Back in her rooms, Vala subjected them to the same thorough search that she had just completed outside. She found nothing in the bedroom that had not been there since she moved in. She packed up everything that was hers, a small-enough bundle, and tidied the room. The front room received the same treatment as the bedroom, with the same results. She began packing her few things from this room, but stopped at a sudden though. Slowly, she turned to look at the small box that had started this all. The various notes that she had received were stacked neatly under it. Could it be?
Just in case, she bundled the box and notes into a separate bag, grabbed the rest of her things, and headed out once again. Since visiting the Stormwind Counting House was out, she retrieved her other bag from its hiding spot and made her way to Ironforge, directly to the vault there. She dumped all the suspicious items into her personal vault. Try and spy on her from there! Then she bought some parchment, ink, and a pen to write her reclusive landlady, just a short note saying something vague about a family emergency and telling her to go ahead and find another tenant. She mailed the note, along with a few gold to appease the old woman. She stopped by the barbershop for a change of hair color, just to help her look less like any description the Stormwind guard might have sent out. Then she grabbed a bit of food from a street vendor and found a quiet, shadowy corner for herself.
– – –
Too bad the gnome was a rather late riser. But that gave Vala the chance to catch a little rest in her secluded corner; not true sleep, but somewhat refreshing nonetheless. She had no intention of arriving too early, as she disliked the thought of being turned into a sheep, or frog, or whatever Marrikka Firetempest was working on this week. On the way to Marrikka’s place, she retrieved the two bags containing possible spying things. She wished she still had a sample of that poison to take along, too. Marrikka had some knowledge of herbs and potions and might have been able to tell her something about it.
Marrikka greeted her warmly, as always, when Vala did finally arrive at the gnome’s small workshop in the Mystic Ward. As Vala poured the contents of the bags onto a table that the pink-haired gnome cleared for her, Marrikka quizzed her on whether she had yet tried the device that her brother had made. Vala admitted that she had finally and, remembering the purple light, gave reserved approval of it. At least it hadn’t exploded. She spread the junk out so it was easier to see and explained that she wanted to know if any of it was connected to some sort of magical spying. Then she stepped back to watch the gnome poke through it all.
“Hmmm, interesting.”
Vala smiled behind her mask. “Sure. But do any of these things have magic on them?”
Marrikka picked up each item, one by one, and examined it closely, even the bag from the rooftops. She quickly dismissed the items from outside, although she lingered over the pearl.
“Magic?”
“No. But fairly good quality.”
“Then I’ll take that.” Vala snatched the pearl back. Marrikka giggled.
Marrikka quickly dismissed the notes. She did not even open them to look inside. But she stopped at the box. “Interesting.”
“Magic? Like maybe a spying kind?”
“Looks that way. But there’s something underlying it. Something inside?”
Vala hesitated.
Marrikka reached over to pat her hand. “No worries, dearie. I’ve been working with you sneaky and SI:7 types for a long time, now. You know discretion is assured.”
Vala nodded. She certainly did know that. Marrikka had proven many times that she could be trusted to keep secrets. Marrikka opened the box and peered inside.
“Yes. A different spell on this.” She held up a short stick. It had Jani’s ring around it.
“What?” Vala dashed around the table and peered into the box, even removing the silk and shaking it out. “That’s not what was in there before.”
“The residue I see here is from illusion magic.”
Vala studied the stick. Yes, it was approximately the same size and shape as a finger. But was obviously just a stick. “This is the reality, then? A stick? What about the ring. Is it an illusion, too?” And why would these people have made a stick look like a severed finger, rather than send the real thing? Not from squeamishness certainly; Scarlets weren’t known for that.
Marrikka slid the ring off the stick and examined it separately. “No. This ring is as you see it. No magic is attached to it at all.” She handed it back to Vala. “The ring is clear. So is the silk. The stick has only residue, nothing further active there. The box is used to assist scrying. Inactive at the moment. Shall I break its spell?” The gnome grinned eagerly.
