The Hornet's Nest: Part 15

If she knew an enemy was coming for her, Caolinn liked to think she’d stand and face them. Torwen, on the other hand, didn’t appear to have any such compunctions. Perhaps the Nightmare Court weren’t particularly big on honour, or perhaps he was simply a coward, but when she finally found him, the mesmer was preparing to make his escape.

Caolinn had walked the periphery of Venomblight three times when she came back to the centre of the camp and found Torwen trying to shake one of the dazed Courtiers awake. He straightened at the sight of her; his lackeys barely stirred.

“Darr and Amber made sure they wouldn’t be any more use to you,” Caolinn said, nudging one of the fallen with her foot. “I suspect most of them will wake up eventually, but it looks like you’ll be long gone by then.”

She was, honestly, almost disappointed. Surrounded by the empty camp, Torwen no longer looked like the strong and ruthless leader she’d always pictured him as, nor the fearsome foe she’d expected to face. Now, he was hunch-shouldered and looked almost… broken.

“You must have known we’d come for her,” Caolinn went on. “Nairne, I mean. Why would we let her remain a prisoner?”

Torwen was silent a moment, and finally it dawned on Caolinn why he looked so dismayed. He’d been relying on the illusion he’d cast over her to hold – relying on Caolinn herself, in other words, to do his dirty work.

“I suppose I pushed you too hard,” he said eventually. “You started to act out of character. Not even Darr would have noticed otherwise.”

Caolinn felt a little queasy; after all, Torwen was right. His spell had nearly gone unnoticed entirely. “Someone would have come for Nairne anyway.”

Torwen made a dismissive gesture. “A few Order of Whispers clowns, yes, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Those asura of yours, though…”

Caolinn almost grinned. “They’re a force to be reckoned with, aren’t they? They’re not mine, though, no more than I was ever yours. They’re simply my friends.”

“Friends?” Torwen’s face broke into a sneer. He took a step forwards, casually ignoring the Courtiers at his feet. “Sylvari can never be friends with asura – you should have learnt that by now. Those spiteful little worms have never been anything but enemies to our kind. We’re nothing but a curiosity to them, to be studied and probed–”

Caolinn cut him off with a shake of her head. “That was true, once. You’re living in the past now, Torwen. Things have changed – we have to move on.” Living in the past – just like Nairne. “What did you want with Nairne, anyway? All this time spent bringing her to your doorstep, and manipulating me along the way. Why bother?”

Torwen glanced one way and then the other, as though fearing the Lightbringer herself would suddenly appear. After a moment, he shrugged. “She could tell you herself, if she was so inclined, but no doubt she’ll do her best to paint me as the villain.

“She almost joined us once – did you know that? There was some Order disaster down in Orr, as far as I can tell. I met Nairne shortly after, when her team had been disbanded and her position in the Order in serious doubt. She’d started to question her place in the world, as we sylvari are right to do. She would have made a fine Courtier, far better than she ever made an Agent, but in the end she changed her mind.”

“That’s it?” Caolinn couldn’t believe what she was hearing, the stunning malice of it. “She was going to join the Nightmare Court, but she changed her mind?”

“Of course that’s not it,” Torwen snarled. “She couldn’t just walk away, though, could she? She had to bring the Order of Whispers down on our heads, just to prove she was a good little slave to the Pale Tree. Or to prove herself to the Order, perhaps. She couldn’t help crawling back to them, and betraying us in the process.”

“So when you couldn’t get Nairne to betray the Order in return, you fixed on me instead.”

Torwen snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. I wanted to get my hands on Nairne, yes – she needed to be taught a lesson. You were simply a useful tool, though. When we met inside the volcano, I could see your anger, your hurt. It was all too easy to twist your mind. I’ve never cared what happened to you, though, Caolinn. You can serve me or not – it makes no difference. The moment your purpose had run dry, I was going to cast you away. You’ve simply made the decision for me.”

It stung, somehow, hearing Torwen dismiss her so easily, even though Caolinn knew it shouldn’t. It didn’t matter whether she’d only been a tool or something more – the Courtiers were monsters, and Torwen nothing but a bully who wanted revenge at any cost.

Even if it meant manipulating another sylvari, someone entirely innocent, to get what he wanted.

“You would have done anything to me,” she said, her voice cracking. “If it meant catching Nairne, you would have left me nothing but a broken husk.”

Torwen’s thin face stretched into a ghoulish smile. “I would – and who says I’ve finished with you yet?”

