The Ascendant
Part 2
"That rat left without me!"
OwlDance cracked open one glowing silver eye and glared at Ancasta sleepily where she was sitting up against the pillows beside him.
Ancasta reached over and shoved at his shoulder. "And you let him!"
Owl closed his eye again, then reached out one long arm, curled it around her, and pulled her down against his chest. She squeaked and wriggled in protest.
"I not only let him, I went with him," Owl rumbled tiredly. "Now hush, and do not wake me until luncheon."
"You're a Night Elf, you're nocturnal, why are you tired?" Ancasta grumped, still wriggling.
"And you are a Gnome, you are decended from mechanical men, and yet you do not clank like Master's strider. We are neither of us paragons of our species, now let me sleep." OwlDance settled his arm more firmly about her and went back to sleep.
"Hmph. For that, you can swim home."
===O===
"Anca. Wake up." Kill said softly, and shook her shoulder again. "Owl, let her go."
It took another couple of minutes to extricate Ancasta from the protective clutch of OwlDance's arm around her. It was mid-afternoon and if they were going to avoid suspicion the two needed to get out and about Teldrassil gathering herbs. As loath as Kill was to let his apprentice out of his sight, they had to maintain the appearance of a Gnome alchemist and her Elven bodyguard.
"Go away, you rat. You left me here!" Ancasta said crossly. She shrugged off his hand and rolled over to burrow against Owl's purple leather vest.
Kill sighed. "Come on, Copperbolt, you need to get out there and gather some herbs or the Elves are going to wonder about your story," he muttered. "And you're a Gnome, not an Elven teddy bear. Granted he's barely more than a child himself, but I won't have you - "
"He's my best friend," Ancasta said angrily. "And if you're going to go on about dignity then stop pulling on his ears every chance you get. Don't you know that hurts?"
"Master," Owl murmured tiredly.
Kill sighed, put his hands on his hips and glared at the two of them. "You need to get out and about. I'm going to go find somewhere to hide for the rest of the day, but you two need to be visible."
Owl sighed and rolled over onto his back but kept his arm around Ancasta as she stayed cuddled against his ribs. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand. "You're right, Master. And I need to get out among the Frostsabers. What news from Elder Selandril?"
Kill dropped to sit on the bed beside Owl's feet. "It looks like Selandril's got someone to cover this situation with this 'Divinus' character. I know you were looking forward to spending time with Rain but Selandril is going to send her and Starshine over to Azuremyst to get them out of danger."
Owl sighed again with regret. "Ah well. When this is over perhaps I will go to Exodar myself. I have not been there in many years."
Kill half-smiled at that and patted the leather-clad knee. "Breakfast - or luncheon, if you'd prefer - is on the table. I'll see you both tonight."
===O===
Perhaps it was better this way, OwlDance mused two hours later as he followed Ancasta through the forests of his childhood. Though still shrouded in the black cloak there was thick fragrant grass under his bare feet and the soft cool breeze curling against his face. The giant trees rose into the rags of misty clouds above, decorated by the twinkling of fireflies and the golden gleam of the lights of tree dwellings.
"What are those?" Ancasta asked, pointing ahead of them.
OwlDance peered ahead and saw the ursine forms of Gnarlpine furbolgs lumbering against the hillside. "They are called Gnarlpines. They are not welcoming of strangers, so let us go around them."
"I guess it wouldn't be good to pick a fight, huh?"
"No. I would rather we didn't draw attention to ourselves," Owl said, nodding. He gestured ahead to a clump of Mageroyal and Ancasta darted forward to harvest it while he kept watch.
"Where are the Frostsabers?" Ancasta asked as they went on. "Don't you want to go see them?"
OwlDance smiled down at her. "The ones without a chosen rider live wherever they wish on Teldrassil, so that they may hunt without getting in each other's way. The mothers with cubs prefer the caves, but the older cubs and the unbonded adult males will live wherever they wish. It is likely that if any of them are about they are hiding in the bushes or lazing about in the trees where they can keep watch."
"Something that big can climb trees?" Ancasta asked, wide-eyed and looking up and all around them.
"Easily," OwlDance said, still smiling. "When the tree in question is as wide as the guard towers in Stormwind..."
"A cat that big is no weight at all," Ancasta finished for him. They walked on for a few silent moments and then she said, "It makes sense, that you came from here."
"Oh? How so?"
Ancasta stopped at a Peacebloom and quietly harvested a couple of the flowers before straightening and taking a deep breath. "It's quiet here, and beautiful. But who knows what could jump out of the bushes?"
Owl winced inwardly but said nothing as she took hold of a fold of his cloak - they couldn't very well walk hand in hand, he being more than three times her height - and walked on.
===O===
Kill carefully - silently, invisibly - made his way up the steep, overgrown path that Selandril had shown him the night before. The gnarled tree roots interspersed through the long grass made quite effective caltrops - to the Bigger races. Even to Kill they were a challenge, slippery with the wet moss and slime molds. And the long dried grass of the year past rustled when feet disturbed it. It was a challenge to all of Kill's skills as a Rogue, and the most effective natural defensive system he'd seen in a long time.
The figure entirely enfolded in a dark gray cloak at the top of the path did not move as he crept the last few feet, but it was clear Kill's presence had been marked long since.
"You waste your breath, Guildmaster," the distorted voice said as Kill edged up beside the figure.
Kill faded into view. "Do I?"
White glowing eyes from the depths of the cloak's hood stared down at the Gnome without emotion. "There is no place for my kind in the world now."