“Is there any way to…I don’t know…find out who set the spell. Find out where they are?”
Marrikka considered this for several minutes, and even apparently tried a few things with the box. Although, to Vala’s eyes, it looked like she actually did little more than mutter at it. Finally, the gnome shook her head. “Can’t find a way to do that. Probably when the spell is active, when the other person uses it again, then I can.”
Vala shook her head. “I don’t want to reveal you to them.” She cringed at a sudden thought. “I haven’t done that already by bringing it here, have I?”
The gnome patted her hand again. “No, dearie. I would have felt it immediately if they had activated it. It’s been dormant this whole time.” She winked. “Besides, I put up a shield right after you got here. Doubt they’d be able to see thorough that. And again, I’d know if they tried. You just leave this box with me. If they try to use it again, I’ll see what I can learn for you. And don’t worry. I can protect myself. They won’t see anything I don’t want ’em to.”
Vala nodded and handed over the pearl as payment and thanks, then scooped all her junk back into the bag. She wrapped the stick and ring in the silk, made her farewells, and then returned the silk bundle to her vault. She was lucky enough to find someone who paid her a little silver for the bag of junk.
– – –
At a loss for what to do next, Vala wandered through Ironforge. The gnome’s examinations had extended until well past the usual time for a midday meal, so Vala was hungry again. She bought a little food from a wandering vendor and munched while she walked. In passing through the Hall of Explorers, her eye was caught by one human female’s tabard: red, with gold flame and border. Nice look. A guild of explorers and treasure hunters, so she had heard. Might have to look into that, sometime after this was resolved. She continued on, slipping into the welcoming shadows of the Forlorn Cavern.
“You failed.”
Vala whirled around, daggers out and ready. The only person nearby was a human male. He resembled a rogue, but was dressed all in cloth rather than leather, nondescript. He leaned against a wall in the shadowed cavern. No one she recognized.
“What?”
“You heard me. How about you explain yourself.”
Vala studied the man and edged a little closer. “Are you following me?” If he was with them, maybe she could force him to tell her where Jani was. She tried to think how best to do this.
The man laughed. “No need. It was certain you’d return to Ironforge at some point. Now, that explanation.”
Vala shrugged. “Yeah, I failed. He was too good. Much better than I am. He tried to get me to answer his questions, give him information, but I just told him some sob story.” She posed dramatically. “My sad, sad past. I think he bought it. Well, maybe. He still turned me over to the guards, though.” She didn’t need to act to put the note of irritation into her voice. “But I was able to get away from them. So…I did as I was instructed, the best I could. Now, where’s Jani?”
The man seemed to be studying her. Finally, he spoke again. “Yes, that matches what we know. Check your mail. You have further instructions.”
More instructions? “That wasn’t the deal!”
“You failed. Remember?” he taunted her.
Enough was enough. Vala lunged at the man. With surprising ease, he evaded her attack. She dodged his attack and jumped into the shadows behind him, prepared to make him bleed. Somehow, he evaded her again and kicked both daggers from her hands. As he grabbed for her, she tried to dodge, but he was faster. He caught her in a chokehold. She froze.
“Dead, you cannot help her,” he hissed in her ear. “Going to behave now?”
She nodded as much as she could. When he released her, she dropped to her knees gasping for air. He was, of course, long gone by the time she could look around again. She retrieved her daggers. Disarmed easily twice in two days – this was getting embarrassing.
Vala slipped deep into the shadows and leaned against the wall to finish catching her breath. She hid her face in her hands and, for the moment, gave in to despair. These people could make demands of her, could hold Jani…indefinitely. They could even kill Jani, and she might never know. How was she going to find them? And why were they doing this? Why her and Jani? And what about her position with SI:7? Had she ruined everything by going off on her own? If it got Jani back, then so be it. She would do anything she had to, sacrifice all she had worked so hard for, if it meant getting Jani back safe. But what if Jani was already dead? When Vala felt the sting of incipient tears, she firmly told herself to get moving. This was not helping anything.
