Liandrix pulled his hands from his sleeves and turned to look at the man sitting behind his desk.
“It wasn’t supposed to go like that, Robert!”
Robert grinned as he rested his feet on the desk. “What wasn’t supposed to happen? Your flattening the entire Council with a handful of arguments?”
“They’re sending me to go investigating the Troll occurrence in the east. I was supposed to point them in the right direction, not join them!”
“Isn’t Krasus taking point on this?”
Liandrix made a helpless gesture. “No. Krasus says he has other matters to attend to and told the Archmage I’d go in his stead.”
Liandrix, not sure what to do aside from pacing the room, dropped into a chair by the window.
“I don’t get it,” Robert said. “What are you so worried about? All you will do is head over there to confirm your theory and catalogue any magic you find. Are you taking any battlemages with you?”
“One,” Liandrix said. “Kel’thuzad chose her.”
“Aááh, Cecilia,” Robert said grinning. “No surprise there.”
“One of Korrigan’s apprentices is also coming, and a mage sent by Alonda who thinks a fifth Troll species might be responsible.”
“Is that likely?”
Robert’s tone was clearly feigned interest, but Liandrix started to answer anyway, but was cut short by a click behind him.
The door to the study swung open and Catherine strolled in as if it was her own home. She stopped when she spotted Robert leaning back in his chair, grinning, and his feet still firmly planted on the desk.
“Pardon me, is this a right time? Only, I heard you were leaving Liandrix, I thought I’d say goodbye before you go.”
As the whole plan was kept strictly secret even from most of the Open Council members Liandrix was at the cusp of asking how she had heard, but Robert’s unhidden mirth spoke pages on the subject and so Liandrix remained silent.
Catherine quietly closed the door and brushed her golden curls out of her face. In that instant Liandrix forgot what he had been talking about with Robert, but he knew it was of no importance. Catherine stepped inside the room as she removed a flimsy cloak. She was wearing her blue tailor’s dress which housed a set of pouches with sewing materials and cloth. Liandrix had never seen a tailor wear such a dress and assumed she had made it herself. In her hands she clasped a parcel that looked to have been wrapped in haste.
Robert allowed his chair to return to four legs and the bang that followed woke Liandrix from his state of mind.
“Well, I ought to go. Master Kysera will want to see my theses on Dwarvish column architecture and its magical components,” Robert said with a wink in Liandrix’ direction.
Catherine’s blue eyes followed Roberts movements until the door clicked shut behind him and then subtly glided back to look at Liandrix. She held out the parcel.
“I brought you something to take on your trip.”
She ripped the poorly wrapped package herself and extracted a long purple scarf with golden ends and golden lettering on it. Before Liandrix thought to hold up his hand Catherine had swung the scarf over his head and wrapped it around his neck, pulling him closer.
“Accentuates your hair,’ she grinned.
Liandrix couldn’t help but grin back, and then stopped and wondered how stupid it must have looked. To give himself a reason to look away he glanced down at the scarf.
“Loremaster Liandrix,” Liandrix read aloud. “I’m not a master.”
“You tell stories like one. Besides, I like the way it sounds. Somehow it fits, doesn’t it?”
“Best not let Krasus see it, though,” Liandrix said somewhat anxiously, and Catherine laughed.
“I do like your stories, Liandrix. Promise me you’ll return with one.”
“I promise.” Liandrix felt both reluctant to leave her in Dalaran and impatient to get on his way in order to retrieve a good tale from the trip. Catherine just made him feel that way.
“Just so you know, you still owe me a story from last night.”
Liandrix bit his lip. She actually stopped by! Hastily he reached back for the book sitting on the corner of his desk. It was the book on Dwarfish tailoring he had meant to give her then, but before his hand could complete the journey Catherine covered it with hers.
“I wasn’t talking about the book.”
Liandrix was suddenly aware of how close she was standing.
“I just wanted to give you a good luck charm for the journey.”
Liandrix could smell the perfume on her skin.
“I- I’ll wear it all the time,” Liandrix stammered.
He felt soft hands slip around his waist.
“I wasn’t talking about the scarf.”
*
“Well you took your time, you’re the last one to arrive,” Kel’thuzad said in a somewhat agitated voice.
Liandrix made the party count five, which was indeed the last. He was grateful that Kel’thuzad wasn’t too angry with him, although he never did seem to get angry at all. In fact, his greeting was quite furious, in relative terms. They had assembled in a small clearing outside the city normally used for practising translocation.
Behind Kel’thuzad Cecilia was sliding a wand carefully in some unseen pocket of her vest. Although clad in the navy blue-and-purple battle-uniform of the Kirin Tor she somehow managed to look even more radiating than normal, like a fierce mermaid the Southshore sailors often spoke off, although in those stories the mermaids usually wore their hair loose whereas Cecilia was wearing hers in a tightly bound braid. She turned back to resume her conversation with a wiry wizard Liandrix knew to be Oliver, the apprentice of Korrigan the librarian.