He raised his hands, and Caolinn could see the mesmer magic sparking at his fingertips. This time, all his subtlety was gone, replaced by brute force.

As she stared at him, preparing herself to fight back, Caolinn realised something with piercing clarity. She hadn’t wanted Torwen’s life in her hands, had doubted what she’d do if it ever came to that – and now it had. The choice was hers.

And this time, she knew what to do with it.

It was dark by the time Caolinn reached Gorlois Spine, and the small camp was quiet. She slipped past the patrols without being seen, finding several Agents huddled asleep under the trees, along with Erin, Spark and Weir. She scanned the site a second time, seeing no sign of Darr, but finally spotting Amber seated on a low rise.

For a moment, Caolinn considered walking away. It would be far too easy to turn around and pretend she had no connection to any of these faces, to just vanish into the wilderness and never come back. Part of her wished that was exactly what she could do; the rest knew that was the coward’s way out.

And whatever she’d now become, whatever she’d made of herself, she couldn’t call herself a coward.

Silently, Caolinn crossed the camp and sank into the grass at Amber’s side. It was the asura who broke the quiet. “Nairne got back safely. She and Darr have gone north to rendezvous with more Agents from the Chantry. They’ll clear out Venomblight properly tomorrow.”

Caolinn gave a quiet laugh. “There’s nothing left for them to do.”

Amber regarded her silently for several heartbeats. “So you did what I couldn’t.”

She had, but somehow Caolinn couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud. Far easier to think of Rata Sum instead. “Do you ever regret the choice you made?”

“Letting Zurra live? Sometimes. I’m not sure she deserves it – but I’m not sure I deserved to choose otherwise, either.”

“And me? Did I deserve to choose?”

Amber shrugged. “It isn’t my place to say. You made your decision. It was the right one at the time, and now…”

“Now I live with it.”

They fell into silence, nothing but night birds and crickets calling in the distance. Caolinn thought of Torwen’s face in those last moments, before she’d plunged the dagger into his chest. She didn’t want to forget, and not because she relished taking revenge. Torwen had manipulated her, controlled her, threatened to destroy her, and it still wasn’t about revenge. No, she’d made the decision to end him, and she owed it to herself to remember that. Her decision. Her choice. No-one would ever take that away from her again.

“Nairne won’t like it,” Amber said eventually. “She has no reason to love Torwen, of course, but she’s Order of Whispers through and through. She plays by the rules.”

Caolinn nodded. “I should have taken Torwen into custody, for questioning at the very least. He might have more infiltrators inside the Order. At least they’ll no longer be under his control.”

“Will you leave the Order?”

Caolinn’s mouth twisted. “You’re right – Nairne won’t like what I did. I suspect I can go voluntarily, or I can be pushed. I never really meant to stay, anyway.”

“Then I have an offer for you.”

“You do?” Caolinn glanced at Amber, who was all seriousness under the moonlight. “Is this about your new guild?”

Amber spread her hands. “There’s always been a place for you. I would have offered in Rata Sum, but…”

“But I went on a mesmer-induced rampage to get revenge?”

Amber’s teeth glinted as she grinned. “Well, we’ve all been on one or two of those. We’ll have to clear this with the guild leader, of course.”

Caolinn’s brows rose. “That isn’t you?”

“No, it’s Erin.” The asura’s grin widened. “Would you really want me in charge? Anyway, you don’t have to decide now. Just think about it.”

Slowly, Caolinn nodded. She would think about it, when she’d had a little time to clear her head. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t worked for someone else – first Darr, then Torwen and the Order. The two situations had been worlds apart, but still… She wasn’t entirely sure, at her core, who she was when she was just… her.

Amber leaned back, hands in the grass, face tilted to the night sky. “It takes a while to get used to not having a mission, but it has its perks. Just going where the whim takes you.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

“Yes, but don’t tell Erin that. She still thinks I actually listen when she gives orders.”

Caolinn let herself flop backwards, the grass tickling the sides of her face. With Amber silent beside her and the stars overhead, she could almost pretend she was the only one left in the world. That should, perhaps, have been intimidating, but instead she felt only a growing sense of calm. Torwen was gone. She was leaving the Order. No more masters, no more obligations. Amber’s offer of a place in the guild was only that.

Stretching before her, Caolinn saw nothing but uncertainty, and found herself smiling. Freedom, as limitless as the sky above her head. She could get used to that.