted with the ground at tremendous speed. If not for the cushioning effect of the deep snow that blanketed the landscape of the far northern Shiverpeak Mountains, doubtless the impact would have rendered the vessel unrecognisable, but instead the main hull was still somewhat intact. The great prow of the ship jutted out of a snow drift, ice sparkling on the carved form of a great eagle, wings outstretched. Howling winds whipped across the deck which had buckled inwards on impact, causing the bridge to collapse into the hold. The stern had fared little better, the heavy Charr-built engines having jumped their moorings on impact and barrelled forwards through bulkheads, collapsing the internal structure of the ship. Just above the still-turning fan of the main rear propeller, the name Aquila could be made out engraved in fine letters.

Fire had tried to spread through the ruined ship, but the constant winds and freezing temperatures had snuffed out the sparks that had sprung from ruptured electrical wiring and shattered lamps. The heavy fuel oil that had brought the Aquila all the way from Sparkfly Fen had spilled out onto the snow, adding a splash of colour to a landscape that had been uniformly white since the rise of Jormag. The fuel more oozed than flowed, testament to the dreadful cold that suffocated the land so close to the Elder Dragon's lair. A glob of the blackish liquid dropped onto the back of a still figure lying face down in one of the snow drifts. The unnatural angle of one of its tattooed arms more or less confirmed that any life was now extinct. Here and there around the ship could be made out more forms, all unmoving, all silent. Some were large, clearly Norn and Charr, whilst others were far smaller, Asura or humans. Even the feathers of a Tengu could be seen for a brief moment before a flurry of snow buried them in smothering whiteness.

The constant howl of the wind was drowned out for a moment by a shrieking roar that thundered across the desolate landscape. A vast shadow passed over the wreckage of the Aquila, sunlight glinting off of ice-covered wings. Claws the size of dolyaks tipped four tremendous limbs which currently lay tucked against the beast's icy hide, and a keen eye would spy a few scraps of fabric that still clung to the talons here and there. Atop a serpentine neck a head now peered down at the wreck for any sign of life, and seemingly disappointed at seeing none, opened impossibly wide jaws to bellow in frustration. Shaking its sinuous form and causing a shower of icicles to rain down across the Aquila's deck, the dragon turned north, leaving the ruined ship to be claimed by the elements. Soon once again the only sound was the wind whistling over the shattered remains of the airship.

The distant sun, already pale and wan this far north, slipped beneath the horizon less than an hour later. Once, fires from homesteads and settlements would have illuminated the landscape, but those hearths lay cold now, and the former halls of the Norn were either buried in snow or crushed under glaciers called forth by Jormag. The stars were brilliantly clear in the crisp air, with moonlight giving the frozen land an illusion of serenity. It was in fact hauntingly beautiful, but the only eyes that beheld it were the crystalline forms of the icebrood, Jormag's unthinking minions.

Had any of the icebrood been near the Aquila, they would have seen a tiny spark of flame ignite through a gaping hole in the side of the hull. They would have seen the spark erupt into flames above the hand of a Norn woman who crawled out of the wreck, the firelight illuminating her red hair. Their unblinking eyes would have seen her going from corpse to corpse, trying to find any sign of life, and failing every time. They would have watched as she wiped frozen tears off her cheeks before collecting up whatever food and supplies could be salvaged and starting to walk south. They would have seen her disappear into the night, never once looking back. Had they still been capable of independent thought, they might have wondered as to the circumstances that had lead her and the Aquila to this place and to this fate. But for now, there were no answers, just the brilliant night sky and the lone figure trudging with grim determination through the snow.

Chapter One

"For although in truth I saw no form of my God, I felt in my heart that He was real." With a groan that sounded remarkably similar to that emitted by the ancient oak table at which she sat, Musa Ananas let the scrap of paper fall out of her hand and rubbed tired eyes. Nine hours deep within the archives of the Durmand Priory had so far yielded nothing of use for her research into the existence and nature of the gods, aside from a splitting headache and an aching backside. Both problems had a simple diagnosis of course; the chair was hard, and Musa needed sunlight. And fortunately, there was a simple cure as well.

Brilliant rays of light washed over the alpine valley where the Priory was situated, embedded deep in the side of a jutting promontory of rock. Despite being still within the Shiverpeak Mountains, the outpost was far enough south to enjoy the warm air that rose from the equatorial jungles near Sparkfly Fen. Fir trees grew thickly along the sloping sides of the vale which met at a snow-fed river teeming with salmon. Picturesque though the landscape was, it could be deceptively dangerous. The hyper-aggressive Dredge [1] were ever tunnelling away beneath the earth, and where their holdings breached the surface conflict was never far away. Bands of pirates and Grawl [2] could be found through the region as well, so a traveller had to be prepared for trouble.

Musa stood in the morning sun and felt the warmth suffuse through her body. Her yellow complexion virtually glowed in the sunlight, highlighting the traces of green that showed up in patches across her arms and face. The bunched leaves that sprang from the rear of her head served as faux hair, framing a face that was more rugged than beautiful. Like all Sylvari, Musa had an unearthly quality to her; she had many of the characteristics of a human, but everything seemed just slightly off. Her plant ancestry was strikingly evident in her features, from the coiled flower buds that served as ears down to the hardened bark upon her shins. Eyes like hazelnuts looked down into the valley as her headache ebbed away. With a smile, Musa took a deep breath and leapt from the rock she was standing on, falling a dozen metres straight down into the snow-melt river below.

The sharp shock of the near freezing water jolted Musa's entire system, waking her up more thoroughly than a full cup of undiluted Charr coffee. Eddies and currents played across her skin, massaging the aches and pains away. She drifted with the flow, letting her body float downstream, eyes closed, feeling the natural world around her. For a moment, the troubles of the world were gone, replaced by perfect serenity.

It had to end of course. Musa fetched up on a sandbank a little way down the river, and slowly pulled herself out of the water. Her clothes were unharmed; being of Sylvari make, they needed a drink themselves every now and again, not to mention a touch of sunlight. With a final stretch, Musa began to walk back up towards the Priory. A clear mind would doubtless help her find what she was looking for.

---

The letter was in poor condition; not old, but also not considered important, tucked as it was away in a ponderous tome on Norn spirituality. Possibly it had even been used as a bookmark, since only half of it remained. Musa had picked it up more out of curiosity than anything else, Norn texts making for quite often tedious reading. After a few sentences however, the letter had her full and undivided attention.

"Dear Sir,

Your earlier missive was most informative! We are now confident that the area you described has all the hallmarks of the Shrine we seek. Though doubtless time and the pervasive influence of the Dragon have erased much, we have great hopes now for our expedition and the recovery of Eagle. Final preparations for the vessel have been arranged, the Iron Legion Charr having been most accommodating in this respect, though initial acquisition of the craft proved troubling, and the cost of helium is simply ruinous! But lest I bore you with unimportant details, I must come to the point.

Though we have much in the way of materiel, we lack knowledge, and an expedition such as ours has no chance of success without the right information. Specifically, we are deficient in maps of the Gravensfjord region where the Shrine was located. In our flight South to escape Jormag the Norn maps of this area were lost, but I write to you in the hopes that the Priory has preserved cartographical details of our former homeland. Though it pains me to ask this much more of you, I know of no-one more qualified to render assis-"

The sentence was cut off by the letter's bisection, leaving Musa none the wiser as to whom it may have been sent by, or for that matter, to who. Obviously a member of the Priory, though whether he or she was still alive was another matter all together. Not only scholars joined the Priory; much of the Order's time and resources were devoted to poking around in ancient ruins or buried temples, occupations that carried with them a fair amount of risk. But regardless of that, the mention of a Shrine and "Eagle" had Musa most intrigued. Her research into the nature of Tyrian divinity was now focused on the Norn belief system, so anything to do with the Spirits of the Wild was relevant. Could it be that the "Eagle" mentioned in the letter was the Spirit of Eagle?

Musa knew that when the Norn had fled south from Jormag, some of the Spirits of the Wild, Ox, Owl, Wolverine and Eagle, had remained behind to hold off the Elder Dragon to buy time for the Norn to escape. One of the spirits, Owl, was considered dead, devoured by Jormag, but the Norn were desperate to learn what had become of the other three. Unable to travel to Jormag's desolation however, and without a havroun [3] to communicate with the lost Spirits, their fate was unknown.

The writer of the letter was clearly Norn, having said "In our flight South to escape Jormag". An expedition to Eagle's shrine would be a risky one but the Norn, in Musa's experience, were no strangers to risk. On the contrary, they seemed to relish it, with the greater the challenge the better. Learning Eagle's fate alone would make them heroes; actually rescuing the Spirit would make them legends. With no date on the letter, it was impossible to tell when the expedition may have set off, yet the possibility of finding individuals who had actually seen a lost Spirit of the Wild was simply too tempting to pass up. The leads provided by the letter were slim, to be sure, but Musa had contacts across Tyria for occasions such as this. Her steps as she took the stairs out of the archive betrayed the excitement she felt in her heart. Even if it came to nothing, it would doubtless be an interesting investigation.

---

[1] The dredge are an intelligent mole-like race found in the Shiverpeak Mountains. They view themselves as the true heirs of the dwarves and are involved in an ongoing conflict with the Norn over territory. Militarily advanced, they follow an ideology that emphasises the collective over the individual.

[2] The grawl are a simian-like primitive humanoid species that once lived in Ascalon, the Charr Homelands, and the Southern Shiverpeaks. They worship virtually anything, are considered to have fairly low intelligence and are mostly aggressive towards outsiders and each other.

[3] Havrouns are uncommon Norn shamans. Their duty is to tend to the Spirits' needs in this life and after. They are able to cross over into the Mists to be with their patron spirit where they can live forever. They need no portal or ritual to cross over, unless they are taking others with them. There is only one havroun per Spirit of the Wild, although they may pass the havroun title to their apprentices once they cross over.

Chapter Two

The shop was dingy and dark, tucked away in a stinking alley just above the waterline. Foul-smelling water practically lapped at customer's feet as they ventured down here, an act surely none of them would have contemplated if there was a better alternative. But sometimes you needed to sell items of uncertain provenance, and when you did you came to places like this. Today there was one customer, a Norn, and from the look on her face, she had done this before. The dealer behind the counter, an Asura who had seen better days, turned the offered artefact over in his hands, rubbing one finger along a side, before tossing it down onto the counter. "A blind Skritt wouldn't be interested in this. Ten coppers because I'm feeling generous."

With a sound of grinding teeth, the Norn leaned forwards, her long red hair spilling down on either side of her face. She would be considered quite attractive, if your tastes went in the direction of eight-foot-tall women, and you didn't mind a nose that had clearly been broken several times. Lines around her eyes and mouth showed that she was fond of laughter, but right now, her face was hard. Glaring balefully at the proprietor, the Norn growled out a reply. "That's a solid platinum statue of a Charr Titan, one of their gods. Don't try and jerk me around on this; I know what its worth. Fifty silver for the metal alone, double that for the artistic and cultural value."

The shopkeeper laughed dismissively. "Artistic and cultural value? What do you think this is, a Sylvari boutique? I care about what I can get for it, and I know no-one who'd be interested. In case you didn't know, the Charr don't have gods anymore, so why would any of them want to buy something like this?" The Asura sneered up at his customer. "I suppose you could melt it down for the metal, but there'd be a lot of impurities. Have to organise a jeweller as well, good thing I know someone. Alright, tell you what, twenty-five silver. Should see me a return on my investment."

Zita Hooke groaned inwardly as she heard the offer, knowing she wasn't going to get any better. Five other pawnshops, all more reputable then this establishment, had offered less, and you couldn't go lower than this dive without actually going underwater. Trying to make it look like she was only accepting the offer under duress, she snatched the bag of coins from the table and stormed out with the chuckles of the Asura ringing in her ears. She took the stairs three at a time, escaping the pungent alley as rapidly as possible.

Emerging out onto the Grand Piazza of Lion's Arch felt glorious. Instead of the stagnant garbage-polluted water that lapped around the canals the air was filled with the clean, crisp smell of the open ocean. Countless travellers, merchants and soldiers filed by on equally countless errands and quests, mostly emerging from and entering the great Asura gates that squatted at the south end of the Piazza, from which they could access virtually anywhere across Tyria. A few paused at the sight of Zita standing on the side of the square, looking out across the ocean. Her figure was striking, and the clothes she chose to wear showed it off to grand effect, the skin-tight breeches following every curve. Thigh high leather boots, a low cut blouse and a vivid red bandana completed the ensemble. If someone had been watching her face as opposed to her more striking assets, they would have seen the wistful look in her eyes as she followed the movement of the great ships in the harbour. With a visible reluctance, Zita tore herself away from the scene and began to head deeper into the city.

---

The barkeep was a bearded bull of a man; skin littered with tattoos that spoke of a nautical background. As soon as he saw Zita walk into his saloon, he pulled a bottle of rum off the shelf the sat it down next to a flagon on the counter. Zita walked straight up, slapped a handful of coins on the ale-stained wood, and retired to her usual table before pouring herself a generous serve. Dark amber liquid rushed down Zita's throat, drowning out the memories for a blessed moment. The bottle was nearly empty when a massive clawed paw slammed down on the table. The remnants of Zita's beverage spilled onto the floor as the bottle capsized.

The owner of the hand was nearly as tall as Zita herself, but there the resemblance ended. A shaggy mane framed a feline head topped by two curved horns. The creature's body was broad across the shoulders, speaking of raw power barely contained by the armour that strained across bulging muscles. A jutting muzzle produced a snarl that burst from between razor sharp fangs. Zita glared up at the one who had interrupted her drink. Somehow you just never got used to Charr, no matter how many you met. They were in a class of their own.

"You've been poking your nose in where it doesn't belong," the Charr growled, pointing one shaggy digit at Zita's ample chest. "Stealing. Killing. Blaspheming". The digit now ran itself across the Charr's throat. "Now you pay."

"If you want payment, you'll have to talk to Nick over there," Zita retorted, throwing a thumb in the direction of the barkeeper, "he's got all the proceeds now." Harsh laughter broke out from the patrons who'd heard the remark, with the notable exception of the Charr. The statement wasn't true in the slightest; a bottle of Nick's firewater rum would set you back ten coppers at most, and even that was probably too much for a liquid you could happily run an airship on. Feeling emboldened by the drink, Zita decided to twist the knife a bit more. "'Course it was a bit hard to sell. But once it was melted down I found a buyer. Now it's adorning the ears and fingers of Krytan noblewomen. I'm told they look simply divine." She grinned.

The final insult was too much for the Charr to bear, and with a roar of "Burn, heretic!" he launched himself forwards at the Norn. Even though Zita had been anticipating this attack the drink had slowed her reactions, and she had barely enough time to snatch her dagger from her hip before the Charr crashed into her, sending them both reeling to the bar floor as Zita's chair disintegrated on impact. As gnashing fangs snapped at Zita's head she felt a stabbing pain in her side, though whether it had been caused by claws or splinters was at this point irrelevant. Air began to swirl around the Norn's wrists, eddies wrapping themselves around the dagger clutched in her hands. Establishing her connection to the elements, Zita then focused the power of air into a solid force, flinging the Charr back across the room and herself up against another table. A half full bottle of liquor dropped into her lap, a happy co-incidence that she was all too glad to take advantage of. Ripping the cork out with her teeth, she took a generous mouthful and got to her feet, staggering a little, just as the Charr regained his footing as well. Snatching a sword from his belt, the bestial humanoid snarled and charged towards Zita once again.

