The Demon's Gut was an interesting place, to say the least. Ludrasa had grown extremely familiar with it ever since she started wandering Azeroth, but she never could forget her first visit. Ludrasa was an odd case within the Nightborne, she had long been able to go in and out of Suramar during the ten thousand years that place had remained isolated in a bubble. Her methods had been peculiar, for sure, as most Nightborne believed the world had perished outside of the protective barrier that surrounded their city. Though she was not old enough to remember the world before the Sundering, not by a long shot, her grandparents were. Stories had been told by the elders in her home about the days leading up to the downfall of the Kaldorei Empire, stories that made her deeply curious about what was beyond the veil. Adventurous to a fault, she began to explore the sewers and tunnels below Suramar, and commonly got in trouble with the Duskwatch patrollers in the underside of their world. In time, she found a way out. Freedom through a sewer tunnel, where Ludrasa fled into the world at large. Perhaps she suffered early mana-issues just as any exiled Nightborne would, but there were always ways to break such issues. Would she ever share her secret? Probably not, but it was the way she reached the rest of the world.
Wanderlust carried her to Kalimdor eventually, where she found a young Orgrimmar welcoming an odd race of elves that she'd never seen before. With the trademark illusions of home, she disguised herself as one of these "Sin'dorei" and immediately got to work. Her explorations of the Arcway and odd jobs she did to keep her family afloat had made her into a decent mercenary and a great tracker, something that she noticed Orgrimmar needed a lot of. They came to know her as the "Violet Panther", a name that got the notice of the Demon's Gut. Faust was a creature she'd never seen before, and though she hid her surprise well, she didn't hide it well enough from the proprietor of the Gut. With the exotic smells and strange feeling of the entire establishment, she at least hoped that Faust would take her mild surprise as a reaction to his market, not just to him. She'd learn in time that Faust missed no detail, as he asked her what was behind the illusion she wore.
Faust was the first man to learn of the Nightborne of Suramar, and he kept that between them until it was safe for her to finally break the illusion. Faust owed quite a lot to her and she owed a lot to him, which meant they were practically invaluable to each other. This day was no exception. The human took her and Ora-Ur to the back of the Gut, regaling Ora with a few stories of the "good ol' days", "So, here Viola was, barely holding up her illusion as the summoner threw another crawler from the rift. In a fit of brilliance, I uncorked that bottle of mischievous slime and thrust it between her and the beastie, and the slime grew into the form of a young woman! Can you believe that? In the confusion, the critter struck the slime, and it gave Viola a single second to put a bullet between that dastard's eyes."
"A slimegirl, now? The last time you told this you said the slime turned into a shirtless version of you and stunned the creature with your 'rippling majesty'." Ludra rolled her eye as she heard Faust choke on his words, the man struggled to retort.
"Ah-heh… hah.. Right… UH." He cleared his throat, "What she means to say is that I might embellish a few features. I'm a natural storyteller, what can I say?"
"The only accurate detail in this is that that summoner was a real pain to take down. The rest is a complete lie, including the detail that he was even there." She looked over at her boss, "He never takes a job unless it's to a warehouse or with an army of bodyguards."
"I see." Ora-Ur shook her head, her pace slowed as they approached the back of the Gut. She now walked in pace with Ludrasa instead of Faust, "It's not kind to lie to someone you just met."
"I said the same thing to our mutual friend, Miss Ur. Sure that may have been a decade ago, but who's keeping track?" He stepped through some curtains, his bedazzled hand waving to them after he entered that room.
Ora eyed Ludrasa with some suspicion, "What does he mean by that?"
"In my line of work, it's safer to lie about some things before the time is right. Consider this a lesson, eh? Keep your cards until the most effective time to play them hits. That goes for any piece of information you have." Ludrasa took Ora's hand, "Now, c'mon."
