Tucked up high in the Aldor balcony, a forsaken woman stood, overlooking the City of Shattrath. She might have been a ghost there to most eyes, pale and willowy in the sunlight, her long hair like an incessant shadow refusing to give in to such rays. She was an oddity surely in the city of Light, though these days it received little company. Even the lower pavillion of the city was beginning to rebuild, more refugees piling out every day to find their place in the rest of Outland. The peace was a vast difference from the cluttered streets of Orgrimmar, but she found herself missing the view from the wooden loft, watching so many pass below her to attend to their own business.
It had grown too peaceful.
Annaliese twitched as she was bumped in the back by a very large dragon nose. Onin, the netherdrake she'd befriended years ago, nosed her again to fully gain her attention. Surprise lifted her brow, finding the juvenile drake in his normal form. He'd taken a liking to a smaller, elven form, granted to him by her own Orb of the Sindorei, seeing the world through the eyes of the dual-legged. The orb had taken the extra tinkering well, prolonging the time of its illusion much longer than the initial five minutes at a time. The Consortium were quite industrious when well compensated, she knew.
Between their shared hoarding of soul essences, an ethereal and a warlock could find quite a common ground.
'You are thinking of flying, I can tell,' Onin's deep voice slid into her mind. The cold discomfort of Northrend often kept the drake away--his fragile skin could withstand the blast of fel energy, but to ice Onin seemed to falter. Even in their distance, Anna found their mental bond to be as strong as it ever was. She curled her pale fingers over the drake's muzzle, petting gently as he continued to send his thoughts. 'Let me take you through the forest, like I used to. You used to love our flights over the river.' Onin ground his teeth, shaking his head at the tickling of her shadowy hair. 'Your changes have not taken those joys from you too, have they?'
Annaliese drew in a breath to sigh, stealing in air that she no longer used. "I am dead, Onin, not mindless. There are things I still enjoy as much as I used to." She gently scratched the leathery tuft of skin that dangled beneath his chin. "I came to terms with my state a while ago. Why can you not, my pet?"
The drake stared down at her with twin violet eyes, and then relented. 'Perhaps you are right. I am not of the natural world either, am I?'
A chuckle left her now, and the ghostly woman nodded. "True, true. Now go. Take Laelah with you and keep watch over her. She will love a flight."
Onin snorted indignantly, though half-way amused. 'The child-elf? Are you sure? She may fly off of my back like a passing twig! So small!'
"She is much stronger than you credit her for. Go. Perhaps she will like to take her little friend Alundria. A picnic in the Skethyl mountains, hm?"
'You would like it too, matron. Come join us.'
Annaliese smiled at the affectionate term, but she shook her head. "I have other plans tonight, I am afraid."
Onin canted his great head at the forsaken woman. 'Something calls you away where I may not go?'
"...somewhat, Onin. I'll return by the midnight hour."
*******
Deep beneath the Undercity, Annaliese walked down the canals, on past the Apothecarium--she could almost overlook the smell of death and poison wafting from its putrid laboratories. The air was cleaner as she passed on down the Royal Quarter, where only the sound of chanting banshees haunted her. The chill flowing out of the twisting inner passages bluffed her as she passed them, but she remained undettered. Eyes followed her from those dark passages, unknown things skittering around in the shadows, climbing over walls to watch another "deader" wander by. She remembered times when she would look over her shoulders by now, or stop to make sure no one was truly following after her.
Those days were gone. She now fit into the architecture.
What did unnerve her were the rumors floating about outside of the city, the occasional tremors of the earth that she'd felt as she had traveled to the ruins of Lordaeron. Talks of armageddon set so many on edge, sent so many into flurries of shopping for essential goods. Were cultists really attacking Ogrimmar? Even further her mind went, and despite her trying not to, she wondered about Stormwind. Those she once knew as friends...how were they faring during this insanity? The soft taps of her boots came to a slow stop. Her thoughts were getting out of hand. She turned, looking down a torch-lit corridor, whispered voices traveling down it.
Sometimes the most one could do was to be prepared.
"If you do -not- have an inkling as to what a demonic circle is, then you certainly do not belong my class!" The sharp, cold voice of a woman snapped down the corridor, and Annaliese followed it until it opened up into the study hall before her. Students sat behind a multitude of desks, all their attention upon the pacing Instructor, her sharp heels clicking against the stone floor. When she stopped, she struck the ground with her staff, the black pieces of diamonds encrusted to it shining in the torchlight. Her unearthly eyes ran down the rows of the seated students, and her lips opened wire tight against her face as she grinned viciously.
"Of course, you may choose to stay in my class, but I will not be surprised if you are lost within portal. Or ripped to shreds by something beyond the veil. You knew the risks when you signed the contract." The demonic circle at the forsaken's feet dissipated, and her eyes took a sharp turn to Annaliese's figure which lingered in the darkness of the hall.
"I see you there, girl, and you are late. Come here."
The podium held both a dagger, and scraps of parchment as Annaliese approached at the Instructor's beckoning. "You will sign this contract before entering this session. Understand that neither I, nor the written instructors, nor the Undercity will be held responsible for your safety. Signing this contract will also bind you to the Exchange." Lecranza smirked, her eyes piercing through the newest student. "The terms of the demonic tithe will vary from warlock to warlock, and that, my dear, will be for you to figure out on your own. As always. Hold out your hand."
A path of blood was cut into the pale skin of Annaliese's palm, and blood was made to dribble down upon the parchment. "Sign." She had done it before, signing away her name, etching the certainty that a weight would be placed on her soul for something owed. There were no second thoughts as she scraped her name into the piece of parchment, no flinching as she felt the heat of magic drive through her, cementing the magical contract. This was the process for attaining new demonic knowledge. The contract was rolled up into the Instructor's hands, and thus vanished in an array of glowing pink light.
"It is done. Welcome. Now..."
The Instructor raised her arms, spitting out words in demonic, forceful. Lacranza made no secret of her will over the dark arts, summoning a demonic portal right behind the podium. With another fling of her hands, she bade the doors open, and the portal hissed its magic into the cold air of the classroom. Each student was lining up before the summoned doorway, and Annaliese fell into order.
"I hope you have brought your Shards of Offering today! The altar inside of Nechniabain will take much more from you without the proper offering! You will learn the upper echelon of spells that will truly test your will as a warlock!" Another rap of the staff, and the first student entered the demonic portal. "Next! Hurry it up people--every moment you stay here dawdling is every moment your friends are endangered! Get in there!"
Lacranza quickly shoved the students in, cackling at the faces of two blood elves who she'd just pushed into the portal. Now Annaliese stood at the front of the line of students, looking on into the swirling abyss. Lacranza's splitting smile was aimed at her now.
"Are you ready to earn your place in my class, Annaliese? You will succeed here, or you may not come back."
Stiffening up her body, Anna eyed the Instructor for a moment, and then nodded silently, before stepping through into the darkness.
