The Cure
Chapter 1
The Violet City
A high pitched screeching sound ripped Jaina Proudmoore from her unsteady sleep. It was followed by a flash of light and a loud thud. The leader of the Kirin Tor jumped out of her bed, conjuring a thin but powerful magical barrier around her person and assumed a defensive posture, her combat reflexes instantly kicking in.
Although the tired looking woman in her nightgown with messed up hair did not look very threatening, she was arguably the most powerful mage alive and a true force to be reckoned with.
A small, broken figure knelt in the middle of her bedchamber. The smell of decay and disease wafted over to her.
"Guards!", her feminine, yet powerful voice shouted.
As several hidden runes started glowing around the room, the intruder uttered a few last words, in a raspy, but distinct gnomish voice.
"Proud...moore... read the... Journal", then runes flared up and shot bright lightning into Hylon Cogfire, too fast for Jaina to react. Just now she realised who infiltrated her private rooms. The gnome was reduced to ash.
A small brown book however withstood the onslought of arcane energy for a few seconds. This created several streams of crackling magical lightning dancing between the runes and the book. Jaina had just enough time to disable the trap by deactivating the runes. She sighed in relief. She had been fast enough to safe the book from the fate of its presumed author. The smell of decay was quickly replaced by the equally nauseating odor of burned flesh and leather.
The whole ordeal had taken maybe ten seconds, and as her guards burst open the door to her bedroom, Jaina couldn't help but feel a little lightheaded as the implications of what had just happened hit her.
The pile of nothing on her carpet was her genius Grand Apothecary Hylon Cogfire, whose laboratory had been raided one month ago, after the Voilet Hold had found out about his work on the leprosy of Gnomeregan. Although all of his work had been destroyed, there had been no sign of Cogfire himself. This had prompted a far and wide search for the gnome, due to the work with magical plagues being strictly forbidden inside the walls of Dalaran.
Jaina herself had not wanted any part in this, in part due to not being educated enough about the leprosy and in part because in principle she understood why the Kirin Tor was extremely wary of anything that even vagely resembled the undead plague. The main reason however was that she had inherited the leadership of the Kirin Tor only a few month ago, when she lost her own city.
Garrosh Hellscream, cruel and powerhungry warchief of the Horde, had dropped an extremely powerful manabomb onto the city of Theramore, which Jaina had been the leader of. The attack had been unprovoked. That day she had lost almost everything and everyone she loved, the explosion leaving barely any survivors. Her own life had been saved by the then leader of the Kirin Tor, Rhonin, who had shoved Jaina into a portal seconds bevor the bomb impacted, saving the female mage instead of his own life. Infuriated, Jaina had taken the Focusing Iris, a magical artifact with which the bomb had been enhanced, and had almost used it to drown every man, woman and child in Orgrimmar, but she was stopped by the blue dragon aspect Kalecgos.
Shortly after, she had been elected the new leader of the magical kingdom of Dalaran, where she prior had spent many years of her life, studying the arcane arts, and later being an agent of the Kirin Tor.
Taking an active role in the government of the Violet Citadel and the Council of Six had requiered her full attention from the day she had taken up the mantle of leadership. Jaina had been notified of the raid and the following search, but had left it to the very capable mages of the Violet Hold.
The exciting sensation of a mystery worth uncovering, a feeling she had always enjoyed due to her curious nature, filled her mind and her heart. Cogfires suicide by teleporting into her most private chambers put a few questions on her table, such as where had he been and what had he been doing? And why did he choose to commit suicide in such a specific and odd way.
"Only one way to find out.", she muttered to herself as she bend down to pick up the singed book.
"Mylady, are you all right?", one of the guards asked, confused as to what just happened and Jaina standing in the middle of her room, lost in thought after what looked to the guards like an attempt on her life.
"Yes", Jaina's attention snapped back to the situation at hand, "Go and get me my apprentice. He needs to bring everything regarding the search for Hylon Cogfire to my office."
She dismissed the guards with a wave of her hand, changed her clothes to her violet-blue mages robe and went to her office, where she sat down behind a heavy oak desk and flipped open the cover of the Journal.
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When a man wearing the armor of Jaina Proudmoore's personal guard had awoken him, Nielas Aran Duskmantle had thought it another prank by his fellow violet apprentices, who often teased him with the lack of attention he recieved by his tutor, despite his tutor being the leader of the Kirin Tor. The dead serious look on the face of the man and his precise orders had convinced him otherwise.
Now Nielas was jogging up the stairs to the office of Lady Proudmoore, a stack of scrolls under his arms, documents concerning the case of Hylon Cogfire. It was still deep in the night and Nielas was extremely nervous and confused as to why his tutor had called for him, which she almost never did, especially outside of her duties regarding his training.