Ora flushed red as the elf took her hand, but luckily, she was in Ludrasa's formidable blindspot. The Gut's rear end was filled with quite a few rooms, each of them with a different way leading in. A strong steel door, a rather rustic wooden door, a curtain, and then just a bare entrance. Though this meant something to the other Gut-goers, Ora-Ur had no idea what the differences meant until they finally passed through all the curtains leading in. The cloth was heavy and almost held Ora back, a rune on Ludrasa's hand providing a bit of a barrier for the both of them as they walked through the heavy fabric. When she felt the buzz of arcane in the stone and air, Ora recognized what the cloth was for. They served as heavy magic dampeners as well as collectors, meant to hide the presence of portals in this place as well as to prevent an explosion from damaging too much of the Gut and the surrounding area.
"Welcome to the Bowels!" Ludrasa released Ora's hand, a gesture thrown to the rest of the fairly large chamber.
"Lady! C'mon, why must you do this to me?!" An unfamiliar voice rang out from above, "It's the Sanctum! The Sanctum!"
A figure clambered down a set of ladders, a figure that was hard to make out in the fairly dim light of the 'Sanctum'. A huff marked his landing, as a strange elf strode out from the dim shadows. Pale blue skin, strange lavender eyes, and off putting and almost slimy purple hair revealed that he was not in the least a normal sort, though Ora at least recognized him as a Sin'dorei. Ludra, now being called another nickname, chuckled, "Oh come on, Valentine. It's not a big deal what I call your stinkin' portal room."
"It is not stinky, Lady. I take great care of my portals and this room, and you'd better start respecting that. If you don't, I just might consider revoking your access!" He stamped his foot, a foot that Ora saw was covered in a very expensive looking boot.
Faust shouted from further in, "Is Valentine complaining about your foul language again? I swear by my lower back pain…"
"Duh!" Ludrasa yelled back, "Find the right portal, yeh?"
"Here I thought you'd finally cleaned up your language! I've not heard a single curse from you this entire visit!" Faust looked over, past the portals, "If you promise to stop insulting Valentine's very pretty and not pretentious portal room, I'll tell you which portal you want!"
"Fiiiiiine…" She huffed, "I'm sowwy Mr. Excellency. I w-won't ever say anythin' bad about your stinkin' portal room again."
Valentine rubbed his brow, "You know, if I were not still an exiled Lord of Silvermoon, I would have had you fined for your boorish behavior. Alas, we cannot all be saints, and your skill keeps money flowing through the gut. I will let this slight slide, FOR NOW."
"Thanks, Vally. Seeya on the flip." Ludra beckons for Ora to follow her, a devilish smile on her face.
"Exiled Lord of Silvermoon?" Ora pondered audibly, "That would make him a traitor to the Horde, wouldn't it?"
"The Gut doesn't exactly care about the exact loyalties of its customers. We're not political types, you feel me?" Ludrasa stopped as she reached Faust, who pointed down at a rune on the ground.
"Viola is right, Ora-Ur. We do not exactly have the money or patience to care about political agendas in the Demon's Gut. After all, if I did, I wouldn't be able to keep the land clear of monsters… Or keep a promise I made." Faust shrugged, "Anyways, if we did become political, I'd be dead within weeks. Either a rival would finally take me out, or the Horde would kill me. Sure, I promised Thrall I'd fight horrors that the Horde didn't have time to deal with. I promised him I'd do my best to keep the streets clean of monsters, and I've kept up my bargain."
"Thrall is the reason you're here? I suppose that makes sense, all things considered." Ora put her only hand on her hip, "I can't imagine any other leader of the Horde would agree to a human running a business in their city."
"Maybe Sylvanas would've, considering her agreement with the Fogsail pirates… No chances, though. My agenda is simple. I pay people to kill monsters, bring me back their bodies, and find magical items. In exchange, I create stronger weapons and find more work for them, so that one day we might finally take care of all things that go bump in the dark." He rubbed his hands together, a small spark appearing in the rune on the floor, "It's a noble goal, albeit an impossible goal. It's like any police or any peace corps. They fight to stop crime or war, but we're all aware that these things can't stop happening. We can just hope to make them rare." A strong stomp of his boot kicked some dust into the air, a stable gateway forming from the arcane and the dust, "And getting myself involved with the politics of this world won't do me any good. Hopefully you understand."