Kill peered up at the figure and glanced back into the tiny cave where a dull blue glow shifted and writhed. "I've always wondered if those things Speak. I've had knives that held a presence but no intelligence."
The figure glanced back briefly into the cave. "You court death, Gnome."
Kill grimaced at that. "No, Selandril is looking at death. Straight in the face. Selaya has been subverted, this 'Divinus' character could be seducing her into who knows what at any moment, and you are letting your skill rot here in a cave when your fellow Night Elves are in danger."
A soft snort at that. "They can take care of themselves."
Kill crossed his arms on his chest and glared up at the tall figure. "And your son?"
The figure turned away. "Did you not hear, Rogue? I have no son."
"Really? Seven and a half feet tall, long black hair, long pointy ears, face and body like some kind of god? He's so determined to be perfect at killing that sometimes I have to haul him away from the practice circle to eat before he faints. He thinks - and fears - that if he isn't perfect that no one will want him," Kill spat. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I understand how you must feel. I understand you don't remember who you were. But Selandril knew you, he knows you are who he says you are, and you have a son who has believed all his life that his father died in Warsong."
"Let him continue to believe so. You are more his father than I ever was," the rough voice said as the figure retreated back into the cave.
"Maybe," Kill called after the figure. "I do the best I can. But there's something about gaining the approval of the man who gave you life that the approval of a teacher cannot replace. I love the boy. I always will. But you are his father."
"And when he sees me he will see Death," the figure husked from the cave. "What then, Guildmaster? If he came against me - "
"You'd kill him?" Kill asked flatly. The Gnome snorted in contempt. "Six weeks ago, he killed one of your kind. With nothing but a pair of slightly magical daggers. But unlike ninety-five percent of my kind - Rogues - Owl actually thinks before he targets somebody. Instead of just taking a quick scan of a situation and going for the outliers first, he observes a situation tactically and plans his attacks. He knew before he ever came to me how to determine a target's weaknesses. So no, I don't think he'd kill you outright. But may Elune help you if you get on his bad side, because you'd never see him coming."
===O===
"Thank you ever so much, Lady," Ancasta bubbled, trying to bow with her arms full of an Elven scroll and a string bag full of potion vials. "My cousin will send to you, I'm sure!"
The Elven alchemist smiled softly down at the tiny Gnome Mage while her green-haired companion chuckled. "I was not even aware Gnomes knew of the way of herbs," he murmured.
" 'Tis a science to us," Ancasta avowed. "Foods are the energy of the body and foods are made of chemicals. Some plants concentrate in their flesh such chemicals as effects diseases and injuries. And what is alchemy but the decoction of those chemicals into useful medicines?"
"Well put," the Elven lady said with a sage nod. "If a bit dry and scientific for my tastes."
Owl pushed away from the corner of the wall where he'd been keeping watch and came forward to Ancasta silently.
"Oh! Time to go?" Ancasta said, taking her cue from him. "Thank you again!" she called back as she turned to go, following OwlDance down the rampway of the tree-born alchemist shop.
"Look there, across the way," Owl murmured to Ancasta as they started through the Craftsmens' Terrace. "Do you see him?"
Ancasta blinked and scanned around. But she saw nothing. "No."
Owl smirked a little. "Good. If you did, I could tease him for days."
Ancasta freed one hand and reached over to whack his leg.
They returned to the inn as the setting sun was turning all Darnassus to gold and motes of swirling flower petals and lazily falling leaves. OwlDance left her at the room's table, pouring over her haul of potion recipes, and went to stand at the balcony to look out over the Temple spires.
"Something is going to happen," he said after several minutes of silence. "There is something wrong. Something does not feel - "
He stopped suddenly and straightened, staring out toward the Temple with sudden intensity.
"Owl?"
[The Temple. Now!]
Owl choked on a breath, and without thought flung off the black cloak and vaulted over the railing of the balcony in a blur of motion.
"Owl! Don't!"
===O===
Kill stopped in the shaddow of the merchant's shop across the path from the inn's front door, arrested by a blur leaping out of the balcony of the room where his apprentice and Ancasta were staying. OwlDance landed on the grass, fell, rolled, leaped to his feet again and sketched the sigil for the Sprint spell.
What the hell -? Then he heard Ancasta's "Owl! Don't!"
He turned, faded into sight, and Sprinted after his apprentice.
===O===
OwlDance raced up the great marble rampway and into the sunset dimness of the Temple of Elune, and in a breath comprehended what was happening. Before the great foutain statue of Elune, three figures stood and another was laying nearby crumpled on the marble steps. The shimmering magical mirage of a portal spell stood waiting. One figure - his mind caught on a Sindorei with white hair and plate armor - was holding aloft in one hand the writhing, choking form of Selaya MoonShimmer.
The other was clearly a Mage, but the skin was a blue-gray and leprous with decay, with straggling greasy gray hair brushing over long, narrow, upright ears. The mage held an elaborate, jewelled and purple glowing staff in one hand, sneering up at the struggling Archdruid as she weakened.
OwlDance unsheathed his daggers and leaped upon the figure in armor, whirling and striking, landing a kick to the warrior's back to send him off balance. Selaya fell as well, the warrior landing atop her and drawing a thin breathless grunt from her before she coughed and hauled in a breath. The warrior leaped up and whirled to confront the Rogue, drawing a broadsword that glowed faintly red.
"Care for a true challenge, Sindorei?" Owl spat out at the warrior. "Let Elune herself bear witness!"
"Plainly you do not have the situation in hand, Divinus," the Mage said in a strangely sibilant voice.
"No, my lord! The Archdruid - " the white-haired warrior cried out, moving as if to join the Mage.
