Chapter 32: A Dark Consequence

Captain Danae Morgan emerged from the Raven’s Revenge and strode down the gangplank with a proud grin on her lips. The standoff had been tense. The mercenary commander didn’t want to back down, and Danae sure as hell wasn’t going to back down. It could have escalated, but thankfully their commander was intelligent enough to recognize that Danae and her crew had the obvious high-ground. She was thankful they took her at face value and didn’t look too closely.

She paused and glanced over at the small crater along the southern wall of the old jotun camp to admire Harrisson’s handiwork. In the heat of the negotiation, Harrisson had caught the mercenaries reloading an odd-looking cannon. He relayed the information to Danae through their ship’s communications system. Using her handheld communicator, Danae ordered him to blow it up any way he could. She wasn’t about to let one mortar reveal the true state of the Raven. It set the mercenaries into a frenzy, but through posturing and a few well-placed “official” Order of Whisper threats, they managed to save their friends below. Unfortunately, the parlay that followed resulted in letting the mercenaries and those two strange creatures walk away: an outcome Danae herself was not thrilled with. But they were all safe, and that was a result she could at least live with—for now.

Her grin slowly faded as she spied Nienna waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, and she had a discontented frown on her lips. Danae slowed her stride, not looking forward to the conversation that was about to be thrust upon her. It was clear she was not as satisfied with the outcome as Danae was.

“You let them go?” Nienna growled. Black shadow started to encroach upon her vision, and a tickle in her throat threatened to break loose into a coughing fit. She dug her nails into the upper sleeve of her coat to try to distract herself from the sensation.  

Danae stopped at the end of the ramp and placed her hands on her hips. “What did you expect me to do? The Raven is barely holding together. I’m amazed we even managed to peacock out way out of that situation. I don’t know which god out there heard my prayers when Harrisson took out that cannon and aimed our guns at that sorry excuse of an army, but I’m grateful. All that creaking and groaning, I thought they were going to fall right off.”

“There are no-,” Nienna started to say, but instead let the words muddle into the rough sounds she produced while clearing her throat. She wasn’t confident in how much she was allowed repeat from her strange conversations with Grenth. The gods leaving was a detail she herself found unsettling, and she didn’t like to think about it. Nienna had never known a world without the gods, and now they were leaving. So many peoples’ worlds would be shattered if and when that information got out. Besides, this wasn’t the time to speak about it. They had more tangible issues to deal with. “We could have at least kept Morrow to get Seren back!” she argued, her cheeks turning bright red.

“Look, if I pushed it any further, they would have figured out we were bluffing, and you’d all be dead,” Danae pointed out. “I don’t want that on my conscience, and you definitely wouldn’t be any help to your friend then.”

“And we are grateful for you scaring them off,” Tuborg interjected as he cautiously approached the group. “Because of you, we’re alive to fight another day. We have another chance to find her and set things right.”

Nienna turned her head to look at him, her visage twisted in fury. The sylvari swallowed hard and took a step back, not willing to stay too long in the path of her rage.

“This is just a setback,” he tried to assure her. “We will have another chance.”

“Commander?” a familiar voice called out from behind Danae and her crew, breaking the tension in the air.

Nienna looked past the captain to find Salara hurrying down the ramp from the airship. Her fur-lined Priory robes flapped wildly as she descended, and she clutched a brown leather satchel draped across her body with one hand. She looked brighter and well-rested since Nienna had last seen her. She was glad to see the sylvari’s reprieve at the Priory Headquarters had done wonders for her recovery.

“Have you found her?” Salara asked as she pushed past Danae, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the captain. “Have you found Seren?”

The anger fell from Nienna’s face. Seeing the sylvari’s fear for her sister’s safety reminded her that Seren’s absence affected all of them, not just her. “No, I’m sorry,” she replied softly.

The light disappeared from Salara’s eyes, and she bowed her head. “Oh.”

“We know where she is though,” Alena offered.

Salara perked back up. “Where?”

“With the Byrnes,” Nienna replied, her tone dark and tense. She hated saying their name now. The sound felt like a curse grating against her very being. Just the thought of them made the edges of her vision shadow over, and she soon felt an ache growing in her knuckles from her clenched fists. She desperately wanted to be done talking about the Byrnes. Needing some space, she turned and started to walk away.

“So much for retirement, eh?”