Ora tightened her fist, it being lifted up in solidarity for Faust, " I get it, human. This world's politics do no good for anyone, especially people like us. People who don't fit in the mold."
"Good, then. I hope this means you'll be a return customer and employee, Miss Ur." He stood to the side, a gesture tossed the way of the gateway, "First, of course, that means you've gotta make it back from this trip in one piece. Considering what I read, you'll have to do a bit of work to manage that."
Ludrasa stepped forward first with her rifle drawn, "Sure you wanna come, Ora?"
The orc looked at the gate, the pain in her stump still felt. With a sigh she remarked, "Oh, why not. I've got a few things to work out."
She took Ludrasa's hand nonetheless, her hand felt nice in these rather difficult times. Ora had come very far in her journey. There was chaos in this trip and there was great pain in it as well; Ora found that those things can be negated by stability. Ludrasa was the stability she needed, even if the elf was her own eccentric bundle of odd character traits that didn't seem to particularly fit. A social butterfly who preferred to work alone, who loved neatness and tidiness but found herself typically messy and chaotic, and enjoyed the thrill of the wilds in spite of her Highborne heritage. She reminded her more of the stories of the Kaldorei, rather than the shal'dorei. But perhaps that was the oddity of the Horde, they built themselves on the basis of being so different from the Alliance that it'd be impossible to work together, yet Ora-Ur could see the deep similarities within each group. The divide appeared to be nothing more than an excuse to her, but she didn't make the rules in this world. She was still unfamiliar with many things about Azeroth, but her unfamiliarity with it all had begun to dim. To take that portal, however, was to accidentally thrust herself in an unfamiliar place.
Azeroth was still an alien world to Ora-Ur, so to stand in a new location unlike the others she had traveled, it might have well been like traveling to another world. This Stonetalon felt like it was going to be more recognizable than it was, but as they passed through the gateway, Ora could only feel like she was lost. The sky was black, the ground was dead, and there were ruins scattered through the wasteland. Her bare feet could feel ash as she tread from the portal's landing area, her nose picked up the scent of destruction in the wind. She lifted her hand into the air to feel the elemental energy of the region. This was to no avail, as the wind was distant and quiet even though it still pushed through the sky. It was more a labored gasp than the breath of the wilds. This land was sick. And it suddenly became all too familiar to Ora-Ur as she looked back to Ludrasa, who was passively observing the location. She walked up to her companion, "Did you have any idea what this would be like?"
"I had heard rumors of the conflict over here. It was usually muddied thanks to the reports of Darkshore and the skirmishes in Ashenvale, but Stonetalon's been sick for a while. The Horde and Alliance fought pretty hard over these lands a few years back, during a time when the world was dying due to an elemental upheaval. I don't know too many details of the fight, beyond the fact that they nearly killed these mountains." She lifted her rifle to her cheek, her eye looked through a scope, "Stonetalon was a vibrant place, but the factions and the Cataclysm damn near killed it. Seems like nobody came back to heal these mountains, and the whole war that's still goin' on didn't do it any favors."
"But the Sun, it does not shine. The spirits are distant, fearful." Ora bent down and took some ash from the ground, "And why is there ash? Why does this place feel like a graveyard, Ludrasa?!"
"Didn't you hear? The Horde tried to kill hope." She lowered her rifle, her eye now trained on Ora's, "Fought the Legion, Sargeras stuck Azeroth like a pig. Her blood started to flow, and it caused an arms race. Arms race that turned bloody when Sylvanas came to the home of the night elves and burned it all down."
"No…" Ora stood back, aghast.
The nightborne pointed in the direction of the wind, "The wind has been blowing from that direction shy of a year now. The Horde willingly marched on the ancient homes of relatively peaceful people, scorchin' nature's bounty and tossing any hope of lastin' peace into a bonfire the size of a mountain. That bonfire was named Teldrassil."
