//------------------------------//
// Suramar: Lending a Helping Hand 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Once Lyra and Trixie knew what Deline wanted them to do, and understood all of the instructions they had been given so far, the two of them walked across the bridge that was in front of them and headed back into the bazaar that they had passed through not a few minutes ago. This was all part of Trixie's usual planning, as whenever she was given the time to study an area she would be working in she preferred to study all of her enemies and their habits before making her move, though this time around they would only be able to do it for a few minutes before they started lifting bottles of Arcwine. From what they were able to discover some of the stand owners that they passed by nodded to them, in a way that suggested that they were apart of the rebellion, meaning that all they needed was some sort of distraction or something so they could move some bottles to an area that would make it harder for the guards to determine what was going on.

Since several guards were still observing the area, the Orbitists that Deline had told them about, there was only one thing that Lyra could think of that would let them get away with this... to which she ducked behind some cover when no one was looking, removed the mask and its illusion, and jumped out of her hiding spot when an Orbitist passed by her. As she attacked the guard, and several others that were coming towards her, Trixie, who was still wearing her disguise at the moment, took the opportunity that was presented to her to quickly fill her bags with at least bottles of Arcwine. She then went one step further and made sure to grab one of the casks that had even more of the wine inside it, though she waited for an opening and carefully slipped away so Lyra could continue fighting.

Fortunately for them the majority of the enemies that had decided to attack Lyra, after she emerged from her hiding spot, were all Orbitists, meaning that she cut down the required number of enemies that had been asked of her and also made sure to take a few more off the top and weaken the entire area for future operations. The moment she noticed that Trixie was done loading up the gondola with the Arcwine they had taken, and was walking away from the lady as if nothing had happened, Lyra engaged the retreat skill she had picked up in the Vault of the Wardens and jumped away from the elves in front of her. Since she ended up landing in the water she patiently waited for her pursuers to stop searching for her before she put the disguise back on, though she breathed a sigh of relief as no one seemed to notice 'Anarys' climbing out of the large body of water that rested near the bazaar... to which she and Trixie regrouped near Deline.

"There, we have killed a decent amount of Orbitists and gathered enough bottles," Trixie said, once more keeping her voice low to avoid being overheard, while at the same time she could tell that Lyra was searching for the couriers that they needed to take out.

"I will see that this gets back to our friend safely. Good work." Deline replied, though as she climbed onto her gondola, so she could head away from the bazaar and not appear suspicious at all, she turned and looked at the pair for a few seconds, "Couriers can sometimes run along the smaller walkways of Suramar, so you might need to search a bit before you find one of them."

Lyra nodded her thanks and walked away from where the gondola was resting, to which Trixie followed after her as they began the epic search for some of the couriers that they had been sent out to find, stab with a enchanted dagger of some kind, and recover the letters from. Since the majority of the Nightborne seemed to be walking around the area, and sometimes even standing still to talk with someone else, Lyra and Trixie found that it was actually much harder to find a courier than they originally believed. Fate seemed to smile on them for a moment, as Lyra was able to locate one, slash at his neck with the dagger, and collect the papers he was carrying without anyone noticing anything, which seemed wrong at first, but then she simply shrugged and continued on until they found another courier.

It took them another ten minutes to locate two more couriers and collect their papers, though once they had three sets of documents they decided that, since there was a low number of couriers to begin with, that this had to be enough and returned to where Silgryn was waiting for them... where they discovered that Vanthir had already moved onto another area so he could help more of his people out.

"Fine work." Silgryn said, though at the same time he accepted the documents he was being handed and smiled at the duo, indicating that he was pleased with what they were doing for the war effort, "I will read these over and call you over once I have an idea of what to do next."

Since they had nothing better to do Lyra and Trixie continued exploring the rest of the Waning Crescent, the areas that they could get into before being told to back away, meaning that Lyra's disguise might not get them everywhere at the moment. Lyra, once again, noticed that several of the Nightborne waved at her and called out Anarys' name, to which she simply waved to them and called out that she was running an errand for her sister, which was partly true, though that caused the other elves to nod and wish her well. She had no idea how close Ly'leth and Anarys had been, before the demons arrived anyway, but she was beginning to suspect that some of the Nightborne were being stupid towards her, as there was no way that Anarys would ever do something like this... but, as strange as it was, it seemed to be working in her favor and she wasn't about to question her luck at the moment.

