The Romancer Opalbane

(Disclaimer: This story is based upon a game called World of Warcraft. Therefore, I do not claim any rights to their story, or game.)

Author's note: This is the third story in The Romancer Series. If you're just tuning in, don't worry because my goal is to write each story so that it stands on its own two feet. You don't have to read the prequels or sequels to know what is going on… that is, unless you want to. Oh, and thanks to all who kept hanging in there while I struggled with this first episode.

Episode One: A woman can dream, can't she?

Dear Willypearl,

I trust your Winter's Veil went well? After sending me that lovely fur hat as a holiday gift, you probably spent a great deal of time with your new family, hugging, and… cuddling, and remembering old times… is that what families do? I certainly wouldn't know. I'm sure Lady Barillabine Pontier went out of her way to make you, her new daughter in law, feel at home. And your fiancée Knight Elec Pontier no doubt had some kind of special surprise planned for you, or perhaps, both he and his mother had something nice planned. Or… if I truly trust my instincts about you Willy, both you and Elec probably thought of something delightful to share with his family. Willy, I know you doubt your place in their prestigious family because of your humble beginnings in Westfall, but I think the Pontiers are paladins who could really benefit from having someone as kindhearted and noble as you among their ranks.

…Oh, and before I forget, I heard talk that there are a few lingerie stores opening all around Stormwind, each with the same name: Willypearl's Secret? Those don't have anything to do with you do they? Well, more than likely they don't, eventhough you are an Artisan tailor. I don't get out very much, so it's possible that someone who knows about our scandal with the Archmage in the courts of Stormwind was just teasing me. That makes the most sense… unless there's something you're not telling me about your holiday?

Well, I'm sure you'll explain it in your next letter. Actually, I'm writing to tell you about my Winter's Veil. Something…let's call it unprecedented, or radical, or really scandalous is the best word…happened between me and someone else during the holiday. And, this someone else was a man—a very attractive, and mysterious Kaldorei man—who knocked on my door in the dead of night. Would you believe me if I told you that, knowing that this was a male stranger with a hypnotic, low, pleading voice—the guttural mew of a nightsaber in heat--I let him enter my room? Only the goddess Elune knows how he broke into the Priestess' dorms, or where the guards were at the time. And, up until this very moment, only I know what happened between us that night. This man, Alessandre, doesn't even know… but Willypearl, you are my best friend and I know that I can trust you with a shadowpriestess' dark little secret? For once in my life, I broke the rules. I risked everything in a hazy moment of new lust and feverish desperation. I did something that no priestess of Elune—past or present—should ever do with a man who is not welcome to her private bedchamber. And what is worse, I don't think that I'm ashamed of myself at all. I think I liked it. Oh, my dearest friend, I hope you can forgive me!

I think I did it because I found Alessandre irresistible in that moment, and I kept thinking to myself, 'Opalbane, you are never going to have a man like this in your life. Take advantage while you can.' Even now, I know that you, Willypearl, are reading this and saying aloud to yourself, 'No, Opal, honey, that's not true. You are a nice girl, and any man would be lucky to have you.' Well, 'honey', just what man in his right mind is ever going to be interested in an ex-convict, ex-cultists, alcoholic shadowpriestess like me? What man is going to want to marry into a family like mine, my parents singled out and slaughtered by demons in Felwood, with an overbearing Priestess of Elune as a foster mother, and a boneheaded pervert warrior for a brother? And, now I'm here by myself in Stormwind, recovering from my flight from the law, and my stint as a Twilight's Hammer Cultist in Silithus, and not one of these people is nearby to care for me. I am a woman with not one person on my side… oh, except for you Willy. But, in all honesty, I didn't trust you either until a little while ago when the Stormwind officials got me back into their custody. I can never thank you enough for helping my brother Onyxbane bring me to justice, and effectively, clear my name. But, that's all in the past, isn't it? My point is, this Alessandre is someone who has his pick of all the women in Azeroth. There was no reason for him to choose me as a bedmate on the night of Winter's Veil. But, I think it must have been the magic of Greatfather Winter himself that brought him to me at that critical moment. You see, for all I had been through in my life, I was ready to throw all that salvation away, and run back to Silithus, into the arms of my master the old god Zar'teaus. But, because Alessandre climbed into my bed, I didn't. And, because I gave in, I don't see how I could ever leave Stormwind and return to my hellish life.

