Author's Note:
There is a rather obvious reference to Discworld in this chapter. Terry Pratchett rocks my stripped socks. I also took a[nother] stab at Mary Sues towards the end. The voices in my head told me to. Honest! (hides)
Also, here's a belated 'Thank You!' for all the reviewers of the first chapter. I was very proud when I found out my story had been linked to the Warcraft Sues LJ community, too. I've been following it on and off for quite some time and I must say, the things some people come up with... (shakes head)
Chapter II
The party
Vinaiya turned the small piece of parchment over and over in her hands. It had arrived mere moments earlier and she'd read it in a heartbeat. The Author had wanted her to know how delighted he was to be working with her and how she should be thrilled to meet the other winners of the audition, too. The thought that there were others as well made Vinaiya feel strangely relieved; after all, here she was, a druid barely past her initiation (or so she saw herself), all set out for an epic adventure that she didn't think she'd ever be ready for. As far as she was concerned, Vinaiya was hardly hero material.
The letter ended with the Author's best regards. And then, there was another line, one that stood out from the rest and made Vinaiya cringe even now.
PS: We'll have to talk about your name, read the words. I fear it's just not authentic enough.
'Authentic'? Vinaiya puzzled over the words. She'd had no say in what her parents named her, of course. She knew that other Night Elves – all seasoned heroes to boot – had taken to naming themselves things so fierce they must have struck awe in the hearts of anyone who heard them. Things like 'Maximus the Eviscerator' and 'Diamandia of the Seven Blades' and, generally, anything that could be written as 'Someone of Something Dreadful' or 'Someone of Something So Mystical It Had The Power to Kill Any Foe From Twenty Pace Away'. Was that where her own name fell short? Vinaiya wondered.
There was a post-post scriptum in the letter, too. It cordially invited Vinaiya to a gathering at the Mended Drum tavern in Ironforge. It gave no date, but had the word 'soon' (underlined several times) instead. Ironforge was to Darnassus was Outland was to the majority of Azeroth: a place she'd only heard mentioned a handful of times, somewhere on the other side of the world, filled with marvellous contraptions. The dwarves, she'd heard, were master smiths and could work wonders with simple rock. And they hardly ever used magic, too, which meant they did it all by hand. How intriguing.
Vinaiya finally put the letter aside with a shrug. There was an old dwarf saying, she knew, that said 'All roads lead to Ironforge'. Her own mate had told her that – the very same dwarf who was now out hunting dragons in the Dustwallow Marsh, far to the south. There was something with dwarves that made them reach for their axes if one so much as mentioned the word 'dragon'. Maybe it was because dragons tended to nest atop large piles of treasure, or so the legends said. And dwarves loved any kind of treasure.
On the other hand, Night Elves hardly ever went to Ironforge these days. There was enough trouble on Kalimdor as it were. Vinaiya already felt lost, and her dreaded adventure had yet to start. She was about to read the letter one more time when she heard some commotion outside. Someone was shouting. Straining her ears, Vinaiya was able to catch a few words-
"Portals! Getcher' portals! Get'em cheap! Limited time offer for busy heroes everywhere! Getcher' portals while I'm sober! Man with portals here!"
Portals! Of course!
Vinaiya rushed outside. It didn't take her long to identify the source of the shouting: a short, plump human wearing dazzling purple robes that sparkled even in the dim glow of the lanterns in Darnassus. His staff was longer than he was tall, and the tip was adorned with an array of crystals, amulets, feathers and other objects Vinaiya had never seen before. She ran to catch up with the man, who was still shouting. When he took no notice of her, she tugged at his sleeve, "Excuse me..."
The man glared at her for a second before his mind kicked back into business mode. "Greetings!" he said, trying and failing to sound cheerful. "And where would you like to go today, miss?" He looked her up and down. "Somewhere close? Theramore, perhaps? I can offer you a killer deal-"
"Ironforge," Vinaiya blurted out. The man spoke in Darnassian with a thick accent that made her cringe inwardly. "Please," she added as an afterthought.
"Oh... Ironforge..." The man rubbed his chin, where Vinaiya noticed a sad attempt of a goatee. "That's tricky, that is... I could pull it off, of course, because I'm rather skilled in the arcane arts thankyouverymuch, and that'llbetengoldpiecesandthat'srobberythatis."
Vinaiya tilted her head to one side and blinked, "What?"
The man coughed. "I said, that'll be ten gold pieces. And that's robbery, that is."
Vinaiya made a grimace. Ten gold pieces! She had the money, of course, but that was more than half of what she'd saved so far, running odd errands here and there and selling trinkets and baubles she'd gathered on said errands for next to nothing. Then again, what choice was there? Even with proper directions – which she had no idea where to get – Vinaiya doubted she'd make it to Ironforge in time for the gathering. "It sounds fair," she said. "I'll just – I'll just gather my belongings and then I'll be on my way. Won't take a minute."
"See to it that it doesn't," the man said with a quick nod. "Busy, busy business. You know how it is."
