【06】
== Present time, at Venomspite ==
The piercing cold gusts of wind affected thesoldiers’ movements. Naturally, the Forsaken were unafraid of the cold, but thebitter almost blizzard-like conditions hindered their joints and impeded theirmovements. Undeniably, the weather conditions in Northrend were moreunforgiving than usual. High Executor Wroth impatiently watched as his forceshaphazardly bustled about the area. They were already a mess before, but nowit’s been made worse with the Queen’s impending arrival.
The Banshee Queen’s first stop was Venomspite, whichwas most likely due to the poor test results of the New Plague and the generalineptitude of those stationed here. Noneof those circumstances were made any better with the recent Scourge ambush ledby a Lich. While the attack was quickly repelled, it was definitely a hit tomorale.
Wroth wasn’t worried for his future -- he had doneall he could in service to the Queen -- his conscience was clear in thatregard. His only wish was that upon Sylvanas’ arrival at Venomspite, no new calamities would befall this place.
"You there!" he cried out -- barely anoctave below a scream -- to a nearby apothecary. "Can't those men movequicker? Also, are the warlocksready?"
"They are ready."
"Is that so? What of Aeron’s whereabouts?" he continued to holler.
The apothecary twitched at the question. “I -- Idon’t know.”
“You’d best find out! When the Queen arrives, I want him to be available on command! Like an obedient dog who sits when and wherehe’s told!”
Wroth watched the troubled apothecary trot off.Irritated, he folded his arms and cursed to himself, ‘Dammit! It’s one thing afteranother!’ Things were just piling up, like the never-ending snowfall...
It appeared a blizzard was coming.
He stopped looking out the door and turned his focusback into the inside of the command tower. Wroth walked through the busysoldiers and apothecaries, continuing up the spiral stairs to the top of thetower where five warlocks were working to to ensure the summoning portal wasready to activate. They were diligently pouring over the values and settings inan effort to check and recheck for any mistakes.
A ball of energy gathered mid-air, twisting andextending into a pulsating, oval shaped door.
"The Queen said she is coming over," saidthe head Forsaken warlock to Wroth.
"Well, no shit! Why else am I up here?" Wroth gazed at the enormous portal nowoccupying most of the attic and shouted, “You made the portal this large but didyou think to check if the floor beneath us will hold up? Even if the portal wassuccessfully set up, I won’t allow something comically stupid to happen likethe attic floor giving out on us.”
The warlock wasn’t pleased with Wroth’s tone of voicebut he was now used to it. “Well, theQueen suddenly changed her itinerary so everything ended up last minute…” He abruptly realized he sounded like he wascomplaining, “I mean, um, everything should be fine for a temporary summon. Ifwe may, we’ll have the Queen to evaluate our results first and then we can talkabout the necessity and importance of relocating the portal. In other words--”
“When will she arrive?” he snapped at the verbosewarlock.
The warlock glanced over to the portal. “The spell iscast, so now we just have to wait for the response from the Undercity. We beganour testing by sending through some animals, so everything considered, it wouldappear stable...” he noticed the chubby rabbit scratching its ears next toWroth’s feet and hurried to put it back into its cage. “All in all, everythingis ready.”
Wroth shook his head and decided to ignore thisidiot.
Not long after, the portal started to respond. Thewarlocks around the portal began to chant, strengthening their magical output.Even Wroth, who had no mystical talents, could feel the commotion brought forthby their power. It was as if the blizzard howling outside was brought into theroom.
He stood tall before the portalin anticipation with his hands clutched together, nervously gazing into thenether, feigning confidence as a slowly forming dark figure emerged from theother side.
Sylvanas.
Her right arm extended across the portal first,followed by her flawless face and body. This scene resembled a drowning persongasping for air. The experience itself may have even felt like drowning yetwhen she set foot on the other side, the gracefulness with which she carriedherself had everyone convinced that the traversal was effortless.
The Forsaken who followed behindher appeared to be having a harder time. When two royal guards walked out,their arms lagged behind for about five seconds. It was fortunate the priestswere prepared and worked with the standby tailors to stitch up and mend theirarms.
“Who is in command here?”Sylvanas demanded from the room, before the priests could confirm whether shewas unharmed.
“It is I.” Wroth adjusted hisposture to stand upright with his arms to the side and raised his arm for aproper salute. “My respectful Queen, I am Wroth, the High Executor ofVenomspite.”
Sylvanas’ cold eyes stared rightat him, and the accompanying brief silence was enough for all the Forsakenpresent to recall how it once felt when their hearts raced. Fearfully, they watched Wroth, admiring how heremained unmoved by such palpable tension.
“I’ll get right to the point: TheDreadlord has brought to my attention that the situation here at Venomspiteunder your watch is in total disarray. So bad, in fact, that it is unimaginablehow it could get any worse than it already is.” Sylvanas’ voice was elegant,yet ruthless. “Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to personally evaluatethe situation here with my own eyes. Executor, you’ll report to me first, andthen gather all the men. I’ll need you to boost the morale of our soldiers.”
“Milady, would you not consider arest first? We’ve prepared a room for you.” The warlock carefully asked as shefinished giving orders. This did manage to make an impact to Sylvanas’expression, but it could not be considered as glad. “No, I don’t have time forthat.”
