(Originally written as part of a fellow guildmember’s interactive story leading up to the WoW expansion “Cataclysm”. I’ve included brief summaries of others’ writings in the story, as needed.)
(Elsewhere, the draenei shaman Eqwene has been having difficulty with her element-based spells. And the gnome mage Jancey, a fire mage, has been burned by Fire, the element with whom she normally has a friendly relationship and even engages in conversation.)
Vala started awake and looked around blearily. Where…? Oh, right. As her eyes focused, memory returned. She had left Dalaran, left Northrend for a time, and returned south, first to the Eastern Kingdoms to work on some tasks for the Zandalar trolls in Stranglethorn, then back to elven lands for a while, for a chance to rest up away from wars and undead. She sat up and peered around, up at the towering trees on the steep hills above her riverside camp and across the river toward the Grove of the Ancients. Nothing to see that should have disturbed her. Nearly dawn, judging by the light. Something warm dripped on her left hand. She looked down. Blood?
She glanced upward. Nothing there to drip. No tree branches hung over her and the few that were even close to her were empty of anything but leaves. She pushed herself up and agony tore through her left arm, stealing her breath for a moment. She looked down again. The blood was dripping off the cuff of her sleeve! She twisted around, gasping at the pain and quickly examined her sleeve. Nothing. No cuts in the leather, few marks even and all those old. What the…? She quickly undid the fastenings of her armor just enough to slip her arm out. Several parallel gashes ran from her shoulder to her elbow and, now that her arm was free, the blood flowed freely.
Vala stared dumbfounded at the deep slashes. “But those were healed weeks ago!” She spoke her thoughts aloud.
She clearly remembered the refreshing wash of healing magic pouring over her body -even as the healer Olisarra had muttered worriedly over the extent of her injuries- after she had all but crawled to Olisarra in Dalaran after escaping the Scarlet Onslaught. That woman was adept at her profession, leaving Vala with no visible marks on her body from her ordeal.
Vala cursed as she dug one-handed in her pack for a bandage. The nightmare…it had to be. Somehow. But why this? And how? She had thought the nightmare had finally gone – her sleep had been undisturbed for nearly a month now.
She wrapped the bandage quickly around her arm, pulling it tight. Just as she was tying it off, the ground began to shake. Now what? She waited for it to stop, but this one seemed worse than others she had experienced recently on the two southern continents. And it lasted longer. Then with a low rumble, a rocky section of the steep hill above her broke away and crashed onto the bank of the Wildbend River, just missing her campsite. Under the impact, much of the bank gave way, crumbling into the river, and taking her with it.
“Oh, shi…!”
Vala fought her way back to the surface and coughed up some water she had swallowed. The water seemed to have gone wild. She struggled to reach the bank again and finally pulled herself back out of the river, much further downstream than she would have thought. She collapsed on her stomach as soon as most of her body was free of the water. Several minutes were spent coughing up more water, then she lay still watching the now-muddy river and waiting for the ache in her chest to ease.
“Ow!” She yanked her hand back from the suddenly boiling hot water and scrambled further away from the edge of the river. “What…?”
She studied the river from a short distance away. Except for the increased mud in the water, it looked pretty much back to normal. She finally, cautiously, approached the water again and tentatively placed her hand just above the water’s surface. Light spray splashed her, feeling no warmer than normal. She felt no heat rising from the water. Slowly, she brought her hand down until it just brushed the surface of the water. Nothing. No abnormal heat.
Vala looked around uncertainly, suddenly aware of a vague feeling of something wrong. Something more than a hillside falling on her, anyway. She could see nothing amiss, however. Remembering her father’s teachings, his attempts to make her aware of the connections to nature that pretty much all Kaldorei possessed, she closed her eyes and tried to reach out with her senses, to feel the temperament of the world around her. She had never been very good at this, had never felt the connection to nature as strongly or steadily as other Kaldorei, but it seemed the right thing to try just then.
Long minutes passed, during which she began to feel foolish, as usual. Suddenly a wave of anger washed over her. And quickly vanished. But through her hands, one brushing the water’s surface and the other flat on the soil of the bank, she felt a distinct sense of something awry. An unacceptable change of some sort. Then the sensation vanished, leaving her wondering if she had only imagined it after all. She looked around again. Still nothing looked out of place – most of the mud in the river had even settled now.