"You forget your place." A burst of white light left the Mage's outstretched hand and the warrior screamed as he was impaled by the Ice Lance spell. He stepped over to the still coughing Selaya and kicked her over onto her back, her silver-shot red hair spilling all around her. "Time to die, Kaldorei bitch."
Before the Mage could summon another spell, several things happened at once. Ice suddenly burst into existence around the Mage, rooting him to the floor. Then a small Fireball struck him in the shoulder. Then crackling purple lightning wrapped all around the Mage and yanked him bodily through the air to the open archway of the Temple where a shadowed figure in a dark gray cloak waited with a blue-glowing, runed broadsword. OwlDance blurred forward toward the distracted Blood Elf warrior, reversed his grip on his right-hand dagger and smashed the pommel into the warrior's unprotected jaw hard enough to shatter it. Ancasta jumped up onto the edge of the Elune fountain and a Frostbolt flew out at the warrior while Owl began another vicious attack.
"Owl!" Kill faded into sight as he leaped toward his apprentice. "Get out of here! Get her out of here!"
"Yes Master!" Owl yelled back, then tumbled to the side to disengage from the fight. He turned and ran the few yards to the fountain and scooped up Ancasta, then bent and just as easily hauled his grandmother from the floor. "Archdruid, may I suggest a strategic retreat?"
"Call the Sentinels," Selaya husked out. "Put me down, this is my Temple, I must defend it!"
Owl grimaced and raced for the archway of the Temple door, half-carrying his grandmother with Ancasta held in the other arm against his chest. Of all the unkind things he could have said at that moment, he chose not to say any of them. "I think my Master has the situation well in hand, Lady. The Sentinels are already on their way, I'm sure. We must get you to a healer."
They raced past the Death Knight standing at the Temple's door, the writhing half-crazed form of the Ascendant bound by the purple lightning at his feet . The tall figure turned to watch them go, then turned back and with a single angry thrust stabbed the blade of his runesword into the Mage's chest. The sword howled softly and its unholy, icy blue light brightened and then went dark.
And in front of Elune, Kill Mechaswarm stood over the dead body of the Blood Elf warrior, clenching his jaw hard around his rage, while blood pooled at his feet.
===O===
The Sentinels found Selandril just reviving from death several minutes later. Kill watched him sit up, supported by two of the young female warriors who brought him holy water from the Elune fountain to revive his energies.
" 'Divinus' is not his name, it is a title," Selandril confimed as Kill listened to his story. "He is a sort of anti-Paladin, or a Warlock who fights with a sword instead of spells. He summoned the Ascendant, who then created that portal."
"What were they going to do to Selaya?" Kill asked.
"Nothing good," Selandril said grimly. He nodded to where the portal spell had shimmered out of existence a moment before. "Did you recognize the destination?"
Kill shook his head curtly. "No. And I've been through every portal destination, including all of the Horde portals."
"Uncle!" Starshine called as he rushed inside the Temple, Rain at his side.
Leaving the Elder to his nephew and Rain, Kill slid down from the fountain's edge and glanced up at the tall white-glowing marble statue. Then he threaded his way out of the growing throng of Sentinels, healers and Druids to the door.
He saw the tall, gray-wrapped figure in the shadows of the Temple's gardens across the way, but he said nothing as he turned to go find his apprentice. If the Death Knight couldn't find the courage to confront his own son, that wasn't Kill's problem.
"Guildmaster."
Kill stopped and sighed. "What?"
The gray-wrapped form came closer. "He fought well."
Kill nodded.
"Do not seek me again. I will not be where you found me last," the soft, distorted voice said, then the figure turned to go.
"And if Owl tries to find you?" Kill called to the tall figure.
The Death Knight stopped. "It is his choice. And his right."
Kill shook his head, disgusted with the whole overly-dramatic situation, and went to find his apprentice.
===O===
The Druid healers clucked over Selaya like a brood of mother hens over a single chick until she dismissed them all with an imperious wave of her hand. Ancasta didn't move from where she sat on the end of the chaise sofa where Selaya reclined, swinging her feet and watching her toes wiggling in the soft suede of her boots. The giant trees sighed overhead in the late afternoon breeze, and in the corner beside the window OwlDance stood leaning against a bookcase, his arms crossed on his chest and his hair falling forward to hide his face.
"You are brave, child," Selaya said softly to Ancasta. Her voice was still raw from the strangling but healed now thanks to the healers' work. "The Ascendant would have been a formidable opponent even for me, when I was in my prime."
Owl refrained from snorting in contempt.
Ancasta shrugged. "I've fought in Northrend. I killed three Wendigos. And sheeped an Orc."
"And I'm teaching her to rely on teamwork, not grandstanding," Kill said from the doorway. He walked inside, glared at Selaya for a moment then held out his hand to Ancasta. "Anca. Owl. We're going back to the inn to get your things and then we're leaving."
"Yes, Master," OwlDance replied and turned to go.
"Guildmaster Mechaswarm," Selaya said, her voice like a lash as it crackled across the room. "May I ask what profession you claim Mastery of?"
Kill glared at her for another moment. "Assassination, milady."
Selaya followed Owl's movement across the room with an unreadable expression. "And this is what you teach?"
"No. I don't have to teach your grandson anything, Lady. His talents need only guiding, not teaching. With the exception of the common decency and self-esteem that your thoughtless exile of an orphaned boy destroyed," Kill snarled. Owl stopped beside him, carefully not looking at Selaya but at the floor. "Good luck putting the Circle back together. If I were you, I'd step aside and let someone younger and sharper take over."