Wroth secretly nodded inagreement, since he was always against dragging things out. "Please followme, Milady. By the way, other than the Chief Plaguebringer and myself, wouldthere happen to be any other particularindividuals you would like--”
“Just the two of you. The othersare not important. Let’s go.” Sylvanas was clearly even less patient thanWroth. She led the way down the stairs and Wroth sent guards down with her ashe followed behind, curious.
The Queen’s response was far moredisinterested than he expected, unless that contemptible Aeron Bloodblade wasnot as valued by Sylvanas as the rumors insist?
“Sir,” a female apothecarywhispered to him in a high-pitched voice. “We cannot find him...”
“Well? Did you turn the entire outpost of Venomspiteinside out?!” he shouted.
“We practically--”
“Practically? That’s weird, thefloor beneath my feet is still intact! Until you’ve flattened the mountainshere, don’t tell me you cannot find him!”
He turned and walked off leavingthe apothecary frozen in space, no doubt cursing how Aeron had caused moretrouble than ever. Her face twisted and she stomped her way out of the room,where the howling gusts of the blizzard became the duet of her voicedcurses. If Wroth permitted, she probablywould have blown apart all the buildings here.
※ ※ ※
Lately, Aeron Bloodblade caughthimself reminiscing over his encounter with Sylvanas. Had Varimathras not found him and asked himto come to Northrend, Aeron would’ve simply buried the memory of this encounterwith Sylvanas in the deepest corner of his heart, never to be mentioned again.Even now, he couldn’t decide whether he was eager to meet her again or wasdying to run away from anything that reminded him of the past.
He no longer hid behind his mask.His lifeless skin carried no color except for his rotten, yellowed eyes. Yet thewholesomeness of his appearance was unwelcome among the Forsaken, and some wereeven jealous.
Suddenly, he sensed an arrowaimed at his face, even if most of him was hidden within a haystack at the farend of the barn.
Even though he’d only seen it once before, the stanceof the bow draw reminded him of Sylvanas. In contrast, the hunter in front ofhim was merely a poor imitation of the Queen. Aeron glanced toward the Forsakenhunter, lazily shifted his position and jadedly asked, “What do you want?”
“Why’d you take my ‘sleeping’ spot?” The respondingvoice didn’t sound angry. In fact, it was more like a chuckle.
Aeron sighed butgave an inconspicuous smile. “Oh right, I forgot I learned that it’s commonknowledge around Venomspite that nobody crosses Ziggi’s turf.”
“Well, clearly you haven’t.” Thesmile on Ziggi’s face widened.
“It’s precisely because I learnedthat rule that I’m hiding in here.”
The Forsaken’s head washalf-shaven, with the other half spilling messily down to the shoulder; theForsaken’s jaw was ever so slightly crooked to the side. Ziggi put away the bowand lunged onto the haystack, stomping down next to him. “Get your ass up. Firstly, I never allowed you to use this ‘bed’. Secondly, everyone is tearing up the placelooking for you!”
“Now you know why I am here.”
“Get up, moron.”
Aeron reluctantly got up anddusted the hay off his body. He scratched his head before he noticed Ziggiintently staring at him.
“Now what?” he surrendered.
“So you’re going to meet theQueen later, right?” Ziggi grinned widely, loose jaw swinging around inheightening excitement. “I heard she suddenly changed her route so that thefirst stop was Venomspite. Did you know about this? Do you think it might berelated to you?”
“How would I know,” he retorted,rolling his eyes. “I didn’t make thetrek to Northrend for your Queen, either.” He was only here so he wouldn’t haveto endure another grating moment of Varimathras’ long-winded speeches, butAeron wasn’t going to voice this. “She probably doesn’t even remember who Iam.”
“Ha! You’re hilarious.” Ziggi chuckled mockingly.Ziggi grabbed Aeron’s shoulder as he was about to leave. “Wait up, I need afavor from you.”
“In your dreams.”
“Pleeaaaasssee! You know I never request anything fromanyone.” Ziggi was still snickering. “Put in a few good words for me in frontof the Queen, please! Even if it allows me to be a little closer so I can seeher better from a short distance.”
Aeron looked at the small Forsakenin front of him. He was well aware that this short undead human was Sylvanas’number one fan and had always desired to emulate her ranger ways instead ofbeing an ordinary hunter. Even Aeron could feel the fanatical anticipationthrough those empty eye sockets…
“Let’s talk about this later. Fornow, I’m going to find somewhere else to hide,” he responded decisively.
“.....Wha--?”
“Go ask someone else. I don’thail from the Undercity, so my words won’t count for anything.” Aeron waved andhurried to leave, but as he passed Ziggi, he was stopped in his tracks by anarrow shot at his feet. Instinctively, he dodged to the side only to land in aFrost Trap, freezing his feet and rendering him immobile.
“Dammit, you jerk!” Aeron cursedangrily as he almost fell over from the ice encasing his feet.
“Somehow I knew you would rebuffme, so I took some precautions. Don’t worry, I’m not holding a grudge againstyou. Just think of it as helping to cure you of your hermit-like behaviors.”Ziggi hummed happily, twirling an arrow, then walked around Aeron and jumped tothe road and yelled, “Hey! Apothecary! Aeron is here! Come get him out ofhere!”
The group of apothecaries dashedover and grabbed Aeron. Tightly gripping his body, they carried him away. “Ziggi,you bastard!!” he yelled helplessly.
"I’ll see you at thegathering, brother.” Ziggi blew him a kiss and waved goodbye with an arrowstill in hand.
Written by: Ms.Ursus thibetanus formosanus
Translated by: Vicky Cheng
