Thalyssra spent the new few minutes studying Shal'Aran and everything that was inside it, even if there wasn't a lot of stuff left in this place for someone to look at, though while she did that Spitfire studied a map of the Broken Isles and was able to find out that the ruins of Meredil rested on the left side of Suramar, close to the border of Val'sharah, to which she had Kelila use her hearthstone, the one that was attuned to Dalaran since Khadgar had given every hero a stone that would bring them back to the floating city. The reasoning behind that decision was so their new friend could tell the Council and the other heroes what they had discovered after checking out the magical message, and inform them of the rebellion that was taking place right now, but she also wanted to give Khadgar a warning that repeated teleporting into a single area, as in where he sent them, might arouse suspicion in the city, so that was why she was recommending teleporting anyone else into the outskirts of Val'sharah and have them walk a bit to reach where the ruins rested. Given that Suramar City was an ancient city of magic, and there had to be individuals inside it that were incredibly powerful in the Arcane arts, she felt that teleporting to the same area over and over again would allow Elisande's allies to trace the waves of magic back to either Dalaran or to Shal'Aran, which would ruin Thalyssra's new rebellion before it could get started, so having their allies being teleported to another province might make their enemies come to the conclusion that the residents of Dalaran were still working in the other provinces and weren't in the process of getting ready to take the fight to Suramar. As such this might reveal some weaknesses for Thalyssra to use during her rebellion, so they could bring down Elisande and her allies, and it had caused their new ally and Kelila to agree with Spitfire's plan, hence the reason that Kelila was heading back to Dalaran so she could deliver the news to Khadgar and the rest of the Council, including any heroes that might come down to lend them their aid, and after a few seconds the magic in Kelila's hearthstone activated and she vanished, returning to the city to carry out her part of Spitfire's plan.
With that done Spitfire and Rainbow remained standing near the opening that held the tunnel that had allowed them and their group to enter Shal'Aran, mostly keeping an eye out for any enemies that might be brave or foolish enough to make an attempt on checking out this place, but it was like Thalyssra said, the group of Withered didn't like this cave, and there weren't any of the starved creatures outside when Rainbow looked a few seconds after Kelila left, and it didn't look like any Nightborne were coming, confirming their new ally's thoughts with ease, allowing her to focus on her thoughts and plan out what they needed to do next.
"Okay, I have gathered my thoughts and am now ready to tell you the first set of tasks I need you to accomplish so we can move forward with this rebellion," Thalyssra commented, something that caused the pair of strange creatures to turn and look at her, something she would need to research as soon as her city was no longer in Elisande's hands and she was no longer in danger of becoming one of the Withered, or at least she was hoping that the pair would allow her to ask a couple of questions and learn more about them, as it wasn't everyday that someone found a new type of creature that seemed to resemble a cross between a humanoid and a horse, or maybe it was a humanoid and a pony, before she focused her mind on the task at hand as she turned and gave the pair her full attention, "First of all, allow me to explain that I was on my way to a ruined town called Ambervale, where I had hoped to find an old colleague of mine and recruit him into my rebellion, but, as you discovered, I was stopped along the way and was injured by my enemies, forcing me to send that message and slowly wander towards Meredil... had you not arrived when you did, I'm sure I would have either been slain by any guards that were looking for me, or become one of the Withered. Now Arcanist Kel'danath, that's the name of who I was looking for, was fascinated by the Withered, so much so that he studied them for years in the hopes of calming their feral nature or even curing them of their cursed state, but when one of his subject escaped and ran amok he was ordered to cease his experiments and kill his subjects, to which he refused and was banished from the city for his 'crimes'... I'm almost willing to bet that someone sabotaged his efforts to get rid of him, given the politics that rage inside the city. Anyway, his exile was put into effect just recently, as in within the last month or two, and if he still lives he will be like you found me, in a state of being on the tipping point between being a Nightfallen and becoming a Withered, and given his interest in the Withered he would be drawn to a place like Ambervale, since Withered are drawn to ancient ruins in the hopes of finding Ancient Mana to devour and keep themselves going... which reminds me, I need to make a crystal sensing stone for you two, so that way you can find more of those crystals and gather them while you search for Kel'danath, to create a stockpile for myself and whoever else we might recruit into our forces, from the Nightborne to be exact."
