p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; line-height: normal;"strongDisclaimer:/strong The characters and settings created by Blizzard Entertainment Inc in this story are owned by their creators. I do not claim them as mine in any way, shape or form. I am not receiving monetary profit from this story and no copyright infringement is intended./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"…/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 38: Man In A Green Suit/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongI/strong watched King Kael'thas Sunstrider have his morning coffee on the veranda of his palace, like nothing bad was ever going to happen to him. The royal gardens were a sort of magical courtyard that extended beyond the Sunspire. The landscaping started out sort of structured, clipped into smaller box gardens with peach roses, and a central hedge maze (because of course someone like Kael'thas would have a golden hedge maze). The hedge maze ran on for a while until the pale gravel beneath it spread into clipped grass, and then fields of unkept grass, and hillocks, loose groves of trees that had to be manicured. It wasn't as free and feisty as Mulgore, but it was beautiful and would have made royal guests feel free to wander, yet still be protected by high palace walls and stuffy guards with giant phoenix shields somewhere out there on the edge of it. Eventually./p
p class="MsoNormal"Royal hunts, and certainly some romantic shenanigans were meant to happen out here by design. The one thing Kael'thas, nor his queen Saturna, nor any of his servants, his stooges would ever expect was a grade A stealthed Goblin mech suit, Tauren-sized, with a cloaking field standing dead in the middle of it. My fire green mech suit was fitted out with a pack of snarling shark-faced Goblin bombs on my back. There were rows of munition looped around my shoulders and across my chest, loaded into a machine gun in a holster at my hip. I had rocket boots to propel me and a rocket launcher at my fist, as I clenched it. At the moment, I was eyeing up Kael'thas through my visor, a red projection of various loops and lines telling me I could take a headshot or a body shot if I cared to at that range. More numbers and lines raced across the visor screen, in a Goblin numerical system I didn't recognize. Okay, so the data made little sense to me beyond some solid first guesses and the Fitz shouting some basics at me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I gripped the bar inside the big metal gloves, at my palm. That made the fingers do the opposite, uncurl and flex. I liked to watch the machine do that. And I also liked to look up at that Kael'thas, smirking over his steaming coffee cup. Smug Kael'thas, who fully believed he had gotten away with murder and surveyed his kingdom like some lion king, everything the light touches and all that crap. But almost beneath his nose, there was a man in a Goblin war machine with a magnetic field so fine it displaced air molecules around it completely shroud Kael'thas impending doom./p
p class="MsoNormal""Air strike artillery to his face, or?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"So sooo tempting for me to try it. But this was about the evidence. This was about proving who, and how many individuals, had been behind the kidnap plot and putting them in prison no matter how high up they were in this crazy Blood Elf kingdom. I had the chance, in the palm of this same mechanical hand, to take apart the royal family and all its corruption, block by block. I could end Kael's reign of vanity and cruelty, just beneath the seething level of Horde standards, I suppose. Maybe Kael'thas would never get away with it under the watchdogs of the Alliance. Even I had to admit that. Not that the Alliance, and its Alessandre Shademoons were so blameless. Blatant corruption, heists and kidnappings on a whim, mortals being abused by broad daylight just… wasn't the Alliance brand, let's say./p
p class="MsoNormal"So, Kael'thas hadn't gone back to the Alliance. But I was about to make it so that he couldn't stay in the Horde, either. But first, I needed to put all Kael's crap in a box, give the eviction notice. Making a martyr out of him in a flash of my anger, then propelling the kingdom into rallying behind his corrupt cause with zeal was not something I intended. Not again in sin'dorei history anyway./p
p class="MsoNormal"He was a good mage, though. One thing I learned about Kael'thas was never to underestimate him. There was a chance he might sense me standing in his back yard so to speak, or pick something else up about my presence. So I waited until the smug bastard finished his coffee. He took forever. I watched him crunch a cookie. Or, was it a biscuit?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I let out a long breath. There wasn't really room for my tail in the suit, it went down my right leg. They'd modified the inside and I watched Fitz and the engineers take big boots to kicking out some of the infrastructure in a less-than-scientific way before offering for me to step inside at my Tauren size./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas got up, folded his napkin then took his newspaper. All good news about him, I'm sure. The Sunstriders put heavy pressure on the newspapers to remain "patriotic." He turned his back to go inside, a palace servant bowing to him already. But then, Kael'thas turned my way. He actually looked dead at me. Or, was it over my head? I stayed as still as I dared./p
p class="MsoNormal"Yes, he sensed something was off. If he was more in tune with nature, like the Tauren I was, maybe the crushed grass, the missing bird song, everything too still and holding its breath like there was a big predator presence they could smell, if not see… but Kael'thas wasn't good at that. It was the one area where he was no expert./p
p class="MsoNormal"But visually, everything should have looked the same. Any energy field was very faint, the Fitz reassured me. Should have been close to nonexistent. Kael'thas sighed heavy on his end, I watched him seem as uncomfortable as I was, being stuck there. And maybe he did feel stuck. By now, he should know that Greatfather Winter had been busted out of Faltheriel's house, his chief advisor. And no one knew where I was. Night Elf operatives just as keen on seeing things resolved were certainly still in the kingdom, close to Silvermoon City in fact. No matter how highly Kael and his followers thought of themselves, this was certainly the calm before the storm./p
p class="MsoNormal"I think that's what it was, in the end. Kael'thas was wondering if this was his last peaceful morning before all fel broke loose over his head. And this time, it was worse than an angry Illidan Stormrage, or the Burning Legion turning on him. Kael was home, he was in the Horde. He could lose his final criminal base. Well, Kael'thas would call it his 'home' and 'the legacy of his people.' But we all knew what it was./p
p class="MsoNormal"What else could he do? Kael'thas set his jaw, and strolled back inside. He supposed the worst of it was ahead of him, that he still had time to plot and plan while the Tauren investigator limped off to some camp in the countryside and scratched his fuzzy head on options so far away from home. But I had some fancy friends of my own, more resources than he could ever imagine. I clicked some controls in the fancy Goblin mech suit when Kael'thas was out of view, pulled the lever and propelled myself, slow and steady, above his palace. Destination? The royal treasury./p
p class="MsoNormal"To get inside, I simply let her down on a palace balcony with one of the doors open. I had a mental map of the place using my old Pathfinder instincts, but the Fitz had programmed a Treasure Tracker in the damned thing. It was picking up on traces of radiation? Something that metals put out in the air? I had no idea. But it was doing a better job of taking me down corridors and up and down stairs than my best guess after a while. Of course Goblins would be thinking about profit in a time of war, put that kind of tech in a mech suit. By Mu'sha above./p