"It is a possibility," Selaya husked out. She held up one long-fingered, elegant hand as the Gnomes turned to go. "OwlDance. You will attend me. I wish to speak to you."
Kill and Ancasta stopped and Kill came back inside the tree-dwelling as Owl paused at the door. The Guildmaster put a steadying hand on his apprentice's tensed knee. "Haven't you done enough damage?"
Selaya's glance flickered over the Gnome, then went to her grandson. "Would it please you if my granddaughter attended as well, Guildmaster? RainShadow may play advocate."
"Master," Owl said softly. "If Rain is here- "
Kill looked up at him consideringly for a moment, then tugged on the seam of the gray leather pants. OwlDance immediately knelt and Kill leaned close.
"Remember what I said when Jennea sent you here," Kill whispered. "You don't owe them anything."
Owl nodded faintly, then looked at his Master for a moment, clearly thinking. Then he took his throwing knives from their leg sheathe and handed them to Kill, then unclipped his daggers from his belt and handed the sheathed blades to Ancasta. "I did not bring my garrote," he murmured with a shamefaced expression.
Kill moved away from his apprentice as Selaya called for a Sentinel to bring Rain from the Temple. "We'll meet you at the inn," Kill said as he put an arm around Ancasta's shoulders to lead her away.
===O===
An hour turned into two, and then four. Kill sat on the Elven-sized chair flicking his glance between the door and watching Ancasta. The young Mage was sitting on the chaise lounge meditating in a light trance while she manifested bubble-like spheres of magical energy and dispelled them with a flicker of thought. Kill had seen her do the peculiar exercise before and Jennea had assured him it was a basic magical technique that formed the basis of most combat spells.
Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't notice when Ancasta came out of her meditation and popped the last magical bubble with her fingers instead of her mind.
"Tell me about Gnomeregan," she said in the silence.
Kill blinked and looked up at her. "What?"
"I missed it by a week," she said and shrugged. "If I'd been born a week earlier I'd have been born there. But - I never knew it. So tell me about it."
Kill snorted a little. "Geblin has the schematics."
Ancasta scowled a little. "I don't want to see the schematics. I want to know what it was like. What it was like to live there."
Kill laughed shortly, bitterly. "Why? You can't use the information, not for years yet."
Ancasta glared at him at that. "I want to know because I've heard about how great it is all my life, and at some point I intend to stake my life and my magic to reclaim it. I want to know why it was so wonderful to live there, what made it that way. So I'll know what we're working to restore."
Kill grimaced. "You want to know? Fine. When you get to the bottom of the lift the first thing you'll see is Troggs. They're everywhere. And you'll see Gnomes who didn't get out in time and got radiation poisoning. They're delirious with the pain and they attack anything that comes near whether it's a Trogg or another Gnome. There are machines still running, Perpetuos and some of the Alarm-o-Bots and some of the computers, but they haven't been tended to and the Troggs have covered them in dung. The ventilation system broke down a long time ago so it stinks to hell and back. There are robots that Thermaplugg reprogrammed to be killing machines, and the Dark Iron Dwarves decided to take his coin and loot the place while they're at it. There's radiated slime molds that roam around and corrupted Water Elementals that spit contaminated water at you. And after you've got through all that, Thermaplugg is sitting in Geblin's throne room, like he has been for the last sixteen damned years. Everytime I go there I end up ducking into the same little closet in the Launch Bay and vomiting until I start throwing up bile. Maybe someday I'll find the Troggs' spawning grounds and then I guess I'll have another genocide on my hands. If it puts Geblin back where he belongs then I'd relish every moment."
Ancasta gave him the most serious look he'd ever seen on her face. Kill had the unnerving impression that something far older than himself was looking right into his soul and found it young, bitter and wanting. "That's not what I asked."
Kill ground his teeth at that and slid down from the chair to pace. "That's all you're getting from me. Until you've died a few times trying to get to Thermaplugg you have no right to judge."
He felt her eyes on his back as he paced. "Neither do you," she said finally. She slid down from the chaise lounge and picked up her herb satchel and staff.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kill growled at her.
Again the serious look from young emerald eyes. "Maybe you should figure it out for yourself, Commander."
Kill turned his back as she jumped to reach the door latch.
He managed to hold out against his guilty conscience for all of about seven minutes before he growled at himself in frustration and looked for a piece of parchment to leave OwlDance a note. He couldn't let the girl go off alone.
===O===
"It's a pure wonder, a great marble city like this in the crown of this great tree," Ancasta said to the young Sentinels guarding Darnassus's great entrance gate. "I don't think my own people could manage it, nor the Dwarves!"
The Sentinel she spoke to smiled serenely. "It is a secret lost to time, I'm afraid. Although perhaps the Archdruid knows, if anyone would."
"Are there not those who study the history of such things?" the other Sentinel asked. "I do not know the name of it - Archo - What is the name of it, WindMist? They have been here not long since."
"Archaeology," her partner said with a nod. "Dwarves, I think they were."
"If anyone can find such answers, the Dwarves can," Ancasta said with a nod. "Well, pleasant watch to you! I'm off to find more Silverleaf!"
The two Sentinels bade her a pleasant hunt in return and Ancasta started off on the same path she and OwlDance had taken before. The afternoon was growing truly late now, twilight perhaps only an hour away. The herb-gathering was a pretext, really. She simply wanted to get away from her Guildmaster and his too-prickly moods.
