"But I don't want to."
"Last time, Sassi, I promise," Lathan urged. Tugging his sister by the arm, he peered round the corner to check the guardian was still heading away from them. "One more and I'll have enough."
"You've already had enough."
Lathan ground his teeth. She didn't understand. No one understood. 'Meditate', they said. 'Control the addiction'. As if it was that easy. With the hours he had to work to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, there was hardly time to sleep let alone meditate. And as for those felcrystals, well, Lathan wasn't stupid. He knew the corruption in them and had no intention of using them more than he absolutely had to while there was still a choice.
Even if that choice did involve stealing.
"Now," he snarled under his breath and pushed Sassi out of their hiding place. Despite the lack of warning, she shrank into the shadows, her small size and delicate build perfect for her role in the task ahead.
His was more overt. Drawing himself to his full height, he straightened his borrowed robes, and strode towards the shop, projecting an aura of utter hauteur. His progress wasn't all he may have wanted – the residents of Silvermoon weren't known for giving way gracefully – but he felt his arrival was impressive enough. As, apparently, did the storekeeper.
"Greetings, good sir," he called out as Lathan entered, and his bow was low enough that the tails of his elegantly coifed hair touched the floor.
Lathan, affecting the haughty air of a noble, stuck his nose in the air and said, "I wish to see the best of your collection. This moment. No time to waste now!"
The storekeeper was grovelling before Lathan had finished speaking. "It was will be as you command, your lordship. Only the absolute best." He clapped his hands and suddenly the room was swarming with attendants, all eager to see to Lathan's comfort.
"A seat, sir." The cushions rose round him like the softest clouds.
"Special reserve, your lordship?" A heady scent filled his nose and he swayed towards it, captured by the bottle's magical promise.
But then there was more: trays of arcane artefacts, each more powerful than the last, exquisite boxes that bloomed like flowers to reveal the treasures within, jewels, baubles, toys, the very best that Silvermoon had to offer.
And like a starving man suddenly presented with a gourmet feast, Lathan floundered. At the very moment when every eye in the place was on him, his mask vanished to reveal him as the two fixes from Wretched fool that he really was.
The storekeeper drew in a sharp breath, immediately on the alert, and it was then that Lathan heard it, out the front where the cheap trinkets were displayed, the distinctive sound of a drawer being opened. Sassi.
"Thief!" the storekeeper shrilled, pointing directly at the source of the noise. "Outside! Thief!"
Every attendant in the place boiled out of the door, their voices rising to join the storekeeper's. Lathan stared after them, too befuddled by the presence of so much magic and by how quickly everything had gone to hell that for the longest time he couldn't move at all. It was only the sound of his sister's voice that finally broke through the trance.
"Lathan! Lathan, help me!"
Heart in his mouth, he scrambled for the door and oh, by the Sunwell, they had her. Held fast by her arms, she dangled between two of the burlier attendants, and her face… He may never forget the expression of utter terror on her face.
Reaching out for anything that might help, Lathan found himself awash with power. Grabbing it to himself, he channelled it instinctively, half-forgotten spells spilling forth from his lips as fast as he could cast them. Fire and ice rained from the sky, bolts of arcane energy shot from his fingers and the very ground itself began to burn.
"Run!" he bellowed as the men holding Sassi yelped and dropped her.
She did, as fleet of foot as a swiftest of stags, but the alarm had been raised and escape was nowhere to be had. Horrified, Lathan watched as guards closed in from all sides. Sassi darted between them desperate for any route out, only to find it blocked by a crimson clad guardian. She hunkered down for the briefest moment and then leapt, so high and so far that it seemed that she must go free. But no, the guardian rose with her, his shield braced to swipe her from the sky. Spotting the danger, Sassi kicked out, her foot catching the shield and slamming it into the guardian's chin, snapping his head back with a crack. He slumped to the ground and even at a distance, Lathan could see he was dead.
It was what he'd needed to get him moving. Yelling his sister's name so loud his throat burned, Lathan sprinted towards them, but too late. Too late. The arcane guardian came from nowhere, its huge claw swooping in and catching Sassi up like a child would a kitten. It swung her high, its eyes glowing, and Lathan heard its voice, monotone and as uncompromising as its movements, "Violent resistance is prohibited. Termination mandatory."
