The Coveted Forge

Chapter 2 - The Immovable Hunters

Long ago, in the days of the Flameseeker Prophecies, Lion's Arch was a very different city from what it had since become. It used to be the capital of Kryta, the seat of the Krytan kings, the closest thing to a jewel the Krytan nation had to offer. A city ran by and for humans, to serve as a safe Haven in a time of uncertainty. Following the fall of the White Mantle, the city went through a time of renewal, outposts and trade routes were set up, a new human monarch was secured, control of the nearby jungles was expanded and the city's longer history as a place human travellers could rely on, earned Lion's Arch a great deal of respect in the people and this respect extended to the city's ancient protectors, the Lionguard.

Then, Zhaitan rose and the elder dragon's undead armies laid waste to the city again and again. Desperation in times of extreme hardship, begot forgetfulness. The generations that suffered the death dragon's assault neglected the importance of the city's human heritage. In hopes of soliciting help and accepting more resources to rebuild, they decided to open up the city to other races, so that Charr and Norn and Asura would provide materials and manpower to build upon the ruins between the frequent attacks of the undead. But in doing so, they also opened it up to corruption, they callously invited people who didn't value what the city stood for, out of ignorance or out of malice, and gave them an equal seat at the table of its leaders.

The result was a city controlled by a hodgepodge of opportunists, armed to the teeth with the weapons of every race, receiving a constant influx of resources from all over Tyria and the lingering respect awarded the city because of its ancient human history, awarded it a nigh-inexhaustible amount of leeway for hostile and brazen behaviour. The city soon found that it could impose itself on all the surrounding nations, force unwanted policies onto them, push everyone around and not face so much as criticism, let alone pushback, because people's respect for its ancient human history drained away the same justified rage that would leave anyone else in dire straits.

It took them crossing many lines, overstepping many bounds, before that leftover reverence from their olden days wore off. The most glaring moment of this shift came with the Treaty of Ebonhawke. Forcing the Ascalonians at gunpoint to begrudgingly accept the stripping of their claim to the land, was clearly in people's memory as one of those times when people of all races stopped seeing Lion's Arch as the beacon of hope it once was, and started seeing it for the tyrant in gold plating that it had become.

The heavy walls separating the staircase from the rest of Knut Whitebear's Hunting Lodge either completely walled off all the chatter from within the building or dampened even the loudest and closest voices to the point where they were unintelligible. The path up the stairs was so long, the Commander and Rox wound up taking several breaks. Not so much out of exhaustion, but rather bafflement at how far up this actually went. Raising her feet once more to climb those obstructively high steps after their second break, the Charr asked: "This is ridiculous. Why is his loft so high up?"

The Commander's knowledge of the Norn from when he frequently visited the Shiverpeaks gave him more material to baffle her with. "If you think this is crazy, his loft is just a platform high up in the building. There's nothing there except his seat and some decorations. Every time he wants to eat anything or use a bathroom, he walks the entire way up and down the stairs."

"Sheesh, the worst Blood Legion drills I've been to were still not this bad."

The closer they got to the light from the braziers shining inside through the open doors at the very top, the more they could make out the sound of people talking from above. Short heated exchanges followed by silence, only to resume at random times out of the blue. The Commander could soon make out the voices and put names to them. They were Knut Whitebear and Scarlet Briar. He wasn't sure about the latter at first, her voice was very distorted, but the clearer it got, the more unmistakable her voice and snooty accent became.

From a certain point on, they were close enough that they could make out words. But it took a while before the conversation resumed with the unmistakable voice of a female Sylvari talking: "I'm getting a tad impatient, Knut. This isn't up for debate you know, you need to impose trade embargoes against Kryta and Ascalon!"

"We've been over this, Scarlet, " answered the tired owner of the lodge. "The Shiverpeaks are not a nation state. I do not lead or command the Norn, I do not tell them what to do."

A live conversation between two leading figures like that? Realizing in full what he was walking into gave the Commander new strength to speed up climbing those stairs.

The upset Sylvari kept pestering him: "Then just announce that you dis- ugh why are we even having this conversation? Why won't you finally give up your archaic ideas of 'freedom' and 'independence' and adopt some new, more modern concepts like submi- I mean 'unity' and 'cooperation'? You should do as I tell you in the name of cooperation between the races. You care about cooperation, right?"

