Chapter 5: Part 8 - The Flawless Victory

It had taken all Erin had to put her trust in Vasha. Even now, crouched in the undergrowth of Bloodtide Fen, she wasn’t quite sure what she’d let herself in for.

“It’s called the Flawless Victory,” Vasha had explained, once Erin had forced her to sit and talk to them. “It maintains a circuit up and down the coast between here and Sparkfly Fen, then loops west of Southsun Cove and back to Lion’s Arch.”

“An airship.” The doubt in Amber’s voice was plain. “Artair has an airship.”

“He has more than one,” Vasha had replied, her voice rising. “He has supporters all across Tyria. Every scrap of financial aid they give him goes into building his fleet. But the Victory… That’s the big one. It’s where he keeps his own berth.”

Erin held up a hand to cut off Amber’s retort. “And ‒ just to be clear ‒ you think Souleater is aboard this ship?”

Vasha’s misery was plain to see. “After I brought Souleater back from Rata Sum, Artair sent me back down to Lion’s Arch for supplies. The Victory was going to be moored outside the city for twelve hours, long enough for me to run my errands. Except, in that time, Artair vanished.”

“He might have Souleater with him,” Erin said cautiously. The fact that Artair had it in his possession in the first place wasn’t in any doubt. Vasha had described quite comprehensively how she’d broken into Amber’s workshop, in enough detail that even Amber had to admit she wasn’t lying.

“He might,” Vasha admitted. “But if he doesn’t…”

“This is our chance.”

Now, as she watched the shoreline of Bloodtide Fen, Erin knew there were a thousand things that could go wrong. She didn’t think Vasha was lying, exactly, but there was still a chance this was part of an elaborate trap. Alternatively, Vasha might honestly be trying to atone for stealing Souleater ‒ she certainly seemed contrite enough ‒ but the weapon might not be aboard the Victory. Even if it was, Artair might return before they could retrieve it or destroy it. He might be back on the airship already. Erin swatted a mosquito out of her face and resisted an urge to draw her greatsword. Not just a thousand things, she reflected. Ten thousand things could go wrong here. A hundred thousand. A million.

Except, for the first time in many weeks, she had her entire guild with her. They’d returned victorious from Ascalon, Auri unharmed and Oska quietly triumphant. Erin had given them only a few minutes to celebrate before explaining what came next. Souleater, the deadliest weapon Spark had ever created, had fallen into Artair’s hands. No one had disagreed with the plan to take it back.

Erin glanced to her side and found Jean had crept up beside her. “Thank you,” he murmured. “Thank you for trusting her.”

“We don’t,” Amber grumbled, from Erin’s other side.

Erin inclined her head. She wasn’t doing this for Vasha, or even for Jean. This was simply the only lead they had, the only way to get one over on Artair. And yet she didn’t think that was what Jean needed to hear. “We all need a second chance sometimes,” she said.

“When this is over…” Jean began hesitantly.

“Let’s save that discussion for later,” Erin said, keeping her tone gentle. If Light’s Memory still existed a day from now, there’d be time to talk about Vasha.

“Here.” Vasha’s voice floated out of the gloom, making them all fall silent. “She’s here.”

The Flawless Victory, according to Vasha, stopped at predetermined points along its circuit, most of them out in the wilds. From a distance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary trading vessel, plying the regions between Lion’s Arch and The Grove. In reality, its route was carefully planned to allow Artair’s Talons to get on and off in secrecy, keeping his whereabouts and activities almost impossible to track.

Impossible, that was, unless you had one of the Talons with you.

Erin found she was holding her breath. This was the moment that would prove Vasha either right or a liar. Erin really wasn’t sure which one to expect ‒ until, some distance out at sea, a shadow appeared from the depths of a cloud backlit by the setting sun. It was as sleek as a fish cutting through the waves. It was also unmistakeably an airship.

There were mutters of disbelief from the assembled guild, quickly hushed. Vasha was the only one who pushed her way out of the undergrowth and down onto the shore. The Victory would carefully survey the area before the mesmer on board opened a portal, Vasha had explained. If there was anyone else in the vicinity, the ship would flee in a heartbeat.

Vasha was now a tiny, fragile-looking figure on the shoreline. She raised a hand as the airship swooped closer and Erin once again found it hard to breathe. This was the moment. If the Victory sensed anything amiss, if they caught wind of Light’s Memory skulking nearby…

But the airship approached without hesitation. As it got closer, a glowing portal glimmered into life on the deck, before a silhouetted figure made the short jump down to the sand. Erin was barely aware of the second portal opening beside Vasha, or of Vasha waving in greeting to the mesmer. Light’s Memory were already moving.