Hearing the familiar voice, Nienna stopped and turned around to find Quint Blackwell, her former adviser, descending the ramp. She brightened, surprised by his presence. “How are you here? I-I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. What brought you back?”

“Some good advice from an old friend,” he replied with a sad smile as he crossed through the snow toward her. Feeling Michi slithering her way around him, he glanced down, as she voiced her displeasure at the change of environment with a hiss. “You wanted to come too, you know,” he said to her.

“I didn’t realize I’d be serving as a taxi service, but here we are,” Danae said with a chuckle. “I really should start charging.”

Despite still feeling severely disappointed with losing Morrow, Nienna turned to the captain and took a deep breath in and out to calm herself. “I appreciate you bringing them—and for showing up.”

“Of course,” Danae replied with a nod. “You still owe me a promise anyway,” she said.

“Working on it.” Nienna gestured up toward the airship. “You have anyone else stowed away up there?”

Danae flashed her a smirk and looked over her shoulder just as one last passenger started making his way down. “Funny you should mention that.”

“Jakob!” Alena exclaimed as she ran toward him and pushed past Nienna. “What are you doing here?”

Her guardian brightened as soon as he saw her. “Kiddo! While you were gone, your sylvari friend here and I did some research on your—situation. We came across some information you and your friends might find useful. And honestly, I was a little worried about you. I know you don’t like it when I turn into the anxious parental figure, but then the captain here showed up, and I figured it would be a good opportunity to get this info to you and make sure you were okay.”

Alena offered him a reassuring smile and gave him a hug. “I’m totally okay, and I’m glad you’re here, but you should stay on the ship. These people are extremely dangerous.”

“Right. I saw what was going on as we pulled up. Seems a little more dangerous than you were letting on, kiddo. Maybe you should stay on the ship too,” Jakob suggested with a nervous chuckle.

Alena knit her brow. “Jakob.”

He put his hands up. “All right, all right. I know you can take care of yourself, and you’ve got your friends here. Hello Clarkus.” He gave the charr a friendly wave, who responded in kind. “But promise me you’ll have Gordo with you at all times while you’re out and about.”

Nienna smirked as she listened to the exchange continue. It felt bittersweet, though, and it made her think of childhood conversations with her own parents. One memory in particular when she was about six years old came to mind. She tried convincing her parents she was old enough to walk to the sweets stall by herself to purchase a taffy with money she had saved from taking care of their neighbor’s cat while she was away. Nienna’s father was adamant she wasn’t old enough, but her mother convinced him to let her try. She never told her father she spied him hiding behind the book cart nearby, making sure she was okay.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to help my crew with repairs,” Danae said. “Showboating will only get us so far. We’re going to need working guns if we’re going to bring any serious firepower to any future battles.”

With the conversation naturally ending, Nienna excused herself away from the group with a disappointed frown. Her head spun with conflicting emotions: everything from anger to guilt. She needed space to breathe and process, and she couldn’t do that with everyone else so close around her. She found a spot on a little hill nestled under the protection of the western mountainside and sat down for a while with her eyes closed. She could feel the gentle sound of the alpine breeze start to carry her stress away, allowing her mind to analyze recent events in more of a clear manner.

“Are you all right?” Quint asked as he cautiously approached. “Do you need some time?”

Nienna bowed her head but motioned to the spot next to her.

Quint took that as an invitation and sat down. “Salara worried about everyone on the ride over.” He chuckled. “Especially Seren. She seems to have really taken to the girl.”

“I don’t know if we’ll get her back,” Nienna confessed. “I-I don’t think I can fix it all.”

Quint sat up straight, stretching his back as he looked out over the snow. “You will.  Your stubbornness will see to it.”

“I am not stubborn,” Nienna argued.

He flashed her a knowing look.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“I’ll ask Danae if she would be fine putting everyone up for the night on the Raven,” Quint offered. “She’s willing to fly us all wherever the search takes us, but we may have to stop somewhere for supplies. She wasn’t kidding. The Raven is in bad shape.”

“That’s fine. I need to stop in Hoelbrak for something. We can grab what we can there.”

He turned to her and flashed her a friendly smile, but it quickly disappeared as he spied something dark on her neck. “What is this?” he asked as he reached for her collar to get a better look.

Nienna quickly recoiled. “Nothing.”

“That doesn’t look like nothing,” he replied, concerned. “What’s going on?”

“A consequence,” Nienna said. “Let’s just call it that.”