So that morning in a hospital bed I woke up to a visitor, Instructor Antheol. He was a white-haired gentleman with a side part hairstyle and wore the same robes his students wore. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better." I answered with a smile, so he knew I was being genuine.

He smiled back and nodded his head, "I'd like to re-introduce you to some people." He looked behind him, "Bring them in."

Another one of his students from his class showed up holding a rope and pulled on it. Then walked in two sizable looking pigs.

I was a little confused.

"I'd like you to meet Meledor and Ralen." He stated with a smile. The pigs picked themselves up, put their hoofs on my bed, and squealed.

I looked up remembered the task the two students gave me, "You name your pigs after your students?"

He looked up slightly grinning, "They ARE my students. I told them that they would have to stay like this until you recovered." I was still confused, "You never heard of a polymorph spell?"

I shook my head no.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"14" I answered.

He nodded, "That explains a lot. The nurses said you've regained consciousness last night and there just waiting to discharge you, disappointing really. If you want to take some more time off, they will be paying for your stay."

I shook my head no, "I'm fine, you can release them."

He pulled out a wand and in a puff of black smoke the two pigs were elves again, "Oh thank the Light." They spoke.

"You should really be thanking her." Instructor Antheol stated.

"Of course. Thank you Perfectia. Here's some coin, I'm sorry it's not more but we did pay for your stay and treatment."

Instructor Antheol pulled a water skin from his bag and showed it to me, "This should help with the nausea when coming near the Death Scar. Those guards wouldn't have given you Bloodthistle if they knew how old you were. That stuff does help with nausea but also has a lot of other side effects. It just grows like weeds around there. You understand right?"

I nodded.

He put the water skin in my bag, "This is chamomile with honey, tasty, but it won't get you high."

"Thank you. Is there any place I can learn Blacksmithing?" I asked.

He shrugged slightly, "You're in Silvermoon City you can learn anything you want."

The three of them left and I still had papers I had to fill out. It was strange when the hospital asked me if I was over the age of 50 and there were some guardian papers that needed to be filled out, but I just put that I was 60 so I could leave. I left the emergency room and looked at the city me and my mother had lived at for a least a little while. I tried to find the old apartment me and my mother stayed at but to my surprise when I went to the building me and my mother lived it was replaced by a gargantuan size wall. It must have stood well over 100 feet tall with a wooden door that seemed to open up. A few other large towers but the city seemed a lot more compressed than I remembered. The areas where I could reach a higher ground and see the whole city were blocked off. Even the tower shops I went to seemed like there was no way to get to a second floor. I talked to one the guards that was guarding this giant door, "When was all this built?" I asked.

The guard looked at me, "Two years ago, I think. I haven't even seen this door open since it was built. It blocks off the undead that come from the Death Scar and the smell, thank goodness." He looked around, "But if you listen really closely you can hear the undead try to scratch their way through."

I came closer to the door and put my ear toward to it. I didn't hear anything.

"Be careful, a spectre can move right through, but we purify the door about every day." He warned.

"Oh." I said as I put my ear toward the door.

I heard a loud scream burst in my eardrums scaring me out of my skin. I yelled and fell backwards in response to the noise; I looked and saw that it was the other guard from the other side of the door. They both started laughing at me, "I'm sorry… This post is so boring I had to see if someone would fall for that."

I held on my heart and laughed slightly in relief, "Oh, um, do you know where I can learn Blacksmithing?"

He nodded, still kind of laughing, "Bemarrin teaches the trade of Blacksmithing in Farstriders Square on the north eastern part of the city. While a somewhat… dirty trade. I suppose it has its merits."

I nodded and picked myself up, "Thank you."

He nodded and said thank you as well.

I walked through the areas that were on my map and saw a few elves practicing archery and sword play, in fine green chain mail armor. The elves that were working the forge were surprisingly gritty, I looked at the red haired male elf banging metal on an anvil. "Are you Blacksmith Bermarrin?"

He looked at me and nodded, "Just Bermarrin actually."

I looked at him strangely, " Bermarrin… " I was waiting for a surname or something.

He looked around a bit, "Bermarrin of the house Farstriders."

I was even more confused, "You're a…"

"A slave, yes." He rolled his eyes, "And I can teach Blacksmithing."

I looked around and saw the people working the forge and there wasn't a black-haired elf in sight. Two of them were ginger and one was actually blonde, "And they're also?"

He nodded, "Yep. So did you come here to learn Blacksmithing or to gawk at the rainbow colors slaves?"

I was actually uncomfortable about the whole thing, "Well… I, Blacksmithing but…"

He looked at me strangely, up and down, really sizing me up to the point I needed to looked back at his face. If he was a slave then he shouldn't have been talking to me like the way he was, "Can I ask, your hands and tone say that you've worked, but the way you walk and have been looking at me say you came from money?"

I nodded, "This is my third day I've been in Silvermoon since The Invasion, I'm from the House of Dawnstar, but I'm a bastard."

