Levels 13-14: V with a Vendetta
A/N: Special thanks to SilentMech, refferee, GamerGoddessNayru, squall_wave, nioniosbbbb, the alicorn huntard, and Ketvirtas for your comments last chapter! They were very nice and supportive, and they helped me put this together even as life continues to go on and drain energy away from these more fun endeavors. Your comments do help offset that though, so please continue letting me know what you think!
I hope you all enjoy, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below!
“Morning…”
Trixie only had woken up as the light of the day beat down on her face from the window nearby. Kael had opened it up to illuminate their room in the hopes that she would wake up without him having to actually rouse her. He knew she would whine if he did it in a direct manner, so his chances were better with this method.
He turned around to face the bed and smile at her as Trixie moved to rub her sore eyes, “Goodmorning, drowsy horse.”
“Hey—” Trixie began to whine until she noticed that she was still in her Elven body, “I’m not even in that form!”
“It’s more entertaining to have a little fun with it than truly delve into the philosophical questions and boundaries that stem from the reality of your situation.”
She rolled her eyes at him, unamused by his response, “Is that fancy talk for ‘I am making fun of you because I do not know how to deal with you not really being an Elf’?”
Kael shrugged as he turned back to the window as Trixie rose from bed, realizing that she was going to be mostly naked and would be getting dressed, “More or less.”
Trixie started putting on the clothes made for her by Kael and Salma when her mind turned to the elder woman: why hadn’t there been a wakeup call this time? Before their hosts woke them up in the morning, but the shade of the light outside seemed to indicate that it was far past morning.
“It looks like its midday. How late did they let us sleep today?”
Trixie tapped Kael on the shoulder to indicate he could look, and when he did so he gave another shrug to further reveal his current lackadaisical and placated attitude, “It seems no-one is in a rush to get up today. I’m personally fine with that, but I’m not going to waste it all laying in bed.”
Trixie nodded to that, since they agreed to leave as soon as their obligations were done with. The sleeping Mana Wyrm over on their bed was all the indication that they needed that their past was catching up to them here.
Seeing as it would be rude to leave without saying goodbye to the seemingly absent Saldeans, Trixie felt fine leaving Nana to sleep. The poor animal had ate nearly endlessly the night before after Trixie spared her own rations for it, Kael doing so as well to not appear selfish even if it made him starve the night. Whatever Nana went through before them though had exhausted it, and the Wyrm slept deeply that night and was still completely knocked out as she breathed softly on the sheets.
Trixie had brought over something from Kael’s own bag of clothing to go on top of his full set of red cloth-leather gear, “Put on your bandana.”
Kael took the cloth gifted to him by the Innkeeper by Silvermoon City from Trixie’s hand, the sight of him reminding him of the conversation he had with Hope about how it’d make him look like one of the Defias Brotherhood. He acquiesced to Trixie’s wishes and pulled it around his head, his hands running back against his long blonde hair as he tied it behind his face.
With it covering half his face like it had when they visited Silvermoon, Trixie giggled at how silly he looked, “Even with that thing on you wouldn’t get away as a bandit. Your eyes are glowing and your eyebrows are the size of a small animal.”
Kael brought an index finger out to poke Trixie’s eyebrow, “Yours are not any better,” he grinned beneath the mask, knowing that she couldn’t see it but he did hope it came out in his tone, “And I believe there might be a few neigh-sayers in the Defias Brotherhood about a horse joining their ranks.”
Trixie ignored his pun and turned her back to him, her hands moving to her hips as she stood with her nose upturned, “As if I would join them. I am a leader, not a follower.”
“As I am learning more and more every day,” Kael joked, though it made Trixie go on the defensive nonetheless.
“Partners are equal, so I don’t mind sharing dominance with you. It doesn’t actually put you any above me, you’re still just on the same level.”
“And when I’m the crowned Prince of the Blood Elves?”
That got Trixie to turn around, a broad grin plastered on her soft face, “Then I am going to be the equal of the Prince, should our partnership last that long.”
A sudden bout of nervousness gripped Kael’s stomach. He wanted this partnership to be of a permanent variety, and yet there was the very real possibility it wouldn’t end up that way. She sought fame, he sought a crown. She would need to be audacious and draw crowds, he would need to sneak by and accomplish his goals in clandestine manners on occasion. Could they find a balance that would suit them both?
“I…would hope it does,” was the stalled and very late response from Kael.
“As would I,” Trixie stiffly agreed, feeling some nervousness of her own now that she thought about what she said.
To step off of the uncomfortable subject, Kael took out the note given to him by their host the previous night and began to read from it the list of tasks held on the paper, “Speak to Gryan Stoutmantle, check out Moonbrook, investigate propaganda, learn about the past, find missing Stormwind Captain...”
