The Art of Deception

The red Drakonid looked down at the fellow known as Jon Chess with a sneer of thinly-veiled contempt. “So, you're the new ‘help’?, said Captain Drine, the head of the Scalelsworn, the city guards of Valdrakken, charged with keeping the city, its draconic and drakonid inhabitants, and now, reluctantly, the Alliance and Horde allies, safe. “I do not believe the Scalesworn absolutely need ‘help’ but we do as the Aspects command - and they have commanded me to work with you... Although I don’t know what possible help you could be, fragile as you are.”

Jon smiled at the First Talon. “Oh, and why do you say that?”

“I’ve kept an eye on you since I received instructions to cooperate. You do nothing but play chess with the Bronze Cheesemonger,” said Drine. “You drink tea, buy delicacies for your family meals, and read far too much fictional trash.”

“Well, my taste in literature is neither here nor there... But the rest of your observations are quite accurate as far as they go,” said Chess, his voice redolent with amusement.

“Of course they are. I have had my men follow you for a week,” confirmed Drine.

“Your men did a wonderful job, observing me from adjacent merchant stalls and building steps. One planted himself in a patch of grass to the side, and stared himself nearly cross-eyed watching me,” said Chess. “On the other hand, you engaged a Horde operative and sent him to Investigator Erima to help with a disturbance. The Horde fellow - a goblin named Noxblade - brought Erima a map showing a rebel stronghold in the Misty Vale. The goblin snuck into Misty Vale and slew several Primalists and rebels, finding evidence that there are further attacks being planned. So… you do have some use for us foreigners after all.”

Captain Drine said nothing, but his expression looked as sour as if he had just eaten a salad of lemons and crab apples and discovered half a banana slug. 

“With all due respect, Captain… the vulnerability of dragons and their drakonid is their overwhelming strength; so few things get in your way that the development of subterfuge and misdirection are retarded. Your goblin friend Noxblade, on the other hand, lacks a dragon’s strength but makes up for it with guile and undetectable mendacity. Plus venoms and high explosives.”

Jon stepped back. “Your men saw exactly what I wanted them to see… they never noticed when one of  my … associates… took my place.” Jon had dressed his half-brother in Jon’s clothes and had used a Shadow magic illusion to appear as a Blood Elf. “A little deception can go a long way in my business.”

“The mercantile activity around the buying and selling of cheese?” asked Captain Drine. 

“As a privy agent for the Alliance,” informed Jon. “Now… how can I help?”

 

Cheese In Valdrakken

The fellow known mostly as Jon Chess was lonely and bored, and those were usually characteristics that were a recipe for disaster.

The city of Valdrakken was remarkably convenient if a trifle... large. Built for dragons and dracthyr, it was a rambling, extensive place built atop a mountain. Jon had sympathy for gnomes who visited Boralus; with the thin air caused by the elevation and the plethora of staircases to get almost anywhere, the Alliance allies of the dragons lived in perpetual exhaustion.

Jon's current assignment was very much a gift from the Admiral in whose service he toiled; his wife, the Dalaran-trained Magna (Jon still didn't really understand his wife's title, but he was devoted to her regardless) Alia Atherton Chess, had been part of the lore-masters and researchers sent by the Alliance to support their allies. Jon's only assignment had been to keep his wife safe.

As if he would do anything else.

Of course, Jon being Jon had sent his old master Elling Trias a full report on the eight - eight! - new cheeses the dragons had developed, using their abilities and the time-manipulating powers of the Bronze Dragonflight to precisely age cheese in moments.  Jon had discovered a bronze dragon merchant named Gorgonzormu, who welcomed Jon with metaphorically open arms, challenging the Agent of Cheese to chess games and long conversations around their favorite varieties of comestibles.

So far, Jon was being trounced by Gorgonzormu in chess, but each day he lost slower and slower as his game improved. Gorgonzormu admitted that he was cheating, using his chronal abilities to consider all the moves Jon might make, but Jon didn't mind; victory was not the goal, but the byproduct of spending the time leading his new dragon friend down conversational paths of history and philosophy.

Jon would finish their sessions with a shopping trip to The Ruby Feast, where he would purchase food for the extended Chess clan, all of whom had come to Valdrakken the moment Alia was able to form a teleportation portal.  Since Jon and Alia were going to be in Valdrakken for months, the whole family had come through, including Jon's adopted draconic brother Rorik and Jon's half-brother, Gryffonclaw. Gryffonclaw had appointed himself as the children's guardian in much the same way that Jon was the guardian of their mother.

Of the two of them, Jon was unsure which of them had the more challenging assignment.