"Lighten up," she growled, and brought her hand up to her mouth. As she opened her palm flame burst into life, and as Zita opened her lips a torrent of fire issued forth, immolating the Charr as he rushed forwards. Fur and armour flashed alight, but whether it was the dark gods he worshiped or just pure rage, the Flame Legionnaire [4] kept coming, bursting through the flames to slam into Zita's chest. The sickening crunch of a rib breaking reached Zita's ears, followed by crushing pain, yet this was of secondary concern as the world was suddenly rushing upwards at an alarming rate.

Charr and Norn hit the canal below the bar window, sending torrents of filthy water cascading onto the walls on either side. The murky river now filled Zita's vision, effectively blinding her, but her opponent was still very much alive and very much still trying to kill her. The shock of hitting the water had severed Zita's attunement to flame, however she could feel the soft mud of the canal bottom under her boots. Driving her dagger blindly in the direction of the Charr, she was rewarded with hitting something that had resistance. Taking full advantage of this temporary reprieve, she brought the dagger down, slicing through the laces on her right boot and letting her bare foot sink into mud. The strength of earth flowed into Zita as the connection was established, and a great hand of mud and rock emerged from the canal bed, snatching at the Charr's legs. The deadly fingers wrapped themselves around the Charr, dragging his struggling form down into the murky depths. Kicking off from the canal bottom, Zita strove for the surface, her joining with earth fading as she did so, but she needed air.

Zita's head breached the surface of the water, knocking aside a discarded chamber pot as she kicked for the nearest stairs at once. Hauling herself out onto the stone landing, she gulped air and then proceeded to vomit up half the canal. Looking back at the water, she saw no sign of her attacker, and then winced as the wounds on her chest and side made themselves known once more. Reaching down with her left hand, Zita let her fingers slip back into the canal. It might be polluted, but it was still water. Zita felt the elemental power flow into her, the healing power of hydration going some way to mending her battered body. Shaking slightly, she began to rise.

A clawed hand burst from the water and seized her wrist, followed by the roaring mud covered form of the Flame Legionnaire. Launching himself out of the water, he drove Zita back against the dirt of the canal wall, slamming her body against the soil hard enough to shake loose several clumps of grass. Pure hatred burned in the Charr's eyes as he drew back his sword for the final stroke. "Go to your gods, unbeliever," the creature snarled.

The sword slowed as it plunged forwards before stopping half way to Zita's chest. Surprise registered on his face as the Charr struggled, then looked down in horror as the mud that caked his body hardened. Tiny specks of dirt were wrapped around Zita's wrists, and a trickle of soil from the canal bank had touched the Charr's mud encrusted foot. Slowly, the earth solidified, reaching upwards, inch by inch, entombing the helpless figure. Gradually the mud at the Charr's neck became solid, then began to constrict. A strangled gasping noise issued forth from the beast's muzzle and only ended when Zita summoned enough energy to kick the impromptu statue into the canal. It sunk like a stone.

"You first," Zita croaked, her throat raw from the canal water. Grasping at the dirt wall, she hauled herself to her feet and began to climb the stairs to the street. It was fortunate indeed that brawls were common enough in this district, but even then, this would attract attention, and Zita hated attention, mainly because the people who got really interested had some pressing questions about her past. Nick wouldn't talk of course, his discretion being legendary, but how many onlookers had seen the fight? Well aware that she was doing her best drowned rat impersonation, Zita staggered out onto the street and gave a weak smile at a few onlookers. "Don't try swimming down there, really big fish" she panted.

Zita passed a few Lionguard [5] on the way back home, but none of them paid her much attention. You got all types in Lion's Arch, and plenty of them were down on their luck. That would doubtless change when word got around that a red-haired Norn woman had been brawling, but for now, they were blissfully ignorant. Well-to-do locals and merchants chatted in the marketplace, paying little attention to the slightly swerving Norn cutting her way through the crowd. She climbed stone steps that lead towards the docks before turning towards the Gangplank [6]. In one of the ancient ships she crawled into a hammock, locking the door securely first. A hearth on one side held stacked timber that sprang alight at Zita's command, heating the room to sweltering in moments. She closed her eyes, letting the warmth suffuse through her and tried to relax. Tomorrow she'd move house and attempt to disappear again. It was unfortunate, but she had little choice. Her past would catch up to her otherwise.

---

[4] The Flame Legion are an outcast group of Charr who still hold to the old beliefs of the Charr, specifically the worship of the Titans. Once the dominant force in Charr society, they were overthrown and cast out, and now wage a vicious guerrilla war against the remaining Legions.

[5] The Lionguard is a military group that once acted as the defenders of Kryta. Their power was usurped 250 years ago by the White Mantle. Since the end of the War in Kryta, they were then mostly replaced by the Seraph. Though their role is now less official, they still act as protectors to the people of Lion's Arch, and to a lesser extent, Tyria. They can be seen as the defenders of the merchants of Lion's Arch, and are a major authority in the pirate-riddled town.

[6] A bridge in Lion's arch comprised of the hulks of ships.

Chapter Three

With a final burst of crackling energy Musa Ananas rematerialized on a platform in the Black Citadel, the main Charr city in Ascalon and the seat of power for the Legions. She had to suppress a shudder as she did so. Travelling by Asura Gate was perfectly safe of course, at least according to the Asura, but for a Sylvari, it always felt as if your connection to the Dream [7] had been severed. Musa's boots, which a moment ago had been on the snow-covered soil of Hoelbrak, now rang out on tarnished steel. It was a sound you had to get used to in the Black Citadel.

Built over the ruins of Ascalon City, the razed capital of the human nation of Ascalon, the Black Citadel was a soaring edifice of jagged metal, build around a gigantic central dome. Each of the three primary Charr Legions – Blood, Ash and Iron – had their headquarters here, and the city's defences were truly staggering. Entire courtyards were devoted to storage lots for Charr tanks and attack buggies, whilst drilling soldiers marched ceaselessly across parade grounds. Here and there the diminutive forms of Charr cubs could be seen, usually being shepherded around by their fahrar [8] leader. If there was ever a race that idolised militarism, surely it was the Charr.

Musa's natural colours made a stark contrast to the drab manufactured look of the Citadel. Most people assumed that Sylvari would loathe coming to a place so far removed from nature, but Musa felt perfectly at home. Her reasoning had always been that artificial constructs were made from natural materials that had been reshaped into a new form. A Charr chugger [9] was thus as natural as an oak tree, which after all, melded naturally occurring elements into a wholly new form. It was a philosophy that made Musa a little odd amongst her peers, but her chosen vocation of mechanical engineering would have caused that by itself.

Having arrived so recently in the world of Tyria, the Sylvari had precious little knowledge of mechanics, and so early in her life Musa had travelled to the Black Citadel to seek training from the Iron Legion. Without the Iron Legion's technical prowess, the Charr could not have been the dominant military force they were today. Charr engineering was certainly more crude and utilitarian than Asura work, which tended to favour aesthetics and form, but there was no denying that Charr technology was brutally effective.

Musa felt the sheer heat of the Great Imperial Smelter long before she reached it. The primary producer of steel in the Black Citadel, the Smelter consumed hundreds of tons of iron ore every day. The furnace was never dampened, running day and night, for the Charr military machine stopped for nothing. Given their opponents, that was understandable. The Charr had been fighting the same enemy for over two centuries, and victory was no closer than it had been from the first day. Their foes were the immortal ghosts of Ascalon, created when their last King had unleashed a terrible force known as the Foefire when the Charr crushed his remaining armies. The dreadful magical energies had transformed almost every remaining Ascalonian into vengeful spirits who still haunted the land and attacked unceasingly. Defeating them earned only a temporary respite, as they would reform days or weeks later, and attack once more. Only the Charr could have stood for so long against such a foe, Musa reflected.

Standing on one of the platforms around the rim of the smelter was a familiar figure. Unlike most Charr, this individual had only one horn rising from his head, the other having been claimed in an accident of some sort. He wore ash-stained leathers, worn with use, and currently he was waving a wrench at a significantly younger Charr, who was cringing. As Musa walked up the gantry, she heard the end of the conversation.

"Two-eighths? I said three-sixths you worthless spawn of a Grawl! Get out of my sight before I decide you'd be better served as fuel for the furnace!" The berated Charr fled at once, scurrying down the stairs past Musa. She smiled up at the now alone Charr on the platform.

"Hello, Blackhorn. Chasing off another apprentice I see?"

Blackhorn barked harsh laughter and shook his shaggy head. "Apprentice? Such a title should not be bestowed on a cub like that. In two years time, maybe, I'll call him that, and he'll have worked hard to get it. But you know that of course."

Musa grinned back. Her apprenticeship under Blackhorn had been a massive shock when it had first started. Charr were so unlike Sylvari, and her first few nights in the Citadel had been spent crying in her tiny tent deep in Gladium Canton. It had taken all her willpower to stay, a decision she had never since regretted. Blackhorn had apparently taken her on as his apprentice as part of a bet with a fellow Engineer, the idea of a Sylvari practicing mechanics being something of a joke amongst the Charr. Blackhorn's rival had lost both the bet and a number of teeth when Musa turned out to be an excellent engineer, the teeth not being part of the bet, but lost when the rival Charr made disparaging remarks about Musa. Blackhorn's respect was not given lightly, and he would defend those who earned it to the death.

"How goes the work?" Musa enquired, in no rush to begin her enquiries.

Blackhorn shook his head and growled. "High Command is screaming at us for more vehicles for the Pact. First they take our best legions to go fight some undead Dragon in Orr, now they want every last chopper [10] and tank we can produce. They seem to forget that the ghosts of Ascalon can be found less than a mile outside our walls. There are battles that need winning at home before we think of foreign adventures."

Having been to the drowned continent of Orr, Musa tactfully didn't comment. She knew all too well the threat that Zaitan posed. The Elder Dragon had raised an entire continent from the ocean floor and reanimated the bodies of its former citizens to create a vast undead army that now threatened half of Tyria. The Pact, comprised of the Vigil, Durmand Priory and Order of Whispers, had been formed to counter Zaitan. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Deciding that changing the subject would be a good idea, Musa made a non-committal noise and clasped her hands behind her back. "Tell me, what do you know about helium? Why would someone want it in large quantities?"

Blackhorn looked across at her then laughed. "Seriously?" he barked. "Figured you'd know that already. Airships use it to maintain buoyancy. And they need a pile of it too. Takes a lot to get one hundred tons of wood and metal airborne."

Musa's face registered annoyance for a moment at being mocked, but the expression faded quickly as she turned this new information over in her head. Of course it made sense to take an airship to get into Jormag's realm. You couldn't get there on foot; the icebrood would get you. In the air there were threats too, but fewer of them. If you stayed in the clouds, you might just make it.

"Why do you ask?" Blackhorn enquired, letting the wrench roll across his paw. "Thinking of building the first Sylvari airship? You could call it the Spruce Caboose, heh heh."

Musa shook her head. "No, I'm trying to track down an expeditionary vessel that may have gone into the far northern Shiverpeaks. It was almost certainly an airship, captained by a Norn. Know anything along those lines?"

Blackhorn shook his head. "Not my area really. Unless you're looking for the Aquila. Everyone knows about that." The blank look on Musa's face gave lie to the Charr's words, and he sighed. "Right, I sometimes forget you're not even three years old yet. It was before your…err…"

"Blossoming." Musa said, fighting the urge to smile. [11]

"Right, right. Anyway, five years ago now it was. The Aquila left from down in Sparkfly Fen. She was one of the early models, AS-480, a bit old, but nothing wrong with her. Iron Legion mechanics went over every inch of that vessel before she left, have no doubt about that. There was a lot of excitement about the voyage she was about to depart on. Her goal was reaching Cantha, which as you may or may not know, we haven't heard from since Orr resurfaced and severed the shipping lanes. An airship might be able to make the journey where a ship couldn't, and if it did, well…you'd make a pile of coin, that's for sure."

Musa's knowledge of the distant continent of Cantha was sparse. The oldest human kingdom, it was located in the far south-west of Tyria, across the Unending Ocean. Once the source of a lucrative trade, contact with Cantha had been all but severed by the rising of Orr, with the only news of its continued existence coming from the occasional shipwrecked sailor washed up on the shores of the Tarnished Coast.

Blackhorn sighed. "Not that the owners saw any profit in the end. The Aquila never came back. Lost at sea was the official word after two years passed with no word. She might have fallen foul of a storm but I doubt it. The AS-480's were solid vessels; it would take a typhoon to bring one down. No, I suspect something else happened to her, but you'd never find out. They don't call that ocean Unending for nothing."

Musa spent a moment taking this in, then her brow furrowed. "This was big news at the time?"

"Huge," Blackhorn intoned, "they were talking about it from Rata Sum to Ebonhawke. An airship going down without a trace, especially one on a mission like that? Couldn't keep a story like that quiet for long."

"So, if another airship had been lost, it would be well known?"

"Of course" Blackhorn replied.

Musa leaned forwards. "And do you know of any other airships that went down in your lifetime?

"Not a single one" said Blackhorn proudly.

---

[7] The Dream is the name of the mysterious state of consciousness Sylvari experience prior to their "awakening" into the real world. In this state, they experience visions of the outer world and become acquainted with it through the past experiences of other Sylvari. In this way, they learn things both trivial and vital about their future lives. Although the Dream is left behind by Sylvari upon awakening in the real world, everything a Sylvari experiences in his or her subsequent life is added to the Dreams of Sylvari not yet born.

[8] A fahrar, also known as a crèche, is the Charr equivalent of school. Shortly after birth, a Charr cub is separated from its parents and sent to the fahrar of their High Legion. Cubs in a fahrar are taught to unify, encouraged to define their own social structure, and are thus formed into a warband.

[9] Light tank

[10] A slang term for a Charr military helicopter. They are mainly used for scouting and supply, being too cumbersome for combat roles.

[11] Sylvari are not born like other races, but rather emerge fully grown from pods that bud on the Pale Tree. They have no concept of childhood and their collective memory allows them to function more or less as adults from their first moments.

Chapter Four

Zita Hooke was woken by the sound of thunder booming around the bay and groaned as her crusted eyes cracked open. A dinner of rum, canal water and stab wound was not the best way to ensure a good night's sleep. The thunder continued, ringing against Zita's aching skull like a hammer on an anvil, and after a moment of fogginess passed she could make out something being shouted in the midst of the storm. It took a few seconds for her muddled brain to register the words, but when it did, Zita sat bolt upright in bed.

"Open up in the name of the Lionguard!" The harsh voice rang out again, accompanied by a ferocious pounding on the door to Zita's tiny home. With the clarity that only comes from fear, Zita realised that she had been woken not by thunder, but by knocking. She could guess all too well why the Lionguard were snooping around the Gangplank, it being well known as a hideout for vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells. The sound of fists on other doors in the corridor however gave her a faint hope. Perhaps it was just a regular sweep. "Yeah, and Bear has no balls", Zita muttered to herself. Escape was impossible, so she headed over to the door to open it before it was wrenched off the hinges.

Standing on the other side was a human, dressed in the regular armour of the Lionguard. He had his fist raised in the air, ready to knock again, and snarled as the door swung open. "'Bout time scum. Come out in the light and let's have a look at you."

Feeling somewhat like a cow in the marketplace, Zita stepped out into the hallway, stooping to get her head under the door. A few torches ensconced on the walls illuminated her vivid red hair, and the Lionguard grinned nastily. Taking a moment to glance down at a sheet of paper, upon which was sketched a reasonably accurate picture of Zita, he looked up and down the hallway and then motioned Zita to step back inside her room.