And now, you're panicking, aren't you? You think I'm pregnant or something, or that he's asked me to run away with him. Well, I can settle your fears by revealing two important things about my Alessandre. First, Alessandre (and that's not a Kaldorei name, and clearly some alias he's picked for himself) was very drunk the night he came into my room. Very drunk and… something else. You're engaged to be married, so I imagine you know what kind of hunger I'm referring to. Don't blush, now, Willy. I may be a virgin, but I'm not so clueless about these kinds of things. Secondly, Alessandre doesn't like women, and would never, ever ask me or anyone else to 'run away with him.' No, wait, considering the fashionable tendencies of Night Elf men, I'd better explain that a little better. Alessandre hates women, not because he prefers men, but because he… well he honestly hates us. Long ago, someone he cared about betrayed him—in the most horrible way—and he's never recovered. Obviously, this person was a woman. Ever since, he's been able to love as aggressively as any man, but only in the physical way. He told me that he loathes himself for still needing women, after all these years (and I think he's almost twenty years older than me, but you know that with us Night Elves, it's not the same kind of age difference, since we only recently became mortal). Maybe I'm being too hopeful, but… I think that Alessandre feels so strongly against us women because he cared so deeply for the one that betrayed him and… there is some possibility in that, isn't there? He must have some capacity for love… if not, then he would be a monster.

Now, Willypearl, you are a very good friend, and I'm sure that you're wringing your hands about this right now. You're worried that as inexperienced as I am—having no experience with a man at all—that I will attempt to win over this Alessandre and fail. Fall right on my face, like I've done with everything in the rest of my pathetic existence. I bet you're also going to write a long letter in response inquiring about this man's past, and his whereabouts, or why I think it is reasonable to keep seeing him after the passionate night we had? Perhaps you think that nothing more can come of it… or more realistically, that someone who is addicted to fel energies and alcohol, and thus bedridden, cannot possibly hope to carry on a relationship with such a capable and dashing, independent man. Well, that's only the best part of my little story. It's so nice that we've come to it at last.

Alessandre is my bodyguard. Of course, I didn't believe him at first. I wisely thought it was some excuse to get into my room and into my bed, but I was very wrong. My foster mother, Priestess Feathershine, and her "old friend" Master Rogue Shadowstep collaborated some time ago on a plan to find me a suitable bodyguard. With Feathershine confined to Darnassus because of the fiasco with the Archmage and the courts of Stormwind, and my brother Onyxbane self-exiled from human lands for the sake of his rogue girlfriend Wisthera—who somehow managed to con both of us, and countless other members of the Alliance and get away with it—I was all alone here in Stormwind. With his tongue considerably loosened by rum, Alessandre confessed to me that Master Rogue Shadowstep and Feathershine hired him to watch over me secretly as I recovered with the help of Stormwind's elect group of shadowpriests. I trust the shadowpriests here with my life, but it seems that Feathershine and Shadowstep entrusted my life to a cunning rogue. I'd not have believed Alessandre at all, except that he admitted neither Feathershine nor Shadowstep wanted me to know they were behind it. According to Alessandre, both thought I was too clever or too arrogant to accept help from either of them, which of course… is exactly right about me.

