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| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Lena heads down to the coast of Krasarang to bring the latest news to Siamus -- and to ask more questions about recent attacks on the family. ~4300 words |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
The air in Krasarang is brisk, but still a little damp. At least it isn't actively pouring rain today — a little less despair for travelers. One of those travelers is just emerging now from the tree coverage, a blonde woman on the back of a fearless brown mare. Lena leans back gently as they step out into the sand, and Penny obligingly slows to a stop.
Here at the coast, it's clear that despite delays of weather, tigers, and Horde, the harbor is beginning to take shape. Lena squints and shades her eyes from the brighter beachside sunlight as she scans the moving figures for one especially familiar man.
Beyond the fortress excavation where dwarven masons are at work, docks are beginning to take shape. Stone pilings have been driven into the seabed, and pandaren and human carpenters work industriously as the wooden skeletons of the final structures take gradual form. Hewn lumber and cut stone are heaped here and there around the beach like redoubts, and pandaren laborers guide mushan beasts back and forth, dragging the building materials across the sand. Two sailors with rifles patrol the beach's edge, and on the stone arm of the breakwater where the temporary cannon battery has been installed, the silhoutte of a figure with a spyglass is visible.
The especially familiar man Lena seeks is distinguished not just by his uniform but by the way everyone around him looks like they wish he would not do what he is doing, but no one is saying so.
What he is doing is standing out at the far end of one of the docks — "the docks" — which is to say he has walked out along a beam of the structure's frame to stand on a stone piling a good distance out from the shore and speak to a group of workmen in a barge tethered to the piling. He is talking and gesturing and does not seem to find his own position precarious, or a weird place for an admiral on a construction site to be.
At a tent on the sand nearby, the ship's carpenter Lorn Wyler, master Burl Pascoe, and first lieutenant Own "Mac" MacIyer stand gazing outward at this scene. Wyler is holding a sheaf of unrolled blueprints, which the three men were presumably conferring on when the Admiral started acting like a lunatic, but now all three men are just watching the Admiral be a lunatic.
None of them seems surprised by this behavior, mind you; they mostly seem to be enjoying the bewilderment of the pandaren and dwarven workmen around them.
Lena spots the Admiral in his unusual position, and drops her hand with a quietly exhaled laugh. She walks down to the shoreline and pauses to speak briefly to one of the construction workers and hand him Penny's reins. Then she hops up onto the beam herself and begins to walk out over the water, holding out her arms to balance. She does have pretty decent balance now, but this still may not be the position the crew would prefer to see their warlock in.
A little wave of laughter goes up from the beach when Lena heads out onto the beam; the crew of the Lady Blanche have an enduring respect and affection for their warlock, but there is no denying she is probably also a lunatic.
She pauses, perhaps a quarter of a way to Siamus, considering the distance to the rock piling. She eyes the beam very carefully, and murmurs under her breath, gesturing in a particular way that draws up elements of shadow and fel. There is nothing in her manner that would suggest she's preparing any kind of attack, and at least most of the laborers are among those aware of her abilities. She finishes the spell, and a little Demonic Gateway pops up a yard away from Siamus, its partner in front of her, both ends centered on the beam with their sides sticking out over the water.
Two of the workmen in the barge see Lena coming and their eyes widen. When her Demonic Gateway springs into being, one of them falls backward in the boat with a muffled oath.
Siamus, too, is startled by the Gateway, He jolts in surprise and a foot shifts — but does not slip, and he stays securely in place as he turns toward Lena. "Mrs. Shine!" His expression warms at once and he reaches a hand out for hers as though he is greeting her in a drawing room and not on some boards and a stone pillar over the surface of the sea. "Ye look very well. Knee recovered? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
He does not, himself, look super well, but it is hard to define exactly how. His uniform and appearance are in impeccable order this morning, but he looks tired and flatter somehow, like a cardboard cutout of himself. He has definitely lost some weight. The impeccable uniform and appearance may contribute, in fact, to the not-quite-rightness, because Siamus is ordinarily a great deal more hatless and windblown, coatless and sleeves-rolled than he is at present.
