It was fun to figure out how the different choices of mission, both for the level 70 quest split and the level 80 quest split, work at the same time!

18: The Second Loss

Caoilfhionn woke early in the morning, as he usually did, and found that for once, he was not alone. Annhilda had crawled, bleary-eyed, out of her tent, and Damara was poking the fire out of slumber. Phiadi and Rhyoll were still abed, and they would be for a while yet. Caoilfhionn often found it difficult to keep his voice down sufficiently in the early morning out of courtesy to them.

Both women were dreadfully dishevelled; Annhilda's thick red hair was sticking out in all directions, falling over her face, and generally forming a forbidding red miasma of irritation about her. Damara's dark hair was softer, wispier, but no less unkempt at this hour. "G'morning."

"Good morning!" Caoilfhionn said. "You're up early today!"

Annhilda smirked. "D'mara said she wanted to help with my hair today. Figured she'd need some extra time."

Caoilfhionn lit up. "Ooh! Can I help too?"

"You don't even have hair, pup."

"That's exactly why I want to help." Caoilfhionn sat down crosslegged next to the fire eagerly. "Hair is fascinating, you know? You mammals might not have the diversity in head coverings that Sylvari do, but there's such variation in what you do have – we don't have anything like it. And you can change it so easily, the colour, the styling – my brother has pinecone scales, and he will always have pinecone scales, forever and ever. Hair is so flexible!"

"Someone's got a fetish," Damara said, putting the kettle on.

"A… what? No? I just want to help. And be curious. Come on, I have dextrous hands, I can braid."

"Do you, now," Damara said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"All right, you can give it a try," Annhilda said. "If it isn't up to my standards I'll just redo it later, no big deal." She got out a large brush and began taming the wild tangles out of her hair. Caoilfhionn winced at the harsh noises it generated, but Annhilda didn't seem to care.

After Caoilfhionn had finished making preparations for breakfast and put it on to boil, and after they'd all had a cup of tea, Annhilda had finally finished with her brush. "All right. You two sure you know what you're doing?"

"I know what I'm doing," Damara assured her. "I braid my hair every day too, remember? It keeps it out of the way and it's cute!"

"I don't give a damn about 'cute'," Annhilda said. "I just need it out of the way." She was so tall, even sitting, that Damara could stand and not find it uncomfortable to reach her head.

"I think I know how you normally do it," Damara said. "Okay, Caoilfhionn, you take the other side and follow my lead."

Caoilfhionn leaned over to see what she was doing. "Oh, I think I understand. With the twine… like this?" Her hair was so thick, and somewhat stiffer than he'd anticipated, somehow both finer and coarser than he'd thought – it tangled around his fingers so easily, like a whole wilderness of tough, pliant grasses. His sisters' leaves, even Eithne's, looked incredibly simple compared to this. He found it difficult to concentrate on what he was doing; he just wanted to keep touching it, to stroke it, run his fingers through it. Fascinating. She would probably disapprove very strongly, and he was still a little in awe of her, even now, so he kept his mind on his task.

"You're not exactly instilling me with confidence," Annhilda said, rolling her eyes towards them without moving her head. "You can do it tighter than that, Caoilfhionn, it's not that sensitive."

"Ah, sorry. You don't feel through your hair?" That explained a few things, and he became more confident in his handling, secure that he wouldn't hurt her if he was slightly less gentle.

"No, just the roots. You feel through your leaves?"

"Yes, it's like an extension of our skin."

"So that one time I saw you trimming your leaves-" Damara began with an expression of horror.

"It stings a bit, but it's worth it," Caoilfhionn said, laughing at her reaction. "What, do not you have cultural practices that cause pain in pursuit of beauty? What about these tattoos, for instance?"

"Excuse you, those tattoos have meanings," Annhilda said. "It's not just about looking badass. Which they also do, though that's not the point."

"Well, it's important for our fearless leader to look her best," Damara teased her. "After all, it's the last thing most of our enemies will see."

Annhilda snorted. "You know what I like to hear."

"And thus we, your handmaidens, shall attend to you," Damara said theatrically, and was unable to dodge a swipe from Annhilda. "Whoops! Careful!"

Annhilda was laughing. "A Norn does not need handmaidens. Though I'm sure some of the men wouldn't object if a pretty girl was around to braid their beards…"

"What's all the giggling about?" complained a groggy voice, and Phiadi crawled out of her little tent. "You guys having a girly hair party?"

"It's not girly," Annhilda protested fiercely.