The lumbering forms of the Gnarlpines and their ursine grunts warned her away and she padded as quietly as she could to a Peacebloom flower. She looked around as she straightened then came to a decision and reached into her potion pouch for an Elixir of Minor Defense. Just because she wanted to be alone it didn't follow the rest of the world would let her go unchallenged, and she may as well be prepared. Ducking behind a screen of vines, she gathered her magic and cast her Fire Armor spell. Satisfied, she gripped her staff and started off again.
===O===
Kill seethed as he watched the young Mage clamber up onto a gnarled root as big as a house and stop to dig out some kind of parasitic lichen root from some muddy knothole. She straightened and flung mud and slimy leaves from her hand, then nodded in satisfaction at the shriveled tan form. Stuffing it into her herb satchel, she jumped off the tree root and looked around before padding off toward another tree.
The girl probably would have wound up lost, the way she was zigging and zagging through the woods, if not attacked. She probably had no idea if the gunk she'd just dug through was poisonous, or had even looked to see if there was a snake in that knothole. She was like some fluff-headed dandelion, floating around the forest - how the hell did she manage to go out into Elwynn day in and day out - ?
"Oh! Hello! Owl says you can understand me just like he does! Do you have a rider? We came here because Rain said he could come look for a Frostsaber to be with, he's really very lonely all the time and I know he'd probably spoil you rotten. You'd have to come with us to Stormwind, though, we sort of live there. Most of the time, at least. But we have plenty of fish, or meat if you'd prefer that. And you could - oh, no? Well, if you don't have a rider I'm sure you'll find one. Thanks! Bye!"
Kill shook his head silently and wished he could apologize to whatever she'd just been chattering at. It probably hadn't even been a Frostsaber. She'd talk to anything.
It was getting late. Twilight was falling now. Either he let her know he was here and drag her back or -
A brief cry of surprise and pain, and that damned biocompatibility imperative yanked him around the tree like he had a rope around his neck.
Ancasta was climbing to her feet several dozen yards below him, shaking her head as if she was dazed. He heard her sigh, then she took a potion from her pouch and drank it. A pink glow rose around her and then faded as the Healing potion did its work, and she bent to retrieve her staff and started to limp toward the shimmer of a pond.
He couldn't let this go on. "Copperbolt."
Ancasta stopped, and visibly tensed up. She turned to face him. "What?" she snapped up at him crossly. "I'm busy."
Kill scowled. "It's getting late."
"So?"
"So it's time to head back," Kill answered. He pointed to the left. "Go that way."
"Maybe I don't want to. Maybe I got tired of you being an ass," Ancasta snarled up at him. She turned around and resumed her course to the pond.
Kill sighed - he'd been doing that entirely too much lately and silently cursed all the drama. "Fine. Everyone else in the Guild has the common sense to come in once darkness falls, but not the Girl Blunder. Jennea's wasting her time with you."
"I'm sure you've got plenty of paperwork to do, Commander, don't let me keep you from it," Ancasta yelled back over her shoulder. "Some of us have real work to do."
"You're being an idiot, Copperbolt, cut it out right now," Kill yelled down at her.
"Hello, kettle, let me introduce you to pot!" Ancasta kept walking.
Kill growled and jumped down from the cliff, landed in a roll and jumped to his feet without harm. He Sprinted after her. "Damn it, Copperbolt - "
Ancasta whirled as he approached her and her hands whipped out to either side. Kill stumbled and fell as ice suddenly burst into existence all around him, jerking him to a violent stop. He drew his knives and in two lightning-fast slices freed himself. He sheathed the knives automatically and looked up, opening his mouth to continue yelling but found himself staring into furious, glowing green eyes.
"No! You will listen! If you cannot treat me as an adult, if you keep this patronizing attitude toward me, and treat my questions about Gnomeregan like I'm some three year old who can't take the real truth about my own damned home - I'll - I'll - My Grandfather fought in Alterac and Gilneas and if he hadn't been in Gnomeregan that day Geblin might not have gotten out alive - I am expected - everyone expects me to be just like him, but because I'm a girl I've got to be twice as good! Because no one will take me seriously! Well you know what, Commander? You may have sixty or seventy years head start on me but I swear to you someday I will be the Great Magus Copperbolt! My Grandfather got Geblin out, I swear to you I will get him back in! And I'll bring him a cushion for his throne and a blanket for his knees, and I will fragging bring him a cup of tea and a plate of cookies! And that is something you'll never be able to do! Not in a million years! Because you are not a Mage and you are not a girl!"
She whirled and stalked away again to a tree at the edge of the pond, and bent to harvest some stalks of Silverleaf that grew there. Kill just stared after her, then mentally slapped himself. "Copperbolt. That's the silliest thing I've ever heard."
"Really? You're doing it right now." Ancasta glared at him as she stuffed the Silverleaf in her herb satchel. "You can ask Zari about it. Jevalyn's too nice, she'd never admit it bothers her. If you're young and female you're not taken seriously no matter what you know or how good a fighter you are. If you're pretty like Zari, men try to trick or trap you into having sex with them. If you're cute like me, you get treated like a child. And that's regardless of whether it's a Gnome or any other race. You know SongCloud back home? She's a GrandMaster at the Academy. She can be wearing her full robes and glowing with shields bright enough to be the light in the harbor lighthouse and every man in the Trade District will chase after her making rude comments. SongCloud's been a GrandMaster Mage for over five hundred years. No one would treat a man with that same experience like that. But because she's beautiful, men talk to her chest and ignore the fact she could vaporize them at any moment and not break a sweat." She shook her head in disgust and crossed her arms on her chest to glare at him. "Just because I'm sixteen doesn't mean I'm stupid. All I lack is knowledge, not intelligence or courage or commitment. If you can't see your way clear to simply give me the knowledge I ask for so I can be better informed, then I'll leave the guild and go elsewhere. I stay because I want to, not because I need to."
