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Chapter 35: Elf With A Shelf
Perhaps, Dannox's true goal had always been to delay me. Until Faltheriel got home. Maybe that would be soon. I tried to glance around for a clock, but didn't see one. Didn't matter though. Instinct always ran true with me. I was running out of time, then.
"May I ah, use your restroom?"
My best missions were starting to boil down to this.
It was my only chance to search the house and I needed to make it good. Either Greatfather Winter was here, where he would most likely be secreted away by Kael'thas' chief advisor, or Greatfather Winter was at Blood Knight Fennore's house. However, Fennore seemed too angry, to unstable to me in order to manage all that. And everyone was so precious about him, the other Blood Knights had wanted to protect Fennore from me. But not in that way, more like Fennore was a glass dish that could break any time. How messy were Fennore's hands in the matter?
But this house, this was practically a safe house. Out of the way, comfortable, quiet. And someone was always home. And no staff to spread secrets. At least, no regular live-in maids or butlers, not like at the old-money Sunthraze Estate. I noted that as well. Maybe Dannox might get into mushrooms or be silly at times, but he was also a very capable druid, and a tough guy. Shan'do Malfurion would never take a slouch into his upper ranks. And that's a war in the Emerald Dream we're talking about. Those kinds of druids were insanely fierce, physically and mentally. Minds broke in that realm, just look at how corruptive the Nightmare had been, for so many. Dragons were felled by it.
So, then. Dannox, a survivor of all that, was practically a bodyguard. I also doubted that Dannox merely sexed his way into a perfect life with his two spouses. That took more than charm. His two lovers were smart and they'd eventually get bored with anyone that was just muscles and fluff. Dannox was intelligent, he was thoughtful about how he handled things. All hubby Faltheriel would ever have to do is tell Dannox how to turn the magic on or off, how to lock a magical containment field, let's say, in an emergency. And then Greatfather Winter would remain secure. I decided then, that yes, I was in the right house—I had to be. And, Dannox was Greatfather Winter's jailor.
Yeah, so basically somebody was about to break my legs again. Dannox was definitely waiting for Faltheriel to get home.
I snuck out of the bathroom and checked every closet I could get away with. Dannox was damn confident for not bothering to follow me and keep an eye on me. For all I knew, though, they had scrying orbs everywhere and Dannox was watching me that way. Probably not, though. I doubt he would have let me get away with the deep searches I was doing into people's private rooms. I went into a study. I found the attic. I got into a crawlspace behind the other master bedroom, and I assumed that was the wife's room. She had a lot of nice jewelry in there. Still, nothing.
I was taking too long. Dannox was being too nice about all this. Who doesn't check on a house guest after waiting a while, even if they are in the bathroom? I cussed softly, realizing the whole place must have been on lock-down. All the windows were shut, and I had that same feeling from when I was back in the Sunthraze house. I'd have to smash through a window if I wanted out. With my horns, hooves and all. But could I even do that?
My fur raised all over my body as I got near to a window in a side room, very tempted to try it. No, there was a definite field racing along the window ledge. I didn't know what, but it was there. And I didn't want to know what Dannox would resort to if I tripped whatever magical security they had going on. For now, Dannox was playing the headgame, bordering on polite. He hadn't decided to tie me up yet, or entangle me in some strangling roots or something.
Still, I needed more time. I feared these agents of Kael'thas wouldn't let me make the same mistake twice and just leave the premises, broken legs or not, after I effed up my investigation again. If they could put Greatfather Winter away silently in this house, for this long, I was about to disappear, too.
I admit that I panicked. All I knew was that I needed more time to think, so I rushed back to the bathroom. I actually sat on the closed toilet and locked the door. I exhaled, held the sides of my horned head.
I thought of Meydiri. Then, I chose to stop thinking of Meydiri while I was perched on a toilet. Even her memory deserved better than that. Rather than go into full-on hopelessness, I tried to make a mental list of all the places I had checked, everything that had worked and the things that had not worked. There must be someplace else, something better that I could do in this situation.
"…I have to sleep with Dannox."
Okay, that was totally panicking. And hell, maybe that's the sort of madness Dannox had been silently holding out for.
"Ma, you wanna appear all of a sudden and help me out of this? Ma?"
My mother wasn't coming. I did start to wonder where she was, though. She could have appeared a few other times but she was busy or something. I hoped. And it wasn't right to think she would be able to assist me now, as a ghost. Other than give someone a fright. People give ghosts way more credit than they should, in my experience. I also didn't friggin' trust these ex-Legion types with my mother's actual spirit. I mean, how many of these life-corruptors were there walking around in Quel'thalas, preying on the innocent? What the fel?
I let go. I got up and paced around the bathroom. I looked up and realized that there was a chandelier in there. And the bathtub was big enough for two. No, three. Ugh.
Whatever hot life Faltheriel Darkweaver and his spouses had going on (I was also most likely jealous), it had nothing to do with me and I kept telling myself not to get distracted by it. Those thoughts were a waste of my time right then. Idly, I flicked open a white cabinet with a gold handle. Some medicine bottles… I teased open a few cabinet doors. Then, somehow, I was searching with real interest.