"We can do that, so just point us in the direction of Ambervale and we'll head there immediately," Spitfire replied, though while she was sure they didn't need to know Kel'danath's history, and the reasons that he was banished from the city, she wasn't about to argue with Thalyssra and her information, especially since she understood that the Nightfallen in question might be in the process of finding something that would deal with the feral nature of the Withered and possible cure them of the final state they were trapped inside, though this would give Thalyssra time to study the rest of Shal'Aran and see if there was anything else she might have for them to do once they figured out if Kel'danath was alive or not.
Thalyssra nodded and bent down to pick up a pair of stones that were roughly the size of their palms, where she carefully whispered the command phrase to them and both Spitfire and Rainbow watched as a blue rune appeared on both stones, which she looked at for a few seconds before tossing them over to the pair, who caught them and pocketed them for now, as both of them were sure that they would either glow or vibrate whenever they got near an Ancient Mana crystal, before she revealed that Ambervale was to the northwest of Meredil, in fact it was just over the hill that was near the edge of this small village and they would be able to see it rather easily. As the pair headed outside Shal'Aran they found that there was a worn out tiled road leading in the direction that Thalyssra told them about, to which Spitfire and Rainbow walked along it while making sure to have their weapons at the ready, to knock out any Withered that might come rushing at them and to either kill or knock out any Nightborne that could be in the area, though that didn't stop them from keeping an eye open for any crystals to add to the small stockpile they had started, as both of them had the feeling that they would need a lot more in the future, either for Thalyssra or for those she recruited into her hidden army. As the pair walked down the path that was in front of them, and headed for the area that seemed to have another ruined village inside it, Spitfire spotted a large crystal, at least two to three times the thickness and twice the height of the ones they found inside Shal'Aran, resting nearby and walked over to it, though when she touched it the crystal cracked not a few seconds later and fell apart before their eyes, giving them about five or six crystals that happened to be the size of the ones that had been resting inside the ruins before their arrival, where she pocketed all of them inside her pack and returned to Rainbow's side as they headed down the path that was in front of them. After that it didn't take them very long to reach the area that Thalyssra had told them about, as Ambervale was rather close to where Meredil rested, almost like their hideout was actually part of the old ruined village and had been part of the outskirts, but according to their new ally they were two villages and not one, even if it was a little odd for two to be so close together like this, though it was very easy to tell that they were in the right place since there were a number of Withered wandering around the outside of the ruined buildings, hence why they both drew their weapons and kept their guard up.
Since they had no idea if Kel'danath was a fighter or not, since Thalyssra hadn't given them a lot of information on what he looked like or what his skills were, Spitfire suspected that this would take some time before they figured out where their target was located, though as they started to search the first set of buildings they noticed a floating scroll in the lower level of one structure and walked over to where it rested, where both of them discovered that the scrolls had lettering on it that were strange to them, but the moment Spitfire's fingers touched it she and Rainbow felt something in the air for a couple of seconds as a voice seemed to speak up, a male's voice that revealed that there were wards in Ambervale that would deter the Withered and that he would spend the rest of the day, his fifth day, resting before looking for subjects to resume his research, meaning this had to be Kel'danath speaking.
"Well, he's not here, even though it looks like he's been here recently," Rainbow remarked, where she knew that Thalyssra wouldn't like the fact that they didn't find Kel'danath in the area she had told them to investigate, though even as she took a moment to think about what they would tell their new ally she recalled the size of Ambervale and sighed, because it was large and there might be more hiding places for someone to use, especially if the Withered got out of control and caused chaos like they had been told, before she glanced at Spitfire, who seemed to be thinking about what they had learned over the last few moments, "so I guess we should see if we can find any additional notes that he might have left behind and see if we can activate the wards he mentioned, before we think about returning to Shal'Aran."
"I was thinking the same thing, as she might be interested in what Kel'danath was doing after his exile," Spitfire said, even though they already knew what the Nightfallen in question had chosen to do after he had been kicked out of the city and had been forced to live without access to the Nightwell, which was everything that Thalyssra had told them about before sending her and Rainbow out here, to which she carefully placed the first note inside her pack as well, since they had no idea if the elements had damaged it or not, before noting that leaving Rainbow alone with the Illidari for a time must have had an impact on her, because while her friend still wanted to kill every demon she came across she also appeared to fully understand everything that needed to be done, to which they headed outside once more, as it was time to hunt down any additional notes and the wards that Kel'danath had left behind.