Trixie whistled at the long list, “Sounds like we have a busy day ahead of us. You hear anything from the Saldeans?”
“No, haven’t heard a rumble in the house since I woke up. I think we’re alone for now.”
Trixie strolled over to the hallway, at which point a purple flash preceded her vanishing from all sight, but a crash downstairs met Kael’s ears.
Before Kael could question it, Trixie stumbled back up the staircase and nearly collapsed in front of the door. She was smiling despite the exhausted look of her body, what with it tilted over and about to collapse underneath itself, but she was indeed happy.
“You would…happen to be right,” Trixie wheezed out as she took in a few deep breaths to revitalize herself.
Kael already knew the answer, but he felt obligated to acknowledge what she just did, “Did you just teleport?”
“Why yes, I did. A new trick for me to use and abuse as I see fit!”
Teleportation was quite the ability, and Kael was quite fine with Trixie being willing to utilize its often unspoken potential, “Fighting would be quite trivial if one could just teleport around every few moments.”
“Yes…it would…”
Kael narrowed his eyes as Trixie suddenly stopped herself from hurling onto the floor, making him realize that perhaps this newest spell of Trixie’s was not something they ought to jump right into. Some caution could be useful for such a powerful ability.
“Doing it made you feel sick,” Kael noted as he approached her and offered her a hand to get up.
Trixie swatted his hand away and tried to raise herself up to her full height, her voice complaining in indignation caused by her condition, “No!”
In trying to get up Trixie instead fell backwards onto her backend, and after a small bounce that left her sprawled on the ground she lost the haughty air she had been pretending to have.
“…yes.”
Kael shook his head and sighed at her stubbornness. Would she ever feel comfortable not being in power all of the time? It was a facet of life after all, and it didn’t hurt to have help from others when they were willing to give it.
With Kael’s aid Trixie stood back up and the two prepared themselves to go. The day might have been half over, but they were nowhere near done “Bye Nana. We’ll be back later. You get your rest, okay?”
The Mana Wyrm was not in much of a state to respond, though it was likely it would say something along the lines of “Naaa” if it could.
The Saldeans may be gone to some unknown place, but that wouldn’t stop Trixie from doing the tasks set forth by them as final payment for their kindness. Then it would be time to hit the road and leave Westfall behind.
At least, that was the plan.
The man Gryan Stoutmantle was relatively easy to find at Sentinel Hill because the basic information scribbled down by Saldean was enough: a man in his about 50’s who is wearing silver armor with blue trim, a Stormwind tabard with a lion’s head on it as the symbol of the city, and a large golden shoulderplate that looked like an eagle. Not many of those were walking around Sentinel Hill, so after the short journey to the military outpost Trixie approached him with her partner in-tow.
“Hello, my name is Trixie Lulamoon. My partner and I are here on behalf of a family who lives nearby, the Saldeans. The farmer asked us to help you out should you require any aid.”
The military man paused to think as he looked over the two travelers, “Hmmm, let me think…” his eyes lit up as he came up with a task for them, “Oh, I know how you can aid us. We have had a camp near Moonbrook for quite some time now. One of my best soldiers works the area along with a company of Sentinel Hill troopers. Report to Captain Alpert now and find out if he has any news about the happenings in Moonbrook.”
“Go to person A, go to person B…what are we, couriers?” Trixie complained under her breath, quickly receiving an elbow to her side for her not-productive words from Kael.
The Stormwind Marshal rose an eyebrow at Trixie as she sent a look at Kael, “What was that?”
Trixie grabbed Kael and began to drag him away, “Oh, nothing, nothing. We’ll be on our way to Captain Albert. Thank you!”
Kael sighed at being dragged around but in the end did not fight her because he had no desire to remain there any longer than necessary. More time lingering was more time to be located and hunted down after all, and they had received their new orders…which went right along with what Saldean wrote down. As if he had anticipated where their paths would take them. Pretty insightful for a common farmer one might note, but it was ultimately meaningless in the current situation.
Once they were a good ways away from Sentinel Hill Kael pulled out the map he had been carrying around and began to look for Moonbrook. After a quick check he found that Trixie had brought them the wrong direction, of course.
“I believe it is south-west from here, my smart mouthed friend, not east. I don’t blame you for not knowing though, since it’s not like you failed to say go west to something named Westeros.”
Trixie ignored his overall comment because of the heat beaming down on her. The added heat felt like more than she could handle and she would chalk it up to the teleportation from earlier, though her dark colored clothing did little to help her comfortableness, “Ugh, if it wasn’t broad daylight I could make this so much faster on four legs.”
