The rays of sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains of my room was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Particles of dust hanging in the air, evidence of the lack of housekeeping. Or maybe not. The housekeepers were only mortal after all, they couldn't see the things I could. Next thing I was aware of was a high pitched, yet obviously male voice trying to get my attention.
"Master, it's time to get up," it said, my groggy mind taking a moment to process the voice as one of my demon familiars.
I groaned, and I tried rolling over; it was too early for this shit. The sun was up, but just barely enough to crest the tops of the buildings across the street. I attempted to pull the covers back over my head, but was stopped by said familiar.
"Aztog, you know damn well that I hate mornings. If you wish to live, shut up and let me sleep" I grumbled back at him. It was an empty threat and we both knew it. I loved all my familiars too much to intentionally harm them. This has been a routine of ours for decades; since demons don't need sleep, he would keep watch while I slept. Even in the safety of the inn, you could never be too careful. The only creatures I could rely on not to betray me were my summoned minions.
"Yes, I know very well that you hate mornings, however this is important. You have a letter." He said with a chuckle.
I looked over at the little shit; He had a narrow face that tapered to a slight point at his chin. Long ears with an earring in one ear, long horns, and his electric blue eyes had vertical slitted pupils, with black sclera. His skin was a pale bluish grey, and he had small wings that he could use to fly short distances. He was about 2 and a half feet tall, average height for a toddler. If he ran out of mana and couldn't cast his firebolt, he had natural weapons in the form of razor sharp claws and fangs. I'd once seen him cleave a fel boar in half that had gotten too close to our camp one day.
"Oh really? It had better be fucking important, like from the king or something." I said angrily. If it was anyone else besides the commander of the alliance, they could damn well wait until I got more sleep.
"Unfortunately, I do not know master. It simply has your name on it." He said.
"Then it can wait for me to get more sleep." I said, sighing. Pulling the sheets over my head again.
"You should look at the letter. It's not often you get one." my imp said with a chuckle.
"Fine. Give me a few minutes" I said to the wisp.
As I got out of bed, I took another look around the room; while nothing should be out of place with Aztog keeping guard, it never hurt to be vigilant. It was just how I remembered last night, despite the large amount of ale I'd had in celebration of our latest dungeon crawl. The room wasn't massive, but it was still a decent size. A bed, dresser, desk in various corners of the room, and door to the en suite bathroom was all that was really in it. While it wasn't much, it was all the room needed, and it was all good quality. Fitting, considering it was a well known tavern in the capital city of the alliance, Stormwind. Most taverns were barely better than shacks, or tents set up near the battlefield. Getting dressed, I went to the bathroom to do the usual necessities of being awake at this god awful hour.
"Well now that that's over, what time is it anyway? Can't be much later than just after sunrise" I asked my familiar, slightly more awake now.
"It is almost noon, my lady," he said with a grin.
"Bullshit" I said with a scowl
"If you do not believe your most loyal minion, you can gaze out the window yourself" he replied, while still grinning at me.
Sure enough, he was right. Dammit I hate it when he's right, he never lets me live it down.
"Quit your snickering jackass, to me this is early" I said as I picked him up with my magic and flung him across the room to land on the bed. I had never been a morning person, even after my centuries of life. Being a void elf, we lived a very long time. I wasn't sure how I managed it, you'd think after so many years one would get used to having to get up in the morning. Nope, not how that works apparently.
Plucking the letter out of his hand as he flew away, I headed out the door and downstairs to the common room. Once downstairs, I found a random seat that wasn't occupied and called out to the innkeeper.
"Allison, can you grab me some breakfast? I'm starving." I hollered at her as I started looking over the letter.
"Sure thing Sleeping Beauty" she said while laughing at me.
'Just a bunch of jokers, the lot of you. At least come up with some new material' I grumbled to myself as she walked away.
Turning my attention back to the letter, I saw that it indeed didn't appear to have a sender. Classic white paper, with ornate golden script, it simply had my name on it: Alex Felgrave. I got very few letters these days, what with the type of work I did. I could count on one hand the people who actually knew about me. The real me. I was a spy and an assassin; part of my job was to be incognito. Most of my job consisted of infiltrating something like an enemy stronghold in one way or another. Either to get information, or to kill someone who was causing problems. Needless to say, I couldn't see why any of those people would send me a letter right now. I was supposed to be on vacation.
