(Written with Zainstra/Zaneryne and Kaneka's players. The part of Telcontyr is directed by Zane's player)
(This is Jon Chess' perspective. For Zane's story, see https://www.patreon.com/posts/ghost-part-1-24070775 )
Jon and Kaneka landed lightly from their egress from the teleportation portal onto the cobblestone streets of Stormind, in the square outside of the Stormwind Stockades. Jon's eyes narrowed as he recognized the shop of Sungift Relics, run by the former Sin'dorei noblewoman Linenia Sungift.
Zane had worked for Sungift Relics as a relic hunter and seeker of artifacts. Linenia, a stunning Ren'dorei refugee, had been the one to introduced Zane and Jon, sending them on a "blind date" before Jon had joined the Brotherhood of Valor. While not precisely friends, Jon and Linenia were friendly, and Zane had considered Linenia her best friend. Further complicating matters was the fact that one of the scouts Jon had recruited for the Alliance mission to harass and slow the Horde army's approach to Darnassus, a Ren'dorei criminal Jon had taken from the Stockades, had become Linenia's lover.
Jon stepped forward to the front door of the shop, hoping it was open.
Kaneka was confused when she stepped into Stormwind and immediately thought that her spell hadn't worked correctly. "This isn't Stonetalon....it's Stormwind. Well...I didn't exactly focus on a place so much as a thing...maybe the thing is here..." She muttered to herself quietly as she searches her brain for the error she was sure she'd made.
The "roguishly" handsome Ren'Dorei fellow, who might be mistaken for a servant of Linenia Sungift, had been asked guard the door to the back rooms of the shop when Linenia and her guest had retreated to discuss confidential matters. When he heard the knock upon the door, his eyes fluttered opened - he had been near nodding off. he got out f the chair he had tilted against a wall and shuffled to the door. His finger scraped across the small viewing window latch on the door. he recognized Jon Chess, but not his lovely companion. Closing the latch, he opened the several locks and cracked the door, letting his ever-so-charming appear. "Commander....long time....no see," he said, opening the door. He propped his lanky form against the door frame, his eyes glancing to Kaneka.
"Captain now, actually... the Brotherhood restructured their ranks," corrected Jon gently as entered the door. "You seem well, 'Tyr - finding your way to happiness and wealth in Stormwind? The lovely mage here is Kaneka Hillyard - she has generously volunteered to help me find Zaneryne. She went missing during her last mission. " Jon offered his hand to Telcontyr., grinning. Jon never really trusted other rogues, but he trusted the Ren'dorei.
Telcontyr smirked, his lip curling one end of his mouth. "Yes, Captain... Commander... whatever...". Telcontyr turned, allowing Jon and Kaneka to come into the shop. "Yeah, things are going well for me... well, me and Linenia, that is." Telcontyr quickly frowned at the mention of Zaneryne, and started to gnaw nervously on his bottom lip. "You don't say...?" Telcontyr might be a good prevaricator to some... but not to Jon.
Kaneka eyes the Ren'dorei. She knew him from somewhere.....where had she seen him?? OH yes! He brought that scroll case to Phred's for Jon when she was house sitting for the gnome. "It's Telcontyr correct? I remember you." She stepped into the room behind Jon.
Telcontyr looked side to side for a moment, and then looked at Kaneka, trying to remember - he had been asked (sort of) to NOT remember things by his mistress. "Oh... heh, yeah," he stammered, nodding."It's me. Sorry, my memory is terrible, or more accurately, asked to be terrible. Apologies for not remembering." He paused and continued. "Uh, so... you're here trying to find Zaneryne... Why start in Stormwind?" he asked, scratching where his hair parted.
"Tyr, let me say this once... I will have the truth. I know Zane was either here, or left Linenia her medallion. Would you ask Linenia if she might join us?" Jon asked, his voice calm and polite... and those who knew him at all, knew that a polite Jon Chess was the most dangerous kind of Jon Chess.
Telcontyr sighed. he knew very little about the entire situation. "Yeah I will get her... just wait here and try and get comfortable." Telcontyr lifted his hands and turned about to get Linenia. He knocked on the inner door before slipping into her office, and said, in a soft, conversational voice "Linenia, you might need to come out to the storefront, you have a guest..."