"Teldrassil burned?" Ora-Ur shook her head, "Now I get the meaning of the group I worked alongside. Ashbound… Bound by the ashes of the tree they burned."
"Shocker. There's another reason why I don't work too close with the Horde. It disgusts me." Ludrasa put a hand on Ora's shoulder, "They say they want peace. They say they wanna survive. But they keep doin' crap like this. They kill, they destroy, and they allow monsters like Sylvanas to rule 'em. So many of 'em stand back and say 'We were forced!' but… What sense does that make? If ya'll want me to believe that ya'll wanna live honorably and peaceably, maybe your next step is to end the Horde… 'cuz it clearly ain't workin'." The nightborne spat into the ash, "Hell, I don't know why my people chose to side with the Horde. Guess I never did like the majority of my kinfolk, but they're my kin, y'know? But we traded one tyrant for another, and decided to repeat the tradition of Azshara. Just burn the things that disagree with you, 'cuz you don't care about anythin' but yourself."
Ora was at a loss for words. Ever since she came to Azeroth she had been kept far away from the conflict in Darkshore, never exactly learning what the war over there was for. Perhaps she had grown too comfortable in thinking she had Azeroth figured out, that she had begun to understand the conflict between the Alliance and Horde. It felt like the Alliance was a big powerhouse that was trying to get the Horde to capitulate to their demands, and the Horde was a scrappy underdog that had to fight hard to survive. An underdog that got other powers to feel pity, to join its side in its fight. But clearly now, that was not true. At least, not entirely. Perhaps the Alliance still sought the Horde's end, but it wasn't for unjustifiable reasons. The Horde had done great evils before, and Ora believed that Thrall had lead them away from the path of Gul'dan. But in this revelation, with the knowledge of the Horde's other transgressions, she could see the shadow of Gul'dan still cast over the Horde. Thrall nearly succeeded in leading the Horde away, but in the end, there was no use. Gul'dan created a cycle. An inevitable cycle of hatred.
"Ora?" Ludra lightly slapped the side of her face, "You in there?"
The orc was knocked out of her deep thoughts, her eyes fluttered as she realized she had drifted off, "My apologies… The burning of Teldrassil forced me to reconsider what I'm doing."
"Too little too late, Ora-Ur. You're with the Horde now, and your only hopes are to save it from itself. See, I'm not a political type, so I can't really do much about the Horde's trajectory. I doubt I could do much even if I did get too involved. There's a purpose in my work more than money and the thrill of it, you feel me? I kill these monsters so people might be spared from 'em. A little justice in the world can't hurt, can it?" Ludrasa's typically sardonic smirks were replaced by a rather resolute smile this time.
"I've had you pinned all wrong." Ora laughed, "I thought you to be a mercenary out for just the money… But you've got a code after all."
"I'm touched, Ora. Hearin' that from an innocent soul like yours does mean a lot in- " She'd be cut off.
"In your line of work." Ora interjected, "Just say thanks."
"Thanks." She snorted, "Hate sayin' thanks, but it unironically fits here. Let's cut this sappy crap off, though. Got a job to finish, remember?"
"Right, my bad." Ora gave an uncertain look to the horizon, "Though I don't know how deep I want to go in this one."
"Land gives me the heebies too. Best to not think much about it." Ludrasa looked to the map on the back of their contract, "Says we don't have much of a walk to reach Ko'hea's camp, but by now I have a feelin' they've relocated. Gut feelin'. We best find their camp and follow their tracks, find 'em before night hits. Light's limited as is with all the black clouds in the sky, I ain't gonna trust the landscape when it's impossible to see more than five feet in front of you."