She swiped the back of one gloved hand across her eyes and set out to find the nearest mailbox. There was a single letter there. From ‘S. C. K. I.’ The paper was the same as that used for the previous notes, but the handwriting looked different. A shadow fell across the letter she held. She looked up.
“Oh. It’s you.” She gestured with the letter. “More instructions.”
Tygr nodded. “I heard.”
Oh. Right, he had said that he would be watching her. And oh. Then he would have seen her feeble attempts to damage the messenger. She blushed in chagrin. He must think her totally inept. She ducked her head, glad that her mask covered her overly-warm face.
She opened the letter, tilting it so Lonetygr could read it at the same time:
Rogue, we are not unreasonable. You have one more chance to complete a task for us, and your sister will be returned. Refuse, and you know the consequences. You must retrieve a certain book for us. Recently, it was in your sister’s possession. Reply to this letter when you have the book.
There followed a description of the book: small, about as tall as her hand, with roughly 30 pages, plain brown leather cover, no title, text on the first several pages with drawings on the rest, all in a language she was assured she would not know.
“Cousin,” Vala murmured reflexively as she read the note. Now she was supposed to find a book?! Jani didn’t even read. Why would they think she had ever had it? And…what if this was the book Lonetygr was after? She sighed. Wonderful.
“You know she was contacted by a fourth finger and is in the middle of testing.” The man handed Tygr a small bundle.
Tygr chuckled. “This mess has nothing to do with her testing.”
“She’s got good reflexes. They could use some honing of course-“
“You think she would prove her loyalty to Stormwind? You know that’s always been your problem with elven operatives.”
The short human sounded a bit angry. “Damn it Tygr.”
Tygr chuckled. “You are sure they were Scarlets?”
“Yes. What are you looking for this time?”
“They’ve got someone watching her, I don’t know who yet.” He left the rest unspoken. As Tygr watched the Kaldorei girl exited her place sticking to the shadows. He put his hand on the human’s shoulder. “I’m going to make sure she stays alive, I’m sure it’s more than you would do.”
“We can’t cross-“
“I know. Same old story. You can’t cross the Scarlets at the Cathedral.” Tygr dropped a bundle of flash powder and disappeared from view. His whispered voice faded away as he chased after Vala. “Don’t worry, I can. And you know she’ll be better for this.”
———-
Tygr spotted the human lurking in the shadows between two buildings. He was watching the girl. Tygr chuckled to himself as Farmountain strolled by. The dwarf locked eyes with the human, but missed Vala resting nearby. This place was too public. Tygr waited.
And waited.
And Vala went to the mystic ward to talk to someone. Smart girl. She would be safe in there. Tygr headed to his home in the forlorn cavern. He scribbled a quick note to Nayerilo and left the vial of poison on the table, then slipped back to the mystic ward where he picked up Vala’s tail again. Her path through the city was interesting. He watched her eyes linger on the Explorer’s Hall and the member of Veritas leaving the library. Her trip took them both back by his home.
“You failed.”
Tygr listened carefully to the exchange that followed. There was a brief struggle and the man disappeared deeper into the cavern. Tygr gave chase. He was able to keep up for a few moments before losing him in the long shadows. The human was hiding somewhere around here, but where.
“This is my home. You should have stayed in Stormwind, Scarlet Assassin.” The scarlets were trained in quick light combat and assassination, not the more subtle arts. “I am Knight-Captain Lone Tygr and I am asking you to come out and turn yourself in for the assault you just committed.” Tygr walked through the cavern scraping a dagger on stone. He knew how much the scarlets wanted him. He was the target now. The attack would come, but he couldn’t see his opponent, he didn’t know from where. Before the Scarlet could strike Tygr spun into a flurry of movement, tossing multiple blades from his armor into the shadows around him.
