"The world is ending! Oh why must the beautiful die so young? Dragons, earthquakes, the Horde, and now what! A murderer roaming the streets, hunting down the humble and meek!"
Lethumo entered the apartment's kitchen, completely flustered. He held a handful of papers. Sapphire had learned about what a newspaper and found it fascinating. She had also learned about Lethumo was that he was dramatic. Everything minor seemed like a complete apocalypse to him.
Breakfast was simple for Sapphire, nothing but a couple slices of toast and cheese. So it was easy for Sapphire to ignore it to focus on the hysterical elf. She took the paper from his hands and read the front page.
The three murders that Lethumo spoke of all occurred in the middle of the night. Apparently the guards thought they were all connected because there seemed to be no suspects for any of them. Not to mention, the deaths were not quick. Broken bones, crushed throats, and dozens of stab wounds. None of this seemed too alarming to Sapphire, but apparently it was a major thing to Lethumo.
Lethumo continued with his rant.
"What is worse is that with all the other catastrophic events transpiring, no official seems concerned. Instead our fastidious guards are too concerned gazing up to the sky instead of the ground!"
With that, the elf collapsed into a chair and sighed. Due to being undead, Arthas had no need to eat so he had left the apartment early. So it was just Sapphire, Lethumo, and Rot in the apartment.
Sapphire sipped some juice before responding to the night elf.
"Well, Should they not look at the sky? What if that dragon comes back?"
Lethumo's face turned from worry. He smiled at her reassuringly.
"Oh you don't need to worry, little saber cub! If he had wished to destroy Stormwind, I think he would have done it the first time!"
Sapphire seemed unconvinced, but she did not press the issue. She changed the subject back to the murders.
"Who do you think is killing these people?" She asked curiously.
Lethumo's drama returned and he sighed greatly. "I do not know, but clearly it is a pernicious scoundrel with no morals or scruples!"
An idea seemed to occur to him and he suddenly seemed more worried than before.
"Oh dear! You must promise me not to go out at night! None of the murders have been children but I'm sure this louse would not hesitate!"
This confused Sapphire. All in all, she and Arthas had only stayed in the elf's apartment for little over two months. It almost sounded like the elf cared for her wellbeing. But Gorak Tul's manipulation had soured her trust in others. She even doubted why Volugg had been so nice to her when she had nothing and had been no one.
Sapphire meekly nodded to his request. "I promise. I do not really leave this place much anyway."
The elf stood up and smiled. "Well, lets change that. Today you are going to have some fun with me!"
After the two of them ate breakfast, Lethumo put on a fancy coat and a hat. Sapphire tried to copy him by putting on her Kul Tiran longcoat and her floppy hat. He smiled at the sight. "Aw, that's cute. First thing we are going to do is get you some decent clothes."
The store he brought her to was very similar to the one that Volugg had brought her to in Ratchet, but it was more organized. Rolls of cloth were meticulously piled up in shelves, organized by color. Racks of clothing crowded the store. One of the people who worked at the store immediately came up to the potential customers.
"Good morning! How may I help you?"
Lethumo gestured to Sapphire. "This young miss needs some new attire."
With that the woman looked at Sapphire, and then at what the girl wore. Sapphire did not like the look on the woman's face.
What Lethumo and the strange woman considered decent and what Sapphire considered decent were vastly different. They kept trying to encourage her to wear the ugliest clothing Sapphire has ever seen in her entire life. In the Scourge, most of the clothing worn by cultists were black or other dark colors. Skulls and chains were the most common patterns on the cloth. For mortal humans, it seemed they liked bright colors and decorated their clothing with patterns of flowers or other fragile, stupid things. Sapphire scrunched up her nose at every single piece of clothing offered.
The two adults got exasperated by her insistent refusals that they let her choose her own clothing. Sapphire perused all of the clothing that would fit her. Finally, after some time she came across things she actually liked. She called for Lethumo. The elf and the woman came over.
"Oh, you like those?" Lethumo asked.
Sapphire nodded. The woman looked annoyed but she helped the girl take them to the fitting room and assisted to help her try them on. After some tense discussions with the woman, Sapphire finally came out of the fitting room in her new attire. The tunic Sapphire had picked out was Stormwind blue with golden trim. The pants were simply brown but of a better material than her old pants. Around her shoulders was an simple wool cape as rich blue as her tunic.
Lethumo approved greatly and clapped at the sight. "What an improvement!"
Sapphire smiled. "You think so?"
"Oh I know so! You now look like the squire of a grand knight or like a little prince."
The woman spoke to Lethumo in a hushed tone. When the elf's face darkened, Sapphire grew concerned. Lethumo seemed to ask the woman something, who in turn responded. When he noticed Sapphire's worried look, he immediately cut the woman off and smiled at the girl.
"How about you try on some of the stuff we suggested and I'll buy you those?"
Sapphire nodded, still hung up on what the woman had said to Lethumo.