The Lionguard followed the Norn inside and closed the door. Zita's hand was on her hip, ready to snatch out her dagger at a moment's notice. Killing a Lionguard was a sure fire way to buy you a one way trip to the gallows, but if the choice was between that and a worse fate, she'd risk the noose. Yelling for help would be pointless. No-one would believe her word over that of a Lionguard, and they'd never show up in time anyway.

"Well, well," the Lionguard murmured, "looks like we've found the notorious Canal Killer. Quite a scene you caused yesterday."

Zita shook her head. "Don't know anything about that. I was here all day yesterday."

The man laughed. "Yeah sure, real convincing. Well, save your breath for fooling someone else. I'm not interested in the murderer of a filthy animal like a Charr. Far as I'm concerned the more of them in the bottom of canals the better. Sadly, for some reason the authorities still consider it a crime, so…what say I just let you go with a fine."

Hope flared in Zita's heart. Losing her hard-earned silver would make things difficult, but given the alternative, she'd gladly pay. Wordlessly she pulled out the pouch of coin she'd worked so hard to procure the previous day and handed it over. Trying to hold some back would be useless. The thought of being strip-searched by the corrupt specimen before her filled her with revulsion.

Still grinning, the Lionguard tipped the pouch up and gleefully counted through the coins, Zita having a moment of satisfaction in seeing that he'd added up wrong. "Well now, I think that should be sufficient. You stay out of trouble, you hear?" He sketched a salute and opened the door, stepping out into the corridor and slamming the door shut with a laugh.

Zita sat on her hammock waiting for the sound of the raid to die down before numbly walking over to the basin mounted on the rear wall of her tiny apartment. Pulling off her bandana, she took one of her daggers and began to mechanically slice her hair off, long crimson locks falling into the basin with barely a sound. When her connection to the elements had first manifested in her teenage years, people had assumed her hair meant she would favour fire, but in fact it had been water that had called to Zita the strongest. Surrounded as she was by frozen fields of the stuff, that was possibly not too surprising. Snow however hadn't been enough; Zita had found herself drawn to first rivers, which lead to lakes, and then finally to the ocean. When Zita had first stepped out of the tree-line and saw, in the distance, the endless blue expanse of the sea, she knew that she never wanted to leave. She'd signed onto a ship the very next day, the first step in a chaotic career that had taken her places she never would have imagined.

As the dagger scraped across her skull, removing the last traces of fuzz, she let her mind drift back to those carefree days. Any ship would gladly welcome a crew member who could manipulate the wind and waves, and after only a few cruises she had found herself highly sought after. The positions had grown more lucrative, the ships grander, and the company more pleasant. She'd once joked that she had a man in every port, not quite an accurate statement, but at the height of her career it was fairly close. Her face was known the entire length of the Bloodtide Coast, and the legend of Zita Hooke, dashing corsair, was already being written [12].

All that had changed with her final assignment. She'd leapt at the opportunity when it was put to her; the pay was excellent and the chance for glory unparalleled. But some things never turned out the way you hoped they would. When she'd returned, her face had been forgotten, a state of affairs she had encouraged, since according to the official records, Zita Hooke was dead. If she was suddenly found to be alive, pressing questions would be asked. Questions she did not wish to answer. The truth could be far more dangerous than a lie.

She ran a hand over her now bald scalp, and then fished around in one of the pockets of her blouse. Her questing fingers found the small, smooth bottle she had picked up in a Flame Legion temple last week when she'd been librating them of their prized relic. Uncorking the vial, she tipped out a portion of vivid crimson dye onto her hand, then began to trace patterns across her face and upper arms. Zita had refrained from the elaborate body and facial tattoos so favoured by the Norn, a decision she was now fervently grateful for, since it would augment her disguise greatly. A trip down the hallway to the Gangplank's fetid latrine took care of the remaining dye on her hands, and then Zita packed her meagre possessions and stepped out onto the bridge that had been her home.

Few people gave the bald, savage looking Norn a second look as she threaded her way through the crowds. She glared balefully at any glances in her direction, playing the role of "angry barbarian you don't want to mess with" to a tee. Even the Lionguard on her route gave her no more than a perfunctory glance before finding something else to occupy their attention.

The tall round circles of the Asura Gates were the site of a throng of activity, traders and soldiers funnelling through the portals in an endless stream. Zita's decision on which gate to take took only a few moments. Right now, she wanted to get as far away from Lion's Arch, and the Black Lion Trading Company, as possible. Rata Sum, the Asuran capital city, was the logical choice. There was a minimal Company presence there, the Asura preferring their own companies for mercantile needs, and there was always work going with the various krewes [13]. It was even near the sea. Zita took one final look at the city that had been her home for the past four years, closed her eyes, and stepped through the portal.

---

[12] Every Norn has an innate urge to forge their own legend, to be remembered in song and story for generations to come. There is a spiritual side to this as well; only by achieving fame and glory will a Norn consider themselves worthy to join their ancestors in the afterlife.

[13] Krewes are special Asuran work gangs or limited single task corporate entities, which usually dissolve after solving a specific problem or task. Krewes allow freedom, with no structured government, for the asura. Asura simply work in a krewe until the project is done, then find another one.

Chapter Five

"Hair red like fire…", "…tall as a tree she was, with a huge pair of…", "…all covered in rock, took a crane to get him out…", "…dredging the canals for more…"

Snatches of conversation swirled around Musa Ananas as she walked out of the Black Citadel Asura Gate and into the main Plaza of Lion's Arch. She had no idea what they were talking about; likely some piece of irrelevant local gossip. Whatever it was, it certainly seemed to have stirred up the city, and as Musa walked deeper into the Plaza, she heard the voice of a crier ringing out over the din of conversation.

"Lionguard believe the Canal Killer to still be within the city limits! All citizens are encouraged to be on their guard, and report any individuals matching the description of the suspect to the nearest Lionguard representative! Commodore Marriner has appealed for calm and insisted this morning that there was no cause for panic!"

Judging by the crowd, Musa thought people were more intrigued than terrified. Her reasons for being in the port city however had nothing to do with bizarre murders or their perpetrators. The trail of the elusive airship had taken her here, specifically to the headquarters of the Black Lion Company, one of the most powerful trading corporations in Tyria.

Blackhorn had been most helpful, directing her to the Iron Legion archives, where complete records of all Charr-built airships were meticulously stored. The Charr had built the first airships, although these days the models being produced had many Asura-designed modifications, mostly in the way of lightweight materials and energy weapons. The fusion of the two approaches to engineering had resulted in ships that were far larger and faster than the older models, but also significantly more expensive. Only the Pact had the latest models in large quantities currently, meaning that for the most part, the dirigibles that plied the trade routes that criss-crossed over Tyria's skies were older ships, and therefore mainly Charr in design. Blackhorn had been right; no Charr-built airship had been lost in over sixty years, and the three instances of downed ships from earlier days all had well-documented crash sites.

That left the Aquila as the sole candidate for the mystery vessel that had sailed north to find the lost Spirit of Eagle. It clearly had not returned, for the Norn of Hoelbrak remained adamant that no word had been heard regarding Eagle for generations. Besides, the momentous news of the return of a lost Spirit would have been sensational, and common knowledge to any Norn. The fate of the ship though was still a mystery; with no known crash site, it might still be out there. The thrill of uncovering the mystery had Musa quite enthralled, her naturally inquisitive nature asserting itself thoroughly.

The Aquila had been owned and operated by the Black Lion Trading Company, who had loaned the ship out for the expedition to Cantha some five years ago. Their reasons for doing so were obvious enough, as Blackhorn had mentioned; reopening the trade with Cantha would produce a gold mine of lucre. Still, it seemed a risky venture when all was considered, especially as the Company had, at the time of the expedition, only four airships in total. The loss of the Aquila had doubtless been a great blow to the Company's fortunes. Musa needed more information about the Aquila and her crew however before she could go any further.

The sound of boots hitting cobblestones faded, to be replaced with the soft, crisp sound of shoes on well polished wooden floors. Inside the main foyer of the Black Lion Trading Company, elegantly dressed businessmen rubbed shoulders with roughly attired adventurers and representatives of government. Lionguard were thick in the hall, as to be expected when so much money and power was concentrated in one place. Walking up to the front desk, Musa waited for the receptionist to acknowledge her presence, and then asked who it would be best to speak to about the Aquila.

"Oh yes, the ship that crashed in the Unending Ocean!" the Sylvari receptionist said with a decidedly bubbly air. "Well I'm not sure who exactly would know a lot about it, unless…um…" She trailed off, as if unsure of what to say next.

Musa suppressed a sigh and forced a smile. "Might Evon Nashblade be available?"

The receptionist quivered like a shrub in a storm upon hearing the name of the executive president of the Company, and shook her head vigorously, causing several blue-tinted leaves to fall to the floor. "No no no no no no no, quite out of the question, Sir Nashblade is a very busy Charr indeed, no time for such questions but…um…" She paused for a moment as Musa's fingernails began to dig grooves in the counter top. "Sir Nashblade's personal assistant might be able to help you. Her name is Sareb, and she's a Sylvari like me! Oh, and like you as well!" she gushed, as if noticing Musa's physiognomy for the first time. "Hopefully more like me than you," Musa thought to herself before thanking the receptionist and heading up to Sareb's office.

Clearly being personal assistant to Evon Nashblade was a lucrative position, judging by the luxurious waiting room that Musa found herself directed to, though a busy one as well, since five others were already sitting waiting to see Sareb, including a Seraph and a Lionguard. Musa took a seat herself and pulled a Charr engineering journal out of her pack for a spot of light reading, and barely noticed the next two and a half hours spent waiting.

Sareb's office was even grander than the atrium, with walls of marble and aged mahogany, cleverly arranged to give the impression of a forest glade. Ledgers and files were cunningly hidden in-between trunk-like columns, and a small fountain played in one corner of the room. Invisible ventilation shafts funnelled fresh breezes through the room, carrying with them the sound of the distant ocean. Sareb herself was seated at a vast desk carved out of a single lump of rock, with moss and lichen arrayed on its edges. Her complexion was dark but her face was open and friendly. She motioned for Musa to take a seat on a carved wooden chair and nodded a greeting. "Always a pleasure to meet a fellow child of the Pale Tree."

Musa inclined her head in return and smiled back. "Likewise, sister. Just walking in here makes me feel homesick for the Grove [14], truly it has been too long since I last visited."

Sareb sighed and looked wistful for a moment. "I can share those sentiments certainly. The pressure of running Sir Nashblade's business unfortunately makes travel an impossibility. So I have endeavoured to create a little of the Grove here. I'm sure the Mother tree would understand."

Musa nodded. "As Ventari [15] said, "where life goes, so too should you." We were not meant to spend our lives in just one place."

Sareb smiled and bowed her head. "You speak like a Firstborn [16], but you have the look of youth about you. A recent sprouting?"

Musa nodded again. "Nearly three years now. I have travelled far in that time and learned much though."

"Then I am certain the Pale Tree approves. Now tell me, what brings you to my Grove today?"

Sareb's face was a study in neutrality as Musa outlined her story about the mystery airship that had journeyed north to find the lost Spirit of Eagle, and her belief that it was the Aquila. When she finally finished, Sareb paused for a moment, then looked downcast. "I am…sorry. Even after so long, the loss still shakes me to the stem. It was a terrible waste of life and money, and we've spent the past five years trying to recover."

Successfully too, by the looks of things, Musa thought to herself. Still, perhaps Sareb would respond well to the prospect of hope. "It may be that the Aquila is not lost though. If my research is correct, the ship went north, not south, and even now may yet be recovered. Would not such a feat be worthwhile?"

"Undoubtedly," Sareb replied, "but you have so little to go on. An old letter, some theories, these are fragile foundations to build upon. I find it far more likely that the Aquila lies wrecked on the ocean floor far beyond our shores."

Musa pressed on, undeterred. "But the letter is real, and the motives make sense. The Norn are desperate to regain their lost spirits, and with a Norn captain, the Aquila might easily have been diverted from its original course."

Sareb smiled, though there was little warmth in it. "I'm afraid then that your theory cannot possibly be true. The captain of the Aquila and leader of the expedition was Ixx Kahn: an Asura. Now tell me, what cause would an Asura have to go chasing after a lost Spirit?"

Musa's heart sank like a stone. Sareb's logic was undeniable. The letter she had read must have come from a Norn, and clearly the leader of the expedition, but if no Norn was in command, the ship couldn't be the Aquila. She shook her head miserably, "None, of course."

"Here," Sareb said, crossing the room and pulling a file from the wall "this is the crew list for the Aquila on her last voyage; cargo manifest as well. You can check it if you like. There were a few Norn on the crew, but not many if I recall. It was a diverse mix, designed to represent the major races of Tyria."

"Thank you," Musa said dully, taking the offered papers. She shuffled them in a distracted fashion then rose from her chair. "You have been most helpful Sareb. Thank you for your time."

"Not at all, my dear," Sareb said, a genuine smile now showing on her face. "I hope you unravel your mystery in the end. I'm just sorry I couldn't be of any more help. You can keep the papers. We have several copies."

Musa left the office with the files in hand then walked mechanically down to the plaza once more. Had she looked behind her, she may have been able to make out thefigure of Sareb, standing behind her office window, watching intently as Musa disappeared into the crowd.

---

[14] The Grove is the Sylvari capital, and site of the Pale Tree.

[15] Ventari was a centaur who inscribed his philosophy of peace onto a stone tablet that subsequently was used by the Pale Tree as the basis for the ethics and morals of the Sylvari. The Nightmare Court, a renegade Sylvari group, believes Ventari's teachings to be wrong, and seek to undermine them at every turn. The seven tenets of Ventari's Tablet are the moral foundation for Sylvari society, and treated as the words of a prophet.

[16] The first generation of Sylvari, commonly held to be the wisest and most powerful of their race.

Chapter Six

"I really must say, your timing could not have been more fortuitous," gushed the Asura walking alongside Zita Hooke. "Here I am, desperate for a bodyguard for my expedition, and the perfect candidate strolls through my door. I trust the arrangements are satisfactory?"

Zita could only nod in response. In truth, the arrangements were far more than satisfactory. The Asura, whose name was Plink, had already promised her five silver in advance for accompanying him on his expedition to an abandoned laboratory, but was also willing to pay twenty-five silver per day plus an additional five silver bounty on each hostile that Zita dispatched. It was far more than Zita had expected from a regular krewe, but then again, Plink wasn't with a regular krewe. His black and red armour had a striking appearance, one that Zita hadn't seen on any Asura on her way from the Lion's Arch Gate, through Rata Sum's central plaza and down to the hall underneath Archival Storage. Once she'd walked through the energy gates that marked the boundaries of the Inquest Compound however, she'd seen those colours everywhere.

The Inquest was a meta-krewe, different from other krewes in that they did not allow members to leave once they joined. They also didn't hold themselves to the same ethical standards as other Asura, a fact that Zita was not thrilled about, but compared to some of the individuals she'd worked with over the years, the Inquest were more innocent than a Quaggan [17]. The most important part as far as Zita was concerned was that the Inquest paid well. Their reputation preceded them in most cases, making recruitment difficult, so they tried to overcome that obstacle by offering significantly higher rates. Zita had arrived in Rata Sum with barely two coppers to rub together, so logically the Inquest had been her first port of call.