Kael didn’t even look up from the map as he commented, “Are you saying you want me to ride you, but you’re afraid of doing it in public?”
Trixie’s mumbling as they changed directions gave Kael time to realize what he just said, slap his forehead, and sigh. Trixie was rubbing off on him, and not in a good way.
“Why are you hitting your forehead?”
“Nothing.”
Moonbrook looked terrible. If the military weakness of Sentinel Hill was bad for such a series of structures, Moonbrook’s overall appearance matched the level of security Sentinel Hill had. Westfall truly was facing economic troubles with its poor, as Moonbrook appeared about ready to fall apart with shoddy buildings and homeless people walking the streets.
Oh, and leather wearing brigands.
“This is our town, scrub!”
A man in a dark colored hood and clothing approached Trixie and Kael as they tried to enter the town, but before the man’s raspy voice could say anything else another chimed in as a man with similar clothing and a red bandana joined him.
“Yeah, beat it!” the second man said is a more nasal tone. He drew a dagger from his pocket while the other man, seemingly the ringleader given his more in-charge presence, drew a wooden club and levied it at them.
Moonbrook was a bad neighborhood.
Trixie gestured to her partner and then to herself in an attempt to calm things down, “I am sure my friend would love to beat it, but we have business here…”
If it had been left at that perhaps an arrangement could have been made, but Trixie’s mouth had to keep running.
“So I’m sorry, dreg, but we will be passing.”
The Ringleader took a step forward and prepared to swing his weapon, “What did you call me, girl?”
Kael shoving Trixie back made the club wielding man stop his swing, a moment of opportunity Kael used to speak up as well. He danged a bag of coins out with one hand as he smiled at the man…
“Now, now, there’s no need to fight—”
He cut himself off by using the other hand to grab the sword sheathed over his back to swing down at the man’s arm and bludgeon it with the mostly dull weapon. The thug cried out in pain as he was slammed with the weapon’s might to the surprise of him, his partner, and Trixie.
Not practiced in the blade, Kael had trouble wielding it and had to fight to raise it back up for another strike. By now the man he hit was recovering and the other was rushing forward to attack Kael.
“Trixie, now is the time to do something, I’ve lost the element of surprise!”
Trixie snapped out of her momentary confusion to fling a shard of ice at the second thug, catching him in the shoulder and driving him back as the first swung a fist at Kael’s face. He had dropped his club after his arm became stricken with pain from the hit it took, leaving him with only his wounded arm and his other to strike with.
Kael parried the punch with his blade, causing the thug to hurt his other hand in the process. This didn’t stop the man from still trying to throttle Kael, but a knee to the thug’s gut caught him off guard. The accompanying smashing of a fist and a sword’s hilt knocked the man over onto his side, effectively ending his threat.
As Kael utilized a powerful kick to knock out his downed and disorientated opponent he looked up to see that Trixie had made her opponent slip and knock himself out using her ice. Simple, but effective, and that was what mattered.
The two noticed that nearby them was a small settlement on the side of the town which seemed to be the Stormwind representation for the community. A few tents was all it really amounted to beyond the soldiers posted there, and they all seemed quite busy discussing something…which would explain why none of them noticed the very brief fighting encounter Trixie and Kael just went through.
Of course, neither of the two Elves knew that such bandits and thieves were so common that the Stormwind soldiers were afraid to oppose one of them lest the entirety of them decide that they no longer desire Stormwind busybodies poking through their affairs.
Trixie waited for the conversation between the soldiers to continue until the point she heard the mention of the name Alpert, at which point she interrupted them all by approaching and clearing her throat, “Hello Captain, Marshal Brian Stantlermittens sent us here to help you in whatever capacity you need.”
The captain was wearing an outfit and tabard similar to the Marshal’s, albeit less lustrous and with better taste given its more standard appearance. He was previously enraptured by what he was discussing with his fellow soldiers until Trixie’s voice caught his attention along with the word “Marshal”. This was enough to get him to turn and face Trixie, recognize help when he’s seen it, and begin speaking to Trixie and Kael with some sudden familiarity.
“The natives are restless, travelers. I don't know what's going on, but homeless activity in this area has quadrupled in the past two days. If I didn't know any better I'd say they were planning something...”
While glad he was at least accepting of their aid, Trixie was a bit put off by his blanket statement concerning the homeless. Sure, she didn’t feel comfortable around them especially after the very recent run-in with two dregs, but it felt a little prejudiced to just go out and suspect them of some conspiracy.
Not noticing her unease, Alpert continued to speak as his fellow soldiers left to go do other non-productive things, “We've noticed a rise in violent acts amongst the homeless of the area. Something or someone is getting them all riled up. Now whoever is behind all this is getting more organized. Just recently a group of thugs came through here handing out pamphlets.”
