Oh no now she's giggling.

"You're a delight," she cackles, then she catches her breath and schools seriousness into herself and takes his hand so she can answer his question properly. "Yes, happily. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to every adventure, I expect I'll need downtime to figure out how to best leverage my spells to cause mayhem and chaos to all who dare to oppose us, and the like, but. Yes, I would love to keep having adventures with you, I had such fun."

He beams then leans forward to kiss her. "I'm not busy all the time. I do have downtime, every now and then."

Kiss! "Every now and then. Ahuh." Her eyes sparkle and she gives him an amused look. "I might turn out to need more than you, I get the impression that yesterday was not the busiest your days can get. That doesn't mean I won't support you in your adventuring, or anything, just that I might need sleep."

He laughs. "Yesterday was... not the busiest, I will admit, but it was busier than average."

"Oh, I was mildly concerned that that was what a slow day looked like. But then, I don't know what your day had been like before I got there."

He starts counting on his fingers. "Eir's memorial and the founding of the new guild, then I went to Taimi's lab and fought some chak—enormous, disgusting, magic-eating bugs—and from there I took an airship to northern Maguuma. There was the explosion, it reverted itself, and I explored around the place. Fought some ghosts, fought some White Mantle, rescued a few Pact members, regrouped with Captain Almorra, and went exploring the crater. Fought some more White Mantle, then that energy anomaly attacked me and that's where you found me."

"... And you still somehow had energy for me?" she says, raising her eyebrows.

"This is not the first time I have spent a long time without sleep," he points out. "And besides, well. It's you."

"That's really flattering," she admits.

He kisses her forehead. "Now let's finish up and figure out what's up with Primordus."

"Yes, let's, I'm starting to get all pruney."

"I'm sure you must have a mesmer spell to deal with that."

She snorts, then goes back to washing her hair.

"No," she informs him. "I could make it look like I wasn't, maybe, but actually changing it, no, not really."

Chuckle.

Eventually they are bathed and dried and clothed and ready to face the—extremely early morning.

Eugh. So early. At least there is coffee and breakfast and a new set of clean clothes that she has not been wearing for who knows how long. That last one is certainly a change, she needs to take a couple of minutes to figure out a good place to hide her knife.

... James might notice during this that it's a very nice knife. Pretty, delicate, polished so clear that it could be a shard from a mirror, and loaded with some very fancy looking enchantments.

He does notice that.

"That's one fancy knife," he observes.

"Thank you!" she chirps. Aha, she thinks she can hide it here if she nudges the size of the inside of this sleeve a bit so it's larger on the inside. She'll put it back, later. "My mother gave it to me. She, um, was not the sort of person to go halfway on gifts."

He shows her his dagger—it's as long as his forearm, and the blade is golden and covered in runes. It's also loaded in enchantments but not quite as many as hers. "Fancier than mine," he says, grinning, then sheathes the dagger again. "Shall we?"

"I'd say I could let you borrow it sometime, but I don't think it'd work as well for you." Orrian Mirror Blades are meant for mesmers, after all. Vetareh gets it safely hidden away, and then beams at him. "Yes, certainly."

To the waypoint!

"I think Lion's Arch's merchant square is probably the best place to find all the things you need," he comments.

To the waypoint!

"Sounds good." Then she smiles brilliantly and bounces a little on the balls of her feet. "I'm getting things! Supplies! A proper mesmer bag! Bandages! Water canteen!" Then she clears her throat and attempts to look slightly more dignified. "I am very pleased to get to own more than two physical objects."

"Quite a step up, I'll bet."

"No kidding! Oh, oh, and I get books on modern magic! I am so deprived, you have no idea, it's terrible not having a complete understanding of all of the magic that's getting thrown around, I was having to rely on guesswork."

Here is the waypoint! Vetareh might need a key.

He hands her a key, and to Lion's Arch they go.

The sun has not yet quite risen, but it's just below the horizon, coloring the city in purple and orange. The waypoint they get to is in a very open area from which one can see the sea to the south. It is very much a pirate's city: most of the places visible from where they are are either exposed to the sky or have no walls, letting the ocean wind—calm and slow and chilly, at this time in the morning—touch everything. Wooden structures and buildings are the norm in the architecture, but there is the occasional stone building and arch and statue decorating it, as well as several decorative grass gardens with coastal trees dotting the landscape. Directly behind them there is a circular area, about three metres in diameter, from which a strange blue fire is funnelling itself into the sky.

"That's the crafters' corner," James says, pointing at a structure with a star-shaped ceiling supported by stone beams. "And behind it is the Black Lion Trading Post," he says, and starts leading the way. "We can find almost anything there."

"I love it already," she declares. A pirate's city. Not what she expected Lion's Arch to look like in two and a half centuries, but it certainly has its charm.

Vetareh turns out to want many things. Her list is long, and kind of impressive. If she is going to be adventuring, then she is going to be adventuring prepared. It's clear, however, that she does not actually want to stuff literally everything she can fit into a mesmer bag. There is a system to this, she has thought about what she would like very carefully, and she is not interested in carrying a bunch of junk around. It is all highly practical; a canteen that could be used to boil water, a firestarter, a length of rope, a compass, food that won't spoil, blank books, pens, ink, and of course, books on magic. She doesn't need them to be very fancy books, she'll work her way up from the basics to more complicated things. Furthermore, she is also not interested in wasting time shopping for it. Yes, hello, Black Lion Trading Post, you will divest yourself of these items, right this instant. She will hunt each and every one of them down and acquire them, and there is nothing this trading post can do to stop her.

Soon enough, she has everything she wanted, including a new set of enchanted clothes that are a bit less... ragged from running around in the Mists for ages. She wasn't in actual rags, but she was a bit less put together than she'd prefer to look. Now she's in practical clothes without long skirts that might catch on things and tear, colored dark blue and black instead of the multicolored and flowing style more fitting of Orr. Actually, while she's thinking about this: illusionary perfect makeup, please and thank you, being a mesmer is so great.

"Okay, all done," she announces, emerging from where she'd been changing. Her knife has a new hiding place that she'll have to get used to. "And now we can go save the world."