What was I doing now? I didn't really know. But something about this being the last place anyone would look kept gnawing at me. And all the places I searched before were places that you would most likely hide someone. A little side room, an attic, a crawl space. Under a bed. But what if you had a great deal of magical acumen, access to the best? What if you had plenty of time to sit across from a table with maniacal King Kael'thas Sunstrider, arch your fingers like he did and speak at length about the best way to bend a person in time and space? Bend. Fit, rather. Fit them someplace that no one would look. You'd do it magically. You'd use an illusion or manipulate… stuff. Like, reality.
Greatfather Winter was in another magical dimension. I lay my hand on the cool, white sink and had another large breath. I couldn't believe I had just figured it out. Me. I wasn't a sorcerer, or some mage. I kept trying to breathe, trying to stay calm and quiet in that bright, tiled room. It felt like a prison cell already.
But it was hard to stay calm, you see. Not just because I feared for my life at that moment. I realized that this bathroom was the one place I hadn't really searched. I was dangerously close now. Greatfather Winter was here. Somewhere in the bathroom.
Afraid to really reach and touch anything else, when victory or calamity were so closeby and my heart was pounding, I swept a hand down my muzzle. I kept telling myself I could hear voices and new footfalls in the house. I couldn't be sure of that, though. I was nervous as hell. I was so sure that I was on to something. I would regret it forever if somehow I missed this one shot. I knew it, it had happened to me before. In Mulgore, in Ashenvale… this was a lead. This was definite.
A bathroom is an innocuous place, but also a place where people store things they really need. I checked back in the medicine cabinet. I let my hand wash over the vials and little ceramic jars with tight-fitting lids. I didn't think I sensed anything like that prickling field near the window, back in that side room.
Shit. If only I were more magically-inclined! I didn't even know what I was looking for. I felt the seams in the medicine cabinet, the corners, with my fingers. I ran my hands over everything. In frustration, I just threw some of the little vessels out of my way, letting them break. I didn't care.
Then, I think I did hear someone. Not a voice. Pressure sort of, on the floorboards. Someone was listening. Dannox wasn't far.
I tried everything, I thought. I even turned the water on in the shower. I turned it off, fast. I knew I was close, it was almost comical, putting Greatfather Winter in a bathroom. Just the sort of thing Kael'thas would think was clever. Gods, I almost stuck my head into the toilet bowl, because I bet Kael'thas might have liked that, too.
But this was Faltheriel's house. What meant the most to that spooky, vain Blood Elf man? What most attracted him about that room? What would Faltheriel use most often, touch first, need the most?
Sadly, I started to imagine Faltheriel with his husband and his wife in that giant bathtub, and in the shower. I resorted to going through every scenario in that bathroom, to get myself to understand or see what I couldn't yet see.
Nothing of use came to me. I was ready to give up. At least I could take a decent piss this time if I got caught. The toilet was right there. Not like when I was strapped to that damned bed at Sunthraze's house, for hours, and they left me for dead practically, after breaking my legs.
And I could also take a shower.
I sat at the edge of the shower, pushed the curtain away. It was a fancy sort of thing, not many homes had these. Extremely elven concept, anyway. No water to splash out of the tub with the curtain drawn and water tidily coming down. A beautiful copper showerhead, shaped like a bowed lotus flower, would bestow a lovely rain down your body as you lathered. Too modern for me. I folded my hands together. I stopped thinking and pricked my ears, flared my nostrils. Something was up and my Tauren brain was finding it, I just didn't know what yet.
It smelled like a summer field. But it was wintertime? I blinked. I squeezed my hands together tight, where they rested in my lap. Soap? I sniffed the bars of soap on the small ledge inside the shower. "None of these have that scent…"
I ducked out, sniffed around the whole bathroom with my Tauren nose and then went right back to the spot at the edge of the shower. Was I downwind of it or upwind?
I looked up. Something was wrong with the ceiling above the shower. It was too… smooth. Too wet. But no one had used the shower in a while. I stared for a long time, unwilling to believe it was going to be this simple. But I knew it. I finally had these little elf fuggers. Over something as simple as my Tauren sense of smell. And my knowledge of being outdoors, the way scents flow downhill, or down from somewhere. When you are downwind of something that exists, that is out in the wild and waiting for you, then you can smell it. Hunters like to be downwind of their prey, so they know where it is. Reverse that, and you give away your position.
This time, my prey was exactly where I wanted it.
Because Faltheriel Darkweaver must have had an enchanted spot where he could stash an entire summer field of his favorite soaps and hair stuff—I reckoned it must be shampoo he doesn't like to share with his two preening spouses. Well then, why not put a Dwarf up there too?
I wanted to wait and scent out snow and that sort of ashen smell you get from fireplaces that carries in the wintertime as well, telltale signs of Greatfather Winter's presence. But if I dallied any longer, I might not be so lucky. I put my dirty hooves in their perfect shower. I stood there, lifted my arm up. I did find and take out a bottle, a long slender ivory bottle of fragrant shampoo, I guess. Then, another. At last, I got a handhold. On what, I don't know. But I was able to grip, then start to haul myself up. I had a final moment to wonder how I was going to get back out, but that didn't matter by the time I was halfway in and mainly worried my backside and tail were hanging out. I fit my whole body inside the icy-smooth, white space and looked around. I kept wanting to duck my head, thinking it can't be taller than a shampoo bottle in there.
However, there was plenty of space and once I had the confidence, I was able to stand and walk toward the figure seated on the let's say, "throne", of a space that mirrored Faltheriel's own bathroom. The old dwarf himself, Greatfather Winter.
He was asleep on the toilet.
