Chapter 51: Work With What You’re Given

Shadows of rafts and makeshift boats floating on the surface passed over Nienna and the two quaggan who escorted her to the edge of the Shattered Floe. She tried to ignore the dulled sounds of battle from above. It only fueled her concern for her friends she left behind in Deep and Troubled Waters and made her doubt her decisions. She shook the thoughts from her mind. They couldn’t be in the forefront of her mind and distracting Nienna from what she had to do.

They reached the edge of the Shattered Floe, and Nienna plunged her dagger into the ice to anchor herself from being carried away by the natural current. She gave the two quaggans a thumbs-up, which they returned awkwardly in kind with their webbed hands before swimming away. Startled by a humanoid shadow swimming their way, the quaggan suddenly changed their course down into the depths back to their home in the quaggan village of Orsippus.

“You left without saying anything?” the figure scolded as it approached Nienna.

“Grenth’s horns,” Nienna uttered as Seren’s form came into view. She had donned a mismatch of kodan armor pieces and had a sword lodged in her belt. “You were supposed to stay in the sanctuary! How did you find out where I was?”

“Tuborg told me. He folded like a flower under the hot summer sun. In his defense, I could tell he really didn’t want to tell me.”

Nienna shook her head, the action making her long, silvery hair flow around her face. She pushed the strands back and away from her head. “He shouldn’t have said anything.”

Seren made a sharp gesture, slowed by the force of the water. “I’m not letting you do this by yourself. Besides, I spent time up there with them. I’ve seen their camp. I can help.”

“You shouldn’t be here for this. You need to go back.”

“I’m not going to leave you out here on your own.”

“Neither am I,” another voice said.

They both turned to find Salara swimming their way. She held a staff carved with the angular knots well known in kodan culture. Like Nienna and Seren, she also wore a diving mask.

Nienna furrowed her brow. “Good gods, who else followed me out here?”

Salara looked back over her shoulder. “Just us, I believe. I don’t think anyone followed me.”

“What are you doing here?” A wide-eyed Seren asked the sylvari.

Salara swam up to Seren’s side and reached for her arm. Her caledon fingers curled around the guardian’s bracer. “I didn’t want you going out there without someone watching your back.”

“I’m guessing I’m not going to be able to convince either of you to go back,” Nienna said, dryly.

“No,” they answered in unison.

Nienna sighed as she resigned herself to the situation. She still had another opportunity to leave them behind and spare them from what was to come. “We might as well work together, but I need you both to do what I say and to follow instruction. Clear?”

“Clear,” Salara replied.

Nienna eyed Seren. “Clear?”

“Fine, clear,” she finally said. “What’s the plan?”  

“The Byrnes’s thugs are storming the sanctuary, and I’m gambling Lord Byrne won’t want to step foot over there until most of his opposition is wiped out. I’m also gambling that he will be keeping the last piece of the blade up there. I saw a couple of his hired Inquest bring it out from somewhere in the back.”

“That’s a lot of gambling,” Salara noted.

“More than I’d like,” Nienna replied.

Seren looked up at the underside of the ice. “So, we just pop up there, find the blade piece, and get that son of a skritt through the portal?”

“Basically,” Nienna replied, “but it’s going to be a little more complicated than that.” She pulled her knife from the ice and used her arms to counter the gentle underwater current. “We’re going to need to keep him near the edge where the ring is set up.” And I’m going to have to make sure you two don’t follow, Nienna thought to herself. It definitely complicated things, but she’d figure out a way to make it work. After all, you work with what you’re given. “Let’s take a little look to make sure it’s all clear.”

Nienna led them through the water along the edge of the ice away from their enemies’ main gathering spot. She surfaced and peered over the edge of the ice. Sure enough, they had rounded toward the back of the Byrnes’ staging area. All attention was focused on the sanctuary ahead. She motioned for them to surface as she searched through the moving bodies for Lord Byrne. She found him just about where she hoped she would.

“Excellent. Straight ahead in the longcoat. He has his blade in-hand,” Nienna pointed out. “Do you see the Inquest?”

“Over there,” Seren said as she pointed to a small group between them and Lord Byrne. “Lady Byrne is with them and making some rather sharp gestures. I don’t think she’s happy.”

Nienna looked where she pointed and watched. Lady Byrne and the Inquest were crowded around an open box. Suddenly, one of the Inquest reached over and slammed the lid shut. The whole group began to move off to the side, farther away from where Lord Byrne stood and watching his siege unfold.

“They’re keeping the piece in that box. We need to intercept them now before they get too far,” Nienna said.

They pulled themselves from the water and onto the ice. Moving in a tight group, the trio stayed low, using whatever was laying around as cover. Thankfully, they had the noise of the attack on Deep and Troubled Waters to cover the ice crunching under their boots. Once they were close enough, they rushed in and made quick work of the Inquest scientists. To their dismay, Lady Byrne was nowhere to be found.

