Chapter three, Even the Humans Want Him
To the great relief of especially Xander and Tivi – Rubusa just jogged along at a merry pace – it was an uneventful trip to the Priory camp. They arrived quicker than expected because Xander refused to slow down, apart from to chow down some more food. Rubusa had luckily been able to share some more, filling out Tivi's last scraps.
The camp was a wonderful, wonderful sight after all that had happened. Too bad that the eerie purple of the Brand had ruined the view for hours before they actually got there.
The closer they got, the thicker the air felt. A burnt, metallic scent filled Tivi's nostrils. She would have been more uncomfortable about it if it had not overpowered the smells rising from Xander's body. It did not clear them out completely, but for the first time in hours she could actually think of something else than the charr's warm, solid back and the soft fur sticking out between the pieces of his armor. The fact that all that had seemed so very fascinating, even when every step he took jolted her against his back until her entire body hurt worse than that time when the aether-grade flux lines split and almost roasted her and everyone else in the room…
Rambling line of thought aside, it was rather disturbing to find the curse's power of distraction to be stronger than her acute discomfort. For every passing minute she could more clearly see why Xander had decided that he was a liability to his warband.
They crested the final cracked hill and gazed down the road at the Priory camp. The tents and banners swayed peacefully, but sickly purple dust blew in with every gentle whisk of the wind. Several people were sitting about polishing weapons and tools – and even from this distance the three travelers could see lavender pockmarks on the metal. The Branded corruption ate its way onto everything it could, making rust and mold seem like fine sand in compare.
Xander raised his hands and waved at the guards at the edge of the camp. The norn and charr relaxed a little at the greeting, but did not move their hands too far from their weapons. It would be a rare place in Tyria where one accepted a stranger without question.
A rare place, or maybe the Grove.
Tivi might have spaced off for a moment, thinking about her visit to that beautiful, dizzying, illogical place, had Xander not shook her off his back.
"This is safe enough for your tests," he said, folding his arms as he turned to look at Tivi.
"Oh, can I help?" Rubusa asked.
Xander pointed down at the camp.
"I want to get going quick, to the stronghold on the other side," he said. "Go ask if the Priory have any intel to share."
Pause.
"If there's anything we should know before we continue," Xander clarified, biting back a sigh with visible effort.
He and Tivi gazed after Rubusa as she cheerfully ran down to the camp.
"Nobody can be that dumb." Tivi commented, though with little hope. "Obfuscating…?" She trailed off as she looked up, and caught Xander looking thoughtfully at the blasted landscape ahead. "I don't think we can sneak through that without her seeing us."
Xander looked for another moment, but the way they wanted to go was pretty much flattened. The area just below the camp held the remains of what had once been some kind of temple, Tivi assumed. But whatever purpose it had used to serve, like everything else in the dragon's path it had been torn apart by Kralkatorrik's flight. The residue magic still affected the marble rocks, causing some of them to hang frozen in the air. Statues of the humans' gods leaned this and that way, twisted into barely recognizable, otherworldly forms.
And amongst the rubble translucent, human shapes moved aimlessly – but if they saw something, anything they thought was an enemy, the ghosts would not hesitate to attack.
Even though the unspoken but apparent plan would obviously be to take a long, long way around that area, there was little to hide behind if you wanted to lose a stupid plant person along the way. Any one of the rocks in the blasted canyon looked suspiciously alive.
With a resigned grunt, Xander nodded.
"Well, she might make a good distraction if we need it…" he muttered.
"Yes, right," Tivi said and brushed herself off with as much dignity as she could. That done, she pulled her backpack off and sat it on the ground in front of her. "Regardless, let me get my testing equipment…"
She trailed off when she flipped open the side pocket of the pack and a cloud of smoke gushed out into her face. Coughing, she waved the stinging smoke aside and squinted through her stinging tears into the bag. All there was inside of it was a mess of broken glass and dissolving tools amongst a bubbly chemical cocktail.
For a second she was paralyzed. Then she squeaked and frantically closed the pocket, and proceeded to rip open every other part of the backpack and toss the contents out of it. To her relief, it turned out that the improvised alchemy experiment had not managed to eat through the cloth or the spells inside the backpack.
"So that's why the price was low," she said with a huff, glaring at the backpack while she absently tossed the last few items onto the pile beside her. "Cheapskates using defective runes of holding!"