It was easy to find the first of the wards that the Nightfallen they were tracking had created, as it happened to be right in front of the entrance that lead Spitfire and Rainbow to the first note page, which allowed them to see that it was smaller than what they had been expecting, as the device was a third of the size of one of their legs, and was either made of silver or had been enchanted to look like it was expensive, something that could be a problem due to the fact that if someone was in the middle of looking for Kel'danath, like Elisande's forces for example, this might point them in the right direction and lead them right to who they were looking for. With the first ward discovered the pair took a moment and raised their hands towards the device, which was swiftly followed by whatever Arcane power that might be resting inside the device to come alive not a few seconds later, allowing them to study what Kel'danath had created and give them an idea of what the rest of the wards looked like for when they investigated the rest of the ruined village, though by activating the ward, and restoring it's power, Spitfire and Rainbow found that some of the Withered backed away for a moment and wandered off to another area to look for mana, meaning they likely felt it being activated and recalled what happened the last time they got near one, giving them a reason to activate all the wards they could find. The downside to that was that Spitfire could tell there didn't seem to be any notes or any of the wards down the path that would bring them around the outskirts of Ambervale, meaning it might have been designed to be a wild goose chase for the Nightborne, given that Kel'danath would have been expecting Thalyssra and she likely had a clue she forgot to tell them about, before she noticed that there might be a ward outside the main entrance of the village and that was followed by her moving away from the ruined building, to which Rainbow did the same thing not a few seconds later, even though some Withered seemed to notice them departing from where the ward rested.
Instead of cutting them down, like Spitfire might have expected her to do, Rainbow swung a Warblade at her targets and knocked them out, showing that she knew when to restrain her power and when to lash out with her full power, leaving Spitfire to jump over some roots and reach the next ward, something that caused the couple of Withered to flee the area not a few moments, when the ward was activated, giving them a wider area to work with as they looked for the notes that had to be in the ruined village.
Of course that was followed by their luck turning around a little, as inside one of the ruined houses Spitfire spotted one of the magical pieces of paper that contained the same energy signature as the first page she carried, and sure enough when she touched the note in question both she and Rainbow gained an understanding of what had been written on it before they arrived in Suramar, where Kel'danath mentioned that it was currently the ninth day of his exile experiments and that he had no luck in communicating with the Withered, but instead of being disappointed with himself, like some would do if such a thing failed, he pushed onward and continued his experiments. As they considered what Kel'danath had written on that floating piece of paper, which was stored away in Spitfire's pack not a few seconds after the magic died down, some of the Withered rushed into the building and started to attack them with their claws, to which Spitfire and Rainbow parried all every incoming attack and jumped out of the back opening of the house in question, something that allowed them to see that there was a ruined statue of some kind resting nearby and that there was another note floating just in front of it, but first the pair had to knock out their enemies, leading Rainbow to spot another ward and quickly dismissed a Warblade so she could wave her now empty hand at it, empowering it and driving off the Withered. Once they were sure the Withered were done, and that took a few moments to make sure their enemies were scared off for now, Spitfire walked over to the smashed statue and accessed the magic that rested on the page, where they learned that it was now the fourteenth day of Kel'danath's experiments and that something interesting had happened, he discovered a Withered that was unlike the rest of the pack, his Arcane power touched by something else, and that he had taken to calling him Theryn, even though it did look like he previously called that particular Withered 'Subject 16', though both of them agreed that his new name was far better than his previous name. As soon as that paper was stored away the pair found some Withered wandering around a collapsed house, one larger than the previous one they had wandered inside, and Rainbow activated a nearby ward that was resting at a fork just outside where the structure rested, though once the Withered left they headed inside the house and activated the note's magic, revealing that it was now the sixteenth day and that Kel'danath had a breakthrough, as he had created a spell that might be able to calm the Withered, with limited success, and that it was drawn from Theryn's own unique magic, which was rather interesting.
Upon discovering that Spitfire had to wonder if they could find this 'Theryn', since none of Kel'danath's notes held a small description of what he looked like or if he had any unique features, due to the fact that he was one of the Withered and all of them looked nearly identical to each other, but for now the two of them continued their exploration of the ruined village and Rainbow made sure to activate any wards that might have been left by their target, driving off the Withered as the pair neared what appeared to be a small chasm between two halves of the village. What was nice for them was that there was another note resting inside of the nearby buildings, to which they walked over to where it rested and picked it up, so they could see what sort of progress Kel'danath might have made since the previous entry, before discovering that this one was for the twenty-fourth day of his experiment and it wasn't like the rest of the notes, was it revealed that he woke up at one point and that a Night Elf had a placed a blade at his neck, apparently worried about what he was doing with the Withered he had gathered. Upon hearing that Kel'danath was looking for a cure for the Withered, the figure in question apparently grunted and withdrew his blade, like a sign of good faith or something, before he vanished as quickly as he had appeared, leaving the Nightfallen rather shaken after everything was said and done, which made the pair wonder if they could find a clue or something that would lead them to this mysterious Night Elf, to ask him some questions, since it seemed like there was more to this than what the notes were telling them. With that page collected they discovered that the next note page happened to be on the outskirts of Ambervale, resting in the direction that would allow one to head over to Felsoul Hold, though upon reaching it Spitfire and Rainbow found a few slumbering stone creatures, Basilisk to be exact, that remained where they were resting, meaning they were going unnoticed, before noticing a number of stone statues that surrounded them, of foxes and Withered, meaning that if someone tried to bother them they froze them in this state, hence why they were quiet as Spitfire carefully claimed the note and backed away from where the Basilisks were sleeping, though both of them made sure they were far away from those creatures before seeing what this particular note had to reveal.
