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There's another echo. Echoes start in a myriad ways but this one is reminiscent of her first one: the non-sound of her footsteps changing. It's still rock, but it's different rock, and the light slowly turns red. Red crystals start dotting her landscape, some of them mere glints on the ground, some jutting out taller than she is, sharp points threatening the now-present ceiling.
Yvette and Azem in Tyria
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it_will_be_just_me
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.
persistence-of-memory
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.
it_will_be_just_me
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."
persistence-of-memory
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."
it_will_be_just_me
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.
persistence-of-memory
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!
it_will_be_just_me
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.
persistence-of-memory
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."
persistence-of-memory
She giggles. "Maybe a nice brightly lit sign? With the words 'KEEP OUT, FILLED WITH ADVENTURE, THIS MEANS YOU JAMES'?"
persistence-of-memory
"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."
persistence-of-memory
"Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, shall we go see what horrible dangers await us inside the architecture?"
persistence-of-memory
Handholding!!
But adorable handholding is no reason not to keep an eye out for Mursaat traps and strange magic in the area. She can do both! So she does. Is there anything on the way there that looks weird or potentially murderous? It's safest to peer at the weird things safely instead of bumbling mindlessly into them.
Not very murderous. There's magic all around, dormant and sunk deep into the jade towers, and most of it seems to not want to kill them.
There's also some disturbance, though. It is recent and small, compared to the power these ruins could bear once upon a time, when the mursaat civilisation was at its appex and had magical power and knowledge to rival any other species's—but it is definitely there, present, an undercurrent of disturbance and renewed activity that feels chilly in her spine.
Like most mursaat magic, it is fueled by the Bloodstone; it is fueled by death, by sacrifices. The structures they are approaching are not currently malicious towards them, but with such a malicious base, it seems like they're ready to turn on them the moment they become a menace to the erstwhile city.
persistence-of-memory
Vetareh hums thoughtfully in consideration.
"Not quite as asleep as I'd like, but also not so awake as to bite just yet. Now how do we get in without waking it up..."
persistence-of-memory
She giggles.
"No, darling, that would not go well. Do you slip in past a guard dog by ringing the doorbell?"
persistence-of-memory
"What, really? When did you—actually, no, no, I'll ask later when we're less busy. The trouble with the doorbell idea is that I really doubt that the ominous fortress built on the power of blood sacrifice, on an active volcanic island, surrounded by rocky shores that would ground most ships, would expect any visitors at all. So, no way for outsiders to knock and be let inside. Knocking would be 'Hello, I am an intruder, please transmute my blood into the essence of pure agony, thanks!'"
it_will_be_just_me
"I think if the mursaat had that kind of power that would be registered somewhere," James says dubiously. "And besides, the dwarves did manage to get in somehow."