Linenia looking up from the guest she already had then back to Telcontyr and said, "If it is a customer, fluff them - I am sort of in the middle of something."
Muttering, she continued "We really need to get you more educated on the relics out on the floor..."
Telcontyr interrupts her suddenly, "Its Jon Chess." Linenia froze upon hearing that but came to the front.
"Hello Jon Chess and friend of Jon Chess," Linenia said with a soft smile.
Kaneka offered a small smile and nod of her head. "Hello." She kept it simple and brief, knowing full well that Jon was going to be leading this conversation.
"Baroness Linenia Sungift, this is my friend and colleague, Magistrix Kaneka Hillyard," Jon said, indicating his companion. "Kaneka, this is Linenia, Zaneryne's close friend and sometimes employer." Jon smiled. "Linenia, is Zane here? And please educate me as to when and how you managed to come into possession of the communications charm I gifted her? Zane has gone missing, and presumed dead; I am under orders to find out the truth of the matter." Jon's smile became somehow less friendly and more predatory. "Not counting my very personal stake in the matter."
Linenia gave a defeated sigh as she looked down, folding the folds on her gown. Sheran her tongue over her lips, about to speak - Perhaps the timing was Fate. The door in the back of the building swung open, and out came Zainstra, Zaneryne's identical twin sister. This matter concerned her sister and she wanted to hear it, too. Linenia had not be open with her, and now she had both people she had sought out in the same room. Zainstra came to a tumbling halt in front of Jon Chess, meeting his gaze, before looking to Linenia asking in Thalassian, <"This him?">
Linenia had bee nearly overrun by Zainstra, and groaned - Telcontyr would be punished later for failing to heep her guest under control. She shifted to be between Jon and Zainstra, and barked out an answer in the same language. <"You were supposed to stay in the back!"> She looked at Jon, "I suppose I know have a lot of explaining to do..."
Jon looked stunned as a near-perfect copy of the woman he loved ran out from the back, but immediately Jon knew it was not Zaneryne Grimsky; whoever the woman was, she did not move with anything approaching the panther-like svelte grace of Zaneryne. Jon noted that Tyr was embarrassed rather than alarmed, and so he did not recognize the newcomer as a threat. Barking in heavily-accented Thalassian, Jon barked <"In the Common tongue please, out of courtesy for Kaneka">. Facing the newcomer, Jon said "My name is Chess. Jon Chess."
Telcontyr came of of the back room as well, rubbing his chin, standing close to the Zaneryne's twin. He also spoke in Thalassian, translating the Common Tongue for Zainstra. "Jon Chess, and Kaneka, meet Zainstra Dawnsky, the sister of Zaneryne... if Kaneka is not aware of the situation between the sisters, you bringing her here must mean that you trust her with the information." She looked to Kaneka. "A simple story before I explain Zaneryne's actions. Myself and Zainstra here, we were the dabblers in the Void that lead us to being exiled from Silvermoon City. Zaneryne took her sister's place while we were exiled, and people believed that Zaneryne was the exile, so when we came out of the Void and got to live here, they swapped back. Zainstra lives, or lived, in Silvermoon City. The sisters used bracers, enchanted to alter their appearances so that the Sin'dorei looked like a Void Elf and her sister, now Ren'dorei, looked every inch a Blood Elf. Zane took this sacrifice for her sister." She looked at Zainstra and then looked at Jon, "Zaneryne has and always has protected the ones she loves, at the cost of herself, thinking it is the right thing to do, in her last mission she was found out, discovered by an old, old... old former friend back in Silvermoon named Nora'thas."
Zainstra gasped upon hearing his name, about would have spoken excep that Linenia interrupted, and continued. "Nora'thas would expose Zainstra for the Ren'Dorei she is, and have her killed - that is why she is here. Zaneryne is off luring Nora'thas away to end him once and for all; she thinks she has to do this alone to protect Zainstra and protect Jon."
Zainstra shakes her head and speaks a broken common, "No no this no can happen! My sister tells me this man, this Jon is love, and she no cannot sacrifice self again to keep me and him happy. Linenia, why you do not stop her?"
Linenia looks at Zainstra. "I tried, Zainstra..."