Most clanged off the stone walls of the cavern, but one caught the scarlet in the shoulder. The scarlet was quickly blinded by a handful of ground glass tossed in his eyes. His stumbling around gave Tygr an opportunity. The dagger, Vala’s dagger, punched through a weak spot in the scarlets armor, releasing poison into his blood.
“Argh!”
The poison worked quickly. Not only slowing the scarlet, but causing him to convulse painfully. Tygr’s hand clamped on the back of the man’s neck and he threw him to the ground.
“Why the girl?” Tygr’s voice echoed off the walls. “Where are you keeping her?”
The scarlet tried to crawl away. His body twitching and jerking as he moved in one direction, crawling closer to the pool. Tygr looked around. His neighbors and other unsavory characters were all standing on their balconies watching him.
“I dona think e can talk lad.”
Tygr was sure of it by this point. He growled and slit the scarlet’s throat before rolling him into the pool with his boot. He watched the body float out and then sink down into the water.
The scarlet wouldn’t be the first body the fish had tasted. Nor would it be the last. He knelt down at the pools edge dipping the dagger into the water. Blood and poison clouded the water. What in the Nether was going on? Everyone was still watching him right up until he vanished into the shadows.
———-
He caught up to Vala at the Mailbox. Had she been crying? He watched her open a letter and slipped behind her to read.
“Oh. It’s you.” She gestured with the letter. “More instructions.”
Tygr nodded. “I heard.” Tygr read the letter. It made more sense now. “Jani has the book. They want it for the power it contains. You’ve seen the lengths they will go through. I want to keep it out of the hands of people like them.”
Tygr handed Vala a bundle wrapped in cloth. It contained her clean daggers. “What do you want to do about it.”
Vala opened the bundle. Her daggers! Well, at least one thing was going right. “How did you-” She stopped herself and shook her head. “I probably don’t need to know. Thanks.”
She carefully considered Lonetygr’s words. What did she want to do about it? She answered in a low voice, really just thinking out loud, surprised at how easy she found it to talk about; she was not at all in the habit of sharing her thoughts with anyone. And certainly not as much of her past as she had told him yesterday. Maybe she felt the need to justify herself, and his time spent trying to help with her problems. From the stories she had heard, certainly Lonetygr had more important things to occupy his time than the problems of two elf girls. Maybe she just needed someone in the same line of work to talk to.
“I’d love nothing better than to slit all their throats for doing this to Jani. But that won’t help. At least not at this point. Maybe later.” Her hands shook as she fought the impulse to crush the letter and shred it into little bits. “Jani doesn’t read. I have to wonder what makes them think she’s got this book. And since they do think she has it somewhere, they must have already searched her place and come away empty-handed. Someone, most likely them, certainly searched through my stuff when they left that box in my rooms.”
She looked sidelong at Lonetygr. “I agree that such people shouldn’t get their hands on such a thing. But what choice do I have. I have no good ideas how to find out where they’ve got her. I’d probably just end up with a bunch of dead Scarlets, and no information. Not that I’d mind the former.” She shook her head. “I probably wouldn’t even get the Scarlets responsible.”
“I’ve been inside their monastery in Tirisfal. I’ve seen how they treat prisoners. I’ve no reason to think they’d…treat Jani…any differently. I’ve got to get her free from them…quickly.” Vala took a deep breath to steady herself. No tears. No time for them.
After a moment, she continued. “I think the thing to do is first get this book. Probably should look through Jani’s things, even though they’ve almost certainly already looked there. I’d feel better having a look myself. Maybe there’s some clue to where the book is that they wouldn’t have recognized.” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She then quickly described what Marrikka had – and hadn’t – discovered about the box and its contents. “Trying to find the book is the only other thing I can think of to do right now. If nothing else, maybe I’ll have to trade it to them to get Jani, and then get it back from them somehow. I suppose I could give them a fake – they certainly described it well enough to be able to create a duplicate of the exterior – but as soon as they looked inside they’d know it wasn’t the one they’re after. And if I were them, I wouldn’t complete the trade without making sure that I’d gotten the right book. Maybe they aren’t that smart, but I won’t bet Jani’s life on that.”
