Arcane Secrets

6/1 Lunch

I went to finish the job with Aegwynn. Jaina welcomed me happily and invited me to have lunch with them both. To my great amusement, Jaina had deduced a very sanitized version of what happened between me and her top advisor, and approved. Aegwynn seemed like a prickly sort generally, so I imagine Jaina thought that having a lover would be good for her. It was really quite sweet, and even better was that it shaved almost a whole day off of Jaina's ETE.

Eating a well prepared seafood platter provided by Jaina's cook was very pleasant, but our dinner conversation wasn't very casual. I explained to her the situation in Ahn'Quiraj as best I could.

"An ancient enemy of all life on Azeroth is stirring to the southwest, in a land called Silithus. The being known as C'thun was trapped in his capital city many centuries ago. The dragons and night elves believed him permanently contained, but that was wishful thinking. He's figured out a way to strike beyond the bounds of his confinement. To give you an idea of how dangerous this being is, I personally believe that the Emerald Nightmare may be the tool used by a similar being, though I know not which one."

I noted that a pink skinned, navy haired elf at the end of the table was stiffening substantially at this news. I looked her over and saw a consummate night elf warrior, though dressed in the somewhat silly style of Theramore military. She was a sentinel, a veteran… it hit me.

"Lady Sentinel, I can not help but notice that you are tense. Did you perhaps serve in the War of the Shifting Sands yourself?"

She gave a curt nod. "If he speaks the truth, we are in for the worst struggle since we met, Lady Proudmore." Given that the only place I can imagine Jaina getting a night elf bodyguard was during the Third War, when the Burning Legion was invading, that was quite a statement. Accurate, though.

"I hope that I can extend the truce we negotiated between the Night Elves and Orcs. I'd like to provide lumber to Orgrimmar in order to help keep the peace; this is no time for conflict between the Horde and Alliance."

Jaina nodded. "I trust Pained's opinion even if I didn't trust yours. I'll start mobilizing for war."

"Please, let me know if there is anything, anything at all, that you need. My flight has developed a reasonably effective logistical arm, and if you are missing any kind of resources we would be happy to provide them. Donations if we can manage, at cost otherwise. This is a war that we take very seriously." After that I negotiated to hire several woodcutters from her work force. She'd find some volunteers and pay them handsomely to help ease the lumber shortage in Kalimdor. Honestly I'll probably still capture all of them, but getting a team to chop down trees at no cost to myself seemed like good business.

I invited Aegwynn back to my apartment again, and this time I had the correct obedience trigger built into the amulet to take advantage of the most wholesome possible dirty talk: I love you. As such, I was balls deep in the top advisor to Jaina Proudmore when she became the Guardian of Tirisfal once more.

There was an almost electrical sense of power radiating off of her all of a sudden. In addition, her body became harder and more muscular; years of good food and primarily academic pursuits had rendered the former mage relatively soft. Snapping back to her absolute apex of power turned her into a paragon of physical and mental strength, with or without body tune up. It also apparently felt really damn good, because she came almost immediately and was quite a lot more insistent with her demands that I fuck her harder. That pushed me over the edge pretty quickly, and when I finished in her I ordered her to clean me off. She wasn't enthusiastic about that, though she did it. She was a very enthusiastic lover but apparently extremely vanilla.

As she grudgingly licked my cock clean, I decided this was as good a time as any to mention the elephant in the room. "So, how do you feel?"

"Very refreshed. Why?"

"Can you not tell? I believe your magic has been restored." She gave me a skeptical look from between my legs, began casting a spell I intuitively recognized as being somehow related to time, and was then was instantly both standing and laughing. She conjured dozens of baked goods and bottles of water on my table, teleported across the room, and was in general giddily swinging around the tool she had willingly given up almost a century ago. She whirled on me abruptly, having just had a thought.

"How?"

"If you want the precise mechanics that the amulets use, you're more equipped to figure that out than I am. They restore you to when you were most powerful, and I've been told that they replace any preexisting power source you might have had. I don't know details, they are well above my pay grade, but if you're worried about Medihv I sincerely doubt he's been impacted by this in any way."

At that, she took the amulet and started casting a far more complex version of the analysis spell I've seen before. It's possible that it was an old, less efficient version, but I suspect that it was actually a far more in depth custom spell of her own design. A swirl of runes enveloped her and she started to try to parse out details of what looked to me like the wall of text to end all walls of text.

"It's not arcane. At least not entirely. Makes analysis spotty. It's not even consistent… it's more like a gifted spellcaster than a spell. Drawing upon whatever energy it needs. Is this a bound entity?"

I shrugged. "If it is, it's one entirely loyal to me due to a deal I made. It's a representative of a group of powerful beings called The Company, who can alter reality." I proceeded to explain the situation in broad strokes. She started asking me rather esoteric questions that I didn't really have answers to, and slowly worked her way down to questions dumbed down enough that I could at least relay what she was asking. "Did this Company create the universe?" Being one of those.

"Yeah. I think that's a safe assumption. At minimum they claim they did."

"To what end?"

Fuck it. Have some existential angst. "Entertainment. It's a replica of another world; I'm here to see if it's an enjoyable holiday destination for someone given godlike powers. I've decided to spend my time trying to make the world a better place in between sex romps with archmagi."

"You specifically targeted me and you weren't surprised when I regained my powers. So I assume you have work for me? The Silithid problem, I'd assume?"

That made me chuckle, and I showed her the bonus mission. "Any chance you could safely destroy twenty thousand Silithid?"