She pushed herself to her feet, wincing slightly at the tightness of the soaked bandage around her upper arm. Have to replace that. Something she definitely was not looking forward to doing. She started to slip her arm back into her sleeve, then stopped. There was no pain! Pressure from the tight wrappings, yes, but not the pain that should have accompanied her movements.
She looked at the bandage. Sopping wet, of course. And any blood that might have soaked through had likely been washed away. No blood ran down her arm. Slowly, with a feeling that all this was oddly surreal, she unwrapped the bandage. Beneath, her arm was completely unmarked. No sign of the deep slices. She stared at the unbroken skin for several long minutes, then glanced back upstream in the direction of her camp.
Could she have dreamt it? Could she have been still asleep and yet bandaged the wounds she thought had reappeared? Absently she rolled the bandage, squeezing it to get some water out, while she thought back about that portion of her unusual morning. Finally, she shrugged. Possibly. She shivered suddenly. Which was worse? Thinking that she was awake -and actually doing things- when she wasn’t awake at all? Or having her nightmare leaking into her waking world -with long-healed wounds reappearing and such? She shivered again. Both were bad. Very bad.
And now this thing with nature, with the elements, she guessed. Anger and wrong change. She shook her head at her thoughts, shrugged her arm back into her sleeve and refastened her armor. She had nearly no real connection to the elements. Someone else should know about this. Maybe they already did. Druids, probably. They could likely learn more, maybe even understand. Or, of course, shamans. They had the closest ties to the elements, from what she understood. Perhaps she ought to talk to a druid or shaman.
But first things first. Squeezing the rolled bandage tightly in one hand to try to get the last of the water out of it, Vala trudged back through Twilight Vale to see what she could salvage of her camp.
Vala loitered in the shadows and watched the people going about their business in the Trade District of Stormwind. This was her second day of merely observing, and she had noticed some trends already. The people, mostly humans in this crowd, were acting strangely. True, some of it could probably be explained away as the nervous reflexes of people who had been fighting for their lives now suddenly finding themselves back in their -relatively- peaceful homes. But still. Even people she felt certain had not been in the fighting in the north were acting nervous. Numerous glances over shoulders characterized almost everyone walking past. And then there were the strange actions of some dwarves she had seen the previous day in Ironforge. More than once, she had seen a dwarf suddenly stop and tilt his or her head as if listening to something. Then many of these dwarves had knelt and placed their hands on the stone floors, closed their eyes and apparently picked up some information or something from the rocks themselves.
Vala shook her head. All this was doing nothing to alleviate her own uneasiness. She felt that some change was imminent. Something drastic and perhaps not for the better. She pulled out a dagger and absently began applying poison to it, her eyes all the while on the milling people.
“Got a job here in town?”
Vala turned slightly toward the voice coming from the shadows, noting that it was a woman she recognized from SI:7. She smiled behind her mask and she returned the dagger to its sheath.
“You’ve been watching me the last ten minutes. What do you think?”
The short human chuckled softly. “I think you’re killing time, Vala, and nothing else. Today anyway.”
Vala chuckled with her. “You know I’d let you know ahead of time if I had a job in the city.”
The woman nodded. Vala gave her a sidelong glance and smiled again to see her attention also on the milling people.
“Notice anything strange?” Vala tilted her head slightly toward the crowd.
“Been seeing it for a while now,” the woman responded. “People are skittish, anxious. And not to do with war.”
Vala nodded. “A change is coming,” she murmured. She grinned suddenly then behind her mask as she spotted a certain gnome mage of her acquaintance making her way through the crowd. It looked like Jancey was carrying on an animated conversation with someone, although Vala saw no one in the vicinity who seemed to be the other side of that conversation. She watched the gnome until she was lost again in the crowd.
“I’d appreciate knowing if you discover anything definite about all this.” Vala waved a hand vaguely at the people nearby.
“Likewise.” The woman left with a slight wave of her hand.
Vala returned the wave and then slipped through the shadows out to the Valley of Heroes. She settled in to watch the draenei shaman there apparently instructing a small number of students. From what Vala could tell, they seemed to be trying to do something with the nearby water. And it didn’t seem to be going well. After an hour or so, the class broke up with little accomplished, at least as far as Vala could see. And it even looked like the instructor herself was having some problems working with the water. What was her name? Um-something? Vala shrugged to herself. Anyway, she seemed to be preparing for another class, so Vala slipped away. She’d maybe return another, less-busy time to try to talk to the draenei.