She looked back at Lonetygr again. “Care to help me look for the thing? Another set of eyes couldn’t hurt. Unless you’ve got another suggestion to offer or another avenue to pursue?”
When Lonetygr agreed to help look for the book, Vala led the way to Adalgar’s shop, only stopping briefly on the way to put the letter in her vault with the other notes.
“Be wi’ ye in a bit,” Adalgar said when Vala opened the door to his shop and she and Lonetygr slipped inside. While she waited, Vala idly perused the shelves holding the jewelry that Jani had made for sale. She also watched Lonetygr out of the corner of her eye, as he prowled around the shop, much like his namesake, apparently looking at the weapons Adalgar had out, well-made weapons, but not particularly fancy. Adalgar finished writing in his ledger and only then looked up.
“Lass! I was gettin’ a mite worried aboot ye. ‘Adn’t ‘eard from ye, an’ wi’ Jani still missin’…” The dwarf looked beyond her to where Lonetygr stood casually looking at some daggers. “Vala, lass, p’rhaps ye shuid int’rduce me t’ yer friend.”
“Huh? Oh. Aye. Adalgar this is Knight-Captain Lonetygr. He’s agreed to help me look into finding Jani. Lonetygr, Adalgar. Adalgar graciously shares his shop with Jani.”
Adalgar’s eyes widened at the mention of Lonetygr’s name. “Tis good o’ ye to be helpin’ young Vala.”
Lonetygr nodded a greeting.
“Adal, are you selling stuff for someone else?” Vala indicated the bottom shelf of jewelry, which held rings and pendants of a very different design from Jani’s things on the upper shelves. Something about the jewelry on that lower shelf made her uneasy.
“No, lass. Those are Jani’s, too. New designs she’d jus’ started makin’.”
Lonetygr glided over to look. Surprisingly, he half-recognized some of the designs. “They resemble the runic symbols you see sometimes when mages or warlocks cast their spells.”
“Interestin’ ye shuid say that, lad,” Adalgar said. “They’ve mostly bin selln’ t’ those types.”
“When did she start making these new designs?” Vala asked.
Adalgar thought a moment. “Oh, nigh on a month ago. Not long after yer las’ visit. But she only put ’em up f’r sale aboot two weeks ago.”
Could Jani have gotten the designs from that book? Vala glanced at Lonetygr, wondering if he might be thinking the same. “Adal, someone’s taken Jani…”
Adalgar nodded. “Bin wonderin’ if it migh’ be summat like that. When she dinna come home on ‘er own. Connected to one o’ yer jobs?”
Vala shook her head. “Dinna look that way. They’ve contacted me. Said she has a certain book they want. Did Jani get a book from anywhere recently?”
Adalgar started to shake his head, then stopped himself. “Wait a bit.” He flipped through his ledger, going backward, stopping after several pages. “Aye, lass, she did. Aboot a month ago. ‘Ere it is. She traded some o’ her jewelry fer the thing. Some warrior, adventurin’ type as I recall. Don’ knoo wha’ she did wi’ the book after.”
“We need t’ look through her stuff and see if we can find it.”
Adalgar waved a hand toward an open door at the back of the shop. “O’ course, lass. Ye knoo the way.” He nodded to Lonetygr who followed silently in Vala’s wake. “A great pleasure t’ meet you, sir.”
Jani’s small workroom looked much the same as when Vala had last visited. The door was situated near one corner of the room. The rest of that wall to the right was taken up by a long table nearly covered in papers with half-drawn designs and random sketches. A second table, at right angles to the first and along the next wall held numerous bits of wires of various lengths and metals, a number of tools, and some half-finished pieces of jewelry. A small leather mat sat atop the second table in front of the single chair, with one nearly-finished ring and several tools neatly placed on top of it. The mat had not been there when Vala had last visited. Jani must have gotten it to help protect the table-top. Several shelves holding rolled papers hung on the wall above the table holding Jani’s drawings. More design work. In the corner across the room from the door, Jani’s bed stood half-hidden behind a free-standing screen. Three small chests sat in a cluster near the end of the bed. A colorful rug brightened up the center of the stone floor.
