Trixie, Lyra, and Azuregos prepared to leave the small village of Bradensbrook, which had three houses around the area that they had entered, but before they actually left the village Lyra felt there was something that she needed to do first. She separated herself from the others and walked over to the mysterious night elf that she and the others had been talking to, who was just standing around and patiently waiting for the villagers to see the error of their ways.
"Excuse me, but there's something I wanted to ask you," Lyra said, causing the night elf to turn towards her for a moment, though at the same time the villagers wondered what she was doing, "Who are you exactly?"
"I am Jarod Shadowsong," the night elf replied, though Lyra tensed for a moment, because Maiev's last name was Shadowsong, according to Trixie and her mentor anyway, "Have our paths crossed before, hero? I once commanded the night elf forces who defended this land from the Burning Legion, ten thousand years ago. My sister is the Warden named Maiev, and it is because of her that my path leads here."
"Is that so?" Lyra said, though at the same time she restrained herself, because now she knew that the way to find Maiev was to help Jarod persuade the villagers that he was on their side, before she bowed out and left the village.
Lyra was pleasantly surprised, because she never expected to meet the brother of the Warden that had sealed her and the rest of the Illidari in the Vault, in a place like this anyway. Had Jarod not mention the fact that he was looking for Maiev, which meant that she had to be here somewhere, Lyra knew that she would have attacked him and likely pissed someone off. Because she restrained herself, and didn't attack him, she now had someone that could help her find the one Warden that she hated with a passion, to which she smiled as she followed Trixie and Azuregos towards the house that was directly in front of them... while at the same time cutting down the dead hounds and formerly dead night elf soldiers that wanted them dead.
When they walked around the corner of the building, however, they discovered an elderly lady that was pointed a gun at the enemies around her farmstead, but it appeared that she was waiting for something to happen before she started firing her weapon.
"Um, Granny Marl?" Trixie asked, as the person in front of them had to be the elderly lady that the Mayor's assistant told them about earlier, which meant that she was one of the people they were searching for.
"Without this corn, our village dies. But don’t worry dear, I’ve got this area on lockdown!" the elderly lady replied, indicating that she was Granny Marl without actually confirming Trixie's question, while at the same time she was staring at something, "Do you see those ravenous birds flying above my farm? Vicious creatures are spreading their filth an’ eatin’ my crops. I’d get rid of them with my trusty gun, but my eyesight’s gone downhill. Take this flare gun and mark them for me. Once I get my sights on them, I’ll make ’em scatter."
"Sounds easy enough," Azuregos commented, accepting the flare gun that the elderly lady pulled out, though Trixie wondered if the disguised dragon knew how to use the weapon.
"One more thing dears," Granny Marl said, causing the group to stall in their movements for a moment, because they thought that marking the ravens was all she wanted form them, to which they nodded their heads, "I’ve got a full summer’s corn harvest just sittin’ out in the field. I need some muscle to bring it in before the night elf raiders can destroy it. Get out there and bring me those crops, and I’ll reward you handsomely. The folks back in town need this food, and I sure as heck ain’t eating rats for another winter."
As Azuregos targeted the undead ravens and marked them, allowing Granny Marl to fire a shot at them and take them out, Trixie and Lyra moved towards the crops and started gathering the crops that they had been asked to acquire, or rather Trixie gathered the corn while Lyra cut up the enemies that wanted to kill them. The undead soldiers, the raiders that Granny Marl had mentioned, were clearly trying to steal all of the crops that they could, but Lyra cut them down and collected what they had stolen while Trixie collected the unpicked crops. After a few minutes Azuregos declared that he was out of shots in his flare gun, while at the same time the sky was much clearer than it had been when they found Granny Marl, to which Trixie and Lyra returned to where the elderly lady was standing.
"All right, I’ll get those barrels loaded up and delivered to the village in no time." Granny Marl said, setting down her gun for a moment, as there weren't any idiotic ravens hanging around the area anymore, and looked at the corn that trixie and Lyra were able to pick in such a short amount of time, "Thank you, heroes. There’ll be a lot of full bellies because of you. And thank you for helping me drive off those pesky ravens."