He nodded, "Oh…" He laughed slightly, "Me too, actually. Surname was Rosegate, should have been a florist but I was better and making gates then roses."

I shrugged, "Why are you a slave or any of these people?"

He looked away as if recalling a memory, "Because it's better to be a slave in a rich house then a soldier in a poor one. When I showed a potential and not necessarily a talent in the arcane, my family tried to force me to start using fel and make blood contracts with demons. Everyone has had to soldier up and make themselves useful for the garrison. Becoming a slave for the Farstriders meant I was going to have food in my stomach, a bed to sleep in, freedom to craft whatever I please, and never see a day of combat." He laughed slightly, "I know that sounds cowardly, but it was the only choice I've ever really made for myself."

I didn't want to stay on this subject, it seemed too familiar with myself, but I was choosing to fight. I thought about bringing up the subject of black-haired elves, but I could tell that it made people uncomfortable to bring up. Still, so much of my people's culture had changed in the pass few years not including how hard it was not to stare at the Undead I saw. I had heard stories about them but seeing them myself was a bit to take in. "So can you teach me how to craft swords that can hold mana crystals and whatnot?" I asked him.

He looked at me strangely, "Let's get you started with some Copper first before we worry about gem placement weapons."

Surprisingly, it only took me a little bit over an hour to learn the basics. I guess I had seen professionals do this and copper was a lot more flexible than I thought. "Do you have any more materials to work with?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No, but I think I got it. Thank you for the lesson Bermarrin Rosegate."

He rolled his eyes, "You're welcome. Come back when you have some more materials we can work on."

I started walking toward the exit south and I remembered I still hadn't dealt with that task I need to do in the east. It had been a whole day since I took that assignment and I started to wonder if someone was still waiting for me. So, I started running. I thought it would be best to stay as close to the city gates as I could when I crossed the Death Scar. I drank a little bit of the chamomile before I got hit with the smell of it, and to my relief there were a group of blood elf soldiers blocking the impalement of the city.

"You there!" A woman leading the group of soldiers seem to call to me.

I looked around and behind me to see if she was talking to someone else. I pointed to myself.

"Yes you. Come here." I came closer to her, "You're that adventurer that reduced that group of undead to a pile of ash."

I laughed and shook my head, "I think you have me confused with someone else."

One of the other rangers looked at me, "No, that's not her. She had red hair."

"No, she was blonde and looked high as a kite, remember? She looked like she was about to get overrun." Another elf ranger argued.

"Well, when I came close, she had red hair, that's not her. She's clearly blonde."

The one that was leading them shut them up, "Quite all of you. Regardless, it would help if you killed a hand full of undead and I can give you some armor I been holding onto from our fallen troops."

I looked down the black darked path and the smell wasn't making me as sick as it should. But I did wonder about this red hair adventurer they were talking about. Maybe someone else had seen her.

I ran down the path, cool, calm, and collected. I watched my flank, and I was able to dispatch skeletons in about 5 to 15 seconds seeing how they attacked caring little for defense. I made a full circle from the palest part of the Death Scar that seemed like a place for carts and horses. Then ran back to the ranger leader that assigned me the task, "Nope, you're not her." She said as I ran back to her. "Your sword swings lack commitment. The girl we saw was gyrating and moaning, it was kind of titillating, to be honest."

I looked at her wide eyed, "Oh… Yeah that doesn't sound like me. But I'll send her your way if I see anything like that."

She nodded, "Regardless, you fulfilled the contract, here's your reward." She handed me two used chain gloves and I put them on.

I ran west determined this time, I realized that I had gotten lost, sidetracked, and at some point I completely forgot about the assignment I was given by Ley-Keeper Caidanis. I had even had one of my black outs, so it had been a little bit close to 24 hours since I was given the assignment. I feel like I made new paths as I ran through the tall grass and I tried to make a straight away to Ley-Keeper Caidanis. When I came to the tower, both him and the dwarf were gone, so I kept heading east. No distractions this time, but I couldn't believe how heavy this chain mail was getting as I ran. I found a bridge. One that I didn't see last time I was looking for her, when I crossed it. When I crossed it a saw a blonde elf in a purple dress and a mage staff. I ran up to her out of breath, "Hey… Sorry… I'm late."

"Where have you been?" She asked.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't find the place… and then there were these apprentices… and then I got sick near the Death Scar… and then I had to be taken to the hospital. And then, what did you want me to do?"

She nodded, "Well eventually Caidanis came by when you didn't show up but had to bring his dwarf. We turn our backs on him for five minutes and then this happened." She pointed at the tower she was outside of. I looked closer and there were these balloon shaped mana wraiths that seemed to be wandering the cut grass. "We have no proof that there was foul play but now we can't even get near the mechanics."

"I'm sorry."

She put her hand out to interrupt me and shook her head, "Clear out the wraiths and you can assist me with the mechanics."

I nodded and looked outward. I didn't know anything about mechanics, but I was becoming more confident when it came to killing stuff.