Lena doesn't mind the laughter, and she also doesn't mind the alarm of the workmen as the gateway springs into place and she teleports to Siamus. She does, however, mind the appearance of the Admiral himself. There's a kind of measuring look in her eyes as she takes in the exhaustion and the careful appearance.
"I have a few days free, since we're at something of a pause in Kun-Lai," Lena says with a warm smile. "Taylor's doing whatever Taylor does, but I thought I should to come down and report how things are in the mountain. See if you've need of a warlock down with the ships." She adds casually, as if it's an afterthought, "Ran into Baird in this shining vale they've opened, at the Alliance stronghold, and he suggested the same."
Siamus gives a crack of laughter. "'Whatever Taylor does.' Ha! I'm delighted to see ye, though I must wonder how hard ye've been working in the mountains of Kun-Lai that coming down here to your ordinary work is how ye think to spend a few days free." He smiles ruefully at her. "I'd be glad to hear your report of the place, though. Does that thing work in both directions?" He indicates the Demonic Gateway with a nod.
He does not mention Baird.
Neither does Lena. That message is well and delivered.
"It does, aye," Lena says, gesturing to the orbs shimmering around the entrance. "Either way, but limited number of uses. Just step into it. It's a new thing, tried it out up north. I can see a few ways already to use it here." She looks around the construction zone. "Glad to see we're this much closer to getting the rest of the fleet here."
"Tides willing," Siamus agrees. He sweeps a gesture at the Demonic Gateway. "Please." (Ladies first, even through demon doors in space.)
Lena glances sideways at him, maybe wondering if this is really manners or caution, but she carefully steps up to the archway and…
…zips to the other side. She wobbles a little on the beam, taking two steps forward. Then she turns to watch Siamus make the trip, smiling hopefully.
Caution? Siamus laughs in the face of caution! He steps forward, ducking his head a little as though he expects a low doorway, and then appears on the beam at the other side. "Tides a'mighty," he says admiringly. "That's brilliant. The uses we could have for that."
He makes a gesture to usher Lena ahead of him down the beam. "We'll go to the tent for a sit, aye? And I'll send for a boat to the Blanche for dinner if ye like."
Lena's smile brightens at the praise. "I first tried it out in this mogu tomb, which had different traps on the floor tiles — skipped them all." She turns to step down the rest of the beam, and then hops to the sandy shore. "A tent would be welcome, as would dinner later. I expect you've seen the reports, but I'd like a chance to fill in the gaps on what we're up against…" Lena pauses, "…from the north."
"I'd be obliged. Ah, it's good to see ye, Lena. Shine's well? Just in here, ye can take one of those chairs there, don't mind the blueprints on the table. What's the range on that gate? Could ye use it to board another ship in combat, d'ye think? Towson — Cammon, is Towson around? Send the man to bring us a drink, will ye?"
With the exception of the last, this monologue is addressed entirely at Lena, and Siamus jumps from one thought to the next without pause in slightly manic fashion as he ushers Lena to a seat inside the tent.
Lena allows herself to be ushered, and takes a seat before addressing the barrage of questions. She scans over the blueprints as she says, "Shine's well, aye. Still back at the Shrine in the Vale, if news of that's reached down here. Might be doing something regarding those mogu Vaults with Cobalt sooner or later. Reckon it could, long's you could get the ship right up close, with an eyeline. It'd just dissolve if the range got too big, wouldn't lose folk in the nether, I don't think. Expecting to board enemy ships sometime soon?"
"That's up to the Zandalari," Siamus says. "And to Hellscream. But it's a thing to know in general, aye? How we can use a thing in our arsenal. Good to be prepared. And talking of that, how's your apprentice shaping up? What's she called? Malaise?"
"Melancholy," Lena supplies. "Malaise is a sister, I believe. She's sharp, willing, and doesn't try to skip steps. All good things in a warlock — which I might address in my handbook, hoping to have you a draft in April. Anyway, she might need a little tempering before we throw her into naval combat. She seemed awfully nervous when we'd a skirmish with some trolls and mogu, but followed orders, didn't freeze. She was with Shine and I when we met Baird."
Lena leaves the implication of that one unsaid.