Plink was going on about the laboratory he was so keen to explore. Apparently it had been abandoned over five years ago for unknown reasons, and he was convinced that there was some scientific find of the century waiting to be rediscovered there. Zita thought he was going to be disappointed when he got to the site; the most likely outcome was finding an overgrown ruin that had been picked over by scavengers long ago. But she wasn't about to dissuade him, not when he was offering such a generous compensation for helping him to explore it.

As the two walked down the halls towards the equipment storage area, where Plink said he needed to secure a few vital supplies before they headed out, Zita passed dozens of laboratories and manufactories, in which a seemingly endless horde of red and black clothed Asura scrambled over hulking golems and bizarre pieces of machinery. Judging by the weapons being hoisted into place on some of the golems, the Inquest certainly had no shortage of military power. That might have gone some way to explaining why their presence in Rata Sum was still tolerated when their beliefs put them at odds with mainstream Asura society.

Plink took only a few minutes to outfit himself, returning to Zita with an energy rifle over one shoulder and a pack bulging with miscellaneous accessories slung onto his back. The Asura was beaming widely, giving the impression that his face was splitting in two, an observation Zita did not voice as the pair headed out of the Inquest Compound and up into the humid air of Rata Sum.

The Asura had originally lived deep underground, but two hundred and fifty years ago, they had been driven from their holdings by the minions of Primordus, one of the Elder Dragons that now terrorised Tyria. The fleeing refugees had eventually settled in the ruins of an ancient civilization on the Tarnished Coast. Rata Sum had been gradually formed from the remains of the largest ruined city in the area, expanding as the Asura built generators and re-activated sections of the abandoned settlement. Now, the capital of the Asura rose out of the steaming Maguuma jungle, a striking amalgamation of pyramidal structures and floating cubes. No roads lead to Rata Sum; instead, the only way to enter and exit the city, unless you could fly, was by way of Asura Gates. Even Metrica Province, the new Asuran homeland, was separated from the capital by impenetrable jungle.

Golems could be seen in every direction, providing the manual labour than the Asura themselves were either unable or unwilling to do. Creeping vines climbed over the edge of buildings as the jungle tried to reclaim the land that it had once owned. A holographic advertisement shouted the merits of a new brand of cleaning product, apparently guaranteed to remove even the toughest stains. Reflecting for a moment on how exactly a stain might be considered to have toughness, Zita walked alongside Plink across to one of the innumerable Asura Gates and stepped through it after the diminutive humanoid.

The sound of jungle birds and insects replaced the bustle and din of the city as the pair exited the Gate. Zita had palmed one of her daggers back in Rata Sum, so as to be ready for anything, but the Gate was situated in a small Asura settlement where there was no immediate sign of danger. Plink's Inquest armour drew some disapproving looks, and one local even started to draw a pistol from her belt before noticing Zita and thinking better of it. Feeling like a giant, for Zita had at least five feet on the tallest Asura present, she strolled confidently through the compound with Plink and then headed out of the northern gate, and into the wilds of Metrica Province.

---

The great doorway was forged of some unknown metal, dark and dense, but it still seemed to be in reasonable condition. That was both a blessing and a curse, Zita reflected, because she couldn't see any way it could be breached. Plink however simply walked up with supreme confidence and pulled a small device out of his pack, which slotted smoothly into a circular hole on the side of the door. He fiddled with wires and buttons for a few moments, muttering to himself as he did so, before exclaiming in triumph and standing back as with a low rumble, the portal swung open. The words Kahn Metaphysicals could just be made out emblazoned over the doorway.

Plink practically radiated smugness as he detached his device from the wall. "Simple algorithm really," he beamed, "though without the capacitor there never would have been enough power to get the pistons moving. Bodes well for us I think, not many scavengers would have access to that kind of equipment!" Zita said nothing, but walked cautiously inside the laboratory, her eyes adjusting to the gloom within.

A monstrous shape loomed out of the darkness, two giant arms protruding from a smooth torso. Zita yelled at Plink to get back, then attuned herself to the element of water, the moisture laden air being more than enough to establish a link. Ice crept across her forearms and down her torso as she armoured herself with frozen water, ready for an attack, but just then, with a burst of sparks, an overhead light flickered into life, revealing the attacker to be an inert golem sitting motionless in the foyer.

Breathing hard, Zita let her connection to water fade and turned to see Plink fiddling with a console just inside the atrium, humming absent-mindedly to himself. As Zita watched, the great doors at the entrance to the laboratory began to shut, huge pneumatic pistons on either side forcing the portal closed. As they clicked together, Plink shut the console and turned to see Zita standing there looking somewhat annoyed. "Oh, don't worry about the doors," he said, "I can have them open again in a jiffy. The internal power system however won't start up unless the laboratory entrance is sealed, and besides, it means we don't have to worry about any unwelcome intruders while we explore."

Mollified slightly by this explanation, but still wishing that Plink could have perhaps informed her of this in advance, Zita turned her attention back to the now illuminated lab. To her surprise, it seemed in fairly good condition, with little of the rot or ruin she had expected. She voiced these thoughts to Plink, who airily brushed them aside. "The whole laboratory was hermetically sealed when it was abandoned. Without any outside corruption leaking in, everything should be more or less just as it was five years ago. There still could have been a containment failure of course, but the lack of decay indicates that the environment had remained sealed until a few minutes ago, when we entered! This is excellent, most excellent indeed. I imagine you'll be scarcely needed in that case. You'll still be paid of course," he said with a grin, before heading over to the motionless golem in the foyer.

Still concerned about possible threats, Zita headed deeper into the atrium, peeking into the various rooms that branched off from it, but nothing moved except the occasional blinking light. Behind her, the sound of Plink messing around with the golem's circuitry was clearly audible, as was his exclamation of "Excelsior!" at which Zita turned to see the mechanical humanoid coming to life, red light spilling from its eyes. An emotionless voice issued forth as it stood with a burst of steam, "Welcome – Home – Master – Ixx".

Zita froze. Combined with the name over the entrance, what the golem had just said had dreadful significance. Plink was still facing away from her, looking back at the door, yet she could clearly hear him as he spoke, "Tell me, Miss Hooke, how long exactly did you think you could fool me?"

The golem's arms rose. Slung under each one was the stubby form of a pulse laser; an extremely lethal piece of Asura ordnance capable of melting through two inches of solid steel. As if anticipating Zita's likely reaction, Plink continued to speak, "Please, don't attempt to escape Miss Hooke. The golem has been instructed to merely wound you, but I'd rather not risk permanently incapacitating you. Well, not until I have some questions answered at least."

Plink turned to look directly at Zita, and now she could see the pure hatred burning in his eyes. The Asura had unslung his rifle and pointed it in Zita's direction, a fairly pointless gesture given that the golem at his side could have vaporised the Norn in a split second. Hoping against hope that she might be able to talk her way out of things, Zita raised her hands and spoke. "Look, I don't know who you are, but we can work something out I'm sure."

Plink growled, "So you don't remember me. Figures I suppose. You weren't paying me much attention at the time, but I remember you. Your face is burned into my frontal cortex. Imagine my shock when you came walking right into my office! I could scarcely believe my good fortune! It was almost childishly simply to trap you here, I must say. I can scarcely imagine why he thought you were worthy to join his krewe."

Zita had been wracking her memory for the face glaring at her, but time and drink had left holes everywhere. She shook her head, ignorance written large across her features. "Who are you talking about?"

The bolt of plasma scorched past Zita's left ear. If her hair had still been attached to her head, instead of clogging up a pipe somewhere under Lion's Arch, she surely would have lost a few locks. Plink lowered his rifle, quivering with rage. "Don't tell me you don't remember him. I'm easy to forget, but how could anyone, even a bookah Norn, forget the greatest genius of the modern age? He was standing there next to you as the ship cast off! The last time I ever saw him. The last time anyone saw him - except you."

Plink now brought his rifle up once again, taking careful aim at Zita's chest. "You will tell me everything. Every. Last. Detail. And then I will continue my master's work, as he would want me to do. I'm still his apprentice after all."

Exasperation overcame terror and Zita dropped her hands to her side, "I've been on more ships than you've had hot dinners. I've told you, I don't know you, so who is this master you're so obsessed with?"

Tears were running down Plink's face and his voice quavered as he spoke. "His name was Ixx. Ixx Kahn, and he was going to change the world forever." Anguish was replaced by naked anger on the Asura's face and his finger trembled on the trigger of his rifle. "He's meant to be dead, but you're alive, so where is he?"

Zita stared in utter horror. She'd never thought her past would catch up with her like this. Of all the Asura in Rata Sum, why had she had the misfortune to walk into the shop of the one who'd have reason to hate her?

Her silence only seemed to enrage Plink more. He stamped his boot on the steel floor, causing reverberations to boom through the laboratory. His voice rose to a scream, the rifle shaking in his hands as he shouted. "Where is he? Where is Ixx Kahn?"

---

[17] Quaggans are a peaceful, amphibious race, generally regarded as kind and gentle, though somewhat simple, creatures.

Chapter Seven

Musa Ananas sipped from the mug of fragrant tea that had been placed before her. The blend was from Ascalon originally, and had a hint of cinnamon. The flavour rolled over her tongue delightfully. She smiled at the Asura sitting across from her in the Krewe Kafé, one of Rata Sum's most fashionable coffee houses. "Thankyou, Tikks. I knew some time here would clear my mind."

Tikks Vio smiled back at her former Sylvari krewe member. At eighty-four, she was old even for an Asura, but age had not dulled her brilliant mind. When Musa had arrived in Rata Sum seeking experience of Asuran engineering, having completed her apprenticeship under Blackhorn, Tikks had been one of the few Asuras willing to take on a Sylvari in their krewe. Most Asura saw the Sylvari as naïve and immature air-heads, but Tikks had keenly noted that any Sylvari who could successfully complete a Charr apprenticeship clearly had potential. Musa had ended up spending five months with Tikks' krewe, and liked to say that though Blackhorn had given her the raw ore of knowledge, it had been Tikks' who refined it. Even after the krewe broke up, Tikks and Musa had stayed in touch. "Nothing like tea I find for chasing away the fog. The younger ones go on and on about coffee, but I find it to be horrid foul muck; tea is all I've ever needed. But enough about our choice of beverages. Something has you vexed."

Musa handed over the letter she had originally found in the Durmand Priory archives. As Tikks read through it, Musa explained her progress so far; the Norn taking an airship north to find a lost Spirit, her identification of the Aquila as the only candidate, and her disappointment in Lion's Arch. "Now I'm at a dead end. The letter was clearly written by a Norn, but there were only two Norn on the Aquila, and neither one of them could have hijacked the whole ship. The captain, and the one who set up the whole expedition, was an Asura named Ixx Kahn. So I have to start over, and I wondered if there were any Asuran airships that were missing."

Her mentor's eyes flashed up as she placed the letter down on the table. "Well, that's quite a mouthful. Let's tackle this one at a time. Firstly, only one Asuran airship has crashed in my lifetime, and it went down in the Caledon Forest. Site was very meticulously cleaned up. So you can discard that line of thought. But it seems to me as if you are cutting one line of inquiry short. You say the letter was written by a Norn? Prove it."

Musa frowned. "The author clearly mentions the flight of his people from Jormag. Furthermore the Norn are the only ones who would be interested in rescuing a Spirit of the Wild."

Tikks shook her head. "That merely proves that the letter was written by someone who wanted to sound like a Norn. Anyone could have penned it. As to your second point, don't be so quick to dismiss the idea that an Asura might show an interest in a Spirit, especially if that Asura was a high ranking member of the Inquest."

"Ixx Kahn was Inquest?" Musa looked up sharply. She'd had dealings with the Inquest before, both during her time on Tikks' krewe, and in her travels across Tyria. An Inquest goon had tried to rather clumsily recruit her from Tikks' krewe, before Musa had explained that the promise of "all the sunlight and good dirt to eat that you could ever want" didn't exactly appeal to a Sylvari [18]. It had been in the risen continent of Orr however that the Inquest's true nature had been dramatically revealed to Musa. An excursion in the shallow waters to the north of Malchor's Leap had revealed a major underwater Inquest laboratory, where Musa had learned to her horror, the object of their research was the collecting and assessing of draconic energy, syphoned off from Zaitan and his undead minions. A willingness, even eagerness, to engage in such reckless research made the Inquest a threat to the security of Tyria.

"Oh yes," Tikks said, sipping her tea, "he published an article around seven years ago that I believe would be relevant to your little treasure hunt. The central repository should still have it on file if you want to examine it for yourself, but I remember most of the major details, if not the specific technicalities. It was titled Potential Future Energy Capture and Utilization. It was a fairly dry piece of work, hardly surprising really. His theory was…well, you remember our talks about the Eternal Alchemy, yes?"

Musa nodded. The Eternal Alchemy was the Asuran ideology, which held that all beings and magic in the world were a part or function of a greater purpose or "machine." Followers believed that once complete mastery was gained over the Eternal Alchemy, mastery would be gained over all of Tyria. Musa had researched the philosophy mainly to determine whether it constituted a belief system, and if it had any proof as to the existence or nature of the gods. Whilst her findings had been inconclusive, it had been very clear that the Asura viewed the gods as simply one more piece of the natural world.

"Excellent. Well, Ixx believed that souls, or spirits as they might also be called, were a potential energy source just waiting to be exploited. Given that the Elder Dragons, demons [19] and scarabs [20] all consume souls and absorb their energy into themselves, this theory had some basis, until you considered that these were the only creatures able to utilize souls. An Asura couldn't stick a spirit into a generator and watch the juice flow, and besides, getting the souls out of the Mists [21] would probably be an insurmountable obstacle to overcome."

Tikks' empty teacup clinked against her saucer. "There were the ethical concerns as well, not that any Inquest member would give that a second's thought. As far as I know, Ixx dropped out of sight for the next few years, then resurfaced in charge of the airship that was going to Cantha. I could scarcely believe that when I heard it; exploration had never struck me as part of his interests."

Musa watched the tea leaves in her bowl for a moment before looking across at Tikks. "So Ixx may have had a valid reason for going after a Spirit of the Wild; he wanted to trap one and extract its energy. But how would he even do that? He can't have expected to just drop out of the sky and find the Spirit of Eagle perched on a rock, waiting to be rescued."

The Asuran matriarch bit her lip for a moment, a sure sign she was thinking, then motioned Musa's satchel. "You mentioned the Black Lion Company gave you a cargo manifest? Let's have a look at it; the answers may reveal themselves."

Musa handed over the papers at once. She'd taken a little time in Lion's Arch reading through them on a bench, looking up only once when a massive and ferocious looking Norn had stalked by her, blocking the sunlight for a moment. Nothing had jumped out at her in the manifest, although she hadn't been able to decipher what a few of the entries were. She leaned across and pointed them out on the relevant pages. "See there, "Misc. Supplies: 1-201-21.1, 1-201-21.2. There's a small list of them, and the only difference is the last number."

Tikks said nothing for a moment, staring intently at the entries, then laughed quietly. "Sometimes I am very grateful that our Inquest friends think they are much cleverer than they actually are. They're trying to use a simple substitution cipher in base three to disguise their secret cargo. Those entries translate to ASG 1, ASG 2 and so forth. They're Asura Gate components." Tikks frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense."

Now it was Musa's turn to look puzzled. "Well, if Ixx was still planning on reaching Cantha, wouldn't a Gate be incredibly useful? Once it was in place, there'd be instantaneous trade between the two continents, and the Inquest would have total control over it."

