A job was a job, and the road was still long. Remaining in Azshara for too long would make the trail run cold and though Ludrasa felt horrible for Ora… They both needed this. The job in Azshara wasn't worth it, both because she failed to fulfill the request of her biggest employer, and because she managed to nearly get a good friend killed. Cleaning up some ruins for a bunch of strange environmentalist goblins is one thing, but hunting down a rare and frightened Void monstrosity in an extremely off-putting cavern is another. And that thing took a lot from them, but mostly Ora. It took some pride from Ludrasa, but it took a good chunk of Ora's good arm off. Both the pain of getting melted by the void-toxin of a mael's stringer and the pain of getting her arm amputated without anything to numb it had left the orc in a haze for the few days they stayed in the port. Time that Ludrasa spent pacing.
Ludrasa woke up unreasonably early, as she always did, and looked up to see that Ora finally managed to sleep through a night. The pain in what remained of her arm had been intense, and only now did it finally seem to be dulling. That or Ora-Ur had gotten used to the agony, blind to it. Either way, this gave Ludrasa time to see a few things through before she tried to persuade Ora to leave. Dressed and ready to face her new employer, she made her way down the stairs to face a mostly empty tavern. A few early birds were scattered through the room, but they stayed on their end of the room. None of them, consciously or not, made the choice to sit anywhere near the man Ludrasa needed to speak to. Sitting at the table at the back of the room, now lit by candlelight, Demo O'Gorgo waited for her. She'd known him for a small amount of time, meeting in Orgrimmar a few days prior. It seemed to be a simple meeting, a forgettable thing, but he had proven that it was by no chance that they had met.
Not only did he know what Ludrasa and Ora faced, he knew both of them fairly well. Somehow he even knew that Ora-Ur was there, even though her presence was by sheer chance. O'Gorgo was something more than human. Something that was playing his cards very well, as he had easily convinced Ludrasa to accept doing some work for him. It wasn't by chance that he reappeared the day she planned to leave, either. In front of him were two pieces of paper, one much more worn than the other. The worn parchment was carefully removed from some sort of notice board, at least so it appeared due to the holes where nails used to hold the paper up. She hadn't the faintest clue what the worn notice was, but she did have a good idea what the cleaner page was. He promised her a written contract, after all. Approaching the table, what remained of Ludrasa's vision could see that O'Gorgo had changed shape once more. Where he was a man when they spoke days prior, he had returned to being a Forsaken. Not a rotten zombie, by any means, more a Forsaken akin to Blightcaller. A pristine corpse with few signs of death, though to Ludrasa, she knew it was a mere illusion. An illusion she couldn't see through, but an illusion nonetheless.
His hand gestured for Ludrasa to sit, his trademark smile blooming across his face, "I promised you proof of employment. Here it is." He picked the clean page up, handing it over to Ludrasa. Immediately it became clear that O'Gorgo was still trying to stay on her good side, as the page was written in bold enough text for her to easily be able to read it. There was even texturing to the words, meaning she could run her fingers over the ones that still might have been hard to read. All it read was 'I require someone to deal with Aman Del'Quren's troublesome work. He has been an annoyance and requires to face his timely demise. With his death, I shall reward the successful hunter of the Last Del'Quren Son with something born of their wildest wishes.'
"Simple, to the point. And now, you're bound to your word." Ludrasa sneered, "I've done enough with tricky sorts like you to know that your spoken word isn't good enough."
"It's a fair play, Miss Shieza. I wouldn't trust me to keep to my word, either." Ludrasa stood to leave, but O'Gorgo lifted a hand up to ask her to stay. Curiously, she sat back down and watched him pick up the more worn parchment, "And now that you're taking my contract, I felt I would do you a favor and find another job befitting of your talent. You see, there is another reason I have you looking for Del'Quren."
Ludrasa's eye twitched, "Another reason?" A fist slammed into the table, "ANOTHER REASON?!"
