Lydia Felfeather
It was interesting how fast a Guild of this size can reorganize and restructure.
The rush around the Guild Camp was immense. Soon the deployment to the Northrend front would begin and the leaders wanted everything to be in hand. I had watched with amused interest as humans, dwarves, gnomes, and even a draenei were brought in to keep them appraised of the Alliance and their various Major Guild movements. As druids, shamans, and mages of various affiliations flit in and out. It was sad, they were our so-called 'enemies' yet the jingle of coin could make even that go away - for a small while.
Others may not have spotted it, I mused to myself, but spend enough time paying careful attention to magic like me and you start to pick out what wolf is a hunter's pet and which is a druid trying to be subtle. A shaman disguising themselves as a warrior, a Kirin Tor mage attempting to act like a hedge wizard.
And then, of course, it was our turn. The warlocks. We stood before the leaders of BANE as they scrutinized us, some not even bothering to hide their distrust, and the number of guards surrounding us was quite clearly more than normal, yet…
It was so satisfying, to know how careful they trusted, and how honestly they did it too. Most wouldn't ask for our opinions, and those that would? Would lather us in praise, platitudes, and false promises while not truly taking our views into account. But not BANE, no, they were open in their actions because it made them honest.
They listened when they didn't need to and a show of force to represent their appraisal of our power was better than honeyed words or any 'show of trust' that smaller Guilds would level our way. I knew we were despised, and a part of me acknowledged that it was for good reason. Sure, my fellow warlocks didn't entirely share my view on it all but, well, they were still here were they not?
BANE respected power, acknowledged ability, and governed with a velvet-sheathed steel fist. It was how they managed to maintain themselves as a power bloc where other Guilds fall and break into smaller more insular groups. It was how their reach extended as far as it did, how it enticed those who were nominally our enemies into becoming informants.
It was why, when reports of crystalline satyrs working with spectral dryads came in, they asked for us and druids to hear our opinions. 'Separate, of course,' I snorted. Because the first thing they asked us was if we could repeat such a feat. The non-Sindorei warlocks looked to us to answer that question, as we had far more experience with bindings.
"Of course," We told them, "It is possible."
Embolden by our answer, the rest of our lot assured the leaders that if it was possible, they would find a way. Which, to be told, was exactly what they wanted to hear. For they were if nothing else, opportunistic bastards, greedy beyond their years. And yet, I only had to look around at the hundreds-strong army prepping in the main camp to know that such greed was backed by results.
It took mere days before the first test subjects were delivered. Unruly, disgusting things, satyrs were… which made it all the more pleasing when I got to listen to their screams of pain as we experimented on them.
Curses of agony, pain, suffering. Mental tortures, physical ones. We tried everything, and the leadership at the end of the day merely nodded and asked for a progress report.
That was the cruel, ruthless, effectiveness of BANE. Barely tolerated by the Horde, disliked by fellow Guilds, and utterly loathed by Alliance Guilds, we did what others balked at. And we got results. Even if I had to work with the lesser races. Even if I had to dirty myself with a bit of blood and torture here and there. Even if at the end of the day, we couldn't figure out how this necromancer, this 'Lady Wraith', managed it, and we all knew it was her, we still got the opportunity to try which made it worth it.
That was an attitude shared amongst my fel-tainted brethren, we appreciated the chances to further our studies whereas in lesser guilds or working for the Greater Horde we would have had to restrain ourselves and our research to things that were 'safe'. Bah, they scorn us now but when the Legion shows up we all know who they will be running to for solutions.
Just like now.
I smirked, just like during the Outland Invasion.
A voice dragged me out of my thoughts, "Lydia, listening to the voices again?" His echoing double-toned voice was distinct enough that it was hard to mistake him for anyone else. I turned to him and smiled.
"Lidias, my brother! Of course not, I haven't heard any since the last Demon you helped me drag from the Nether." My 'Brother' was ever so helpful in the more physical applications of violence, he has always been of course, but ever since he went missing and then turned back up as a Death Knight? Exceptionally so. I hardly even noticed any difference in his personality.
Honestly, his complaints about how often I was sending him out to kidnap some smooth-brained Alliance peasant, so I could have some souls to 'ethically' experiment on, were getting tiresome. He was much more enthusiastic about it these days.
"Hmm, then what were you thinking about?"
A smirk crept across my face, "Oh, you know. The look on that druid's face when one of the warriors tried to feed him a haunch because he thought he was one of the hunters' pets."
Echoing laughter met my statement. "A shame that surely burns him even now. But come now, why are you outside the 'lock tent? I thought they had you experimenting on satyrs now to recreate whatever was done to them in the forest?"
I slumped and groaned. "Ugh, I wish, but we can't seem to keep their souls tethered, bind them to a golem, and leave them unbound to a warlock." I roll my eyes in irritation, I could only perform the same rituals so many times before it got boring with the lack of results. "You can imagine why the uppers are keen on the last bit."
He grunted. "They don't want to give the 'locks an army of sadistic Fel golems."
It was ONE TIME! I told him as much and only got a grunt in response. I withheld another sigh, they asked for us to try and recreate the Fel-Reavers in a more reproducible form, and it started out just fine but then one thing led to another and… Huh. I just realized we never really figured out what set them off. Either way, they paid far more attention to what exactly we were doing after that, I mean sure a couple dozen adventurers died and only one was able to be resurrected but- Gah, now I'm even more irritated.
The creak of metal made me focus back on Lidias, he had turned to look at the tent where we were conducting our research. "And you are sure it wasn't just necromancy?"
I nodded, it was a valid question and one of the first things we looked into. "The Shadow priests and more… flexible… mages looked into it. If it was Necromancy then it is so horribly advanced we have no hope of recreating it, buuuut they are fairly certain it isn't." A consolation prize at best, as what went unsaid was that whatever this Lady Wraith did do might still be such advanced magic that we still had no hope of replicating it.
"Which leaves you waiting out here for…?"
"Eurgh, supposedly the bosses brought in some goblin and gnome tinkers both saying how their inventions could help us." Because as if the whole project wasn't already a powder keg, they got feuding rivals to work together with a king's ransom in gold. Groups which I was voluntold to wait for.
He laughed, laughed, at me! "I do not know which of us have it worse, they are sending a few of us Death knights to try and parlay with her."
My eyebrows shot up, parlay?! "Are they mad?!"
He shrugged and looked at me, "Any parting words?"
I hated it, but it made sense, they had a better chance than any of us. Plus, no one would miss a few death knights if it failed. There was so much I wanted to say, how I missed him. How I missed the simpler days. How I wanted him to be safe, that I didn't want to lose him again. But- "Wraith isn't mortal. I doubt she is even from Azeroth. Think… Nauru but… different?"
He grunted and turned, but paused, sending me one last indecipherable look. Was he going to say goodbye- "At least the Naaru die." Before he marched back into the throng.
I missed my brother.
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Grey AN: Interlude update to Interlude 1 will be occurring shortly, giving some basic summaries of the PoV characters of that chapter.