p class="MsoNormal"On the visor screen, the royal treasury was a burning bright bonfire at the center of my vision with several green arrows and spinning gold coins hovering around it, like I'd hit the jackpot on one of those tacky gambling machines./p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI would smack my forehead if I could. Then my visor knocked back and my head went up, seeing the ceiling all of a sudden. Looks as if the controls were more sensitive than I thought, I just did it!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Keeping the cloak on, I hovered through the archway. Knowing what I was after had to be in there meant a guard was going to check in eventually. I wasn't wrong. I went in after them when the door opened, waited for the guy in the big phoenix shield to do his loop looking at all the shelves and glass cases full of necklaces, diadems, scepters, tiaras and some ancient magical paraphernalia, then stroll out again. Interesting, since Kael'thas, or I guess Saturna, could have assigned a Blood Knight to do the job. But maybe putting one of their own special guys on the door would have been too obvious./p
p class="MsoNormal"Unless, Saturna herself didn't know? We were about to see./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? Hey, Turaho!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I sighed at Fitz reaching out to me now, his tinny Goblin voice filling up my helmet for the moment./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho, you've hit the motherlode! Our sensors on the sub, it's going crazy over hea!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I tried to stay focused. "Yes, I'm in the spot." Even tucked away safely inside the suit, I was afraid to speak my intentions aloud. I kept my voice low just in case. "Maybe you can help me. What would something connected with A'dal look like?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Ya mean some kind of object of the Light?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""It could look like something else, by now. Or even be stashed inside of something."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Could it be a relic?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I wondered if the Blood Elves could justify some Draenei-looking relic being among the royal collection. Treasure hoards like this weren't just for dragons. Visitors and esteemed guests were meant to come in and look at the royal treasury from time to time. And not just to show off, either. Symbolism was important, objects needed to align with the kingdom's political views./p
p class="MsoNormal"I admitted, "I guess they wouldn't take something like that. Or, it wouldn't look like that. So maybe it's inside of something else? Do we have a setting to scan for certain kinds of magic, like the Light?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Ah, look at you! Mixin in so well with Blood Elves you didn't even realized you just called the Light, the big ole' sacred Light a kind of magic! I thought you took a Sunwalker initiation at the start of this whole adventure, ya goon! Hahah!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Just set it to detect the Light, I assume you can. You're being too cool about the mess I'm in. I need to find this damn thing before I smash up the place. And believe me, I am itching to smash up the place, Fitz!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Hold on, hang in there… how about now?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Blue dots started to make a trail across my screen. I followed it. A holy book that some paladin might use? Possible. But I was looking for an energy source./p
p class="MsoNormal""I assumed it might be a piece of jewelry. With a big, honking yellow stone. Like the draenei armor we saw back in Dalaran, when the Army of Light was gathered there? But there are so many yellow stones like that in here. Not everything is Light magic, cleary. Blood Elves just like their red and yellow gems, I guess. Actually, can we zoom in on the tiaras? I had a feeling it was one of the tiaras. Nothing seemed particularly promising when I first looked. But let's look again with this scanner. Thing."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Tiaras? Why's that?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Because of something a friendly, gossipy servant said to me at the holiday party. Well, I was feeling sick in Kael'thas' waiting room." I tramped along the new trail of blue dots. I watched the big mechanical feet suction and clomp along almost silently. Not a chandelier tinkled. Amazing that a Goblin war suit would have a stealth mode for this precise situation, filching expensive goods from a vault. "At first, I was so focused on that weird thing the servant said about Kael'thas arguing with his succubus late one night before the kidnapping. It was so creepy a notion I didn't want to revisit it mentally. But a detail still stood out for me. I worked it over in my mind, Fitz."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Eh? I think there's something on the back wall. At the top. You see that?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I steered it there, trying to keep my now sweating hand easy on the controls. I kept being afraid I would so something simple and stupid like trip the machine over carpet. "Fitz, Kael'thas is vain, right? But why would he argue with Saturna over which tiara she should wear to the holiday party? To the point that they would have a falling out and a servant would overhear them yelling? That kept bothering me. Why be obsessed with a piece of jewelry he couldn't wear, that only his wife the queen would wear? I just don't think Kael'thas is that… weird."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Really? Cause I could completely believe it."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, I don't. That detail stinks to me, it has a scent. And I think we just found the source of it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Now, I was standing before a beautiful glittering crown. It was definitely the size of Saturna's head. The central gem looked older than everything else and it wasn't yellow. Thank the Light scanner in the suit, because I would have never homed in on that. The supporting jewels in the crown were newer, cut to match, but nothing could absolutely match the subtle dignity of this center, opalescent stone. You had to walk past it, or approach it, that is move, to really get a sense that it was special. Really, the whole tiara had been built to enhance this one, clearly ancient stone./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What is that? Not any azerothian diamond I've ever seen? Not a pearl. Maybe something from Outland. Or, Pandaria?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""No. It's something far more valuable to any race on the face of Azeroth or any other planet. I think this predates the Draenei themselves."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What? That's dumb! Draenei go back to the start of time almost. Wouldn't that stone degrade and become as dark as dirt without any regular treatments? Not unless you have a whole temple of priestesses tending it for millenia!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I guess a Goblin would know a thing or two about gem quality. But Fitz was wrong. "That is precisely what we have here. People, many races, have worshipped and cared very deeply about this… stone, for many, many lifetimes. But it isn't a stone, Fitz. I thought, I assumed, it would have been an artifact, stolen from Shatthrath City at the height of the first kidnapping. But that barely made sense to me, even if all the facts connected. I figured it was because there was technology beyond my understanding involved, and I was right. This is actually the most logical explanation, though I don't get how it happened." I dared to reach for it. I couldn't believe I was going to hold such a thing in my hand. "Fitz, I think this is a piece of A'dal."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What! Those naa'ru things don't come in pieces! If we could break of bits of Light beings and mine them for profit, don't you think we Goblins would have done that by now?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""I said I don't get it! I don't know how it happened. But maybe it's like a fallen leaf that shrivels over time. A shed scale that dulls and dries. Whatever happened, this is it. This is what happens when a certain wily succubus slashes a piece off A'dal with her whip during a confrontation in Shatthrath City, because I'm sure that's how Mavia the Maneater did it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Oh gods above! You ain't talking about that nasty little holiday party in Shatthrath that Kael's people crashed, did you? Mavia the Maneater, Daphne, and that Tempest goil? Goblin Gentlemen's Magazine, issue number 35."