Oh good. He hopes she's okay with an arm around her.

"So, storytime starts before the Searing of Ascalon, correct?"

She is absolutely fine with an arm being around her, and snuggles up accordingly.

"Yes. Middle of the Third Guild War, not that anyone in Arah tended to care about it much."

"Ah, yes. So I am not a historian and this will be mostly the highlights, I hope that's fine. If it's not, I'm sure we can find a history book somewhere in this city."

"Highlights sound fine. I don't expect anyone's going to corner me and demand I explain the intricate details of historical events."

"It has not happened in my experience," he agrees. "Let's see how to start, then... A few years after you—left Orr, the charr cast a terrible spell that turned all of Ascalon into a charred crater. Not everyone died, but many did. They simultaneously launched offensives against Kryta and Orr, boasting numbers and magic hitherto unsuspected. One year later, Orr was sunk by Vizier Khilbron's spell. The Krytan military was also incapable of stopping the charr, and that's when the White Mantle showed up—they had powerful magic conferred to them by their gods, the Unseen Ones, who were in... vis..." He pauses. "We... could see Lazarus."

Blink. "We could. He might have been purposefully showing himself for intimidation? It seemed like he'd wanted the White Mantle to follow him. And he certainly did appear out of nowhere, and then disappear again."

"I'm not sure the Mursaat could be seen, even if they wanted to. There was special magic that was necessary for it. That's... troubling."

"Huh. All right. Yes, that is troubling. I... don't know what to do about it, though. Are there experts on the Mursaat we could talk to?"

"The... Order of Whispers might..." He shakes his head. "I will talk to someone tomorrow. Back to the story."

She giggles, and decides that she'd like to hold his hand. One arm's around her, but the other is right over there. Her hand finds his and she smiles at him.

"Back to the story," she agrees.

He squeezes her hand. "A year after that, most of Kryta was under White Mantle rule; the royal family was in hiding and wanted. The White Mantle periodically went through the towns and cities with the Eye of Janthir—a big magic pyramid with an eye inside it that could detect people who were the Chosen Ones. It was seen as a great honour to be a Chosen One, and the White Mantle took those people with them to—I'm not sure what they told the populace they did with the Chosen Ones, but they were never seen again after that."

She nods. "And instead of a great honor, they were killed on the bloodstones for power. Do you know by what criteria they were—no, if I ask you questions like that we'll be here all day, continue, sorry."

He laughs. "There was a prophecy that said they would lead the White Mantle and their masters to their ends, but I do not know how the Eye knew who was a potential prophecy-filler, no.

"At any rate, a year after the White Mantle took control the Ascalonian prince led a band of refugees to cross the Shiverpeak Mountains to Kryta. He died on the way, but the refugees eventually did cross, with help from the dwarves. And it turned out that a handful of them were Chosen, too, but they found out about the sacrifices and escaped the White Mantle with the help of the Shining Blade, an order sworn to protect the Krytan royal line. The Shining Blade was then sold out by a traitor, but not before the Ascalonians took a boat in the Maguuma Jungle to the Crystal Desert."

"Why would they go there? Last I heard, there wasn't much of note besides some old impressive relics and sand. Maybe some ghosts, if they wanted to talk to dead people."

"Because they heard that the dragon Glint, who lived there, could help them Ascend—that is, become closer to the gods—and so they would be able to see the mursaat and fight them."

"I know what Ascension is," she agrees, nodding. "My father Ascended to visit the Underworld. In that case, yes, the Crystal Desert makes sense."

He nods. "Throughout these travels they were being helped by this wizard who told them they should go back to the Shiverpeaks next in order to find the last Seers, who would be able to provide them with a magic protection to the mursaat's most powerful weapon, a form of magical torture called Spectral Agony. So they went there."

"Makes sense, all right. That might be a thing we should look into for Lazarus if we have the time, later. I do not want to encounter something called Spectral Agony, thank you."

"...I believe all Seers are extinct, actually."

"Ah. Well nevermind that, then, I'll just have to refine my interrupts and improve my situational awareness and reflexes and follow you around to protect you from the horrible thing," she says, lightly.

He nods. "I will teach you the countermagic I used there, too, it's general-purpose enough I think it might work for Spectral Agony."

"Ooo, yes, that sounds wonderful, I love having new types of magic counters and yours did wonderfully."

He grins. "So. After that, they went to the Ring of Fire islands, where some mursaat were holed up, and fought them there, but the wizard who was helping them turned out to be the undead lich of Vizier Khilbron. The White Mantle's sacrifices to the Bloodstone were powering a seal on a portal to the Mists in a volcano, there, and Khilbron tricked the Ascalonians into breaking the seal and releasing demons called Titans into the world. Titans apparently had a bone to pick with the mursaat, because they systematically hunted them to extinction—with Lazarus being the exception, there. The Ascalonians also killed Khilbron again because he wanted to control the Titans—I don't actually know why, but it was presumably bad."

"So the Vizier did actually become an undead lich after blowing up my country. Great. Wonderful. Glad he's completely dead, then. What spell did he cast, though, it's not like any normal large destructive spell would end in becoming a—damn, there I go again, I'm sorry. I am very easy to distract when it comes to how magic works."

"And I unfortunately do not know the answer; some long-lost scroll from when the gods still walked around Arah, I'm sure."