“Never thought I’d be walking here of all places,” Narsha Sharpfang groaned.

    “What’s wrong, Narsha? Don’t like cobblestone streets?” Euryale Sharpstrike joked.

    “I will gut you where you stand,” Narsha said with a snarl.

    The elementalist chuckled. “It’s not so bad here, Narsha. Give it a chance,” she said.

    Narsha groaned once again in response and just kept on trudging forwards.

    The stronghold of Ebonhawke remained the last bastion of humanity’s presence in Ascalon. Once a small fortress on the junction between Ascalon and the Blazeridge mountains, It was greatly expanded upon well over 200 years ago by the Ebon Vanguard led by the Goremonger Gwen Thackeray. Its location in the mountains made it difficult to conquer and their great Hawkgates stood as a mockery. Naturally, the charr laid siege but with very little success, resulting in a stalemate. In the end, Ebonhawke became a place for the iron legion to test their new siege weapons and waste their ammo on.

    That is, until the recent peace negotiations began.

    Euryale looked around herself a little. At the various buildings and many, many humans here giving the two charr a staredown. “I get the feeling they don’t like us very much here.”

    “Something we have in common then,” Narsha gruffed. She really did not want to be here of all places but orders are orders. “Stay focused. The asuran portal should be here somewhere.”

    Euryale shrugged. “You are way too uptight, Narsha. We’re only supposed to give aid to the vigil here.”

    Narsha balled a fist. “Right…” she muttered while rounding a corner, giving them both a view of the asuran portal up ahead. There was no sign yet of the vigil here so that meant waiting around for a moment. ‘Great,’ Narsha thought to herself as she went to sit on a nearby crate.

    “Think the band’s okay without us?” Euryale asked.

    “I’m less worried about the band being okay and more about whether they can keep their swords sheathed. This is an Ash job,” Narsha said.

    “But we’ve been given it by Tribune Brimstone. Wonder why that is, come to think of it,” Euryale pondered out loud as she sat herself on a crate opposite Narsha.

    Narsha shrugged. “He likely knows that this will end in a fight regardless. Brimstone’s always been a wildcard though. Who knows what his true motivations are,” she replied. 

    “Well, a fight’s a fight, and I’m down for that!” Euryale cheered while raising both her hands in the air. It’s a good thing she wasn’t wielding her staff or she might have set something on fire here. “Though I still wonder about this job, considering we’re dealing with Ajax Anvilburn here… You think the tribune is trying to rebel against the old imperator?”

    Narsha just breathed out through her nose a little louder. It was indeed a little odd. Almorra Soulkeeper, general of the vigil, and Bangar Ruinbringer, imperator of the blood legion, sired Ajax Anvilburn who has gone on to become the leader of the renegades, a splinter faction of charr that will do anything to prevent this peace treaty from being signed. “It’s not our place to question any of that,” Narsha said as she stood a little straighter. She usually did so when she had to be a little bit more imposing, even against her best bandmate Euryale. “Anvilburn’s a fool anyway. I don’t like these humans either but his actions aren’t gonna lead anywhere. It might even have the opposite effect of what he wants when humans and charr team up against him.”

    A momentary silence fell. The issue of peace with humans wasn’t something Narsha wanted to really think about. There were many conflicting things going through her mind most of the time. On the one hand, it made sense to broker peace now with the elder dragons on the rise all around. She and Euryale had personally witnessed what the dragonbrand of Kralkatorrik did to their bandmate Mogul. And that’s not even mentioning the flame legion, the ghosts of the Foefire, or the ogres. Having the humans as their enemies on top of that probably wasn’t very feasible.

    But on the other hand, they were humans. And if there’s one thing Narsha couldn’t stand, it was humans.

    Her brooding was suddenly interrupted when she suddenly felt a flash of pain jolt from her tail. “YEEOOOUUUCH!!!” she screamed as she jolted up and jumped forwards. She jerked her head around to see what in the world had caused that, only to find a young female human with blonde hair carrying several crates filled with apples.