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""It was issue number 37, the holiday full-spread special. You're thinking of the Kezan holiday beach party spread."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Well then, my man Turaho knows his Goblin girly magazines? I'm proud of ya, son!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't call me that! You're still committing crimes against Mulgore herself through the Venture Co, Fitz? Or did you magically retire from all that during this mission? Help me, like," It frustrated me that I didn't know this Light magic stuff and I also didn't know this Goblin tech in the suit. That got to me all at once. "I need to pick up this thing. How do I do that without breaking it or tripping any security enchantments?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Why would one of Kael'thas' minions be ordered to steal a piece of A'dal? And why do they still have it if the Blood Elves never used it back then?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""I have no idea. Maybe because it was convenient. But you're right, what's the point of stealing a chunk of a Light being, only to watch it dry up or coalesce or something, into a stone? I will need Al's help to figure out that part. Oh gods, I actually said that aloud."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was so focused on Fitz's instructions on how to carefully wrench the mechanical hand this way and that to get the damned thing free, I didn't notice something important. The light changed in the room, somewhat. Well, you do see something like that, but you assume the sun passed through some clouds, maybe the light changed through the window. I glanced up, peered through the window. Saw a few birds coast over the cityscape in the distance. We were in a high tower. Nice view, actually. Plenty of golden sky this time of morning./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Maybe Kael'thas didn't do it after all. Why waste a heist as big as this? I used to have a boss in the Venture Co. Big overseer guy. Mooks were stealing things for him and bringing him loot all the time. Gifts to get in good with him, ya know? But he didn't commit all them larsonies himself, all those thefts? He didn't even encourage 'em! He was just being polite. A lot of the treasure he had no use for but he couldn't refuse it, let alone return it. He just stashed in a back closet."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Fitz," I nearly growled over the comm, "This isn't a back closet. It's the royal treasury of Quel'thalas."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"I didn't say it was a closet all the time. Sometimes it was this big meat locker! I mean, if he needed to preserve his enemies. Their uh, bodies and such."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Fitz! I am not interested in your weird ass Goblin mob boss stories." Finally, the clear setting the tiara rested in clicked free. I was able to lift it from the lavender pillow it rested on. Not a moment before I had it in my mechanical hand, the hand immediately became a solid box, which freaked me out, and then the arm united, magnetized with the belly of my suit. The box went into a chamber I didn't even know was there, and then after I blinked, I had my hand back again./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Don't mind that. Treasure acquisition tech working poifectly."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah? Oh, that." I glanced down inside the suit. A panel slid free and I could see through a glass window what I'd just stolen. The tiara was safely inside the suit alright, and suspended in some energy field. The machine was already calculating how much it was worth. Nice touch. Of course the numbers were flying every which way, trying to nail down what the chief stone was made of. The machine would never guess. Felt good to have that confirmed, that Fitz and I had guessed correctly. We had a chunk of naaru on our hands./p
p class="MsoNormal"I moved my arm in the suit, pretended to pat my belly like that had been a tasty meal./p
p class="MsoNormal""I've got my evidence."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You have nothing!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swiveled my head and visor first, then turned the mech's body around. Another nice touch./p
p class="MsoNormal"I knew the voice. And he sounded as panicked and pissed as he should be. Kael'thas Sunstrider had used a mage spell to blink through the doors. He had another man with him. I almost panicked and pissed myself when I recognized the red-and-gold mask and dark hair of Grand Magister Rommath./p
p class="MsoNormal"Right, the man who watches all the silent alarms in the kingdom. Well, this time, I'd tripped them up. The last time, Kael'thas had sent me into the Ghostlands, chasing down Meydiri tripping them, with her cultists and their summoning circle./p
p class="MsoNormal"The room wasn't as bright now. Maybe the security system coming on had drained the energy, or it was some subtle security protocol. Perhaps it was darker in the room, pitch black, and my visor was making up for it. Hell, Fitz assured me, several times, I could walk through fel fire in that suit and not notice the difference. Still, I didn't consider dealing with two powerful mages for some reason. Silent, capable Rommath always scared the shit out of everyone./p
p class="MsoNormal"Remembering what Kael'thas had done to Meydiri, setting her up, ending her life, that was when fear left my mind. I cocked my entire arm, and that morphed into a gun before their eyes./p
p class="MsoNormal"I corrected Kael'thas, "I have my evidence. Your succubus stole this piece of A'dal a long time ago, but now we have it back."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath raised a fist, summoned a ball of fire. Kael'thas stepped slightly in front, then raised his hand. His was a calming gesture./p
p class="MsoNormal""Who is we, Turaho? We, the world? Is your head that high in the clouds? Are we all truly buddies and best friends in this runaway, reunited Azeroth? You certainly can't be talking about the Alliance, our enemies! You intend to give a piece of the royal treasury to that spy and assassin, Alessandre Shademoon? For their miserable tree that's going to die anyway! You're going to turn things over to the Kaldorei Rogue Network, just like that?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I will shout it from the hills if I have to, to any court that will handle this evidence and convict you. You ordered a being of Light mutilated! Makes sense, you kidnapped another before that, boxed it up and sent it home to Silvermoon at the start of that era in Outland! Next came Greatfather Winter, and then you kidnapped him for a second time this holiday, so many years later. It's all connected, and don't you dare insult an investigator of the Horde again, a Tauren Pathfinder. Clearly, to have come this far, to have you shitting your pants in your own castle, Kael'thas, I know what the fel I'm doing."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He tore at his blonde hair with the black underlights. I noted they were both in some fancy mage gear, not like Kael'thas at breakfast that morning. Both were dressed and enchanted up for a fight. "Think before you act! Before you take down an entire people that barely survived extinction once, out of what? Revenge? I know full well that I am a hateable person. I like it that way, I want people scared the hell out of their minds when they have to deal with me. I am the shield for my people, I must be! But you don't deal with one man's bad attitude, by destroying a kingdom?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas slowed things down a lot more. I thought he'd be hitting me with a barrage of spells by then. Instead, he was trying to reason with me, or bargain. Then, it crossed the back of my mind that he was stalling for reinforcements. Possibly his Blood Knights./p
p class="MsoNormal""I guess we'll see where your Blood Knights stand as well. Soon." I showed him I wasn't afraid of that, either if that was his game. Left him to wonder why not. Maybe I had my own people. "They swore I was one of them," I noted his reaction. Yeah, that was it. Saturna and the Knights of the Blood Nexus were definitely on their way. They couldn't magic through walls, not like these two./p