She took a moment to consider that. "Probably. With appropriate support. I haven't fought the Silithid before, but I can't imagine they are substantially stronger than the average burning legionary on an individual level. It would be best if I could do it in stages though. I don't know exactly how this new power source will function but in the past I've been at my best when I could operate in one hour increments or less and then leave to recover." I don't think she meant twenty thousand in one battle. But I'm really not sure.

"That can be arranged. I feel silly for asking this, but are you substantially weakened by needing to operate in enclosed spaces? I'm about to send a team on a rescue mission to a troll temple, and I think you'd be a great help if you want to stretch your legs."

"I think I could manage that just fine. Who's on the team?"

"You've met some of them. The team traveling with the replica of Varian Wrynn."

"Replica?"

"That's what we are going with. We only need one Varian, so we chose the one that didn't really want to be a ruler and gave her a new face and identity. Don't look at me like that, and don't make her question it. It'll only distress her."

••••••••••

Lividia was not enjoying the lesson. Her king had insisted that she should study with her team under Doan; something about them having substantial variety within the group? She didn't understand what he meant, but he was after all all-wise. About a dozen other people were learning arcane magic with her; most of them quite badly.

Lividia was the best of course. Even better than Mila, the entitled bitch. She thought that she could take the position of chief consort if she gained enough magical power! Hah. She couldn't even outdo Lividia in the area of arcane magic alone! Well. Not for long. Doan seemed incredibly shocked at their speed of learning.

Fireball was easy! She didn't know why Mila ever had trouble with it, taking weeks to learn. Of course, then she mastered frost armor before Lividia, but that was because she needed it. Lividia was already an apex predator. Armor spells were barely necessary.

The two girls went back and forth, one upping each other aggressively and demanding the next lesson. Meanwhile their warrior companions were still somehow trying to learn fireball two hours into the lesson! Even the other mages had only just now managed to master one new spell each.

"Instructor Doan! I believe I'm ready to learn another spell." Lividia turned and told the old mage. If her king wanted her to learn from this man before returning to her real focus, her staff, she would damn well do it quickly.

"As am I. Will we be learning any more frost magic today, instructor?" Stupid bitch thought she was better just because she could make things cold with magic. Who would ever want to make ice anyway? Fire was so much better. The fact that Lividia was better at fire magic than Mila was just an interesting coincidence, and a sign of time spent more effectively.

"Wait your turn! Practice on the targets if you really must."

The two rapidly improving mages stood up and went to the small practice field, where they did their best to outdo one another. The servants needed to bring out the stone target dummies within a few minutes.

••••••••••

Caer Darrow was not a lovely place. The thick, stinging fog of blight hung heavy in the air, it smelled of rot, there were screams in the distance everywhere she went, and Lillibeth was being treated with substantial condescension. She had been told she was too fresh, and would need to be assessed. Then she was placed into a class with students who had never cast a spell in their lives; vagabonds and socialites suckered into the cult with promises of wealth and excitement.

The only reason she stayed was that Instructor Malicia was quite pretty, and seemed to be reasonably useful. She was a high elf who apparently dabbled in nearly every school of magic; a jack of all trades and a master of none. She could even channel the light. She was put in charge of new students so she could assess where their talents lie, and place them in the right area. After all, death magic is only one path to power and the one most costly for the Lich King to grant. Only the most talented would be given a taste of his own strength.

https://imgur.com/a/055Tbm2

The objective silliness of Lillibeth's placement here gave her all the excuse she needed to ask to speak to Malicia after class. She was indulged, partly because she had indeed shown signs of talent in every single area Malicia had tested her. As she approached, she blasted her instructor with a sense of maternal affection. It was a test; if she was called on it, she would admit to using the magic to try to get preferential treatment. She'd likely be punished, of course, but as long as Pai managed to deliver that necklace to Professors Vectus before leaving, the knowledge of how far she could push her charm outstripped anything else.

Streamers of blue light danced around Malicia, and she immediately frowned. "I see you think yourself above the rest. I will grant you that you are very talented, but that? That annoyed me. Your choice of emotion was wise; at the moment I'm more concerned about how this kind of reckless behavior will get you killed than how much I wish to kill you myself. Report to Kirtonos's Steward to make a donation. You should probably survive, and hopefully learn something. I'll decide what else to do with you after I've addressed these changes."

••••••••••

Paige wasn't the biggest fan of the Bloodsail Buccaneers, but Vanessa had pawned off her mission so that she could run off and learn shadow magic. She couldn't really blame Vanessa, but she had to point the annoyance somewhere and being annoyed at Bismark was hard.

Paige had managed to talk a ghost into coming with her. One of those mid-grade ones that didn't have their own necklace yet. Paige had loaned her the one she'd been given for the mission, and now she had a possessed buccaneer coming into town with her. She'd needed to change her clothes, of course, but that was no big deal. The ghost was only too happy to enjoy themselves in the pirate's body. Technically she was captured already, but the ghost didn't want to leave yet. Whatever.

https://imgur.com/a/6iQ5MKi

She also intended to use this weird magic scroll she'd nicked from the inventory. Psychic paper? Well, she could use it and put it back and no one would be bothered. It showed people what you wanted them to see, right? So when she handed the blacksmith the letter, she willed it to give him an offer that she had the power and authority to make happen.

One cutlass for a bloodsail buccaneer if she… got Baron Revilgaz to forgive Jansen's debts? Huh. She sure as hell couldn't do that herself, but if the paper said she could make it happen, might as well kick the request up the chain of command. Fifty fifty odds the boss would just take over the Baron and call it good.