Chapter Two: Escalation
Within the throneroom of Thrall's Great Hall a figure walked past the torches. As he did, the Kor'kron warriors standing guard murmured among themselves. Some put their hands to weapons. Thrall was uneasy himself.
For the robed figure that approached him now was already dead. The scent of his rot could be smelled, even through his concealing robes. He walked with a limp, and his face was concealed by a mask. Two slavering skeletal creatures with huge claws and lolling tongues were with him.
"What are these undead doing here?" asked a warrior.
Thrall raised a hand. "Hold your axe, warrior. They have come to us under flag of parley and may not be attacked. Speak quickly emissary and do not fear for your life."
"Great Warchief Thrall, " said the emissary, "I am Putress, emissary of Sylvanas Windrunner. She is now the Queen of Lordaeron and has driven the Dreadlords and the Lich King into the sea.
"We seek to join the Horde and join our forces together as one."
More murmurs of anger. Once again, Thrall remained silent. "Why is it that you seek to join us?"
"The Alliance is massing at our borders," said Putress. "My Lady Sylvanas allowed their armies to retreat back to their own lands. However, we expect we may face the same enemies again soon.
"We have no desire to fight our once-living countrymen. If we were to join the Horde, the truce between you might protect us."
"I was told that you murdered their commander," said Thrall.
"It is true," said Putress. "However, Grand Marshall Garithos attempted to exterminate the Blood Elves. The Dark Lady desired retribution for her race. But his men were allowed to leave willingly. And they did so gladly."
Thrall was not sure he believed this creature. "What have you called yourselves?"
"The Forsaken," said Putress.
"Ignore this beast, Thrall," said Drek'thar to one side. "They are pawns of the legion. Possessed by unholy magic."
"Were our people not once slaves of the Legion, Drek'thar?" asked Thrall. "No, I will not disregard them out of hand. If they truly wish to change, I will not deny them.
"I will meet with Lady Sylvanas herself and judge the matter."
"Very well, then. I assure you, we have only the best intentions," said Putress.
Then he turned to depart.
As he left, a huge strong warrior rushed through the door in a hurry. He kneeled quickly before Thrall, who eyed him. "What is it, Burx?"
"Warchief, there is a report from the sea," said Burx. "One of our ships came under attack by pirates, and the Alliance did nothing to stop it.
"This is an outrage, Warchief! The humans agreed to protect our fleets!"
And Burx was advocating war again. Wonderful. "Quiet. Let me see it."
Burx offered him the letter and Thrall unrolled it. He read through it quickly. Wonderful. "There was a heavy fog that night. It is possible that the humans were not aware of what happened."
"But Warchief, they sounded the warning horn," said Burx. "The humans are clearly complicit in this attack! We should march-"
"Enough," said Thrall. "I will arrange a meeting with Lady Proudmoore to ascertain the truth of this. In the meantime, you are to take no action against the humans. This is likely a third party." He sincerely doubted Jaina capable of this. But it was possible she could not control her own people…
The mist was rising high.
Tanith felt disappointed. They'd passed an orc vessel under attack, and she'd wanted to join in the fun. But Captain Tar flat out ignored the matter. He muttered something letting the orcs clean up their own mess, and that was it.
And now they'd reached a shore, though she could hardly make out the details in the mist. The Tar looked to her. "This is as far as I'll take you. The orcs have been bloody protective of their waters lately. You'll have to take one of the longboats to shore."
"Fine, I know how to use it," said Tanith.
"You think I'm giving you a longboat?" asked Captain Tar incredulously. "No. Bim, take Tanith out to the shore."
Tanith nodded and got into the boat with Bim, who lowered them began to row toward shore. Tanith began to polish her blades over one knee as they passed through the mist. The ship gradually faded into it. "So, what's all I hear about piracy?" she asked.
"There is a mutual defense treaty between humans and orcs." said Bim. "They're supposed to guard each others ships?"