p class="MsoNormal"I couldn't stand it, "Does Saturna know? She doesn't, does she?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Feeling good about yourself, that you won't have to arrest my wife?" Kael was taunting me. In a way that made me feel strongly, again, that they were both in on it. In fact, I was seeing now that Saturna seducing me was a weapon they were both glad to use./p
p class="MsoNormal""For weeks, Kael'thas, I went through every possibility. Something kept telling me it wasn't you. Or, it wasn't just you. Not alone. This was a team effort. If it turns out that Saturna is in it, then she's in it. I don't care what happens to her."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Saturna doesn't know!" Kael'thas showed true fear, rare for him. "I kept her out of that part, away from the real secret."/p
p class="MsoNormal""And that's the last thing I couldn't figure out. Why was this kept a secret for so long? You have a piece of A'dal, you've had a shard of his essence all this time, but you never used it? Is this all of it, here in this crown?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Then something else occurred to me, "Kael'thas. Did you try to get high off this?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, I didn't!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Hey that sounds defensive, even from ova here. By the way, I'm sending you back up."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"An army of Goblin mech suits like mine storming Sunspire Keep? Thank goodness, because I was bluffing before, though I had hoped. I also wasn't sure if I was ready to go all in on that yet. Another thing, I didn't know how to make the comm only talk to the voice in my helmet. If I gave any orders now, Kael'thas would hear me./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath put his flaming arm down. He flicked his wrist, snuffed it out. Sort of a stylish move, actually. I heard him speak from beneath the mask. "You may want to take this chance and fully explain yourself. Majesty." Rommath looked at Kael'thas. "He seems open to it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas knew that was true. But he also truly didn't want to do it./p
p class="MsoNormal""Kael'thas? Kael, listen to me." Rommath insisted, "If I stand up at your Garrosh-style warcrimes tribunal sometime soon and say you're innocent, even if I'm effusive?" Ya know, I wanted to laugh at that. This was a classy kind of guy. He didn't mind taking shots at himself either. "No one will believe one of your pained minions then, with all their wealth and toys taken away. Do it now. Tell him all."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I got annoyed that I never had the chance to interview Rommath of all people, "How does Rommath know? Not even your wife knows, but Rommath does?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""We're like brothers."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Wow. I did not know that. Dammit! That fascinated me, and there was no time to go into it at all. And what a wasted opportunity on my part./p
p class="MsoNormal"I really wanted to blast Kael'thas into next year. I was all geared up for it. But then, something else took the wind out of us. Saturna shouted from beyond the doors, and she was then let into the chamber. Pyorin and Daphne were suited up and by her side. They shouted for the guards to close the doors again and keep them that way./p
p class="MsoNormal"I complained loudly, "Geez, it would have to be the Blood Knights I actually like, too."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, they were in war mode as well. Daphne had shed a lady's courtly dress for being in full black-and-red plate with healing mace, on guard duty./p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna lowered her sword, but she still had it in her hand. She walked to her husband's side and held it out. "We were just discussing where we might apprehend you. We thought you might be back in the Ghostlands, or that eerie Night Elf camp, complete with a harbor to land ships that we scouted out? How did it ever get that bad?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I challenged her, "Arrest me? After what you assholes did to me! You ordered my legs broken!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath squinted an eye at that. He had more sense. Kael'thas looked a little impressed with his wife. Rude./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, I never expected you to do this. Are you stealing from us?" She looked around the room and freaked out that her favorite tiara was a blank spot in a display case./p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, that was worth seeing. Also confirmed for me what Kael'thas had claimed, that Saturna didn't know about the tiara. And even if she had known about it all along, I doubted she would opt to wear it at a big party where generations of Horde war veterans would see it and sense it. That was what had set Kael off, pushed him to argue with his wife about her choice in adornment./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? You need us? We're close, in target range."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't show yourselves yet. Hold your positions." I talked a lot of trash then, to make it sound official. The sight of me in a war machine and speaking to someone official they couldn't really hear on their end, it was scaring the Blood Elves for once. "Call for the Orc warlords still around here from the holiday party. Send a message out."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas' eyes were bright. "Please. Don't tell Sylvanas. Not yet-"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Like I said, I have my evidence. King Kael'thas Sunstrider. You are under arrest for crimes against the Horde, the Army of the Light, and your own people."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin yelled at me, "What jurisdiction do you have for any of that! Are you a warlord from Orgrimmar, or sworn to the forces back in Shatthrath? I don't think so! We're higher up in that regard than you are—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Or you were. Liadrin wanted that. But your current leader, Queen Saturna, yanked all her so-called Blood Knights out of the Silver Hand. Didn't you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin swaggered my way. "You are a Knight of the Blood Nexus."/p
p class="MsoNormal""That doesn't mean horse shit to me. I never agreed to go along with—" My stomach knotted. My vision blurred./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin walked out in front of everyone, I think he did. It was his big square head, his big shoulders bobbing over everything. He raised his hand at me, conjuring something./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin raised his voice, "You used your powers before, in front of all of us. There is a reason we helped you then. There is a reason we recruited you, Turaho. Beyond the benign reasons, this was essential."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You can't… control me." I was going to vomit in that suit, or pass out if he didn't let up./p
p class="MsoNormal""No. But I can invert your ghost wolf spell. I can flip the magical axis, twist you between the world of life and shadow, put you in a new world of pain. And you are not skilled enough Turaho, not as one of us, to fight me back. If you had said yes, if we had known you were fully on our side and that you would never do something like this, we might have told you the secret to it."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You jackass…"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Are you powerful enough, though? Maybe you don't need the Nexus. Maybe you did pick up something while you were locked in the chief advisor's bathroom, I could be wrong."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I could hear my nostrils flaring, struggling for breath. My muzzle slick with spittle and sweat. My ears, my horns pointed forward at that fool. Idiot, you've cornered a Tauren. His first instinct, whatever jurisdiction he finds himself in, no matter what power you use against him, is to charge./p
p class="MsoNormal"Daphne's eyes went bright yellow, sensing something about me with her powers, "Everyone. Step back. Get back now!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"She called a shield of light spell, I saw it tear halfway across my visor. The rest was Goblin frac fire, blazing up the entire place. It was louder than thunder and storm in my ears./p