'Your time has come. The ruler in the shadows recalls its ravens.'
Fuck. God dammit. Go to hell Shaw. The simple letter was a basic summons that SI:7 used to tell one of their operatives they had a mission. It was incredibly cheesy, and it was basically a pointless tradition. Magic had advanced to the point where it made letters like this utterly obsolete. Hell even the Gnomes were rolling out new technology that would allow magic-less communication over long distances. The civilians usually still used letters, since they usually didn't require the secrecy that the military did. Anyone who was a mage could just make a portal to where they wanted to go, thus not needing to send a letter. Khadgar was infamous for just popping in on people when he wanted to talk to them. Every other magic user had means to communicate that didn't involve an easily intercepted paper letter.
'What do you think they want?' my imp asked.
'No clue. I'm supposed to be on vacation after the shadowlands debacle. Whatever it is, it must be important.' I said
Allison had brought my food while I was lost in thought and I had almost finished my food without even realising it. Aztog had also caught up with me during this time and was looking longingly at the remains of my food.
"Here, take it you glutton" I said, while standing up and throwing some silver on the table.
"Thank you kindly master!" he said with a gentlemanly bow before leaping at the food like he hadn't eaten in 20 years.
'Always the same ridiculous imp' I thought as I shook my head at him with a fond smile.
Throwing a gold coin on the table, I left. My meal was far less than a gold, however I had an over abundance of funds due to my rather dangerous life. Lots of hazard pay. I may as well share the wealth when I can. The innkeeper would take the cost of my meal, and give the rest to the waitress as a tip
Walking out the door, the full wrath of the deadly laser that we called the sun hit me in the face. I winced and squinted my eyes, as a void elf, we thrived in the darkness, and the void. While the sun didn't actually do us any harm, I don't know a single one of us that actually enjoys being out in the sun. I navigated through the city. I knew every alley, every house, every business, and basically every nook and cranny of the city. I had been ordered to learn as part of SI:7 in case the capital of the Alliance was ever invaded. It still took me over two hours to get to the other side of the city where HQ was located.
Exiting the Old Town district, I found myself in a small military district. Its main focus was the Champions Hall, and the Training Hall, but it also housed the SI:7 HQ, though no civilian knew that. The other two halls were for Champions of the Alliance to use to get stronger, or to spend their military stipend for winning on various battlefields. Going left, away from the Champions hall, I walked across the biggest training field in Stormwind. It had many different kinds of training dummies available for military personnel and champions to hone their skills on.
After deftly dodging a stray fireball from some mage, I walked into the SI:7 headquarters. The building was large, but it held many secrets in it that no one but SI:7 members knew about. Going to the second floor, and to my destination, I waved to the decoy of Mathias Shaw, the leader of this clandestine organisation. No one except an elite few knew that he was a decoy. Not even the two SI operatives next to him that were watching his back. Out of sight of prying eyes, I opened a demonic Gateway to the location I knew I needed to go. Warlock gateways were a complex spell that were useful beyond measure, but had some limitations. The gateway itself was easy enough to summon, however it was connecting the two with space magic that was a pain in the ass. The gateway that would spawn in front me was mainly black, with deep purple veins of runic script running through it. It was constructed in the shape of a large archway, that flared out into an ornate base. On the bottom of my gate were a small set of stairs so one could reach the small portal in the center. The gateway was several times taller than myself after all. At the top of the arch rested a very large horned demonic skull carved from the same stone-like material as the rest of the archway.
The portal itself was violet in colour, and was mostly see through. The only reason one might see the violet colour was because of the wave of magic energy that radiated from the outside of the ring, to the center. Upon entering the gateway, you were encased in violet shadow magic and thrown through the nether to land just on the other side of the opposing gateway. The gateway on the other side was basically the exact same in every way as the origin gateway, with the only difference being green runes instead of violet ones.