Vala waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the two tables. “How about you start over there. I don’t know of any hidden nooks, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I’ll start over here.” She indicated the bed and chests to the left.
Tygr gave the room a once over. He had a feeling from Vala’s story that Jani wasn’t the type of girl to go join a cult of warlocks. She wasn’t the kind of girl to be really interested in warlock books at all. Not everyone was skilled in magic or could even recognize it. He was a prime example.
Tygr had never liked magic mostly because he couldn’t grasp how it worked. He definitely appreciated subtle enchantments and benefits it provided. It was an old argument he knew well, and one the Keldorei of Azeroth wrestled with to this day. He had taken a stand on it long ago and had been prepared to die for his choice. To him magic was a tool like his daggers. It could do as much harm as good. But, it was only a tool he could recognize, not use.
Vala’s voice shook him from his thoughts as he looked around the room. He began to examine the tables. The Scarlets were probably looking for a book. There was no complete Tome laying in plain sight. So it was either not in plain sight or incomplete. Tygr began to spread the papers out. They definitely weren’t part of the book, they were hand drawn designs and templates for making jewelry.
“Over here.” He beckoned Vala over and showed her the drawings on the table. “I recogize these drawings from the book. They’re a little warped and not nearly as intricate.”
He rifled through some more of the papers on the table. “They aren’t complete. They’re missing some of the more horrific details. She must have thought the designs were pretty and just used the parts she liked.”
Out of sight. Maybe there was a hidden compartment in or behind the shelving. Tygr began to pull the scrolls out one by one, setting them neatly in a pile on the table. When he finished he could see the shelves simply hung from the wall.
Tygr took the shelves down and examined the wall. He began to knock on the wall, his golden eyes locked on the piles of scrolls as he listened carefully for a hollow sound that might indicate a hidden space.
Vala looked through the drawings on the table for a moment, then returned to the chests and bed. It didn’t take her long to finish checking the chests. They held nothing more sinister than a number of toys and all of Jani’s clothes. No false bottoms or sides, no hidden compartments. She quickly tore the bed apart with the same lack of results. She used a dagger to cut some of the stitiches holding the mattress together and sifted through all the straw. Nothing. The small feather pillow got the same treatment, and yielded the same results.
She looked up to see how Lonetygr was doing. He seemed to be more than halfway done checking that wall. She turned back to the wall behind the bed and decided to wait to subject it to the same scrutiny. No reason to add possibly distracting tapping of her own right then.
Instead, Vala began poking through the mess of tools and wires on the second table. She didn’t expect to find the book there; it was clear that there was no book on that table. She just hoped that something might catch her eye, some clue or such. She also checked the table itself, but it was quickly clear that no hidden spaces were incorporated into the table’s construction.
By then, Lonetygr had finished with the wall. “Nothing so far.”
Vala sighed in exasperation. “Me neither. Maybe this was just a waste of time.” Then something odd about that leather mat caught her eye. She moved closer. Yes, a faint line bisected it from top to bottom; an area where the leather was a lighter brown, as if worn. She pushed the tools and half-finished ring off the mat. With the weight gone, the mat folded up slightly along that line. She picked it up and folded it completely along the line.
“Then again, I think I found something.” She held it out toward Lonetygr. “Look like the cover to you?”
Lonetygr took the piece of leather from her, turned it around, opened and closed it like a book. “She took it apart.”
Or incomplete. Lonetygr’s eyes were drawn back to the large collection of rolled-up papers that he had removed from the shelves. Vala followed his gaze. Obviously, none of the outer papers of the rolls were pages from the book. They were all much larger. But inside the rolls…
((Continued in Part 3))