Trixie looked to Kael and they both in turn looked over to the town: many more people like the thugs they just took care of stood about as if they were guarding the town from anyone they deemed a threat. What could get bandits so defensive if they weren’t being actively invaded? The soldiers seemingly were not new to the scene given the weathered look of their tents, so they wouldn’t be the cause…
Without waiting for input from either Trixie or Kael the Captain from Stormwind pointed them towards Moonbrook and ordered them, “Enter Moonbrook and look for evidence. Propaganda, leaflets, whatever...bring whatever you find back to me. Maybe we can find the source through the writings.”
Just wanting it to be done with, Trixie and her partner just accepted the command and began to approach the town. They’d grab anything suspicious and just bring it back. That’d about settle them with this guy, and then they could go back to the farm and say goodbye to the Saldeans who were likely back from wherever they had gone.
The homeless citizens of the town didn’t seem to really care about Trixie or Kael and they ignored them as the two began to look around the small town. With a nod Trixie gestured to a random building that they could inspect, and with a nod back the two found themselves inside of it.
Of course, they didn’t expect three armed thugs to be inside the entrance seemingly waiting for them.
“Where do you think you're goin'?” one of the men growled at the duo, his question punctuated by the advancing of the other two men towards the Elves.
Trixie took a step back as she tried to find a way around resorting to bloodshed, “Ummmm…” she bit her lip as she realized she had nothing to convince them that she was there for anything other than being nosy, “Okay, I have no excuse. Kind of run out of those after all the lying I’ve been doing.”
Kael would have faltered if not for the two slowly approaching thugs from across the inside of what appeared to be a run down chapel of sorts.
“This is the end of the line, pal!” one yelled as he drew a blade and lunged at Kael, who had moved to put himself in the way of Trixie.
As he made this movement Trixie prepared the spell she had used that morning and readied herself to be in a position to attack when it activated, “Blink and you’ll miss me!”
She disappeared in a flash as Kael sidestepped the thug’s wild lunge, only to then swing his sword down at the stumbling man’s leg as he swept past him. This took the man’s leg out from underneath him and he fell without any grace onto the ground.
By then Trixie had reappeared behind where the three men had started. Once again corporeal, she fired off a large chunk of ice at the next man attacking Kael, the blast knocking the man off balance and allowing Kael to swing his sword up to connect with the side of the man’s cheek. A sickening snap could be heard across the building as the dull blade smashed the man forcefully, though Trixie’s words at the time were an odd counterpoint to the attack because of how she followed up her previous statement.
“Haha, it’s funny because the name of the spell is ‘blink’ or something like that.”
The final man was caught in-between them and did not move, his weary eyes looking between the two opponents he was faced with as he developed some kind of plan.
Kael did not want to unleash his fire attacks because they could set the building aflame, and that would not only hinder their investigation but also draw the attention of everyone in the nearby area to this location. As such he patiently approached the final man to lessen the gap between them, “Trixie, it’s severely less funny if you explain the joke.”
The final foe used the momentary diversion of attention to hurl his dagger at Kael, nicking him in the shoulder and causing Trixie to become distracted by the sight of her partner growling in pain. This in turn left her vulnerable to the enemy spinning around and throwing a follow up knife at her. Disorientated by her teleportation she was not able to purposefully dodge it…
But because she was barely standing at all she lurched to the side when she tried to move that direction, the knife slicing through some of the cloth of her outfit but doing no actual damage to her.
“Behind you!”
As Trixie’s yell Kael ducked down as he spun around and swung his sword one armed. He did so without any kind of aim, and in doing so he clobbered the first thug in the neck and face as the sword wildly lashed out. The man slumped over as he lost consciousness.
Seeing that the third thug was about to use this opportunity to grab the knife in Kael’s shoulder and stab him with it, Trixie yelled out as she called forth the energy to use a spell, “Oh no you don’t, Gikor!”
From her position on the ground Trixie took the man’s legs and then also froze them in place as her lob of ice exploded around his lower body.
With the man downed, Kael hovered his sword over the thug’s neck, clearly contemplating swinging it down and ending the life of his adversary. Trixie could see the pragmatic side of her partner rearing up, and her own moral sensibilities rose up as well in response.
“Kael…”
With a sigh, the future lord of the Blood Elves ripped the blade from his wounded shoulder and tossed it aside. He once again utilized a strong kick to render the fallen foe unconscious, not wanting to risk him making a racket. He had partially wanted to end the man’s life because of how he had nearly killed Trixie if not for her trip, but that revenge was not to be had because of the same woman.
“I will stay my hand for you any day, but I will not restrain myself if doing so endangers you.”