"Of course, except it wouldn't work," Tikks replied. "The further you place two Gates apart, the more energy you need to establish and maintain the connection between them. Eventually the power requirements become too high for present day generators to produce. The pair of Gates that link Divinity's Reach and Ebonhawke are at the absolute limit of our current ability. The Inquest team at the Thaumanova Reactor were investigating a promising new form of energy production, until the containment fields imploded and the whole facility went haywire. But in any case, Cantha is much too far away for a Gate to be any use. You'd need a phenomenal amount of energy to power it."

Musa felt a piece of the puzzle click into place. "And how much energy would a Spirit of the Wild have?"

Her mentor mused on this for a moment. "Well it would be a purely theoretical amount, unless Ixx found a way to measure the potential energy contained in a spirit. But still, how would he tap into that power?"

"The Dragons," Musa breathed. "Tikks, down in Orr, I found an Inquest laboratory that had been extracting draconic energies from Zaitan's minions. They were experimenting with its potential uses."

A savage look crossed Tikks' face. "Those bookah [22]" she snarled. "First they contaminate half of Metrica Province and turn the world's fabric inside out, now they're meddling with powers they cannot possibly comprehend. Well, if they're messing around with draconic energy, that just might allow them to siphon off the energy of a Spirit. You'd still have to find a way into the Mists of course."

Musa considered this, draining the last dregs of tea from her cup before responding. "During my research on the Norn, I learned that their havroun can channel the energy of their patron spirit to create temporary portals into the Mists. But there hasn't been a havroun of Eagle in generations, so that wouldn't work."

"These…havroun," Tikks said sharply, sitting forwards in her chair, "they enter the spirit world in their shrines?"

Musa nodded. "Yes, it's a great ceremony I'm told. When a havroun grows too old to continue their work, they enter the Mists to spend eternity with their Spirit of the Wild. Their replacement is usually initiated on the same day."

"There you have it then" Tikks said, looking triumphant. "Their shrines must form a focal point for the Spirit. Only there can someone enter their realm. And if the havroun channels the power of their spirit to open the portal, and if draconic energy can siphon spiritual energy…"

Musa's eyes went wide. "Then an Asura Gate powered by draconic energy, set up in a shrine, would be able to leech the energy from the Spirit's realm. You wouldn't even need to capture the Spirit; you'd simply be tapping into their world in the Mists. They wouldn't be able to do anything against that sort of attack. Oh Tikks, if this is true, it's simply monstrous!"

"Good thing Ixx hasn't been around." Tikks laughed, "He would have been praying for death if the Norn ever got their oversized hands on him. But before we get carried away darling, we must remember this is all just a hypothesis. We'll need some hard proof before we can consider it a theory. Fortunately though, we're in luck. Ixx had an old laboratory out it Metrica Province that may hold some answers. No-one's touched it for years, since he's not officially dead."

Musa looked surprised. "Missing five years isn't long enough to be deemed dead?"

Tikks laughed musically again. "Oh my dear, that's nothing. We had an incident fifteen years ago when a research assistant got the settings wrong on a teleportation array and vanished without a trace. He showed up two weeks ago, apparently not realising any time had passed. In our line of work, unless you see the body, you can't assume anyone is actually dead."

---

[18] Despite their floral heritage, Sylvari eat and drink much as humans do. Their biology does seem to require a little more sunlight, but they have no need for nutrients from the soil.

[19] Demons are entities formed in the Mists that view souls as food. Though usually confined to the Mists, the realm of souls, Demons can cross over into the material world, where their abiding hatred for the living and high intelligence make them deadly opponents.

[20] Scarabs are four-legged insectoid creatures native to the Maguuma Jungle and Crystal Desert. Generally carrion feeders, some have exhibited an ability to consume the souls of the dead.

[21] The Mists is the oldest thing in existence, constituting the fabric of time and space that connects the multiverse together. The Mists is the proto-reality that exists between the worlds which in turn are the building blocks of reality. The Mists resonate from the worlds around them, forming bits of their own reality - islands of existence that reflect the histories of their worlds. Within the Mists are worlds, each with their own realities and histories, floating as islands in the ether. Some worlds are enormous, such as the Underworld, the home of the dead; others are simply residences for powerful spirits or deities.

[22] An Asuran slur, the closest translation being "idiots"

Chapter Eight

"He's dead," Zita Hooke said quietly, "just like everyone else on that damn ship. Except me."

A second ball of lightning raced past Zita's head, and she ducked instinctively to the floor, causing the golem to shift into an unmistakeable attack posture. "Subject – Attempting – Escape." it droned, "Pacification – Protocols – Active – In – Five – Four –".

"Override Alpha Theta Zero Six Eight" Plink snarled, and the golem's mechanical voice cut off as it returned to its normal stance. Both its weapons remained trained on Zita however, much to her dismay. "I told you before not to try fooling me, Miss Hooke. How is it that a creature like you could survive unscathed if Ixx was killed? His mind eclipsed yours by a magnitude you cannot imagine. The truth. Now."

Getting up to her feet, Zita paused for a moment to briefly fantasise about the wonderfully dreadful things she'd do to Plink if she managed to get out of this alive. The wretched toe-rag hadn't taken her daggers away, so she still had options, but none of them would work faster than a golem could shoot. As the thought of being turned into a gently steaming puddle of viscera didn't much appeal to Zita, she settled for the old "buy time until the villain slips up" routine. Hell, she thought to herself, she'd been in worse scrapes.

She could still remember that awful feeling as the Aquila had plummeted towards the ground, its buoyancy sacks ruptured by the dragon's talons. Engineer Gnarlfang from the Iron Legion had been on the starboard secondary rotor trying desperately to restart it when he'd been ripped from his perch by the howling winds. The only other Norn on the ship. Hargorn Drakeslayer, had died trying to live up to his name by manning one of the Asura turret guns until the very end, sending bolt after bolt at the dragon that harried the falling ship all the way down to the ground. He'd been laughing as Zita raced down into the cargo bays and leapt into the great bin filled with spare sackcloth for the airbags. A split second later, the Aquila hit the ground, and everything had gone dark.

"The ship was attacked twice by a Claw of Jormag, one of the Elder Dragon's lieutenants. We'd managed to fight it off earlier, but it had fatally weakened the ship. It returned the next day and ruptured our envelope. A brilliant mind won't help you much when you smash into the ground at terminal velocity. Unless you know that having something soft under you when you hit the ground might save your life. A lesson learned from a life-time spent in ship riggings." And falling off them, she mentally added.

Plink was silent for a moment. "You saw his body?"

Zita shook her head, checking her surroundings for a potential escape route as she did so. There were a few rooms nearby but the distance was insurmountable presently. "No, but I hardly had time to check everyone. There were bodies scattered everywhere; people had fallen off as the ship fell, or had been crushed inside it. It took me hours to wriggle my way out of the cargo hold. One of the engines missed me by a few inches when it smashed through the bulkheads."

A smile creased Plink's face and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Then he escaped. I'm sure of it," he nodded to himself, his eyes wandering elsewhere for a moment before snapping back to Zita. "But his absence indicates that he may need assistance. Now tell me. Where did the ship come down?"

Ah, Zita thought to herself. Plink didn't know where the crash site was, and clearly he wanted to find out. That gave her a bargaining chip. "Why should I tell you? You're just going to kill me anyway. What's in it for me?"

Plink laughed. Apparently his mood had lightened somewhat now that he thought his master's survival had been confirmed. Given that Zita had last seen Ixx in the main cabin of the Aquila, minutes before the ship hit the ground, she thought that extremely unlikely. "Your death is by no means assured, Miss Hooke. I simply want some information, and I was hoping you'd give it to me. Though if you wish to be stubborn…" He reached into his belt pouch and tossed across a coin. The glint of gold sparkled in the artificial light of the laboratory. Zita picked it up, bit on the side, and having confirmed it to be genuine, popped it into one of her pockets. "You see? This little conversation can be beneficial to us both," Plink beamed. "Of course, if you continue your recalcitrance, I shall be forced to use less….pleasant methods. My colleagues in the Inquest often have to interrogate individuals, and they have developed some extremely persuasive techniques. I'd like not to involve them, as it just complicates matters, but if you leave me no choice…." He left the last sentence hanging in the air.

The tang of metal still lingered on Zita's tongue. Much as she hated to admit it, Plink currently had all the cards in his hand. If she continued to hold out, he'd grow impatient and she didn't like the sound of that. Deceiving him could be dangerous too. He knew quite a bit already; if she tried to lie, she might be caught out, and though Plink seemed calmer now, his outburst before had convinced Zita that the Asura was, at best, unstable. His retribution would no doubt be fierce. Besides, what harm was there in telling the truth to Plink? Zita only feared the retribution of the Company, since by rights, the Aquila should have been sailing in the opposite direction to where it ended up. It wasn't as if Plink could do anything with the knowledge; the ship was long buried in snow, and if he wanted to go running into Jormag's realm to find it, Zita would be in Hoelbrak cheering him on. No, the best option was to hope the truth would set her free, though unfortunately, that meant having to delve into her memories again. Zita had been trying to wipe them out for five years, but some things were so traumatic you never really forgot them. Like seeing a two hundred foot long dragon come flying out of a cloud-bank.

The Claw had appeared from nowhere like a wraith, striking with dreadful speed. One side of the airship had been raked by the creature's immense talons, but fortunately, it didn't seem to know to attack the buoyancy sacks filled with helium that kept the Aquila aloft. Asura energy turrets and Charr cannon had fired ceaselessly, most of the shots going wild but a few striking home, producing showers of icicles and roars of pain from the ice-covered behemoth. The ship had groaned beneath her feet as it was flung into manoeuvres it had never been designed to do, and it had taken all of Zita's skill to keep the air currents around the Aquila compliant. She'd barely noticed Ixx pulling on a lever in the cabin, and six great spars extending from the hull, each tipped with a metal ball. As the Claw came in for another pass, a great crackling energy field had sprung into being around the ship. Too late to stop, the dragon had crashed into the barrier, screaming in agony as the raw power discharged across its body. When it finally managed to wrest itself free, its wings didn't seem to work properly, and it had fallen back into the clouds, vanishing from sight.

"We landed near the Shrine to Eagle," Zita replied in a resigned tone. The Aquila's last line of defence may have saved the ship, but the energy surge had damaged the ship's circuitry, causing most of the props to fail. Ixx had piloted the ship down to a soft landing just near an old Norn shrine, half buried in snow. The captain's initial assessment after going over his ship had been grim. The Aquila was badly damaged, and even with the feverish repairs currently underway, it was doubtful whether the ship would be able to take off once more. "We touched down there after the Aquila was damaged. Ixx thought the damage was too severe, and ordered the Asura Gate we were going to set up in Cantha to be deployed. We placed it inside the Shrine, since it was the only place out of the wind, and began using the ship's engines to power it up. We were going to use it to escape but then…."

Plink shook his head, an ugly smile adorning his lips. "So gullible," he muttered, "not that your primitive brains could possibly have comprehended the magnitude of the experiment you were all participating in. So it was Eagle. I thought he might have tried Wolverine first, since that spirit was more likely to have survived, but I suppose his hand was forced."

The words flowed past Zita's ears but she didn't really comprehend any of them. She had tried for so long not to remember that voyage, and now that she was being forced to, she was lost in her memories. She could remember praying to the lost Spirits of the Norn, beseeching them to hold off Jormag's minions until the Gate was charged, but then the dreadful roar had cut across the landscape once more, and the crew had been scrambling for the dubious safety of the Aquila. Around half the props had started up, enough to get the ship airborne, but not enough to give it the speed to escape or out-manoeuvre its draconic foe. The resulting battle was a foregone conclusion.

Plink lowered his rifle, looking quite satisfied with himself. "Well, I must say, you've really been a singularly helpful individual, Miss Hooke. Thanks to you, today is the dawn of a new age for Tyria, in which the power of the Mists will finally be unlocked. I'm sure tha-"

The sharp sound of an explosion from outside the complex cut Plink's monologue off in mid sentence. An alarm started to wail, and with a hiss of escaping air, the pneumatic pistons on the laboratory door began to compress, allowing the portal to open. As Plink swung around to examine this unexpected development, the atrium golem began to turn as well, its voice echoing through the chamber. "Intruders – Detected – Overriding – Current - Protocols." Zita saw her chance and dived out of sight behind a heavy metal bench, before squirming along the floor and into an adjacent room. Plink cried out and fired a parting shot after her, but it went wide, impacting against a rather tacky ornamental plant. The last thing Zita saw as she glanced back at the doorway was a rather surprised looking Sylvari standing in the entrance way, surrounded by tufts of smoke.

"Oh brambles" the interloper swore, as Zita slammed the door to her refuge shut.

Chapter Nine

Did we encounter difficulties?" Tikks Vio asked as Musa Ananas scrambled to her feet, having only just managed to dive out of the doorway before the golem she'd spied opened fire. Fumbling at her belt, the Sylvari palmed a grenade and risked a quick glance around the corner of the door before jerking her head back. Thankfully the golem wasn't pursuing.

"You could say that," Musa muttered. "Guardian golem in the atrium. Looks like a standard Inquest Mark II model outfitted with twin pulse lasers." Musa had fought golems before, usually Inquest models, and they were formidable opponents. Their metallic bodies were naturally resistant to shrapnel or fire, and they simply ignored any type of toxin, but they weren't particularly agile and moved slowly. If you could find a way to damage them, and if you were quick on your feet, you could deal with them.

Upon hearing this news, Tikks signalled to her krewe members, who'd been lurking just around the doorway, to break out the heavy weapons. Being no stranger to excursions into potentially hazardous environments, Tikks had insisted on bringing her krewe along to Ixx's laboratory. "Spot of field work will do them a world of good," she'd said to Musa. "Anyway, I think they're going soft. It's been months since they tried to blow up my lab with one of their inventions."

"Wait," Musa said, as the krewe began to assemble a flux ion array. "We need to see how fast that Mark II's target acquisition is before we try to engage it. I know the standard response time but I've encountered modified models before." Tikks nodded her approval, and barked an order. One of the krewe golems lumbered forwards obediently, and headed out into the open in front of the laboratory doorway.

"Target – Aqu-" the krewe golem intoned, before being cut off by a ray of white hot light that neatly bisected its body. The two glowing halves of what had been a highly advanced mechanical automaton fell to the ground, smoke and sparks gushing forth.

"Modified." Musa and Tikks chorused, and the Sylvari swung her kitbag from her back and began to rummage through it for something that would work.

---

The sound of virulent and sustained swearing in Asuran reached Zita Hooke's ears through the metal door that separated her from the atrium. Risking a glance through the window of her hiding place, the Norn could see Plink typing away furiously at a console, glancing back at the entrance to the laboratory as he did so. Zita assumed he was trying to close the door, but his language indicated that he was having little luck. Presumably the explosion that had breached the door in the first place had also wrecked the circuitry that would allow the door to be sealed, a fact that Plink seemed to realise, as he took one final look back at the portal before fleeing deeper into the lab.

Zita's grip tightened on her daggers. Plink without a golem to back him up was just an Asura with a gun. She'd dealt with worse foes before. And she desperately wanted to pay Plink back for his little interrogation, even if the gold coin he'd tossed to her was still in her pocket.