"For the umpteenth time, I will not go out there and talk to strangers about who they can or cannot trade with. That is up to each Norn for themselves."

When they finally reached the top, the Commander burst through the open doorway still breathing heavily from exhaustion. "I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?" The doorway led right onto a platform at the top of the main hall, held in place by adjacent walls and several metal chains attached to the roof. The tiny vaults lining the wall between the main hall and the staircase extended all the way up here, and two more armed Norn guarded the sides of the doorway.

Knut Whitebear, an enormous man with a large beard and brown, slightly greying hair, sat on his throne on the end of the platform opposite from the doorway. He was dressed in a flexible brown-and-beige suit of armour made of thin metal slates interwoven with leather bands and spikes extended off all the ends of his shoulders. He was relieved to see two more people arrive up here. "Not in the least. A new visitor would make for a nice change of pace."

Scarlet sounded like she could barely believe whose voice she was hearing. She wasn't physically present however. Instead, a large, round contraption placed off to the right side was projecting a three-dimensional image of Scarlet Briar, with her usual flower petal 'pigtails' and dressed in her usual ridiculous mishmash between a leather corset and a trenchcoat. Her hologram turned around and upon seeing his face, placed her hands on both sides of her waist. "Pact Commander? Oh…you're in deep trouble, mister. What exactly happened in Ascalon, huh?"

The best approach here was to answer honestly but without an apologetic tone. "The Flame Legion was winning the war, but it turned out that actually fighting over the Citadel was playing into the hands of a third party called the 'Storm Legion', so we agreed to simply have the Citadel surrender and the Flame Legion hold off on destroying it. Smodur refused to surrender under any circumstances, so Rytlock cut his head off and declared himself the new Iron Legion Imperator."

"As a Blood Legion Tribune?" asked the Sylvari in disbelief.

The Commander shrugged. "I'm not a Charr, I don't know what does or doesn't fly there."

Rox chimed in: "It shouldn't…usually. But I guess Tribune Bri- I mean Imperator Rytlock worked with Iron legion long enough to earn it. He was more Iron Legion than Blood Legion by that point."

Now that both had recovered from coming up here, the Commander clapped both his hands together and nodded towards the holoprojector. "So, Knut Whitebear has his own personal holoprojector?"

The Commander started wandering towards the round contraption that allowed Scarlet's monochrome image to stand on it. Seeing him close in on her holographic image like this made Scarlet nervous. "Commander, what are you doing?"

Whitebear shrugged. "It doesn't belong to me. The Lionguard came up here and set it up on the day their expedition arrived. She's been in my ear day-in-day-out ever since."

The Commander leaned against the projector with one hand and faced the Norn, gesturing towards Scarlet's image with the other hand. "You know, if they went through the trouble of bringing it all the way up here, you might as well claim ownership, it was clearly meant for you."

Scarlet raised a finger and spoke to him in an increasingly tense manner: "Commander whatever you're thinking of…"

Knut dismissed the human's suggestion. "I thought having a direct line to Lion's Arch was useful at first, but I'm growing tired of Scarlet's antics."

The Commander looked to Scarlet, and began to smile when he realized what this meant. "Can I have it?"

Scarlet wagged her finger at him. "Commander, stop!"

Knut's answer was clear: "You might draw the ire of the Lionguard, but sure, take it, do with it as you please."

Having been given green light to go through with it, the Commander let go of the holo projector: "Ah, that's nice to hear." He wrapped his hands under open layers within the circular machine's casing and with some physical strain, managed to lift it up.

Scarlet turned around to see the edge of the platform that her projector was being carried to and realized in full what he was up to. "Commander, wait!" He had no intention to wait another second. "Put that down! Don't you dare!" The Commander leaned the underside of the projector on the railings on the back edge of the loft and looked down.

He could see to the very bottom of the lodge from up here. He shouted down to the Norn below. "Hey! Everyone down there! Stay clear, something large is about to fall down there!"

The fuming Sylvari hissed at him: "I will be very angry if you do this!"