"And I'm not a girl?" Caoilfhionn said.

"Or have hair," Phiadi said. She grabbed Annhilda's brush, swished it through her white-pink chin-length bob a few times, and tossed her head – her hair was instantly perfect. "Done."

"Lucky you," Damara said. "Okay, how do you normally tie this off, Annhilda?"

Annhilda showed them. "I guess we should help with yours now, too."

"No, Caoilfhionn's first!" Damara said, grinning. "You heard him, he's more vain than the rest of us put together."

"You can try," Caoilfhionn said, but to no one's surprise, she didn't get far in braiding his rather short leaves, though the endeavour caused both of them to giggle madly.

Rhyoll rolled out of his tent. "Hair? Who cares? As long as it's not on fire?"

"Spoilsport," Damara said, perfectly happy to have Annhilda and Caoilfhionn do up her braids. "Breakfast should be ready any minute, don't forget to wash up, Mr. Sleepyhead."

Caoilfhionn and Damara were on their first official mission together, aiding an Asura engineer. They met at the United Arcanist Lab in the south of Sparkfly Fen. Demolitionist Tonn was a peppy young man who seemed much more friendly and down-to-earth than many Asura Caoilfhionn had met, Phiadi and Wegaff included. "Hey, Commander! Over here! Time to make some noise!"

"Demolitionist Tonn?" Damara asked. "I'm, uh, Commander Damara Biros, and this is my friend Caoilfhionn. Teammate? Colleague?"

"Colleague sounds distinguished," Caoilfhionn said.

"Also known as the Orch-"

"Damara!"

Tonn laughed. "I've been looking forward to meeting you both. I told Trahearne I needed the big guns for this mission, and here you are."

"I've got the guns," Damara said. "Not sure about Caoilfhionn, though."

"Damara, you use a bow, and I use magic," Caoilfhionn objected. "Rhyoll's the one with the guns."

"No, it's slang," Damara explained. "Guns is slang for biceps." She flexed, causing the muscles to stand out on her upper arms. They were substantial, he had to admit.

He laughed. "In that case, you should have asked for Annhilda, Tonn."

"I just meant powerhouses, and you'll do very well," Tonn said cheerfully. "Welcome to the party! Like I always tell my wife, Ceera: any lump can hack bad guys to death, but it takes skill and style to turn them into craters and dust."

"Too bad Rhyoll decided to go with those Vigil types, he'd agree with you completely," Damara said. "So what are we lighting up today?"

"Our preliminary targets are three Orrian towers that are flooding the region with undead nasties. We can't hold this area until we stop the influx. I'll handle the explosives. Your job is to get me to the targets and keep the enemy off me while I plant the charges. Then we drop back, settle in, and enjoy the spectacle pyrotechnical."

"Sounds good to me!" Damara said. "Let's get moving!"

The three of them, Caoilfhionn, Damara, and Tonn, were on their biggest mission yet, destroying the flagship of Zhaitan's bone fleet. It should have been simple. Easy, even.

"It's too bad this is our last mission together," Damara said as they assembled with their Pact escort, before they dove into the water to plant the charges. "Trahearne's calling us to Fort Trinity after this goes off."

"We sink the bone ship and cover ourselves in glory first though!" Tonn said. "But it's sad, I agree, we make a great team."

"I'm sure we'll work together again," Caoilfhionn said.

"Perhaps we'll meet your wife next!" Damara said. "Ceera, right?"

"That's her! Tell her how great I've been, all right?"

"Will do," Caoilfhionn said, and dove gracefully into the sea. Damara was behind him with her shark, Erik, swimming up from the depths to meet her.

The sea here was dark and murky, and filled with enemies prowling. Their saving grace was that undead had terrible eyesight; even Caoilfhionn's vibrant dark purple clothes blended in to the shadows of the sea, letting them pass by without detection. A pair of sharks caught on to them, but Caoilfhionn froze them and Damara speared them, and they silently floated away.

The rest of the demolition placements went also in silence; Tonn was delicate as he attached the bomb to the bone ship's hull, mindful of how sound traveled through water, and they slipped out as carefully as they'd come in.

Tonn was giggling and bouncing as they emerged again onto the little island where their Pact squad was protecting the detonator. "Hold onto your ears, everyone. This is going to be my masterpiece- Wait, something's wrong." Tonn checked the detonator, fiddled with it, tapped it. "Argh, it's showing red. The connections were perfect! Something must be knocked out of position."