After twenty minutes of walking around the parts of the Waning Crescent that they were allowed to walk through, and getting tired of walking, the two of them returned to where Silgryn was waiting for them... though this time around it appeared that he had an idea that would allow them to see what happened to Verene's missing daughter.

"This is as good a chance as we are going to get to rescue Verene's daughter." Silgryn told them, confirming their suspicions about what was going on, meaning that someone had actually abducted the poor girl and left her father in such a position, though at the same time he beckoned to a point on their map, "Here is how this is going to work; the two of you are going to wait here for the guard to pass by on their way to their guard shift, though you should either act like you belong there or look for something to hide in. You will know the guard by their bright red armor. Follow closely, but not so closely that you are seen. It may be necessary to kill the guard when you reach your destination, so be prepared for a fight when you come to a stop. The child's name is Korine. Good luck."

Lyra and Trixie nodded before they departed from the area that Silgryn was standing in, though as they left that area of the Waning Crescent they headed towards the Artisan's Gallery, where they both agreed that it was an odd name for a district in a city. Trixie then said that some of the district names, for all of the cities she's been in since her arrival in Azeroth, were sometimes odd while the majority of the time they made sense, but then she had to remain quiet as they entered the area they needed to find the guard in. Lyra silently remarked at how easy it was for Trixie to stop talking like this, which meant that she must have learned a lot more over the years than what she knew... as she was sure that there were parts of her adventure that she still hadn't revealed to her.

When they arrived in the Artisan's Gallery area of the city the two of them moved passed the basket that Silgryn likely wanted them to hide in, to which Lyra stopped some distance away from it and pretended to be staring at some paintings while Trixie stood at an angle that allowed her to observe the area around the basket.

Fortunately it didn't take the guard they were waiting for long to show up, as she walked out the building that the basket was resting in front of and started walking away from the bridge Lyra and Trixie had walked over a few minutes ago, which meant she was heading deeper into the Artisan's Gallery. Since the people they were disguised as were supposed to be a noble and her guard, Lyra and Trixie kept a safe distance from the guard while at the same time pretending to actually be who they were disguised as. The first thing the guard did was approach a pair of civilians and talk with them for a few seconds, no doubt telling them to be aware of anything that was out of the ordinary, before she continued along the route she was supposed to be taking.

They followed the guard through the Artisan's Gallery, pausing to take up positions as a noble asking her guard about what else they needed to do while the guard spoke to several elves listening to someone preach to them, before they moved when she headed away once more. They then followed her out of the gallery district of the city and came to what appeared to be a small garden area, though it was here that the guard finally said something that they were able to catch as she entered the building on the left.

"Keep it down brats," the guard said, to which both Lyra and Trixie growled for a moment, as this just confirmed what Silgryn told them and made them angry at the same time, "You'll be joining the others soon enough."

Lyra walked into the building, made sure that the guard had no idea that she was even there, before she removed the mask and assumed her true form, to which she pulled out the Twinblades and cut at the guard's back, causing her to stumble forward and call for assistance once she realized that someone had followed her. Fortunately there was only one guard outside the building, as the other one apparently went on patrol before their arrival, so Trixie was more than able to freeze the guard, as he had paid no attention to her at all. Lyra engaged in a one on one fight with the guard, but since the guard couldn't keep up with her enhanced speed or strikes the battle was over before it really began.

With the guard dead, and the control orb in hand, Lyra and Trixie quickly donned their masks and assumed their disguises once more, to which Lyra opened the magical cage that was in front of her and let seven of the eight children out, though one of them insisted on staying put.

"I-I thought... they were gonna..." the little girl, who had to be Korine, said, though at the same time she sniffed, indicating that she hadn't been expecting a rescue and was happy, though at the same time Lyra detected that she was also sad about something.

"Korine, we have to get moving before more guards show up," Lyra stated, knowing that there had to be more coming, but at the same time she suspected that this wasn't going to be easy for both her and Trixie.

"No! They put my friends in cages!" Korine replied, though at the same time she gestured towards the door, where Trixie glanced at the other entrance to this area and spotted some magical cages in the distance, "Make the bad men stop hurting them! They take them out the garden and they never come back! I am not going home until they do!"

Since Korine was willing to be stubborn, and didn't want to leave without her friends, Lyra and Trixie decided to investigate the area she was referring to and walked towards the other entrance of the garden, where they came to an area where Nightborne citizens were being kept in cages, as if they were criminals. Before they did anything they carefully walked into the holding area and investigated all of the elves that were being kept here against their will, where they found signs of withering and not much else. It appeared that the poor elves were being imprisoned because of what Elisande was doing to this entire district, or they were being imprisoned because they spoke against their ruler... but whatever the reason was it was pretty clear that the guards were going to pay for mistreating the people they were supposed to protect.