p class="MsoNormal"I don't know how the hell they dealt with it. I roared and I charged, gunning them down./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"…/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 38: Man In A Green Suit/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"strongI/strong watched King Kael'thas Sunstrider have his morning coffee on the veranda of his palace, like nothing bad was ever going to happen to him. The royal gardens were a sort of magical courtyard that extended beyond the Sunspire. The landscaping started out sort of structured, clipped into smaller box gardens with peach roses, and a central hedge maze (because of course someone like Kael'thas would have a golden hedge maze). The hedge maze ran on for a while until the pale gravel beneath it spread into clipped grass, and then fields of unkept grass, and hillocks, loose groves of trees that had to be manicured. It wasn't as free and feisty as Mulgore, but it was beautiful and would have made royal guests feel free to wander, yet still be protected by high palace walls and stuffy guards with giant phoenix shields somewhere out there on the edge of it. Eventually./p
p class="MsoNormal"Royal hunts, and certainly some romantic shenanigans were meant to happen out here by design. The one thing Kael'thas, nor his queen Saturna, nor any of his servants, his stooges would ever expect was a grade A stealthed Goblin mech suit, Tauren-sized, with a cloaking field standing dead in the middle of it. My fire green mech suit was fitted out with a pack of snarling shark-faced Goblin bombs on my back. There were rows of munition looped around my shoulders and across my chest, loaded into a machine gun in a holster at my hip. I had rocket boots to propel me and a rocket launcher at my fist, as I clenched it. At the moment, I was eyeing up Kael'thas through my visor, a red projection of various loops and lines telling me I could take a headshot or a body shot if I cared to at that range. More numbers and lines raced across the visor screen, in a Goblin numerical system I didn't recognize. Okay, so the data made little sense to me beyond some solid first guesses and the Fitz shouting some basics at me./p
p class="MsoNormal"I gripped the bar inside the big metal gloves, at my palm. That made the fingers do the opposite, uncurl and flex. I liked to watch the machine do that. And I also liked to look up at that Kael'thas, smirking over his steaming coffee cup. Smug Kael'thas, who fully believed he had gotten away with murder and surveyed his kingdom like some lion king, everything the light touches and all that crap. But almost beneath his nose, there was a man in a Goblin war machine with a magnetic field so fine it displaced air molecules around it completely shroud Kael'thas impending doom./p
p class="MsoNormal""Air strike artillery to his face, or?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"So sooo tempting for me to try it. But this was about the evidence. This was about proving who, and how many individuals, had been behind the kidnap plot and putting them in prison no matter how high up they were in this crazy Blood Elf kingdom. I had the chance, in the palm of this same mechanical hand, to take apart the royal family and all its corruption, block by block. I could end Kael's reign of vanity and cruelty, just beneath the seething level of Horde standards, I suppose. Maybe Kael'thas would never get away with it under the watchdogs of the Alliance. Even I had to admit that. Not that the Alliance, and its Alessandre Shademoons were so blameless. Blatant corruption, heists and kidnappings on a whim, mortals being abused by broad daylight just… wasn't the Alliance brand, let's say./p
p class="MsoNormal"So, Kael'thas hadn't gone back to the Alliance. But I was about to make it so that he couldn't stay in the Horde, either. But first, I needed to put all Kael's crap in a box, give the eviction notice. Making a martyr out of him in a flash of my anger, then propelling the kingdom into rallying behind his corrupt cause with zeal was not something I intended. Not again in sin'dorei history anyway./p
p class="MsoNormal"He was a good mage, though. One thing I learned about Kael'thas was never to underestimate him. There was a chance he might sense me standing in his back yard so to speak, or pick something else up about my presence. So I waited until the smug bastard finished his coffee. He took forever. I watched him crunch a cookie. Or, was it a biscuit?/p
p class="MsoNormal"I let out a long breath. There wasn't really room for my tail in the suit, it went down my right leg. They'd modified the inside and I watched Fitz and the engineers take big boots to kicking out some of the infrastructure in a less-than-scientific way before offering for me to step inside at my Tauren size./p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas got up, folded his napkin then took his newspaper. All good news about him, I'm sure. The Sunstriders put heavy pressure on the newspapers to remain "patriotic." He turned his back to go inside, a palace servant bowing to him already. But then, Kael'thas turned my way. He actually looked dead at me. Or, was it over my head? I stayed as still as I dared./p
p class="MsoNormal"Yes, he sensed something was off. If he was more in tune with nature, like the Tauren I was, maybe the crushed grass, the missing bird song, everything too still and holding its breath like there was a big predator presence they could smell, if not see… but Kael'thas wasn't good at that. It was the one area where he was no expert./p
p class="MsoNormal"But visually, everything should have looked the same. Any energy field was very faint, the Fitz reassured me. Should have been close to nonexistent. Kael'thas sighed heavy on his end, I watched him seem as uncomfortable as I was, being stuck there. And maybe he did feel stuck. By now, he should know that Greatfather Winter had been busted out of Faltheriel's house, his chief advisor. And no one knew where I was. Night Elf operatives just as keen on seeing things resolved were certainly still in the kingdom, close to Silvermoon City in fact. No matter how highly Kael and his followers thought of themselves, this was certainly the calm before the storm./p
p class="MsoNormal"I think that's what it was, in the end. Kael'thas was wondering if this was his last peaceful morning before all fel broke loose over his head. And this time, it was worse than an angry Illidan Stormrage, or the Burning Legion turning on him. Kael was home, he was in the Horde. He could lose his final criminal base. Well, Kael'thas would call it his 'home' and 'the legacy of his people.' But we all knew what it was./p
p class="MsoNormal"What else could he do? Kael'thas set his jaw, and strolled back inside. He supposed the worst of it was ahead of him, that he still had time to plot and plan while the Tauren investigator limped off to some camp in the countryside and scratched his fuzzy head on options so far away from home. But I had some fancy friends of my own, more resources than he could ever imagine. I clicked some controls in the fancy Goblin mech suit when Kael'thas was out of view, pulled the lever and propelled myself, slow and steady, above his palace. Destination? The royal treasury./p
p class="MsoNormal"To get inside, I simply let her down on a palace balcony with one of the doors open. I had a mental map of the place using my old Pathfinder instincts, but the Fitz had programmed a Treasure Tracker in the damned thing. It was picking up on traces of radiation? Something that metals put out in the air? I had no idea. But it was doing a better job of taking me down corridors and up and down stairs than my best guess after a while. Of course Goblins would be thinking about profit in a time of war, put that kind of tech in a mech suit. By Mu'sha above./p
p class="MsoNormal"On the visor screen, the royal treasury was a burning bright bonfire at the center of my vision with several green arrows and spinning gold coins hovering around it, like I'd hit the jackpot on one of those tacky gambling machines./p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI would smack my forehead if I could. Then my visor knocked back and my head went up, seeing the ceiling all of a sudden. Looks as if the controls were more sensitive than I thought, I just did it!/p