That was when they discovered that it was the thirty-third day and that Kel'danath's supplies seemed to be running low, given the fact that he wrote down something about his 'Arc-wine' running low, making them wonder if that had been what Thalyssra had been drinking earlier, before going on to state that Theryn had been doing well and that Shal'an, which had to be one of the other subjects he had been working with, remained stubborn, even though he admitted that he was now having a hard time finding mana crystals. That caused the pair to glance at each other for a moment, because based on what they had seen so far there were a fair number of small mana crystals, and even a few clusters that were scattered all over Ambervale, near them, meaning that Kel'danath must have been suffering due to lack of food or mana and the first of the symptoms had started to show itself at this point, driving him to assume that there weren't any crystals for him to pick up and come to the conclusion that he was going to starve, even though they could see that there were plenty for one or two people to thrive on, at the very least. Once they did that Spitfire stashed the note with the others and they resumed taking a look around the ruined village, where they found another note near the first structure they had entered, which make her sigh since this meant that they would have found it a lot sooner and jumped to the end of the notes, due to this page being the fortieth day of Kel'danath's experiments, where they quickly found out that a massive Ettin, whatever that was, had trampled through his small workshop in Koralune Manor, which seemed to be at the edge of Ambervale based on what the writing shared with them. That was something that made them thank the Nightborne magic that they had just discovered, as it was very useful and revealed more than normal magic, even though they spread their wings not a couple of seconds later and headed over to the Manor, where it was easy to see that an Ettin was a two headed giant, easily two and a half times as tall as a human was, and worn torn cloth for their attire, but they paid the creatures no mind as they landed near a backpack that was just outside their destination.
"We're fortunate that these Ettin left his backpack alone," Spitfire remarked, though that was when she found one more page that would be added to everything that they had found so far, which would give Thalyssra an idea of what Kel'danath had done after being exiled from the city, though she raised an eyebrow as she and Rainbow received the version of this note that they could read, as it happened to be the fiftieth day of his research, but instead of it being good news they were able to find out that the day he stopped his research, as he released his subjects from their holding areas, was the day the Legion invaded Azeroth, meaning this was within the last week or so, and that he asked whoever found his research, as he had no idea who that someone was, to recover his 'spellstone', though by looking in the backpack they found the rest of his notes, every entry from the first to the last, but no stone, "Well, this ought to make Thalyssra happy, or a little since we haven't found Kel'danath... but something tells me we might be able to find something else if we investigate the rest of this manor, something that might help Thalyssra in her own research."
"Let's get moving... I don't think we'll be able to go unnoticed for too much longer," Rainbow replied, referring to the Ettin that were wandering around the part of the village that was near the manor and was on this side of the small chasm they had flown over earlier, as she was sure that some of them had noticed the fact that they were standing nearby and might want to attack them for some reason, hence why she was focused on heading over to the manor that was in front of them and seeing if there was anything for them to collect, in addition to the spellstone that Kel'danath had mentioned, before bothering to return to Shal'Aran with news of the progress they made, and see if Kelila had arrived with any allies to aid them in helping Thalyssra out.
