Chapter 31: Presumption and Benevolence

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I am so sorry for the really super late update! I just haven't really had to much inspiration or time to work on this chapter, but recently I just felt a little nudge to get something out, so I'm hoping this chapter gives you all the fix you need before I start getting into the groove of things again. I do have a direction for purpose, because eventually, Iedreth's story will no longer overlap with the Commanders, but for now, a lot of it is stuff you might have seen in the Living Story, though with some minor changes or alternatives to the story. Thanks for sticking with it, and enjoy!

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The rescue party, as Eileria would have it, was trudging through unfamiliar jungle with a grim silence that made her more uneasy than the jungle's ominous tresses. It wasn't that there wasn't anything to talk about, she supposed. Rather, that each of them were deep within their thoughts, wondering about person's they cared about, about the fleet, about a variety of things. She frowned as an image of Bryna made its way into her head. The Norn was strong, and Eileria had no doubt she'd survived the crash landing into Maguuma. However, finding little to no trace of her beloved was… nerve wracking. Terrifying. But she had to be strong, and grieving had no place in this jungle of death.

She was pulled from her thoughts by a swift whistling and her eyes narrowed as she observed Rytlock, the source of the sound, come to a stop and raise a hand deftly, before sniffing the air and growling slightly.

"Familiars up ahead, Commander." He said, nodding to Eileria. "Best you step up first. They'll recognize you best." Eileria nodded, her heart pounding at the word "Familiars." This could mean anyone, but likely, just personnel of the pact that were present when the fleet went down, and not the ones they were looking for. She briskly walked forward, hands on her sword and shield, and brushed past the large leaves blocking her path. Within ten feet the small band of Pact soldiers stood, some saluting, some looking warily at her as she approached, and she stopped, keeping her head tilted up and hand's steady.

"Commander?" A Sylvari soldier stood, her green skin glinting oddly in the light. Eileria noticed that the girl was sitting further away from some of the other members of the Pact, alongside two other Sylvari who looked worse for wear.

"Yes." Eileria responded. The Sylvari smiled then in relief, and most of the rest seemed to relax as well.

"Oh Commander, we're so glad you're here." The scout said, walking up to the commander and rendering her another salute. "The Pact..."

"I know... We tried to get here as fast as we could." Eileria said gently, laying a hand on her shoulder. "It seems Mordremoth was a step ahead of all of us." The scout nodded, a frown settling on her face.

"Yes... well that being said, the Pact could really use your help." She said, her voice pleading. " There's so many of our own missing... and there's a lot of... distrust, for us. The sylvari." Eileria didn't miss her eyes flicker over to a small group of humans off to the other end of the camp, the same group who'd eyed her with distrust as she'd entered the camp.

"I will do what I can." Eileria replied, bowing her head slightly. "But I do have a mission to complete. I still have to locate Destiny's Edge and Trahearne. I assume they were taken in the jungle somewhere by mordrem?"

"That's most likely correct." The scout replied. "A few personnel out of our battalion went missing, and we've been attacked by Mordrem multiple times since setting up camp. It's taken all we have not to lose anyone else at this present time." She tapped her chin with her index finger as if deep in thought. "I thought I saw a strange group of Mordrem headed West with cages but I couldn't be sure there were people inside them, it was too far and we didn't want to attract attention. That might be a start for you, if you're looking to find your missing group." Eileria nodded, slightly relieved that the scout had even that much information. It was a start, but it would help. Anything would.

"Is there anything else you have to tell me?" Eileria asked. The Pact scout thought for a moment. But shook her head.

"No, but I'm sure if you talked to Ensign Wilton, he might have a bit more information for you. She peeked behind Eileria's tall form. "And you can tell your friends to come in. We don't bite."

"Coulda fooled me." Rytlock's low rumble came through the trees. The scout grimaced but made no comment. Hiami looked on at the camp warily and Kairith seemed altogether impatient, as much so as the red-headed Norn that stood beside him. Eileria thanked the scout and briskly went to the table where Ensign Wilton's head was bent, tracing a crudely drawn map and looking frustrated.

"How can I help you, Commander?" He asked, without looking up from his papers. His voice was tired, and she could see the stress in his posture. She spoke gently but firmly.

