(2025-07-02) Secrets and Trust

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Author:	Alli
Summary:	Two days after the destruction of Theramore, Alaisa comes by to check on Aszera at her apartment in Stormwind. Secrets are shared and plans for furniture are made. ~2900 words
Rating:	M for Mature 17+

It's early afternoon in Stormwind City, two days after the news of Theramore. Life is starting to get back to normal after the shock, but there's still a slightly subdued air about the foot traffic. Part of that atmosphere might be due to the mixing in of the new civilians from across the sea, going through their daily lives as they get used to the idea that the evacuation is now permanent.

The address Alaisa Lysander has for Aszera Sunstrike leads her to a building at the end of the lane that has come to be known as Resurrection Row — the recent Fallon development project. Aze's room seems to be at the end closest to the main street, in the residences of the floor above a commercial space labeled as Private Investigations. This afternoon, there are signs of life from the apartments above. One of the windows is opened, curtains drawn back, though it's too high for anyone from the street to look in. The door into the building is unlocked at the moment, and Aze's front door awaits just up the stairs.

Alaisa walks into the entry hall, noting the door that would lead to the detective agency with some curiosity before she takes the staircase up after all. She is not concerned with being quiet — she can't really sneak up on a demon hunter, and it doesn't seem like a smart idea even if she could — and she whistles something cheerful as she climbs the stairs. "Knock knock," she calls through the door, and then knocks.

There's the sound of feet striking the floor, and then light footsteps over to the door, which opens without hesitation.

"Ally," she says with a slightly hesitant smile at Alaisa's cheer, and she steps back to let her friend into the bare central room. Aze's face is flushed, though based on her slightly mussed hair and the clothes she's wearing — shorts and a halter-top — it's likely from exercise rather than drink. The empty wine bottles on the counter still give evidence of the latter as a past activity. Warm sunlight filters in through the open window, and so does fresh air. "I was going to write to you. I would have, today. How are you… holding up?"

"Hey, Aze." Alaisa looks around at the emptiness of the apartment, then goes to give her friend a hug. "From a personal standpoint, nobody I was close to died. So I'm holding up well. But it's a major political loss, and it's going to force some of my friends into making choices, and I'm pissed about that. I'm in a good place to get news, though. Jaina Proudmoore survived. So did Shandris Feathermoon."

Aze accepts the hug without hesitation, and without any attempt to hide the visible tattoos on her arms and shoulders.

"Really? So some people did get out, in the end. That's good," Aze says, her smile brightening as she steps back, then it fades as she adds, "Still… yeah. I made my choices already, which I hope anybody watching saw at the gala, if not before. Emerine saw. And Siamus. But yeah, it'll force… decisions. I haven't talked to Roper and Yara yet — have you? — but at least they had a place in Redridge."

"I haven't yet," Alaisa says. She tilts her chin up slightly. "I'm seeing what I can get for them first. I'm SI:7, Stormwind intelligence. Were you aware?"

There's only a brief moment's catch in Aze's movement as she steps over to where her sitting pillows wait. "I… knew you were Cobalt. It makes sense, with all the languages and Roper being… what he's like." She pauses, gesturing for Alaisa to sit as if she's showing her a sitting room and not pillows scattered on a floor. "As a person, I mean, that wasn't a reference to the whole undead thing. He and I get along a lot better now. More like family. So… does that mean you can warn me, if it looks like I'm getting into trouble?"

Alaisa picks up two pillows, stacks them on top of each other, and sits on that. "Yeah," she says, her tone a little warmer now that she's gotten the disclosure part out of the way. "Yeah, that's one of the things it means. Jocoza and Ference know - I'm the liaison between SI:7 and Cobalt Company."

Aze pulls a pillow around to face Alaisa with her foot, and then settles back on her heels. "That's also why I shouldn't ask you about work in public. I'll remember that — and Cobalt's so high up it needs a liaison with SI:7? I guess they've been involved in a lot. And, since you're willing to tell me, it means you trust me now." It's said as a statement, but there's the slightest rise of intonation at the end, asking for confirmation.

"I trust you more than most," Alaisa says. "I trust you with some of my secrets, and you're Roper's family, which means I'll guard yours. But I do like you for you, which is worth something on its own."

"It is," Aze says, her voice a little more certain now. Then she straightens, and says, "Oh, fuck, I forgot host things. Would you like something to drink? I have wine and water. Someday maybe I'll offer snacks and tea, like they do at Siamus's house, but I'm all out for now."

Alaisa laughs. "I'm good. Unless you're thirsty and going to get something anyway, in which case I'll take water. Have you just been fully staying indoors? Do you need groceries?"