I engaged in combat and it seemed I ran into two different types of enemies… No, that's not the word. Parasite? Vermin? Pest… Yeah, I think that works. Frankly because the whole thing seemed more like an extermination job like when a sewage pipe breaks and draws in insects, then rodents, then more formidable wildlife like cats, foxes, and racoons, then finally full-blown predators like wolves, mountain lions, and bears. This was kind of the latter I suppose. There were two kinds of pest. Specters and Wraiths, that seemed to have some kind of sentient intelligent to stay where the mana was flowing and attack anything that came near it. The specters or Mana Stalkers as I was told they were called, had a substance that was like broken glass flowing in the wind, and did more damage when I swung my sword through it a few times. The wraiths on the other hand were like hitting a big bag of sand and was about as graceful as one too. I guess killing these things felt more tedious than anything else. After killing all the ones I could find I came back to Lay-Keeper Velania and she made a circular motion with her finger and said, "More."

I shrugged with my sword in hand, "That's all that is here."

She rolled her eyes, "There are more on the hills, keep looking."

I rolled my eyes and groaned, "Fine."

Well, I found an enemy, he seemed to be an elf in all accounts when I first laid eyes on him, but he was covered head to toe in clothes and leathers, his only exposed skin being his eyes and ears. "Bonjour?" I said in Thalassian (Hey)

He looked at me with wide golden glowing eyes and rushed me with his sword behind him. I made a quick move to my left and watched him trip over my foot, but he regained his footing, "Oh are you?" I tried to say in broken Common.

He strikes at me at me with swinging slashes side to side strong and quick, but predictable. I blocked as I held my sword defensively. I used my nondominant hand to hold on the steel of my weapon and brought it upwards at the base of his blade close to the hilt. That brought his weapon upwards flying in the air. I saw him look upwards and I brought the blade behind his head then pulled him close into my knee. I felt the crushing of his nose and teeth slammed into the mail of my armor. I pushed him backwards on the floor and put the point of my sword on his neck, "Speak! Wait are you doing ere!"

I saw him bite down and crunch something. Then a white fuzzy liquid came out of his mouth and his body started shaking as he passed away. I was confused by the whole thing, who he was, what he was. My people rarely hurt each other unless it was for mana, as I looked at the elf he seemed far from Wretched. I looked more into the person who attacked, and I found a letter with a purple seal and a white tree on it.

When I opened it, I could see a sketch of the arcane sanctum and words and symbols I couldn't read. As I held the letter the words and images started to fade until I was holding a plain piece of paper. I brought the letter to Lay-Keeper Velania and she seem to be more concerned with the seal, "This is a Darnassian seal."

I shrugged not knowing what that word meant.

She could tell I wasn't getting it, "Darnassian, from Darnassus… Teldrassil, the world tree? It's where the Night Elves come from?"

I shook my head thinking about the elves of Kalimdor, "I thought they came from Nordrassil."

I explained to her that I hadn't been in Azeroth in four or five years.

She crossed her arms, "It's really a lot to take in and I wouldn't be able to explain it all in a quick chat. Just know that the purple skinned elves are enemies now and if this letter had what you say it had. We have proof the dwarf is a mole."

I shrugged feeling a bit uneasy about the whole thing.

"You did everything I asked." She said as she reached into her bag for a sword and some coin, "I should be able to take care of the sanctum once Caidanis comes back, but you need to bring this to Falcon Wing Square to Aeldon Sunbrand now." She gave me the sword and a few silvers to me.

I nodded to her, "Who was that again?"

She rolled her eyes, "The Captain of the Blood Hawks."

I laughed as I remembered that title better then his actual name, "Oh right."

I walk north on the road and really had to think about what was going on in the world. Night Elves were enemies and I didn't know why, dwarves or at least this dwarf was doing in incriminating thing. I remembered Thane Korth'azz, that he made sure his men kept me alive. I think that HE wouldn't do something like this. I had only known one dwarf my whole life and this would be my second, so the thought was kind of split down the middle. When I crossed the north sanctum the two still weren't there, and I guess I was kind of glad about that. When I finally walked up to Captain Aeldon I asked where they might be.

"They went to Silvermoon City to discuss legal issues about the accident. The dwarf was apologetic at first but when gold started getting involved, he started pointing blames. Boring stuff really. "He explained.

I sighed and handed him the letter I found, "I found this outside the west sanctum. The paper had writing but it went blank when it hit open air."

He nodded and took the paper, took it to a desk, and put another piece of thin paper on top of that one. Then moved a piece of thin charcoal over it and held it up to the light, "It's Dwarven, we have evidence now."

I shrugged, "So what happens now?"

He smiled slightly, "I'll let you decide."

I was afraid he was going to say that, "Can I have a night to sleep on it. I'm pretty tired."

He nodded, "Sure, those two should be back at there post first thing in the morning, you can represent this evidence and see what he says." I started to walk away to the inn, "Oh and Perfectia. If you decide to kill him, bring back his head. I won't take anything less, we all have to pick a side you know."

I nodded and bought a room with a bath in the Inn, and I've been writing. So, I guess I better get some sleep.