The Commander ignored her threats and lifted the side of the projector on the inside of the railing and tipped it over before letting it go. As he did, Scarlet kept shouting at him. "Oh you did not do that! You are in SO much trouble!"

She didn't have opportunity to say much more, as the contraption crashed into the stone floor at the very bottom and broke into pieces.

A silence fell on the loft for a few seconds, until the owner of the lodge sighed and spoke up: "Thank the spirits, I was thinking of doing the same thing. Now, when they ask what happened, I can blame it on you. Thank you for that."

The Commander pulled out a handkerchief to wipe any residual dirt from the machine off his hands. "My pleasure. Say, while we're trading favors, is there anything major going on in the Shiverpeaks? Anything with larger implications for the region as a whole?"

"The only major development is the Lionguard and their expedition showing up. It's all brand new recruits, not a single one of them has more than half a year of training and almost none of them have any combat experience. And yet all of them have a head bigger than Jormag itself."

The Commander returned to rox and scratched his chin. "Newly appointed officials from Lion's Arch, uppity and extremely arrogant. Probably with all the same phrases too. It was the same with the Shining Blade after they got their 'consultant' and with Smodur after he got his new 'consultants' from Lion's Arch. I'm starting to notice a pattern. Did perchance any Sylvari dressed in office clothing show up and tell you to evict or kill Norn at random?"

Knut declined. "Not to my knowledge, but with how the Lionguard is acting, it won't surprise me if they do before long."

"So the only thing causing a commotion here right now, are the Lionguard. If they're threat that Blade Warband is coming to fend off, then all we need to do is find out who they're looking for."

Knut replied: "If you could get the Lionguard off our case, I'm sure everyone would be thankful for it."

"I make no promises, but I will try once I have Nightblade in custody." The Commander was already heading back to the stairs, before he realized: "Wait, one more thing. I'm looking to form a new guild.." he stopped to consider how to put this for a Norn. "Think of it as a hunting party, but for dealing with threats throughout Central Tyria. Would you happen to know where I can find Norn willing to join something more unorthodox than hunting wildlife?"

Knut shrugged. "You count an elder dragon among your prey, Commander. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a Norn who will follow your lead."

The Commander gave him a look, uncertain about this advice, but saw little reason to disagree. "All right. I'll be looking into why they're here. Let's go." With this, he turned back to the dark staircase and began making his way downstairs again.

The trip back down was mostly quiet, except when Rox asked half-way down: "Are you sure this will work out? If they find out you destroyed that thing, that Lionguard from earlier will be madder than before."

"Even if they do, I talked to Scarlet just like she asked. That excuse to shut us out won't fly anymore and I won't let her hide behind another one either."

When they arrived back in the main hall of the lodge, a bearded Norn with a heavy leather apron covering most of his height - probably to ward off dirt, shavings or metal splinters during heavy handiwork - stood above the broken remains of Scarlet's projector. When the two of them passed by the scraps, he pointed at them. "Is this your doing?"

The Commander stopped, looked at the bent and torn pieces of metal and back at the craftsman. "It is. Did I do something wrong?"

The craftsman shrugged. "Not at all. But I wanted to know if those metal scraps belong to anyone. I could repurpose some of them."

"Be my guest. Whitebear said I could do with that thing what I wanted, I wouldn't see why it's a problem if you salvage what's left."

"In that case…" Without further ado, the Norn grabbed the two largest pieces of the projector's solid metal frame, bent but still held together, ripped them apart effortlessly with his bare hands and continued to sift through the smaller and finer metal components within.

Rox was startled and pointed vaguely towards this with one finger. "Did he just…"

The human interrupted her right there and moved on: "Don't question it, just accept it, this is what the Norn are like." Though that interaction left him thinking. Knut Whitebear outright refused to take sides in a conflict that had long been an international affair, he didn't even think it was his place to do so. This presumable blacksmith just now had no concern with the armed soldiers that brought the projector in here, he only cared for the spare parts and smelting them for his own purposes.

The Norn in general were so effortlessly above all the hardships that everyone else considered a part of life. The sense of duty and obligation that humans and Charr had, the subconscious notion that one was obliged to compromise on one's own goals to the benefit of others, was simply absent and the Norn were better off for it. Maybe this was not just a quirk of theirs, maybe it was this mindset that allowed the Norn to brave the harsh climate, the hostility of foreign conflicts and the beasts that lurked in the mountains with such ease.