She turned to look at the pile, finding that it was almost as tall as she was. Xander studied at it with a suspicious look, probably thinking back to the food Tivi had given him before – and making the connection that the jerky had shared a portable subspace with some of those things.
"Alright," Tivi muttered and made an attempt to inconspicuously snatch up some of the more unsightly random crap and drop them back into the pack. "Maybe not completely defective." She cleared her throat. "I fear we might have to put off performing the tests to evaluate the nature of your curse. There is a dismally low probability that the Priory researchers would have the necessary tools."
"Great."
He said nothing else, but stayed at her side as she struggled to minimize the damage. After a bit of searching through the heap she had produced she found her collection of neutralizing solvents intact. The ruined pocket she ripped off and emptied on the ground, then dumped the solvents the mess until it stopped trying to eat its way into the center of the planet (where it might possibly have hit Primordus and given him enough of a back itch to finally break through the surface and cause enough destruction to make Jormag raise his/her eyebrows).
Xander seemed to be in no hurry to go to the camp, just standing there lost in his own grumpy thoughts until Tivi had finished cleaning up and repacking her items.
Silently, they headed down the hill, neither in a very good mood. Tivi knew she ought to say something hopeful, but she felt too guilty about not being able to test Xander. And all her experiments, most that had been sitting there stewing and developing so nicely… well okay, she had not cared that much about most of them, but most of those test tubes and pliers that had turned into a slippery goo had been gifts. They had emotional value, and she was an emotional asura.
The guards by the edge of the camp greeted them warily. Unsurprising, considering that the irritated air around the two travelers seemed thick enough to cut with a knife. Tivi was not so far into her own sour world that she did not pick up on this, and using all her willpower she managed to speak a shrill but polite greeting and question about where their sylvari friend had gone. They were pointed towards a tent.
The wind blew in from the Brand, carrying with it the burnt scent of the blasted area. That could not possibly be healthy in the long run. Yet it had some use, at least for the moment. Tivi heard a small breath escape Xander, a tiny, almost hidden sound of relief. Nobody they walked past made a single comment about smelling anything good.
Passing the priory members, Tivi noticed that they seemed unusually peppy. Everything seemed to do its hardest to raise her spirits, but it needed a final push. That was delivered by Rubusa, of all people.
The sylvari stood in the warm darkness of the tent together with a human man wearing the Priory's robes. He was handing her several packs of what looked like wrapped up dried meat, which she put in her backpack.
"They had a good hunt a couple of days ago and received supplies this morning," Rubusa said, smiling at her companions. "They feel safe enough to sell us some food."
Such a simple thing. But tension flowed out of Tivi's limbs, and her growing headache subsided. Any camp out in dangerous areas like this needed to guard their supplies, and travelers could seldom to never hope to buy food. It had been a problem she had not wanted to consider, since she had given much of what she'd had left to Xander earlier, and he had none at all after his imprisonment.
Tivi opened her mouth to speak her thanks, but faltered as an awfully familiar, chemical scent crept into her senses. With a sinking feeling she realized she could not hear the wind anymore.
The Priory scholar's nostrils flared.
"Oh…" He took in an unsteady breath and moisture glistened in his eyes.
"Eh, are you alright?" Tivi asked. This was new. The smell curse was stupid and embarrassing, she could not see why it would make somebody cry.
"I'm sorry," the man said. He wiped his eyes and looked between Tivi and Rubusa. "It's just… is either of you wearing night lily perfume?"
Xander slumped.
"Oh, it's probably just me," Rubusa said, smiling brightly. As she shook her head, a dusting of pollen swirled up and danced through the rays of sunlight. Her quick save earned her strange looks from both of her companions.
"Yes, I suppose so." The explorer gave her the shadow of a smile. "It smells just like what my dear departed wife always used."
Without a word Xander walked out of the tent.
Thinking fast, Tivi dragged Rubusa towards the exit so that the man would not realize that the sweet smell had in fact not come from the sylvari. Rubusa offered a gentle apology for dredging up painful memories, and the man had just enough time to say it was not her fault. Then they were out of sight, and smelling range.
Tivi sighed with relief and looked around for Xander.
He was nowhere to be seen, but finding him was easy enough. They only had to listen for the quick succession of thuds, from a head being repeatedly smacked into a tree.