Vala turned back toward the city proper and noticed a familiar figure up ahead doing much the same thing. Although she caught only a glimpse of the draenei’s face as she turned, Vala was certain that Eqwene’s expression had been one of worry. Vala thoughtfully watched the shaman walk away. Now there was someone who might know if something was going on with the elements. She should probably catch up to her and say something. Vala glanced back at the shaman instructor. Or perhaps she should wait to talk to her instead. What if she was just imagining something wrong with the elements? But no, even her SI:7 acquaintance had noticed something off. Still…would she rather look silly in front of a friend, or a stranger – if she was imagining it?
Vala shrugged at her thoughts and slowly, from a distance, followed Eqwene into Stormwind. It would at least be easier to talk to someone she knew. She’d try to catch Eqwene perhaps when the shaman seemed less preoccupied.
(Eqwene met up with Jancey in Stormwind. The gnome’s pet core hound pup ran off, tracking down a familiar scent.)
Vala frowned down at the softly growling core hound tugging on one of her boots.
“Stop that,” she whispered. She waved one hand at the pup. “Shoo.”
The hound’s second head continued to give her a toothy smile and she swore she saw a glint of amusement in the eyes of the head worrying her boot. She gently shook her leg, trying to dislodge the pup. “You’d better not be leaving tooth marks in my boot!” she hissed at the happy hound.
With a long-suffering sigh, she let the shadows slip away -really no point now in trying to stay hidden in them- and gave cold looks to the people who had been attracted to the pup’s commotion. Those people quickly found something better to do.
“You just had to do that.” Hands on her hips, she gave the hound a glare that quickly turned into a grin as the pup continued his antics.
She glanced around quickly to make sure she was unobserved, then slipped a bone from a pouch at her waist and gave it to the head that continued to give her a doggy smile. At a pleading look from the hound’s other head -still occupied with her boot- she shook her head. “You want it, you’ll have to let go my boot. And share!” she admonished the pup as the two heads began fighting over the bone.
“So where’s your mistress? We should probably get you back to her.” The hound wagged his stub of a tail then, basically wagging his whole body, but offered her no help.
Then Vala heard the distinctive sing-song voice of the gnome mage. It sounded like she was just around the corner – the direction that Eqwene had gone, it so happened. Vala gave the hound’s heads a couple of pats. “Come on, then. Let’s go find Jancey.”
She headed around the corner, the happy pup trailing -and occasionally nipping- at her heels.
(As Vala joined Eqwene and Jancey, Eqwene asked her and the gnome for their assistance – to guard her from physical harm while she traveled on a spirit walk to try to get some answers from the elements directly. Jancey suggested perhaps going to Arathi Highlands to the elemental circles there, each of which bound a particular element.)
Vala nodded a greeting to the gnome and draenei, following them to a more secluded spot, and then listened thoughtfully as Eqwene related her recent experiences and Jancey agreed that ‘things are feeling off lately’. So apparently she herself was not crazy at thinking something was wrong. Or they all were crazy together! A smile flashed briefly beneath her mask at the thought and vanished just as quickly.
She noticed the burn on the gnome’s hand when the mage absently checked it. Vala reflexively glanced at her own gloved hand, remembering the feel of the scalding water. She quirked an eyebrow when Jancey seemed to converse briefly with someone not even there, but otherwise did not react. After all, it was not too unusual an action for the gnome.
She nodded agreement with the gnome about the binding circles in Arathi Highlands. “While I have little knowledge of such places, that seems likely a place that could give you what you seek,” she told the shaman. “And something perhaps you should know…this wrongness is not just affecting those with connections to the elements.” She waved her hand vaguely at her two companions. “Even I have felt something…odd.” And she related briefly what she had experienced in southern Darkshore, deliberately leaving out any mention of the reappearing injury that might or might not have been a dream.
“Don’t know if the information’s at all useful, but there you have it.” Vala glanced around, noting that nothing interesting seemed to be happening in the city, as usual. “I’d be glad to help guard you while you do this spirit walk magic.”
Vala’s hidden grin crinkled the corners of her silvery eyes. “I know next to nothing about magic, but I can help keep you safe from any other attacks you might be worried about.” She patted the two weapons she carried visibly. “Need anything for this ‘walk’? And how soon are we going?”