No longer in any immediate danger, Trixie decided to play around a bit as she got up, “Oh, and if something were to harm me?” she laughed as she gestured to the three goons they had managed to defeat with relative ease despite the number disadvantage, “What if one of these idiots managed to do that?”
Kael sheathed his sword as he turned back to the open entrance to see if anyone had been drawn to the commotion. Such was the town that swords clashing and pained grunts drew no attention from the inhabitants.
“I would take the appropriate measures to exact vengeance on their entire organization. Once those who did the deed were punished, the others would be brought to heel and suffer for allowing their members to commit such an action.”
The measured and levelness of Kael’s tone put Trixie off-guard. The fact that he cared about her enough to exact vengeance upon those who would bring harm to her was nice, but the matter-of-fact manner of it with how thought out it sounded made it kind of scary at the same time, “I’m not sure if I should be relieved or worried.”
He turned around to give her a cheeky grin, “Both is a fine response. Just know that I would not permit any harm upon you, as well as that I am glad you are not injured.”
“Chivalry at its finest,” Trixie scoffed while shooting him a smug grin back. After a moment though it faded into a face of minor concern and worry, just a hint at what she must have been feeling inside, “Just don’t do anything one might consider reckless on my behalf.”
The chapel fell silent for a minute as the two began searching through the room for anything like what the Captain was looking for, though once something was located Trixie took the first opportunity to wave it around.
“This looks like an informational pamphlet!”
After locating it she began to read it aloud with Kael coming to join her.
“Give a man a tabard and he will pledge his undying loyalty to your cause. These men are now government sheep who care not for your hardships. They wear the tabard of their leader and care only for what he desires. –V”
The signed bit at the end made Kael raise his long eyebrows that hung off the sides of his head, “V? Maybe VanCleef?”
Trixie shook her head as she stuffed the pamphlet in a pocket, “He’s dead, and this doesn’t look like it’s that old.”
“Let’s see if we can find anything else,” Kael paused as he considered their overall situation and how the afternoon light was beginning to set in. They ought to leave town before it got dark, “You think you can handle looking around town by yourself? The faster we can find anything of note, the sooner we can leave this damned place.”
“Of course I can.”
Kael knew better than to trust her arrogant nature, but they would be in severe trouble if whoever was tracking them were to catch up, so haste was required and by splitting up they could cover more ground, “If anything happens, run to the Stormwind camp and we’ll meet up there.”
Trixie nodded and moved to leave when she noticed Kael bending down and ruffling through the pockets of the unconscious miscreants.
“What are you doing?”
Kael removed a red cloth from one of the pockets he searched and smirked at the discovery, “There it is,” he held the bandana out towards Trixie to show it to her all the while removing the money in the man’s pocket and placing it in his own, “Thought they might have these on them. Evidence that the Defias is up to no good.”
“Well, have fun taking off the clothes of those guys, I’m going to leave you four alone.”
Kael groaned as he realized he was the one at the butt of the joke this time, but he let it go because of all the times he managed to get away with messing with her. Still, despite his plan to optimize the time of this operation he was still worried for her, so he called out to Trixie as she left.
“Don’t get yourself killed!
After splitting up to find clues, the duo each encountered resistance from the various leather clothed thugs in town.
“This is for VanCleef, you Elven bastards!”
“If you ain't with us, you're against us! DIE!”
“Little early to the party, aren't ya?”
None of it lasted very long, as giant ice shards and fireballs trump rusty daggers.
Once they found some more things of note they met up at the outskirts of the town, each of them only having a little evidence but neither really caring. If the Stormwind warriors wanted anything more they could just do their own jobs. It would literally only take walking into the town and putting the shiny armor to use, so neither of the Elves had much sympathy for the lack of initiative and courage demonstrated.
“I found a secret journal with tons of Defias information!” Trixie chirped as she held out a book towards Kael. He, however, was nonplussed by her discovery.
“Did you just steal someone’s diary?”
“What?” she stated defensively, “I’m investigating, and the people in the town want to kill us. I think they can do without their diary.”
Kael took the diary from her and opened it up to read from it to corroborate Trixie’s claim.
“Now, let’s see…” he moved to a random page and began to read from it, “I have full faith in the boss, but I do question the appointment of a fish as captain…”
Trixie moved it to another page that she had earmarked, “This is the page I found interesting, read it.”
Kael muttered something about it being the only page she probably read before he went about actually reading it as she suggested, “I can hardly believe it. We've endured this torment for too long. The Brotherhood will be reborn and we will then wash across this land as a flood to cleanse it of its filth and corruption.”
As he finished the page’s text he felt his head sinking. Trixie opened her mouth to question his disparaged look when he spoke up and interrupted her would be question.
