Out they go!

Adventuring in the Fire Islands is briefly detoured again, though. Damn it, Vetareh is going to charm all of James's staff, and that means meeting and charming Clara. She is on a mission, she will not be stopped.

Clara is doing magic to the plants! She seems very good with detail work, there.

Goodness. Yes, that is some excellent detail work. Vetareh picks up on it and distributes appropriate compliments, then limits herself to only asking cursory questions about how it all works. Rather quickly, she decides that she likes Clara. She likes Henry, too, but Clara strikes her as practical and sensible. It's not very hard to be charming at her.

She wraps up the conversation before she's in danger of asking more than cursory questions about the magical detail work or the state of the estate, though. The world needs saving, after all. Primordius and Jormag won't kill themselves. Besides, she doesn't want to deal with having a bored boyfriend and several Elder Dragons to deal with. A bored James sounds like a terrible thing. Clara is bid a friendly goodbye, and then it's off to adventure.

"So, checking in with Taimi first?" she asks, hooking her arm through James's.

"Yes, probably the better idea. I bet she'll have opinions on the samples you collected."

"I bet. Part of me is expecting to get chewed out for not precisely meeting scientific standards. I have perhaps been traumatized by my once-home and its magical community."

—he sporfles. "Oh, my princess, I half-expect her to decide never to ask me to do it again."

"Oh no, the horror. If you never do it again then I'll have to follow you around and collect research samples for you! Woe! Woe and despair!"

"A truly momentous loss to Tyria, it will never again have samples collected by me."

"Do you like collecting samples, James?"

"Certainly not as much as you do."

"True. Maybe Taimi can frame the last sample you collected. It could be worth something, some day. It's clearly a priceless artifact."

They reach the waypoint, and then Rata Sum.

And from Rata Sum to Taimi's lab.

"Commander! Good to have you here today. I got some boxes for you to pack your stuff, you're fired, it was good working with you."

"I am, am I?"

"Yep!" Then she turns to Vetareh. "Not-a-princess! Congratulations, you've been officially given a position of honour in Taimi's krewe, you will henceforth be in charge of sample collection. You have full discretion over your choice of staff. I'd recommend hiring a bodyguard, and I hear the Commander just went out of a job and he's pretty good at hitting things."

Vetareh goes from confused, to amused, to trying not to crack up.

"Thank you, Taimi. I will work to live up to your standards so your krewe can be worthy of your name." She turns to James, smirking. "My! Out of a job, hm? Well I just so happen to be a member of Taimi's krewe, and have full discretion for hiring staff. I could use a person that is good at hitting things, I hear you're an expert. Want to be my bodyguard?"

"Hmm, I don't know, will I be able to hit lots of things?"

"You will. And I'll even pay you!" Pause. "With my charming company."

"With terms like these, how can I refuse?"

"You cannot," she says, sagely. Then she turns back to Taimi before she goes and says something gooey and romantic again.

"Genius head researcher Taimi, I would like to learn the standard preservation signet, so that no asura anywhere can look at me or you askance, and we can show them all what fools they were to doubt us with our combined brilliance," she says, absolutely deadpan.

"Finally an apprentice who properly appreciates my genius! Commander, you should learn from her. Come here, I'll show you the state of the art, although if I'd known Orrian humans were as good at this as you are I'd have been much more interested in that place before." She turns around and starts limping towards one of her terminals, then pauses, turns back around to look at James, and says, "You can amuse yourself with something while the grownups have grownup talk, Commander."

"I'm sure I can find something to occupy my time."

Vetareh beams at the praise, then gives James a fond little wave, and trails after Taimi dutifully.

"Thank you! Not all Orrians were huge magic nerds, though. We really specialized more in being the dogmatically religious and pious branch of humanity. But the powerful magical beings formerly known as gods helped teach magic, so the two sort of dovetailed?"

"Oh, right! Did you actually meet any gods? Wait, no, they'd already left, hadn't they?" She reaches the terminal and types some things into a keyboard with an unfamiliar alphabet. "Wait, formerly known as gods? I thought humans still thought they were gods."

"In my time they were no longer walking about in the world. They had not left however, and did resurrections and blessings and the like. You could go to their shrines and talk to an avatar, to receive blessings or even talk about magical theory or theology or something, if they weren't very busy and they liked you. I've done that. I once had a several hour long philosophical discussion with Lyssa's avatar about the mechanics of mesmers' magic. It was nice."

Then she shrugs.

"But the gods have since left. So I am an atheist, because if they abandon their followers, then they are not worthy of my worship. Maybe Grenth if he's still taking care of the Underworld, or Lyssa if she went rogue and is secretly hiding among us in the world, helping where she can. But I am not particularly charitable towards the others, who don't have those excuses. If other people want to worship them, then, uh, okay. But I don't."