As Trixie said that it was their pleasure to help someone in need, however, Lyra spotted another undead night elf, this one a commander due to her armor and the fact that she was riding on a long dead saber, patrolling near a house that was clearly on fire. She gripped her warglaives and made her way over to the hill that the burning house was on, where she ambushed the commander and pushed her off her mount, allowing Trixie and Azuregos to fire at the beast while she held the commander's attention. Lyra quickly found that the commander wasn't well versed in any type of weapon that wasn't her beloved bow, which was rather easy for Lyra to deflect and maneuver around while she cut gashes into her opponent's body... before finally felling the commander, at the same time that Trixie and Azuregos put down her mount.
When Trixie and Azuregos walked towards the burning building, so they could search for the Mayor's kid, Lyra spotted an odd ring on one of the commander's fingers, to which she pulled it off and pocketed it, because the ring's green stone reminded her of the Wardens. She planned on handing it over to Jarod once they returned to the village, as he would likely identify which Warden the commander had stolen it from, before she headed towards the building as well. As it turned out there happened to be a basement that they could access, to which they found a young girl, likely the Mayor's daughter, hiding out and trying to get away from the undead that were attacking her house... but she did come out of hiding when she noticed that the trio was there.
"W-w-where is everyone?" Penelope asked, looking around for anyone else, but she found that it was just her and the trio, whihc caused her to tear up for a moment.
"It’s safe now." Trixie stated, causing the girl to look directly at her this time around, to which both Azuregos and Lyra nodded their heads, so that the girl would understand that it truly was safe now, "The others are back at the village."
"Thank you, heroes!" Penelope exclaimed, to which she ran forward and hugged all three of them, one at a time anyway, before she headed towards the stairs behind them, "I was so scared all by myself, but I know a shortcut back to the village!"
With Penelope heading back to the village, and apparently taking a path that was the shortest route there, the trio left the basement and headed towards the other side of the area that they were standing in, heading from the hill that the Mayor's house was standing on and stopped outside the dock area that they had been told about. When they approached the area, however, they found that the man they were likely supposed to have talked to was already dead, killed some time before they were told to come find him, and that his daughter was grieving near his body.
"Papa loved this village." the girl commented, apparently hearing them coming and chose to speak to them first, instead of them speaking and hearing her quest, "He’d never hear of leaving, even in these dread times. Before he died, he told me what attacked him: a monstrous falcon we call Rotbeak. You’re fighting these undead, aren’t you? Will you avenge my father? If so, you can find the beast northwest of here, patrolling our western route to the sea."
"You mean that falcon over there?" Azuregos asked, pointing at the dead and clearly rotting falcon, who happened to be perched on a boulder at the moment, before the girl looked up and nodded towards him, "Well then, this is a rather simple task that shouldn't take too long to finish."
Trixie and Lyra watched as Azuregos walked towards the foul falcon, which seemed interested in the fact that someone was daring to approach it once more, though the two Equestrians knew that something was up. They watched as their companion reverted back to his true form for a moment, hitting the ground and coming to a stop right in front of the boulder that the falcon was sitting on. A few seconds passed as the falcon looked at the dragon that was standing in front of it, moving its head to the side in what appeared to be a confused manner, before it opened its mouth and started making noise. Azuregos, however, raised a paw and crushed the falcon into the boulder that was resting beneath it, allowing him to take the falcon's head clean off, to which he turned around and walked back over to where the others were standing... and reverted back to his elven form as he dropped Rotbeak's head at the girl's feet.
"Like I said, it was a simple task for us to complete," Azuregos replied, to which he started the trek back to the main part of Bradenbrook, allowing Trixie and Lyra to follow after them as they left a confused girl behind.
When they returned to the village they found that Penelope had already beaten them to the Mayor, as he had already declared that Trixie's group, and Jarod for that matter, were friends and that the villagers didn't need to point their weapons at the night elf anymore. Jarod seemed pleased that Trixie, Lyra, and Azuregos were able to convince the villagers that he was on their side, though he also seemed a little more pleased when he heard the news that they had taken out a decent number of the undead that were roaming the farmsteads.
"Good." Jarod stated, just after Trixie told him that they had succeeded in taking out a fair number of the undead attackers, "These innocent villagers have done nothing to deserve these attacks. You have done well to help them."
"We also found this," Lyra commented, pulling out the ring she had found earlier and dropped it into Jarod's hand, before she pulled her own hand back, "I'm sure that this is a Warden's ring, I just don't know whose it is."
"This is Maiev’s ring." Jarod replied, to which Lyra's ears perked up, because while she had determined that the ring had belonged to a Warden she never expected it to be Maiev's own ring, "She would never part with it. She must be at Black Rook Hold!"