"Destiny's Edge and Trahearne were taken prisoner, or have gone missing from the main body of the Pact." Eileria stated. "I need to find them. Any information you might have, would be helpful to me, and might help us get the Pact back on its feet." Ensign Wilton looked up, his brow furrowed.

"I haven't seen Destiny's Edge or Trahearne since long before the crash." The officer answered honestly, straightening out. "But I did see Caithe." Eileria stopped, her heart stuttering in her chest. Caithe was here? In Maguuma? She could nearly see red.

"Where did she go?" Eileria said, her hands gripping the makeshift table. The Ensign looked surprised at the intensity the Commander suddenly had, and took a step back reflexively.

"She came through a couple of hours ago, headed West." He said, pointing in the direction stated. I think she was trying to stay inconspicuous, keep a low profile. But I did see her."

"She was wearing a large backpack?" Eileria asked. He nodded.

"Yes, wondered what that might be."

"Something that belongs to me." Eileria all but snarled. "And she'll be made to give it back." She took a deep breath and exhaled, feeling the weight of the information truly fall onto her soldiers. "Thank you, Ensign Wilton, that information was very helpful."

"Not a problem, Commander." He said sheepishly. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more assistance. But... if you ask around the camp, you might be able to get more from the soldiers. They have been easily spooked, but I guarantee that means they've seen some things, maybe even more than I have. If you need to piece together the puzzle, that's how you'll have to do it." Eileria nodded, bowing slightly before moving off to approach the small group of distrustful looking humans.

As she approached one, the other two stood up and left, leaving just the younger female scout standing there, her arm's crossed and eye's narrowed in distrust. Eileria kept her face neutral, trying to remain all business to get the information she needed. But before she could even open her mouth to ask the woman, she'd began to spew her vitriol.

"Oh, Commander." She leered, her posture remaining closed and threatening. "I'm surprised that they allowed you to keep your rank after what happened here." She spat on the ground and sneered angrily. "Keep moving. Mordremoth's done too much damage to us already. And I most certainly don't want to be around when he starts to pull your strings."

Eileria thought herself a mildly patient woman. Hardly ever losing her temper or falling into the word traps many of her kind fell into due to their naivety. But for a moment, she nearly lost all of her composure as the word's fell into her ears and wrapped around her brain. She bit her tongue, hard, drawing blood. Now was not the time to lose her temper, and prove the young soldier right. No. She had to be poised. Mature. She inhaled, and exhaled, straightening to her full height, a good foot or more on the girl, who recoiled at the sight.

"That was out of line, soldier." Eileria said in a cold, deadly voice. "If I were you, I would respect the chain of command, lest Mordremoth be the least of your concerns this day." The veiled threat was enough to pale the young scouts face, and she uncrossed her arms, holding them at her side.

"Yes, Commander." She replied begrudgingly. "Sorry."

"Yes, you are." Eileria said. "Now fall in with the others, and get yourself organized. Mordremoth won't wait on us to be ready. And you should be more concerned with that than anything else. Have I made myself transparent?"

The scout merely saluted before trotting off, and Eileria sighed. She spotted another scout off to the side, a Sylvari, this time, looking tense, her eyes flickering between the camp and the makeshift gate.

"I see you've arrived in Maguuma, Commander." The Sylvari greeted grimly as Eileria approached her. "Welcome to hell."
"And what damning place it is." Eileria agreed, grasping the scouts arm quickly. "Do you have a status report?" The Sylvari shifted her helm slightly, and shrugged a bit before exhaling quietly.

"It's been difficult since the crash." She replied honestly. I can only imagine you all came to Maguuma hoping we'd established a foothold, and are pretty disappointed now."

"You've all done your best." Eileria said idly, twisting a vine of hair through her thumb and forefinger, brow furrowed. "That's not really what I'm here for."

"Of course." The scout said apologetically. "The area is dense with jungle-life, and even more difficult to navigate without a glider in hand." She gestured to the outskirts of the platform they were on, where deep areas of trench, leading into the unknown of Maguuma lay. Eileria grimaced but nodded.

"Many are injured, weak, our supplies ransacked and a lot of soldiers are spooked." Her eyes flickered to the group of humans and charr to her right. "Some so much that they've made rather outlandish claims in the hopes of riling up chaos within our ranks." Eileria frowned.

