Well maybe there's this...

"I am the last mursaat. Many years ago, you knew me as Lazarus the Dire. I have returned from the brink of existence!"

    "No!" cries the minister. "You are a false god! The White Mantle is mine! Don't listen to him!"

Perhaps if she looks at that thing...

"Empty words formed by the forked tongue of a snake. The human seat of power and its current monarch are inconsequential. We are destined to face more virtuous pursuits."

Aha! She can shatter the hex!

Right, she only gets one chance at this, and she'll be the only one not still frozen, so she'd better not waste it. Luckily for her, there is a very large magical thing nearby, who is very loud. It's awfully easy for little things to get lost in comparison. Like when she needed magical silence to study the echoes; the enemy mesmer might just miss Vetareh breaking free. She's got to make her one chance count, which means picking her moment. She shatters the hex, stifling a little whimper at the pain; she did not make this spell to be nice, it's for shattering hexes on enemies, not allies, but it will do in a pinch.

Instead of immediately falling to her knees from the release, or rushing at the enemy mesmer, or giving any indication that she broke free whatsoever... she stays completely still. There's a slight twitch to her limbs after she breaks free, and the slightest of quivering from the pain of the shattered hex, but to the casual viewer from far away, nothing has happened at all. There's no reason to give herself away, after all. Her scepter's still in her hand, she's armed and ready and waiting for her moment to catch everyone off guard.

"My true believers, you're welcome to seek shelter in my light. To those who doubt... you're welcome to burn." And all the White Mantle except for Caudecus and his protecting mesmer catch fire.

    "Don't stand there with your mouth agape!" Caudecus yells at the mesmer. "Get me out of here!"

Now looks like it's a good moment.

"No," she hisses, and slams the mesmer with an interrupt.

No time to waste, she has to capitalize on this moment; she sprints forward. She'd been hoping she'd have enough time for her shatter hex to recover from being used, so she could free someone else, but clearly she's not getting that. Instead she'll will just have to handle this herself.

"What are you waiting for?!"

    "I—that woman, she stopped me—" The mesmer tries to create three clones and lash out at Vetareh.

Interrupt. Then the stolen speed hex, just for good measure.

Come on come on come on, get to her soon enough to stab her before she does something else, come on, she doesn't have infinite interrupts she can't interrupt the next thing this woman does—

She makes it to her and her knife's in her hand and she is going to fucking stab her—

The next thing she does is place a portal under Caudecus, not reaching herself so that Vetareh isn't transported with. Caudecus disappears and—Lazarus seems to have left at some point when no one was looking.

Rrrrgh—!

"Bitch," she snarls, but this woman is now more useful alive than dead, so she checks her knife and instead breaks her nose.

Then she grabs her by the hair and brings the knife to her throat so she can't fucking do anything else, the bitch.

"You surrender," she informs the mesmer, in a tone that says there is no space for 'no.' Her knife is very sharp, and it agrees. "You will end the hex on them."

That second one: also not a request.

She doesn't bow her head, but the hex does end. "I like her," growls Rytlock with approval.

Canach looks at where Caudecus was standing then sighs, walking over to the stairs where Vetareh is.

James dusts himself and follows after him. "Is that Valette Wi?"

Vetareh huffs an annoyed breath through her teeth.

"Sorry," she says, to Canach. "That was my fuck up, I should have caught her as she was casting the hex. I'm a bit rusty."

"I don't see how you would have," he says, smoothly as he reaches them. "I don't suppose you have a convenient spell to stun her?"

"No. Does someone else?"

"No need, we can just knock her out the traditional way. Valette Wi, I hereby pass sentence on you for treason. You will be tried and judged in Divinity's Reach by a jury of your peers. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

She just shakes her head.

(James reaches them but stands back, arms folded, watching.)

"Try anything, and I will stop you," growls Vetareh, and then she carefully removes the knife from the woman's throat and hands Valette Wi over to Canach for traditional knockout.

And she is unceremoniously knocked out with the butt of Canach's sword. "I should take her to Divinity's Reach, then."

Marjory and Rytlock reach them, too. "Lazarus is also gone. A mursaat alive... We should immediately warn the queen, but he appeared to be disinterested in Kryta."

"Surprisingly different from the last time the mursaat were sticking their creepy bird feet where they didn't belong," Rytlock grunts.

"Marjory, weren't you just saying something about people not being able to change?"

"A 'virtuous pursuit' could mean a lot of things to a mursaat. But I'll admit, I'm curious."

"At least we know where the bloodstone's power went, now. It felt the same. Not that knowing that helps with knowing what he's planning to do with it."

James nods. "We need to find him, get an idea of what he's planning to do with all that magic."

"I believe the minister will also wish to find him."