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| Details |
| Author: | Saaron |
| Summary: | Sandy goes to the warlocks in Ratchet to ask them about a certain Shadowy necklace and gets other information he wasn't expecting. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
“… And that’s how I discovered that not only my father was actually alive this whole entire time, but me and the Company had been working very close with him for a few weeks!”
Babayaga Shadowcleft and Menara Voidrender glance at him each other.
“But apparently my birth mother, Sirie, she’s dead, so there’s that. All I’ll ever know is that I look more like her side of the family, the Netelle family, than my father’s.”
Strahad Farsan sighs.
“… Okay, Sandy,” answers Babayaga, massaging the side of her face. “You had something to ask of us, I presume?”
“Please don’t tell us you traveled all the way here just to share you backstory,” says Menara before he can answer.
Sandy stares at them unblinkingly, before perking up, suddenly remembering why he’d ask to meet with the warlocks of Ratchet.
“Right! Uh, I was wondering if you maybe had information about a shadow necklace, one that will kill you if you think or speak of the person who put it on you, or something. And you can’t take it off,” he pauses, observing the warlocks exchanging looks full of suspicion. “I’m asking for a friend.”
Strahad frowns.
“Did you accidentally create a cursed artifact again? We’ve heard about the whispering ink bottle-“
“No, no I promise this time I’ve got nothing to do with it! It was made by a shadow priestess, and one of my friends has that necklace on! Since we work with the shadows and the void too, I came here to ask if you had any idea how I could take it off.”
“How could we know of a way to remove it, if we can’t even examine it?”
Babayaga scoffs.
Sandy looks at the ground and frowns in thought.
“Well… Maybe there’s a precedent you’ve heard of?”
“Sorry. Unless you convince her to come to us without setting off the necklace, there’s nothing we can do.”
Menara’s words sound like something sympathetic, but her intonation and the look on her face betrays a strong feeling of apathy for Sandy’s friend.
“Yeah… that might be a little complicated. She isn’t very into magic, and if I told her I’m taking her to a meeting of warlocks, I’m pretty sure she’d say no.”
“Then if she you think it’s impossible she will accept our help, stop wasting both your and our time on her life.” Babayaga walks inside the warlock’s building to finish drawing a ritual circle with the acolytes.
Sandy turns around to stare at her, frowning. He opens his mouth, ready to argue with the gnome, when he feels a hand on his shoulder, he turns around, and Menara whispers to him.
“We know you don’t have the best of reputations with the Warlocks of Stormwind,” Sandy knows this isn’t true, they like him very much, they even let him try new spells first. “And from what you’ve told us, some of our own people in Ironforge work a little too closely with the shadows. Don’t cut ties with the last safe…” she shakes her head. “… ish… group of Fel researchers you know by arguing with Babayaga.”
Strahad nods.
“I do not condone her words, but understand that Professor Shadowclef is right on one point. Please don’t waste our time.”
Sandy fidgets with his Cobalt Company tabard and sighs. “Okay, I guess I’ll go, then.”
As he walks away towards the deck, his gaze fully fixed on the ground, Acolyte Wytula leaves the warlocks’ building and whispers in Menara’s ear.
As Sandy looks for a boat to take him back to the Eastern Kingdom, Menara runs up to him, a bit out of breath.
“Your mother… Sirie Netelle… That is… that’s her name, right? You’re sure about that?”
Sandy nods.
“One of our acolytes… heard you and she… she knows someone who goes by that exact name,” Menara progressively catches her breath as she talks.
The young man’s eyes widen. Could it be? Last time someone said to him ‘I know someone with that name!’ he ended up meeting his father, so why wouldn’t it happen with his mother too! Maybe Therald’s wrong. Maybe Sirie is alive! Before he gets much more excited than he already is, he has to ask a question first.
“It wasn’t Acolyte Blackwood, right?”
A question Merana answers to by shaking her head. They both know that the relationship between Sandy and Blackwood has been complicated ever since they first met, and that the latter would not be a very trustworthy source of information for anything related to Sandy.
“Is it all right if I share your address in the Outland to that acolyte, and… maybe she could give it to Sirie. You could ask her if she is that same Sirie Netelle, once she sends you a letter.”
Sandy beams at this idea. It would be even easier than meeting his dad! No weird, stress-fueled meeting to ask Sirie if they’re related, no, he could just write a letter and send it to her.
…
But waiting for the answer might be a little stressful, though. But not as stressful as asking in person, so Sandy enthusiastically nods his head.
“I’d love to, that’s sounds great! Thank you so much!”
He opens his arms to hug Merana, who laughs nervously and just says:
“No, thank you,” but she does smile back at him. “All right, you are indeed staying in Shattrath for now, right? You’re still living in the inn you told us last time?”
“Yeah!”
“Then I’ll give its address to Wytula.”
Sandy raises an eyebrow. He can’t remember which one of the acolytes Wytula is. Probably one of the gnomes, because Wytula doesn’t sound very human a name. Is his mother friends with gnomes, too? Nice!
“Safe travels, Sandy,” she turns around to walk back to her group, but spins on her heels one last time. “Oh, and if that necklace comes off of your friend’s neck…” she doesn’t say the ‘one way or another’ part, but it’s clear by the way she speaks that the ‘one way or another’ is still very much present in that sentence. “If you can get your hands on that and bring it to us… It sounds like a fascinating item to study.”
Sandy smiles brightly.
“I will, thanks!”
He waves at the other warlock and they go their separate ways, Menara biting her lower lip thinking about what Wytula told her, and Sandy sighing happily at the information he got. Never once had he been so happy in a goblin town!