"Yes! I apologize for not being forthcoming in our first conversation, but trust me in the fact that I did not originally plan on telling you this." O'Gorgo's voice was pleasant, his expression unphased by Ludrasa's outburst, "You see, Del'Quren has an employer, like most of us do."
She rubbed her hand while she listened, "He has a boss. That's not shockin'. I mean, why else would he be runnin' around and summonin' Void things? He's a cultist."
"Not exactly, but you have the right idea." O'Gorgo cleared his throat, reading directly from the parchment he held, "To all those who seek adventure or to safeguard the Horde, I beseech your attention and help. With the chaos of this war and the arrival of unsavory groups, there's been little time to focus on the heart of the Horde. When I came to this land, I was shocked by how injured your heartland was. What I was even more shocked by was the darkness that hid within it. The full details of my mission will be explained on arrival, trust that your award will be great for it comes directly from the Queen of Zandalar." He looked up to Ludrasa, "Signed by Warguard Ko'hea."
"Ko'hea, huh?" Ludrasa rolled her jaw, "What a coincidence…" The venom was dripping from her voice, "I don't like how this all lines up, O'Gorgo."
"You don't have to like it, Miss Sheiza." He pointed to the contract, "The map leads to Stonetalon, which you will be going to. To achieve what I ask of you, you must aid Ko'hea the Vigilant."
"Yeah, yeah… I get it." She dismissively waved her hands at him, "As much as I hate that you're leading me on, the rewards from this are too much to leave alone. Anyhow, I owe it to Ora now. Payment from the crown of Zandalar? She'll never have to worry about livin' in rags again."
"I'm glad you could be convinced, Miss Sheiza." He stood, his smile widened, "I have a feeling this will be an unforgettable adventure."
Ludrasa blinked and the enigmatic Man of Glass was gone, naught more than a whisper in the shadows. It was infuriating to her that she could not sense any magic when he vanished like that, that she could not sense where he came or went. In her trade, everything needed an explanation. Everything could be boiled down into a science or magic that was easily tracked by individuals like herself, well. Near everything, at least. The times that something appeared that she nor her colleagues could explain were sparse and quickly taken care of. Something told her that her new employer would be something far more… relentless than the ones before. Even if the next time she was to meet Demo O'Gorgo was her last, she knew that others would either have the fortune or misfortune to cross his path. With a sour taste in her mouth, she reconciled with that unfortunate truth and headed back to Ora-Ur.
The patronage of the inn were looking right at her as she moved up the creaky stairs, likely questioning the whole reason she even came down the stairs. She spoke to someone who did not exist and left without another word. The elf made a mental note to never come back to this place, as she knew she was being labeled a madman by the people left in town. Perhaps they could chalk up her strange mannerisms to her battle with a hideous monstrosity from the Void, which could easily forgive the peculiarities of her visit. Whatever they thought, it was not good for business. The door to Ora and Ludra's shared room then opened, not by Ludrasa's doing, but by Ora-Ur.
Though her old armor had been ripped to shreds by the circumstances of their job, she'd spent the past few days repairing it or acquiring new pieces. It was still hard for Ludrasa to look at the stump of Ora's right arm, but the orc herself had already appeared to have moved past it. The younger races always astonished Ludrasa with how quickly they were able to forget and forgive, to keep pushing onwards. Their lives were too short to hold onto things, she figured. Ora looked into her eye, "I'm ready to go."
"And here I thought I had to convince you to leave." Ludrasa snorted, "Lucky me, huh?"
"Sounds like that isn't the first coincidence you've heard today." Ora shook her head, "Not the last, I'm feeling. What's the paper?"
"Do you want the good news, or bad news?" Ludrasa smirked, the paper still held in hand.
"Just speak." The orc was not playing Ludrasa's games today.
She tapped Ora on the shoulder, having walked past her, "Good news first, then. Got us another job, that luckily and coincidentally coincides with the one we already have." The orc flinched, clearly not expecting another job so soon, "And, it pays extremely well."
"The bad news?" She was quiet, thinking about what Ludrasa already said.
"It's a big pile of coincidences. You remember Ko'hea?" The nightborne handed the page over to Ora, who then held the contract up to read it.