Zainstra was not having it. "No, not try, she no here!" She looked at Jon, pushing the issue. "I help you. We go find her!"
Kaneka listened to the story, nodding her head as the information became clearly understood. Turning her gaze from the trio to Jon, she waited to see what the next step would be - although she thought she already knew the answer.
"No," said Jon. "Apologies, sister of Zane, but part of trusting someone is trusting them to make decisions, and honoring that trust." Jon shook his head. "Zane fekt strongly - clearly - that she needed to isolate herself from me, and go on the run. Zane is no fool. Although I resent the fact that she is letting me think her dead, I will honor her choice, and live with the uncertainty. I will go back to the Brotherhood and report that she is missing in action, and that I was unable to find her. If, in time, she chooses to step back into the life she has abandoned... but until then, I will honor her decision, and hope that she is safe, wherever she is." Jon's voice tightened as he continued, until he sounded like a dead man speaking. His face was as if carved in stone - emotionlessness. "Pray, Mistress Dawnsky, take the Chess amulet, and should you need assistance, us it to call me, for your sister's sake."
A look of confusion crossed Kaneka's face. This was not the answer she had expected him to give. She was going to protest, but reading his expression, thought better of it.
Zainstra stood in shock. and was Linenia deeply angered.
“Are you honestly going to not go after her?" Linenia shreiked. "You love her, Gods damn it... Jon, she isn’t thinking clearly, running away. The man who hunts her will kill her if he doesn’t get what he wants! Can you honestly live with yourself knowing you sent her to her death!” Linenia was not one to speak like this but it was madness, pure madness, to her! “Zane thinks she is protecting you two but you two were meant to take this world on together and your both going to just do this to each other?”
"I am respecting her wishes. Its what adults do - you are all so much older than us mere mortals, and act so superior, and yet you act as if following your own desires is all that matters... Zane is smart and capable, and almost nobody knows my capabilities better," Jon's voice began to rise and fill with the suppressed emotion. "Its. Not. That. Simple. Do you not think that Zane was unaware that the entire Brotherhood of Valor would not have ran to her aid, mages and warlocks and warriors and paladins and even Little Z? There is a deeper game here, and Zane is the only one of us who knows the rules!" Jon turned to Zane's sister. "She sent for you, so that you could be relatively safe in the Alliance... if she is running, and this... Nora'thas? is pursuing, she wanted to remove you out of the target area and somewhere safer than Silver-fucking-moon! Are you going to be arrogant enough to put yourself at risk, when that is the one thing Zane DIDN'T WANT?" Jon's voice had risen to a yell. He stopped and caught himself, visibly willing himself to a calmer appearance. "I dont pretend to know is powers and capabilties - but if he is following Zane, he will never find her - and the minute he stops, she will cut his throat from behind. If he takes either one of us in his sights, she'll cut his throat from behind."
Kaneka felt out of place suddenly. She stepped to Jon's side and slipped the anchor charm back into his hand. She didn't need to use it anymore. Looking at his profile for a brief moment, she turned on her heel and headed out the door. She didn't say a word to him about where she was going; he was smart and could figure it out. If he wanted her help again, he knew where she would be.
Linenia just did not know what to think, shakes her head and methodically thought of how to answer before letting her emotions take flight. Zainstra, not knowing Jon, spoke up, starting in Common and changing to Thalassian as he ran out of the correct words with which to convey her meaning.
"I not want to put myself at risk no, do not want to go against my sister wishes but she throw her life away so many time for me, and she has you, she spoke to me so highly of you, and this not a way to protect us!" She changed to Thalassian. <"I love my sister to end of Azeroth, and whatever has her so scared is what her mind is running on, this is not my sister who is always reasonable, always methodical and always well planned. If you honestly know my sister, you know she is all those things - she is skilled, calculated, and planned out, she acts on her brain, she researches her marks, gathers information before acting, she never just acts on emotion or a whim! For her to run, to act so rashly, that is out of her character! She runs and hides from us, to hide from Nora'thas to keep me and you safe! That is not very much like her! She is outside her element, and in harms way. She is never hunted; she is the one who hunts, so for once she is the prey of someone's hunt! She can get killed and this is something your okay with? How can you say you're the man that loves her, when you let her go off into this world and be something she isn't with a man after her very skilled and doing what is his nation to hunt and kill? How can you stand there and say you're okay with her choices when you know damn well that is not something she is! Zaneryne is not running from Nora'thas, someone else is! And you or I are the only one that could save her from her irrationality!" Zainstra was often swift to anger; she was the rash twin. She stepped forward to slap Jon. Jon fought a grin as she telegraphed her intent from three separate tells, but made no defense.