The three main limitations of the Demonic Gateway were that you had to have either seen, or can currently see the location you want to send your portal. The second being that you can only send the gateway so far before you can no longer stand the mental strain of trying to connect two points in space. The more proficient you were with the spell, the further away you could place your other gate. Theoretically, a skilled enough warlock could send their gate to the other side of Azeroth so long as they had been there. The last limitation is that you can only go through the gate once every ten minutes due to the energies you were exposed to in the twisting nether.
Biggest difference between this spell, and the portals mages could create, was that mages could only make portals to specific locations. The trade off though was there was no mental strain on the mage, and you could make the portal across dimensions if you wanted to. You could also go through the portal an unlimited amount of times with no complications. Demonic Gateways however would last much longer without being maintained, and you could place them anywhere you wanted given the limitations I mentioned earlier.
After summoning the gateway at my feet, and mentally placing the other one where I needed it to be, I stepped through. Only to be met with a small empty space occupied only by a few boxes, a barrel, and for some reason a wardrobe. I was able to send my gateway here, even though I couldn't see it because I had been here plenty of times before. I went up to one of the illusionary windows that looked over the training ground below. This one wasn't actually a window, it was an enchanted doorway to look like one. 'Opening' the window and stepping inside dropped me into a darkly lit room. How cliche.
At the end of the circular room, sat the real Mathias Shaw with several other agents of SI:7. Mathias Shaw had reddish orange hair, a horseshoe moustache with a soul patch, and green eyes. His face was starting to develop a few more wrinkles in the last few years, and they stretched to accommodate the smile he sent my way. I had spent a total of five years in the shadowlands, wrapping up loose ends after the jailer had been killed took three more years.
"Alex! It's been quite some time. It's nice to see you again after all this time." Shaw said.
"Sir, it's been six weeks." I said, putting on a mask of professionalism.
"Oh don't be like that. We've saved each other's lives dozens of times over the years. You can be a little less formal with me can't you?" he asked.
"You are still my superior Sir." I replied, trying not to smile.
"Hmph. Very well. The reason I called you here was because the Queen of the Night Fae has asked for our help. As my best operative, I'm sending you." he explained.
Damn. I had just left that awful place, and I didn't think I'd be returning to the realm of death so soon after settling matters there. It was a huge pain in the ass to get back there normally. But thankfully I was no normal person; while the portals to the Shadowlands had been closed with the death of the Jailer, Zovaal, there were still ways to return. There were two that I could think of from the top of my head. One was to hire a mage that had retained their magical connection with the land of death to open a portal back to Oribos, the capital city of the shadowlands. However this was stupidly expensive nowadays; upwards of a thousand gold. When the link between worlds was still open, it was very easy to go to and from Oribos, so the cost of a portal was dirt cheap, only around a single gold or so.
While I could certainly afford such an expense, I really didn't want to blow a thousand gold. That left the second option: my last remaining Night Fae Hearthstone. Hearthstones were normally small stones about the size of one's palm that could be magically bound to a certain location. Hearthstones are bound to your soul, so you can only have one of them. When you bind your stone to a new place, the old one is overwritten. Shaw for example, had his hearthstone bound to this secluded room.
The Night Fae Hearthstone is different however, in that you can have the Night Fae one and your normal hearthstone. Almost everyone has a hearthstone, as they are very easy to get; so it was no loss when hearthstones of all the adventurers who had travelled to the shadowlands to retrieve our world leaders, shattered into dust. Almost every tavern has a stockpile of them ready to give out when someone came in who had lost theirs.
The problem with using my Night Fae hearthstone, was that I could never get another one. I was a cautious person, and I had kept a Night Fae stone on the mortal side, so when the connection closed itself I still kept the hearthstone. It was the act of travelling through the veil that destroyed the hearthstone. So when I used my Night Fae one, it would be gone forever and even if the Winter Queen gave me another, I wouldn't be able to bring it back with me. However since it was the Ruler of the Night Fae herself asking for help, we were obligated to take the diplomatic mission. Soon enough though, the mages who kept their connections would pass on to the afterlife and we would no longer be able to travel there.
"Very well Sir. When would you like me to leave?" I asked the man.
"Ideally as soon as possible. Be careful Grant." he warned.
"I always am." I reassured Shaw.