"Okay, then no drinks. I'm just trying to be a good hostess," Aze laughs. "And yeah, pretty much. It's only been a couple of days. I'll start going out again soon, with the cloak. Just right now — I probably look like the enemy to a lot of people. And if anyone starts any trouble…. I can't win," Aze shrugs, "because I'm not willing to fight back. Elf in Stormwind hurts Alliance citizens is not a story the Aspenwoods need to hear, or the Fallons. But there's some places that deliver food and stuff, so I've been doing that."

Aze shakes her head. "As for the rest, I should say I trust you too — and I like… I like the you I know. And I'd like to know more of you, because I get that a lot of you is hidden. Just — tell me if a thing's a secret, okay? I'll guard your secrets if I know what they are."

Alaisa looks vacantly in the direction of the kitchen for a moment. "I'm one of SI:7's more public-facing members, as Alaisa Lysander. She translates for them. Sometimes that means decyphering coded enemy intelligence in another language - that's the sort of thing Alaisa gets asked to do. I wouldn't spread that around in crowds, but that's not strictly a secret."

She looks back to Aze. "My agent name is Mist. Mist is a spy. She gets called on for more than just translation and code work, sometimes. Roper knows, Syarra has the right to know as his wife. Some of my coworkers know. That one stays secret. You don't call me that. You call me Ally, or Alaisa, or a nickname that you pick, if you can think of one."

"Got it, secret," Aze nods, her expression serious. Then she adds, "Not that I'm going to, but if I ever did call you that when we were in private, what would happen? Severe disappointment? Sudden flash of homicidal rage? I won't, but, you know… if I did."

"I think…"

The young woman seated on the two stacked pillows goes vacant for a moment, no movement, no breathing. "I would assume something was very, very wrong, because my friend Aze can follow basic instructions. I might assume you were someone else." It's delivered with such a flat lack of her usual affect that it sounds like someone else speaking. There's something very alien about it, the bare bones of a person who could become anyone.

Aze's attention on Alaisa sharpens, though she seems more interested than concerned at the shift and the strange manner. "That's good to know — in case anything ever does go very, very wrong. It might, the world is full of horrors." She leans forward a little, her hands on her knees, and continues, "The way you talk about them, though — Alaisa Lysander, the other name — it's like they're other people. Is that what you were talking about, the first day we met? When you said you don't have a clear picture of who you are."

The other woman nods. A shudder passes through her, and then it's Ally again, slouching slightly on the cushions, with her Stormwind accent. "You're on the right track. Yeah. I've got a perfect memory and a talent for mimicry. Everybody gets to pick and choose what they show to the world, but I've got a really deep well of options."

"That sounds really useful," Aze says, sitting back when the proto-personality turns back into Ally. "For SI:7, and also just for like… if you're really upset and it's getting in your way, you could just act like someone who isn't for a while. But then, I guess that means if you're not actively putting something on, you're like you were just a second ago? Is it more… relaxing to be like that?"

"No." The denial comes first - a general one.

"If I'm upset, it goes behind the wall, unless it serves me to show that I'm upset," Ally says. She makes a gesture, hand held vertically with her palm out like she's touching a flat surface - a wall, maybe. "Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. Same with… everything else I feel, generally."

Ally draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "I don't think that's my real default. I had a nightmare that it was, and it fucked me up. A Nightmare, capital N, when everyone was falling asleep and staying asleep. I dreamt of being… that. The blank. It's not relaxing. Or maybe it's relaxing in the same way that being dead is relaxing. It's empty."

"Not the right kind of relaxing," Aze says, with a note of agreement. "So then who you are is maybe somewhere in between. But you're so deliberate about how you present yourself that maybe it's hard sometimes to find the parts that feel like… you?"

Aze pauses, leaning towards Alaisa again with her forearms on her thighs. "I didn't get trapped in it, but we all dreamed. One of mine is… I have to be really careful about remembering Aszera Sunstrike. Sometimes, there's thoughts or feelings that I know aren't her, aren't me. I have to recognize that, shut it down, before things… drift. Because I'm Aszera Sunstrike, and that's who I'll always be." That last has the cadence of an often-repeated phrase. "That was part of the nightmare, losing that… memory… and becoming someone I didn't choose. It's not the same thing, but maybe similar in a way."

"In a way," Ally agrees. "Alright, I need to know what I'm working with here." She produces a coiled-up measuring tape, unwinds it a little, and tosses the loose end to Aze. "Let's measure the place."

Aze snaps the loose end out of the air like someone who isn't blindfolded, and rises from the pillow. "We need to measure it for furniture? I guess some of it might be pretty big. Oh!" Aze smiles. "Siamus came by yesterday. He was a little shocked how bare the place was, I think, said if you were willing to help me, he could handle the finances and delivery."