    The girl stumbled back, causing several apples to fall on the ground and almost dropped her crates but she managed to stabilize herself at the last second. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t see where I was going!” she said apologetically.

    Euryale burst out into laughter. “Wonderful show!” she cried out while clapping.

    “Shut up!” Narsha snarled while rubbing her tail a little.

    But of course, Euryale didn’t stop her laughing. She did, however, stand up and walk over to the human. “Lemme help you with that!” she said between her snickering.

    “Oh, thank you! I’m really sorry… I didn’t mean to do that…” the girl said.

    Narsha growled at her. Normally, she would have no qualms about killing this girl on the spot but with this peace treaty going on, she stayed her hand. For now… “Watch where you’re going, runt!” she yelled.

    For a moment, the girl appeared a little intimidated. Then, she shook her head and stood a little straighter again in defiance. “Hey, I’m no runt!” she yelled back.

    “Come on, Narsha, it was an accident. Let it go,” Euryale said with a smirk.

    Narsha stared daggers at her bandmate. “Fine!” she huffed as she turned back around to sit back on the crate, with her tail next to her this time. The absolute nerve...

    “Ah, don’t mind my legionnaire. She can be a bit cranky sometimes,” Euryale said while carrying two of the apple crates.

    “It’s okay… it was my fault anyway. I’m just… not used to having to watch out for tails around here,” the girl replied. “I’m Lossë, by the way!”

    “Euryale Sharpstrike! And that’s Narsha Sharpfang,” Euryale said.

    Narsha peeked over her shoulder. Her bandmate was definitely a whole lot better at dealing with this peace treaty than she was, that’s for sure.

    As Lossë placed her one crate in a relatively large cart, she wiped some sweat from her forehead. “Phew, this is heavy… Thank the gods for pack dolyaks,” she muttered.

    Euryale chuckled. “Where are you taking all this anyway?”

    Lossë leaned against the cart for a moment. “I’m supposed to bring these supplies over to Foulbear Kraal. Charr and Ebon Vanguard forces have the ogres surrounded there and they need food before they can make the final push,” she explained.

    That’s right. There is a substantial ogre presence in these parts who generally don’t get along with charr or humans. To see charr and humans working together on eradicating that problem was quite unheard of but it does look like they were going to get things done.

    “Fair enough!” Euryale said.

    “And what are you doing here? I don’t think Narsha over there is here to sightsee,” Lossë asked.

    “Nah, we got our orders to meet up with some Vigil soldiers here,” Euryale said.

    “And they should be here soon so get ready, Euryale!” Narsha spat.

    Euryale snorted. “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “Good luck with your supply escort, Lossë!”

    “Thanks! You too with… whatever your mission is!” Lossë said as she went off to go get more supplies for her cart.

    As Euryale went back to sit on her crate, Narsha gave her a bit of a death stare. However, her friend simply smirked back at her. “Nice kid,” she said.

    It was right at that moment that two norn, one male and one female, stepped through the portal, followed by several soldiers. The vigil had arrived.

    Narsha stood up and approached the group. Her tail dragged over the ground, which still made it sting a little, but she ignored it for now. Euryale followed close behind.

    “Are you legionnaire Narsha Sharpfang?” the male norn asked.

    “That’s right. And this is my bandmate Euryale Sharpstrike,” Narsha said.

    “Warmaster Forgal Kernsson! And this is my recruit, Selma Wyrmsbane,” the norn spoke. He was an older norn with graying hair but that didn’t seem to deter him at all.

    “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am!” Selma said while saluting. She looked to be much younger with red hair tied behind her in a braid. Young norn were usually a bit of a pain to deal with. They had a tendency to dive into a fight headfirst without thinking too much about it just to brag about it later at an alemoot if they managed to come out again unscathed. But if she had this Forgal as her mentor, he would probably be able to keep her in line.

    Narsha saluted them both back. “Welcome to Ascalon,” she said.

    “What’s the status here, legionnaire?” the warmaster asked.

