//------------------------------//
// Suramar: Searching Ambervale 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Once she was sure that Thalyssra was okay, and that Lyra would be enough to defend her for at an hour at least, Trixie weaved her magic in the air around her and teleported back to Dalaran, where she would be able to find the heroes that would help them with turning this place into a proper hideout for them and their new allies. While they waited for Trixie to return with her chosen heroes, and whatever supplies they were planning on bringing at the moment, Thalyssra continued to explore Shal'Aran for a few more minutes. As that happened, however, Lyra knew that the elf was curious as to what she was looking at and what she had seen while she was being defended by the two of them, as she had witnessed Trixie's transformation into a blue dragon... something that was likely confusing her.

"So... what exactly are the two of you?" Thalyssra asked, though at the same time she tapped her staff against the ground, but instead of it being in an annoying tone she was merely walking around and it was to gain Lyra's attention.

"We're Equestrians, from the world of Equus," Lyra explained, to which she held up a hand to stop Thalyssra from asking her another question, as she knew exactly what to say thanks to the other times she answered this question, "We were both torn from our home planet some time ago, though while Trixie was deposited on Azeroth, in one of the Alliance villages, I was dropped off on the ruined world of Draenor, where I joined the Illidari and became part demon for the sake of defending this world from the Burning Legion. Unfortunately my forces and I were captured after assaulting Mardum, by the Wardens no less, and we spent seven years in crystal prisons before finally being released... only to find that Azeroth was under attack by our enemies once more.

Trixie, on the other hand, spent the last seven years being a hero to Azeroth, killing massive Elemental Lords, destroying corrupted Dragon Aspects, defeating a person that used a cursed runeblade to raise the dead, defeating the forces of three Old Gods, and the Old Gods themselves, and killed Archimode the Defiler, one of Sargeras' greatest soldiers, with a large number of allies helping her. With her, and the forces of Dalaran at our disposal, we should be able to plan the assault on Suramar, in whatever manner you desire, and kill whoever needs to die so we can get at Gul'dan and stop whatever horrible plan he's trying to complete."

"And you aren't worried that you'll die and serve the Legion in death?" Thalyssra inquired, because while she was pleased to have such powerful allies at her disposal, to save her city, having a demon hunter sort of worried her.

"Oh, I am worried about that," Lyra replied, though her conviction was much stronger than it usually was, especially because of what Xe'ra had shown her three days ago, "especially since I could easily bring Sargeras to my home world and let him cleave it in half... but I will fight and ensure that such a thing never comes to pass."

"I see." Thalyssra said, to which she raised a hand to her chin, as she was wondering something else, which was followed by her turning back to Lyra, "What sort of allies should we be expecting?"

"Honestly, I have no idea." Lyra answered, as she knew a few members of the Alliance and Horde, but not enough to give Thalyssra any sort of idea what they were expecting, "I'm sure that there will be a warrior or two coming our way, though we'll have to see who Trixie brings with her... and hope that she manages to avoid bringing people that hate each other to this area."

Thalyssra, who had no knowledge of the tensions between the Alliance and the Horde, simply shook her head and turned to one of the walls, allowing Lyra to return to her task at making sure that none of the withered, or the Nightborne, discovered where they were resting. Time slowly passed for them and Lyra discovered that, despite the death of Shal'Aran's guardians, the withered didn't come anywhere near the ruins, as if they knew that something even greater rested inside this area. When Trixie did return, however, Lyra was more than happy to see that Kurost was with her, as he would be a valuable ally to have around, and that Maraa was behind them as well... though there were some new additions to their small hideout. Trixie had gone through the effort to recruit one of each class, save for the mages and the demon hunters, and brought them all to Shal'Aran, drastically increasing their potential before they even started the assault on the city.

Many of the heroes already knew their roles, though Lyra was interested in the fact that the male blood elf hunter, Taneil Starblade, was skilled in finding the specific crystals that they needed in order to keep Thalyssra, and any other Nightborne that joined them here, well fed enough so they didn't wither... though once the heroes started moving around the hideout the two Equestrians joined Thalyssra, as their task was going to be much greater than what the others were tasked with doing.

"I was on my way to Ambervale in hopes of finding an old colleague, Arcanist Kel'danath," Thalyssra explained, informing them as to the reason why she had tried cutting through this area, something that Lyra and Trixie weren't expecting to hear at all, "Kel'danath was fascinated by the withered, so much so that he studied them for years with the hopes of calming their feral nature or even curing them. When one of his subjects escaped and ran amok in the royal gardens, however, Kel'danath was ordered to cease his research and kill all withered in his possession. He refused, and was exiled. If Kel'danath lives, he is near withered. And withered are drawn to old settlements like Ambervale... which I will mark on your maps and give you directions to."

Lyra and Trixie assumed that Kel'danath was important to whatever Thalyssra was planning, to which they simply nodded their heads and walked out their hideout, where they were greeted by some of the other heroes before they ventured out into the ruins. Based on Thalyssra's directions, and what their map told them, Ambervale was literally right next door to where their new hideout was located, to which they didn't bother calling their mounts and started walking towards the ruins. Lyra had to correct her thinking, as Trixie no longer needed a mount thanks to the fact that she was a dragon herself, before seeing the entirety of the ruins resting some distance in front of them... and discovering that the ruins were quite large, at least three to four times as large as the entirety of Shal'Aran.

