They trudged through the deep snow for maybe an hour. Mox had lifted Vekk up onto his shoulder to keep the small creature from being buried in what was, to him, shoulder-deep snow. The Dwarves stayed ahead to clear a path, much more used to the deep snow than the others. Finally they reached a lake, and in the center on an island sat a towering structure. They made their way closer to it.

"This is impressive, even by Asuran standards." Vekk said as he looked up. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the snowfall.

"No Dwarves made this... Is it human-built?"

Lani shook her head. "No. This was put here by something more powerful than men..." She slumped against Mox, sheer exhaustion finally taking over.

"Still, we may find your people here, and maybe a way to contact ours." Vekk suggested.

Ogden nodded in agreement. "King Jalis would want us to gather what allies we can to fight the Destroye- watch out!"

The snow in front of them exploded, and for a few seconds the world turned a hazy purple. Lani squinted to see who had cast the spell, and could barely make out the figures of ten people standing on the stairs before them, all but one of them in heavy armor.

"Don't move! What's your business here?" demanded a young woman standing before the Warriors. Though the haze had cleared, Lani's vision still swam. She teetered a few seconds before finally passing out.

The young woman, a Mesmer, paled slightly when her fellow human collapsed. She couldn't bring herself to leave the older woman to freeze to death in the snow, and so let the unusual group into the Eye.

Lani faded in and out of consciousness as she slept. She was vaguely aware of being in a bed not her own, and would sometimes catch pieces of conversation. The voices sounded so familiar... The last time she woke, someone sat beside the bed, humming softly. It was a deep voice, a little gruff; she knew it, but couldn't remember who it belonged to. There was the soft whisper of a page of a book being turned, and finally she fell into a deep sleep.

When she awoke hours later, she was alone. There was a low fire burning in the fireplace across the room, and the muffled sounds of footsteps and voices coming from the other side of the door. She pushed the heavy fur blanket off and sat up to stretch. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes a bit before realizing her blurry vision was due to her glasses being removed, and began to search for them. Her head snapped up when the door opened.

"You're awake!" a distinctly familiar voice cried.

"Kethe??"

"Who else would it be?" Though she couldn't see, the tone of his voice told her he was grinning ear to ear. She grinned back, equally happy to see him again. "What in the world are you doing way up here? We all thought we'd never see you again." Her glasses were placed into her hand, and she put them back on.

"We?"

"Yeah, the whole guild's here. We've all been in to check on you at least once. Raeli almost started crying when she saw you, she thought you'd been hurt... What happened, anyway?"

Lani let her hair down and ran her fingers through it. "It was just a busy day. I was on my way home when I got kidnapped by Mox, dragged all over the undercity, had to run for my life from something called a Destroyer, and trudged through two miles of three-foot-deep snow. I was pretty exhausted."

Kethe frowned at the mention of the Destroyers. "So they've spread..."

"They're here too?"

The Aeromancer nodded. "We had no idea where they're coming from, other than under the ground. Your friends informed us that they were driven from their homes by these creatures, using the Asura gates. They have no more knowledge on the 'where' than we do, though. But... we have an idea on how we can find out."

"And how's that?" She stood up and pulled her boots back on.

"There's something here, within the Eye that the Ebon Vanguard has been protecting. A scrying pool, of sorts. It's a difficult device to work, only a handful in our own guild have managed to use it successfully. No one else can even get it to light up." Kethe led her back down to the main room. It was swarming with members of the Vanguard going about their daily business. She kept close to him as he approached a massive set of double doors and pushed them open. The room beyond them was surprisingly empty. The two Elementalists walked through, and Kethe closed the doors again. The chamber fell into peaceful silence.

The young Mesmer sat by the scrying pool, gazing down into the water. She seemed unaware of their presence. "Gwen." Kethe spoke, and the girl jumped.

"Oh, it's you..." She sighed and stood up, eyeing Lani warily. "Are you sure she can be trusted?"

"There's not a more trustworthy person in all of Tyria." He stepped closer to the pool. "Well, this is it."

"Wow..."

The doors opened again, allowing Ogden, Vekk and Mox to enter. "We need to talk." Vekk said as they approached the humans.

"I'll say," Gwen started, but a warning glare from Kethe silenced her. Before he could open his mouth to ask what they wanted to talk about, Raeli came running into the room and collided with Lani, nearly knocking her over.

"You're okay! Oh I was so worried! I missed you sooo much!"

The Pyromancer laughed and hugged the girl back. "I missed you too Raeli, I missed all of you." She looked up to see Kiera, Sedona, Orion and Razah heading toward the pool as well.

"It is so good to see you again Lani!" Razah said. "Now that you are here, our guild is whole once more, and I know we will triumph over any hardship we face." The entity turned back toward the door, as if looking for someone. "He was just with us, I wondered where he wandered off to..."

"He? He who?" Lani asked, curious and confused.

Razah turned toward her, somehow able to look right through her even while blindfolded. "Shiro, of course."