    “The renegades have been eerily quiet for some time ever since Ajax Anvilburn took over as their leader. We suspect they’re scheming something,” Narsha explained.

    “Who is this Ajax Anvilburn?” Selma asked.

    “Who he is doesn’t matter, kid! What matters is that he’s our enemy and that he is actively trying to disrupt the peace treaty,” Forgal said.

    Selma frowned at the man. “If you say so. And don’t call me kid,” she said.

    “Then don’t ask questions like a kid,” Forgal replied.

    Behind Narsha, Euryale snorted quite loudly at that one. Narsha herself couldn’t help but smirk herself. She liked this Forgal guy.

    “Where are we headed, legionnaire?” Forgal asked, focussing his attention back on Narsha.

    “My warband is stationed near where we believe a renegade camp to be north of here according to Ash legion intelligence. We’ll be heading around that camp to hit ‘em from two sides. With any luck, we’ll find intel on where Anvilburn is hiding or what he’s planning,” Narsha explained.

    “Heh, the old sandwich tactic. Sounds good to me!” Selma cheered.

    “Alright people, you heard her. Let’s move out!” Forgal commanded his troops. He looked like a no-nonsense warrior who wasn’t out for glory like most other norn. Narsha liked that.

    But right as the entire party was about to start moving out, they were interrupted.

    “Wait!” came the familiar voice of Lossë.

    Narsha frowned and turned around. What in the world was it now?!

    “You’re all going north, right? Can I tag along with my cart? I don’t wanna get ambushed along the way and those would-be ambushers would think twice with you guys around,” Lossë said.

    The absolute nerve of this human! What in the world was she thinking?! “Get lost!” she yelled. “We don’t have time to play escort guards for you!”

    Again, there was a slight moment of hesitation but the human quickly overcame that. “You wouldn’t be escorting me. We’ll just be traveling the same road at the same time and look all menacing!”

    Narsha was about to start arguing back but it was Selma who spoke up first. “It would make sense to do so, considering there’s renegades in the area. They would benefit from ambushing a supply cart,” she said.

    Narsha stared at the norn with disbelief for a moment. Surely Forgal wasn’t going to…

    “That’s a very good point, recruit,” the man said thoughtfully.

    Narsha was ready to stab someone at this point. Was she completely surrounded by idiots or something? “Fine! But keep up or we’re leaving you behind!” she spat.

    “Yes, ma’am!” Lossë said while saluting.

    Narsha groaned and turned around again. Next to her, Euryale had started snickering uncontrollably. This was going to be a long day...

The narrow streets of Ebonhawke were suffocating and the humans everywhere were a sorry sight. It was therefore very refreshing to set foot outside of the Hawkgates again and onto the Fields of Ruin. It was relatively quiet here. Off to the west, the dragonbrand loomed but the Branded tended to stay within its reaches so that wasn’t as big of a concern for now. There were some humans as well as charr here and there, mostly sticking to themselves but there was a group of humans talking and laughing with a warband of charr, reminiscing about old times when they were still trying to kill each-other. Whatever floats their boat, Narsha guessed.

    As the group passed west of a large hill, the vigil soldiers conversed with each-other a little but their conversations were drowned out by the booming voices of Selma and Forgal. Selma was trying to impress Forgal by boasting about her past accomplishments in solitary hunts but the warmaster wasn’t having any of that and instead kept arguing back about how all that potential could be put to much better use in an army alongside other warriors. Overall, it was quite un-norn-like of him. In the meantime, Lossë was mostly just talking to her pack dolyak to pass the time. She seemed a little bored but kept reminding herself that this was an important task.

    What a bunch to fight alongside later. Narsha was really beginning to miss Gron Sharpspeed’s endless puns. Oh how she was looking forward to being back with her warband again. At least she had one bandmate with her… 

    “... and that is how I got my title, with the great Issormir dead at my feet!” Selma boasted.

    “Wouldn’t that make you Wormsbane? Not Wyrmsbane?” Euryale commented.

