Bunsenburger drank the last of his wine and set the glass down on one of the mayor's shelves. The drink certainly took the edge off; he felt surprisingly relaxed considering the confession he'd just given to the queen of their entire nation about the plot he'd hatched. Zulgha, usually the bolder and even terser of his employees, continued to fidget nervously as Sylvanas leaned against the mayor's desk in the exact position she'd remained in, motionless, for the duration of Bunsenburger's whole story. There was not tension in the room so much as a heavy air of mystery, which the good doctor was sure the Dark Lady had impressed upon their meeting intentionally.
Pausing out of respect, he waited for her to speak, the deep breaths typical before a serious discussion absent. "That's the whole story, beginning to end?" she asked, her tone of voice flat and unreadable.
There was no reason to mince words or play games; if Sylvanas really wanted to know the truth, she could invade his mind and take the information she wanted. Bunsenburger had no reason nor any method to hide the truth. "Exactly as I've told you; I imagine that Zanien should have been dead for at least an hour, by now."
Zulgha straightened her posture and pulled her head backward to hide her face behind her hair and the folds of her cloak's hood, unable to bear the suspense of their queen waiting so long to answer. The living...so impatient. Thankfully, Zulgha was an initiate and fully intended to continue life after undeath when the time came, but for now, Bunsenburger had to step on the young orc's nervously tapping foot to signal to her to calm down.
Finally, Sylvanas spoke again, still not looking up at him. "You're fully aware that you just confessed to orchestrating the death of one citizen of the Sindorei, and the turning of another into a minion?" she asked, though she was obviously asking him a lot more than that.
"Aware and thankful for the opportunity to inform you in person," Bunsenburger replied without an ounce of remorse. "Their people are, as I mentioned, members of the Horde about as tenuously as we are; possibly even less so, due to the general distaste other races have for blood elven supremacist sentiment. The loss of two replaceable, non-notable trainers is unlikely to cause any blowback."
Zulgha stiffened up like a coffin plank, obviously worried by the boldness of the doctor's statement. Even Bunsenburger himself felt the pressure at that moment, frozen in time as his entire endeavor hung on the Banshee Queen's reaction to a single answer he'd given. As always, her thoughts were her own, and it wasn't lost on Bunsenburger that the skeleton knights he'd raised as her bodyguards would readily arrest him on her command.
Stern but not cruel, she didn't leave him waiting for too long.
"Okay."
There were a few seconds where even Bunsenburger didn't quite understand what she meant. He was certain that Zulgha was ready to freak out at any moment, and even he found himself worried by the opaqueness of her reply.
Tempering his tone of voice, he tried to remain as deferent as possible in his demeanor. "Okay, meaning..."
Finally meeting his gaze, her usual seriousness was there, sans any sort of anger or disapproval. "Next time, just abduct more Alliance warlock trainers," she replied brusquely. And then, as promptly as she'd entered, she stood up from the desk and moved to leave after pointing toward the piece of furniture and silently instructing the skeletons to put it back in its place.
Bunsenburger blinked a few times and felt his still-functioning stomach turn over once in relief. Sylvanas didn't seem interested in even discussing the matter further, and once his more basic need of not being thrown in the Undercity dungeon was sated, he began to worry for his career.
"Am I to understand then, my queen, that I have your approval to continue?"
Pausing for a second by the stairs, Sylvanas looked back at him one last time. He knew from experience that she was not a leader given to excessive praise or to sentimentality, and that her seal of approval was not freely handed out. As if showing some sort of mercy to one of her subjects, the slightest hint of a smile pulled at one side of her mouth.
"I don't just approve...I expect you to continue, and to show results," she replied in a rather quiet voice. "Keep the matter within your circle...refine your technique for efficiency...and be able to demonstrate a method in the field, with a mobile lab, without the need for a stationary location, within one year."
Not waiting for him to respond with the sort of flattery and excessive praise one of her stature probably received too often, she pulled the hood back over her head and descended the staircase, her skeletons in tow. Bunsenburger's head was spinning like a living mortal, and he almost wished he'd brought more to drink.
Taking a seat in one of the chairs for guests at the mayoral office, he just leaned back for a moment and waited for his decrepit heart to slow down. His pulse had grown so slow in undeath, and to feel it race was unfamiliar and disorienting. Zulgha slumped down into a chair next to him, rubbing her face with her hands as if she'd been woken up too early from a nap.
"Does this mean we get more funding?" his assistant asked.
"She didn't say that," Bunsenburger cautioned her. "I assume that if we keep this to ourselves, then the only ones who will know are Martha and her former colleagues in Undercity, assuming we can find a way to keep Runa quiet...we'll likely need Martha's help in procurement of more test subjects."
"And for money? This will be expensive at least for the next year, and our skeleton soldiers are so successful on the battlefield that they have a low turnover rate; we can't finance this alone."
"All of that can be solved, in time...gold is not a particularly scarce resource on our planet." Wagging his finger in the air as he wrote on an imaginary notepad, Bunsenburger formulated a plan in his head. "I need to start writing letters, right away...going back to Outland is too expensive, especially now that we have other means of procurement."
Zulgha flashed her gums, an evil grin spreading across her face. "This month's Darkmoon Faire takes place in three days..." she said ominously.
Scratching his chin, Bunsenburger considered her implication for a moment. "We have to be careful...Ratchet is one thing, Darkmoon is another...by all means, check it out and see who you can find, hang out for a day or two, but leave Runa here; I'll find something else to busy her with."
"I have the green light?" she asked, her previous anxiety largely gone.
"Consider it a yellow light...round up helpers other than the skeletons as well; we don't want our operation's trademark to be seen on the same weekend that a hapless Alliance warlock might...disappear."
Already leaving on her own accord, Zulgha flashed him a thumbs up, hurrying down the stairs to prepare for the sort of quest he knew she preferred. Once the clacking sound of her flip flops disappeared downstairs, Bunsenburger remained sitting for a while. He'd eventually need to lock up and vacate the premises, since the office wasn't his and the 'favor' granted by the mayor had been coerced by a deathguard from Undercity in behalf of 'a very important person.' But for just a few moments, he could sit and savor the taste of victory.
"Yes...I hope there will be blood," he cackled to himself while imaging the sight he'd see upon returning to the maze in the back of his laboratory.
A/N: special thanks to Coincidenceless, who inspired this basic idea with his creative storytelling, but who had no idea I even wrote this until after it was finished. Hat's off to you, sir.