"And yourself?" The Commander asked, her voice low and gentle. "How have you been fairing."

"It's… difficult." The scout's hushed voice replied. "When no one in the camp trusts you, they all make eyes at you as if at any moment you could become a monster…" Her breath hitched, her eyes wide as she stared at the Commander with almost fear.

"Do you hear him, too?" She asked, her voice hardly above a whisper. "He's so loud sometimes I… I almost don't know how to keep my composure. It hurts." Eileria rested a hand on the scout's shoulder, willing her strength to pass on to the young sylvari.

"He's always there, and I do hear him." She said. "But We must continue to resist. We must." The girl stood a bit straighter and nodded her assent.

"Commander!" Hiami's voice came across the camp. "You may want to come over here." Eileria stepped off towards the pink haired asura, who was staring off into the depths of the canopy with scrutinization. She peered over the edge where Hiami was pointing, and noted strangely uniform movement along the pulsing vines. It looked like the march of soldiers, with a thief's speed, quick and concentrated.

"Warn the Ensign, I believe we are about to have company." Eileria said grimly, drawing her blade and heaving in a steadying breath.

...

Iedreth realized too late that by running off in such haste, she would not easily be able to catch her bearings, and thusly, found herself lost in the jungle worse than before, with a breathless Curran just feet from her. Her side hurt, her head hurt, and most of all, her emotions were in agonizing turmoil.

"Iedreth." Curran said, finally catching his breath and walking up to her. "We have to find the others again. We'll find Kairith faster if we stick together, and I don't just mean you and me."

Iedreth sobbed a bit under her breath.

"I know, I know…" She said, brushing her hand across her eyes. "I just… I'm so scared Curran, this wasn't at all what I was expecting."

"I'm sure none of us were exactly expecting to be dumped onto the jungle floor." Curran replied dryly. Iedreth laughed, a bit hollowly, and sighed, straightening herself.

"I'm not sure how far we are from the main group anymore." Iedreth said uncertainly. "Can you tell where we are?" Curran scanned the area warily, before shaking his head slowly.

"I am uncertain about the exact location, though I could take some guesses… It might lead us to get lost even further."

"What do you suggest then?"

"I suggest we either wait where we are, or seek a high point and shelter. The latter is certainly a better option, though we could force the main group to diver further if we do." Iedreth thought for a moment, her posture tense with anxiety. She paced the earth beneath her, and Curran watched silently as she did so.

"I'm not sure it would be safe of us to wait here." She finally said after a few moments, looking around the jungle and shivering. "I think keeping on the move is our best bet, getting to higher ground, like you said." Curran nodded, the pale leaves that imitated hair shimmering oddly in the splayed light through the canopy above.

"If my memory serves me right, our best bet would be East. I could use my senses to guide us through, but the path through the mists was… not quite the same. There could be major differences in not just the landscape, but the territory itself. Not to mention the creatures, such as the Mordrem, that lurk in the shadows." Iedreth nodded, but made no hesitance in the gesture. Curran for his part tore a piece of cloth from his armor and secured it over his eyes.

"I'll need you to ensure I don't take any strange paths. My senses are stronger this way, but if I'm heading off a cliff…"

"I won't let you go over." Iedreth assured him, taking a deep breath. "We should move while we still have light."

Walking through the damp and humid jungle was grating enough, but the added odd sounds, strange lights and even stranger flashes of color set Iedreth on edge. Curran, to his credit, seemed unfazed by the surroundings, merely navigating as she would have expected a skilled explorer to do. She frowned, placing a hand on her cheek.

"Curran?" She asked quietly after almost an hour of walking in silence. "How did you… come across the Mists and Maguuma?" Curran's posture changed almost immediately, becoming rigid before relaxing back into indifference. When his voice spoke, there was little to no inflection.

"I was very close to death, once." He said slowly, moving as quickly as before. Iedreth flitted to his side, her eyes drawn to his face. "It was like a shimmer. A portal, I can't really describe it's presence but it was there. A ripple for a dimension that shouldn't have existed. I was a Warden back then. Young still. Impressionable. Thought I could take on many more people than I was actually able." He frowned, as if recalling an unpleasant memory.