"It's about what you can fit yeah." Alaisa stands up. "Oh, did he? Well, that'll extend the budget. I'll get you some good shit." She sounds pleased. It's not every day a rich man offers to pay for a shopping spree.

"Yeah, I was… not at my best yesterday, and even with everything, he still came to…" Aze trails off, moving to the edge of the room. "Siamus is a good friend — trustworthy. I wouldn't be where I am now without him."

Then Aze grins, holding the tape to the wall. "He'd want you to pick the good shit, I bet, so go for it. I'll trust you for style and color and… well, everything. Make it look Stormwind, alright?"

"Will do," Alaisa calls across the room, making a mental note of the measurement. She doesn't need to write this stuff down.

Aze keeps her positioning relative to Alaisa, helping her measure. "Probably for the best I didn't buy anything before I ended up giving a hundred gold to charity."

Alaisa moves along to another wall. "Don't ask how much that bird cost me," she says with a laugh.

"You won it?" Aze asks, her smile widening. "Good for you — all the work paid off. Glad you didn't lose it at the last, while I distracted you with dancing. I might have felt bad about it."

Ally laughs. "Oh, yes, I won it," she says proudly.

"What are you going to do with it?" Aze asks. "My armband… I think I might wear it to all the fancy parties I get invited to, a reminder of the cost of acting like I'm richer than I actually am. Not that it'd convince me to do anything differently of course, but at least I'll remember."

"Listen to it," Ally says, with a little laugh. "It plays a song."

"The most expensive music box," Aze says with a laugh. "Is it a special song to you?"

"Well, I suppose I'm fond of it now," Ally says, smiling, and gestures for Aze to move to another corner. "But not as such, no. I suppose you couldn't read the placards. Sintha made it."

"Ah, I understand," Aze says with a brief laugh. Then there's a slight hitch in her step, walking towards the corner, as maybe she understands other things. "I admit I still don't know Sintha all that well. She was very friendly, but I don't know how much of that is just… you've known her a long time, you said?"

"Yeah." Ally glances at her, takes another measurement. "I don't think she's the kind of person to let herself be known easily."

"She doesn't seem to be," Aze nods, holding the tape in place. "And on my side, I've been doing… honesty and openness, for a while. Since the Argent Crusade, because that was one of their conditions. Not with everyone, just with my superiors in the Crusade, but I've never been good at half-measures. I'm realizing that might not work here in Stormwind. I was already being more cautious at the gala, and I think… that might be the right idea. I'll still be honest with you, obviously, and a few others."

"Honesty and openness is a luxury for me," Ally says, shrugging. "Comes with the work. Any other rooms worth measuring?" Do you have a bedroom, in other words.

"Yeah, there's the bedroom," Aze says, moving toward a door. "It's a little different for me, because some of my secrets I have to wear on my fel-damned skin, if people know how to read them. And it feels like I'm starting every conversation at a disadvantage lately, but I'll figure out how to turn that around. Would you want to be more open, if you could? Or did you choose the work because you like it that way, anyway?"

Aze steps into the small bedroom. It is largely empty, furnished with a small stack of folded blankets in one corner and her traveling trunk and weapon case in the other.

Alaisa moves to a corner of the bedroom and gestures to another one for Aze. "I enjoy being honest when I can be, with my friends. It's great when I don't have to have to lie to the people I care about. Openness feels a little riskier, though."

Aze obligingly moves to the other corner. "Riskier… yeah, I can see that. I guess that's what I need to work on, for myself. Figuring out how much of me I can safely show to different people. Metaphorically. Or well, I guess physically, too."

"It's all risk assessment for people like myself. But you don't have to think like a spy, Aze. You can just think like a smart person, and that's plenty for most people."

"Mm, I'm not a spy, so I'll just go for smart," Aze agrees easily. "I don't think I'd make a good one, really, too easy to identify. Like I said, I don't have — I can't have — other identities I can wear, like you do, for a number of reasons."

Aze pauses, then adds, " I am hoping I can be a detective, if they still want me. That's coming at things from the other direction — uncovering rather than hiding."

Ally makes a noise of agreement. "Don't see why they wouldn't. Like I said, it sounds fun, detective work."

"I bet it will be," Aze grins, moving along the wall. "It's something to look forward to. That's always good to have." Aze turns toward Ally and asks, "Does Sintha know you bought her bird?"

Alaisa considers this. "She may have found out by now, if she asked about the winning bidders. She's part of the family, so I imagine Miss Curran would tell her. She'll know eventually, I assume."

"Then I guess that'll be its own kind of message, if she chooses to read it," Aze says, holding the tape measure in place. "And if not, it's still pretty neat in itself."