Linenia caught her hand.
Jon turned to Zainstra, and said in functional if heavily accented Thalassian. <"If you want to get your sister killed, go after her. It will place you in danger, looking for her will expose paths to her for her pursuer. If he captures you or kills you, he will have leverage over Zane. If you truly want to help Zane, stay here or in Dalaran, and make yourself as un-findable and safe as possible. Zane knows where to find us, and will reach out for help when she can. Until then, don't wreck her chances by exposing yourself."
Jon turns to Tyr. "Guard her. iI you need cash for anything, get it through <Universal Exports>. Call me if you have a need."
Linenia, holding Zainstra by the hand, glared at Jon. The stare she gave was the same she had given several others before she killed. She looked at him as she looked at Zainstra nodding, and then back to Jon, "As Zainstra said, Zaneryne is not herself in her methods. This is not the elf that I know and love and view as a sister. My Zaneryne is methodical, calm, patient, deadly, she is never hunted, she hunts, she is never tracked, she tracks, she doesn't fear her obstacles, she overcomes them, so to stand here and say that you think this is what she wants... you do not know Zaneryne. She is afraid, she thinks you and she are lost to this world if she exists in it. She's acting on emotion, I always told Zane her problem was she thought too much and never acted on emotion. She finally takes my advice, and it's the wrong setting."
Linenia paused for breath. "She will run and hide into this world and be a ghost, when she doesn't have to be. I do not think Zainstra should stop her, but you could, and I don't know why you aren't helping her! You don't know who is after her and what he is capable of! I do know him, and I do know that she is in a panic and alone and does not have anyone there for her!" She turns away and waves a dismissal at Jon.
Without another word, Jon bowed to Linenia and then to Zainstra, leaving the chess amulet with them.
(This is Jon Chess' perspective. For Zane's story, see https://www.patreon.com/posts/ghost-part-1-24070775 )
Jon and Kaneka landed lightly from their egress from the teleportation portal onto the cobblestone streets of Stormind, in the square outside of the Stormwind Stockades. Jon's eyes narrowed as he recognized the shop of Sungift Relics, run by the former Sin'dorei noblewoman Linenia Sungift.
Zane had worked for Sungift Relics as a relic hunter and seeker of artifacts. Linenia, a stunning Ren'dorei refugee, had been the one to introduced Zane and Jon, sending them on a "blind date" before Jon had joined the Brotherhood of Valor. While not precisely friends, Jon and Linenia were friendly, and Zane had considered Linenia her best friend. Further complicating matters was the fact that one of the scouts Jon had recruited for the Alliance mission to harass and slow the Horde army's approach to Darnassus, a Ren'dorei criminal Jon had taken from the Stockades, had become Linenia's lover.
Jon stepped forward to the front door of the shop, hoping it was open.
Kaneka was confused when she stepped into Stormwind and immediately thought that her spell hadn't worked correctly. "This isn't Stonetalon....it's Stormwind. Well...I didn't exactly focus on a place so much as a thing...maybe the thing is here..." She muttered to herself quietly as she searches her brain for the error she was sure she'd made.
The "roguishly" handsome Ren'Dorei fellow, who might be mistaken for a servant of Linenia Sungift, had been asked guard the door to the back rooms of the shop when Linenia and her guest had retreated to discuss confidential matters. When he heard the knock upon the door, his eyes fluttered opened - he had been near nodding off. he got out f the chair he had tilted against a wall and shuffled to the door. His finger scraped across the small viewing window latch on the door. he recognized Jon Chess, but not his lovely companion. Closing the latch, he opened the several locks and cracked the door, letting his ever-so-charming appear. "Commander....long time....no see," he said, opening the door. He propped his lanky form against the door frame, his eyes glancing to Kaneka.
