#asura gate

::Blood & Ice::Chapter 3::Page 57::

An asura gate is technology created by the asura race which allows for instantaneous travel around Tyria.

A gate can be tuned to the location of another gate anywhere in Tyria. However, the precise calculations required can be complicated and time consuming and so most gates remained tuned to a static location.

The apprentice began to touch the various runes and jutting crystals in order, and the bronze light withing the archway turned a deep golden shade. One by one the various travelers approached the golden glow and disappeared. [Ghosts of Ascalon, p. 76]

Travel using asura gates has a few restrictions. Most prominently, gates cannot be instantly tuned to any location, and larger jumps often require a greater amount of energy and time to prepare. For instance, one of the asura gates at Divinity's Reach leads to Ebonhawke, but only after noon, and a traveler in Lion's Arch would not find a gate leading to Ebonhawke at all. For this reason, and as the process deviates from core trade routes for all races, the asura ask for a large amount of compensation for the considerable effort needed to re-tune a gate

In the center of this trading den stood an ancient gate of gray stone, carved with strange runes. Just now, the arched gate flickered and, in that flicker, gave a vision of another marketplace in a port city.

"Not going to Lion's Arch today," Snaff said to the gate attendant, another asura. Slipping him a coin. Snaff said, "Rata Sum, if you please." [Edge of Destiny, p. 42]

Many new users are often wary of traveling through the gates. However, the asura claim the gates are perfectly safe, although it can be a strange sensation for first timers.

It was no more difficult than stepping through the surface of a soap bubble. One moment he was in Divinity's Reach, the rising sun just cresting the walls ahead of  him ... The next moment he and the others were in bright sunshine ... [Ghosts of Ascalon, p. 76]

Passing through the portal was like plunging into a hot bath. The cold air was ripped away from their skins, replaced by stinging, sticky heat. [Edge of Destiny, p. 43]

Okay, back story, Ra is my baby salad thief~ And this is short, like really short, but again, just drabbles spilling from my head onto paper in no particular order, soooo enjoy~

Why did the sylvari blush? Because he saw the salad dressing.

Ra sat on a branch overlooking the grove, his purple glow standing out against his dark bark and leaves. He'd awoken less than two weeks ago and didn't know what to do with himself.

He sat his lessons with the other saplings, but, something was missing. He longed for something else, but had no idea what that something else was. One could only learn so much from the dream.

The other saplings had been content with the knowledge that they would most likely stay in the grove for two years at the very least, Ra had not. He had left the lessons almost everyday and climbed on top of one of the market mushrooms to think and watch travelers go in and out of the Asura gate.

He fiddled with one of his daggers absentmindedly, a sylvari walked into the gate, another minute passed and a human came back through. A charr walked through and began to speak to a guard for directions. Ra watched and waited, though he did not know what.

Suddenly a figure then walked towards the gate, catching Ra's interest. Another sylvari, with a raven perched on his shoulder. Ra leaned closer, inspecting his fellow salad.

He had deep blue bark and red leaves styled upwards, Ra could make out a green glow coming off him.