(Eqwene noticed Jancey’s burned hand, and healed her. She also cast a healing spell on Vala, although her usual water-based healing spell failed her and she had to resort to a special draenei healing spell. Eqwene agreed to try her spirit walk at the circles, but remained uncertain whether talking to bound elements was a good idea. However, none of the three could think of any other locations where the elements might be easier to contact. Jancey opened a magic portal to transport them to Ironforge so they could take gryphons from there to Arathi.)
Vala started to protest, to tell Eqwene there was no need to spend any magical healing on her. No injuries currently plagued her, after all. But her protest died on her lips as the shaman quickly cast…something. Vala gave a slight shrug. Oh, well.
After Eqwene had stepped into Jancey’s portal, Vala quirked an eyebrow at the gnome. “You are sending us to Ironforge, right? Not someplace else, like…say…Theramore?” she teased. The gnome occasionally opened portals to places other than where she said she would, as a joke. With a hidden grin that lit up her eyes, she stepped into the portal.
She stumbled slightly stepping out the other side – portals always seemed to disorient her just a little. Yes, Ironforge. With all its sounds of hammering and smells of various brews, even if Brewfest was already over. Willing her stomach to settle down -portals made her slightly queasy, too- she moved aside to leave room for the mage to come through.
(Everyone arrived safely in Ironforge. Jancey summoned her mount -a mechanostrider- to ride to the gryphon flightmaster, while Eqwene changed form into a spirit wolf to quickly run collect something -a helm helpful for spirit-walking- before flying out.)
Vala joined the others in the doorway. “See you there, Eqwene,” she acknowledged the shaman’s stated intention to meet in Refuge Point. She grinned at the gnome’s mount and pulled out a small charm that another gnome mage had made for her some time ago. The thing looked and acted like a whistle, sort of. But her friend had magicked it to summon one of Vala’s many mounts from where it was stabled. Instantly, but randomly. Through magic. Vala gave it a dubious look, as always. Secretly, she expected it to someday summon something else, maybe some troll’s raptor mount or something. But what did she know of magic?
Lifting the edge of her mask, she blew gently on the whistle and smiled at the soft sweet note it always sounded. She dropped the whistle-charm back in its tiny pocket in her belt as her Winterspring Frostsaber appeared in front of her. She grinned; the uniquely-colored cat was one of her favorite mounts. The big cat rammed his head into her chest -nearly knocking her over- demanding a pat. She obliged, then swung easily into his saddle. Another mystery of magic – her mounts always arrived wearing the appropriate gear.
She glanced over at the little gnome atop her mechanostrider. “Race ya.”
Without waiting to see if Jancey took up her challenge, she sent her Frostsaber leaping forward, running for the flight master. As she sped past the big forge in the center of the city, she glanced into the fiery depths. Looked pretty much as always. So why did it seem much hotter in here than usual?
(As Vala and Jancey passed the giant forge at the heart of Ironforge, the gnome thought she could hear hundreds of voices in a rage. She commissioned a gryphon and took off, preoccupied with concern over Fire’s apparent unrest. Vala also took off on a gryphon. An earthquake struck the city just as Eqwene arrived at the flightmaster. The shaman could hear Fire screaming and Earth roaring back. She also took off on a gryphon, pulling out a communications device as she did to contact the other two.)
Vala ducked as the gryphon flew into the tunnel leading out of Ironforge. She knew that hitting her head on the ceiling was unlikely, but she still always ducked at that point anyway. The gryphon tilted abruptly as grit filtered down from the ceiling onto them both. Vala twisted around, just as they exited the tunnel into the open air, to look back. More grit fell from the tunnel roof behind them and distant cries of alarm came faintly to her ears. As she watched, flying ever further away, she could actually see trees shaking down on the ground. Looked like a bad one.
They were getting worse.
“Jancey, I hope this works…. Jancey? Vala? Can anyone hear me? I think this problem has just gotten bigger.” The muffled voice came from the small communications device Vala wore pinned inside the collar of her armor. She gave the device a sharp tap to turn on outgoing speech and turned her head slightly to aim her voice at the device.
“I can hear you, Eqwene. Agreed. Looks like Ironforge and vicinity just had quite the shake-up. I’m already flying, headed for Arathi. Do we want to turn back? If not, I’ll meet you in Arathi.”
She consulted her mental map of the area to figure out the easiest place to convince her gryphon to land so she could turn around, if necessary.