p class="MsoNormal"Keeping the cloak on, I hovered through the archway. Knowing what I was after had to be in there meant a guard was going to check in eventually. I wasn't wrong. I went in after them when the door opened, waited for the guy in the big phoenix shield to do his loop looking at all the shelves and glass cases full of necklaces, diadems, scepters, tiaras and some ancient magical paraphernalia, then stroll out again. Interesting, since Kael'thas, or I guess Saturna, could have assigned a Blood Knight to do the job. But maybe putting one of their own special guys on the door would have been too obvious./p
p class="MsoNormal"Unless, Saturna herself didn't know? We were about to see./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? Hey, Turaho!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I sighed at Fitz reaching out to me now, his tinny Goblin voice filling up my helmet for the moment./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho, you've hit the motherlode! Our sensors on the sub, it's going crazy over hea!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I tried to stay focused. "Yes, I'm in the spot." Even tucked away safely inside the suit, I was afraid to speak my intentions aloud. I kept my voice low just in case. "Maybe you can help me. What would something connected with A'dal look like?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Ya mean some kind of object of the Light?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""It could look like something else, by now. Or even be stashed inside of something."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Could it be a relic?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I wondered if the Blood Elves could justify some Draenei-looking relic being among the royal collection. Treasure hoards like this weren't just for dragons. Visitors and esteemed guests were meant to come in and look at the royal treasury from time to time. And not just to show off, either. Symbolism was important, objects needed to align with the kingdom's political views./p
p class="MsoNormal"I admitted, "I guess they wouldn't take something like that. Or, it wouldn't look like that. So maybe it's inside of something else? Do we have a setting to scan for certain kinds of magic, like the Light?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Ah, look at you! Mixin in so well with Blood Elves you didn't even realized you just called the Light, the big ole' sacred Light a kind of magic! I thought you took a Sunwalker initiation at the start of this whole adventure, ya goon! Hahah!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Just set it to detect the Light, I assume you can. You're being too cool about the mess I'm in. I need to find this damn thing before I smash up the place. And believe me, I am itching to smash up the place, Fitz!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Hold on, hang in there… how about now?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"Blue dots started to make a trail across my screen. I followed it. A holy book that some paladin might use? Possible. But I was looking for an energy source./p
p class="MsoNormal""I assumed it might be a piece of jewelry. With a big, honking yellow stone. Like the draenei armor we saw back in Dalaran, when the Army of Light was gathered there? But there are so many yellow stones like that in here. Not everything is Light magic, cleary. Blood Elves just like their red and yellow gems, I guess. Actually, can we zoom in on the tiaras? I had a feeling it was one of the tiaras. Nothing seemed particularly promising when I first looked. But let's look again with this scanner. Thing."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Tiaras? Why's that?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Because of something a friendly, gossipy servant said to me at the holiday party. Well, I was feeling sick in Kael'thas' waiting room." I tramped along the new trail of blue dots. I watched the big mechanical feet suction and clomp along almost silently. Not a chandelier tinkled. Amazing that a Goblin war suit would have a stealth mode for this precise situation, filching expensive goods from a vault. "At first, I was so focused on that weird thing the servant said about Kael'thas arguing with his succubus late one night before the kidnapping. It was so creepy a notion I didn't want to revisit it mentally. But a detail still stood out for me. I worked it over in my mind, Fitz."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Eh? I think there's something on the back wall. At the top. You see that?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I steered it there, trying to keep my now sweating hand easy on the controls. I kept being afraid I would so something simple and stupid like trip the machine over carpet. "Fitz, Kael'thas is vain, right? But why would he argue with Saturna over which tiara she should wear to the holiday party? To the point that they would have a falling out and a servant would overhear them yelling? That kept bothering me. Why be obsessed with a piece of jewelry he couldn't wear, that only his wife the queen would wear? I just don't think Kael'thas is that… weird."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Really? Cause I could completely believe it."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, I don't. That detail stinks to me, it has a scent. And I think we just found the source of it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Now, I was standing before a beautiful glittering crown. It was definitely the size of Saturna's head. The central gem looked older than everything else and it wasn't yellow. Thank the Light scanner in the suit, because I would have never homed in on that. The supporting jewels in the crown were newer, cut to match, but nothing could absolutely match the subtle dignity of this center, opalescent stone. You had to walk past it, or approach it, that is move, to really get a sense that it was special. Really, the whole tiara had been built to enhance this one, clearly ancient stone./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What is that? Not any azerothian diamond I've ever seen? Not a pearl. Maybe something from Outland. Or, Pandaria?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""No. It's something far more valuable to any race on the face of Azeroth or any other planet. I think this predates the Draenei themselves."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What? That's dumb! Draenei go back to the start of time almost. Wouldn't that stone degrade and become as dark as dirt without any regular treatments? Not unless you have a whole temple of priestesses tending it for millenia!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"I guess a Goblin would know a thing or two about gem quality. But Fitz was wrong. "That is precisely what we have here. People, many races, have worshipped and cared very deeply about this… stone, for many, many lifetimes. But it isn't a stone, Fitz. I thought, I assumed, it would have been an artifact, stolen from Shatthrath City at the height of the first kidnapping. But that barely made sense to me, even if all the facts connected. I figured it was because there was technology beyond my understanding involved, and I was right. This is actually the most logical explanation, though I don't get how it happened." I dared to reach for it. I couldn't believe I was going to hold such a thing in my hand. "Fitz, I think this is a piece of A'dal."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"What! Those naa'ru things don't come in pieces! If we could break of bits of Light beings and mine them for profit, don't you think we Goblins would have done that by now?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""I said I don't get it! I don't know how it happened. But maybe it's like a fallen leaf that shrivels over time. A shed scale that dulls and dries. Whatever happened, this is it. This is what happens when a certain wily succubus slashes a piece off A'dal with her whip during a confrontation in Shatthrath City, because I'm sure that's how Mavia the Maneater did it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Oh gods above! You ain't talking about that nasty little holiday party in Shatthrath that Kael's people crashed, did you? Mavia the Maneater, Daphne, and that Tempest goil? Goblin Gentlemen's Magazine, issue number 35."