A slow nod gave Ludra her answer, "And the Prelate gives little information about the threat she faces. The little she says is grave enough, considering what we know of her. First Alterac and now…" Ora flipped the paper around to see the map printed on the back, "Stonetalon."
"We're goin' to Stonetalon." Ludra watched Ora's face twist in confusion, "And before you ask, our employer confirmed that Aman is in Stonetalon. Unfortunately, he's not the target of the contract you're holdin'."
"I see." Ora handed it back to her, "So, you believe O'Gorgo? Or are we just being sent to knock out another target on a false premise?"
Ludra shrugged, "I can't really say. But I don't think O'Gorgo is lying to us, exactly. I think he's leading us on, for sure, but he's not lying."
"I'll trust your word, then." Ora-Ur let a frown cross her face, a look that told Ludra that she wasn't exactly keen on this idea, "But, if it does turn out to be a ruse… We're going to take him out, right?"
"Of course not." Ludrasa treated this like it should have been obvious, which forced Ora's frown to deepen, "In my line of work, that you're now in, we don't turn on employers even if they're idiot liars. People like O'Gorgo have connections, resources, and people. Even if we realized we'd been scammed, he's still payin'. He'll still have more work for us."
"And turning against him would just get us killed, or ruin your reputation." Ora-Ur grunted, "Okay. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it."
"Good! Saves us from an argument I'd win." Ludra walked into their shared room, "I'm gonna get my things together and we'll hit the road. The sooner we meet with Ko'hea the better."
It didn't take much time to collect the things they'd brought, as Ludra packed light and Ora didn't seem to pack at all. They said goodbye to Shockfuse's Landing, even saying goodbye to the Mayor on their way out. Sarble had been kind enough after Ludrasa finished her job, but they both knew her goodwill only could go so far. If Ludra and Ora were to remain in town, they'd likely have needed to change quite a lot about the way they lived, and that's just not in the cards for either of them. Ora-Ur was stubborn, and Ludrasa was an elf. To expect either of them to change just to pay rent in a town they didn't like, well… It was a stretch to believe. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to really get to Stonetalon at this stage of the war. The forests were solidly impossibly dangerous for two travelers to go in, and all the roads were either blown apart or contested. Luckily for the both of them, Ludra had a few favors left in Orgrimmar. She just had to get them there.
"Alright, Ora. I need you to throw this beacon as hard as you can into Bilgewater Harbor." Ludrasa pointed out to the edge of the Harbor's docks, "To get where we need to go, that's our first stop."
"Why don't we just charter a boat?" Ora narrowed her eyes, the orc turned Ludra's beacon away, "Not everything needs to be magical."
"Boats cost money; anyhow, you need to get over your aversion to my magic." The elf flicks some arcane energy into the beacon, "You use plenty of your own, so you aren't allowed to get mad about mine. Mine is good transportation, after all."
Ora-Ur crossed her arms, "If your magic is so good, why don't you just open a portal to Stonetalon? It'd save us a lot of time."
"Rule one of the school of arcane. Don't just open portals willy-nilly." Ludra scratched her head, a flush of embarrassment crossing her face, "Also, Rule Two… don't forget how to open portals. I've been out of school for a few hundred years, and it's been about the same amount of time since then since I've actually opened a portal. See, nobody was allowed to leave the bubble in Suramar until the Legion took over, and I got lazy."
"Well, at least you admit it." Ora-Ur pulled her arm back and hurled the small beacon as hard as she could. Even if she had the best throwing arm in the world, she'd've never made the distance. That's no issue for a person with shamanic powers, however. With a burst of wind, the small item was pushed out of sight.
"Keep it up. I don't want some sea critter to jump up and eat it." Ludra lifts the other beacon, "After all, I don't want to teleport into the middle of the bay with my hand in a mouth of some bass."
"I know what I'm doing, Ludrasa. Shut up and let me focus." Ora lifted her hands upwards, as a distant spout of water hopefully shot the small arcane beacon to where they needed it to go.