Despite Tivi's best efforts to get them to sod off, there was quite a crowd staring at Xander by the time he stopped beating himself up. It just figured that the Priory's people didn't get to see many strange things that were actually amusing, as opposed to life threatening. Even if they didn't know what was going on, they were reluctant to stop watching.
At least the wind had decided to be merciful and returned anew. It flowed in with a new load of Branded dust, drowning out Xander's curse so that he was spared comments for at least the moment.
He eventually stopped trying to beat the frustration out of his brain and turned around, focusing a slightly unsteady glare at Tivi and Rubusa. Silently daring them to say anything.
"Places to go. Experiments to conduct." Tivi spoke as neutrally as she could, pointing sideways towards the Brand.
Xander took in a deep breath and wobbled off in that direction.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Rubusa asked as the two ladies followed Xander.
"Rrrgh," he responded.
They had not gotten far before a small groan escaped Xander and his unsteady steps quickened. Tivi understood why a second later when she realized the wind was slowing. It seemed to be in a playful mood indeed.
Behind them, a norn wondered who was hogging mead. An asura informed him that he obviously could not recognize the sent of camphor if it smacked him in the face.
Then a human female said, in a worried tone as she took in quick, suspicious breaths through her nose:
"Is that chloroform?" She noticed the three travelers stopping and staring at her. "What?"
Tivi opened her mouth, closed it, then shook her head and backed away quickly, urging her allies along.
"I'm jumping off a cliff before I go to Divinity's Reach with this," Xander growled as they climbed the rocks down to the Brand.
"It would probably be safer…" Tivi muttered.
"I never imagined people had such varied taste!" Rubusa commented. Xander moved as to punch her, but stopped himself and left it at a snarl.
The sun was already sinking and painted the sky a bright yellow and magnificent orange. At least Tivi assumed it was so, but the purplish air of the Brand veiled the evening skies. Her whole body ached after the last few hours' adventures, but she gritted her teeth and called upon the power of water to rejuvenate her. It helped a little bit – cooling streams flowed through her body by the power of her mind, but there was only so much she could do.
If she slowed down, though, Xander would get the bright idea to carry her around again, and that was one method of transportation she was in no rush to use again. So she forced her short little legs to move, focusing her will on the howling wind and the power it might grant. Electricity sparkled at her fingertips, and her feet felt lighter as had she been running on air.
If that boorish Bookah of a charr even tried to reach for her neck to hoist her onto his back again, he'd get a fistful of lightning.
It took a moment longer before she realized that Kralkatorrik's power had completely washed away the unwanted attraction she had felt for Xander. She would have cheered, if the thought had not struck her that the three of them made a rotten team. Rubusa was oblivious to how little respect she earned from the other two, and without the curse messing with her mind Tivi felt no sympathy for Xander at the moment. All he did was snarl and throw her around. Alright, so he had saved her from the separatists, but he would not have escaped without her either. They were even, and she wasn't sure she liked him enough to actually care.
That was a pretty depressing thought.
"Just a little further," Xander grunted. "We should be able to rest safely in the stronghold."
Tivi glanced at him, wondering if he had noticed her strained breath. But he just sounded annoyed. She gazed ahead, through the purple haze. At the edge of the cliff sat a metallic, bluntly shaped structure. It lacked all grace and any kind of calculated esthetics, but the mere chance that it might offer a safe night's sleep made it beautiful to her eyes.
It would have been so much better if she had been able to do her tests now, when the Brand overpowered the curse. As soon as they left it behind, everything that breathed around Xander would ask him stupid questions again. And she and Rubusa would have to deal with the invasive attraction again, despite every shred of logic fighting against it.
Wasn't there anything that could be done? Tivi scowled. Well, they had already been over the breathing issue.
Stop breathing…
The wandering idea, from back when they first met Rubusa, returned home.
"I got it!" she yelped.
"Burn you, not so loud!" Xander hissed. "Do you want to bring the whole landscape down on us?"
But Tivi wasn't listening. She grinned up at Rubusa over her shoulder, and eagerly said:
"The quandary we're in has a possible solution."
The confused look she got back only made her grin wider. It felt good to be a (semi-)genius.
Yeah, as for tropes, this chapter only has more Blessed with Suck, and a bit of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork and The Friend Nobody Likes. Let's see if we can get something more substantial next time. How about some good old fashioned Mood Whiplash? Muhahahaha…