Siamus nods thoughtfully. "Aye. Ye'd already had your fill of combat before ye came to us, even if it wasn't naval. I'm sure Pandaria will have more lessons for her before she comes to us. And I'm sure she's getting the finest training she could hope." He pauses while Towson ducks into the tent carrying a tray of glasses, a pitcher, and a bottle.
The young cook smiles at Lena. "Ye comin' back to us, Messes Shine?" he asks as he pours amber liquid over ice in each glass. "Some ice tea for ye."
"Yes, but maybe not today," Lena says with an automatic answering smile. "Still rumbles of trouble up north in the Vale." She pauses and inclines her head to Siamus. "Unless there's other orders for me, of course."
Lena takes her ice tea with a murmured thanks and drinks a sip.
Siamus waves Towson away curtly, then remembers and calls him back. "Towson? We'll dine aboard tonight — I'll need ye to arrange a boat for this afternoon. And dinner."
"Aye, sar," says Towson, touching a knuckle to his forehead respectfully before he vanishes back out into the sunshine.
Siamus watches him, waiting until the cook is gone before he reaches over to pour himself some iced tea. He picks up the bottle and uncaps it to add a splash of whiskey to his tea. It's brunch, a man can have a drink. "So," he says. "Ye saw Baird."
Lena regards him levelly, and then nods. "We spoke in privacy, but also in front of my apprentice. Has anything changed in the situation since? The children are well, people are recovering?"
Siamus exhales and takes a long drink, ice clinking in the glass.
"Aye," he says to Lena, and sits forward with both hands around his drink, his posture hunched and tense. "Ye heard from him? About Finley. And… the whole business?"
"Yes, more or less," Lena says, resting her own hand around her glass but not raising it to drink. "A family with an old grudge, possibly witches, and the sister attacked Finley and mentioned the children as further targets. I can't truly understand why they'd have a grudge, as we've… the Fallons have had nought to do with them. But they went up against the wrong people, as the one found out already." Lena pauses. "Finley's… is he alright? I know he's been brought back before but it's… it's something different, being personally targeted."
"I don't know," Siamus admits. "He wrote to me and said that he was, but… ye know. It's difficult to admit sometimes when ye aren't. Ralaea went home, and I know the pair of them are close, and ye know how she is. If anyone's going to bother it out of him, it's her." He has another sip of his drink. "I worry about Isla as well. It can't have been easy for a sunny child like her. And no, I've no idea why the people have a grudge. It's against Her Grace, or was, and I don't know if it began wi' the business of Green or came before that, but I certainly don't know why it's carried on. Ye'd think they'd have retired to their swamp satisfied they'd got what they wanted."
"Aye, it seems as though they wronged her and then kept a grudge," Lena considers, and adds, "Then again, if its on the woman's side, and the bit with Green was meant to harm… might be it rankles that the harm was temporary and all she won was a faithless fellow. Regardless of reasons, the lines are drawn. Is there anything I can do to help? If I find this woman… what should happen to her?"
Siamus studies her a moment. "If ye find her… there's no proof as yet that she knew what her sister planned to do. There's equally no proof that she didn't. And she's the one thwarted Avrenne before, and I find it peculiar that it was the sister originally supposed to come to Pandaria but they made the switch at the last moment. That says to me that she knew something was in the offing." He shrugs wearily. "I don't know what tricks they've got, or what their plan is. I won't have them bringing harm to my family — and that includes yourself and Shine, by the way — but I will have the truth of what they're up to. So if ye find her… I supposed I'd like to ask her some questions."
He has another sip of his drink and looks down into the glass. "That said, if she did meet a bad end by some mischance, I wouldn't send flowers to her funeral."
"Understood," Lena says, and there's a touch of a cold smile before it fades. "I'll try, and I'll see if I can get any answers, should I run into the woman. I understand she's got some kind of witchery, though, and I've no idea if I can untangle it. I mentioned to Baird — but it might be good to call in friends who rely less on sight."
