Eugh. So early. At least there is coffee and breakfast and a new set of clean clothes that she has not been wearing for who knows how long. That last one is certainly a change, she needs to take a couple of minutes to figure out a good place to hide her knife.

... James might notice during this that it's a very nice knife. Pretty, delicate, polished so clear that it could be a shard from a mirror, and loaded with some very fancy looking enchantments.

He does notice that.

"That's one fancy knife," he observes.

"Thank you!" she chirps. Aha, she thinks she can hide it here if she nudges the size of the inside of this sleeve a bit so it's larger on the inside. She'll put it back, later. "My mother gave it to me. She, um, was not the sort of person to go halfway on gifts."

He shows her his dagger—it's as long as his forearm, and the blade is golden and covered in runes. It's also loaded in enchantments but not quite as many as hers. "Fancier than mine," he says, grinning, then sheathes the dagger again. "Shall we?"

"I'd say I could let you borrow it sometime, but I don't think it'd work as well for you." Orrian Mirror Blades are meant for mesmers, after all. Vetareh gets it safely hidden away, and then beams at him. "Yes, certainly."

To the waypoint!

"I think Lion's Arch's merchant square is probably the best place to find all the things you need," he comments.

To the waypoint!

"Sounds good." Then she smiles brilliantly and bounces a little on the balls of her feet. "I'm getting things! Supplies! A proper mesmer bag! Bandages! Water canteen!" Then she clears her throat and attempts to look slightly more dignified. "I am very pleased to get to own more than two physical objects."

"Quite a step up, I'll bet."

"No kidding! Oh, oh, and I get books on modern magic! I am so deprived, you have no idea, it's terrible not having a complete understanding of all of the magic that's getting thrown around, I was having to rely on guesswork."

Here is the waypoint! Vetareh might need a key.

He hands her a key, and to Lion's Arch they go.

The sun has not yet quite risen, but it's just below the horizon, coloring the city in purple and orange. The waypoint they get to is in a very open area from which one can see the sea to the south. It is very much a pirate's city: most of the places visible from where they are are either exposed to the sky or have no walls, letting the ocean wind—calm and slow and chilly, at this time in the morning—touch everything. Wooden structures and buildings are the norm in the architecture, but there is the occasional stone building and arch and statue decorating it, as well as several decorative grass gardens with coastal trees dotting the landscape. Directly behind them there is a circular area, about three metres in diameter, from which a strange blue fire is funnelling itself into the sky.

"That's the crafters' corner," James says, pointing at a structure with a star-shaped ceiling supported by stone beams. "And behind it is the Black Lion Trading Post," he says, and starts leading the way. "We can find almost anything there."

"I love it already," she declares. A pirate's city. Not what she expected Lion's Arch to look like in two and a half centuries, but it certainly has its charm.

Vetareh turns out to want many things. Her list is long, and kind of impressive. If she is going to be adventuring, then she is going to be adventuring prepared. It's clear, however, that she does not actually want to stuff literally everything she can fit into a mesmer bag. There is a system to this, she has thought about what she would like very carefully, and she is not interested in carrying a bunch of junk around. It is all highly practical; a canteen that could be used to boil water, a firestarter, a length of rope, a compass, food that won't spoil, blank books, pens, ink, and of course, books on magic. She doesn't need them to be very fancy books, she'll work her way up from the basics to more complicated things. Furthermore, she is also not interested in wasting time shopping for it. Yes, hello, Black Lion Trading Post, you will divest yourself of these items, right this instant. She will hunt each and every one of them down and acquire them, and there is nothing this trading post can do to stop her.

Soon enough, she has everything she wanted, including a new set of enchanted clothes that are a bit less... ragged from running around in the Mists for ages. She wasn't in actual rags, but she was a bit less put together than she'd prefer to look. Now she's in practical clothes without long skirts that might catch on things and tear, colored dark blue and black instead of the multicolored and flowing style more fitting of Orr. Actually, while she's thinking about this: illusionary perfect makeup, please and thank you, being a mesmer is so great.

"Okay, all done," she announces, emerging from where she'd been changing. Her knife has a new hiding place that she'll have to get used to. "And now we can go save the world."

She beams at him. Being pretty is fun.

"Would you like me to attempt to pay you back in coins that... actually might be worth a lot, now that I think about it, too late I have decided here you go."

She offers James her bag of Orrian coins, because she sure doesn't want to see them ever again.

He accepts the bag of coins and blinks. "Well, if you're sure." And he promptly goes to offer the Orrian money to the Black Lion Trading representative for auction.

Vetareh finds this hilarious and giggles accordingly.

"I'm sure some collector will want this. I'll return later to get my money. Now let's go visit Rata Sum."

"Let's!" she agrees, brightly.

Perhaps she should have kept the coins to auction herself and paid him back a bit more accurately, but she's not particularly worried about her own financial security. She's a talented mesmer from Orr, with knowledge of ancient magic of and outside of her own profession. That makes her mind a unique resource more valuable than some coins that she despises for having carried around for ages. She expects to be fine.

Next stop:

Rata Sum, the main hub of asuran activity.

She beams at it.

"I like this city," she declares, immediately. "It is extremely magic in, in sensible ways."

He laughs, then gestures with his head at one of the short, big-eared people. "Those are asura. Geniuses, all of them, to one extent or another."

She nods. In that case, while she likes this city a lot, she absolutely does not want to live here, ever. She has had quite enough magical accidents for one lifetime, thank you. And she knows precisely what very smart people with magic get up to when left to their own devices.

"Reminds me a little of—well, not quite Arah, but of a vague impression of an Orrian city of no name or description, maybe."

"I would have liked to see one, from before Zhaitan." He turns around. "Anyway, our destination is that asura gate, over there."

And he starts moving that way.

"I could try to create an illusion of Arah, but I'd worry that I wouldn't be able to do it justice," she says, falling in step beside him. "Then again, I suppose there's not really anyone else who could do it. At some point I could pick it up as a side project, and show people."

"That would be lovely. I bet there are some asura who would help you make a hologram of it."

James starts climbing the ramp leading up to the asura gate but when Vetareh gets too close a small floating beanshaped golem stops in front of her. "Excuse-me. Only-authorised-personnel-are-authorised-through."

"Oh, she's authorised, she's with me," says James.

The golem swirls in place to look at him and beeps a few times. "Authorisation-acknowledged. Permission-granted." And goes on its way.

Vetareh peers with obvious fascination at the little golem. It's just so cool, filled with and running on magic and ruthlessly efficient and fascinatingly complicated. She looks mildly disappointed when it floats away and stops being in range of study.

"I don't know what that is, but that sounds like it'd be nice," she says, picking up her train of thought from before.