"Rude! Character growth!" Ludrasa screamed out like a small child, "Wow!"
"What's gotten into you?" Ora couldn't be any more confused by her partner.
The elf sneered at Ora, "Nothin'. HEY! Look over there!" Ludrasa pointed to the sea, Ora-Ur just keeping her eyes on the elf. She was noticeably disappointed that Ora didn't fall for that, "Party-pooper." She put her hand on Ora's shoulder, and they both teleported to where the other beacon had landed. Luckily enough, it was still midair when Ludrasa teleported them over, allowing them to easily land without needing to pull themselves out of the mud. A few goblins scattered when they saw two larger bodies appear mid-air, one shouting about needing a license to do that. The two cared little to hear the complaints of the denizens of the harbor and walked to a rickety building at the edge of the settlement.
Ora did not ask what exactly was held within the building, for Ludrasa walked towards it with purpose. Sometimes it was better to let an expert lead on. Something told Ora that Ludrasa had a knack for becoming familiar with run-down buildings that disguised their true purpose, as she watched the Nightborne knock in specific places on the door, the door swung wide open when she finished knocking. Though they didn't pay Ora much attention, Ora paid quite a bit of attention back to them. Never had she ever been familiar with the seedy underbelly of Azeroth, but she had been quite familiar with the underbelly of Outland. Her homeworld was much quieter than Azeroth, a smaller population and much more vast wastelands marked the cause of such quiet. The underbelly worked as well as it did on Outland because of the Ethereals, because of the weakness of any central government that was left in the ruins of Draenor. Perhaps Draenor's 'criminal' aspect was the only thing keeping it alive, supplies actually able to flow to places that needed them in thanks to Nexus Merchants and a lack of a force that actively wanted to stop them.
in Azeroth, things were obviously different. There were too many people in Azeroth, Ora felt, and too much war. With the world constantly changing and warring, there were so many chances for a new organization to pop up. In fact, there was a massive criminal organization that was officially a part of the Horde, being the Bilgewater Cartel. Since it was so big and prominent, it made sense that it would want to beat out its opposition. The only times Ora had encountered any official Cartel forces had been in moments where they were busting other illegitimate operations. This one reminded her of those. The same huddled figures, crouched and hidden even in the safety of their own den, seeking to shirk the law for profit. That or they had done something the Horde wasn't willing to provide; a benefit given to the people in need, still for a pretty price. They were people the Horde were willing to forget, it felt, as long as the Cartel was not involved.
There was much to profit from in the Underbelly of Azeroth, and Ora was a part of it now. Ludrasa was a mercenary, sure, but Ora had seen her sell dangerous relics to shady individuals ever since they met. Hell, Ludrasa still had the Mael's stinger. There was no doubt in her head that they were going to meet with Ludrasa's main employer, a man who dealt in things that were below the supervision of the law. The orc didn't feel comfortable in this environment, but she was new to it. Perhaps Ludrasa would show her the way, once she was done bartering in a language she didn't understand with a strange almost goblinoid creature near a burnt out circle in the ground. The fishy individual accepted whatever the Violet Panther said, taking her coin eagerly, and snapped his scaly fingers. A green portal ripped open, unstable, but quick.
"I imagine you want me to go through that." Ora shouted over the whirling of the portal.
The elf turned her head, a devilish grin on her fine features, "Course I do! Fel is quick and cheap these days, and it gets us right to where we need to go. If you're icky about it because you're uncorrupted-"
"No, that's fine." Ora laughed, "I've passed through the Dark Portal more than once in my lifetime, y'know, when it was still open."
"Maybe that's where you got the extra two tusks from, Ora-Ur." Ludrasa poked one of the aforementioned tusks, things that marked Ora as not as uncorrupted as her people's title implied.