The elf paid for everything and he asked for the tailors to create similar clothing with minor changes for Sapphire for the future. The store only had clothing so they needed to go to a different place for new shoes. By noon, Sapphire was wearing new clothes and new boots, with the extra stuff to be delivered from the store to the apartment. Lethumo took Sapphire to a friend's house for lunch. It seemed that this friend of his, some noblewoman, had planned a party and invited the elf a few days before.
The rich noblewoman and her friends, who admired Lethumo's talents, immediately doted on Sapphire. Sapphire really disliked the undue attention from all of the people but Lethumo gave her a reassuringly smile and the girl quietly tolerated the unpleasantness. They made comments about Sapphire's unnaturally white hair but none of them seemed to be insulting to Sapphire. Since she was so thin, the women practically force fed her a vast range of strange unknown food. This suited Sapphire just fine. She could eat without needing to answer any of the questions the women presented to her. Lethumo answered them to the best of his knowledge.
"Oh what a darling little creature!"
"She's thin as a rail. Are you feeding her enough, dearest Lethumo?"
Lethumo puffed up. "Of course I am! This forlorn foundling only freshly dropped upon my doorstep! Oh a tragic tale. No mother to claim her! No love to comfort her! Only her and the malodorous death knight that is loyal to her!"
He regaled the women with how he found Sapphire and Arthas, which was completely inaccurate. Sapphire wanted to correct him but all the women spoke over her. They gasped in horror and in awe at the elf's selflessness in "saving" Sapphire from ruin and malice.
After they left, Sapphire confronted him on his deceit.
"Why were you lying to all those women? You didn't save me from pirates! Or fight off a bear...You were drinking at a tavern," She demanded.
Lethumo waved his hand dismissively. "Of course not. But I know how to play at the heartstrings of the people! The poor little white haired girl and her moody deathknight guardian? Oh they ate it up! One or two of them might be moved enough to...donate some money towards your education. Especially if I'm your teacher!"
Sapphire frowned. "So you...used me for money?"
The elf stopped walking and gave her a horrified look. "What, no! I know how hard is it when you are young with no prospects at life. I was merely helping you. It just so happens that it might help me as well!"
It sounded like he was using her, despite his protest. Lethumo Nightwind was one of the nicest people she had met. But Gorak Tul had seemed nice to her at first. Volugg had been nice to her too. Had there been another motive for him to help her?
All this just confused Sapphire. She did not know who to trust and if she could even trust anyone. She definitely did not trust her father entirely, but his actions were so contradictory to what she knew about him previously that she felt like he was not a threat At least not a threat to her. Everyone else, even the dramatic night elf, was suspicious. But he had been more than willing to buy her things. Sapphire felt so conflicted on her feelings.
She looked at the elf's free hand. At first she hesitated to do it, but she finally took a deep breath and reached out to take the elf's hand. He didn't snap at her or pull his hand away. He glanced briefly down and twined his fingers between hers for a better grip. Sapphire saw the hint of a smile.
The two returned to the apartment. Lethumo handed her the packages that had been delivered.
"There you go! I'm sure you are much happier now that you have clothes yes?"
Sapphire nodded. "I've never had such nice clothes! Why'd you buy me them?"
Lethumo collapsed into his armchair and fully stretched out. "That coat of yours looks like it came off a corpse from the Second War. That hat of yours...It looks like it has seen better days. And your father is either too preoccupied or too vacuous to notice."
"What does vacuous mean?"
Lethumo leaned forward and waved for her to do so. She leaned forward, curious.
"Vacuous means lacking of intelligence. Stupid. Dumb!"
Sapphire immediately started to giggle. She had never heard anyone call her father stupid before. He would be furious if he heard it. The elf did not know the kind of danger he would have been in if Arthas had walked in at that moment. But he did not come in so everything was going to be okay. Or so she thought. The elf had laughed as well but it died off as he started to frown. He gave her a rather serious look now.
"Those scars on your back...The woman at the tailor told me about them. Where did you get them?"
Sapphire withdrew, panicking. When she had been changing, she had not even thought about the woman seeing the abundance of tough scars that covered her back. They did not hurt so she never really thought much of them. But for other people, that amount of scars must be disturbing to them. The elf took one of her hands quickly and put it in his own in an effort to comfort her.
"Don't worry! I'm just concerned for your well being," He reassured her. The elf was not using any of his usual range of large, eloquent wording for this conversation.
The girl just shrugged. "I don't know where I got them."
Lethumo raised his eyebrows. "Oh you don't? In that case, tell me when you do remember. Will you promise me?"
She didn't want to look him directly in the eyes and instead focused on the wooden floor between her feet. Then, she nodded. The night elf patted her hand.
"That's good enough for me. I won't press you."
Before she could help herself, she lunged forward at Lethumo. She flung both of her arms around his neck as an embrace. The elf immediately reciprocated and hugged her back. Letting go seemed impossible. What seemed like hours passed, but it was only a minute or two. Eventually she pulled away from him. The elf cleared his throat.
"Right. Okay. I have some work to do. Why don't you go out and do...I don't know. Human child things."
He patted Sapphire on the head and quickly left the room.