"Well. Do you want to prepare or something?"

Because let's be real, here, James is totally eternally ready for Adventure.

She considers. "No, my spells have resettled, I'm good to go." Pause. "... Maybe another cup of coffee? In a little travel cup."

"Clopp! Cup of coffee here, to go!"

    "Yes, Taimi!" a nervous-looking Asura replies, and goes to fetch Vetareh's coffee.

Vetareh beams. Ah, yes. A bunch of magic nerds all running on ludicrous amounts of caffeine. It reminds her of home.

Once she has her coffee: "Thank you, Clopp." Coffee sip. "Okay, ready now. Onwards to adventure and whatnot."

Taimi types some stuff into the same console James did earlier to reach the Dragon Lab. "Okay, that gate will take you to the Fire Islands. Good luck!"

"Thank you."

And now: onwards to adventure, and whatnot!

James steps through right after her.

The other side of the gate is: warm. Very, very warm. One might even say sweltering. They're inside a cave of obsidian, and there are a few tents and a couple of asura with various technomagical instruments around.

    "Commander. Welcome to the Fire Islands," says an asura researcher who notices them. She then turns to Vetareh. "And Ms., uh..."

"Vetareh, hello," she says, with a polite little bow.

James is looking around at the... scenery...

"The place's name is fitting. I'm surprised anything can survive here. Can you give me a status report?"

    "We're still assessing, but our preliminary findings are... troubling. Primordus's arrival is having a profound impact on the island. The Destroyers are surging in record numbers, and there's been a marked increase in the local seismic and volcanic activity. I've been trying to get word to Taimi, but the atmospheric interference is wreaking havoc on our long-range comms. I doubt you'll get much use out of that communicator she gave you while you're here."

"About the Destroyers—we received word that they've been exhibiting new abilities. Changed somehow. Vetareh and I are here to gather samples to confirm the report. Where should we begin our search?

    "Hm... Not long ago, we sent a scout east to locate a nest—I'd begin your search there."

Vetareh sips her coffee and briefly regrets that she's not an elementalist. She could make this into iced coffee. Oh well.

To the east! She even has a compass now, she can just check which way east is and then go that way! She represses the urge to cackle at how she has more than two objects. ... Well. Two objects and a useless bag of coins. Three objects, one of which earned her ire. Now she has more than that, and none of her objects have earned her ire yet.

The cave faces the south and opens to a very, very small peninsula on unreasonably warm waters. To the east there's water and the rest of the island, and to the west there's the start of a treacherous path that probably circles the volcano this cave is in.

And above them, visible everywhere, are lines of magic like the ones James took to get them out of the cave he found Vetareh into. "Shall I carry you again, my princess?"

She snorts with laughter, then ambles towards him to be carried.

"Yes, please. At some point I'll need to take you up on those gliding lessons."

"Perhaps someday the world will be less on fire for long enough." He carries her, and then updraft and then leyline gliding. Whee.

Whee! Gliding! Gliding while being carried by James!

"Someday! Until then, I'll just have to learn to cope." Lean.

"I'm sure you must find this terrible, really."

"Nope, it's pretty great!" she says, brightly. "You're even still calling me your princess, it's all terribly cute!"

"Of course I am. I don't tend to lie."

She snorts, and has a sip of her coffee to distract herself from the urge to kiss him.

"You realize that you were the one to start with the yours-ing. I grumpily claimed that you were mine in a fit of sleep deprived pique, you went and started calling me your princess."

"And I am right about it."

"So if I go found a nation and proclaim myself princess of it, you'd be my very first subject?" she wonders, amused.

"I'd be honoured to."

"Aw," she says, melting a little. "I mean, I'm not going to do that, but still. Aw."

He smiles, but then turns a bit more serious. "If you do want me to stop, I of course will. I do not want to stake any... claims... that are not mutual."

"I don't want you to stop," she murmurs, nestling into his arms. "I can be your princess if you'd like me to be. And you can be my... something or other. Whatever that is pending on when we actually have a talk about our feelings, wants, and needs, like grownups."

"Good thing we are grownups, then," he says wryly. "It would be much harder otherwise."