"I took advantage of the split second I had to survive and ran towards the portal, praying to the Pale Tree that whatever was on the other side was better than what I faced at that moment. When I opened my eyes on the other side, there was… It was like looking in a mirror that had been fractured, but… dimensional. It felt real. It was real. And it was shrouded in mist. Dark and brooding atmosphere, really." He paused, taking a moment to settle himself. "When I turned around, wondering if I should have just risked my chances against the mob I fought, the portal was no more, and I was alone."

Iedreth stared at him in awe, eyes wide. As she pondered whether or not she would have made the same decision in the face of danger like that, Curran took a deep breath and continued.

"At first I ran. The eyes are near useless in the Mists, as it's really an astral plain for Tyria; Nothing is quite there or not there, and I didn't know then what I know now. That the sense of sight you rely so heavily on can be deceiving. After exhausting myself beyond measure I realized I needed to figure out firstly where I was, and secondly how to extricate myself from there. So I spent what felt like years meditating. Feeling out the areas around me. And as my eyes dulled and my other senses renewed, I discovered that the surroundings were still familiar, just skewed slightly. So I navigated as much as I could by memory, but it was foggy, almost faded like time had eroded away the edges and the colors. And when I finally got to a place I thought was home… I found Maguuma."

"Could you hear it… then?" She asked, her voice quiet. Curran shook his head, brow furrowed.

"It wasn't his voice but… Almost like a heart beat. An existance, an aura. All of those things or more. But he was dormant. Asleep. I nearly lost myself in Maguuma's beauty before the shimmering happened again and I was able to step free of the Mists and enter our land again. I didn't speak of my experience to anyone, and as it seemed, I'd only been missing a few months, rather than the years it felt. The experience aged me in some ways, and allowed me to grow in others." He sighed, shaking his head.

"This is an entirely different experience with Mordremoth being awakened." Curran stated stiffly. "His very energy is thrumming through my veins and it's making my senses overload. It's difficult to tell where we are or how we're going to Navigate without the slightest idea of bearings or a map." He frowned. "Not to mention the whispers are more of a roar now. We're in unfamiliar territory, alone, with no promise of assistance of any kind, in enemy territory. We have to be cautious, and-" He stopped midsentence, his entire body tensing. Before Iedreth could even open her mouth to ask what was wrong, he tackled her into the brush, clamping a hand hard over her mouth and pinning down her body with his weight. Iedreth's eyes flew open wide and a scream died in her throat. She searched Curran's face for signs of Mordremoth's control but his eyes remained green and his face was merely tense, not conflicted. Then, she heard the sounds of rustling leaves, feet, and the grinding of something across the jungle floor.

Curran slowly lifted off of her, sending an apologetic glance her way, and she followed his lead, slowly rising to a sit to observe the noise he'd heard before she had. It was a caravan of sorts, made of mordrem that were… more humanesque in figure, less like the husks they'd fought before. Like twisted, demented Sylvari, with no eyes or gentle skin, they were all bark and bite, walking through the forest like a hive, in unison and in silence, other than the prodding of the giant cages they towed behind them, attached to Mordrem raptors. Iedreth peered closer and had to hold in a gasp at what she saw. Two Norn, looking badly wounded, cut up, and unconscious, and one Sylvari, whom she did not recognize. Curran's lips were set in a hard line though, as he stared at the pale grey Sylvari, who looked as if she'd rather be anywhere else than in the cage she was confined in.

"Curran." Iedreth whispered as softly as she could, her lips hardly moving. "Who is that?"

"That, Iedreth," Curran stated lowly, his voice harsh despite its hushed tones, "Is the Grand Duchess Faolain, of the Nightmare Court."

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And that's finally it for this chapter! I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to finally post this chapter, I was having a bit of writer's block and then I got back into playing/drawing world of warcraft stuff and well… I fell off the wagon a bit. But I'm back, and hopefully I can get back into the swing of things again soon! Some things to note!

The description of the mists is probably very incorrect, so please bear with me. I didn't have access to anything that might give me any ideas for how to describe it, so you'll have to kind of just bear with that until I find an accurate description or am able to confirm it anywhere. In the meantime, I hope you are all happy with this chapter, I know there wasn't a lot of action in it, but the next chapter will be chock full of all sorts of goodness! So stay tuned, and thank you all so much for sticking with it!