"And how many ships do the orcs send out?" asked Tanith.
"They don't actually have much of a navy." scoffed Bim. "Most of their ships go through Ratchet, which has no treaty with Theramore."
"Meaning that the Alliance are obligated to guard the Horde's ships and get nothing in return?" asked Tanith.
"Well, our merchants heading into Kalimdor get the same protection," said Bim. "In theory."
"And how many merchants head into Kalimdor?" asked Jaina.
"…Well, most of the trade is with Darnassus by ship. That and the Eastern Kingdoms." said Bim. "See, orcs are real violent. Their merchants often get rough, and it generally isn't worth the effort of trading with them. And since any time there is a fight in ratchet, both sides get locked up, nobody trades with orcs if they can avoid it."
"So how do the orcs sell anything?" asked Tanith.
"They've had to delegate everything to other races." said Bim. "Goblins mostly. Orcs are good at fighting, but that's all their good at. But the goblins aren't technically part of the Horde, and they're sure as hell not going to help us without being paid. But at the same time they have an official seal of approval from the Horde. So we're technically obligated to help them."
"In other words, Lady Proudmoore's treaty gives the orcs huge benefits," noted Tanith. "And the humans get nothing."
"When the arrangement was made, everyone assumed that the orcs would be merchants," said Bim. "Then they figured out you weren't allowed to cleave in the skull from the person across from you. After that, they disregarded the profession as dishonorable.
"There are some orc merchants, but by an large they think of bean-counting as a depraved job."
"Idiots." scoffed Tanith. "They'll be slaves to the goblins in a few generations. Sooner or later the goblins will get rich enough, so all the warriors are taking orders from then. Then they'll take over and dispose of the warrior elite.
"I'm no merchant, but I understand the need."
"Well, maybe you can tell them that." said Bim. "Theramore is definitely economically dominant, though. We've got the best port on the continent and good relations with all the other producers. The orcs have to work through middlemen for trade with everyone but the night elves. And they hate the Horde.
"The real catch is that if the orcs wanted to they could easily wipe Theramore out. We've got to tread carefully around the beasts."
"You can tread carefully around a beast all you want," said Tanith. "Once it has eaten everything else, it will eat you. The way I see it, the only way the orcs will be able to keep control is by conquering more territory. If peace ever sets in, people will start to question why the warriors are necessary.
"If I were Warchief Thrall, I'd conquer Theramore and put the people to work. Then I'd burn Ratchet to the ground."
"You're pretty knowledgeable about all this," said Bim.
"I'm a reluctant intellectual." said Tanith. "That's why I'm so good at war. Right now Theramore is very rich and in a position of economic dominance. However, it has no military credibility.
"That means that sooner or later the Horde will wipe it out, either to gain an advantage or out of simple spite. Beggar thy neighbor is a popular policy among savages. If Theramore doesn't establish itself as credible the city will burn in a few years."
"You sure you don't want to join Tiragarde Keep?" asked Bim. "Seems like you'd fit in."
Tanith switched to her other sword. "Nah, no point. I looked at the maps. Holding the place is a lost cause. It's difficult to supply and doesn't maintain any kind of strategic resources. It's a total waste of men and resources. And it might cause a war we can't win."
"So you don't like the peace," noted Bim. "And you don't like the idea of war. What do you like?"
"Wars you can win," said Tanith. "To win a war, you need several things. An achievable objective. Strength of arms. And good leadership."
"What about proper diplomacy?" asked Bim.
They hit the shore, and Tanith sheathed her swords and put one leg outside onto the shore. "Little know secret, Bim. War is an extension of diplomacy. Take it out of the picture, and you're walking with one leg." Then she hoisted her pack and walked out. "Thanks for taking me this far. Hey uh, are there any notable enemies of the orcs in this region?"
"Well, the quillboars used to own it," said Bim. "We had one or two deals with them before the orcs drove them out. Course Thrall decided not to finish them off."