    “Worm, wyrm, what difference is one little letter?” Selma said back, causing a large portion of the group to start laughing.

    Even Narsha couldn’t help but chuckle but that was quickly silenced when she felt something. Something that wasn’t right. The earth… was rumbling?

    “Halt!” She shouted.

    The old Forgal stood at attention right away. He definitely was a seasoned veteran alright. “What is it, legionnaire?” he asked.

    Narsha placed her claw on the ground to make sure. It was definitely rumbling. And it was coming from… “Up the hill! Look alive, people!” she shouted as she drew her greatsword.

    The vigil stood at attention right away and grabbed their weapons for whatever was going to come over the hill. Selma, too, grabbed her dual axes while Forgal got out his sword as well as his warhorn.

    “What’s going on? Why’s everybody so tense all of a su-” Lossë tried asking but she was interrupted as the threat finally came into view. From across the hill came a hoard of angry ogres, stomping their way straight towards them. They looked very angry and they had their clubs out. There had to be at least twice as many ogres as there were vigil soldiers.

    “By the bear!” Selma gasped.

    “Stand your ground, vigil! Beat them back!” Forgal ordered, shaking the soldiers out of their stupor again.

    “NOT THE CART!” Lossë cried out. She quickly grabbed inside the cart for something while hurrying the dolyak behind the vigil line.

    Narsha, in the meantime, was ready for action. “Euryale!” she shouted.

    “On it!” her bandmate called back. She had already gotten out her staff and wielded it almost like a golf club. She took a moment to aim, got in position and then swung her staff into the ground right under Narsha.

    “Fore!” she called out as she used her elementalist’s magic to cause the earth to erupt, sending her legionnaire flying upward and directly into the middle of the ogres.

    Narsha grinned as she was launched straight at the biggest, baddest looking ogre in the bunch. There was a satisfying crunch as she planted her greatsword straight through the hulking ogre, toppling him in one go. However, while this display did momentarily stun some of the surrounding ogres, the stampede didn’t stop as they kept charging the people down in the valley.

    Well, these ogres didn’t know who they had decided to mess with today. “Who wants some?!” Narsha yelled at them.

    The four nearby ogres got even madder now. They surrounded her and began getting ready to swing their clubs down on her. The first one Narsha easily dodged by side stepping and the second one went right over her head. The third, though, was about to be a direct hit if it hadn’t accidentally been blocked by the fourth club coming down a whisker away from her face.

    “Nice try,” Narsha snarled at them as she activated her Virtue of Courage. A defensive spell that would really come in handy right now. Then, right as another club came down, she sidestepped it and swung her greatsword at one of the ogres, slashing into their stomach and causing them to buckle over forward.

    Seeing another of their number get toppled like that caused the three remaining ogres to go into an absolute fit of rage now. They started swinging their clubs freely now and it was becoming a lot more difficult for Narsha to dodge them all. The aegis provided by her virtue was used up before long and shortly thereafter, she got a nasty jab right in her stomach, knocking her back.

    “Burn me…” Narsha cursed under her breath. She could still fight but that was an unnecessary hit. She stood up quickly right as the three ogres got ready to charge…

    Only for them to suddenly get pummeled by a shower of meteors raining from the sky. The ogres tried to shield themselves somehow but it was no use as all of them were quickly dispatched of.

    Narsha grinned. “Thanks for the save, Euryale!” she called out. However, when she looked around her, she saw that Euryale was actually still down in the valley, dealing with her own ogre problems with the vigil. Narsha raised and eyebrow in confusion.

    “You’re welcome!” came a voice right next to her then. Narsha couldn’t help but jump up as who else but Lossë was standing right next to her wielding a staff of her own.

    Narsha blinked a few times. That… was going to have to be something to unpack after the battle. For now, she just nodded to the human. She didn’t want to admit it but she had just been saved by Lossë. Ignoring that for now, she got ready to run down the hill again to help out her allies.