As they approached the ruins, however, Trixie felt something in the air and beckoned for Lyra to follow her, to which they headed towards what appeared to be a ruined tower, though they avoided the withered that were running around the area and entered the building... where they found a floating scroll that even Lyra could tell had some magic to it.

"Somebody has been living here recently." Trixie commented, though her attention was on the scroll that was resting in front of them, something that she was interested in learning about, "This scroll bears some strange lettering, likely the Nightborne language or alphabet, that's beckoning for me to touch it..."

"Then touch it and see what it has to tell you," Lyra replied, to which she pulled out the Twinblades and stood in the doorway they had walked through, as she was sure that more enemies would be coming after them at some point in the near future, "I'm sure that the withered will be coming after us once they realize that you're in the ruins."

Trixie nodded and ran her fingers over the elegant symbols that rested on the page, almost as if she was tracing them, before she heard a voice in her head, one that was dictating the words into her mind. That immediately told her that the Nightborne had some method that elevated even simple note-taking to a sorcerous art, something that would impress her mentor when she showed him what she discovered. Based on this information she could tell that Arcanist Kel'danath was definitely working in this area, which meant that there had to be more of his notes scattered around the ruins, which, if gathered together, would likely tell them where Kel'danath wandered off to.

"Let's see here; 'Day 5'," Trixie said, reciting the words that came into her mind, allowing Lyra to hear what she was being told, by simply tracing the elegant symbols and letters, "'Wards prove effective at deterring the withered, but do nothing for the cacophony of critters and beasts outside. The nights are so loud out here. I relish what little sleep I can manage. Tomorrow I begin looking for subjects.' I guess that means we're on the right track."

"Good, then let's go find some more notes and learn what the Arcanist was doing here," Lyra replied, to which she jumped forward and carved up the withered that was reaching for her, while at the same time giving Trixie some time to feel the new magic and point them in the right direction.

As the two of them left the tower behind, however, Trixie paused for a moment to activate one of Kel'danath's arcane wards, which would allow them to scare off the withered in the area and give them some time to figure out where Thalyssra's friend had wandered off to. Trixie led the way towards the actual entrance of Ambervale and wandered off to the building on the left, though when they climbed through the back entrance of the building they discovered a scroll that was being guarded by another withered. Lyra, seeing the withered elf, charged forward and knocked her target backwards, allowing Trixie to walk forward and see what Kel'danath wrote this time around, about his own activities and the withered that lived in Ambervale.

Day 9: Still no luck communicating with the withered. Trixie heard in her mind, while at the same time repeated it so Lyra could hear her, I must regard this failure not as a measure of ability, but a measure of  progress.

Since there wasn't much for the ninth day, which meant that Kel'danath was severely disappointed in what was happening around him, Trixie refocused on the task at hand as Lyra joined her, to which they walked out of the building and followed the trail to the next building. Since Trixie was the one that knew where the scrolls were located, by feeling their magical signature, Lyra followed her without question, even though they fought their way towards a building that was near the tower that the first scroll was located in. The withered clearly wanted to get at Trixie thanks to the mana in her body, to which Lyra cut them down and let her friend do what was necessary... even though some of the withered refused to leave despite the wards that they had activated.

Day 14: The new subject, number 16, is special.  Trixie heard, though she automatically knew that this one had to be somewhat special, especially since the jump in days since the last entry, His arcane essence is touched by some mysterious power. I have named him Theryn.

It took them some time to search the rest of Ambervale, though they discovered that the next note informed them that Kel'danath used Theryn's essence as the base for some sort of spell, one that sometimes calms the withered and makes them more receptive to what he was doing with his experiments. The note following that revealed that, after some time, a new elf made his appearance and inquired as to what he was going with with the withered, where Kel'danath stated that he was searching for a cure to their condition. Based on the fact that Trixie could tell that there were more notes meant that the elf had spared the Arcanist, though the next one revealed that Kel'danath was running low on arc-wine, which had to be a more potent version than the crystals they had given Thalyssra.

That same note revealed that Theryn was making excellent progress while Shal'an, another withered that had to be reacting the same way as Theryn, remained stubborn and that crystals, the ones they gave their friend, becoming harder for him to find. Some time after that a massive ettin, which Trixie explained was like a giant, trampled through Kel'danath's workshop at Koralune Manor, though he managed to scare the ettin away with his magic and noted that he had a feeling that the would be back at some point in the future. Trixie revealed that this had to be the downfall of everything he had been attempting to do, which meant that he was either dead at this point, had withered, or was on the verge of withering.

The last note that they found, which was the fiftieth page, was all about the sky turning black as demons started to appear everywhere, with several mentions of the endless hunger that Thalyssra had briefly mentioned while they were walking to Shal'Aran. After that he stated that he released his subjects, as he could no longer protect them, and wrote that whoever found all of this collected his spellstone and continue the work that he had been working on before his fate had seized him and his life.

"Lyra, let's go find that spellstone and give Thalyssra everything that Kel'danath left behind." Trixie said, because at this point she was sure that the Arcanist was either dead or withered.

Lyra nodded her understanding, because she was beginning to suspected that this research might have been geared towards curing the withered, but she knew that it could easily be changed into making them into an army once they were trained... and something told her that her thoughts might actually be what Thalyssra was planning on using the withered for once they got back to Shal'Aran. All they needed to do was recover the spellstone and they would know what the elf was planning... and what else they could do to bring down whoever commanded the entirety of Suramar city.