And then they can head out west to find the mursaat fortress and hopefully turn on the device that'll prevent the islands from exploding!

"If the dwarves set up this device in a mursaat fortress, there has to be a safe way to get to it. Because then otherwise how would they set it up?" she muses. "So we just need to figure out how they did it and do the same. Hopefully."

"It might be that the answer is 'the Fortress was safe before Lazarus returned'," he says, walking over to the western lip of the plateau. "It might be that it's still safe, if Lazarus's word is to be believed."

"True. Well. This will probably be very interesting. And by interesting I mean 'ludicrously dangerous.'"

"Just the way I like it," he says casually, before offering Vetareh his arms and taking out his glider.

"Of course," she snorts, amused. She obligingly moves so he can easily pick her up.

"At least there will be interesting magic to look at and take apart," she muses. "With lots of tricks and traps where a spellbreaker mesmer would be useful to have around."

"You, my dear, are getting the spirit." Pick up, hop, wheeee.

Whee!

"That, and I still don't particularly want to explode!"

"Exploding spells are relatively uncommon. I hear the mursaat went for unbearable agony more frequently."

She considers this, and mentally weighs it in comparison to the prospect of enduring an eternity in a boring misty expanse and watching her mind slowly beginning to unravel from the strain and loneliness. Yeah, no, she'll take unbearable agony just for the novelty of it, thanks. She can switch back once she's tired of it.

"Charming. But at least I won't be bored."

He hasn't put his mask back on so she can see the sappy look on his face even though he's not looking down at her.

Vetareh beams up at him fondly.

The island's extensive and he can stay aloft for a while, but not forever, and eventually he angles them towards a spot empty of Destroyers to land.

The gliding was nice while it lasted, but she wasn't really expecting to stay airborne forever. Even if it would have been lovely. Back to walking it is, then. She doesn't actually have any conversation topics at hand to keep the boring walking parts interesting, but she doesn't think she needs to talk all the time, and... it's nice to just be near him.

He takes her hand and grins at her. "We should get to a waypoint to go back to the circus, that's the westernmost we have gotten to so far."

She grins back and gives his hand a little squeeze. Yes, this distances her from her time spent walking in the Mists nicely; there was no handholding there at all.

"Sounds good. Lead on, love."

He does!

At some point he will sadly have to let go of her hand in order to fight Destroyers but, you know, part of the job.

To be expected, really. They would not work quite so well as a team if she insisted on having hold of his arm the entire time during combat. That would just be silly.

But after the Destroyers have ceased to be alive, she hooks her arm in his and smiles affectionately at him. Onwards!

The journey takes a while. They reach a waypoint and take it to the circus, and from there they make their way northwest. Another uneventful night camping and then more walking, with some speedups thanks to thermal tubes pointing in the right direction.

And then they can see the jade spires of the mursaat fortress in the distance.

The journey itself is nice. A bit boring, admittedly, but not uncomfortably so. The company helps make all the difference.

She peers thoughtfully at the spires in the distance. They're much too far away to make out any sort of magical anything at this range, but dozens of large and intimidating constructs made out of igneous rock leave all kinds of ways to hide nasty wards and traps, magically speaking. The place could maybe scream death a little harder, if it was swarming with tortured souls or on fire. Oh, wait, it's the Fire Islands, so the fire is instead melted rock, which is distinctly worse than fire. Swarming with tortured souls, then. That's how it could be more intimidating. Mounted skulls would be more macabre, but significantly less actively dangerous.

"Well, I feel welcomed. Do you feel welcomed? I don't see why the nobility from Kryta haven't pegged this place for vacation homes, it's certainly cheery enough."

"Couldn't think of anything more welcoming," James says cheerily.

She giggles. "Maybe a nice brightly lit sign? With the words 'KEEP OUT, FILLED WITH ADVENTURE, THIS MEANS YOU JAMES'?"

"That would be mixed signals, princess."

"I thought the keep out would make it more inviting!"

"I only disobey these kinds of signs when I have good reasons!" James protests.

"It would presumably have been the Mursaat that put them up! I assume you don't listen to them, because they were terrible. Except for, possibly, Lazarus, who may or may not be terrible."