They went swiftly and silently. With two thieves and a mesmer in their midst, the entire guild could be cloaked in invisibility. There wasn’t even time for the enemy mesmer to shout in warning before Roan and Ivar bowled her over. Erin took only a moment to make sure the situation was under control before she stepped into the portal.

She stepped out again, with a twinge of disorientation, onto the deck of a seemingly empty airship. Marissa followed, before quickly dropping back to the shore with a portal of her own. One by one, Light’s Memory swarmed onto the deck.

Erin had expected to run headlong into a battle. Instead, there was no one to be seen. The deck was clear of cargo and clear of crew members, too. It was eerily silent.

Amber came up beside Erin. “They know we’re here,” she muttered. “They have to.”

She was right. Erin ducked as a rifle shot cracked into the deck at her feet. Light’s Memory scattered with shouts of warning, feet pounding in all directions and weapons being drawn. Erin was dimly aware of the enemy mesmer being dragged out of the last portal by Ivar before it flickered closed.

Erin didn’t have to issue orders. Her guild surged forwards, crossing the deck and disappearing down the walkways on either side of the airship’s main cabin. Erin swept her gaze across the shoreline ‒ still empty and now almost entirely lost to the darkness ‒ before following in her guild’s wake.

Already, their ambush was nearly complete. The Victory’s captain was trussed in the middle of the cabin, two crew members behind him. Only Ivar had remained on the main deck to watch the mesmer, whilst the rest of Light’s Memory flooded through the ship.

Erin caught Vasha’s arm as he passed. The captain, Erin noticed, was glaring at Vasha in fury. “How many more?”

The engineer shook her head. She’d bitten her lip so hard that a bead of blood sat at the corner of her mouth. “A dozen, at least. Haki and Gull are usually on board, for one thing. And there are a lot more Talons than there used to be. Artair never flies anywhere without a full crew.”

Amber appeared in a doorway. “We’ve captured six more Talons. Those two norn siblings are pinned down in the mess hall. Roan, Caolinn, and Marissa have things under control.”

“I’ll go down there,” Erin said, before shooting Amber a meaningful look. She didn’t need to explain further. Amber knew perfectly well that someone needed to keep an eye on Vasha.

Muffled thuds and shouts reached Erin’s ear as she descended through the ship. The Flawless Victory was larger than any airship she’d been on before, with a warren of rooms below the main deck. Nearly all of them were now under the control of the guild. Most of the crew had been herded into the brig, where even now Jean and Oska were locking the door of an iron cell. The Talons might outnumber Light’s Memory, but they’d been badly taken by surprise.

“Bring the captain and the others down here,” Erin ordered, eyeing the spacious brig. There was an entire row of empty cells, as though Artair planned to keep dozens of prisoners. That, she thought, sounded very much like him.

She headed back through the ship, arriving in the mess hall to find Roan pointing a rifle at Haki’s head. “Ready to find out what we did to traitors in the warband?” he growled.

“We’re not traitors,” Gull spat, above the growl of the spotted cat at her feet. “Artair made us a better offer. You can’t blame us for that.”

Erin put a hand on Roan’s broad shoulder and waited until he’d lowered the rifle a fraction. “Where’s Artair?” she demanded. He certainly wasn’t on the ship. Not only would he have shown himself by now, but Erin thought the Talons would have put up a much better fight with him present.

Gull just glared back, but Haki said, “He doesn’t tell us where he’s going.”

“Sounds like he doesn’t trust you,” Marissa said.

“He likes his privacy,” Gull shot back.

Erin held up a hand for silence. “And Souleater?”

Gull’s face was stony, but Haki’s was easier to read. A moment of confusion flickered through his eyes before his jaw firmed.

Erin’s stomach lurched. They didn’t know. If she had to guess, she’d say they didn’t even know what Souleater was, let alone that Artair had it. Which meant it likely wasn’t on the Victory at all.

She turned, catching Caolinn’s eye where the sylvari stood in the doorway. Caolinn shook her head, her expression grim. Souleater wasn’t here.

The shot was so sudden and so piercing that for a moment Erin thought she’d imagined it. Except it was followed by a yelp of pain, one she’d recognise anywhere. She was moving before the thought had fully registered, barrelling out of the mess hall and back up the steps to the main deck.

To where Ivar was slumped against the polished boards, blood spreading around him in a dark pool.

Erin’s world seemed to slow, then to freeze entirely. The details of the scene reached her one by one, even as footsteps pounded across the deck behind her. Ivar had been shot in the shoulder and his eyelids were fluttering; he wasn’t dead. The mesmer he’d been guarding was gone. But there was a glimmer of her magic at the bow of the ship. As Erin watched, it bloomed into a full portal. Another had already opened below, down on the shore.

There was only one reason the enemy mesmer would have created a portal, leaving herself a way back onto the ship. It was enough to make Erin reach for her greatsword. Souleater might not be here and maybe it never had been, but Artair was.