“The Brotherhood is up to something, and it seems they are planning to gather later to swell their ranks and enact whatever it is they are doing.”
“Oh, and how do you know that?” Trixie sarcastically replied, her eyes rolling at the obvious statement given.
Kael ignored her sarcasm as he pulled out some evidence of his own, “You’re not the only one who found something. I located this noteworthy propaganda.”
To mirror what he did Trixie grabbed the paper from his hands and began to read from it before he could snatch it back.
“The hour of our redemption draws ever closer, brothers and sisters! Tonight we will shed the shell of our former lives and be reborn as heroes. —V” Trixie gave it back to him when she was done with the slip of paper, her mind wrapping around the fact that it confirmed something big was about to happen, “V again. V’s got a Vendetta. V for Vendetta. I like the sound of that. It should be an action movie with political intrigue, and the main character—”
Kael held up a hand to stop her inane babble, “I think that’s enough for now. I can see that people are gathering around the town square, so let’s turn in what we’ve found and then see what’s drawing the commotion.”
“One day it will be I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, who captures their attention.”
“For now a low profile is best.”
“You should be supportive of Trixie’s dreams.”
Kael sighed as they walked over to the guards, “Not now, Trixie.”
“I’m hungry,” Trixie complained as her stomach rumbled, bringing to mind a similar issue for Kael, who had been ignoring his own starving stomach since they arrived. In a town of poor, destitute people he wasn’t sure if he could get food and he was worried that if he did the thieves and thugs would come after him.
“We never did eat breakfast…” Kael wanted to tell her to quit whining, but he was feeling famished as well, “Later, okay? I’m sure Salma can make something for us, especially since it’ll have been a full day since we’ve had something to really eat.”
It wasn’t the first time Trixie had gone hungry, but it’d be the last if she could help it, “Fiiiiine. This guy better pay us for doing his job for him. Seriously, does nobody actually do their job in this world? Everybody wants everyone else to do it for them!”
“Reuenthal may have enlisted our help, but he participated.”
“That wasn’t his job. That was the opposite of his job.”
“Point taken.”
“Ahem.”
Trixie and Kael looked up to see that they had arrived at the Stormwind camp and the Captain was waiting for them to notice his presence before speaking. Now having it, Alpert spoke up.
“Any luck?”
The two handed in the materials they had gathered and the Captain began to look over them with great interest. After mewling over them all he looked up to the other two and gave them a confused look.
“V? The only V I know is VanCleef, but he died many years ago.”
“That’s what I said,” Trixie scoffed as she had a random solution come to mind, “Are ghosts a thing?”
Alpert grimly nodded to that but did not explain anything substantively, “Yes, but I don’t think he has the power to come back from the dead. He’s dead and gone, thank the Light.”
Kael reached into his bag and retrieved a set of bandanas he had retrieved from his defeated foes, “I also found these.”
“Red bandanas?!” Alpert gaped, as if it was something unexpected when it was fully expected, “I haven't seen a red bandana in years. Could this V figure be attempting to reform the Defias Brotherhood?”
Kael rolled his eyes along with Trixie in a shared moment of exasperation before pulling out a final bandana, the one he received back on Elven land, “What about this one?”
“That one looks a little more unique…” Alpert nodded as he looked at the cloth more, “Yes, it has a much better make than the others. No true notability other than it must have been made specifically for someone. Where did you find it?”
“I was given it north of here by an Elven innkeeper. She says a traveler left it there sometime.”
“Interesting. I would hold onto it if I were you. It might prove useful to figuring out this mystery.”
The sound of a rallying crowd nearby drew the attention of everyone present, and in the center of Moonbrook it appeared as if every single one of the homeless population was gathered around. Perhaps this was what the propaganda and materials were leading towards?
The Captain gestured towards the gathering crowd, “It looks like the meeting the shadowy figure spoke of is starting soon. The homeless are starting to mobilize. I need you to attend the rally and gather information, my friends. Go to the center of Moonbrook and listen in on the rally. Return to me with whatever you find out.”
Once again resigned to their fate of “go here, do that”, Trixie and Kael wordlessly left the man behind to go and listen in as he requested. They would stick out like sore thumbs, but if they stood at the back of the crowd they doubted anyone would pay them any mind.
“The rally is about to begin,” Trixie whispered to Kael as they slipped into the back of the gathered crowd. Despite having a height advantage on the Humans they were still having their view blocked by others in the crowd, and so as a masked voice spoke up over the rumble of the crowd neither Trixie nor Kael could observe the one speaking.
“Gather, brothers and sisters! Come, all, and listen!” the voice, likely the so called V, yelled, “Brothers. Sisters. We are ABANDONED - the orphaned children of Stormwind.”