    Both Forgal and Selma were absolute beasts on the battlefield. They toppled ogres left and right and even took one of them down together. Euryale greatly enjoyed herself, dousing an ogre and then using thunder magic to finish them off. Lossë entered the fray again as well and started combining the elements in order to beat back the ogres. Narsha herself also managed to dispatch two more ogres before finally, one of the ogres blew into her warhorn, signalling the remainder of their force to retreat back up the hill. And just like that, the valley fell quiet again as if nothing had happened. Narsha watched them go, narrowing her eyes. Something wasn’t right about that attack… 

    While Lossë went to check back up on her cart, Selma bent down over an asuran vigil soldier who was lying on the ground with some blood around her.

    “Come on… hang in there,” she said while holding the soldier’s head up.

    The asura coughed. She was in pain but she was still alive.

    Forgal frowned, seething with rage. “Crusader Faron. See to it that she makes it back to Ebonhawke safely,” he ordered.

    “Yes, sir!” a sylvari said before tending to the soldier himself. Forgal, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes while looking between the hill and the cart that Lossë was still tending to.

    “You!” he called out.

    Lossë jumped up in surprise. She looked around herself for a moment but quickly realized that he was addressing her. “Yes?” she asked.

    “Those ogres were after your cart! We are two soldiers down because of you!” he bellowed.

    For a moment, Lossë went red and she was at a loss for words. “But… but I…” she stammered.

    Narsha looked behind her, at the furious norn berating this human. Normally, she would just let that happen. However… Lossë had saved her just now. Perhaps it was time to repay the favour… 

    “Leave her alone, warmaster! It wasn’t her fault!” she yelled at Forgal, standing up a little straighter again to appear more commanding.

    Forgal turned to face her. “I’m listening,” he said.

    “Ogres don’t intercept supply lines. They’re much too stupid for such tactics. And even if they did, do you really think that they’d send in thirty odd ogres to get at one little cart?” Narsha argued.

    Forgal breathed out quite loudly through his nose. “If that’s the case, then what did cause this attack?” he asked.

    It was actually Selma who spoke up now. “This attack was timed way too well. They knew we were here. Do you think the renegades were behind this to stop us?” she proposed.

    A hint of a smile appeared on Narsha’s face. Perhaps the recruit was a lot smarter after all. “That’s exactly what I think,”  she said.

    Forgal stroked his beard while looking back up the hill. It seems he, too, was convinced. “Then my apologies to you, human,” he said without looking back.

    Lossë folded her arms. “Thank you…” she muttered.

    “Should we give chase, warmaster?” Selma asked.

    The old norn considered his options for a moment. He was about to respond but Narsha spoke up first.

    “We will split up. Euryale, lead the vigil to the rendezvous point and carry out the mission. I will give chase,” she said.

    “Not on your own, you won’t!” Euryale argued back.

    “Don’t argue with me. We do not have enough time for that!” Narsha spat back.

    Forgal nodded. “Recruit. You’ll be accompanying her. She’s in command,” he commanded.

    Selma saluted the old man. “Yes, warmaster!” she said.

    “I will too!” Lossë said.

    Narsha clenched her teeth and stared daggers in the direction of the human. Why in the… “What about your cart?!” she spat back.

    “The dolyak is perfectly capable of finding its way to the charr camp on his own,” she said.

    Narsha snarled but there was no time to argue about it this time. “Come on then! We’ll meet back at the rendezvous point!”

    “Stay safe, Narsha!” Euryale called back.

    “You too, Selma! That’s an order!” Forgal shouted.

    A smile formed on Selma’s face as she, Narsha, and Lossë all began running up the hill to chase the ogres back to their kraal. Right before the crest, Selma spoke up. “That’s the first time he’s called me by my name,” she chuckled.

    “Congratulations,” Narsha said sarcastically as she reached the top of the hill first. She was just able to see the ogres go down the next hill. It wasn’t too big an issue though seeing as their tracks were very easy to follow.

    “Pick up the pace! If the renegades were behind this, they won’t be far!” she commanded.