"I mean it, Alex. If you aren't back, or check in after three months, I will be sending the entire might of SI:7 after your ass" Mathias Shaw said. Gone was the jovial attitude from before, replaced with the steely resolve of the leader of the most feared organisations on Azeroth.
"I feel his resolve. He is not lying." Aztog whispered so only I could hear.
It was one of the things I respected about the man. We were a spy organisation, yes, but he wouldn't abandon his agents. I had done many rescue missions for SI:7, and several had been for fellow operatives.
"Yes sir." I acknowledged before leaving.
— — —
Mathias Shaw watched his daughter leave the secluded room he was in. Alex didn't know he was his daughter of course, but Shaw did. He had met Alex's mother in Silvermoon City on a diplomatic mission. She was one of the Reagent Lord Lor'themar Theron's military advisors, and Shaw had interacted with her on many occasions. This was of course centuries ago before he was the leader of SI:7. No one knew he was that old, not even the current King of Stormwind.
Alex's mother had died when she had defected to the side of the void elves, not long after Grant was born. She had been unable to handle the void energies that had changed the group of elves, and it had killed her some time later. The unborn baby inside of her though had survived, and when she was born, had been a void elf like the others. At the time, Shaw knew he was not at all fit to be a father, and had thought the best thing he could have done was to give the girl to her aunt. While he had never been present in Alex's life, he always made sure to keep tabs on her. He sent her birthday gifts, holiday presents, and had always sent extra money to her aunt so she would never struggle in raising her. As much as Shaw wanted to be part of his daughter's life when he himself had matured somewhat, the life he led was no place for a child.
His enemies would take advantage of the fact that he had a daughter. No, it was better to be the silent guardian angel from afar. He had asked her aunt to tell Alex her father had died. It would make things easier on his daughter; she wouldn't ever have to think her father abandoned her. So imagine his surprise when his daughter took after him in the skills department, despite the fact that he'd never had a single day of training in the stealthy arts. Her skills were mainly in magic, but she was skilled in espionage and assassinations. Often times the corpses of her targets were exploded beyond recognition. There was no rule that said one had to be a rogue to join SI:7, you just needed the aptitude to become a spy.
A few years after Mathias Shaw had become the leader of SI:7, his own damned daughter had also joined the organisation. She quickly climbed the ranks to be even more deadly than Shaw himself. Even though he hated putting his child in danger, Alex had chosen this life for herself through no part of her father. If there was a mission that could not fail under any circumstances, he would assign his daughter on the mission. Other than that, he would allow Alex to pick whatever mission she wanted. It pleased him greatly that his child took on every type of mission. He didn't want his daughter to become a cold hearted killer by only taking assassination missions. He was so proud of her.
When Shaw was too old to remain the leader, he planned to pass on the title to his daughter. That wasn't normally how it was done; it had to be earned. However every single person in SI:7 knew full well that Alex was the best they had. No one would question it when Shaw suggested that his daughter inherited the title.
He hadn't been lying when he told Alex he would send SI:7 after her. Shaw had been nearly broken when he'd heard that his daughter had been trapped in the Shadowlands along with many other heroes. He had been about to mobilise when they had gotten word some people had managed to make a portal back to Azeroth. He had interrogated a few of the returnees, and found out his daughter was alive and well, and helping restore order to the Shadowlands. The people he questioned of course didn't know who Alex was, that she was part of SI:7. To them she was just a courageous hero that had been caught up in the mess.
So if his daughter disappeared again, he would not hesitate to send aid. In fact, he would go himself, people finding out Alex was his daughter be damned. He would not lose her again.
— — —
Before my trip to Ardenweald, I had to get some supplies. I had no idea how long I would be gone, so I needed to stock up quite a lot. I took a look in my lightless silk bags and saw that they were nearly full with useless crap. Since we had celebrated right after the dungeon was over, I hadn't had a chance to sell off my junk.
Thinking about where the nearest shop was, I headed that way. I had long ago memorised the layout of the whole city so it was no problem finding it. After selling what I wanted to sell, mainly junk like various claws, pelts, and rubble; and I mean actual stone rubble, I decided to go to the bank. What business do lizards have dropping stone rubble anyway? They were in a massive cavern with smooth floors and walls. Nothing looked like there had been bites taken out of it. Anyway, getting to the bank I deposited anything I didn't want to sell; gear, scrolls, potions and a few odds and ends that I was going to disenchant when I had some time.
