The Romancer Onyxbane
Episode Sixteen:
Week Ten of our Journey:
I'd better explain about my take on Opalbane's trial before I get to it. The courts in Stormwind are different from the way we do justice in Darnassus. For example, when I asked Feathershine to help with Willy's situation three months ago, she could only extract Wisthera. Willypearl is a human and Stormwind wanted to deal with her personally. When Wisthera was turned over to Feathershine's custody, she took her into a little room in the Temple of Elune, and they had a chat. And… I mean a chat. No intimidation or threats of violence. No shackles or plucking of hairs from her head until she told the truth. Priestesses have no trouble getting the truth out of people because they can always use a mind vision to see what the person did or didn't do. What the priestesses of Elune are mostly concerned with is how the culprit feels about the truth. A convicted individual who is found innocent can be punished as well, if they haven't grasped a certain moral value yet. My guess is that Feathershine looked into Wisthera's head, saw how she scammed Opalbane, Willypearl, and finally me, on top of all those other people in her past and saw that she wasn't very repentant. That would explain why Priestess Feathershine made Wisthera help us to save Opalbane as a punishment, and take up leatherworking. If Wisthera was fully aware of how she hurt people, I think Feathershine would have just let her go. Oh, and Priestess Feathershine had to tell Shadowstep about Wisthera because, as one of the rogues in the Cenarion Enclave, she answers to him. I think the same kind of thing happened with him and Wisthera. Shadowstep most likely threatened her, or maybe had the information about Wisthera's past already, and then decided her fate. I'm very annoyed that both Priestess Feathershine and Shadowstep found Wisthera innocent. Shadowstep even gave her a new assignment as a pat on the back.
But Stormwind works a lot different. The nobility and the army officers work together sometimes and sometimes they don't. I find it confusing, but I think it has something to do with how important people are. Now that I think about it, I should have been wary of all the paladins who kept speaking on Willypearl's behalf at her trial. Those must have been Elec's important family members. But, in that situation, what really tipped the scales in our favor was Wisthera's testimony before the judges. The nobles and officers present knew that they were hearing from someone that the Cenarion Enclave trusted, someone that a Priestess of Darnassus sent an impressive boat and guard all the way across the ocean for. Also, I think they didn't want to disregard what Wisthera said because they didn't know Priestess Feathershine very well and they didn't want to get on her bad side, which could mean upsetting someone as high up as Tyrande, if not Shadowstep or any other friends she might have.
But that was then.
It's been three months since Willypearl's trial, and the people in Stormwind clearly know a lot more about Priestess Feathershine and Wisthera than before. It seems that gossip travels fast among leaders of the Alliance as well as busy body priestesses. Anyways, word got out that High Priestess Tyrande made an example of Feathershine, chastising her in all the right circles as someone who did not uphold the correct values of the Kaldorei. The judges in Stormwind kept saying over and over, "She put status and personal ambition before equanimity and truth." That basically means they think Feathershine is a liar. I don't think High Priestess Tyrande said that exactly, but she would have wanted everyone to know that Feathershine was abusing her power as a priestess.
Also, my blowing Wisthera's cover in Silithus sent ripples through the rogue community as well. And I can tell you, however much Wisthera says that she loves me and wants me back, I think she's still mad at me. Our little indulgence in Silithus helped calm Wisthera, but I have a good feeling that as soon as she's sure I've come back to her, she's going to beat me over the head with how I ruined her career. It turns out that maybe my selfish use of secret information might go even further than upsetting Wisthera though. If priestesses are known as gossips, then the leaders of the Alliance are far worse, but rogues definitely take the cake. I bet that everyone who ever met or heard of Wisthera had something to share when people started talking about how she ruined an assignment for Shadowstep. Wisthera complained to us all that now, SI:7 is buzzing with all kinds of wild stories about her past. It seems like a combination of things she did very well or regretted, but I think with rogues, many good and bad things fall into both categories. Also, tons of people who got their toes stepped on by Wisthera over the years are coming forward. That's some nasty revenge.
So, our plan to let Wisthera show the judges all the letters she got from Willypearl and Opalbane over the years won't work. Normally, letters are very good at showing how someone never intended to do something, especially letters that are sent to personal friends, or secret third parties that have nothing to do with the situation. But, it is well known that good forgers exist, and there is no reason for anyone to believe that Wisthera didn't forge the letters between her and Opalbane. They're also saying that we took too long to bring back my sister. "Why didn't you go to Theramore Isle?" they keep asking over and over again. And they also want to know why we stopped in Darkshore on the way to Silithus, and on the way back, which means the Stormwind Authorities think we had some help from Shadowstep and the others covering up for Opalbane.
My sister has been feeling better, and she's begun to say what I was thinking on the way back here, that she was safer with the cultists. Maybe it's mostly the fel mana talking, and the effects of their trying to initiate her, but Opal has a good point. A Twilight Hammer cultist at a camp in Silithus is much safer than a Twilight Hammer Cultists that everyone knows is in Stormwind. They'd sooner hang her than clear her name. Priestess Feathershine fears that those who manipulated Opalbane might also be agitated by her presence, and go on defensive in the extreme. Anyone affiliated with the cult in Stormwind will do everything he can to cover his tracks, which makes it a lot harder for us to peg the blame on someone else other than my sister. Though Wisthera's contacts in Silithus say Opalbane walked to the camps of her own free will, Shadowstep and the others have sources that say she was coerced into it her whole life. But, if people are more eager to listen to the gossip on the streets, than the careful recounting of professional spies, what chance do we have? Oh, yes, and before I forget, the Archmage is completely hostile towards us now. Willypearl might have been spared, but now that he knows Tyrande does not favor Priestess Feathershine, he is eager to push the blame onto someone who is already in trouble, and make her into a scapegoat. It seems he really wasn't happy with our accusing him of corruption three months ago, no matter how nicely Wisthera put it.
In all honesty, things look very bad. If I thought my love life couldn't get any worse, with Priestess Feathershine and Willypearl not speaking to me, Wisthera the liar banging down my door, and my sister in no state of mind to give me advice, I was wrong. It can get far worse. I could lose everything, including my sister. And to further complicate things, now it seems, at the end of the world, I find that I do care about what happens to Wisthera. I've started to worry about her too. There are enemies all around us.
Now, this is a worse mess than what we started with. At least if you chip your weapon, you can sharpen it. Or, if there is a fault in the blade, you can get new bars of aracanite and try hammering them again. But this is life. In a lot of ways (but not very many) it's more amazing than the Reaper. It happens only once, and perhaps not for very long, and as a Kaldorei I get the tragedy behind this better than anyone else.
We might not make it.