"How magnanimous of him." said Tanith. "I'm sure they'd love to stab him in the bag. Good luck."
"To you as well," said Bim. Then Tanith strode off into the mist. This was the second time she'd marched into a dangerous land on her own. And this time she didn't have a goddess to help her on her way. The mist was clearing at least, and she came to the top of a hill.
There was Tiragarde Keep, and it was worse than Tanith thought. The walls were broken down and shattered, and yet there were men standing guard by them. The keep was well contained, but even that had breaches in it. Whoever chose to hold this place was an idiot. And the orcs were idiots for not finishing them off. While Proudmoore was an idiot for letting the Horde walk all over her.
There was no shortage of idiots in this world, which gave Tanith the advantage. Of course, since Lieutenant Benedict was an idiot and devoted to a cause, he probably would not abandon it. Even Proudmoore had seen that. "Now let's see. If I go straight to them and join, they'll put me as a foot soldier. But if I offer them Proudmoore's offer, they'll reject me out of hand.
"So, how to get into their good graces." She turned her gaze elsewhere and brought out a map. The Valley of Trials loomed before her. A place where the orcs tested their new recruits. Which meant that it was guarded by maybe a few veterans and a green recruits.
Tanith made for it.
As the mist cleared Tanith began to wonder why the orcs had ever come here in the first place. This land was a barren wasteland of scrub grass and dying trees. Thrall had got to be the stupidest leader she'd ever met. He'd had first pick of where to found his new country and he'd chosen this desiccated wasteland.
He should have taken Theramore and used that. It wasn't like Proudmoore would have been able to stop him. On she walked and began to whistle. Soon enough she came to the gates of the Valley of Trials. High walls, lots of rocks, a few trees.
Good god this land was worthless. Tanith couldn't understand how the orcs could think this was a good place to settle. It wasn't defensible, except in the sense that nobody in their right mind would try to invade the worthless place. She supposed some cliche about good lands making people weak might be possible.
But that was nonsense. Fertile lands were not defensible and were in high demand. So someone who owned fertile ground had to be really good at killing people, or they'd be wiped out. Idiots.
"You, human! What are you doing in this land!" snarled a voice.
Tanith paused as a number of orcs rushed up to her, axes drawn. They were very large, thick-bodied. Green skin and lots of skull-themed ornaments. Huge muscles. She sighed and put on her charming face. "I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you were obligated to provide security for merchants. Not harass them."
"You don't look like any merchant I know." said the orc suspiciously.
"And I'm sure you know plenty of them." scoffed Tanith. "If you must know, I was a guard on a caravan. I ran into trouble with the quillboar and lost my client. Then I got lost and ended up here. I was hoping to ask for directions and also purchase supplies."
"Well off with you, you'll get no help from me." snapped the orc. "Why Thrall tolerates your kind is beyond me."
And that was their last chance. If Tanith had had doubts about doing this, they were gone. She smiled in a friendly fashion. "I'd just like to thank you for rendering my conscience sparkling clean on this."
"What?" said the orc.
"I'm about to join Tiragarde Keep," said Tanith.
In what was probably a blur to them, she drew her swords and cleaved two of their skulls. They screamed, and the blood spewed all over her as she brought around her blades to rake two throats. Four down.
"Invaders! To arms!" screamed someone.
And down came two more. Tanith rushed to meet them, a smile growing across her face. She ducked under an axe blow and cut off a leg. As her enemy fell screaming, she parried two blows from opposite directions. Then she turned her swords and driving them through two hearts. The last one swung at her, but she yielded ground before his strokes, parrying for fun. She leaped over the legless one who was screaming and jabbed under her enemies guard. Her blade ran him through the stomach. He keeled over, and she stepped around to behead him.
Not a bad start. Too easy, though.
She stepped over her headless enemy as the orc beneath her looked up in terror. "You won't get away with this human! Warchief Thrall will bring the whole Horde down on you!"