Ora answered Ludra by pushing her through the portal, shaking her head as she followed suit. It was incredibly lucky that the gateway was actually as stable as it was, for the operation Ludra pulled them into didn't inspire much faith in her. A ramshackle storefront in the face of the biggest criminal empire in Azeroth? It had to be a bit untrustworthy to be able to stay open in spite of its location, but they got a nice portal for cheap. She was going to have to ask Ludrasa about how she found these places when she got the chance, but she found herself landing in another establishment she did not recognize. It was much cleaner than the portal den they just left, almost shaped like a store. There were shelves of odd artifacts and glowing jars, biting plants and mummified corpses. From the blinking eyes of Voidborne to the scowls of still living undead, the place was almost exactly what Ora-Ur imagined when she thought about a "black market".
"Wait here, eh? I'll go speak to the manager." Ludra left the mael's stinger with Ora, almost as if she forgot that she was trying to keep Ora's mind off of her crippling injury. Not that it bothered Ora much to think about her missing right hand, it just struck her as funny. For someone as long lived and supposedly wise as Ludrasa, she tended to be awfully scatterbrained about most things. That or she was just extremely erratic and hard to follow.
Either way, Ora was left alone for a few moments. She didn't count the time, as there was no sun above her to see. They were far enough below ground that Ora couldn't even feel the sun's warmth on the stone to make a good estimate of how long she waited. It couldn't have been that long, as Ora only just started to grow bored as Ludra appeared from beyond the rows of shelves with a beaming smile across her face. Then the "manager" showed up. Ora expected an elderly warlock or an old decrepit undead, not…
A very well-dressed elderly human. Brown hair that was mostly giving way to gray, two intelligent and cunning blue and brown eyes, and a well-trimmed mustache marked him as a hard to forget fellow. He snapped a pair of green goggles over his eyes as he looked to the stinger in Ora's hand, "Would you look at that! Though you didn't get to test the vessel like I WANTED, you brought me back something that tells me I should forgive you!"
Ora held it up, uncertain, "Uh, hello. Nice to uh, meet you?"
"And a fine mag'har specimen! Oh, interesting tusks and facial structure. How strange you aren't red, my dear!" The man circled Ora, almost making her dizzy.
"Faust, she's a friend. Give her a break." Ludrasa shook her head, "We're here on more business."
"More business?!" This 'Faust' stopped circling Ora like a hawk, "How fun! Am I included?"
"Of course, of course. If my intuition is right, there'll be plenty of more things to peddle down in the Gut." Ludra crossed her arms, "That is, if the Gut'll accept another mercenary in its supplier list."
"Viola, Viola! You can't honestly expect me to refuse another able pair of- Err… Another able hand. Especially one that you're fond of!" Faust snatched the stinger from Ora's outstretched hand, "So, why have you taken a gate here? Is the job in Orgrimmar?"
"No, see, we came for a pass to our destination. Have you heard the rumors comin' outta Stonetalon?" Ludrasa handed Faust her contract without much hesitation. Ora didn't see that coming, as she'd expect Ludra to want to keep such a lucrative job quiet.
The man read through the page, "Aye, I've had a few men take the job from this Warguard. As well as a few buyers from an unnamed source in the mountains." He hummed, "If it's got Zandalar worried, worried about something that isn't gold and in their own homeland, it's bound to be juicy. Especially considering our track record with Ko'hea."
"Yup. She got us involved in the War of Heroes, my gut's tellin' me that this'll be another war like that one." The elf took the paper back from Faust, "Too many things are linin' up for me to miss it, at the very least."
She didn't mention Demo O'Gorgo to Faust. What an odd thing to omit from such a conversation, unless Ludra was hiding her true job from her trusted friend. Trust was not so easily won in this world, Ora-Ur figured, even between friends. At the end of their dusty trail had a new road been found, one of dusk and blood. Ora smelled the trouble in the air, and something about it told her she needed to face it. It was not in her nature to run away from her obligations, especially not after she finally found the truth in her mission in Azeroth.
In secrets and mystery, Ora-Ur could not lose sight of her promise to Garadar. Kalandrios' mission to find an answer to save her home was right ahead of her, she just needed to keep chasing it. The Fist of the Storming Star was not about to run, even if the dusk she was dwelling in scared her.