She eased the door to her refuge open and checked the status of the golem. Its back was turned to her, the automaton's attention clearly focused on the Sylvari that had breached the laboratory. Zita ran in a low crouch across the atrium until she reached the hallway Plink had run down, then she rose to her full and impressive height. The ceiling, clearly designed for someone not eight feet tall, brushed against top of her head. She had to dodge light fixtures as she proceeded, checking the doors to either side, ready for an attack, but there was no sign of Plink. The complex was far larger than she had originally thought, with dozens of manufacturing rooms, supply caches and ubiquitous Asuran laboratories. One room held nothing except a great metallic suit held suspended by the rear wall, with a sign reading H.A.Z.M.A.T. above it. Zita thought it to be a golem at first, but the contraption was completely motionless and silent.

Turning another corner, Zita saw ahead of her a large set of metal doors, hazard symbols painted liberally over them. A scanner sat next to the portal and a red light blazed over the doorway. Zita walked a little closer before noticing the turret gun mounted in the ceiling. It was silent and unmoving currently, but she could safely assume that if she tried to open the door and failed, the defence system would come drastically to life. A cursory glance at the control panel was enough to convince Zita that she'd have more luck convincing a Charr to become a vegetarian. Defeated for the time being, Zita headed back down the corridor towards the atrium. If whoever was outside had managed to breach one door, perhaps they could breach another.

---

"Poison, poison, poison, ah, flash-bang!" Musa pulled the grenade from her pack, letting the other explosive orbs fall back inside. Typically her spore-infused bombs were extremely effective, but right now, she needed something that would distract and disorient. Tikks appeared by Musa's side, clutching a rifle of uncertain provenance. Faint sparks of energy crackled from its tip, and a hose protruded from the rifle stock back to a small generator.

"Bit of a hack job really," Tikks said cheerfully, as if there weren't a heavily armed death machine a few metres away. "It's a standard issue heavy-duty soldering iron but we've increased the charge by seven hundred percent, so it should work something like an electrical slag projector; theoretically, at any rate. Just get its attention and we'll see if I'm still a genius."

Musa gave a weak smile at her grinning mentor before pulling the pin on the flash-bang and hurling it around into the doorway. A few seconds later the harsh crump of detonation occurred, and then the monotone voice of the Inquest golem could be heard. "Optical – Sensors – Offline – Rebooting". That was all the cue Tikks needed. Leaping around the corner, the Asura aimed her jury-rigged gun up at the golem and pulled the trigger.

Molten solder gushed forth, spraying across the surface of the automaton. Smoke billowed as Tikks struggled to keep the gun on target, then with a surprised squeak she dropped the rifle and retreated. The discarded weapon was glowing hot as it hit the ground, solder continuing to leak out onto the dirt. From the doorway came the sounds of the golem firing its weapons once again, though at a much higher rate of fire. Presumably it was now firing indiscriminately, as there were no targets visible. Tikks blew on her hands and shook them to ease the pain. "Well," she panted, "now it's really hot and really angry."

---

Zita could smell the battle before she could see it. A harsh, acrid stench and a surprising quantity of smoke was billowing down the hallway. It was too much to hope that the golem had been decommissioned, a hypothesis that was confirmed as Zita reached the atrium and saw the machine still very much active, though now it was covered in red hot metal slag. It was swaying from side to side, moving erratically, its pulse lasers firing around the room, shredding seats, desks and machinery. Zita ducked under one of the errant beams, but the golem clearly couldn't see anything, as it did not register her presence. It was still a threat however, one that had to be neutralised.

With the doorway to the laboratory open once more, the humid air of the jungle had flowed inside, and Zita felt her connection with the element of water establish itself. The heat from the golem could have allowed her to attune with fire, but heat didn't seem to be doing much to stop it currently, so maybe cold would do the trick. Icicles began to form on her dagger blades as she drew water to herself, her breath frosting as she did so. Weaving between the erratic shots, Zita closed in with the golem, drew her breath, and exhaled a freezing torrent of ice. Steam exploded from the automaton as the solder flash cooled in an instant, and the golem slowed, suddenly encased in solid metal. Zita then leapt backwards as one of the pulse lasers started up again. A voice, slightly muffled, could be heard through the muck "Systems – Critical – Recommend – Servicing".

The clank of something hitting the metal floor in front of the golem drew Zita's attention, and her mind just had enough time to identify the object as a grenade before it exploded, blasting the Norn back across the room and into the rear wall.

---

Musa glanced around the corner to see if the grenade she'd just thrown had caused any damage. She hadn't expected much, but she had figured that it was worth a try. To her astonishment, she watched as the golem more or less shattered, its frame cracking and crumbling apart until all that remained were two metal feet in a pile of rubble. Scratching the bark on her head in puzzlement, Musa stepped out into entranceway and cautiously approached the remains of the golem. Tikks followed just behind her. "Never seen one of your explosives do that before," the Asura breathed.

"Me neither," Musa replied, still in some degree of shock. As she reached the pile of tortured metal that had so recently been trying to kill her, she expected it to be red hot, but in fact it was cold. She turned to look at Tikks. "It's frozen."

"Didn't throw a freeze-bomb by mistake, did you?" Tikks enquired, bending down to examine the remains. Musa shook her head, quite certain that it had been a standard issue Charr explosive that she had lobbed at the golem. Tikks picked up one of the metal pieces before tossing it aside, "Well, that explains the crumbling at least. If you cool metal that quickly, it becomes incredibly brittle. The shockwaves from the grenade would have torn it apart."

"Yes, but what froze it?" Musa mused, before looking across the lab and spying the unconscious form of a figure against the rear wall. As she raced across to render assistance, Musa wondered why on Tyria there would be a Norn inside an abandoned Asura laboratory.

Chapter Ten

Zita Hooke slowly opened her eyes, letting her vision swim back into focus. Her head ached, and all she could see was a blur, which resolved itself into the smiling face of a Sylvari. "Oh spirits," Zita groaned, "how much did I drink last night? Please tell me we didn't…."

The Sylvari blinked and looked puzzled, somewhat of a common expression for a member of her race it had to be said. "Didn't what?" she said, genuinely concerned. "There's no cause for alarm. The golem has been destroyed."

"Golem…." repeated Zita, and it all came flooding back; Plink, the laboratory, Ixx Kahn. She sat up, wincing at the pain in her head and shoulders. "I suppose I have you to thank for intervening. Even if the end result was me being thrown into a wall."

"Oh!" the Sylvari exclaimed, "was that the grenade? I'm so sorry; we thought there was no-one else inside. We only saw the golem, and it rather held our attention. But I suppose if you're here, that means this laboratory isn't as abandoned as we thought it was."

"No, I was brought here by an Asura named Plink," Zita sighed, managing to stand up on the second attempt, and pointed to the hallway she'd seen Plink run down. "He's still in here somewhere, but he managed to escape further into the lab, down that corridor there, and I couldn't pursue. The security was too strong."

The Sylvari smiled. "Well, we can deal with that. This Plink, who is he?"

"Ixx Kahn's apprentice," an Asuran female said, striding across the room. More Asura, presumably her krewe, were spread out, tinkering with consoles and checking side rooms. "That would explain how he got through the front door so easily while we had to blow it. He must have had the codes for the laboratory; no way he could crack a three-hundred-and-twelve-piece rotating-algorithmic program. And if got through that door, he could get past any other security." The Asura turned and pointed to three of her krewe, "You three, go down that hallway and shoot anything that comes out of it." Shouldering energy rifles, the trio moved off at double time.

"But wait," the Sylvari said, looking over at Zita. "None of that explains what you're doing here. Or why you would intervene against the golem on our behalf." Something seemed to occur to her, and she stuck out her hand. "I'm terribly sorry; I've completely forgotten the introductions. I'm Musa Ananas and this is my mentor, Tikks Vio."

Zita shook the offered hand, and considered how she should reply. Her real name was dangerous, but the chances of a Sylvari and Asura already knowing it were minimal. Besides, she needed their help to get to Plink, who'd doubtless tell them exactly who she was anyway. "Zita Hooke," she said, forcing a smile.

Musa's eyes went wide. "Zita Hooke?" she repeated, "From the Aquila?"

Zita groaned. "Does the whole bloody world know now?"

---

Musa Ananas handed a mug of tea over to Zita, Tikks pouring out a second from a thermos. The trio were perched on a few of the remaining lounges in the atrium, the rest having been wrecked by the rampaging golem. Tikk's krewe was still hard at work securing the laboratory complex - the accessible parts at least - and Musa had so many questions to ask. Zita took the tea gratefully and took a large swig, then pulled a flask from her hip and poured a generous serve of amber liquid into the mug. Taking a second, much smaller draught, the Norn sat back in her chair and fixed Musa with a stare.

The Sylvari cupped her mug in her hands and smiled. "Miss Hooke," she began.

"Zita," the Norn snapped, "if you please."

"Very well," Musa replied, blinking a little at the rebuke. Social graces weren't her strong suit but generally people didn't respond poorly to formal titles. "You are probably wondering why Tikks and I are here. We're on the trail of the Aquila, as I suspect the airship went down not over the Endless Ocean, but in the far North, in the old Norn homeland. We also suspect that its mission was not to reach Cantha, but rather to locate and trap one of the Spirits of the Wild. Eagle, to be exact."

Zita looked across at the Sylvari, a puzzled expression on the Norn's face. "Trap a spirit?" she said, frowning. "I don't know anything about that. Who are you working for?"

"Well, myself," said Musa, and Tikks grinned as only an Asura can [23].

"I thought it would be fun," the krewe leader said, "besides, breaking into Inquest facilities is always so rewarding".

"Yourself," Zita said, taking another swig of her fortified tea. "What do you mean exactly?"

"I'm a researcher," Musa replied. "My primary focus is into the nature of divinity, specifically whether the Gods of Tyria exist or not, and during the course of my most recent studies, I found an old letter that seemed to indicate that an expedition had set off into the North to recover the Spirit of Eagle. I had hoped to find someone from the expedition, to ask them about the Spirit, but instead I found myself caught up in something greater."

Zita took this in stoically, the rum easing her headache. Musa was most likely not with the Company, she thought, since they wouldn't be this direct. Their objective would be to interrogate and then silence her, not give her a refreshing beverage. She'd never told anyone the whole story before, though at times she'd wanted to, just to get it off her chest. Fear of the Company's retribution had always stopped her. Now though, if Musa and Tikks were going to help her get to Plink, the damning details would be made clear either way. She sighed and began to speak.

"Shortly after we left Sparkfly Fen, we turned north. I asked Captain Kahn why that was, and he said it was for two reasons. Firstly, the trade winds blew in that direction before turning west then south, which would take us right to Cantha. Secondly, Zaitan's raising of Orr made a direct passage too risky; far safer to swing around his domain that attempt to skirt by it. I doubt the company knew about the planned path for the ship, otherwise they would have searched over land for us after we went down."

Zita sipped from her cup and continued. "We travelled steadily north for nearly a week before we began to turn west. Ixx warned us that we were close to Jormag's realm, the trade winds having carried us further north than expected, so we should all be on our guard. He said he'd installed some modifications on the ship for this eventuality, so we weren't too worried; then a Claw of Jormag appeared. We managed to drive it off after Ixx deployed some kind of energy field around the Aquila, but the ship was damaged in the process. We landed near Eagle's Shrine."

"Ixx thought the ship was beyond repair, so he deployed the Asura Gate we were supposed to be taking to Cantha. Before he could power it up though, the Claw returned. We got airborne once again, but we'd taken too much damage already. It shredded our envelope and we went down. I survived by jumping into a pile of sackcloth just before impact. By the time I got out of the hull, it was night, and I couldn't find anyone else alive. I gathered what supplies I could and headed south."

A haunted look was in Zita's eyes as she recalled that dreadful trek. "Six months," she breathed. "Six months walking through utter desolation. When my people last walked that path, they did it with four Spirits guiding them, and thousands of their kin. I had to do it alone, surrounded on all sides by Jormag's minions. I spent eight days in an ice cave hiding from a troll the size of a house, and all there was to eat was lichen and mushrooms. Still can't bring myself to touch a Portobello or truffle even now. When I finally reached one of the Kodan [24] sanctuaries in Frostgorge Sound, I just collapsed. Took me another two months before I was fit enough to travel down to Hoelbrak."

There were a few moments of silence as Musa took this all in. The picture was finally complete; between her own findings and Zita's revelations, the last voyage of the Aquila had been reconstructed. It was satisfying to have finally reached this point, but Musa knew that there was more to do. Though the mystery was now solved, the legacy of Ixx's adventure into the north still had to be dealt with.

"Zita," Musa said, leaning forwards, "before, I said that Ixx wanted to capture a Spirit of the Wild. I'm sorry to say that the Gate he was deploying at the Shrine was most likely the means by which he hoped to achieve that goal. If our theory is correct -"

"Hypothesis," interrupted Tikks.

"Sorry – hypothesis - is correct, the Gate was infused with draconic energy that would allow it to siphon off the power of the Spirit. Ixx was willing to sacrifice the entire crew of the Aquila to achieve this goal. He lied to the Company and to all of you in his quest for power. Zita, it is vital that you tell us what the status of the Gate was when you last saw it. If it were activated, the security of all Tyria could be at risk."

Zita looked aghast by the end of Musa's speech. The idea that Ixx had planned for the Aquila to go down at the Shrine was almost unbelievable. But Plink had called her gullible, and said something about going after Wolverine instead of Eagle. Anger rose in Zita, white hot and furious. She'd been duped, conned into taking part in an expedition that went against everything her people stood for. The sound of breaking china suddenly broke the silence, and Zita looked down to see that she'd crushed the mug in her hands without realising.

"Ah, sorry," Zita muttered, letting the fragments drop to the floor. "The Gate was never powered up. The Claw turned up too soon."

"And Ixx?" Tikks asked, either not caring about her cup or tactfully deciding that pressing the issue at this current point would be a poor idea.

"I never saw his body" Zita replied. "Last I saw, he was on the bridge. That was a few minutes before the crash though."

Musa and Tikks shared a look, then looked back at Zita. "Unfortunately, even if the Gate wasn't switched on, it remains a threat," Tikks said, her face grave. "If Jormag's minions were to discover it, and activate it, they could access any other Gate in Tyria. Hoelbrak, Rata Sum, the Black Citadel; Jormag's armies could reach any of them. All the defences we've built in the North would be worthless against such an assault. That Gate has to be destroyed."

Zita stared, then laughed. "Well I don't recommend walking, and I've tried the aerial route. Suppose you could ask the Dredge to dig their way up there."

Before Tikks could reply, the lights in the facility all dimmed simultaneously, then went out, plunging the room into darkness for a few seconds, before red emergency bulbs came on, bathing the entire atrium in crimson.

"Oh right, there's still a mad apprentice loose in the facility that we have to deal with," Tikks said dryly. Her krewe was already preparing to move out, their golems looking almost demonic in the red light, and Musa and Zita rose at once. Tikks strapped a strange gauntlet to her wrist and grabbed an energy rifle from a nearby storage case. Musa clipped grenades onto her belt and retrieved her own firearm, a lever-action blunderbuss that could quite literally blow your socks off. Zita by contrast simply drew her daggers, but almost immediately, air began to swirl around her wrists.

"Now if everything goes according to plan," Tikks said brightly, "my krewe will quite literally be on the verge of a breakthrough".

---

[23] Asura teeth are mostly sharp and pointed, which explains why a common slang term for an Asura is "shark-mouth".

[24] The Kodan are a race of intelligent polar bear-like beings from the distant northern lands and seas. They are a highly spiritual race that for centuries has lived in cities built upon, and carved into, icebergs in the arctic seas known as Sanctuaries.