"Captain now, actually... the Brotherhood restructured their ranks," corrected Jon gently as entered the door. "You seem well, 'Tyr - finding your way to happiness and wealth in Stormwind? The lovely mage here is Kaneka Hillyard - she has generously volunteered to help me find Zaneryne. She went missing during her last mission. " Jon offered his hand to Telcontyr., grinning. Jon never really trusted other rogues, but he trusted the Ren'dorei.
Telcontyr smirked, his lip curling one end of his mouth. "Yes, Captain... Commander... whatever...". Telcontyr turned, allowing Jon and Kaneka to come into the shop. "Yeah, things are going well for me... well, me and Linenia, that is." Telcontyr quickly frowned at the mention of Zaneryne, and started to gnaw nervously on his bottom lip. "You don't say...?" Telcontyr might be a good prevaricator to some... but not to Jon.
Kaneka eyes the Ren'dorei. She knew him from somewhere.....where had she seen him?? OH yes! He brought that scroll case to Phred's for Jon when she was house sitting for the gnome. "It's Telcontyr correct? I remember you." She stepped into the room behind Jon.
Telcontyr looked side to side for a moment, and then looked at Kaneka, trying to remember - he had been asked (sort of) to NOT remember things by his mistress. "Oh... heh, yeah," he stammered, nodding."It's me. Sorry, my memory is terrible, or more accurately, asked to be terrible. Apologies for not remembering." He paused and continued. "Uh, so... you're here trying to find Zaneryne... Why start in Stormwind?" he asked, scratching where his hair parted.
"Tyr, let me say this once... I will have the truth. I know Zane was either here, or left Linenia her medallion. Would you ask Linenia if she might join us?" Jon asked, his voice calm and polite... and those who knew him at all, knew that a polite Jon Chess was the most dangerous kind of Jon Chess.
Telcontyr sighed. he knew very little about the entire situation. "Yeah I will get her... just wait here and try and get comfortable." Telcontyr lifted his hands and turned about to get Linenia. He knocked on the inner door before slipping into her office, and said, in a soft, conversational voice "Linenia, you might need to come out to the storefront, you have a guest..."
Linenia looking up from the guest she already had then back to Telcontyr and said, "If it is a customer, fluff them - I am sort of in the middle of something."
Muttering, she continued "We really need to get you more educated on the relics out on the floor..."
Telcontyr interrupts her suddenly, "Its Jon Chess." Linenia froze upon hearing that but came to the front.
"Hello Jon Chess and friend of Jon Chess," Linenia said with a soft smile.
Kaneka offered a small smile and nod of her head. "Hello." She kept it simple and brief, knowing full well that Jon was going to be leading this conversation.
"Baroness Linenia Sungift, this is my friend and colleague, Magistrix Kaneka Hillyard," Jon said, indicating his companion. "Kaneka, this is Linenia, Zaneryne's close friend and sometimes employer." Jon smiled. "Linenia, is Zane here? And please educate me as to when and how you managed to come into possession of the communications charm I gifted her? Zane has gone missing, and presumed dead; I am under orders to find out the truth of the matter." Jon's smile became somehow less friendly and more predatory. "Not counting my very personal stake in the matter."
Linenia gave a defeated sigh as she looked down, folding the folds on her gown. Sheran her tongue over her lips, about to speak - Perhaps the timing was Fate. The door in the back of the building swung open, and out came Zainstra, Zaneryne's identical twin sister. This matter concerned her sister and she wanted to hear it, too. Linenia had not be open with her, and now she had both people she had sought out in the same room. Zainstra came to a tumbling halt in front of Jon Chess, meeting his gaze, before looking to Linenia asking in Thalassian, <"This him?">
Linenia had bee nearly overrun by Zainstra, and groaned - Telcontyr would be punished later for failing to heep her guest under control. She shifted to be between Jon and Zainstra, and barked out an answer in the same language. <"You were supposed to stay in the back!"> She looked at Jon, "I suppose I know have a lot of explaining to do..."
Jon looked stunned as a near-perfect copy of the woman he loved ran out from the back, but immediately Jon knew it was not Zaneryne Grimsky; whoever the woman was, she did not move with anything approaching the panther-like svelte grace of Zaneryne. Jon noted that Tyr was embarrassed rather than alarmed, and so he did not recognize the newcomer as a threat. Barking in heavily-accented Thalassian, Jon barked <"In the Common tongue please, out of courtesy for Kaneka">. Facing the newcomer, Jon said "My name is Chess. Jon Chess."