"The witchery… it's some sort of enchantment, Finley said." Siamus slumps back in his seat and is silent for a moment. He smooths one end of his moustache, frowning absently. "I mean to speak with Graves already. He's out here in Pandaria. If there's anyone — Finley suspects the woman has hired a Gravehowl. For a… bodyguard. Traveling escort. I'm minded to know what Graves knows about it. And there's Aszera." For a moment, there's a faint smile, a softer gaze. He taps a finger idly on the outside of his glass. "Tyrrell, of course, but he's here wi'the 6th and they've got enough to fill their plates as it is."
His dark gaze focuses on Lena again. "And ye were up there wi'the portals open? At that Shrine? What's the situation up there? How's the traffic?"
"Might be a conflict of interest, then, with the Gravehowls," Lena sips her tea as he runs through allies, watching his expression with a faint smile of her own. Then she adds, "There's the whole of Apex as well. Might be they could pull some threads loose."
"As for the Shrine, folk are coming through more freely. The place itself is still getting set up," she says, thinking back. "They've got a bit of an inn set up, getting other amenities going. Shine said they ran into some mogu assassins out in the Vale, but no invasion as of yet."
"Mogu assassins? Tides below. Assassinating who, exactly?" Siamus rubs his forehead tiredly as if to smooth the lines from between his brows. His manner suggests he is expecting to learn that mogu assassins a couple of mountain ranges away from him are also now his problem.
"Fellow called Jaluu the Generous," Lena answers, waving a hand as if to dismiss this particular trouble. "A pandaren, one of the Golden Lotus, a quartermaster. They're the folk who've been living in the Vale these past centuries, caring for the place. Jaluu's fine, though. I could ask him to keep an eye out for a woman with large… well, Baird didn't bring a highly detailed description, on account of the enchantment I'd guess."
Siamus's smile is a humorless twist. "No, aye. The enchantment — she's evidently a lady with… a distinctive feature. Or two. The enchantment does not… diminish those aspects. Ye know Her Grace is a remarkably perceptive lady, and she herself was unable to say beyond that even how tall the lady is, or what color her hair."
Lena raises her eyebrows. "I can't imagine I'd do any better, then. But if it's a distinctive magic… and well, it's not like that's a feature I'm likely to miss. Anyway, I well hope she's not stirring up trouble in the Vale. The Celestials have only just invited us in — us and the Tauren — and there were those as said we couldn't be trusted. I'd like not to prove them right."
"Nor would I. I have no idea what the lady's motive or purpose in Pandaria might be. 'Business' is all I know, and what business that might be I can't say. The family does some work in the way of construction…" Siamus pauses and looks narrowly out at the site around them, takes an absent sip of his drink. "But then this woman married into Green's family, and they're in finance."
He shakes his head and sets his glass down on the table. "I'd like to know where Green is in all of it, as well. He's not an honorable man, though I would say that rises more from lack of intelligence and backbone than any innate moral failing. But surely even he couldn't countenance this manner of grudge against Her Grace or any sort of malicious action aimed at her or her family."
"Finance and construction," Lena says, looking down at her tea. "Fair amount of building up in Kun-Lai, after the yaungol raids. Might be a place to look. That or around the Serpent's Heart, maybe in the jade trade."
She trails a finger down the glass, and adds, "Malice or idiocy, it amounts to roughly the same thing for us. Should… well, I take it the same intentions towards Green?"
"Aye. I'm quite sure Joran Green couldn't mastermind his way out of his own front door in the morning, but I'd very much like to know what he knows of the business and his involvement in it, if any." Siamus takes up his glass again.
"If I see him, then," Lena nods. "Unless I'm needed here, though, I'd like to stay in the Vale a time longer. Zhi had a vision of invading mogu, and Shine and I've been working to outmatch them on several fronts, past few months. If things are coming to a head, I feel I should be there for the fight " Lena frowns then, glancing in the direction of the water, "Unless we're after the Zandalari aship. My first allegiance is to the fleet, of course."
"Of course. I'd never doubt it. But no, we're unlikely to be called to move on the Zandalari, and the Alliance is no doubt best-served by having ye where ye are. Wi' the handbook and the mogu and whatnot. Has Taylor moved to the Shrine yet? He hasn't sent word of it."
Lena shakes her head. "He's still up in Westwind Rest, seeing over the pandaren recruits. They're shaping up into a fighting force, more or less. The pandaren can be very dangerous in combat, from what I've heard of the Shado-pan. I've mostly just witnessed the farmers and such, myself, so far."