Chapter Eleven

A bolt of lightning struck the security panel next to the door, sending sparks flying in every direction. The ceiling turret turned and unleashed a barrage of bullets down the hallway, only narrowly missing one of the krewe guards Tikks had sent out earlier to assure that Plink didn't try to sneak out of the laboratory. Tikks sighed and lowered her arm, the crystals on the gauntlet fading. "Worth a try," she muttered. "Figured an overcharge might scramble the circuits, but it seems Ixx anticipated that sort of attack."

When they'd arrived at the door, they'd been informed that the turret had activated when the lights dimmed, most likely as an automatic response to the power drain. The ranged approach had been their best option, and Musa was keenly aware that her grenades and bombs wouldn't work against a ceiling mounted weapon; they'd just fall to the ground. Some of the heavy weapons the krewe were packing might stand a chance, but they'd never set them up in time before the turret shredded them. Besides, a faint shimmer around the emplacements suggested that it had a protective energy field, which would render most ranged attacks futile unless they were sustained.

Zita looked around at the golems on either side of her. "Can't we just send one of these down the hall?" she said. "They should be strong enough, right?"

Tikks nodded. "Yes, the bullets won't do much to them, but the golems can't do much to the turret either. They lack the reach to attack it with their fists and their weapons aren't strong enough to penetrate the shield. If we had a pair of pulse lasers like that golem back in the atrium did, we might stand a chance, but we're a bit lacking in that department."

"Well what about that big golem I saw when I came down here the first time." Zita said, pointing back down the corridor. "The one labelled "H.A.Z.M.A.T. Could you reprogram that?"

"H.A.Z.M.A.T.?" Tikks said. "Where?"

---

Tikks almost giggled when she saw the suit hanging from the wall. "Trust the Inquest to have the best toys," she gasped, racing around the suspended mechanical outfit. "It's an older model of course, but still widely in use. In excellent condition too, which is more than you can say for a lot of the examples out there."

"So it's a body suit?" Musa asked, intrigued. She'd never seen an Asura operating one before, even when she'd been on Tikks' krewe. Its size was truly impressive; even Zita barely came up to the top of the suit.

"Oh yes," Tikks replied, fiddling with a panel on the side of the suit. "They're designed for operating in extremely hazardous conditions and for protection against external attack. The suit provides a completely insulated environment, with an independent air supply, preventing outside contamination like radiation or chemical gases from affecting the driver. Shock absorbers and dampers surround the pilot making any external impacts harmless. You could fall one hundred feet in one of these and not notice the impact when you reached the ground. In addition, layers of re-inforced tripolysethaline armour provide outstanding protection against attacks by hostile forces, and the suit also boasts an impressive arsenal of close and long range weaponry."

There was a somewhat stunned silence after this little sales pitch, until Zita managed to get out a slightly strangled sentence. "Sounds like the perfect tool for anything".

"Well, so long as you don't mind moving slower than a drunk dolyak, and being in what is essentially a walking prison that will double as a tomb if your oxygen or power supply runs out," Tikks said cheerfully. "Still, they can eject their pilots in extreme circumstances, and the suit can even manage short range flight if it has to, though only for a very limited time."

Musa watched as Tikks began to climb up into the pilot's seat. "Will it work for you?" the Sylvari asked, looking sceptical.

"Oh they're not keyed to a particular user," Tikks replied, strapping herself in. A reinforced glass canopy slid into place, locking Tikks inside, but allowing her to see out. A few moments later the suit itself came jerkily to life, its limbs flexing as Tikks calibrated the controls. Then in one motion it tore itself free from the restraints, bursting the steel clamps with little apparent effort.

Tikks laughed, her voice blaring from a loudspeaker somewhere on the suit. "Oh yes, did I mention they also augment your strength slightly?"

---

Bullets pinged off the H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit harmlessly as Tikks stomped down the corridor. One mechanical arm reached up and passed through the energy shield, the defence mechanism having been designed to deal with attacks possessing high kinetic energy. The turret kept firing right up until the point where Tikks ripped it from the ceiling and threw it to the ground, before raising one giant foot and crushing the sentry gun almost flat.

With the threat neutralised, the rest of the team surged forwards to the security door. The access panel was still shorted out, though Musa recognised that the chances of randomly picking the correct combination were virtually impossible. She ran her fingers over the wall panels surrounding the console, then motioned to Tikks. "If you please," she murmured, and stepped back as her mentor surged forwards and tore the wall covering off, exposing the innards that Musa wanted to access. She found herself looking at a pair of monstrous pneumatic pistons, which clearly were in charge of opening and closing the security door.

"Perfect," the Sylvari breathed, and pulled a pair of wire cutters from her belt. It took a little bit of searching to locate the rubber hoses that supplied the compressed air the pistons needed to operate, but once Musa's questing fingers closed around them, they were easily severed. Deprived of their source of power, the two pistons compressed slightly, allowing the security doors to open a crack. Tikks stepped forwards, inserted the suit's fingers into the gap, and began to pull the metal entrance open. A thin keening wind could be heard whistling through the crack.

A blast of frigid air struck Zita as the doors were wrenched open, followed by a small snowdrift that spilled out onto her feet. The room beyond the portal was vast, hewn from solid rock, and clearly designed to house some great structure. Machinery lined the walls, though most of it was now concealed by great banks of snow, and a thin layer of ice covered what protruded from the white powder. Cables could be seen here and there, leading from consoles and generators to a dais in the centre of the chamber, upon which an immense metal ring sat, inlaid with crystals and runes. A shimmering field of energy covered the interior of the circle, and from it, a howling wind blew furiously into the cavern, carrying flurries of snow and ice. There was no sign of Plink anywhere.

"Well, no prizes for guessing where that leads to," Tikks said, as the trio stared in horror at the active Asura Gate.

Chapter Twelve

Tikks' krewe was hard at work, erecting defences in the corridor outside the Gate chamber. Although so far no ice-brood had come through the portal it was clearly only a matter of time before Jormag's minions found their way into the Gate on their end and invaded Metrica Province. A runner had been dispatched at once to alert the Peacekeepers [25], but it could be hours before they showed up and a first line of defence would be vital. The ambient temperature in Ixx's laboratory was dropping fast however, and the first tendrils of ice were already starting to form on the ground outside the complex.

Musa Ananas would have given a sizeable amount of money for her cold-weather gear that she used when exploring Norn territory, but it was safely back in the Grove. She'd found a couple of Asura blankets in a storeroom and had stapled them together into a makeshift cloak, though it did little more than take the edge off the biting cold. Zita Hooke by contrast seemed completely at ease, which given her heritage was not entirely surprising.

Tikks Vio stomped up, still encased in her H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit and thus oblivious to any temperature changes. She sounded worried as her voice blared from the loudspeaker next to the suit visor, "The ice is extending much faster than we feared. At its current rate of expansion, I estimate that within five hours, the ambient temperature in Rata Sum will be five degrees lower than it is currently."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Musa said, wrapping her ersatz shawl a little tighter.

"Until you consider that for the temperature to be five degrees colder in Rata Sum, it has to be thirty degrees colder in Metrica Province," Tikks said dryly. "Warm air from the Tarnished Coast provides the capital with a little protection, but that's only going to buy us a little time. This entire region will be a frozen wasteland by the end of the week."

After a moment, a puzzled look crossed Musa's face, and she turned to look back at the Gate. "Tikks, the Hoelbrak Gate doesn't send snow and ice through to Lion's Arch, so how is this one doing it?"

"That's because those Gates aren't connected to one powered by draconic energy." Tikks replied. "Congratulations my leafy apprentice, your hypothesis has just become a theory. There'll be a small ceremony later on to celebrate this milestone, but in the meantime, the important thing to realise is that this attack is not a natural one. Jormag's power is being channelled through that Gate, and we can only pray that the dragon itself is not actively directing it, and that this is merely a legacy of Ixx's insane plan. Given that I now suspect that the energy field defences he installed on the Aquila would also serve to siphon off draconic energy from the Claw that attacked the airship, it is my fervent hope that Jormag is so far ignorant of the Gate's activation, and that the energy being used is merely that which Ixx stole from the dragon's lieutenant."

A sigh emanated from within the suit. "Unfortunately, we cannot rely on a mere hope, and even if Jormag were ignorant, if one of his servants discovers the portal the Elder dragon will know of it at once and will surely direct his frozen armies to march upon it directly. At which point every Peacekeeper in Metrica wouldn't be enough to stem the tide. The Pact would doubtless come to our aid, but not before the entire Tarnished Coast was transformed into an arctic desolation teeming with Jormag's ice-brood. Uncomfortable though it may be, we are left with only one option: we must travel through the portal and destroy the Gate that Ixx placed in the Shrine of Eagle."

Musa and Zita both looked aghast at this prospect, and Zita pointed up at the great metal ring in the chamber beyond. "Can't you just shut this one down? Trust me when I say that Jormag's realm isn't the sort of place you want to visit."

Tikks' reply was immediate. "No. Even if I could shut down the Gate on this end, and I am very doubtful that I can, as it seems to be drawing energy from its counterpart in the Shrine, that would still leave a fully functional Gate deep in enemy territory. Plink's foolishness may have unleashed a dire threat to the entire region, but it has also given us our only chance to safely enter Jormag's territory and neutralise the Gate Ixx placed up there."

Zita fell silent in the face of this logic, her face downcast and miserable. When she'd finally managed to escape from the North, she'd travelled to the warmest city she could find and hadn't wanted to leave. She'd heated her room to sweltering each night, relishing every bead of sweat. The idea of now returning to the frigid landscape that had nearly claimed her life was terrifying beyond belief, but then she thought of Ixx's betrayal, Plink's deception and the plight of Eagle's spirit. A grim determination replaced fear, and Zita's face hardened, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the hilts of her daggers.

"Then let's get on with it," the Norn said, flourishing one of her blades with a vicious smile. "Maybe there's still a legend out there for me to forge."

"That's the spirit!" Tikks cried from inside the suit. She turned to her Sylvari apprentice, doubtless hoping to see similar élan, but she was instead greeted by the sight of Musa's yellow skin turning a faint shade of blue, accompanied by the sound of teeth chattering uncontrollably.

"D-don't s-s-up-pose t-they make t-t-those s-suits in m-my size do t-t-they?"

---

Musa reached down with one gloved hand to grasp one of the Asuran explosives that the krewe had recovered from the laboratory. The Sylvari was now clothed in a bizarre garment that had once been half a dozen Asura arctic survival suits, before they'd been dismantled and reassembled into something that would allow her to survive in Jormag's realm. She was grateful for them right now however, a thought she never would have usually contemplated in the hot, humid environs of Metrica Province. But the sight outside the entranceway to the Inquest complex now resembled the far north, with snow drifts blanketing the once verdant landscape. Some jungle trees still stood defiantly against the blizzard, but others had fallen, their trunks shattered by freezing sap.

Tikks looked across at the device Musa was holding. "Blasting charge," she said, pointing with one finger of the suit to a small button on the top of the explosive, "press that, and hold it in. Each second increases the charge time by one minute."

Musa carefully placed the device back on the neatly stacked pile inside the storage crate. "Will these even work? Has anyone ever brought a Gate down before?"

"Well some people have tried," Tikks mused. "Mostly they fail, because they don't know the key places to mount the explosives. Fortunately, you have Rata Sum's best and may I say, still most eligible senior engineer to provide you with exactly that sort of highly classified information which I am absolutely forbidden to share with outsiders, and I am sure that if questioned you will profess your total ignorance of any such knowledge."

Zita carefully gave no sign that she hadn't understood a single word of what was just said, and simply eyed the stacked explosives critically. "We'll need some help getting that lot through the Gate. I tend to travel light."

Tikks laughed, the sound coming through slightly tinny and mechanical from the loudspeaker, "Oh my dear oversized friend, when you work with the Asura, you should know you never need to worry about manual labour!"

---

The team that stepped through into the Gate chamber certainly made a unique sight. At the centre was Tikks Vio, the crystals on her pilfered and now fully charged H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit shining with energy. To her right Zita Hooke stood, her daggers brilliant with ice as she let the element of water flow through her. Musa Ananas was barely recognisable, swathed as she was in so much padding as to completely mask her body shape. Only her eyes peeked out from behind layers of fur and leather. The Sylvari engineer made one final check of the grenades strapped to her belt before gripping her rifle with both gloved hands. Just behind the trio, the two remaining krewe golems stood motionless, their arms gripping the storage crates filled with explosives.

In the corridor outside, Tikks' krewe stood ready behind their guns. Some of them didn't look happy at being ordered to remain behind, but Tikks had been adamant. The need for a front line of defence against the ice-brood should the sabotage mission fail was of the utmost importance. She'd reassured them that eighty years of Asura experiments hadn't killed her yet, so she would "be damned if some overgrown flying ice-lizard with delusions of grandeur and an obsession with frozen water" was going to be the end of her.

Musa stared up at the imposing frozen ring that loomed upon its dais. The Gate was almost completely obscured behind layers of ice, and long icicles hung from the top of the metal circle. Frigid air roared around her, reminding the Sylvari for a brief second of the river she'd plunged into back near the Durmand Priory, right before she'd found the letter that had brought her to this place. You never knew where research was going to take you, Musa reflected, as she took a deep breath and plunged forwards into the vortex.

---

[25] Peacekeepers are the police and security forces of the Asura. They are typically only deployed in Asura territory, and only uncommonly found in other areas. In acknowledgement of the threats Asura research attracts, or sometimes creates, Peacekeepers are generally well armed.

Chapter Thirteen

Musa Ananas fell out of the portal in the Shine of Eagle gasping, chilled to the core. Usually the raw magical energies that surged around you during Asura Gate travel were barely noticeable, but this time they felt like an icy torrent that seemed to penetrate your very soul. Rough hands hauled her to her feet, affording her the first view of her surroundings. "Just think," Zita Hooke shouted over the howling wind, "you're probably the only Sylvari to ever see this."

The Shine of Eagle was positioned on the edge of a cliff that looked down into a glacial valley. Once, it might have been idyllic, and indeed, the tops of a few ruined structures could be made out on the valley floor below. Jormag's reign had not been kind. Where once a river had flowed, fed by an ice-melt waterfall that fell hundreds of feet down, now there were merely sheets of ice that had not melted in generations. Snow drifts buried fields where dolyaks had grazed, and not even the hardy alpine fir trees had been able to resist the dragon's influence. The landscape was bare, a uniform wasteland of white that stretched away to the horizon. Musa felt hot tears running down her face that froze to ice drops in seconds. This was not the natural world being reshaped into other forms. This was the death of everything but the will of Jormag.

"Welcome to scenic Gravensfjord, population: zero" Tikks Vio shouted through her suit loudspeaker. "Please be sure to visit our historic Shrine to the Spirit of Eagle during your stay with us, and remember that you should refrain from anything so rash as attempting to blow up a draconic-infused energy portal inside the sanctuary."

Tearing her eyes away from the dreadful vista before her, Musa hurried over to the krewe golems which had deposited the crates filled with explosives just inside the Shrine before they stomped over to the doorway to stand guard. A great carved stone Eagle was still visible over the doorway, its wings covered in icicles. Past the entrance walls of hewn stone had so far managed to stand up to the relentless wind and cold, though snow had blown inside past the shattered door and lay in drifts across the stone floor. A few broken chairs and the remnants of a table were all the remained of the Norn furniture that had once graced the Shrine. Ixx's Gate sat just within the chamber, looking identical to its counterpart back in Metrica Province.

