Chapter 2: Part 1 - Ambush

The Grove wasn’t what Oska had expected. He’d passed through the place only a handful of times before, never going far from the bustle around the asura gate. He also didn’t have a lot of experience with sylvari; there was supposed to be one in Light’s Memory, but he’d yet to actually meet her. Somehow, he’d imagined their home city being somewhat backwards, just a patch of trees in the forest, probably surrounded by swamp.

The longer he spent in the Grove, though, the more extraordinary it became. The city’s multiple levels glowed with light and colour. There was industry in every corner, interesting conversations at every turn ‒ and yet the whole city seemed to sing a song of calm and tranquillity, inviting Oska to sit down and rest.

He might have done so, if he’d had a choice. Divinity’s Reach had been exhausting; the strain of looking for threats in every shadow had left Oska tired down to his bones. Even in the Grove, he wasn’t sure he should let his guard down. Could Ruby track him here? Could his grandmother?

The uncertainty of it all made him twitchy ‒ and Auri wasn’t helping. The Grove seemed to have hypnotised her with its beauty, making her even more absent-minded than usual. Three times, she wandered off whilst Oska was studying the layout of the city; three times, he felt as though his heart would burst with panic until he found her.

The third time, she was perched on a vast flower with spreading yellow petals. She hadn’t gone far, it was true, but Oska’s frustration boiled over all the same. “Auri! You need to stay close!”

“Why?” The bewilderment in Auri’s wide, blue-green eyes was clear. “You always know where I am.”

He did ‒ or he had. Ever since they’d been separated in Queensdale, Oska had found himself doubting his sense of Auri’s whereabouts. The connection between them felt stretched thin, until he wasn’t sure he trusted his own senses.

He bent down, putting his face close to hers. “I know this place is distracting. The song…”

Auri closed her eyes and lifted her face towards the light from above. “It’s so beautiful.”

Oska sighed. If he could hear the Grove singing, Auri would hear it a dozen times louder. She was sensitive to the world in a way few people were ‒ but that was all the more reason for him to protect her.

“Just stay close,” he said, sighing. “We might be in danger even here.”

“We’re not,” Auri replied, with one of her rare moments of certainty. “But Jean is.”

Oska blinked. “He’s really here?”

“He is, or… he was.” Auri’s forehead crinkled. “I think he’s…”

“Trapped.” The word came to Oska out of nowhere, as the ends of Auri’s sentences often did. She was right, even if he didn’t know how or why. Jean was in trouble.

They descended deeper into the city, where the light turned dim and purple-hued. They just needed someone to talk to, someone who might have been watching closely enough to have seen Jean pass by…

There: the norn by the bottom of the ramp. She had the look of the Order of Whispers about her and she wasn’t trying to hide it. She even waved cheerily as Oska approached, as though she recognised his face.

“Thought I might be seeing one of you lot before long,” she said, as he got closer.

“A Valpari?” Oska guessed.

The norn shook her head. “One of Light’s Memory. Someone has a message for you. Although, now that I think about it, he did look like one of your relations. His hair, you know…”

Oska’s stomach flipped over. She’d actually spoken to Jean, probably in this very spot. “How long ago did you see him?” he asked urgently.

“Two days.” The norn’s expression darkened. “He wanted Light’s Memory to know he was still interested in working with them. I saw him talking to a sylvari, after that. One with a greatsword on his back. Didn’t look all too friendly.”

“Was the sylvari alone?”

“No. There were two norn with him. A human woman, too. They all seemed to know one another.”

Oska’s heart sank. It sounded like Jean had gone looking for the Order of Whispers, then been confronted by his own guild. The Archon almost certainly wouldn’t react well to treachery.

“Any more messages for me to pass on?” the norn asked.

Oska had almost forgotten she was there. He shook his head and hurried back to Auri, who still sat on the yellow flower.

“You were right,” he told her. “Jean’s been captured by the Archon. They might still be in the city. We need to‒”

“Get word to Erin?” Auri wore a hopeful expression.

Oska closed his mouth before he could say anything insulting. “We might need to move more quickly than that,” he said instead. “Erin can’t help us now.”

Auri was looking past him, her gaze fixed on something else. “Perhaps she can.”

Oska turned. Surprise made his voice dry up. There was a slender figure coming down the ramp into the Grove’s lowest level, making no effort to hide her face. Even at a distance, he knew it was Ruby.

“She wouldn’t help us,” he said, through gritted teeth. He thought of the way she’d bundled him through the dark corridors of their grandmother’s mansion, then chased him as though to put a knife in his back. If he knew one thing for certain, it was that Ruby couldn’t be trusted.

“I think you’re wrong,” Auri said, making Oska look back at her. He wasn’t sure whether she was responding to his last words, or the doubts in his head. Knowing his sister, it could be either. “Should we follow her?”

Oska nodded slowly. “That’s not a bad idea.”

Auri could be surprisingly stealthy when she wanted to be. She led the way across the city, flitting from flower to flower, melting into the shadows behind a seedpod-shaped home.

“You should have been a thief,” Oska murmured to her, as they followed Ruby up a different ramp.

“I could have been,” Auri agreed, “but then what would I have done with all the fire?”

In response to that disconcerting statement, Oska could only shrug.

Ruby had vanished around a corner. The road rose towards the outer wall of the city, before passing through a dim tunnel. Oska thought he could see movement there, but it was too dark to be certain.

“I’ll go first,” he said ‒ or started to, because Auri was quicker. She suddenly darted forwards, almost sprinting into the tunnel ‒ and she drew her staff as she went.

Cursing, Oska ran after her. If Auri started swinging her staff around, she’d burn half the Grove to the ground. What was she even thinking? They were supposed to be trailing Ruby, not ambushing her.

After all, it looked like someone else had got there first.

Oska skidded to a stop beside Auri, whose flaming staff lit up the whole tunnel. Its light revealed two figures: one slumped on the ground and the other crouched over them. It was a sylvari who’d got the upper hand; Ruby, already bound at wrists and ankles, appeared to be unconscious.

The sylvari straightened slowly. She wasn’t obviously armed. “You must be the twins. Auri and Oska, isn’t it?”

Oska gaped at her. “Who…?”

“Caolinn,” Auri said, before the sylvari could reply. The light from her staff abruptly winked out, throwing them all into shadow.

In the darkness, the sylvari gave a soft laugh. “That’s right. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

In any other circumstances, Oska would have been impressed. Caolinn had come out of nowhere, disabled Ruby without a sound or any sign of a struggle, and wasn’t even holding any weapons.

He couldn’t be so sanguine about her appearance now, though. He and Auri had been sent to the Grove for their own safety, but also to make contact with Jean ‒ and now here was another member of Light’s Memory, interfering once again. Erin didn’t trust him to act alone, that much was clear.

Caolinn’s robes rustled as she shifted. “I’ve been tracking this one since Divinity’s Reach. She didn’t notice I was tailing her. She seems to think she’s invincible.”

That certainly sounded like Ruby ‒ but Oska also thought the words were meant for him. A reminder that he had to be more careful, too.

But he knew that; of course he did. He wouldn’t have gone running to the Grove otherwise. If only Erin and the rest of her guild would stop treating him like a child.

Auri took a step towards Ruby, as though fascinated by her. “What are you going to do with her?”

“That’s up to Erin,” Caolinn said, with great satisfaction, “but I think she has quite a lot of questions to ask this relative of yours.”

Oska bit back his objections. Questions, yes ‒ he didn’t think Ruby would answer them, but they had to try. It was time they all got some answers.