Maybe he would do well to take a page out of their book, try to channel their mindset and apply it to his own life. No more politeness if it was not reciprocal and no more restraint with the ungrateful.

Speaking of the ungrateful, he passed the lodge's middle balcony to the edge where all the Lionguard were still gathering. That same lieutenant from earlier was still at her podium, rattling down her self-aggrandizing speech with rhetoric very much in line with what the Shining Blade and Scarlet's other minions had been saying in the last few years. "...we will hunt down those bigots to the last corners of the Shiverpeaks and show the Norn what our intellectual prowess - the power of unity and obedience - can achieve! We will show them that we are their betters and that they are to obey our edicts! Lion's Arch unifies the experts in all fields, we know how this country and others should be run, better than the Norn, better than the Charr, better than humans, better than anyone from outside our great city!"

The Commander saw no reason to wait and let her continue, he covered his mouth and cleared his throat very clearly, drawing the eyes of the Lionguard who then slowly spread away from him. It was loud enough to interrupt the woman at the podium as well. He then simply began talking: "I'm back from talking to Scarlet."

She was visibly annoyed with the abrupt way he cut into her self-congratulatory ramblings. "So? What did she say?"

"I explained what happened in Ascalon, then she got mad about it and I broke the holoprojector."

"WHAT? It was YOU who did that?"

Since he had already committed to being open about what happened, the Commander simply continued speaking directly to what happened. "She was being a big nuisance to both me and Whitebear, so the best way to stop her from talking was to throw it off Whitebear's loft."

The lieutenant was speechless, her left eye twitched. After a brief pause though, she regained her composure. "Did you actually think breaking priceless equipment and spitting in our faces like this was a good way to go?"

The Commander shrugged. "I've tried being nice and playing along with your demands. It hasn't earned me any favors so far. I spent over half a year in Ascalon, investigating Jennah's murder. A case that you - the Lionguard - put me up to. And all I've seen from you in return is more hostility, coupled with agents sent by Scarlet herself destroying the Black Citadel from within and delaying my investigation by months. That's not mentioning the fact that I spent those months as a prisoner of the Flame Legion and all the risks to my life that entailed."

He reached into his bag and pocket and pulled his staff out of the straps holding it in place, just in case the Lionguard decided to start a fight. "So yes, I destroyed your Asuran contraption and until I see some measure of cooperation or good will from you, I have no reason to acquiesce to any demands you make."

As he spoke, the Lionguard's stance weakened, not just that of the footsoldiers but that of the formerly overconfident woman on the stage. After a long pause, with people expecting him to continue talking, she finally said: "So what exactly are you playing at here? Are you taking it upon yourself to declare war on us on Kryta's behalf?"

"Going by your own actions and words, I'd say you're already at war with us, " he answered plainly. "You are pressuring third parties to not trade with us in an attempt to drain our economy. Embargoes and economic warfare are still a form of warfare and if we were to take it as a declaration of war, it would be our right to do so. And at one point, you even sent airships to bombard us during the recent Krytan civil war. We have so far not fought back. Not yet. I would caution you to choose your next steps carefully. Depending on your actions going forward, this may change sooner than you think."

She shot deadly glares at him even as he spoke, but as she processed what he was saying, she twitched about, stuttering, bewildered by his change in attitude. But what followed was a burning rage he hadn't seen since Anise's outbursts during the trial over the treaty of Gendarran fields. "What..you…YOU? Threatening ME? US? How dare you! The audacity of toxic males like you is why we ousted people like Ashford from our ranks!"

The Commander raised his eyebrows. What was that about ousting Ashford? THE Theo Ashford? He made a note to ask or look into that later.

The Lionguard continued: "Who do you think you're talking to? You don't just get to threaten us like this! That's our…I mean it's not your place to do something like this! Who do you think you are?"

The Commander raised his head and answered sternly: "I am the Pact Commander. When you were still sitting on your hands fantasizing about pushing people around the way you are now, I was in Orr, at the forefront of our campaign against Zhaitan. I don't owe you reverence, obedience or even respect. Arguably, I am your superior and you should watch your tone around me."