"Let's get to work," Zita said, pulling out a charge and striding over to the Gate. Tikks issued a command to the golems to guard the entrance, as they were unable to handle the mines with enough finesse, then pointed to a position on the metal ring that looked identical to the rest of it. Zita rammed the explosive home, the spikes on its base gripping the ice firmly and holding the charge in place.

"One down, forty nine to go!" Tikks yelled, then saw the horrified expression on Zita's face as the Norn looked over to the doorway and saw the monstrous form of an ice-brood wolf barrel into one of the krewe golems. The creature was a true horror, its flesh hidden under layers of black ice and jagged protrusions, and there was no sign of awareness in its glazed eyes. The second golem jerked into action, swinging its arms like pistons and smashing great chunks of ice from the corrupted creature's form, driving it back from its counterpart. The ice-brood only fell though when Musa fired a bullet directly into its skull, the blue light in its eyes fading at last. The Sylvari raced over to the doorway and surveyed the landscape, then frantically loaded another round into the breech of her rifle.

"We've got more incoming!" Musa shouted, and plucked one of the grenades from her belt. The explosive orb landed in the midst of the oncoming wolf pack, shredding corrupted flesh and ice in an instant. A dreadful howling echoed from the valley below, and now the Sylvari could make out dark shapes moving across the snow with unnatural speed. She swallowed, her mouth dry, and placed another grenade on the ground beside her. "I think our presence had definitely been noted" she called back to her team, and then took careful aim and fired a shot into the chest of an ice-brood bounding up the slope. The abomination, which might have at one time been a Grawl, flinched but continued to advance. Musa swore and chambered another round. "Wish Blackhorn was here," the Sylvari muttered, taking aim once more. "He'd probably have brought half a battalion of tanks."

The elevated position of the Shrine afforded the attacking ice-brood only one avenue of advance, a fact which Musa put to full advantage. A carefully thrown grenade brought down a small avalanche of ice and snow which narrowed the path further, forcing the horde to advance in single file. Musa directed one of the krewe golems to hold position at the end of the chokepoint, whilst the Sylvari hung back and peppered Jormag's minions with bullets and explosives. It was a sound strategy that worked right up until the point where Musa reached down to her belt and found no more grenades. "Brambles and thorns!" the Sylvari shouted, and fired off one more round, dropping an ice-brood quaggan, before sprinting back up the slope to the shrine. Behind her, the golem began wading into the remaining creatures, the sound of metal on ice echoing across the valley.

Zita reached down into the crate for another explosive and found nothing. Turning, she saw Tikks hammer a charge into place, then the suit raised both its arms in triumph. "That's the last of them!" the Asura yelled, and waddled over to one of the devices. She held down the central button for ten seconds, then released it. "Now let's retrieve my apprentice and get out of this wretched place!" Tikks shouted. "Personally, I don't know how you Norns handle this sort of weather. Doesn't it get a bit monot-"

Tikks' speech cut off abruptly as the stone wall next to her exploded, slabs flying apart, and a giant fist encased in ice flung the H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit across the room, where it slammed into a snow-bank with bone-crushing force. Zita leapt out of the way more by instinct than anything as the attacker surged into the chamber, its ice-encrusted shoulders taller than her by at least five feet. It was humanoid in appearance, somewhat at least, but where black ice did not cover its form completely, red and black painted metal could be seen. Between its shoulders a jagged hole gaped in what looked like tempered glass, revealing a chamber in which sat a small figure. Blue fire glowed in its eyes, and the remnants of a uniform could still be made out through the ice that covered its body. A patch had been sewn onto one sleeve, a stylised airship embroidered to resemble a Canthan vessel.

"Hello again, Miss Hooke!" a voice called out from the gaping hole in the wall. Zita tore her eyes away from the monstrosity before her and made out the form of Plink standing just behind the ice-brood. "As I told you before, I was certain my master had escaped. A little worse for wear perhaps, but I'm sure that my colleagues back in Rata Sum can restore him to health. An Asura hazardous environment suit makes for a far more certain means of survival than merely having something soft underneath you, wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh yes," Zita breathed, as Ixx Kahn raised the arms of his corrupted H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit and charged.

---

Musa reached the doorway of the shrine just as Zita came skidding out of it, air wrapped around her wrists. The Norn staggered to a halt and then threw herself at Musa, bearing the astonished Sylvari to the snow covered ground as the former captain of the Aquila burst out of the Shrine, the stone Eagle over the entrance crumbling apart under the impact. Norn and Sylvari scrambled to their feet, slipping across the icy ground as the lone krewe golem still standing guard outside the Shrine moved into engage Ixx Kahn. The automaton managed only one hit before it was launched into the air with a single blow from Kahn's suit. Arms flailing, the golem plunged down the face of the cliff to shatter on the frozen ground far below.

"Please tell me you have some grenades left," Zita breathed, as Ixx turned his attention back to the pair.

"Ahh…I'm afraid my stocks are exhausted," Musa gasped as she stumbled over the one of the stone slabs that had been thrown aside by Ixx's assault on the Shrine.

"Bear's balls," Zita muttered, and ripped one of her gloves off. She pressed the bare flesh of her hand down onto the stone, wincing at the pain as she did so. Even a Norn couldn't touch something that cold and walk away unscarred. Though centuries had passed since the stone had been hacked from the ground, it remained a part of the earth, and through it, Zita felt her connection to its element being established. The ground trembled under Ixx's ice-covered feet, tremors breaking apart the ice. The suit swayed for a moment and then fell heavily onto the snow. Zita ripped her hand away from the stone and screamed as she did so, her skin raw and bloody. Jamming the glove onto her ripped flesh, she raced back up towards the Shrine, Musa beside her.

"Have we set the charges?" Musa panted as the pair dived through the hole in the wall. Tikks was still unmoving, and the Sylvari sprinted across the room and tried frantically to undo the visor on the front of the suit.

"Ten minutes I think" Zita hissed through gritted teeth, blood seeping through the makeshift bandage clamped to her hand. Outside, the sound of Ixx rising once more could be heard over the howling wind.

Musa finally found the catch for the visor and popped it open, revealing Tikks' form inside the suit. The elderly Asura was still, eyes closed. Her tiny hands were still resting on the controls of the suit, but they were limp. The Asura's skin was ashen, and there was no sign of life. Musa's mouth trembled and tears sprung from her eyes. Tikks had always seemed indestructible, an enduring force in a world filled with instability. Sylvari pulled one glove off and reached out, hand shaking, to check for a pulse, not caring about the ice-corrupted monster outside.

Tikks' eyes flew open as Musa's fingers brushed against her neck. "Alchemy, that's cold!" she screamed. The Asura sat bolt upright, the suit jerking to life along with its pilot, flinging Musa back onto the ground. Tikks slammed the canopy shut once more before seeming to register that something had gone awry, and her voice boomed out from the suit loudspeaker, "Ah, didn't there used to be a wall there before?"

Ixx Kahn crashed through the doorway to the Shrine, providing the answer to Tikks' question. The former Inquest member charged straight for the other suit, correctly identifying it as the greatest threat. Tikks however was prepared this time, and met the attack with stunning force, catching an ice covered fist in one hand before blasting a bolt of energy into the torso of Ixx's suit with the other. Black ice fell away from the point of impact, revealing more of the black and red painted metal, and Tikks' voice cried out once more, "Break the ice! Jormag's corruption is the only thing powering that suit now!"

Musa snapped the breech of her rifle opened and loaded a buckshot round before firing at point blank range into Ixx's left leg. A great slab of ice disintegrated, sending cracks ricocheting through the adjacent frozen armour. Zita clenched her teeth and tore the makeshift bandage from her hand before grabbing at another slab to re-establish her connection with earth, blood oozing over the stone wall of the Shrine. A great spike of earth and rock burst from the ground and blasted apart the remaining ice on the leg Musa had targeted. Shorn of its frigid casing, the leg suddenly ceased movement, the joints seizing solid instantly.

Ixx was by no means immobilized. The suit was still able to move, dragging the dead leg behind it. One arm raised and ice broke apart as an energy projector deployed. Zita dived to one side, narrowly avoiding the beam of frozen energy that shot out. A rock slab from the wall wasn't so agile and was struck head on. It exploded into a thousand flying fragments that peppered Musa like a shotgun blast. Her thermal suit provided no protected against shrapnel, and the Sylvari could feel blood flowing from rents in her skin. She tried to ignore the pain as she snapped another buckshot round into her weapon and targeted the arm with the projector. As the ice was blasted away, the beam spluttered and died, and the appendage fell to Ixx's side, powerless.

Tikks used this opening to launch an assault on the ice-brood, taking advantage of the motionless left arm to swing around to Ixx's rear. Her H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit began to deliver pounding blows against Ixx's remaining leg, ice breaking apart in sheets. Ixx roared in defiance from inside the cockpit and his suit lashed out with its one good arm, catching the side of Tikks' suit and sending the Asura crashing to the ground. She reached out at the last second and grabbed at Ixx's side, and suddenly it was the Inquest suit that was falling as well. As it hit the stones of the Shrine's floor, the weakened ice on the exterior of the apparatus finally gave way and shattered, leaving the Inquest H.A.Z.M.A.T. suit fully exposed. It twitched for a moment, and then lay completely still.

"Like I said back in the lab," Tikks said, slowly getting to her feet, "these suits are prisons if your power runs out."

Musa could just make out the form of Ixx, trapped inside the cockpit of the suit. The ice-corrupted Inquest Asura was struggling, trying desperately to escape his now powerless armour, but the locked canopy held him securely in place. The Sylvari edged a little closer, rifle raised, yet before she could do anything Zita leapt up onto the torso of the suit and drove one of her daggers into Ixx's chest. Fire burned in the Norn's eyes as she stabbed again and again, ice and frozen flesh splintering until there was no movement from inside the cockpit. Drops of blood were smeared over the fractured visor from Zita's injured hand as she climbed off, her breath coming hard and fast. "Still not the end you deserve you lying, doublecrossing shark-rat," she hissed.

Tikks broke the silence that followed, "Well, now that that's sorted, I should remind you all that in one minute thirty-seven seconds this Gate and doubtless this shrine will be reduced to their composite elemental particles, so I believe vacating these premises would be prudent."

Musa wasted no time, leaping into the energy vortex. Tikks followed quickly afterwards, leaving Zita alone. She was about to step into the portal when she heard a groan, and turned to see Plink's bruised form rising from the rubble around the hole Ixx's entrance had made. Judging by the swelling lump on the Asura's forehead, Ixx had kicked his former apprentice when he'd charged at Zita. One of Plink's legs had also struck a piece of wall during the fight, and blood oozed from a frozen wound.

"Wait!" the Inquest operative cried out, holding up a hand. "You can't leave me here. Not in this place."

Zita paused, then pointed south. "Hoelbrak is that way. It took me six months, but I take longer strides than you."

With a smile, the Norn stepped into the Gate and disappeared from sight.

Epilogue

Sareb looked up in carefully concealed annoyance as Musa Ananas walked into her office once more. This time the inquisitive Sylvari had bought a friend, a great red-headed Norn woman. A bodyguard perhaps, Sareb considered, possibly brought along to be threatening. A foolish notion of course; here, in the heart of her commercial empire, Sareb was untouchable. She forced a smile and rose to greet her Sylvari sister.

"Musa, how delightful to see you again. Please, take a seat. And your friend as well, Miss…?"

"Hooke. Zita Hooke," the Norn said, seating herself on a chair shaped like a fallen forest tree.

The name sounded vaguely familiar to Sareb, but she couldn't recall where she'd heard it. She clasped her hands and looked across her desk at Musa. "How can I help you today, my dear? I do hope you are not following the same line of inquiry as before; as I told you then, I believe the matter to be closed."

Musa smiled. "You will be delighted to hear that I have resolved that particular investigation, Sareb, with the help of my friend here. The fate of the Aquila has now been made completely clear to me. No, the reason I have come here today is to resolve something of a pay dispute with your company. You see, my friend Zita here…"

Sareb held up a hand. "If you have an issue with matters of employment, you need to speak to the relevant department," the Sylvari said, her voice terse. "Species Resources can help you with these enquiries."

"Oh we've been there," Musa said brightly, "but they told us the oddest thing. There's no record of my friend's employment with your company. This is very odd, since you personally authorised her employment upon one of your vessels. Co-incidentally, the Aquila.'

Sareb froze. Ice gripped her heart as Musa continued to speak. "Imagine my surprise to find a crew member of that ship still alive! Together we were able to uncover so much, and to think, without your assistance, I never would have found her. I must thank you for that Sareb, truly I must."

Musa smiled and placed a piece of paper on the stone desk. "I encountered Zita in an old Asura laboratory in Metrica Province. You may have heard of it from two months ago, when there was all that talk of the weather control machine gone haywire. Snowstorms in Rata Sum, who would credit it? Of course there was a thorough search of the laboratory, during which we found a most interesting letter, sent by you Sareb, to an individual named Ixx Kahn, about the commercial possibilities of his research into future energy sources. Apparently you were most intrigued by the opportunities this sort of power could provide."

Sareb was silent, glancing only once down at the wretched letter. When she'd first read the article Potential Future Energy Capture and Utilization in the prestigious journal Metamagical Asuran, she'd seen the possibilities at once. Reopening the trade with Cantha would have brought her untold riches, but with Orr in the way it was a hopeless dream. But with high-powered Asura Gates linking the continents, that dream could become a reality.

Musa took the letter back, folding it carefully into a pocket in her blouse. "But that is all somewhat irrelevant to the case at hand," the Sylvari said. "Zita Hooke was employed by you, five years, three months and twelve days ago. During that entire time, she has been on active service with your company, and her employment was never terminated. Zita believes that it is time to move on, and would simply like to claim her outstanding salary. By my calculations, this comes to exactly two thousand, eight hundred and forty-four silver and ninety-seven copper pieces."

Sareb stared across her desk. Musa was blackmailing her, in quite an open fashion, and Sareb couldn't help but feel a grudging respect. It took guts to walk into the heart of the Black Lion Company and threaten its second-in-command. Of course, if you had the information Musa had, you could have asked Sareb to run buck naked through Lion's Arch and she'd do it. If the truth ever leaked out, Sareb knew her life wouldn't be worth two coppers, not with every Norn in Tyria hunting her.

Smiling, Sareb opened a draw in her desk and began to count gleaming gold coins out onto the tabletop. She reached thirty and tipped the lucre into a bag and slid it across to Zita. "I really must apologise for our employment department," Sareb said, all politeness and sunshine. "It must have simply been a lost file. Please accept this severance package from my personal funds. I hope you have enjoyed your time with our company, Miss Hooke, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavours"

Zita grinned as she scooped the bag up and deposited it in her belt, "Thank-you, Sareb. I'm glad it's over."

Musa flashed a final smile and rose from her chair. "Oh, one more thing," the Sylvari said, "last time my friend here was in Lion's Arch, there was some confusion over her involvement in the killing of a Charr in the canal district. I would consider it a personal favour if you passed along to the Lionguard that Zita had nothing to do with this affair, and was in fact employed elsewhere at the time."

Grinding her teeth behind her smile, Sareb nodded. "How unfortunate. I'll be sure to let the authorities know that they have made a mistake. Now, if there isn't anything else I can assist you with today...?"

Sareb watched as the two walked out of her office, then the Sylvari entrepreneur fell back into her chair, terror and relief mixing on her face. She was still slumped there when the sound of Musa and Zita laughing uproariously in the corridor outside came ringing through the closed oak doors to her office.