She beams at him. Being pretty is fun.

"Would you like me to attempt to pay you back in coins that... actually might be worth a lot, now that I think about it, too late I have decided here you go."

She offers James her bag of Orrian coins, because she sure doesn't want to see them ever again.

He accepts the bag of coins and blinks. "Well, if you're sure." And he promptly goes to offer the Orrian money to the Black Lion Trading representative for auction.

Vetareh finds this hilarious and giggles accordingly.

"I'm sure some collector will want this. I'll return later to get my money. Now let's go visit Rata Sum."

"Let's!" she agrees, brightly.

Perhaps she should have kept the coins to auction herself and paid him back a bit more accurately, but she's not particularly worried about her own financial security. She's a talented mesmer from Orr, with knowledge of ancient magic of and outside of her own profession. That makes her mind a unique resource more valuable than some coins that she despises for having carried around for ages. She expects to be fine.

Next stop:

Rata Sum, the main hub of asuran activity.

She beams at it.

"I like this city," she declares, immediately. "It is extremely magic in, in sensible ways."

He laughs, then gestures with his head at one of the short, big-eared people. "Those are asura. Geniuses, all of them, to one extent or another."

She nods. In that case, while she likes this city a lot, she absolutely does not want to live here, ever. She has had quite enough magical accidents for one lifetime, thank you. And she knows precisely what very smart people with magic get up to when left to their own devices.

"Reminds me a little of—well, not quite Arah, but of a vague impression of an Orrian city of no name or description, maybe."

"I would have liked to see one, from before Zhaitan." He turns around. "Anyway, our destination is that asura gate, over there."

And he starts moving that way.

"I could try to create an illusion of Arah, but I'd worry that I wouldn't be able to do it justice," she says, falling in step beside him. "Then again, I suppose there's not really anyone else who could do it. At some point I could pick it up as a side project, and show people."

"That would be lovely. I bet there are some asura who would help you make a hologram of it."

James starts climbing the ramp leading up to the asura gate but when Vetareh gets too close a small floating beanshaped golem stops in front of her. "Excuse-me. Only-authorised-personnel-are-authorised-through."

"Oh, she's authorised, she's with me," says James.

The golem swirls in place to look at him and beeps a few times. "Authorisation-acknowledged. Permission-granted." And goes on its way.

Vetareh peers with obvious fascination at the little golem. It's just so cool, filled with and running on magic and ruthlessly efficient and fascinatingly complicated. She looks mildly disappointed when it floats away and stops being in range of study.

"I don't know what that is, but that sounds like it'd be nice," she says, picking up her train of thought from before.

"It's like an illusion but it doesn't need a person controlling it," he says, then steps through the pink energy field—

—and promptly disappears.

Sure, okay, through the pink energy field she goes.

The sensation is not quite the same as using a waypoint but it's similar enough that they probably have some magic/technology in common. On the other side, there's a subterranean lab.

James is waiting for her behind the stone console straight ahead.

It'd make sense if this worked a bit like the waypoints, they're both made by asura.

Time to follow James some more! She did say she'd be a duckling yesterday, didn't she.

("Bah. Forced to mingle with the rabble," one of the asura researchers mutters when she steps through.)

James types something into the console then says, "Okay, back through the same gate."

She gives the asura researcher in question a raised eyebrow, and then: yep, back through the same gate, she guesses!

And on the other side: another lab! Only Rytlock and an asura even tinier than the other ones are there, though.

    "Took your sweet time," the asura says, looking up from the console at the pair.

"Taimi!" James replies in his business voice. "Please tell me there was some sort of calculations error. Primordus is really active?"

    "An error? You think I made an—hey, good to see you too. And nice to meet you, not-a-princess."

"Sorry. I didn't think we'd be dealing with another dragon so soon."

Not-a-princess waves at Rytlock, then curtsies politely to Taimi. "Nice to meet you in person, too, Taimi."

Rytlock sniffs the air... and makes some sort of charr facial expression at James and Vetareh.

"So, about the dragon, I have good news and bad news..."

"What's the bad news?"