"And your positive that she's somewhere inside Black Rook Hold?" Trixie asked, because while she wasn't doubting Jarod, as he was Maiev's brother and had no reason to lie about whose ring that was, she knew that this was more than just a coincidence.
"Since Maiev chased after Gul’dan at the Vault of the Wardens, her sisters among the Wardens have been searching far and wide for her whereabouts." Jarob commented, confirming what Trixie and Lyra knew about the Wardens, while at the same time informing them that the secretive order wasn't having much luck finding their leader, "With so few Wardens remaining, I volunteered to join the search. I hope I will find sign of her within Black Rook Hold. The fortress will be well guarded, and I will need help to break through. Help me find her, and I will reward you handsomely."
"Trixie and I have... business... with your sister," Lyra replied, though at the same time she grinned, as now she could finally pay Maiev back for what she had done to her and the rest of the Illidari, once they found her anyway, "We'll happily help you find your sister."
Jarod nodded and called his mount over to him, which Trixie and Lyra mimicked a few seconds later, before they got moving towards what the trio assumed was the entrance of Black Rook Hold, which was the imposing fortress that the village had been built in the shadows of. They followed Jarod around one of the paths that took them into the fortress, though the area they entered was actually a cemetery, complete with a mausoleum just beneath the staircase that would take them into the fortress itself. Having reached their destination Jarod dismounted and walked inside the mausoleum, with his trusty saber following him inside, before Trixie, Lyra, and Azuregos did the same thing.
When they stopped, however, the trio noticed that the large coffin that Jarod was staring at happened to be empty, which meant that whoever had been inside it had already been resurrected and was trying to destroy Bradensbrook.
"What does the Legion want with Ravencrest?" Jarod commented, indicating that the lord of the fortress was someone called Ravencrest, which really didn't help the trio out at the moment, "He was dead and buried ten millennia ago."
"You said something about the other Wardens," Lyra stated, hoping to get a little more information out of Jarod before they started searching the fortress for clues, while at the same time causing the night elf to glance over at her for a few seconds, "Can you tell us anything else?"
"Yes, Sira and the other Wardens are doing everything they can to find Maiev." Jarod replied, though Lyra had to resist the urge to bring her palms to her face, because it was clear that the Wardens weren't doing everything in their power to find their leader, "The attack on the Vault of the Wardens was devastating. Of hundreds, only a handful survived. But the Wardens are tough as steel. They will survive."
"Out of curiosity, how did you and your sister get separated?" Trixie asked, because she was quite interested in how a pair of siblings could become as separated as Jarod and Maiev have become.
"Easy, Maiev and I chose very different paths in life." Jarod stated, apparently not caring about Trixie's question at all, though still gave her something that resembled an answer so they could move on with their mission, "Not long after the Legion’s first defeat on Azeroth, she dedicated her life to the pursuit of justice. Some would say she’s gone too far in that pursuit at times."
"Oh really?" Lyra asked, because this sounded like something that she would definitely want to hear, especially since it would help her better understand Maiev, "What did she do?"
"She murdered innocents, hoping to sever our people’s ties with the Alliance." Jarod explained, causing Trixie to actually take a step backwards for a moment, while Azuregos raised an eyebrow in surprise and Lyra grinned, because this proved that she wasn't the pillar of virtue that Maiev pretended to be, "Still, I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. At first I thought that I’d been weak... that love had left me unable to do what was necessary."
"So why are you trying to save her?" Trixie asked, though now she was annoyed with Maiev, more than she had been when she discovered that the leader of the Wardens had sealed Lyra away in the Vault seven years ago.
"I know my sister. She’d never commit such crimes unless she was under some foul influence." Jarod insisted, though at the same time he let out a sigh, as if he knew that it would be impossible to persuade them to believe what he was telling them, "Even so, rather than investigate fully, I assumed the worst. I’ve been a poor brother, but there’s still time for me to make things right."
"Oh don't worry, we'll help you find Maiev." Lyra stated, though she could already imagine her meeting with Maiev, where they could finally come to terms with what happened seven years ago and let her expel all of her anger.
All that stood between Lyra and Maiev was the entirety of Black Rook Hold, which meant that they would be in for the fight of their lives as they sought out the location of Maiev... and she would gladly take them all on, just to have a chance at settling the score with the one Warden she hated with a passion.