    As the trio started running again, Lossë actually came to run next to Narsha. “Thanks for helping me earlier!” she said.

    “A favour for a favour! We’re even now,” she responded.

    “Cool. I should save you again sometime then,” Lossë said, causing Selma to laugh. Narsha just snarled back in annoyance.

After a few minutes of running, the trio finally arrived at a cave through which the ogres had seemingly come.

    “Where does this lead?” Selma asked.

    “Foulbear Kraal I think. That’s on the other side of this mountain,” Lossë said.

    Narsha held her greatsword at the ready. “We don’t know what’s in there. Be prepared for a fight and keep your voices down,” she said as she led the charge inside. There were definitely signs here of recent ogre presence, considering the state of the floor and the trampled crates here. Wait… crates?

    Narsha bent down over one of them, its contents sprawled all over the cave floor. There was a powder that she instantly recognized by its scent. “Gunpowder,” she said.

    Lossë went over to a nearby crate that was still intact. She opened it and let out a soft gasp. “They’re filled with explosives!” she said in surprise.

    “Burn me! This is enough to bring down this whole mountain!” Narsha snarled.

    “Or to bring down the Hawkgates,” came a sudden voice from behind them.

    Narsha gasped. Behind them stood a male charr with black fur. He had his claws behind his bag and a very smug grin on his face. “Anvilburn!” Narsha snarled.

    Lossë started channeling a spell and Narsha too held onto her greatsword a little tighter. However, Ajax just stood there, holding up a finger.

    “Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said.

    Narsha gritted her fangs. Of course. Ajax wouldn’t just appear before them on his own like this. He was far too much of a coward for that. They were surrounded.

    “Seize them!” Ajax commanded. Then, right at his command, a bunch of charr suddenly appeared from all over, having hidden themselves in the shadows. It would be no use to fight them at this rate and so, they just let themselves get captured. Before long, both of them were disarmed, tied up, and thrown on the floor in front of Ajax Anvilburn. Wait… both of them? Where was Selma?

    “Let us go!” Lossë yelled at them.

    The leader of the renegades looked down on his captives. “And why would I do that, meat? This was far more effective,” he said before turning to the rest of his renegade troops. “Get these explosives in place for the big show! We won’t wanna miss the fireworks, do we?” he ordered.

    A portion of the renegade troops gathered here began carrying the boxes that were still intact out of the caves. In the meantime, Ajax was bending over to come a little closer to Narsha’s face now. He looked so similar to imperator Bangar Ruinbringer and he had the same tendency to talk down on those around him. It was rare for charr to resemble their dames or sires, seeing as all of them were raised in fahrars separated from their parents.

    “Legionnaire Sharpfang. I must say I’m disappointed. You could have at least brought in a few more of my dame’s lackeys,” he said.

    Narsha shot him a furious glare. He was right though. How could she have just walked into such an obvious trap?

    Ajax laughed as he turned around to face the exit of the cave. “It’s such a shame, Narsha. There was a time where I thought I could count on your Sharp warband. What changed? Why are you allying yourself with humans and traitors?” Ajax asked calmly.

    Narsha gritted her teeth. “I’m not dumb enough to throw explosives at an open gate! Your actions will achieve nothing!” she spat.

    Ajax turned around again, a big smirk plastered all over his face. “On the contrary, Narsha. I think you’ll find that my plans will be very effective at disrupting this peace rubbish for good.” The man then turned to the two charr that had disarmed Narsha and Lossë earlier. “Take those with you. They’ll be a nice souvenir for the investigators later,” he said.

    Narsha seethed with rage. She and Lossë would be framed as the instigators of all this, fuelling the flames of war once again.

    “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to get ready for phase two. We’ll free you after everything is done. Maybe then you’ll reconsider who you choose to side with. Lock em in a cell,” Ajax said as he casually stepped out of the cave, leaving Narsha and Lossë alone with two renegade guards to keep an eye on them. Sure enough, the guards dragged both of them further into the cave and threw them in a cage together. Things were growing sour and fast…