Tanith raised her sword. "I'm looking forward to it."
Then she brought down her sword and chopped his head clean off. Still, waste not. She walked from one corpse to another, chopping off their heads one by one. Several times she had to shoo off birds of carrions. At last, she had eight freshly decapitated heads, a nice round number. And her ticket into Benedict's good graces.
And there were no witnesses. Anyone could have done this.
Still, she needed a sack. She hadn't thought to bring one. So she made her way up to the orcs camps and began to search through it. Soon enough, she found one. Walking back down, she fitted each of the heads into the sack. It was just a fit.
"In the valley of trials, Garshun, you will be tested and molded into a true warrior." said a voice. "You must swallow your pride and-"
Around the bend came two people. An older orc, walking with a limp, and a younger one, a teenager, though he was about Tanith's size. They were a big species weren't they, like minotaurs.
They saw the corpses and became witnesses.
The older orcs raised his axe. "Run, Garshun! Tell Warchief Thrall of what's happened-"
Tanith hurled one of her swords, and it caught the old bastard in the face. He reeled back, dead and Garshun kneeled by him. Tanith rushed at him, smile widening. Ten kills instead of eight was just fine by her.
And then Garshun did the first sensible thing anyone had done all day.
He ran like hell. Very quickly too. Tanith slowed to a halt and didn't bother chasing him. She was wearing armor and he had longer legs. So she pulled out her sword and climbed to the top of a hill. She watched him run toward a distant orcish settlement. It was reasonably well-fortified because it was on a hill. There were no defenses to speak of, since there were huge holes where there should have been gates. But she'd read it held a large force of troops at any one time. It was also the designated meeting place between Jaina and Thrall. So, what to do?
Well, she could try to make it to Tiragarde, but her mission would be botched. They'd track her there, and she'd lose her status as Jaina's subordinate. She sat down to think. Chances were they would send men after her, so if she led them into the valley, she might be able to catch them in an ambush.
So long as she left no survivors, she could always just let them think one of the soldiers from Tiragarde did it. That settled, she stood and began to walk into the valley. As far as worthless barren deserts went, it was moderately less worthless. There were trees here, and some water, plenty of animals as well.
But it was all far too open — no good places to hide and ambush.
Then Tanith heard a howl. Glancing back, she saw orcs coming toward her. They were riding on top of huge wolves. Tanith was stunned. She hadn't been aware there were animals large enough to bear humans, let alone orcs.
Quickly Tanith scanned around her and saw a cave. She ran for it. The orcs must have seen her because they howled and their masters rode them after her. Still, she had a head start and soon made it to the cave.
Inside the cave, she was immediately surrounded by dozens of humans. They drew swords, and she raised her hands in gesture of peace. They wore white tabards with the symbol of an open flame on them. "Wait, wait, wait, I come in peace," said Tanith.
"Do you?" asked an orc emerging. He was clad in red robes and around him were many strange imp creatures. They held fireballs.
"We can't risk this one learning the truth, Yarrog." said one of the humans, a man with red hair. "We've got to kill her."
"So, you're not working with the Horde." guessed Tanith.
"No," said Yarrog. "We are of the Burning Blade! We will destroy this truce between Alliance and Horde! We will deliver this world to the Burning Legion!"
"Oh, that's nice. Way to be ambitious," said Tanith. "Now I've got some good news. We're here on a common purpose. There is a large force of orcs heading for this very cave. The way I see it, you can kill me and die, or work with me and maybe live."
The human stared. "You lead them to us!" "I didn't even know you were here," said Tanith as the howls grew nearer. "Can we kill each other later?"
Quickly a plan was put together. Tanith drew both swords and ran to the mouth of the cave. There she waited in plain sight as the orcs rushed toward her. Waiting for them, she ran back inside, and they followed her recklessly.