Kill huffed at that and matched her pose and glare. "And when you get into trouble you can't get out of? What then, Copperbolt? Some thief pickpockets you clean, you can't pay Goodwife Alison for your little closet at the inn, then what? When your mage training gets expensive, what then? Because I know for a fact Jennea doesn't take a few handfuls of some blasted weeds."
Ancasta snorted and rolled her eyes at that. "Oh please. You think I'm not saving every copper I can get my hands on? And you don't think I haven't been sitting at Owl's knee every other day when he's putting half of Elwynn up for auction? Or that I haven't made a lot of friends at the Academy and in the Guard and at the Cathedral? The Mother Superior at the Abbey would be glad to have me there full-time as alchemist, they go through a lot of healing potions. As for my training, I've never taken any money out of the Guild account. I've paid Jennea out of my own pocket all along."
"And when you get into trouble?" Kill persisted.
Ancasta shrugged. "There are plenty of people who aren't affiliated with any Guild in Stormwind. Owl and Zari have both told me who to stay away from and who to trust and how far to trust them. I've already made some friends in Lakeshire, and from there - who knows? That's the life I've wanted all along."
Kill ground his teeth at that and turned away. "You kids think you have all the answers."
Ancasta humphed at that. "And you old people think you know it all. Funny how that works, isn't it?"
Kill watched her walk away, still seething with anger. But she was heading up the slope toward the road that led back to Darnassus, and after a moment he shook his head and followed.
===O===
Sometime around the second hour of his grandmother's roundabout interrogation, Owl realized that his Master's avowal that he owed Selaya nothing truly struck home. In particular, it suddenly dawned on him that he no longer owed her his fear. Nor, to his silent astonishment, did he owe his fellow Kaldorei as a whole his obedience to their judgments and rules.
This, then - This was what his Master had been trying to teach him all along. That while he may not be considered an adult by the standards of his people, he had been living as an adult in Stormwind, and responsible to only himself and his Master for almost twelve years. And it followed that he was not beholden to Selaya nor to any Kaldorei for his daily bread, the roof over his head, or for any protection from harm. No one save himself alone was responsible for his own life, and thus the only judgment he need countenance was that of his Master.
Rain must have noticed something for she gave him a querying look out of silver eyes so like his own. Selaya, standing by the wide windows of her sanctum, had her back turned to the two of them and so did not see, and probably would not have even if she'd been looking right at him.
"Grandmother, is there a point to this?" he asked in the silence where he and Rain waited for Selaya to gather her thoughts for her next round of pointed questions. "Take it as given that I have not substantially changed from the boy you exiled fifteen years ago. The reasons you named at the time have not changed. I am my Master's student, he is a Master Rogue and I will be in the fullness of time. I look only to men to be my life's companions, and I will never take a wife. It will fall to Rain and your other grandchildren to carry on our blood, and at such endeavor I am certain they will make of it far better than I. Ask you then whatever questions are chewing at your hands, for I am certain you have not yet found the courage to ask."
Selaya turned at that and half-glared at his boldness. "Is this a Gnomish trait, such bluntness?"
Owl half-smiled. "You have met my Master, Lady."
Rain stifled a laugh at that.
Selaya circled around her chaise sofa and sat again, and looked at her grandchildren for a long moment. "As you seem to appreciate bluntness, I will say it plainly - have there been Sindorei in your bed?"
Owl half-smiled again. "Yes."
Selaya looked as if she'd bit into a lemon at that and Owl heard Rain gulp nervously beside him.
"His name was BloodThorn, and he was one of the Ascendant's Death Knights," Owl went on. He sat back in his chair and felt like he could breathe for the first time in three days. "At the time, he was beautiful to me. All that I could have ever asked for. But as my Master would say, if it is too good to be true it usually is. Much as you have now learned, Lady, I too was betrayed by the person that I believed loved me. I have shed tears for the lie that I loved. And now I am going on with my life, and attempting to make amends to my Master. Love - and lust - makes one unwise sometimes, and blind to many things."
Selaya scowled faintly at that. "Blind to a Sindorei?"
Owl smiled a little. "Indeed. If that Sindorei wears his beauty as a fire wears its flames. But I know little of such things. I am only a thief, and a killer, and a cook. You are the Archdruid, Grandmother, and have been handfasted five times. I have the excuse of my youth. What is yours?"
By now Rain was openly staring at him in frank astonishment as if he'd gone insane right beside her. Maybe he had. If so, it was a madness he relished. He reached over and squeezed her hand in reassurance, then got to his feet. "Well. I see little else to discuss, Grandmother. I am going for a walk, I wish to take proper leave of the trees this time. After, I will collect my Master and Anca and we will trouble you no more."
"Wait," Selaya said as he stood with his hand on the door latch. "There is one thing more I wish to speak of."
Owl huffed out a near silent laugh. "Oh? Do tell, Lady."
And now he heard finally the old imperious snap in her voice. "Do not take such tone with me."
Owl turned back to find Selaya's golden eyes glowing with annoyance. Rain was looking like she'd rather be anywhere but here, and more for her sake than for any obedience to his grandmother he went back to his chair. "All right. What is it you wish to say?"
Selaya looked at him for a long moment, then rose and went to a bookcase. Lifting her hands, she traced a complicated two-handed sigil and the living wood of the bookcase parted and drew away from a small ebonywood box. Taking it, she crossed to her grandchildren and held the box out to OwlDance.
