World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind

by Blackdrag-rose

Suramar: The Spellstone

Trixie spent a few moments bundling the notes they had discovered so far, from all around Ambervale, and carefully stored them away in her pack, where they would be kept safe until they returned to Thalyssra with news on what happened to her friend. She and Lyra knew that, according to the final journal entry that they had discovered, Kel'danath used something that he called a 'spellstone' in his experiments, which was likely a Nightborne creation of some kind. From what she could tell the spellstone, if not the Arcanist himself, must be resting nearby, to which she and Lyra agreed that they needed to act fast before he became one of the withered that roamed the area around them... and they were sure that the manor in question was directly to the south of where they were standing.

That was mostly because of one of the large ettins was still trashing one of the buildings near the actual manor, to which they both agreed that this wasn't the time to engage such a creature, even if they were a dangerous pair... to which they walked over towards the road on their left and decided to use it to get around to the other entrance of the manor.

The manor was, of course, being patrolled by some of the withered, which Lyra and Trixie had to deal with thanks to the fact that the poor elves were trying to get at Trixie's mana, but at the same time they were somewhat glad to release them from the fate that had been forced upon them. While they fought their way through the small group of withered that were in front of them, however, they noticed that the ettin they had noticed earlier was moving towards the part of Ambervale they had been in earlier. That meant that they would be able to fully explore Koralune Manor and see if they could find Arcanist Kel'danath, or at least the spellstone that he had created while he was trying to cure the withered.

When they walked into the manor, however, they found an elf, wearing what appeared to be the ragged remains of a set of robes, huddled over in the middle of the building, though when Trixie got close the withered elf turned towards them and immediately attacked them. Lyra quickly stepped between the withered elf and Trixie, to which she used one of her warglaives to block the attack that was coming towards her friend and allowing her to back up, though when Trixie reached a good distance she started throwing arcane blasts at the fallen elf. The withered elf, who was no doubt Arcanist Kel'danath, growled as Trixie was placed further out of his grasp, to which he rapidly swung his hands at Lyra in an attempt to get her out of the way, so he could tear Trixie apart and get at the mana that was inside her veins.

Since Kel'danath was more focused on getting at Trixie, and wasn't really paying attention to the person that was standing in front of him, Lyra was free to step up the pace and used her own speed to overcome the withered elf's attacks and defenses... where she drove the tip of one of the Twinblades into the elf's chest and ended his miserable existence.

"So, this is what befell Kel'danath," Trixie commented, though at the same time she spotted some sort of wand that was resting on the withered elf's belt, so when Lyra gently laid the elf on the floor she pulled the wand off the belt, "well, Thalyssra will be happy to hear that we gave him some peace, especially since he had withered in the end... and I'm sure that she'll be interested in having this spellstone. Maybe she'll continue his experiments and, hopefully, discover a cure to rid all of these unfortunate elves of the fate that has befallen them."

"Well, we won't know until we we return to Shal'Aran," Lyra replied, though as she walked outside, with Trixie following right behind her, they were approached by yet another withered, but this time around Trixie stopped her from raising her weapons.

When she turned to ask what Trixie was doing, since they were being approached by an enemy, she noticed a small tag that was hanging from the withered's sleeve, one that read '16 - Theryn', indicating that this was the promising subject that Kel'danath had been experimenting on in the notes they had read. Lyra was lucky that she didn't cut off one of Theryn's arms or put a warglaive in his chest, because he was a vital piece of the puzzle that Kel'danath had been working on and killing him would have set Thalyssra behind.

"It appears that Theryn is still under the Arcanist's spell." Trixie commented, noticing that Theryn seemed interested in the spellstone, which made sense considering what they had discovered in the various notes they had recovered, "In the absence of Kel'danath himself, who deserved more than what fate gave him, a live subject could be useful in helping Thalyssra unravel his research."

Lyra nodded and beckoned for Trixie to follow her, though as they walked away from Koralune Manor she noticed that Theryn followed after Trixie, which made sense considering that she was the one carrying the spellstone, something he had to feel the presence of. Together the three of them made their way back to Shal'Aran, following the road that they had taken to get around the ettin, where Lyra noticed that none of the nearby creatures wanted to do anything to them and stayed out of their way. She had no idea if the animals of Suramar knew better than to mess with people like the three of them or if they didn't want to mess with one of the withered, though she was didn't question what was happening as they entered the ruins that protected the hidden cave they had discovered.

When they entered Shal'Aran, and made their way to the middle of the hidden ruins, they found Thalyssra standing on the floor below them, to which they walked down to where their new ally was standing, where Theryn simply walked up towards her and stood near their friend. Thalyssra seemed ready to strike Theryn down, especially since she had no idea what he was, to which Trixie moved forward and explained the situation to her, where she pulled out the notes and handed them to Thalyssra, along with the spellstone. It took the elf a few minutes to look through the notes that they had recovered, or at least skim through them to understand the basics of the information that she had been handed, before letting out a sigh as Lyra told her that Arcanist Kel'danath had turned and that they had been forced to kill him.