Kael nodded at the statement of fact, which resulted in Trixie elbowing him in the side: partially as payback for earlier, and partially to stifle his sympathies for the rabble-rouser.
The one speaking could be made out as a woman speaker, though Kael found himself irritate by how the moving up and down of the riled crowd was keeping him from getting a clear view despite him being the tallest one present.
“Our "king" sits atop his throne made of gold and shrugs at our plight! Meanwhile, our children die of starvation on these very streets! HIS war, not ours, cost us our livelihood. WE paid for the Alliance's victories with our blood and the blood of our loved ones!”
At this point even Trixie was biting her lip nervously. Could she hate someone riling a crowd up for conflict if they had legitimate reasons to be angry and to rise up? It did not excuse the ills of the Defias Brotherhood, but Stormwind wasn’t clean either.
“The time has come, brothers and sisters, to stop this injustice! The government of Stormwind, of the ALLIANCE, must be made accountable for what it has done to us! Today, we are reborn! Today, we take a stand as men and women, not nameless, faceless numbers!”
The figure hoists into the air a rifle by the stock with a tattered pennant tied to the end, and the crowd applauds and cheers at the action. They are all quite supportive of the message given, and they all seem ready to storm Stormwind right then and there.
All except for the two worried Elves, who instead hastily turned to flee and return to Alpert. He would need to know of this, and he would need to know as soon as possible if whatever the Brotherhood was to be stopped.
Conflict was coming, and it was bound to be a bloodbath if the Brotherhood could recruit so many willing people into its ranks.
Who is this mysterious V? 
Those who know, you don't need to say, since it's going to be a thing next chapter anyways.
Thank you for reading, and I hope to hear from you in the comments below! Comments are 
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Well, this should prove enlightening for Trixie, and slightly so for Kael as well. Shame the Alliance and the Horde both get things done via adventurers and travelers, rather than troops supplies.
It's "This is our town, scrub!" not "This is our town, punk!"
I thought you had said you played Hearthstone, have you never used the Defias Ringleader? I use mine an average of twice per game, sometimes I can even pull off comboing it 3 times in a single turn. (Coin, Ringleader, Shadowstep, Ringleader, Shadowstep, Ringleader. One of the best possible first turns in my Bouncy Rogue deck)
Goodmorning
After a quick check he found that Trixie had brought them the wrong direction, of course
He danged a bag of coins out with one hand
As Trixie’s yell Kael ducked down
“Don’t get yourself killed!
1. Good morning, two words.
2. After a quick check he found that Trixie had brought them to the wrong direction, of course though Trixie would surely deny it like the neighsayer she is.
3. Dangled.
4. At.
5. Forgot your closing quotation mark.
V... V... Nope, no idea at all. At least that mystery is not long for this world as exposition will come in to save the day, much like monologues.
So Trixie learned teleport eh? Or rather, the Starcraft 2 equivalent of Blink but hey, Blizzard owns both franchises.
A sword in hand is worth two kinds of Trixies in another. You know... Now that I think about it, I font recall Trixie ever elbowing Kael yet. He's gonna be sore when that happens. Now I'm just actually waiting for the moment when a bandit or some such is going to grope her or something and then she hits them in full force.
Did I imagine that the Defy Us Brotherhood is being led by a fish? I can only think of Murlocs.
Trixie and Kael better leave elf they'll be caught in a large riot.
Is it also wrong that when I read the part where they have to find the Stormwind Captain I just kept imagining him popping up and saying; "Behold! The might of Stooooormwind!" and activate his taunt?
6031826 Hold it right there, how can you have three Ringleaders in your deck? You can only have two of each and one for every legendary. And then comes a priest with Holy Nova again.
6035552 In the example play in my other comment I end up with 1 Ringleader and 3 of Bandits on the field at the end of my turn.
This is the deck I play: http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=528/bouncy-rogue-deck
Only have 2 Ringleaders but many ways to bring them back to my hand to recombo them.
6031788 Things in Warcraft would go a lot faster if the soldiers just did their jobs rather than hiring player mercenaries, something I'm sure our cast will pick up on soon enough
6031826 I don't see any error
6042666 "But then who would guard the donuts!" They will scream in indignant rage.
6035552 V's identity will be revealed soon enough, for the time of reckoning and judgement is upon Westfall!
Blink is called Blink in Warcraft as well, given that they own both series. It came from Warcraft before Starcraft though, since Warcraft 3 and WoW came before Starcraft II. Now that Trixie can use it though she'll have to learn the art of utilizing it...and get comfortable enough with it to not fall over every time she tries it.