The creature's armour blazed and Sassi screamed, her slight body arching as uncontrolled power flooded through her, arcing from her twitching limbs and sending showers of sparks to the ground. The terrible scent of burning flesh filled the air and Lathan stumbled, bile rising in his throat as he saw his baby sister falling lifeless to the ground. Still he staggered on, dropping only when he reached her, scrambling the last few inches, hands trembling as he rolled her over, knowing but still unable to comprehend.
"Sassi." It came out as a sob, a gasp. She was dead. And he had killed her. "No. No. No!" And then she was in his arms held so tightly and he was rocking, her name a mindless recitation, a meaningless vibration of sound in his ears, because the only thing in his world was her body, warm, soft, but oh so still. So deathly deathly still.
"Stand, citizen!" It took several repetitions and a sharp jab between the shoulder blades to drag Lathan from his reverie. Blinking up through wet eyes, he saw several guardians gathered round, though only one had his full attention on them. The others were busy talking to the storekeeper and his attendants, and a few other people who Lathan guessed were probably passing witnesses.
Of the arcane guardian there was no sign.
"On your feet."
Lathan looked from the guardian to Sassi's body and back again, trying to get his head around how he was going to stand up and still keep holding her. Because he couldn't let her go. Couldn't let her lie on the cold ground.
"I said on your feet!"
This time he had no choice. Grabbed under his arm and hauled to his feet, Lathan fumbled for Sassi's body and missed. She slid against his shins and flopped to the ground.
"Name, citizen?"
"Lathaniol Summersong." The answer came from somewhere. Lathan supposed it was himself talking, though his voice sounded alien and like it was coming from a vast distance away.
"And this?" A foot nudged Sassi's body and something vile rose in Lathan's chest.
"Sasteria Summersong."
"Relative?" The foot kept prodding, moving up her body until it reached her small breast and there it lingered, stroking obscenely. Forward and back. Again and again.
Lathan broke. "Get away from her, you bastard!" Power shot from his fingertips, smacking the Guardian in the face and bowling him back off his feet. Lathan followed, intent on using fists when magic failed. Again the scent of burning flesh rose, but this time Lathan didn't care. This time it was him causing it and he was glad, glad that the bastard was screaming, glad that he was hurting, because he shouldn't have been touching her. "Shouldn't have touched her! Shouldn't have- shouldn't have!"
Something snatched him up by the back of the neck and swung him up off the ground. Lathan arched his back, magic coursing through him, his entire body bellowing out his fury at being dragged from his prey. Heat surged from the great metal hand holding him and he knew this was it. This was the moment. He was going to die.
Then a voice rang out across the courtyard. "Recompense! I demand recompense!"
The heat died as quickly as it had grown and Lathan found himself on the ground once more. This time, though, the guardians were taking no chances. Forced to his knees with his head bowed and his arms held tight behind him, Lathan could no more have cast a spell than he could have flown away.
Again the voice spoke and this time Lathan recognised the storekeeper. "I demand recompense for my damages."
"A proper accounting will be made, citizen."
"As it should. Priceless artefacts ruined. Several drained." The storekeeper's voice slid up an octave. "And not replaceable, I tell you. Not in this day and age."
"He'll be made to pay."
"What with? Look at it." A hand in Lathan's hair forced his head back. He blinked into the glaring sun. "Does that look like it has gold?"
"That is an excellent point." This time it was a sword hilt pushed into his cheek, turning him towards the guardian – no, this wasn't a guardian. No armour here, but robes in purples and golds, the colours of the magisters. And above them, the cultured haughtiness of a noble. "Well, do you, boy? We can't have the good citizen losing money, after all."
Lathan swallowed and closed his eyes. Every coin he possessed hung in the purse at his waist, and it amounted to barely enough to feed himself and Sassi for two days. He shook his head. He didn't have the gold to pay for the magical objects. That's why they'd been stealing in the first place.
The magister sighed. "Then it's the auction block. Though I doubt a scrawny thing like you'll raise enough to keep Storekeeper Vassen happy."
"He would in Orgrimmar." A vindictive chortle rose from the storekeeper. "I've heard tell that they pay well there for the blond ones."
"And who will foot the bill for transport?"
Lathan's purse was tugged from his belt and the laughter came again, this time with a hint of smug self-satisfaction. "How perfect. There's just enough. He can pay for himself."