"FOR THE HORDE!" They called,
Even as they did, the Burning Blade closed in on them from every direction. The imps launched waves of fireballs into their midsts, killing several. A wolf was set aflame and ran howling from the cave. To their credit, they fought tooth and nail and neither surrendered nor pleaded for mercy. Of course, they were surrounded on all sides.
Tanith hacked down three in moments as the orcs were divided and conquered. Soon they and all their wolves were dead to the man. The Burning Blade had suffered only a few wounded. These were stabbed to death.
That was a bit harsh.
"These guys really aren't very good soldiers are they?" asked Tanith.
"What?" asked Yarrog.
"Anyone with any brains would have realized that they have us cornered in a cave in their own territory," said Tanith. "All they'd have to do is set up defenses and starve us out. Or pile branches high and smoke us out — anything but launching a stupid, obvious, head-on attack on a chokepoint.
"Of course they didn't know you were hiding out here. But they shouldn't have chased after me like that."
"Well, they are orcs." scoffed the human.
Tanith shrugged. "I don't judge people by race. Just what I get for killing them."
"Why were these after you?" asked Yarrog.
"Oh, I slaughtered all the trainees at the Valley of Trials," said Tanith. "At least I think they were trainees. They might have been warriors."
"What?! Why?" said Yarrog.
"I needed to make contact with Lieutenant Benedict, but he wasn't going to listen to anything I had to say. So I figured I'd killed some orcs," said Tanith. "But then they sent wolf riders after me. I thought this place looked defensible, and here we are."
Yarrog sighed. "…Kill her."
"Why?" asked Tanith, drawing her swords. They hesitated to attack her.
"We have been working for months in absolute secrecy to sabotage the Alliance and Horde! And in one move you have exposed us!" snarled Yarrog.
"Oh. I see," said Tanith. "Well, it's a good thing I'm of more use to you alive."
"What do you mean?" asked Yarrog, eyeing her suspiciously.
"Because I've got contact with Lieutenant Benedict," said Tanith. "And Lieutenant Benedict is an enemy of the Horde and part of the Alliance. And since you want a war with the Horde, the enemy of my enemy, is my friend."
Yarrog eyed her for a moment. Finally, he relented. "…Fair enough.
"Turus, get the men together. We got to Tiragarde Keep."
"What about the plan?" asked Turus, the red-haired human.
"The plan is in ashes." snapped Yarog. "But if they see you join Tiragarde Keep, they'll think the humans are getting much stronger. My people are quick to attack, so they'll launch an assault before making any kind of plan."
"With a bit of tactical thinking, we can deal them another defeat," said Tanith. "And as soon as that is over, I'll have transportation ready to take us away."
"What about these?" asked Turus, motioning to he dead bodies.
"Cut their heads off and hang the bodies where the world can see," said Yarrog.
"This looks like the beginnings of a beautiful friendship," said Tanith.
This would take a lot of work. But if Tanith pulled this off, she could defeat the Horde, complete her mission, and make it Thrall's fault. It seemed like it could be a lot more fun this way.
.
Author's Note:
And here we are. I was surprised at how much traffic my first chapter got. Truth be told I was half-expecting to get like, two views and no reviews or likes. So this was a pleasant surprise.
Keep in mind, my knowledge of Durotar comes from WoW wiki. I never played very far as a Horde character. Or an Alliance character for that matter. WoW just never grabbed me.
Just in case you thought that Tanith would just be ruining Jaina's plans, I'm afraid that's not the case. The title is Tanith Ruins Everything, and it was titled that for a reason.
Also, I've always theorized that Sylvanas let Garithos' men go after Balnazzar died. We only see her kill Garithos, and it makes Frozen Throne a bit less of a downer. The men under Garithos then sort of dispersed among the other alliance factions. This would go a long way to explaining why the Scarlet Crusade only became big after Garithos kicked the bucket. It probably got a huge burst of manpower from his former soldiers.