Trixie will be able to overpower people for awhile, but not forever given the universe they are in and where Strength is a stat (one she won't be stacking at that).
The Defias Brotherhood had an officer named Cookie in the first Deadmines dungeon who was a Murloc.
You are thinking of Stormwind Champion, and he doesn't have a taunt. He has a +1/+1 buff to all allied creatures while he is on the field. Lord of the Arena has taunt.
6042681 I'm not even sure if doughnuts exist in Azeroth. I could look it up, but I don't see it becoming plot critical at any point...
But yeah, those soldiers ought to just do their job, but if they did that the series would end and the MMO would be done. That's just the way things are.
6042688 Oh, then it would simply be "who would protect the fried sweet dough!?" same thing basically.
6042684 Welp, this shows how often I play Hearthstone then
Got to be a reference to 'Cookie'.
I'm liking the banter between Trixie and Kael. It's obvious he has already started to fall for her, just as it's obvious she is still oblivious to this, despite her own interest in him. It's a good thing too, if Trixie ever figured it out how interested Kael really was, she'd put him through the ringer...
With Trixie already learning Blink, I'm sure it won't be much longer before she learns how to conjure food and drink. Then all the huddled masses will be using her as a 'vending machine'. The upside is that Trixie will get all the attention she ever wanted... lol.
I like how you are focusing the story so far on parts of the lore that aren't done to death, and taking the time to flesh out the reasons behind why things turned out the way that they did. I'd love to see some of the syndicate lore explored in the future, and perhaps some of the bloodsail. But whatever direction you have planned is fine with me.
Keep up the good work!
6078920 It is indeed Cookie. Not many other fish-captains in my experience! Captain Cookie should be a playable character in Heroes of the Storm, but instead we get Murky...perhaps a Hearthstone card?
Kael's well aware of his of affections and has just decided to accept them, while Trixie is...Trixie. And yes, if Trixie does figure out how interesting Kael is she would put him through the ring-er. But that won't be for awhile as I absolutely despise rushing things in terms of romance, so it's onesided...for now.
Blink is useful, but I see it as being more difficult to use than it is in-game. In-game it's easy to use, but hard to master, so I'm upping the drawbacks a little here at the cost of removing its cooldown. Cooldowns don't actually make sense for the most part except for gameplay after all. "I can cast any spell but that last one I just used, even if using it would make sense or be easy".
Trixie is just going to summon herself more and more bread. Cuts down on travel costs, and will indeed make her popular. But mostly she just wants the bread.
Westfall doesn't get enough love, and VanCleef ought to get some more respect, but he's not really remembered by many except perhaps as the first main dungeon boss they beat. Too bad he's dead, or I'd include him. I am glad you enjoy the focus on less-used aspects, as a lot of the things I like in WoW aren't actually the main events. Some crossover there, but not 100%. While some may like the Lich King of Deathwing storylines, I like the Westfall one and I like the Malygos one. We'll be getting a good variety of plotlines here as I'm not limiting Kael and Trixie to Horde/Alliance (while they are working ostensibly for the former they can still do things for the latter).
Thanks! New chapter this weekend. :twilighthappy:
6078983 Well, I could see a cool down translating into time to recover from casting a draining or difficult spell. If magic were effortless every lock out there would only spam chaos bolt.
(sorry lock on the brain, just finished the green fire questline...lol)
6079482 Global cool down, fine, its understandable, but other cooldowns are pointless. Mana/energy/rage/insert resource here is supposed to determine whether we have the ability to use a skill again or not, and the only reason we can't is because of gameplay mechanics. If a Warlock in Warcraft, the lore, wanted to just spam the same attack over and over he should be able to until he runs out of mana.
Wait... I just understood this! PFFFFAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHH!!!
V... oh my dear Vi. Yes I know who she is.
6095335 Well, I'm glad you understood it just in time for the next chapter
Going to be finishing a new one tonight.
And if you think you know who V is, I'd like to inform you that "Vi" isn't the first two letters of their name.
But you are correct that V is female. 
6095566 I know who she is bro... I did the dungeon, the new one!
6095744 Well then good
Next chapter won't be a surprise for you then!
6095803 Btw the enw dungeon was crazy hard at times. I mean... the bosses, the tight spaces, all of that was crazy.
6096347 Very true, but things won't be AS difficult here as it takes place a couple years before Cataclysm...so everyone will be weaker, not as well off, and have worse equipment than when they are doing relatively well in Cataclysm. I'll be using the same guys though, as evidence by Ripsnarl already appearing.
6096374 I see... we are going there then? Hmmm...
...well this is getting interesting. Not that it wasn't before, mind, but the sooner I can find time to read the next chapter, the better.
Yup, i have no idea what is going on or what will happen.