Spitfire had to agree with Rainbow and they left the area that they found the backpack in, which had been added to their own packs for the time being, though instead of heading forward, and messing with the Ettin that was in their way, both of them quickly opened their wings and flew over the heads of the large creature, which allowed them to land on the ground in front of the manor's entrance so they could enter it, where they found a Withered that looked somewhat older than a number of those they had encountered earlier, along with a faint trace of magic around it, meaning this had to be the one that Thalyssra sent them to find. Kel'danath shifted for a moment as they came to a stop and glanced in their direction not a few seconds later, where he dropped the bone he must have been gnawing on, which looked like an animal's bone and not a person's leg or arm bone, before rushing right at the area that they were standing in and swung his clawed hands at them, to which Spitfire and Rainbow parried the incoming attacks with their weapons and put some distance between the three of them, though a quick glance between both of them was all that was needed. Instead of moving in to kill the now withered figure that was in front of them, to end his suffering, Spitfire's plan right now was to capture him and move him back to Shal'Aran, because if some of the heroes came to assist them, or clear out the province of additional problems so they could focus on whatever was inside Suramar City, they could make a prison cell or something to keep him inside until a cure for the Withered could be found and reproduced in mass, to save the wandering exiles that were suffering all over Amervale and other parts of this province. As such Rainbow refrained from using her new legs to deal damage to their foe, as she was sure that the claws would leave behind some bad cuts, hence why she joined Spitfire in taking down Kel'danath while not trying to kill him, though neither of them really had to worry about their foe's attacks since he was weakened a bit due to the lack of food and mana, so he was slower than some of the other Withered, possibly due to a part of him still resisting what had happened to his body and mind, and it wasn't long before he fell to his knees and huffed, showing that he was already exhausted, before something fell from his belt.
The item in question was a blue crystalline stone that had a bit of power to it, one that seemed different from the wards that had been activated during their exploration through Ambervale, and when Spitfire picked it up she found something interesting, Kel'danath seemed to follow it, though that was when Rainbow found another Withered standing nearby and noticed that it had a tag on a tattered sleeve that read '16' and 'Theryn', who had faded green hair, but since both of them seemed interested in the stone, the spellstone they discovered, Spitfire and Rainbow carefully lead them back to Shal'Aran and avoided drawing any of the Ettin along with them.
"Spitfire, Rainbow, it is good that you returned safe and sound... and, as you can see, some of your allies have reached our temporary base of operations," Thalyssra said, speaking the moment she noticed the pair coming towards Shal'Aran, due to the fact that she was outside the cave, a foolish choice since she was the leader of the rebellion and letting their foes know she was alive would ruin everything they were working towards, though there were no enemies near the ruins and it meant Thalyssra was lucky, though Spitfire and Rainbow could see a couple of heroes, Vytheril and Scarlet having joined Kelila, had come down to assist them, before she noticed what was behind them, "Might I ask why you have a pair of calm Withered following you? It's rather odd, given that they tried to kill us earlier."
"The one with the faded green hair is Kel'danath, but he seems to be fighting his Withered state somewhat," Spitfire said, to which Thalyssra raised an eyebrow and glanced over the fallen elf for a few moments, where it became clear to her that Spitfire was telling the truth and that she was staring at her friend, even though she also understood why they hadn't cut him down and freed him from his suffering, before they focused on the other fallen elf that was patiently standing nearby, even though Spitfire made sure to hold up the spellstone as well, "and this is Theryn, one of Kel'danath's more promising subjects that he was studying, who we might be able to study in an attempt to learn more about the Withered and how to cure them, or whatever you want to do with him... not to mention we picked up the spellstone that your friend created, a stone that seems to be able to calm the Withered on some level."
"Is that so? The power to subdue the anger that the Withered hold inside them, possibly control them," Thalyssra said, as it was fascinating when she thought about it and knew that no one in the city would care for something like this, save for her allies anyway, though that was when Spitfire handed her the spellstone, as if reading her mind and knew that she wanted to hold the stone for the foreseeable future, which saved her having to ask for it, to which she nodded for a second and accepted what was being offered to her, "I will ensure that such a power is used for great good, to help the Withered while we search for a cure, and uphold Kel'danath's legacy, just in case we're too late to save him... for now we'll start with him and Theryn, or just Theryn since he holds so much promise, but I might ask you or one of our allies to gather some more Withered for us to study and help. Give me a moment to make sure they're set up somewhere safe, so that we won't have to worry about harm coming to them, and then I'll give you the next ally that we need to recruit to the cause, as there are two more we need to recruit before we start to plan the next stages of our rebellion."
Spitfire and Rainbow nodded as they headed out to see what the rest of their allies were doing, just to see if they needed any help with the supplies that were being brought to Shal'Aran, giving Thalyssra some time to make a holding area for the two individuals that seemed to be stuck between being Nightfallen and Withered, though they were interested in who their next ally might be and what they might have to do to recruit them to the cause, to which both of them focused on helping their friends from Dalaran while thinking about what the rest of the day held for all of them.