Telcontyr came of of the back room as well, rubbing his chin, standing close to the Zaneryne's twin. He also spoke in Thalassian, translating the Common Tongue for Zainstra. "Jon Chess, and Kaneka, meet Zainstra Dawnsky, the sister of Zaneryne... if Kaneka is not aware of the situation between the sisters, you bringing her here must mean that you trust her with the information." She looked to Kaneka. "A simple story before I explain Zaneryne's actions. Myself and Zainstra here, we were the dabblers in the Void that lead us to being exiled from Silvermoon City. Zaneryne took her sister's place while we were exiled, and people believed that Zaneryne was the exile, so when we came out of the Void and got to live here, they swapped back. Zainstra lives, or lived, in Silvermoon City. The sisters used bracers, enchanted to alter their appearances so that the Sin'dorei looked like a Void Elf and her sister, now Ren'dorei, looked every inch a Blood Elf. Zane took this sacrifice for her sister." She looked at Zainstra and then looked at Jon, "Zaneryne has and always has protected the ones she loves, at the cost of herself, thinking it is the right thing to do, in her last mission she was found out, discovered by an old, old... old former friend back in Silvermoon named Nora'thas."
Zainstra gasped upon hearing his name, about would have spoken excep that Linenia interrupted, and continued. "Nora'thas would expose Zainstra for the Ren'Dorei she is, and have her killed - that is why she is here. Zaneryne is off luring Nora'thas away to end him once and for all; she thinks she has to do this alone to protect Zainstra and protect Jon."
Zainstra shakes her head and speaks a broken common, "No no this no can happen! My sister tells me this man, this Jon is love, and she no cannot sacrifice self again to keep me and him happy. Linenia, why you do not stop her?"
Linenia looks at Zainstra. "I tried, Zainstra..."
Zainstra was not having it. "No, not try, she no here!" She looked at Jon, pushing the issue. "I help you. We go find her!"
Kaneka listened to the story, nodding her head as the information became clearly understood. Turning her gaze from the trio to Jon, she waited to see what the next step would be - although she thought she already knew the answer.
"No," said Jon. "Apologies, sister of Zane, but part of trusting someone is trusting them to make decisions, and honoring that trust." Jon shook his head. "Zane fekt strongly - clearly - that she needed to isolate herself from me, and go on the run. Zane is no fool. Although I resent the fact that she is letting me think her dead, I will honor her choice, and live with the uncertainty. I will go back to the Brotherhood and report that she is missing in action, and that I was unable to find her. If, in time, she chooses to step back into the life she has abandoned... but until then, I will honor her decision, and hope that she is safe, wherever she is." Jon's voice tightened as he continued, until he sounded like a dead man speaking. His face was as if carved in stone - emotionlessness. "Pray, Mistress Dawnsky, take the Chess amulet, and should you need assistance, us it to call me, for your sister's sake."
A look of confusion crossed Kaneka's face. This was not the answer she had expected him to give. She was going to protest, but reading his expression, thought better of it.
Zainstra stood in shock. and was Linenia deeply angered.
“Are you honestly going to not go after her?" Linenia shreiked. "You love her, Gods damn it... Jon, she isn’t thinking clearly, running away. The man who hunts her will kill her if he doesn’t get what he wants! Can you honestly live with yourself knowing you sent her to her death!” Linenia was not one to speak like this but it was madness, pure madness, to her! “Zane thinks she is protecting you two but you two were meant to take this world on together and your both going to just do this to each other?”