When he reached Lady Proudmoores office, he took a moment to collect himself, then knocked on the thick wooden door. No one answered. After a few seconds he knocked again, even more nervous than before.
"Lady Proudmoore?"
Still there was no answer. Unsure as to what to do, he tentatively opened the door.
The stench of rot hit his sensitive nostrils like a battering ram and he almost let go of the documents, clasping his open hand over his mouth, desperately trying not to retch all over the expensive carpet.
As Nielas looked up, he was met with a bizarre and extremely confusing sight.
On a blanket on the broad desk of the leader of the Kirin Tor lay two unconscious gnomes. Both were severly crippled, missing ears, nose and a few fingers. Despite these deformities, the gnomes were distinctly breathing and not only alive but also not leper gnomes, their skin a sickly pink, but pink non the less.
Besides the gnomes, there was a small wooden lockbox on the desk and a thin brown book next to it. Next to the table hovered an arcane portal through which at that moment the mostly silver-haired head of Lady Jaina Proudmoore appeared.
"Nielas, good thing you are here. Get in here. I need your help."
Before he could answer Jaina's head had already sunken into the portal again. Nielas hesitated. He had heard about the raid on the Grand Apothecary's laboratory, but after a month of searching, official word from the Violet Hold said that there was no sign of Hylon Cogfire. Obviously that was not the case any more.
Slowly Nielas strode through the portal and was attacked by even worse smells. He found himself in a small room, alchemist instruments cramped into every available bit of space and big shelfes covering all bare brick walls but the one with the small door.
In one corner there lay several dead leper gnomes, one of the main sources of the ungodly smell Nielas' nose had to endure. The even more promonent smell was that of the Dalaran Sewers, but way fiercer than in the upper, inhabited parts of the labyrinth.
In the middle of the room stood a gnome-sized work table with a deactivated signaling crystal on it and several vials filled with unknown concoctions, as well as countless stacks of paper.
"Mylady, what is all this?", Nielas asked, "How did you find this?"
"Grand Apothecary Cogfire teleported into my bedchamber about an hour ago.", Jaina, who had been studying one of the shelves turned to face her apprentice, "He was incinerated by my defense mechanisms immediately, but his journal was left behind, which led me to this place."
"The crippled gnomes in your office, Mylady, does this mean the Grand Apothecary has actually found a cure to the leprosy?", Nielas felt his excitement built up. He had not witnissed the horror of the Scourge, locked away behind the Graymane Wall for most of his life, so when he had heard of the Kirin Tor raiding Cogfires laboratory for working on a cure to a plague that affected most of his people, Nielas had difficulties understanding why the gnome's actions would be wrong.
" It seems like it.", Jaina picked up the vials that lay on the table, "Have you brought everything concerning the search for the Grand Apothecary with you?"
"Yes, Mylady", Nielas just now noticed that he was still holding the documents. Quickly he handed them over to Jaina.
"Good, I will have to bring this before the Council of Six as soon as possible, but not before educating myself in the matter.", Jaina took the scrolls and went back through the portal into her office, Nielas on her heels, "Go to the Violet Hold and tell them to send whoever is in charge of the search to me. But first take these gnomes to a healer. And don't tell the healer what has happened here, this is not something that should reach the public."
"Yes, Mylady", Nielas gave a quick bow.
A lot of mages disregarded their physical fitness, not feeling the need to strengthen their bodies when their minds were already powerful, but Nielas was a well built young Gilnean, who felt the need to go jogging or excersise almost every day, so he had no troubles gently picking up both gnomes off the table and turned to leave the office.
As he went down the stairs, his thoughts were racing through his head.
Lady Proudmoore had , for the first time, involved him in matters outside the absolute necessities of his apprenticeship. Maybe now it was finally time that it truly started.
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Nielas found Ereniel Silverroot on her favorite bench in one of the many green spots of Dalaran. The female druid had taken off her sandals and spread her purple toes into the short grass, a peaceful expression on her beautiful nightelven face. Although Nielas knew well that almost all nightelves were beautiful to humans. Or so he told himself. He still caught himself staring at Ereniel's silver glowing eyes, flowing hair of the same color and wild tattoos more often than he was comfortable with.
But not today. Ereniel was not only one of his few friends in Dalaran, she was also a druid well versed in restoring life were it was fading or gone. Her scent, not unlike the smell of a wild forest, brought a little relaxation into his system, which was high on adrenaline at the moment.
As Lady Proudmoore had not given him specific instruction as to which healer he should bring the two gnomes to, he had thought of her first.