Vinaiya stumbled out of the portal and immediately fell to her knees, thankful to feel rock-hard ground under her once more. She swore to herself that she'd never, ever step through a portal again. Her entire body felt like it had been torn apart and then sewn back together by a blind seamstress with a chronic twitch. Her head spun. Paying ten gold pieces for that felt like robbery indeed.
It took a while for the world to swim back into focus. When Vinaiya was confident enough that she could walk straight, she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. She finally chanced a look around. Her jaw dropped.
Folk tales definitely did justice to the dwarven capital of Ironforge. It was every bit as impressive as she'd heard, and then some. The whole place looked like it had been built inside a mountain, but the roof was so high overhead she had to strain her eyes to see it clearly. People of all races milled about with various exotic mounts in tow. Street merchants peddled their goods – Vinaiya heard the word 'Bread!' shouted several times – and adventurers called out for companions for this or that heroic quest in whatever exotic part of the world it was that people flocked to this time of year. Thankfully, nobody paid Vinaiya any kind of notice.
The druid slung her bag over one shoulder and set off in a general direction. Soon enough, she realized she was lost – even though, the rational part of her mind argued, she hadn't known where she was to begin with, so that wasn't much improvement. Eventually, she asked a guard that was twice as wide as he was tall and clad in armor from head to toe where to find the Mended Drum. Several minutes later, she found herself outside a nondescript archway with a large plaque affixed on one side. It was written in dwarven runes, but Vinaiya knew enough to make out what it said. It began with 'Things to know...' and it kindly advised travelers to leave all mounts at the entrance, keep their weapons sheathed at all times and kindly refrain from any magical activities on the premises. It ended with '...or else'.
Vinaiya took a deep breath, realized that her legs were still shaking slightly from the portal earlier, shook her head once to clear it, and stepped inside.
The first thing she noticed was a haze so thick that it made her eyes water. The Mended Drum was lit by a number of candles and braziers, but even those were hardly enough to cut through the smoke. Squinting hard, Vinaiya could make out a number of figures hunched over short, wooden tables and bent over various dishes and mugs. There was a steady hum in the air, such as the one made by many people talking very quietly to one another. Somewhere at the far end, Vinaiya spotted a bar. Several people stood on high stools, each lost in the depths of their own drinks.
Vinaiya stood there for a few seconds, feeling silly and out of place. Now that her eyes were getting accustomed to the smoke that seemed to blanket all else, she saw that most of the patrons were dwarves. Somewhere at the back, there was a curiously empty table save for a large, bulky draenei, a dwarf and... was that woman waving at her? Vinaiya pointed a finger to herself in a silent inquiry. Surely, there must have been a mistake –
"Yeah, you. Get over here!"
Suddenly, Vinaiya felt all eyes on her. That little part of her that seemed to come out whenever she was in a pinch wiggled its way to the top of her mind. It made her stare pointedly ahead as she made her way across the tavern and then look down and into the face of –
Vinaiya's makeshift self-confidence melted faster than a handful of snow in the Tanaris desert.
The woman had an impressive stature even though she was sitting down on one of those uncomfortably small dwarf stools. She seemed to tower over everyone else at the table, even the draenei – who, Vinaiya noted in passing while her eyes searched desperately for something else than the woman to stare at, seemed lost in the depths of his drink. Her black hair was tied in a loose ponytail at the back and a leather patch covered her left eye. There was a scar there, too, Vinaiya noticed, and cringed. The woman wore plate armor and had a rather impressive two-handed claymore slung across her back. There were no spikes or skulls adorning her armor; somehow, Vinaiya had the impression that she didn't have to bother with such trivialities.
"You here for the story?" the woman asked.
"Er," Vinaiya blurted before her brain realized she was being addressed and rallied. "Yes. Um."
"Sit down. What's your name?"
The druid's body obeyed as if on auto-pilot. She took a seat across the table, next to the draenei who still gave no sign that he'd registered her presence. "Vinaiya Nightbane," she said as she registered the question. She forced a half-smile.
The woman smiled back, although it was probably the kind of smile a wolf would give to a sheep if wolves could smile like the more sentient races did. "My name's Elizabeth," she said, extending her hand over the table and shaking Vinaiya's until the druid heard her own bones crack. "Not Lizzie. Or Elsie. Or Liz. The last time someone called me Liz, they had to take their entrails home in a bucket. Got me?"
Vinaiya kept her half-smile on. Underneath it, a small part of her mind screamed and committed suicide. "It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth," she said quietly.
Elizabeth looked pleased. "Right," she said. "This here-" she pointed to the dwarf (who, Vinaiya realized, was a woman – it was far easier to tell up close) "- is Heida. The big guy there is Aluun. He doesn't talk much. Come to think of it, neither of them do."
Predictably, Vinaiya said nothing. She could definitely see where the other two were coming from.
"Anyway," Elizabeth picked up after downing what looked like half of whatever was in her mug, "I'm glad to see everyone being so punctual. I take it your letter said to be here 'soon' too, eh? I thought so," she said when Vinaiya nodded blankly. "There's four of us now, fifth one should be along shortly. And then we kick ass. Like this one time, down in Westfall..."
