Free Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon by Jeff Grubb, Matt Forbeck Page A

noticed the walls were patrolled by white-armored members of the Seraph, armed with the newer, smooth-bored muskets. The Golem’s Eye in his pocket felt suddenly heavy. They passed within the picket line without being challenged, and Dougal assumed that Riona’s Vigil authority extended to these watchmen as well. And that Captain Logan Thackeray was delightedto get them out of his queen’s city.
    The gate itself was up on a low earth platform against the city’s outer wall, a great stone loop filled with bronze pulsing energy. Even looking at the shifting surface of the gate’s opening made Dougal a little queasy. The area around the gate was filled with wagons and bearers, golem carriers, and a small group of soldiers in dark armor: Ebon Vanguard. Dougal remembered that the Ascalonian district had a hospital for the more badly wounded soldiers from the fortress city of Ebonhawke.
    Riona walked past the collected wagons to a smaller group, mostly human, but with a couple asura and their golems mixed in. The asura seemed unfazed by the crackling energy before them, but the humans apparently shared Dougal’s nervousness.
    “Aren’t we cutting ahead of people?” said Killeen.
    “Those are here to go to Ebonhawke,” said Riona, pointing a chin at the larger group. “They have to tune the gate for the jump around noon. Requires a lot of energy. We’re going to Lion’s Arch.” She looked at two asura arguing in front of a rune-inscribed pillar bristling with crystals and levers.
    Dougal knew that the asura gates were used by the diminutive race, and they would never risk their own lives for something that had not been (mostly) tested and safe. The gates were leagues upon leagues apart, yet simply by stepping through the oval archways, they would be at a similar gate in Lion’s Arch. Still, the asura’s continual tendency to modify and meddle with their own work gave him pause.
    The two asura in front of the plinth of crystals concluded their heated argument and the older of the two walked over to them. The younger stayed behind, shooting sullen looks at his elder.
    “Sorry,” said the older asura, a female. “Training day. My apprentice has his own ideas about the process of tuning two gates into alignment, and I have to beat some sense into him.” She turned toward her sullen apprentice, who immediately brightened, then returned to his black cloud of resentment as soon as the elder’s back was turned. Dougal watched the younger asura eye the arcane runes on the plinth and was concerned that the upstart apprentice would suddenly try to prove his point by changing the settings.
    “Papers?” said the asura, and Riona presented a folded letter with a purple seal similar to the one she had presented Logan Thackeray in the jail. The asura reviewed it, grunted, and said, “Are you carrying anything from Orr, the Dragonbrand, or any other territory that has been dominated or altered by the presence of the Elder Dragons?” She recited the question with the complete lack of inflection born of repetition.
    “No,” said Riona.
    “Are you carrying any items that are illegal in Lion’s Arch or Divinity’s Reach? Are you entering Lion’s Arch with intent to commit any illegal actions or to flee Divinity’s Reach authorities?”
    Killeen started to say something, but Dougal quickly said, “No, we are not,” and shot the sylvari a look to indicate that the asura really didn’t want or need to hear about the Golem’s Eye and their recent incarceration.
    “Very well,” said the asura, returning the document to Riona, “we should be ready to go in a few moments, if
somebody
”—she turned toward her assistant—“will stop sulking and tune the gate to its correct aetheric frequency.”
    The apprentice began to touch the various runes and jutting crystals in order, and the bronze light within the archway turned a deep golden shade. One by one, the various travelers approached the golden glow and