"I guess you can't fix it from here, can you?" Damara said. "Well, it'll be twice as dangerous, but we have no choice but to sneak back out-"

"Sir!" cried Crusader Gilley to Damara. "We have krait inbound. Closing fast, and they look like they mean business." She pointed north to where many dark, sinuous shapes could be glimpsed below the waves.

"All right." Tonn squared his shoulders and turned to Damara. "I'll reset the charges on the ship, you keep the krait off the detonator."

"I'll go with you, then," Caoilfhionn said. "I don't like you going alone. Between the krait and the sharks…"

Tonn snorted. "I can handle the cartilaginous cretins that are still out there, and the krait are focused on this position. They won't even notice me. But the detonator has to be protected. And the ship has to go down."

"Sure, but we've got all these Pact forces," Damara said. "I've got things covered. Take Caoilfhionn."

"Oh, all right," Tonn said. "Come on, Caoilfhionn, time's a-wasting!"

Despite the urgency of the situation, they still had to swim as carefully and quietly as before. Caoilfhionn felt the pressure mounting in his chest, the fear that they would not be on time. He enjoyed daring infiltrations but even he knew that doing them twice meant greater chance for something to go wrong. And it… felt different, somehow, in this context, than it had when he was younger and making sport of the Nightmare Court. Was he growing up? Or was it just that this wasn't his own initiative, that his part was a smaller piece of a larger war machine, that so many others were relying on him?

He begrudged every undead who got in their way, but despite his impatience, they made it back to the bone flagship without incident. He kept watch for Tonn as the Asura swam to his bomb, popping the cover off to examine the insides.

It was only a moment before Tonn grabbed his arm. "It's fixed! Go, go, go! Gotta get clear!"

Relief flooded him. They'd done it at last, and they hadn't been swarmed by the undead. "I'm with you!"

A hand grabbed his ankle and he twisted to see a big formerly-Norn undead trying to drag him down. Caoilfhionn writhed and slashed, element of Air freeing him and tearing his enemy away. Not now! He swam on as quickly as he could.

Suddenly the world collapsed around him. An immense sound blasted his sensitive ears, and all the air in his lungs was knocked from him by a crushing shockwave. For several minutes he hung, stunned, in the water, unable to tell which way was up or down, just clinging to the air coming in through his aquabreather, trying to get his lungs working again. His ears were ringing and for a moment he wondered if he'd ever hear again.

They'd done it! …And it had almost been disastrous for him, at least. It was a good thing his shield of Air had still been up when the bomb went off. He was recovering, though his head was still woozy, and he shook himself – which didn't help – and looked around. "Tonn? Tonn!" He swam to the surface, to see if Tonn were up there. "Tonn!" The bone ship was still collapsing, sinking quickly, raining bits of bone into the water around him.

An uneasy feeling was taking hold in his belly. It was difficult to find anything in the water unless he already knew exactly where it was…

"Caoilfhionn!" Damara called to him, her voice faint in the distance and the ringing in his ears, yet not so faint as it should be. She'd come to meet him, worried, no doubt. "What's taking so long? You should have been back by now!"

"I can't find Tonn!" he called anxiously. "Help me look for him!" Bodies were popping up, but as far as he could see, they were all of undead.

"I see something!" shouted Crusader Gilley. "Over here! …By the Gods, it's Tonn! He's… he's dead."

"No!" Caoilfhionn exclaimed, swimming over as fast as he could. "He can't… I was right there…"

"I was sure he signaled us," Damara said, as he caught up, the three of them treading water around a small, sad body floating face-down between the waves. "Was the explosion bigger than he expected?"

"We had the go-ahead signal," Crusader Gilley said. "I saw it. You saw it, Damara, you did. By the gods, why would he sacrifice himself like that?"

"I don't know," Caoilfhionn whispered. "I don't know what happened. One moment he was beside me, and then next moment we were attacked, and then there was the explosion…"

"This is a huge loss for the Pact," Crusader Gilley said, gathering up the body and beginning to swim back to shore. "Tonn was the best demolitionist we had."

"And we'll have to tell his wife," Damara said.

"By the Tree." Caoilfhionn gulped back tears. "She's waiting to hear from him."

"I'll tell her," Damara said. "I was the commanding officer. It's my responsibility." Even through the water, he could feel her fear. "Melandru guide me…"

"I'll do it," he said. "I was with him up until the last moment."

"We'll do it together," Damara said.

"I don't envy you," Crusader Gilley said. "Tell her he died a hero. It won't soften the news, but it might help in the long run."