The lady at the podium shrieked like a harpy. "Draw your weapons!" And the Lionguard around them followed suit.

Rox was actually getting scared and clawing at the human's coat. "Commander, I really think you shouldn't be…"

The Commander raised his staff, slammed the bottom tip onto the floor and began conjuring a binding spell with his other hand. "Everyone who has tried to kill me so far has suffered a cruel fate. Do you want to risk having to crawl all the way back to Scarlet and explain to her how you squandered the lives of her newest army trying to kill the Pact Commander? No less a potential ally that you willingly antagonized in pursuit of inflating your own self-worth?"

He may not have been tall enough to overshadow some of the taller soldiers, but his words carried weight that could be seen pulling down at them, including at their furious leader. "You're bluffing! We have you completely surrounded!"

"If I had a piece of gold for every ambush I've walked into, I would have bought up half of Divinity's Reach by this point."

As his unwillingness to cave to her demands became apparent, she became more frantic, in an attempt to mask her growing apprehensiveness. "You wouldn't kill innocents like that!"

"The moment they try to kill me, they cease to be innocent. Remember the airships you lost in Kryta, remember all the soldiers that died that day. I was on the side that had them killed. I have killed Lionguard before, and I will do so again if I have to. Even if this time, it is by hand."

The lieutenant quieted down, staring at him with the fiercest look he had seen of her so far. Fuming, fuming, but not willing to have blades clash this day. "Fine!", she answered. "You get to live today, but I won't have you anywhere near Captain Kiel's operation! You've caused enough damage as is. Now leave!"

Without a word, he turned around and started making his way to the main ramps to descend back to the main square between the lodges. Once far enough away from the Lionguard, Rox asked him: "So that's it? We just back off from them?"

"She just slipped up. Whatever the Lionguard are doing here, someone named 'Captain Kiel' is leading the operation. Now that we have a name to put to what's going on here, we'll use what time we have to see if there's any local resources to fall back on here."

Rox' oversized eyes narrowed. "What kind of resources?"

As they reached the bottom of the lodge's exterior, the Commander overlooked the giant pentagonal wooden square embedded into the ground, each corner of which bore a brazier atop a pillar, with an enormous bonfire in the middle to create warmth for the Norn passing the time on it. Around the square were a variety of carts and stands, the directions of which he drew along with his index finger. "Those stands, we need to look for something out of place. Fruit merchants from races not home to the Shiverpeaks in particular."

"Fruit merchants? Why that?"

Most of the merchants were Norn, who sold various indulgences, sweets and greasy foods sourced from within the shiverpeaks. One of them stood out. "What have we here, " they heard long before they were near him. A male Sylvari - the accent was unmistakable - wrapped thoroughly in a heavy pelt coat with the hood pulled up, like the Commander and Rox were. From most directions, his face was obscured, but when seen from straight ahead, it was plainly visible that it was made of deep red plant fiber, rather than skin. "Tourists, at long last, a rare sight since the Asura Gates have gone defunct. May I interest you in some pears! Grown and raised with care in the Grove's own orchards and kept fresh only with the priciest Asuran devices."

"Pears?" the Commander asked. "From all the way in Maguuma? Several years after instant travel from there was made impossible?"

"Seeing is believing, old friend! Just take a look at how flawlessly green they are!" He pulled a thin cloth off one of the shelves around his stand and revealed an entire pile of pears, nigh-untouched by age or the elements.

The Commander nodded with a smile. "Impressive. Might we accompany you to wherever you keep your inventory of pears? We would love to inspect the rest of the stock."

The longer this discussion went on for, the more confused the Charr became. "What in the world is going on?"

The Sylvari put the cloth back over his stock and waved at some associate to come over. "Hilas, take care of the stand. I assure you, our inventory of pears can be of very great interest to you."

The Commander gave Rox a knowing look and said: "Just bear with him. I'm confident that this inventory will indeed be of great interest to us."

Unsure but hopeful that the Commander hadn't been struck with a sudden madness, Rox tentatively followed him and the Sylvari to one of the lodges.