Trixie found them a suitable area where they could remove their masks without someone seeing them, though once they were back in their normal forms the two of them walked out from their hiding spot and charged at the guards that were patrolling the cages. Lyra also spotted an Inquisitor demon floating nearly, so she took a few moments to tear it into a thousand pieces before she joined Trixie, which involved attacking a guard from behind, disarming the same guard, and finally ending the guard's life. While Lyra went to town on the guards, once again revealing that her training allowed her to stand up to decent sized groups without falling, Trixie gathered some of the control orbs that were lying on the ground, as she had seen Lyra use one on the earlier cage and knew what to do with them.

Since all of the guards were either dead, or were in the process of dying at Lyra's hand, the innocent prisoners thanked Trixie for saving them before they ran away from the area, though something told her that many of them would be forced to flee from the city... until it was in Thalyssra's hands anyway. Once the last cage had been opened, and the last guard had been dealt with, Lyra and Trixie fled from the area and retraced their steps towards where Korine was waiting, though at the same time they found a suitable location to don their disguises before moving forward. When they returned to the building that Korine had been locked away in, however, they could both tell that the child was happy about what they had done.

"You let them go? I'm glad. I didn't like being in a cage either..." Korine said, though that was before she looked up at the two of them and smiled, as if she knew that she would be safe with the two of them, "I'm ready to go home now, but there are still scary men outside... Will you stay with me? Make sure they don't take me away? I don't want to go back in the cage..."

Normally Lyra would have been upset about this sort of thing, having to escort someone to some location, but this was a lost child that needed to be back with her father, to which she smiled and held onto the girl's hand as the three of them walked out of the building and headed back towards the Waning Crescent. Along the way they were stopped by a guard who simply teleported in front of their path and demanded that they give him the child, to which Lyra decided to play the noble card and declared who she was. Suddenly two more guards approached the first one and pulled him to the side, where he was pretty much threatened by the same fate that had nearly befallen the innocent prisoners Lyra and Trixie had saved moments ago... while at the same time Lyra was ushered to continue on her merry way.

As much as she might have disliked being Anarys Lunastre, she had to admit that simply stating who she was pretending to be had some more pull than she originally realized... and that was what allowed them to get back to the Waning Crescent without having to draw their weapons again. It was worth it to see the look on both Korine and Verene's faces when they were reunited with each other, something that made Lyra extremely happy when she looked at the two of them for a few moments.

"Oh my sweet little Korine!" Verene said, though at the same time she cried as she glanced up at Lyra and Trixie, where the look on her face said that she was happy that they were on their side, "Thank you, thank you!"

"You have done well for us here, but it is time for you to return to Thalyssra." Vanthir said, though at the same time he produced another bottle of Arcwine, which had a bow attached to it, "There is a teleport pad nearby that has gone unused in recent years. See if you can reroute it and return to her that way. Oh, and before you go, take this to her and give her my thanks for sending you. Let her know that your efforts helped replenish our Arcwine supplies and reunited a mother and child. We are grateful beyond measure. Farewell for now."

Lyra and Trixie nodded as they accepted the bottle that was being offered to them and quickly made their way to the area that Vanthir had pointed out, where they spotted the teleport pad he had been referring to. Trixie glanced around for a few seconds, where she noticed that the resistance were distracting all of the guards for the moment, before she waved her hand and the pad reacted to her magic. Once the teleport pad had awoken from its slumber, and Oculeth told them so, the two of them teleported back to Shal'Aran and left the Waning Crescent behind... though when they arrived at their destination they removed their masks and approached Thalyssra.

"Vanthir is a very pleasant fellow." Thalyssra commented, though she smiled after hearing what Lyra and Trixie had accomplished while they were inside the city, while at the same time she glanced down at the bottle for a few seconds, "I sent a few of your allies to my old abode, to gather some items that will prove to be useful in my research... as well as some personal items that I shouldn't have left behind. For now the two of you should rest until your needed again."

Lyra had no idea what their enemies were doing at the moment, but she knew that she and Trixie would be waiting for them to make their move... because sooner or later Elisande was bound to screw up and open a weakness, and then they would be one step closer to Gul'dan, Illidan's body, and stopping the Legion once and for all.