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""It was issue number 37, the holiday full-spread special. You're thinking of the Kezan holiday beach party spread."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Well then, my man Turaho knows his Goblin girly magazines? I'm proud of ya, son!"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't call me that! You're still committing crimes against Mulgore herself through the Venture Co, Fitz? Or did you magically retire from all that during this mission? Help me, like," It frustrated me that I didn't know this Light magic stuff and I also didn't know this Goblin tech in the suit. That got to me all at once. "I need to pick up this thing. How do I do that without breaking it or tripping any security enchantments?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Why would one of Kael'thas' minions be ordered to steal a piece of A'dal? And why do they still have it if the Blood Elves never used it back then?"/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""I have no idea. Maybe because it was convenient. But you're right, what's the point of stealing a chunk of a Light being, only to watch it dry up or coalesce or something, into a stone? I will need Al's help to figure out that part. Oh gods, I actually said that aloud."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I was so focused on Fitz's instructions on how to carefully wrench the mechanical hand this way and that to get the damned thing free, I didn't notice something important. The light changed in the room, somewhat. Well, you do see something like that, but you assume the sun passed through some clouds, maybe the light changed through the window. I glanced up, peered through the window. Saw a few birds coast over the cityscape in the distance. We were in a high tower. Nice view, actually. Plenty of golden sky this time of morning./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Maybe Kael'thas didn't do it after all. Why waste a heist as big as this? I used to have a boss in the Venture Co. Big overseer guy. Mooks were stealing things for him and bringing him loot all the time. Gifts to get in good with him, ya know? But he didn't commit all them larsonies himself, all those thefts? He didn't even encourage 'em! He was just being polite. A lot of the treasure he had no use for but he couldn't refuse it, let alone return it. He just stashed in a back closet."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Fitz," I nearly growled over the comm, "This isn't a back closet. It's the royal treasury of Quel'thalas."/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"I didn't say it was a closet all the time. Sometimes it was this big meat locker! I mean, if he needed to preserve his enemies. Their uh, bodies and such."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Fitz! I am not interested in your weird ass Goblin mob boss stories." Finally, the clear setting the tiara rested in clicked free. I was able to lift it from the lavender pillow it rested on. Not a moment before I had it in my mechanical hand, the hand immediately became a solid box, which freaked me out, and then the arm united, magnetized with the belly of my suit. The box went into a chamber I didn't even know was there, and then after I blinked, I had my hand back again./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Don't mind that. Treasure acquisition tech working poifectly."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah? Oh, that." I glanced down inside the suit. A panel slid free and I could see through a glass window what I'd just stolen. The tiara was safely inside the suit alright, and suspended in some energy field. The machine was already calculating how much it was worth. Nice touch. Of course the numbers were flying every which way, trying to nail down what the chief stone was made of. The machine would never guess. Felt good to have that confirmed, that Fitz and I had guessed correctly. We had a chunk of naaru on our hands./p
p class="MsoNormal"I moved my arm in the suit, pretended to pat my belly like that had been a tasty meal./p
p class="MsoNormal""I've got my evidence."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You have nothing!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I swiveled my head and visor first, then turned the mech's body around. Another nice touch./p
p class="MsoNormal"I knew the voice. And he sounded as panicked and pissed as he should be. Kael'thas Sunstrider had used a mage spell to blink through the doors. He had another man with him. I almost panicked and pissed myself when I recognized the red-and-gold mask and dark hair of Grand Magister Rommath./p
p class="MsoNormal"Right, the man who watches all the silent alarms in the kingdom. Well, this time, I'd tripped them up. The last time, Kael'thas had sent me into the Ghostlands, chasing down Meydiri tripping them, with her cultists and their summoning circle./p
p class="MsoNormal"The room wasn't as bright now. Maybe the security system coming on had drained the energy, or it was some subtle security protocol. Perhaps it was darker in the room, pitch black, and my visor was making up for it. Hell, Fitz assured me, several times, I could walk through fel fire in that suit and not notice the difference. Still, I didn't consider dealing with two powerful mages for some reason. Silent, capable Rommath always scared the shit out of everyone./p
p class="MsoNormal"Remembering what Kael'thas had done to Meydiri, setting her up, ending her life, that was when fear left my mind. I cocked my entire arm, and that morphed into a gun before their eyes./p
p class="MsoNormal"I corrected Kael'thas, "I have my evidence. Your succubus stole this piece of A'dal a long time ago, but now we have it back."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath raised a fist, summoned a ball of fire. Kael'thas stepped slightly in front, then raised his hand. His was a calming gesture./p
p class="MsoNormal""Who is we, Turaho? We, the world? Is your head that high in the clouds? Are we all truly buddies and best friends in this runaway, reunited Azeroth? You certainly can't be talking about the Alliance, our enemies! You intend to give a piece of the royal treasury to that spy and assassin, Alessandre Shademoon? For their miserable tree that's going to die anyway! You're going to turn things over to the Kaldorei Rogue Network, just like that?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""I will shout it from the hills if I have to, to any court that will handle this evidence and convict you. You ordered a being of Light mutilated! Makes sense, you kidnapped another before that, boxed it up and sent it home to Silvermoon at the start of that era in Outland! Next came Greatfather Winter, and then you kidnapped him for a second time this holiday, so many years later. It's all connected, and don't you dare insult an investigator of the Horde again, a Tauren Pathfinder. Clearly, to have come this far, to have you shitting your pants in your own castle, Kael'thas, I know what the fel I'm doing."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He tore at his blonde hair with the black underlights. I noted they were both in some fancy mage gear, not like Kael'thas at breakfast that morning. Both were dressed and enchanted up for a fight. "Think before you act! Before you take down an entire people that barely survived extinction once, out of what? Revenge? I know full well that I am a hateable person. I like it that way, I want people scared the hell out of their minds when they have to deal with me. I am the shield for my people, I must be! But you don't deal with one man's bad attitude, by destroying a kingdom?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas slowed things down a lot more. I thought he'd be hitting me with a barrage of spells by then. Instead, he was trying to reason with me, or bargain. Then, it crossed the back of my mind that he was stalling for reinforcements. Possibly his Blood Knights./p
p class="MsoNormal""I guess we'll see where your Blood Knights stand as well. Soon." I showed him I wasn't afraid of that, either if that was his game. Left him to wonder why not. Maybe I had my own people. "They swore I was one of them," I noted his reaction. Yeah, that was it. Saturna and the Knights of the Blood Nexus were definitely on their way. They couldn't magic through walls, not like these two./p