For a moment Thalyssra looked sad, which made sense considering that she said that they had needed Kel'danath's assistance for some reason, before she let out a sigh and turned to face them.

"So, Kel'danath turned in the end..." Thalyssra said, clearly indicating that she was sad about what happened to her friend, while at the same time she simply stared at the two Equestrians, "He deserved better. Thank you for giving him peace in the end."

"Its sad that he ended up turning into one of the withered," Trixie replied, to which Thalyssra nodded her agreement to that statement, before she waved a hand towards Theryn for a few seconds, "especially because he seemed to be on the trail of something important."

"Actually, Kel'danath discovered something incredible," Thalyssra stated, to which she held up the spellstone for a moment, indicating that she must have noticed something in the notes that neither Trixie or Lyra had spotted, which made sense considering that she knew the Arcanist better than they did, "the power to subdue and even control the withered. I will pick up where my old friend left off and see to it that he did not die in vain. Perhaps in the end we can even find peace for the wretches who have been left to a fate worse than death, though I will need more subjects in order to make that a reality. Take Kel'danath's spellstone and use it to subdue more withered."

Lyra honestly didn't want to put Trixie in further danger, especially since the withered liked to hunt for her, but it appeared that the best way to draw some of them withered out of hiding would be to have Trixie either stand in one spot or simply transform and have that attract their targets. Trixie, on the other hand, seemed pleased to have discovered an alternative method to dealing with the withered, especially after what happened in Azsuna and what was happening inside Thalyssra's city. Trixie took the spellstone and headed outside, though as Lyra followed after her she heard Thalyssra mention something about a holding cell for the withered that they collected, indicating that she definitely intended to experiment on them when she had the time.

When they reached the ruins outside the cave Trixie handed Lyra the spellstone before transforming into her dragon form, to which Lyra noticed that some withered immediately came out of the nearby area to investigate the increase in magical energy that was around them. Lyra focused on one of the withered and pointed the spellstone at her target, where she prayed that this worked, to which she watched as a small stream of magic at the withered, though as it approached her it seemed to reconsider its actions and stopped moving. That was followed by her target walking towards the entrance of Shal'Aran and wandered inside, to which Lyra smiled and turned the spellstone towards the next target and made sure that the spell went off without a problem.

Lyra and Trixie spent a few more minutes drawing in more withered, who were seeking the mana that was inside Trixie, before using the spellstone to change their minds, where they marched into Shal'Aran... though Lyra had to smile when she noticed some of the other heroes watching what they were doing and helped the withered walk towards where Thalyssra was waiting. When the withered stopped coming, whether they knew that something was stealing their numbers or that there weren't anymore of them in the immediate area, Trixie transformed back into her hybrid form before she and Lyra walked back into Shal'Aran. They found Thalyssra escorting the last withered into the cells that they would be resting in while she conducted her experiments, before she turned towards them and offered the two of them a brief smile for their efforts.

"Fascinating." Thalyssra commented, indicating that she was pleased by their efforts, as Lyra and Trixie had used the spellstone on ten to fifteen withered before they stopped coming, "Let us hope the spell holds."

"Considering how long Theryn has been under Kel'danath's spell, I'm sure that the spell will hold for quite a long time," Trixie replied, to which she and Lyra turned their full attention to their new friend, especially since they were curious as to what they should do next, "So, whose the next person that we need to recruit into your army?"

"We need to make contact with Chief Telemancer Oculeth," Thalyssra answered, to which she reached into one of her pockets and fished around for something, to which Trixie and Lyra patiently waited for her to find whatever she was searching for, "the man who developed Suramar's teleportation network. Oculeth had a workshop in old Suramar, from the age before the Sundering, and he may be taking refuge there. If you find him, show him this... hopefully you see him before he sees you..."

Lyra and Trixie looked down at the small coin that Thalyssra had pulled from her pocket, which must have been something important that Oculeth would recognize the moment they pulled it out. While Lyra grabbed the coin Trixie got directions to the workshop, as she had no idea where the workshop was located and wanted to get there before something happened to the elf that Thalyssra wanted them to find. After what happened with Kel'danath they didn't want the same thing to happen to this Oculeth, to which the two of them headed out of the hidden ruins and departed from the area it was resting in.

Comments

[Archivist Nightwatch]

As much as I am enjoying this story having gone through suramar on 5 different characters I am slightly in pain reading over it again lol.

[Blackdrag-rose]

8644842 I could only handle going through the entire story line with my main character... more just sounded like a waste of time considering that most of the Nightborne kill my other characters quite easily.

[Archivist Nightwatch]

8645013
yeah Suramar was VERY VERY annoying after the 2nd character and infuriating after the 3rd or 4th. Now it just makes me want to pull my hair out.