Siamus nods and gestures vaguely with his glass at the construction site around the tent. "Aye, mostly laborers I've met. Heard about the monastery teachings in the Jade Forest, the unarmed combat and all, and the Shado-Pan, but haven't seen either in play. If they wanted to show the rest of us their skill as fighters, I certainly wouldn't mind it. Got our hands a bit full managing all the native wars on top of Horde and Zandalari."
"That's one thing Taylor's done well, with the locals," Lena says, cradling her cup in her hands. "Offering aid as a recruitment method. They freed and rebuilt the village, and many of them joined the Alliance right then and there. Then there were rescues from the nearby yaungol camps, and overrun farms. These ones aren't monks, but they've strength and will. We'll see what Taylor and the others can make of them."
"I wish him well of it," says Siamus. "We're not going to hold this land with just three ships, a single 7th Legion EU, and a couple've SI:7. Native troops would help considerably, if they can be brought up to scratch. We'll consider his efforts wi'the jinyu a… practice round." He arches a sardonic brow and drinks again.
Lena arches a brow in response, and says, "For all the misstep of Serpent's Heart, we can at least say the jinyu have survived. That wasn't a sure thing, when they were beset by the hozen. It must be difficult to have a long and proud imperial history and find your people reduced to a few villages. It does mean we oughtn't count on them for much help, though. They've likely got their hands full with their own defense."
"Oh, I didn't mean to slight the jinyu in the least. I've a great admiration for the people." (The water-worshipping fish people.) "I'm not sure it worked out to either of our advantage. The few of them left are fewer now, and Taylor lost his prospective army almost as soon as he'd recruited it. But as ye observe — the jinyu endure. And we can hope Taylor's efforts wi' the pandaren will work out better for all involved."
"I trust so," Lena agrees. "At least, he doesn't seem likely to make the same mistakes twice. The jinyu have a village up in Kun Lai as well, but we've mostly kept clear except when Cobalt went to give aid. They ran afoul of the sha, but seemed to have some kind of water ritual to cleanse. Might be a thing for the fleet to look into. Maybe Kaerix."
"Oh? Aye, that's a good thought. She's been studying wi'the jinyu at Pearlfin; I might send her up to Kun-Lai for a time and see what she'll learn. Is it true the Shado-Pan were infested with Sha themselves, after all their scolding of us?"
"Aye, they were," Lena confirms. "Seems they had some trapped up, and they were studying them? Only they got free, got into people. From what I heard, they didn't all get taken over by it — Cobalt found some in the monastery itself holding out against the sha by mental discipline. But still, they needed outside help to get their own house in order. Might mean they'll be more keen to work together with the Alliance in future, and a little less self-important about the whole thing. I heard their leader still didn't want us in the Vale, but he got overruled by Celestials."
"The Celestials, now," Siamus says, and leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "They're… wild gods? And the Alliance has their backing?"
"Something like, yes," Lena nods. "Four animals. A crane called Chi-Ji, with a temple just north of here, and Yu'lon the cloud serpent, who was trying to reincarnate in Jade Forest, and Xuen the white tiger — it was at his temple we got the go-ahead for the Vale. And Niuzao the ox, haven't seen a temple for him yet. The pandaren pretty much go with what they say as law, it seems, and they said we're welcome now. But…" Lena bites her lip. "At the very least, they invited in that tauren team, too. Hopefully not the rest of them, but… we'll just have to prove truer friends than they."
Siamus scowls and sits back again. "The Alliance embassy at the Shrine is secure, though, aye? Baird's not mentioned any tauren there."
"Yes, it's secure, no tauren," Lena confirms. "They've their own outpost, to the north of the vale. There's a risk we might run into them elsewhere in the region, but for our part we'll not start any fighting against them in the pandaren's sacred land. If they start anything…" she spreads her hands.
Siamus's wolfish smile suggests he kind of hopes they start something. "Aye," he agrees. "If they do." He settles more comfortably in his chair. "Now, ye can tell me everything you and Shine have been up to. D'ye still have the creature?"