Vinaiya had no idea what good it would do to kick someone in the... well... there, given the circumstances, but she decided it was infinitely safer not to ask. Maybe it was a human expression. At any rate, Elizabeth seemed more than qualified to carry on with both sides of the conversation.
Suddenly, Aluum stirred, then got up ever so slowly. He wobbled a little. In a way, it reminded Vinaiya of a lone boulder that foretold an avalanche. Elizabeth cut off mid-sentence and turned to see what the draenei was looking at. Vinaiya followed the motion, as did Heida. The druid felt sweat run down her back, but she could have sworn that the temperature had dropped by several degrees.
Someone else had entered the tavern. Vinaiya looked hard and was able to make out a silhouette that seemed to glow with a light of its own. It was red. It was probably female. And it was accompanied by a large shape that seemed to be made entirely of shadow.
"Warlock," Aluum growled, and reached for the hilt of the mace he carried. However, before he could reach it, Elizabeth's hand closed over his wrist. She'd moved so quickly that the draenei had trouble registering what was happening straight away. He tried to continue the motion for a few more seconds, then finally gave up and slumped back. His eyes never left the silhouette.
The warlock was making her way to the table now, with the shadowy blob in tow. Once it reached the glowing circle of light cast by the nearest brazier, Vinaiya saw that she was human. Her robes were more impressive than anything the night elf had ever seen before. Her hair, which seemed an unusual shade of orange, waved slightly even though there was no breeze. Emerald-green eyes peered down at the assorted faces at the table. There was a faint scent of lavender.
"I'm here for the story," the warlock said, and even her voice sounded like it was laced with wind-chimes. "My name is Dawn Evenstar, and this is my voidwalker, Hathast. It's so nice to meet you all!"
A faint 'Hmph!' from the general direction of Aluum signified that at least one of the party didn't share Dawn's feelings. As for Vinaiya, her eyes were still fixed on the ever-changing shape of Hathast. She'd never seen a demon this close before, but for a strange reason, Hathast didn't look particularly threatening. It was just the way it... loomed. 'Ominous' was probably a good word to describe it.
Dawn took a seat next to Elizabeth, who had gone strangely quiet. She pulled out a small piece of parchment from a silk pouch. "This is my letter," she said. "It said to be here 'soon', so I came here as soon as I could." She folded the parchment and tucked it back in the pouch. "Isn't this exciting?" she asked. "Here we are, ready to go on an adventure-"
"Show me that letter again, will you?" Elizabeth cut in. Her voice had a dangerous edge to it now. When Dawn produced the parchment again, she examined it closely. Finally, she returned it with another dreadful grin. "You're in the wrong story, hon."
Dawn raised her eyebrows theatrically. "What do you mean, 'wrong story'? My letter says clearly that-"
Elizabeth handed her another piece of parchment. It was half-crumpled and bore several stains of dubious origin. "This came from our Author. Different handwriting, see? Besides, our Author doesn't dot his 'I's with little hearts. And he definitely doesn't spell 'lovely' with three 'L's and an extra 'Y'."
For a few moments, Dawn looked like she was about to cry. "I'm – I'll just... but I came all the way from Stormwind, and-"
"I think I saw a High Elf here earlier tonight," Vinaiya said helpfully before she remembered that human affairs were best left to the humans. Then again, Dawn Evenstar and her Hathast unnerved her far more than she cared to admit, even to herself. "Maybe he's the one you're looking for...?"
Vinaiya had never seen a person's expression go from pure misery to near-ecstasy so quickly before. "Really? Thank you~!" Dawn said, or rather sang, before getting up and sweeping out of the tavern in a flurry of sparkles and lavender scents.
"...and good riddance, too," Aluum muttered before returning to his drink.
Several moments of pensive silence followed.
"There wasn't any elf, was there?" Elizabeth asked eventually. Her voice had a hint of admiration in it now.
Vinaiya shrugged. It was that odd part of her mind again, she knew, the one that kept prodding her to do things that were... not nice. "We still need a fifth one, though," she heard herself saying. The letter had clearly said that. There had to be five.
"You found him," said a voice from somewhere nearby.
Vinaiya looked around in bewilderment. Elizabeth followed the motion, and even Aluum looked up from his drink. Heida, however, was the quickest of the bunch. Her battered old blunderbuss went off with a 'bang!', and Vaala felt the heat of the bullet as it went just past the tip of her ear and embedded itself deep within the wall behind her. The other tavern guests barely flinched in their seats.
"What was that for?" said theinvisible voice, from the other side of the table this time.
Heida lowered her blunderbuss with an apologetic look. "Rogues give me the willies," she said. "An' anyway, there's no need for ye to be sneakin' around like that."
"Oh, I do beg to differ," said the voice.
The outline of a man flickered in and out of sight so quickly that Vinaiya instinctively pinched herself. However, that seemed to be enough, at least for the others. Elizabeth's one good eye was wide open. Heida's jaw dropped.
"William the Many, at your service," said the rogue. "Though, judging by your expressions, I'm going to assume that at least two of you already know that."