p class="MsoNormal"I couldn't stand it, "Does Saturna know? She doesn't, does she?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Feeling good about yourself, that you won't have to arrest my wife?" Kael was taunting me. In a way that made me feel strongly, again, that they were both in on it. In fact, I was seeing now that Saturna seducing me was a weapon they were both glad to use./p
p class="MsoNormal""For weeks, Kael'thas, I went through every possibility. Something kept telling me it wasn't you. Or, it wasn't just you. Not alone. This was a team effort. If it turns out that Saturna is in it, then she's in it. I don't care what happens to her."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Saturna doesn't know!" Kael'thas showed true fear, rare for him. "I kept her out of that part, away from the real secret."/p
p class="MsoNormal""And that's the last thing I couldn't figure out. Why was this kept a secret for so long? You have a piece of A'dal, you've had a shard of his essence all this time, but you never used it? Is this all of it, here in this crown?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Then something else occurred to me, "Kael'thas. Did you try to get high off this?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No, I didn't!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Hey that sounds defensive, even from ova here. By the way, I'm sending you back up."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"An army of Goblin mech suits like mine storming Sunspire Keep? Thank goodness, because I was bluffing before, though I had hoped. I also wasn't sure if I was ready to go all in on that yet. Another thing, I didn't know how to make the comm only talk to the voice in my helmet. If I gave any orders now, Kael'thas would hear me./p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath put his flaming arm down. He flicked his wrist, snuffed it out. Sort of a stylish move, actually. I heard him speak from beneath the mask. "You may want to take this chance and fully explain yourself. Majesty." Rommath looked at Kael'thas. "He seems open to it."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas knew that was true. But he also truly didn't want to do it./p
p class="MsoNormal""Kael'thas? Kael, listen to me." Rommath insisted, "If I stand up at your Garrosh-style warcrimes tribunal sometime soon and say you're innocent, even if I'm effusive?" Ya know, I wanted to laugh at that. This was a classy kind of guy. He didn't mind taking shots at himself either. "No one will believe one of your pained minions then, with all their wealth and toys taken away. Do it now. Tell him all."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I got annoyed that I never had the chance to interview Rommath of all people, "How does Rommath know? Not even your wife knows, but Rommath does?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""We're like brothers."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Wow. I did not know that. Dammit! That fascinated me, and there was no time to go into it at all. And what a wasted opportunity on my part./p
p class="MsoNormal"I really wanted to blast Kael'thas into next year. I was all geared up for it. But then, something else took the wind out of us. Saturna shouted from beyond the doors, and she was then let into the chamber. Pyorin and Daphne were suited up and by her side. They shouted for the guards to close the doors again and keep them that way./p
p class="MsoNormal"I complained loudly, "Geez, it would have to be the Blood Knights I actually like, too."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, they were in war mode as well. Daphne had shed a lady's courtly dress for being in full black-and-red plate with healing mace, on guard duty./p
p class="MsoNormal"Saturna lowered her sword, but she still had it in her hand. She walked to her husband's side and held it out. "We were just discussing where we might apprehend you. We thought you might be back in the Ghostlands, or that eerie Night Elf camp, complete with a harbor to land ships that we scouted out? How did it ever get that bad?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I challenged her, "Arrest me? After what you assholes did to me! You ordered my legs broken!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Rommath squinted an eye at that. He had more sense. Kael'thas looked a little impressed with his wife. Rude./p
p class="MsoNormal""Turaho, I never expected you to do this. Are you stealing from us?" She looked around the room and freaked out that her favorite tiara was a blank spot in a display case./p
p class="MsoNormal"Well, that was worth seeing. Also confirmed for me what Kael'thas had claimed, that Saturna didn't know about the tiara. And even if she had known about it all along, I doubted she would opt to wear it at a big party where generations of Horde war veterans would see it and sense it. That was what had set Kael off, pushed him to argue with his wife about her choice in adornment./p
p class="MsoNormal"em"Turaho? You need us? We're close, in target range."/em/p
p class="MsoNormal""Don't show yourselves yet. Hold your positions." I talked a lot of trash then, to make it sound official. The sight of me in a war machine and speaking to someone official they couldn't really hear on their end, it was scaring the Blood Elves for once. "Call for the Orc warlords still around here from the holiday party. Send a message out."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Kael'thas' eyes were bright. "Please. Don't tell Sylvanas. Not yet-"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Like I said, I have my evidence. King Kael'thas Sunstrider. You are under arrest for crimes against the Horde, the Army of the Light, and your own people."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin yelled at me, "What jurisdiction do you have for any of that! Are you a warlord from Orgrimmar, or sworn to the forces back in Shatthrath? I don't think so! We're higher up in that regard than you are—"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Or you were. Liadrin wanted that. But your current leader, Queen Saturna, yanked all her so-called Blood Knights out of the Silver Hand. Didn't you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin swaggered my way. "You are a Knight of the Blood Nexus."/p
p class="MsoNormal""That doesn't mean horse shit to me. I never agreed to go along with—" My stomach knotted. My vision blurred./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin walked out in front of everyone, I think he did. It was his big square head, his big shoulders bobbing over everything. He raised his hand at me, conjuring something./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pyorin raised his voice, "You used your powers before, in front of all of us. There is a reason we helped you then. There is a reason we recruited you, Turaho. Beyond the benign reasons, this was essential."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You can't… control me." I was going to vomit in that suit, or pass out if he didn't let up./p
p class="MsoNormal""No. But I can invert your ghost wolf spell. I can flip the magical axis, twist you between the world of life and shadow, put you in a new world of pain. And you are not skilled enough Turaho, not as one of us, to fight me back. If you had said yes, if we had known you were fully on our side and that you would never do something like this, we might have told you the secret to it."/p
p class="MsoNormal""You jackass…"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Are you powerful enough, though? Maybe you don't need the Nexus. Maybe you did pick up something while you were locked in the chief advisor's bathroom, I could be wrong."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I could hear my nostrils flaring, struggling for breath. My muzzle slick with spittle and sweat. My ears, my horns pointed forward at that fool. Idiot, you've cornered a Tauren. His first instinct, whatever jurisdiction he finds himself in, no matter what power you use against him, is to charge./p
p class="MsoNormal"Daphne's eyes went bright yellow, sensing something about me with her powers, "Everyone. Step back. Get back now!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"She called a shield of light spell, I saw it tear halfway across my visor. The rest was Goblin frac fire, blazing up the entire place. It was louder than thunder and storm in my ears./p
p class="MsoNormal"I don't know how the hell they dealt with it. I roared and I charged, gunning them down./p