(Eqwene felt it more urgent to continue on, and said because of this urgency, she would begin going into a trance-like state before ever landing at Refuge Point in Arathi. She also gave instructions about guiding her to the circles, how to help her contact the spirits once there, and how to help her return from her spirit walk when it was time.)
Vala frowned, wondering at the wisdom of flying while in a trance, or even a trance-like state – whatever that really was, even on such well-trained gryphons as these from Ironforge. She decided not to say anything. Eqwene certainly knew what she was doing, right?
“Alright,” she acknowledged Eqwene’s plan. “Only one question…Do you already have a mount to use at Refuge Point? If not, don’t worry. We can probably double up on one of mine, if needed.”
As her gryphon flew onward, Vala called to mind the image of a map of that area and began trying to figure what might be the best route to follow to get the shaman as quickly as possible to each of those binding circles.
(During the flight, surrounded by the element of Air, Eqwene began her spirit walk. The screaming voices that she had been hearing became something she could actually understand. And though she could not understand it all, she knew, without a doubt, that she could do nothing to prevent what was coming. Even though she still did not know what it was, she understood that continuing to seek out answers from the Elements would be a waste of time now. Landing at Refuge Point, she told Vala and Jancey that the trouble was so much worse than she had thought – that something horrible was coming, and she wasn’t sure that they could do anything about it. She recommended that they begin planning for the worst and think in terms of what they would do if something catastrophic happened.)
Vala gazed absently into the distance as she absorbed what Eqwene was saying. She idly noted two humans, who landed shortly after Eqwene. The two jumped from their gryphons and huddled together, looking harried. Her sharp hearing picked up much of their whispering, but one thing stood out from their frantic murmuring.
“Elementals attacking Southshore?” Vala muttered, her eyes turning to her two companions. “We might already be past the planning stage.”
(Vala and Eqwene decided to go to Southshore to assist in whatever was going on and hopefully get some idea of what to do from there. The gnome mage parted company with them to pursue on her own some thought that had occurred to her. Eqwene used the Element of earth to cast a protective shield around Vala before they took off for Southshore.)
Vala peered at the ball of earth orbiting her. She had seen this spell frequently cast on more heavily armored companions, but this was the first time she had been the recipient herself. Hopefully in the midst of battle, she would not mistakenly attack it. She gave Eqwene a slight nod, indicating her agreement with going on to Southshore, then commissioned a gryphon for the short journey.
Vala studied the land below as the gryphon carried her toward the small town. Nothing seemed amiss from up here, at least nothing she could see… wait! Something odd hovered just above the ground in a field near Durnholde; a round area of blackness -sort of a black cloud- with something glowing brilliantly in the center. As the gryphon carried her past, she caught a glimpse of spiders and bears engaged in battle with what looked like air elementals. She spared a quick glance to the north; she should probably try to stop by Ravenholdt Manor soon to inform her associates there of this. And maybe they might have some new information, too.
The gryphon began descending to land at Southshore and Vala spotted another of those black clouds there, this time with people fighting the elementals. As the gryphon touched down, a human -looked like a warrior- dispatched what seemed to be the last of the elementals. And, as she slid off the gryphon, Vala saw the dark area seemingly collapse in on itself, revealing a strange-looking device hovering above the ground. She cautiously approached the thing, intrigued…
A green-haired gnome dashed past her, apparently coming from the shelter of a nearby building, and grabbed the mysterious device. Vala snatched her fingers back just in time to avoid losing them to him, too.
“Very interesting!” the gnome said, apparently oblivious to his surroundings as he turned the device over, studying it from all angles. “This is the cultist thing they wanted!” With a chuckle he raced toward the flightmaster.
Vala watched him take off, headed for Ironforge by the look of it. She looked around for her companions. Eqwene seemed to be tending to some wounded humans, while Jancey wandered the area where the elementals had been, apparently studying the ground -or maybe some magical emanation that only she could see- and muttering to herself.
Vala glanced back at the spot where the device had hovered. Cultists, huh? Perhaps she’d better look into this. After all, she knew cultists – after delving so deeply into cultist activities in Northrend, and disrupting them at every opportunity, she probably had more experience with this sort of thing than most. Another glance at her preoccupied friends convinced her they were likely to be involved for a while. She’d catch up to them later -or at least keep in touch.
She followed the green-haired gnome’s example and hired a gryphon to Ironforge.