Contracts

The sound of a thousand wings reached my ears and swells of amethyst mist filled my senses once again. The blazing white snows of the Howling Fjord vanished from my sight. Falling once again. Each moment a dark ripple of power washed over me. More and more then until a thousand waves seemed to coalesce around me, within me, and through me. I shivered but not from the cold, but from something else, stirred deep within me.

 I had been warned of course, that doing what I was doing here would have consequences. They could attempt to control me now, use me. If my will faltered in any part while they were with me they could take the advantage.

It was dark by the time Keth decided to sit up in bed, the grumblings of her stomach telling her that if she was going to do anything that day, it was going to be eating.  Staring at the tan stone of the walls and ceiling had done nothing to help her situation, so maybe, she decided, putting food in her stomach would yield better results.  All she had around was some dried meat, not having gone out for a while to get fresh produce, but as she knew too well, beggars couldn’t be choosers. 

And yet, her problem was too many options, none of which were particularly stellar.

Midnight in my small garden was the perfect time to think, warm nights like this one with the curling scent of flowers left over from the day. Halodante’s weight pressed against my leg, her soft humming voice, sightless eyes staring off into darkness none of us would ever see. I ran my hand through her fine white hair, it was getting long. Strands of silk run though my fingers, it caught the scab healing in my palm. Another scar, another mark of loyalty, another blood promise to someone else.

Thick grey clouds clung heavily to the sky above the kingdom of Stormwind. A few snowflakes swirled lazily toward the cobblestone streets, where children shouted in glee, and stuck out their tongues to catch the flakes.

Rhahasia Inzil was oblivious to the view as she paced in front of the window of her small flat in Stormwind, one hand clasped at a thin cord around her neck. Her mind sped through recent events—re-evaluating each one, in search of alternatives and solutions.

The Penumbra Infantry had entered into a contract with the Stormwind government. They would increase the security of the kingdom and assist with the war—expendable forces at the King’s and his generals’ disposal. It was a good contract—it provided respectable work for a change, an opportunity to form connections in the right places, and it paid a pretty penny too.

Under the shade of a tree in Aeris Landing, Erendis sat across a table from her new … employer? Thing? Whatever! Erendis could make neither heads nor tails out of these Ethereals. A strange form of sentient life, to be sure. Stranger even then the shroom people. At least the walking, talking funguses have physical bodies. However, and despite the vast biological differences between the two, Erendis and Gezhe were able to connect on a higher metaphysical, nay almost spiritual, plane.

“He” wanted things of questionable legality done and she wanted to get paid for doing them.