That left the woman behind Oliver to be the mage Alonda had sent to bear witness to finding a new Troll species. The woman could not have been more different than Oliver. Where Oliver was lean and seemingly as jittery as his master, she seemed confidently bored and managed to stretch her robes farther than Robert did, excluding the intended muscle quantity.
“… Back before nightfall,” Liandrix heard Cecilia say in a soothing voice to the librarian’s apprentice.
Kel’thuzad’s dark eyes remained fixated on Liandrix. “What’s the matter with you? You look … rattled. You’re not getting jitters about the expedition as well are you?”
“I’m fine,” Liandrix said, forcing some strength behind the word to sound surer. Kel’thuzad turned away indifferently and marched to the middle of the clearing where he began the procedural casting to create a portal.
Alonda’s apprentice waddled over to Liandrix instead and introduced herself as Bernadelle. “I do hope a new Troll species is responsible for these dealings, it would further my career to no end. Not that it needed any such thing of course; I wouldn’t have been chosen to participate otherwise. Master Alonda always speaks highly of my attainments, so I am sure you have heard.”
Liandrix instantly decided he’d rather hear one of Roberts ‘my wife and I’ tales at the moment. Fortunately Bernadelle did not ask him for specific information on the subject of Trolls, but chose instead to continue her summary of her latest accomplishments in her field. Kel’thuzad’s call to approach the portal came as a blessing.
Cecilia and Kel’thuzad flanked the portal. It looked like a disk surrounded by deformed air and mist. Liandrix could see a rolling landscape through it and that the sun had a much lower position in the sky. He wasn’t given much more time to investigate their landing spot as Kel’thuzad ushered them all through the portal, Cecilia taking the lead.
So much for translocational safety measures, Liandrix thought. He clutched his scarf and stepped through the swirling mass of colours.
On the other side Liandrix immediately sensed something amiss. It wasn’t until Oliver’s querulous noises reached a new pitch that Liandrix realised the absence of ambient clamour. There wasn’t a single sound in the air. No birds calling, no wind blowing, no leaves rustling. The silence wasn’t absolute, owing to their presence, but it certainly was disconcerting.
If Kel’Thuzad had noticed the strangeness of this place he gave no hint of it, and approached Cecilia who stood at the tip of the hill overlooking the village with her wand in hand. Both her hands were held up next to her face as if she had her face pressed against a glass window and was trying to peer through. She turned around.
“Completely deserted. Not a single living soul is in that village.”
Kel’Thuzad led the way to the church which stood solemnly in the centre of Holden Hill. Along the way Liandrix hadn’t spotted anything unusual about the place, aside from the silence.
“Perhaps they’re all still there, but invisible. I’ve seen such a thing before,” Bernadelle’s drawling voice sounded from the back of the party.
Liandrix clenched his teeth. Any invisible beings would have been spotted by Cecillia immediately. They all entered the church one by one. Once inside, Kel’Thuzad laid a device on the floor consisting of a purple orb supported by a golden goblet. The orb was encased in ornate silver lines and covered in Thalassian words.
When the device stood the whole group looked at the stationary artefact. It neither moved nor glowed nor made a sound. The silence it created was of the sort that pressed on your hearing, the sort that forced you to make a movement just to be sure that sound still existed. But this silence stretched, and stretched. And when Bernadelle’s voice sounded through the hollow interior of the chapel it seemed magnified tenfold.
“I don’t think it’s working.”
Kel’thuzad gave no hint of annoyance and kept his eyes on the device. “It is working as it is intended to work. It records active sources of magic in the surrounding area. There simply aren’t any sources to speak of.”
Kel’thuzad turned away from the device to look out of one of the long rectangle windows while Bernadelle seemed to swell beyond the limits of her robes.
“I knew it! This has been nothing but a useless goose chase! I cannot believe I put so much time into this foolish errand!”
Liandrix looked at Kel’thuzad’s unmoving form and wondered if that was indeed the case. But the evidence he had laid down upon the Council table was infallible, and any sort of magic would leave its traces behind, no matter how small.
Liandrix blinked once as he looked closer to where Kel’thuzad was standing and felt the thin hairs on his neck rise as he noticed what was amiss in this picture. Kel’thuzad had two shadows; one leading away from the window, and one creaping towards it. When Liandrix blinked again one of the shadows had vanished.
“—Hours and hours of research and the Kirin Tor send me to this useless excuse for a village!”
Liandrix looked at the orb no one seemed to notice anymore. It had turned a radiating lime-green and was vibrating visibly in its casket.
“Master … “
“—And not even a thank you for my consistent dedication!”
“…Guys?” Oliver’s jittery voice carried through the hall. He was staring out of a window. “What happened to the sun?”
Then Kel’thuzad laid eyes on his device. “Everyone out, now!”
But before anyone could move to obey a resounding crash made the floor beneath their feet quake and suddenly the ceiling gave way to be swallowed by a huge swirling vortex in the sky. It was the same colour as the device that still was still pulsating a murky green light in their faces.
The vortex pulled anything in that wasn’t stuck to the ground or the remains of the church. Pieces of brick and glass were sucked into the green abyss. Liandrix threw himself at a tapestry in a desperate attempt to stay on the ground and he saw the others make similar efforts. Oliver was screaming uninterruptedly, clutching a bench as the wind yanked at his clothes.