"Ereniel!", the nightelf opened her eyes when she heard Nielas' urgent voice.
She was on her feet in an instant as she saw the unconscious gnomes Nielas brought her.
Gently Nielas let the gnomes down into the soft grass. Ereniel got onto her knees besides the gnomes and spread her hands over one of them. A faint green glow enveloped the gnome and a frown formed on Ereniel's face.
"What is wrong with them, Nielas?", she asked with a pleasant, calming voice , "This one's body wants nothing more than to let go of life, although his wounds seem to have long sealed."
"They...", Nielas almost just blurted out the truth to his trusted friend, but caught himself, not wanting to disappiont his tutor's trust, "I can't tell you, sorry. Kirin Tor business. Lady Proudmoore just told me to seek a skilled healer for them and you are the most skilled healer I know."
Ereniel raised an eyebrow at Nielas, but remained in silence as she moved her hands over the second gnome.
"Are you... able to keep them alive? Maybe even wake them up?"
"I don't know," the elf ran her hands through the grass besides each gnome, encouraging it to grow. It enveloped the gnomes softly, but tightly and began to glow with an emerald light, "I will try my best. I'm glad to see your teacher has finally decided to trust you and include you into... Kirin Tor business."
Although her words were spoken jokingly and not maliciously, Nielas cringed a little inside. Ereniel had been there as a friend and mentor from the day the nightelves had taken the gilnean refugees to Kalimdor, but his official loyalties lay with the Kirin Tor now.
"I will take them to my home and tend to them.", the gnomes started to hover about a foot above the ground as Ereniel stood up. With a warm smile and a nod, she turned to go.
After a few seconds of staring after the elf, Nielas flinched at remembering that his tasks were not yet complete and hurried toward the Violet Hold.
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The Chamber of Air was the traditional meeting place for the Council of Six, a room seemingly without walls and roof, a constantly changing sky above. Only a gray stone floor with a big diamond symbol on it conveyed a sense of stability.
The Council of Six sat around a circular dark gray stone table, five of six members in attendance.
"Khadgar sends his regards, but can unfortunately not leave A'dal's side on such short notice.", Modera, an older, but still fit woman and the only female member of the Six besides Jaina, announced.
"Of course he can't.", Aethas Sunreaver, a young bloodelf muttered into his non-existing beard ,"The old man only attends the council when the world is about to fall apart."
"Don't be to hard on him. Remember that the world he currently resides on is literally falling apart.", Karlain, skillfull alchemist and disziplined mage said before turning his attention to Jaina, "It is good to see you, Lady Proudmoore, is there a special reason for this rather abrupt summoning of the council?"
Ansirem Runeweaver, the last member of the council just looked at Jaina, not having said a word yet.
"Indeed there is,", Jaina said, pulled the journal from her robes and threw it onto the gray table. Karlain and Aethas eyed it curiously.
"This is the journal describing the last thirty days of Hylon Cogfire," all eyes now rested on the journal, "In short, after the raid on his laboratory, the Grand Apothecary saved himself and some of his work to a secret laboratory deep inside the sewers of Dalaran, where he managed to find a cure and heal two leper gnomes."
"Where is he now?", Karlain asked, his voice calm but stern.
"Dead", a few eyebrows rose, " The journal is not very long, it would be best if you read it yourself.", with a wave of her hand, Jaina made a copy of the journal appear before each of the council members.
After a few minutes of silence the atmosphere in the chamber of air was a mixture of anxiety and excitement.
Karlain and Modera seemed to be somewhat positive, whereas deep frowns could be seen on the face's of Aethas and Anserim.
"Have you found this sewer laboratory, Jaina?", Anserim asked.
"Yes, and I found it exactly as described in the journal, two healed gnomes, a few corpses, and the cure. The latter should be send to New Tinkertown immediatly."
"No," Aethas said, reading the later parts of the journal again, " for the better part of his time down there he was not mentally stable, if at all. Not to mention the fact that despite the outcome, his work was very much illegal."
"You can't be serious," the look on Jaina's face made clear, that she had not expected this reaction, but the other members of the council were also rather tentative now, "The fate of an entire race is on the line here! We cannot keep this for us, just because we were afraid of Cogfire concocting a new plague, which he clearly wasn't!"
"I also don't think that we should keep this to ourselfes... but Aethas has a point. What if his mental state was so bad that what now seems like a cure is just another catastrophe waiting to happen?", Karlain was stroking his beard thoughtfully, " We cannot send his work to Mekkatorque in good conscious without further testing."
Karlain had a fair point there.
"Modera, Anserim, what do you think?" Jaina was visibly unhappy.