Nienna thrust the edge of her axe at a wounded Inquest they spared for the sake of information. “Where did Lady Byrne go?”

The asura let out a wheezy chuckle as she reached a shaky hand up to pull down her goggles. “She’s gone. You won’t find her.”

Seren kicked at a piece of ice, sending it flying across the frozen surface. “Of course, she’s gone.”

Nienna opened the box, and with a sigh of relief, retrieved the missing blade piece and stuck it with the others in the large pack Dee gave her. “It doesn’t matter. We got the last piece, and our main target is Lord Byrne, but we should hurry. Every second we wait, is another second they have to get more of their people into Deep and Troubled Waters. I promised Deep Song we’d be as fast as possible in order to mitigate the damage.”

Salara looked down at the wounded Inquest. “What do we do about her?”

“Look away,” Seren told her, and as Salara turned her gaze away, the young guardian plunged her blade deep into the Inquest scientist’s chest until it rose and fell for the last time. She then withdrew her blade, cleaned it off on the Inquest’s robes, and guided Salara away from the corpse, making sure her gaze was kept elsewhere the entire time.

The three of them continued on in the same matter across the floe, using anything along their path as cover. Lord Aedan Byrne stood with his back to them, seemingly unaware to everything happening behind him. As they crouched down behind a stack of scrap, Nienna could see the ice from the Sanguinary Blade had progressed up his arm to his shoulder and neck. It made him look less human and more like the very ice creatures he had created. She looked aside at Seren and Salara to silently make sure they were ready. She made a motion with her hand to spread out. They both nodded, and together, they began their advance.

Nienna pulled her axe from its holster and ran in to strike at Lord Byrne’s arm, in hopes of separating the weapon from him, but he spun around to meet her assault. His eyes were pale and lifeless, and his dark, greying hair was covered in a thin layer of frost. A metallic ring echoed out over the floe as their weapons met.

“Don’t let that blade touch you!” she warned Seren and Salara as she held her axe steady against his attack. “It’ll turn you into one of them!”

Heeding Nienna’s warning, Seren cautiously rushed into the fray with Salara at her side. They ducked as Lord Byrne pulled back and swung the Sanguinary Blade in a wild arc. While Seren and Salara tangled with the enraged lord, Nienna checked their positioning. They were just outside of the gate’s perimeter from what she could tell from where they stood in relation to Deep and Troubled Waters. As Lord Byrne raised his arm to strike her, she ran at him with her axe up to block and her shoulder square to his chest. She collided with him, and they both fell onto the ice and slid into the portal’s perimeter.

“Nienna, move!” Seren cried out. The guardian rushed in and drove her sword into Lord Byrne’s arm, pinning him to the ice.

An inhuman roar erupted throughout the floe as the corrupted lord fought to pull his arm free.  Nienna rolled off of him and unclasped a pouch on her belt. She withdrew a flare gun Danae had given her while they were connecting cables, aimed it at the sky, and pulled the trigger. A cartridge sailed upwards, far over their heads, before igniting into a brilliant ball of red light. It crested and began its slow descent, bathing everything below in its crimson glow.

Searing pain suddenly shot through Nienna’s jaw as Lord Byrne’s fist connected with it. The flare gun flew from her hand as she stumbled back with her hand over her face. He then lunged at her, and they went sliding back out of the portal ring’s perimeter. She braced her hand against his arm, trying to stop the Sanguinary Blade’s tip from piercing her shoulder. Lord Byrne’s twisted visage filled her entire field of view. His cold, lifeless eyes were all she could see, and it sent unsettling chills down her spine.

Her arms started to shake as her strength waned. With every moment, Lord Byrne seemed to grow stronger from the blade’s influence. Shadow came to her aid and edged into her vision. She let it enter. It enveloped her in a dark armor that quickly shattered in a bitter shriek that flew from Nienna’s vocal cords. The sound sent the corrupt lord into a state of confusion and he scrambled back with his hands over his ears. The shriek gave way to a loud hum vibrating the ice under their feet as Alena’s creation warmed up. Nienna waited for the ice to break as the portal’s energies gained momentum, but it was thicker than she anticipated, and it held fast.

“Salara, wait! What are you doing?” Seren yelled.

The sylvari was crouched down with her hands on the ice. A bright, yellow light spread out beneath her hands, melting the ice within the portal’s perimeter. A series of sharp cracking sounds erupted all around them as the ice lost its integrity. It gave way, and Lord Byrne fell through the ice, along with Seren and Salara, who had been within the perimeter when the ice gave way. Nienna ran to the edge and peered down into the dark, swirling waters. They were gone. With any luck, they ended up in the intended location. Clutching the edge of her pack, Nienna took in a deep breath and jumped in.