By the time they left the gateway, it was midday. Perhaps it was enough time to track Ko'hea down, but Ora's hopes weren't too high. With the amount of ruins littering the landscape, she did have hopes that they'd at least be able to find cover when night fell. It was strange walking through a land that so deeply reminded her of places she'd been before. The familiarity she felt to this land was due to Shadowmoon Valley, a desolate place filled with ruins of an old war. The sky was dark in that place just as it was dark here, the roads empty and barren, the lands crawling with the scars of conflicts long since finished. The land was a land of resentment and pain, a land which was hostile to those that came to it. A land that did not wish to be bothered by the mortals that had made it so sick. Along the road they walked, Ora-Ur felt the echoes of what Stonetalon had once been. It had been a holy place once. She felt the old blessings of the elements echo through the land, the power of wild spirits atop its peaks. There was a nostalgic feeling of prayer and peace that thrummed beneath the surface of the pain of the Mountains. The land yearned to go back to when it was whole, when it was a land of purpose. When two peoples who now are hated enemies were once great friends, once peacefully coexisting. Shadowmoon knew this feeling, though perhaps its feeling was much deeper than the one Stonetalon felt now. There was a chance for Stonetalon to heal.
Ora wondered if she'd get the chance to heal this sickly land, and if Ludrasa would join her on that mission. Perhaps their journey now was to heal Stonetalon, and the Winds of Fate just had yet to make that clear. Deep within Ora-Ur's heart she felt that there was a chance. Down the road they went, the trail being watched by both mercenaries carefully. The gutted corpses of new and old war machines littered their pathway, with mechs and steam tanks both shattered in disrepair. Glaives stuck out of stone and wooden walls, the fragments of Horde camps and the blown out husks of Kaldorei buildings found every once and a while along the road. There was much less ruined Horde machinery and buildings, Ora felt, but perhaps it was just thanks to the section of the land they walked in. Elsewhere could tell a different story, that it was a much more even battlefield. That was until they passed by a deep crater, a crater that Ludrasa tried her best to not look at. The spirits in the air were forlorn, the crater holding such negative feelings that it made Ora stop dead in her tracks.
Her breathing grew heavy, her heart sinking. Her close connection to the spiritual aspect of shamanism told her all she needed to know, Ora sunk to her knees as she looked into the depths of the crater. The depths of hatred and conquest stood right before her, "...So many innocents lost."
"The Horde hasn't been on good behavior for a long time, Ora." Ludrasa knelt down next to her, "I-I… I don't know what to tell you. That the Horde came to Stonetalon for resources? That's what they tried to spin it as, I guess. No, what they came for was murder. The Alliance and Horde weren't at war, but Garrosh marched on this place anyways. He killed a holy peace that had lasted for a long time, a sanctity that gave both tauren and kaldorei comfort. This crater is a testament to that."
"What stood here?" Ora did not look up from the crater.
"... Do you really want to know?" The tone in her voice told Ora that it was probably better that she didn't know.
"...I don't." Ora took a deep breath, "I don't think I do."
"Then I don't think I'll tell you. C'mon, stand up. We can't stop at each atrocity committed, now, can we?" She laughed, albeit a bit nervously, "...Right… Eh, ok. Their camp should be just over this hill."
Ora felt an odd presence just over the hill, but she had been feeling an odd presence the entire time they were here. Stonetalon clearly didn't have a friendly energy to it, but the feeling she got from the presence past the hill almost felt too familiar. Not the same familiarity of Shadowmoon, but the familiarity of something she'd seen on Azeroth. Ludrasa ran up the hill, only to stop dead in her tracks as she glared down the hill. She waved for Ora to join her, "Damnit. Who knew we'd find the Alliance all the way out here?"
Two humans were studying the remains of the camp, but the odd presence Ora felt was condensed in them. No, only in one of them. There stood a man in mottled green armor, a bow and daggers being his obvious weaponry. He dwarfed the human next to him, but she seemed to hold far more power than him. Her armor was black and red, styled in such a way that it made her appear draconic. Her cloak was great and expensive, and the silver blade in her hand shined with an uncanny glow. Ora didn't realize that she was being stared at by the woman until she caught her eyes, an intense golden glare now piercing her soul. At first the human bristled, but she observed Ora for just a moment.
She sheathed her blade, "The hell?! Ora-Ur!?"
Who knew that they'd meet Sint Dagon, once again, in a place like this?