"I think Lady Jaina is right.", Anserim Runeweaver flipped through the Journal once again, "Mekkatorque used the radiation due to his most trusted advisor urging him to. He is not High Tinker without reason and if we were to give the cure to him, with our explicit warning not to use it before thoroughly testing it, he won't."
"What about our supposed neutrality.", Modera's words were cold, "To heal the leper gnomes of Gnomeregan would tip the balance of the two major factions in favour of the Alliance."
Now Jaina was outright angry and obviously had to force herself not to raise her voice.
"Were there a similar situation within the Horde, I would be as eager to help as I am here. We are talking about potentialy thousands of lives we could save. As Anserim said, Mekkatorque is no fool, he won't use the cure prematurely. Also, the balance has been disturbed by Hellscream," Jaina almost spat out the orcs name, " commiting genocide on my people! As good as unpunished! If anything the gnomes would bring the balance back."
The room was silent for a few moments, then the alchemist Karlain spoke up again.
"What you say is true Lady Proudmoore, but still I think it would be rash to send this supposed cure to New Tinkertown right away. Let me look at Hylon's concoction. When what he writes in his journal is true, there should be descriptions of how he came to this formula in his sewer-lab. Even though his genius regarding alchemie was unparalleled, in a few weeks at most my alchemists and I will be able to tell you what it is and how it works. Let us not give the gnomes false hope."
Lady Proudmoore sighed and looked at the other members of the Council of Six. Modera and Aethas nodded and Anserim did not object either.
"So be it, Hylon Cogfire was your colleague after all, but be swift with your research, the gnomes of Gnomeregan have suffered for a long time, more than long enough."
After bidding their farewell, one after the other the members of the Council of Six teleported out of the Chamber of Air.
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When Jaina was alone she rubbed her temples and sighed. Then she looked directly in his direction.
"You can come out of hiding now, Nielas.", the Lady of Dalaran said, sounding tired.
Nielas' heart skipped a beat, but after a second of petrifying fear due to being detected, he let the invisibility spell he was using fade.
"My Lady, I... uh.. I w-was just..", Nielas began, desperately searching for an excuse, but shut up confused, when he saw that Lady Proudmoore was just looking at him amused.
"What did you think why the first spell I taught you was a custom invisibility spell, nearly undetectable if one does not know what to search for? And further you should not be surprised that I know how to sense it, considering I am the one who invented that particular invisibility spell.", his tutor was smiling at him and Nielas relaxed a little.
"But I have to admit," Jaina continued, musing, "not even I was able to follow Antonidas into the Chamber of Air when I was his apprentice... The gandson of a cousin of Nielas Aran, huh? What do you think, Nielas? About the cure not being send to the King of Gnomes right away?"
Nielas had been alarmed when Lady Proudmoore mentioned his name giving, supposed ancestor Nielas Aran, but she seemed to have glossed over it for now, so he took a moment to think about her question.
"All of the honored members of the council had valid arguments, but in the end I don't think it is our place as the Kirin Tor to withhold something that could save the entire gnomish race from them. Let the gnomes decide how, when and if to use the cure."
"Mhm... A very gilnean solution.. don't get involved, let those who are affected directly deal with the problem.", Jaina studied Nielas face for moment.
Nielas was not sure if he had just been personally criticised and was slightly irritated, especially because his tutor was kind of right in her statement. But Nielas had another question.
"Mylady, you are the leader of the Kirin Tor and you were obviously unhappy with the solution of the situation. Why did you not overrule the decision of the other council members? This is well in your right as Lady of Dalaran."
"You are correct, I could have the cure sent to Mekkatorque, nullifying the opinions and authority of my colleagues. But that is not how Dalaran has been ruled by those who came before me, nor is it how I have ruled Theramore. Undermining Modera, Karlain and the others in such a way would be seen as a personal insult.", Jaina put a hand on Nielas' shoulder and smiled warmly, "Besides, it's important to value the council of others, for there is no one who can see all the facets of a matter on his or her own."
Nielas nodded. He was a bit of a lone wolf himself, not having a lot of friends, but those few whom he trusted he'd always listen to.
Jaina's smile faded and she took on a serious tone as she continued.
"Your training from now on will intensify significantly. Also you will keep an eye on Karlains research of the cure, for my role in the government of Dalaran will keep me from doing so myself. I appreciate your enthusiasm in... informing yourself, but the Chamber of Air is off limits. Should I see you spying on the Council of Six again, I will not be as forgiving as I am today, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Mylady", Nielas felt like a beaten dog, gazing at the floor, but he was also excited for his training to finally become a real apprenticeship and for his tutor to have given him the important task of being her eye on the research on the cure.
No one would think he was being neglected now.