Liandrix could hardly believe what he was witnessing. If this was Troll magic then he had vastly underestimated their magical prowess. He reached for a brass handlebar for a more stable position but when his hand came close an electric shock made him pull it back. The very air seemed charged with energy.
Yet still … They weren’t flying up with the debris. The vortex seemed to pull everything in but them. Taking a deep breath, Liandrix let go of the drapery he had been holding on to and managed to stay on both feet.
“It’s an illusion! It’s not real!” Liandrix shouted into the raging winds.
Kel’Thuzad released the windowsill he was grasping, swept his robes over his shoulder and pulled Cecilia to her feet who was eyeing the green whirlpool with disbelief, until Kel’Thuzad pulled her away.
Both Bernadelle and Oliver scrambled to their feet at that point and made for the doorway.
“Stick together!” Kel’thuzad shouted, but Oliver had already shot past the two large doors and vanished from sight.
Liandrix followed Bernadelle and Kel’thuzad brought up the rear with Cecillia, who had her wand out. They pushed the doors open and as soon as they had crossed the threshold the wind died down to nothing. Above them the sky was clear, albeit green still, and there was no sun to be seen; nor was there any sight of Oliver.
Cecilia pulled herself free from Kel’thuzad, turned back and dashed to the church. “The Cataloguer is still inside!”
Kel’thuzad made to stop her but seemed to think better on it and instead turned to grab Liandrix by his scarf. “Emmot! Is this magic the sort we were supposed to encounter?”
“It’s the same kind of magic, but …” Liandrix could feel something different from what he had expected. For one, the illusion seemed to have been the same for everyone, there hadn’t been any individual encounters. But something else felt off as well, something he couldn’t put his finger on. He was oddly reminded of the time he and his fellow apprentices had unwittingly conjured Troll magic of their own.
“But what!” Kel’thuzad urged.
Cecilia returned with the device in hand. “Kel, something is wrong. I can’t get a reading on—“
Cecilia lurched as if she had hit an invisible barrier. A shadow creeped up from behind her stationary form.
“Cecilia!”
Cecilia’s arms closed around an object on her midriff. Liandrix felt his knees grow weak as behind him Bernadelle screamed.
Liandrix hadn’t noticed Kel’thuzad releasing him but suddenly he was sprinting towards Cecilia who was scrambling her bloody fingers over the blade in her chest in pure panic. She was pushed aside by the shadow behind her which took the form of a tall, powerfully built Troll. It released the handle of the dagger he had pushed through Cecilia’s back and his hand came back with a purple glow. He cast the approaching mage a leering smirk.
“You be walkin’ straight into my trap, Humáns,” it drawled with a thick accent. “Your Arcane powers be mine, now.”
The Troll plunged a blunt stave decorated with small skulls into the earth as Kel’thuzad flung out an arm at the Troll, meaning to cast a spell.
Nothing happened; nothing but a slow rumbling that seemed to come from the Troll. Liandrix realised it was laughing. He could see Kel’thuzad struggling as if trying to break through some invisible bond. How a troll could steal Arcane energy Liandrix could not imagine, and thought perhaps it was bluffing, but the Troll was certainly successful in preventing one of the most gifted mages from attacking him, and it turned its back to him unconcernedly. The Troll raised both his glowing hand and his stave and after a moment the air in front of it began to shimmer and turn, and a portal appeared.
Liandrix could not see through it as it appeared to be black as night, but he could feel the Arcane energy radiating from the gateway. He tried to organise his thoughts but the hum in the air felt like a bee in his mind. The Troll turned to face the three remaining expedition members.
“It be the time of Zul’jin! It be the time of the Amani!” And with that he cast himself into the darkness of the portal.
When the Troll had gone Kel’thuzad threw himself at the lifeless form of Cecilia while Liandrix carefully approached the swirling portal. He slowly raised his hand and appraised the energy that came from the portal. It was Arcane, to be sure. Yet still there was something amiss that he could not place. It was as if there was a piece that matched the puzzle, but did not belong.
Liandrix clenched his jaw in annoyance. He felt like he was a hair-width removed from the answer. The Arcane energy felt somehow tainted, unpure. But how could that be? Any impurity in the Arcane would become a leak or conduction and would cause the energy to nullify itself. Perhaps if he used a conductor of his own …
“Out of my way!”
Liandrix was flung aside, whether by magic or physical force he could not have said, and Kel’thuzad sprang at the portal.
“Wait! You don’t know where it leads!” Liandrix shouted uselessly, and somewhere deep inside he had a hunch where it would take him.
Kel’thuzad was gone. Behind him Liandrix heard a sob and he turned to see Bernadelle clutching the grass in a pathetic heap.
“Stay here!” he told her.
Looking back to the portal that still did not show its destination Liandrix gathered his waning courage and stepped firmly through the circle of shadow. As all around him colour and sound congealed to a single entity, the last thought that crossed his mind was of Catherine.
