Last week's chapter marked the end of Part 1; this chapter begins a new section of the story. A new setting, and a few new characters will make appearances today.
Feedback for this story remains rather quiet, but like last time, I'm not mentioning this in an effort to beg for reviews. I simply wish to take a moment to thank those of you who are reading this.
I hope you enjoy this installment.
In some ways, she held herself in ways that befit a noblewoman and a priestess. In other ways, she did not.
She wore expensive robes with obvious ease and familiarity, yet her stance was rigid and her body language bespoke anxiety. Though she seemed a lady, her people saw her as little more than a child; a promising one, to be sure, but a mere ninety-six years did little to move the expectations of the kaldorei.
Her eyes were a sparkling silver, and would have been enchanting if they were in any way open. But though their crystalline depths were visible, they were also opaque. Anyone seeking to delve deeper into her personality by looking at her would have seen nothing but an immovable wall.
"Is there anything you require?" a soft, deferential voice asked at her side. The priestess looked over at her attendant as they left the ship's ramp and stepped onto Stormwind's harbor.
"No," she said, in a surprisingly soft voice. "Thank you."
The attendant bowed. She beamed at the ship's crew as they brought her lady's luggage—sparse as it was—down off the ship for them. She bowed low. "A thousand thanks to you, good sirs," she said.
The priestess smiled, tight-lipped and amused, and said nothing. However, she too bowed with gratitude toward the young men who assisted them. The young men, for their part, blushed and waved it off before they were shouted back into shape by their captain, who was now leaning over the edge of the vessel.
"Ah…'fit's not too much trouble, misses," said one of the crewmen, "mightn't we know yer names? Ne'er 'ad elves such's yerselves on passage wit'us afore."
The attendant looked nervous.
The priestess smiled. "Sylvanne," she offered.
Emboldened, the attendant said, "Kayli."
The crewman looked mesmerized, and nodded with a dopey grin on his face. "Remember 'm forever, I will." He bowed. "Johl's m'own name, misses. An honor to've you aboard. Hope yer business goes well."
"Thank you, Johl," Sylvanne said, and reached out. Where her slender fingers met the young man's forehead, a soft shimmer met the air, and the human's face went slack for a moment. "Ande'thoras-ethil," she murmured.
Johl stood, dumbstruck, until his captain threw what appeared to be a brick at him. Sylvanne turned and began to walk, Kayli just beside her. The younger elf—they looked of an age, but in reality three decades separated them—stared openly at the vast human settlement. As they walked, she began talking rapidly in Darnassian, looking every bit like a tourist; which, of course, she was. This was Kayli's first time seeing humans on any large scale, and she clearly found the experience…invigorating.
"Shall we find proper lodging for your night, Mistress?" she asked after a while, noting Sylvanne's silent introspection. "You must be exhausted."
Sylvanne shook her head. "I am fine," she said, in the common tongue. She held out her hand. "Go on. See the sights to your content. I'll find a place for us to stay." Kayli looked mystified, and almost offended. "Go, girl. I can see that you long to explore. My father has placed you in my charge for this journey, and I thus give you leave. Go."
Torn between following orders and following protocol, Kayli hesitated a long moment before finally surrendering her lady's belongings and rushing off into the heart of the city. Sylvanne watched her go, chuckling beneath her breath.
Bereft of her companion, the young priestess resumed her severity. The people there took notice. Guards nodded in greeting; peasants cleared away from her; thieves watched her keenly, with soft smiles playing devilishly at their lips. She noticed none of them, walking like a warden on patrol.
The day passed quietly. Sylvanne did not bother to ask how Kayli managed to find her, because there was no point. She had known already, which was why it struck her as completely normal to be spending one moment surveying the city from the window of the room she'd purchased for the week, then to turn and note the very next moment that Kayli stood in the doorway. "Mistress," she said, bowing.
"Have you had your fill?" Sylvanne asked. "The sun has not set."
Frowning curiously in response to her lady's insistence on using "low language," as she had heard it called more than once, Kayli endeavored to imitate her. "…I am content. For now. Why…have you chosen this place?" She gestured about Sylvanne's room, which was clean but very plain, and very small. "There are inns, proper places to…suit your station."
Her accent was halting; she had little practice in any language but her own.
Unlike Sylvanne, who spoke with the smooth ease of a foreign ambassador: "I chose a place to suit me, Kayli, not my station."
Kayli did not seem pleased by this. "…Master told me. To look after you. This…"
"Will suit me fine, Kayli," Sylvanne interrupted, raising a placating hand. "Ease your mind. As you say, I am content. Now sit, and tell me what you have seen."
From the sound of it, Kayli had explored the entire city of Stormwind twice over. She had visited the gardens of the Park District—"Madame would love them," she said, speaking of Sylvanne's mother—and the spiraling works of architecture on display in the Cathedral District. She had asked a guard about the great statues that guarded the front entrance to the city, and had been treated to a tour which had ended at Stormwind Keep itself, where she had been permitted to meet the boy king, Anduin Wrynn himself.
So flustered was she in telling these things to her lady, Kayli was shaking with excitement and did not notice for a number of seconds that Sylvanne was laughing. She pouted. "Why do you laugh so, Mistress?"
"It is simply a delight to see you so animated," Sylvanne replied, grinning at her. For once, both elves looked their age. "At home you are always so proper. I do not think I have heard you speak so loosely since the days your parents would ask me to tutor you. Tell me, Kayli; what did the young king say?"
"He…welcomed me to Stormwind," Kayli said, blushing. "He said…it was heartening," she struggled over the word, "to see someone so…interested in his city. He asked how long I would be staying. I…told him that I was here with my mistress. The king…the king asked about you. And I said you were a great priestess, traveled here for an audience with Lord Shadowbreaker." She flinched, as if wondering whether she had broken confidence by telling these things. Sylvanne was unconcerned. "The king…he says he should like to meet you. He has invited you to dine with him, whenever it suits your time and mood."
Sylvanne looked surprised at this. She stood. "Is this why you have returned so early? To tell me this?"
"Yes, Mistress."
Kayli looked up, and could see that the priestess was calculating. Her eyes seemed to spin in their sockets, but it was not with panic; it was with something resembling excitement. Some color had come into her normally pale face. "This is very good," Sylvanne said. "Thank you, Kayli. You have done me a service. Fetch a message back to the good king, won't you?"
"He has sent guards with me," Kayli said. "They wait in the hall for your answer."
Sylvanne swept through the door to her room and was met with two hulking human men, flanking a human woman; all three were dressed in shining steel armor and marked with the lion of their house. They bowed deeply as one. "My companion tells me that His Majesty wishes to meet with me."
The woman nodded. "He does."
"When and how would be best suited to His Majesty's wishes? For I am much honored by his invitation and wish to accept it."
"Whenever suits your business, milady," growled one of the men, inclining his head. Kayli ventured out behind her mistress and noticed that Sylvanne's attention was arrested by this man; something like familiarity was written on her face.
"Might it be in two days, in the early evening?" Sylvanne asked.
"That would be suitable," the woman said.
"Very good, then. Thank you. And please extend my gratitude to King Wrynn. This is most gracious."
The three guards bowed again.
"Of course, Lady Sil'nathin."
Ande'thoras-ethil = "May your troubles be diminished" in Darnassian.