"Within you will find a Draenei jewel," she said. "Velen brought this to me with the news that your father had fallen in Warsong. When he brought it to me, he placed it within a small machine, and like unto magic it showed us what had become of your father. Your mother did not take your father's place on the battlefield of Warsong. She went to hunt your father down and end his life, for he had become unredeemable."
"Unredeemable...?" Owl echoed as he looked at the small black box. "But he is not dead?"
Selaya's face became stony at that. "He is dead to us."
"No one is unredeemable," OwlDance said, looking up steadily into his grandmother's hard golden eyes.
Selaya turned away.
===O===
"Master?"
"Mruh-wha -"
"Can you wake for a little? I need to speak to you."
Kill opened his eyes to the blurred sight of fiery red and the feeling of being curled around another warm body. He gulped and carefully turned his head to free his face from Ancasta's hair to see his apprentice looking down at him in dim candlelight. Rather than the suppressed smirk he expected to see, OwlDance's face was shadowed and haggard.
"Uh - " Kill carefully pulled his arm from around Ancasta and rolled away from her, then sat up as he checked to make sure his weapons were all still in their places. Owl tilted his head toward the balcony of their inn room and Kill nodded.
He looked back at the deeply asleep young Mage and wondered how he'd managed to end up sleeping with her again. He'd have to go find those data cards soon, and find out just what biocompatibility entailed. He barely even knew what the term meant, he needed much more detailed information. Obviously it went deeper than he thought, if he kept waking up beside her without knowing how he got there.
"Has your grandmother kept you all this time?" he whispered as he joined his apprentice.
OwlDance shook his head. "No. I've been out thinking for most of the night. With the Frostsabers and the trees." The Elf seemed to slump and dropped to sit on the stone of the balcony floor beside Kill, looking down at his hands. "Master, my grandmother has told me that my father did not die in Warsong. And that my mother went not to take his place, but to find and kill him. She gave me a Draenei farviewer crystal. I know it is, I have seen the crystals Wasichu and Jevalyn use that hold portraits of their family. My grandmother says that the Prophet Velen gave the crystal to her, and that it shows what my father has become. But she does not have a viewing machine here, so I have not seen it myself."
Kill sat down facing his apprentice. "Okay. You've been out thinking all this time, so you must have come up with a plan of action."
Owl gave him a brittle, barely-there smile. "The only action I can take, Master. May I have your permission to go to Exodar? I wish to speak to the Prophet Velen, and ask leave of the Draenei to view the crystal. I will come home to Stormwind directly after."
Kill gave him a long look. "You're certain you'll come home?"
Owl nodded. "I will not try to find him on my own, Master. My uncles have long told me he was a great warrior. And for all your hopes I am not yet a Master myself. Besides, I suspect it will take quite some time to find him. And my mother, if she still lives."
Kill gave a long sigh at that. "Good. I won't deny I'm glad to hear you say that."
Owl gave him a ghost of a smile. "Oh, fear not, Master. I am well aware now of my own bad judgment. And I am determined it will never happen again."
Kill snorted a soft laugh at that and tugged on a long lock of black hair. "Don't go too far with it. We all make mistakes, and I don't want you doubting yourself. It can lead to hesitation, and that can get you killed just as quickly as bad judgment."
"I know, Master." Owl lifted his eyes to look across to where Ancasta was a motionless small lump on the bed. "This has not gone as I had wished."
"It never does, you know that."
Owl nodded faintly and rubbed his eyes. "I am exhausted."
Kill indicated the bed with a tilt of his head. "Go on. Better she wakes up with you than me."
The smirk Kill had been expecting then. "Oh, I don't know, Master. Young sprouts and autumn leaves go well together among my people, why not for the folk of Gnomeregan?"
Kill tweaked one long ear. "No respect for your elders. None at all."
===O===
The scent of icemint woke Kill the next morning, and he lay for a long moment motionless cataloging his environment and trying to figure out what that odd bubbling sound was.
"I thought icemint had no value in alchemy," OwlDance said quietly across the room.
"It doesn't, except as a flavoring agent. My mother uses it a lot in her candymaking, that's how I knew about it. My cousin Tally likes to use Essence of Cherry for hers."
A quiet clinking of metal against glass and Kill opened his eyes.
Across the room, Ancasta was sitting on the ornate Elven table, a simple tin cup in one hand and a potion vial in the other as she poured a slightly glowing blue liquid into the vial. Beside her, other small dropper-bottles of essences and tinctures and a small metal contraption that held a burning beeswax candle. OwlDance was gathering up the discarded stems from the Silverleaf and Mageroyal she'd used.
"What's that you're making, Copperbolt?" Kill called groggily.
Ancasta glanced over at him briefly then back to her careful pouring. "Mana potion."
"Don't get addicted to those things, you'll end up like a Blood Elf," Kill said on a yawn.
Ancasta grimaced but didn't look away from her work. "I'll keep that in mind, Commander. I'm sure the satisfaction of knowing I'm addiction-free will really help when I'm tapped out and it's a choice between letting a Horde kill me and casting one more Armor spell."
Kill humphed at that. "There are other ways."
"I suppose I could always tickle them to death," Ancasta said dryly. "Why don't you stick to your own area of expertise, Commander? After all, I'm the Mage and the alchemist here, not you."
Kill suppressed a sigh and rubbed his eyes. "Owl."
"Yes Master?"
"When are you leaving for Exodar?" Kill slid down from the chaise sofa where he'd slept and padded over to the table. Owl took an apple from their breakfast tray and handed it down when Kill nodded.