And so that left me with a fully clothed male Night Elf dozing softly alongside me on the Eve of Winter's Veil. But, before Alessandre slipped into a drunken slumber, he proved to me that he did not work for the Twilight Cultists. Now, he told me this in the strictest confidence, so please, under pain of death, do not tell anyone! To gain my trust, Alessandre removed his pants and showed me how a Twilight Cultist used a shadowbolt to rip open the inside of his leg. At the time, he was a part of the Cenarion Circle stationed in Silithus and they were able to heal him. It is a miracle that he even survived, and can still walk, though the dark magic left a horrible scar that runs from the edge of his heel all the way up to his inner thigh. This was two decades before I was even born, and recruited by the cultists in Silithus, mind you. Again, you have a fiancée, so you can imagine how dangerous that kind of burning power is to a man, in that area. Fortunately for Alessandre, the cultist who attacked him did not succeed in finishing her work. Unlucky for me, and every other woman Alessandre has ever been compelled to spend the night with, the woman who attacked him was once the love of his life. And that, my friend, is why the man wears his heart on his sleeve. It's a beautiful black silken sleeve that I may never get my hands on, but I'd like to try. Maybe that is why, I confess to you now, that when Alessandre got dressed again, he left off kissing me and allowed himself to fall asleep. I think it was too painful a memory for him to go further. Oh, and did I mention that Alessandre said he knew Wisthera? If he is anything like our con artist rogue friend, Alessandre will be defensive about his complicated past. Honestly, I don't think that he will ever trust me enough to get so close again.

And… perhaps that is also why… having already seen so much of him, I… sort of, used my powers to put out the manadrain candles (Please don't say anything! Priest Benactus doesn't know I'm able to hobble his attempts at draining my diseased mana) and decided to get another eyeful. I… mind controlled him Willy. I could feel the fog in his mind, so I took advantage of the fact that he was hopelessly drunk and wouldn't remember… I used my powers to force him to take his clothes off again, and lie there beside me happily, as if… as if we were together. And Willy, I have to say that when I looked into his eyes and made him say all the things I wanted to hear… Oh, I just have to believe that I can fix this man! You are engaged… you must know how I feel, don't you? I feel like in that moment, I got a glimpse of the greatest love, the only true love I've ever felt in my whole life. Maybe Priestess Feathershine mothered me, and maybe my brother retrieved me from Silithus. Maybe you wrote me countless letters over the years, convincing me that you were my friend regardless of the dark forces that tempted me, and maybe Wisthera chose to betray Master Rogue Shadowstep and keep me safe from his agents in Silithus. But Willypearl, Alessandre saved my life. He came to me in the dead of winter, the dead cold winter of his life, and decided to stay up with me, because he knew that Priest Benactus was setting me up… Priest Benactus, is a cultist, you know. I always knew it, but I guess I didn't see any harm in it because I could always go back to Silithus if I asked him to help me. But, Alessandre had been keeping an eye on me and saw the real danger in that. He chose to be a hero for once in his life, which must have been hard for him after his betrayal. On the very night that I should have been terrified of the demons in my heart, lonely, and on the brink of self-destruction—all ideas that Priest Benactus planted in my head before leaving me alone for the night with that dreadful bottle of rum—Alessandre came and drank with me, laughed with me, and shared his own dark secrets with me, so that I could finally feel safe.

Willypearl, my dearest friend, I have convinced myself that I can return the favor to Alessandre. The only problem is, and this is incredibly difficult to write because I've never had to ask anyone for help with any of my studies my entire life…I have no idea how to attract a man. I know that men find me beautiful because I've spurned a lot of attention over the years, and Alessandre was tempted to kiss me last night, afterall, wasn't he? But how do I get him to go even further… how do I get him to truly say those things to me that I made him say with my Mind Control spell? If you would help me do this, and I could heal his heart before the danger in Stormwind passes and his time with me is over, I'd be eternally grateful.

Oh, and one more thing… I think he is waking up right now, so I'll probably end up sneaking this letter out a few days later than I intended. Alessandre would never trust me if he caught me telling someone about his past, so please, no matter what, keep all that I've said to yourself! I'm sure that you can see why I felt I had to write it. I needed to confess to someone that I'd taken advantage of a man's body… that I liked it, and… that I need help making it happen for real. Finally, I need someone to forgive me for doing as I pleased.

I need someone to forgive me for dreaming, Willypearl. I hope that person will be you.

With all my heart, your dearest friend,

Shadowpriestess Opalbane, The Cathedral of Light in Stormwind.