Guild Wars 2

“Quivering with unstable magical energy, strangely warm to the touch. You should be careful carrying this around.” – Scholar Glenna, referring to Blood Rubies.

The first indication Reinard had that something was wrong was when he noticed a face staring at him from inside the mystic forge, twisted and distorted by the swirling magical energy, but distinguishable enough. Dull features. Smiling.

Spooky.

A quick glance around the area suggested that no one else seemed to notice what he did, which meant he was the only one seeing the spooky face in the swirling fountain. Which is when he noticed the herd of moa birds stampeding through the square and down into the trader’s forum, hovering over so slightly above the ground, their movements silent.

Frowning, Reinard took another look around the bank and out into the distance to see if anyone was reacting as they should – terror, perhaps – but found that everyone was going about their daily business.

“Um,” Reinard said smartly.

“What was that?” Casteless asked from where he was hunched over his item chest, sorting through trinkets he’d collected. There was the click of a latch releasing followed by a snap and a string of charr expletives.

Reinard went over the ways he could potentially respond in his head and decided he wasn’t satisfied with any of them. “Nothing, never mind,” he said instead, his brow creased in thought. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Casteless’ fur start to slowly shift into another shade, from brown to purple, but he decided to not look. The denial was beginning to set in.

There was a pop followed by a roar and the the lid of a chest being slammed shut.

“Sir,” said a very irritated asura from somewhere, “If you damage the chest you buy it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Casteless grumbled. He caught sight of Reinard and crossed his arms. “What’s wrong with you? Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Which is precisely when Reinard’s dead mother floated through the bank, phasing through one wall and the other.

“Um,” Reinard said again, mouth agape.

The ring on his finger was getting starting to burn. He raised his arm so he could examine it further, and found that the bloodstone ruby set in the center of it had a faint glow. Which solved one mystery, at least.

“Give me one second,” he told Casteless. slipping the ring off his finger. The charr responded with an eye roll and headed towards the exit. Reinard walked over to the short tempered asura.

“Yes,” Reinard said pleasantly, his norn height towering above the asura. “I’d like to make a deposit.”