It was time to get going to the shadowlands; leaving the city out the main gate, I found a secluded spot. Using a hearthstone was actually quite easy, all you had to do was channel mana into it. As I did so, the thing started to glow a vibrant sapphire blue with motes of white light; same as from Ardenweald. It only took about 10 seconds of channeling before I started to feel a tug on my soul. It was normally not a terrible experience, at least for one who had done it as often as I. However this time it HURT, quite a lot. It felt like my soul was being torn apart, probably because it was. I was entering a realm that the living had no business going to. It felt like an eternity but in reality was only a minute or two, before I found myself unceremoniously dumped on my ass in a place I wasn't expecting.
"Well Aztog, I have good news and bad news.'' I said as I addressed my familiar.
"Yes, I know what you mean. The hearthstone did not take us to where it should have" Aztog replied. As a demon bound to my soul, where I went, he went so long as I had actively chosen to summon him to my side.
"Good news is that at least we are in the shadowlands, slightly bad news is that it landed us in Oribos" I continued.
It wasn't totally a bad thing that we ended up where we did, just annoying. I've never really liked this place, it felt too orderly. Not to mention the Brokers who were always trying to sell you something, get information from you, or otherwise trying to scam you. Even the Keepers of the city found them annoying, feeling like they were crowding and taking over their city. I better get this show on the road, I didn't want to stay here any longer than I had to. Making my way across the city, dodging the Brokers and Keepers alike, I found the teleport pad that would bring me up to the flight deck of Oribos. It was here that I could travel the veil once again to get to Ardenwealed.
"I would like to book passage to Ardenweald" I told the Flight Master after finally finding him. This place was a lot busier than usual.
"Very well, Alex, protector of the Weald" he said with a smile. At least I thought it was a smile. Could never really tell for sure behind those masks of theirs. I had forgotten that I had made quite a name for myself across the realms of the Shadowlands in the couple months that I'd been gone.
I hopped on the Ensorcelled Everwyrm that would take me safely across the veil to my destination with Aztog hanging on for dear life to my cloak. He'd be fine if he fell off... I think. He's a demon after all. The ride there was exactly how I remember, flying up to the gate just hanging there after crossing the endless space below that led to the Maw. Entering the gate we followed the river of souls crossing to Ardenweald after having been judged by the Arbiter that this was their deserved afterlife. It didn't hurt at all this time since I was on the Everwyrm.
Travelling at damn near warp speed, the trip didn't take long, only about an hour, and eventually the wondrous forests of the Night Fae entered my sight. Thankfully I didn't have to walk all the way to the heart of the forest, the wyrm would take me all the way there. And after another 10 or so minutes I landed on the Flight Masters platform where the mounts of the Night Fae were kept.
Looking around, I was able to find Moonberry, I didn't have to look long.
"Alex! It's good to see you" they called out, reminding me how cheerful they were.
"Moonberry, it's good to see you as well, I assume you know why I am here?" I asked them.
"Yes yes, the queen has been eagerly awaiting your arrival" they said, somewhat solemnly. Their tone was unexpected, as I had come to associate them with a bubbly attitude that nothing could bring down.
After flying up to the second level of the heart of the forest where the queen resided, she finally came into view. The queen was massive in size, while still being elegant and refined, she stood a good 20 feet tall. With blue skin, glowing ethereal horns on her head, and with jet black eyes, she could be very intimidating if you didn't know her. However she was a big ol' softy at heart. While she cared deeply about her people, she wouldn't hesitate to rain death and destruction to anyone who threatened her forests.
"Thank you for coming, Alex Felgrave" she said, her voice while not booming, still resounded in my chest.
"Of course my queen, what was so urgent that I had to rush over here?" I asked. I had done quite a lot for the queen, so I was afforded some measure of casualness while speaking with her.
"I'm glad you came so fast. A new dungeon has appeared in Ardenweald." she said gravely.
"Wut?" I said intelligently.