"I will go with you to the docks at Ru'theran, Master. Once I see you off for Stormwind, I will take the boat to Azuremyst." He looked away out the wide windows at the bright morning. "It should not take long."
"You're going to Azuremyst?" Ancasta asked. "Can I go?"
"No," Kill said over her rising excitement. "He's not going for sightseeing, he's going for business. You're going home with me."
"Business? On Azuremyst? Maybe I should go home and get Jeva, she might - "
"No," Kill said again. He gestured at the mana potion in her hand and she made certain the cork stopper was secure before she stuffed it into her potion pouch. "Clean up. We're going within the hour."
Ancasta scowled at him, then blew out the little candle in her potion warmer and slid down from the table to go wash out the tin cup. Kill watched her go as he crunched his apple.
"Girl's getting uppity," he grumped at his apprentice.
Owl said nothing.
===O===
They were leaving the inn when they saw StalkingWolf walking toward them, a yearling black and white striped Frostsaber cub ambling easily alongside his wolf.
"Master!" the Hunter called in surprise. "You are the last I expected to see here!"
Kill grinned up at the hunter. "I see you managed to get attached to one of the cats, eh?"
"Yes," StalkingWolf laughed easily and put a hand down on the Frostsaber's ruffed head. "Or rather she got attached to me, I'm afraid. She has decided that her name is Ember. And fear not, Master, within the year I will be able to ride. They grow quickly at this age."
"Good for you," Kill said with a nod. "Are you coming back to Stormwind any time soon? We've got plenty of work for you if you are."
StalkingWolf shook his head. "Not yet, Master. Ember and I will make our way to Felwood. The Circle has asked me to convey several messages and to escort a supply caravan to some of our folk there. After, I may be able to join you. But what of you, OwlDance? You have not found - "
"No," OwlDance said quietly. "I have not. Maybe some other time."
StalkingWolf gave him a worried look, then glanced down at Kill. Kill shook his head slightly and the hunter let it go. "Well. Look for me in Stormwind soon, Master, though I cannot say when."
"Fair enough," Kill said. "Good hunting."
The hunter walked silently on, his young Frostsaber padding at his side.
"Owl - " Ancasta began.
OwlDance sighed. "Leave it, Anca. Master is right. I owe the Kaldorei nothing anymore. I shall not force the issue if the Frostsabers do not find me suitable. I will save my gold and purchase one of the Humans' horses. Or perhaps a gryphon, in time."
Kill humphed at that. "We'll get you a horse. You need a means of transportation and there's no way you'd fit on a Mechanostrider. Fahrad wants me to send you to Booty Bay, and you'll need to arrive there by either ship or by land. If worse comes to worse you could always walk in, but I'd rather you had a means to outrun any possible pursuit."
"So would I, Master," Owl said dryly.
Kill grinned at that. "You still haven't told me how you knew the Ascendant was in the Temple yesterday. Did you hear your grandmother scream or something?"
"I - " Owl began, then stopped, turned, and looked up at the looming white bulk of the Temple through the trees behind them. "No. I heard nothing, Master. I just - There was a voice in my mind. It told me to go to the Temple, and to run. I did not even question it. I simply ran."
"A voice in your head?" Ancasta asked. "What did it sound like?"
The Night Elf considered that for a long moment. Then he turned back to look down at the two Gnomes, his silver eyes solemn. "Like the voice of the Aldrassil. Ancient as a Dwarven mountain, and as eternal as the snows of Icecrown."
Kill chuckled at the unexpectedly poetic answer, then nodded to the two Sentinels standing watch at the portal to Ru'theran. They walked into the bright pink light and with a blink of vertigo they stood on the thick grass of the corresponding portal in Ru'theran Village. They started down the slope of the gigantic tree root on which Ru'theran was built and onto the wooden boardwalk of the dock for the ship to Stormwind.
Waiting for them at the end of the dock was a Frostsaber. A huge male, snowy white with black leopard-like spots, he sat calmly at the end of the dock, tail swishing lightly across the wooden planking, golden eyes peering at them with a cold and imperious attention.
OwlDance stopped suddenly, then gave a choked sound and fell heavily to his knees as the golden eyes of the Frostsaber bored straight into his mind and soul.
[You. OwlDance. Yes. I have lived many years and found none who I felt to be worthy of me,] the Frostsaber said directly into Owl's soul. The huge cat rumbled a low growl then paced forward on giant clawed paws. He paid no attention to Kill or Ancasta but stared straight into OwlDance's eyes. [One thing only will I require of you - that never again will you think yourself unworthy of your blood. You are Kaldorei. And you are my rider. I will carry you willingly and joyfully for all the days we are given to live. I will fight beside you, through whatever may come. But more, I will live for you so long as you will live for me.]
"Owl!" Kill tried to push the Frostsaber's head away so he could see his apprentice. "Damn it, cat, what are you doing to him? Owl! Breathe!"
The Frostsaber wasn't moved by the Gnome Rogue's frantic pushing, nor did he notice Ancasta speaking urgently up at her friend as his face went gray with shock. Literally nothing existed for the Elf at that moment but the depths of the golden feline eyes and the mental voice that sank into every forgotten corner and fracture of his mind, shoring up years of anguish with acceptance and trust. Then the world came rushing back and with a wordless cry he reached for the ruffed head with trembling hands. He began to howl with broken sobs as the Frostsaber moved closer and gathered him in with one huge and gentle paw.
[Mine. Do not forget,] the Frostsaber rumbled. [My name is Star.]