"I am respecting her wishes. Its what adults do - you are all so much older than us mere mortals, and act so superior, and yet you act as if following your own desires is all that matters... Zane is smart and capable, and almost nobody knows my capabilities better," Jon's voice began to rise and fill with the suppressed emotion. "Its. Not. That. Simple. Do you not think that Zane was unaware that the entire Brotherhood of Valor would not have ran to her aid, mages and warlocks and warriors and paladins and even Little Z? There is a deeper game here, and Zane is the only one of us who knows the rules!" Jon turned to Zane's sister. "She sent for you, so that you could be relatively safe in the Alliance... if she is running, and this... Nora'thas? is pursuing, she wanted to remove you out of the target area and somewhere safer than Silver-fucking-moon! Are you going to be arrogant enough to put yourself at risk, when that is the one thing Zane DIDN'T WANT?" Jon's voice had risen to a yell. He stopped and caught himself, visibly willing himself to a calmer appearance. "I dont pretend to know is powers and capabilties - but if he is following Zane, he will never find her - and the minute he stops, she will cut his throat from behind. If he takes either one of us in his sights, she'll cut his throat from behind."
Kaneka felt out of place suddenly. She stepped to Jon's side and slipped the anchor charm back into his hand. She didn't need to use it anymore. Looking at his profile for a brief moment, she turned on her heel and headed out the door. She didn't say a word to him about where she was going; he was smart and could figure it out. If he wanted her help again, he knew where she would be.
Linenia just did not know what to think, shakes her head and methodically thought of how to answer before letting her emotions take flight. Zainstra, not knowing Jon, spoke up, starting in Common and changing to Thalassian as he ran out of the correct words with which to convey her meaning.
"I not want to put myself at risk no, do not want to go against my sister wishes but she throw her life away so many time for me, and she has you, she spoke to me so highly of you, and this not a way to protect us!" She changed to Thalassian. <"I love my sister to end of Azeroth, and whatever has her so scared is what her mind is running on, this is not my sister who is always reasonable, always methodical and always well planned. If you honestly know my sister, you know she is all those things - she is skilled, calculated, and planned out, she acts on her brain, she researches her marks, gathers information before acting, she never just acts on emotion or a whim! For her to run, to act so rashly, that is out of her character! She runs and hides from us, to hide from Nora'thas to keep me and you safe! That is not very much like her! She is outside her element, and in harms way. She is never hunted; she is the one who hunts, so for once she is the prey of someone's hunt! She can get killed and this is something your okay with? How can you say you're the man that loves her, when you let her go off into this world and be something she isn't with a man after her very skilled and doing what is his nation to hunt and kill? How can you stand there and say you're okay with her choices when you know damn well that is not something she is! Zaneryne is not running from Nora'thas, someone else is! And you or I are the only one that could save her from her irrationality!" Zainstra was often swift to anger; she was the rash twin. She stepped forward to slap Jon. Jon fought a grin as she telegraphed her intent from three separate tells, but made no defense.
Linenia caught her hand.
Jon turned to Zainstra, and said in functional if heavily accented Thalassian. <"If you want to get your sister killed, go after her. It will place you in danger, looking for her will expose paths to her for her pursuer. If he captures you or kills you, he will have leverage over Zane. If you truly want to help Zane, stay here or in Dalaran, and make yourself as un-findable and safe as possible. Zane knows where to find us, and will reach out for help when she can. Until then, don't wreck her chances by exposing yourself."
Jon turns to Tyr. "Guard her. iI you need cash for anything, get it through <Universal Exports>. Call me if you have a need."
Linenia, holding Zainstra by the hand, glared at Jon. The stare she gave was the same she had given several others before she killed. She looked at him as she looked at Zainstra nodding, and then back to Jon, "As Zainstra said, Zaneryne is not herself in her methods. This is not the elf that I know and love and view as a sister. My Zaneryne is methodical, calm, patient, deadly, she is never hunted, she hunts, she is never tracked, she tracks, she doesn't fear her obstacles, she overcomes them, so to stand here and say that you think this is what she wants... you do not know Zaneryne. She is afraid, she thinks you and she are lost to this world if she exists in it. She's acting on emotion, I always told Zane her problem was she thought too much and never acted on emotion. She finally takes my advice, and it's the wrong setting."
Linenia paused for breath. "She will run and hide into this world and be a ghost, when she doesn't have to be. I do not think Zainstra should stop her, but you could, and I don't know why you aren't helping her! You don't know who is after her and what he is capable of! I do know him, and I do know that she is in a panic and alone and does not have anyone there for her!" She turns away and waves a dismissal at Jon.
Without another word, Jon bowed to Linenia and then to Zainstra, leaving the chess amulet with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment