A Raven’s Trial pt 2

[Karnna]

Stormgarde, restored to her former glory after the fall of the false king Galen, now stood proudly flying Alliance banners. In its shadow though lies the ruins of Ar’gorok, a once mighty stronghold of the Horde now utterly destroyed and left as testament of the Alliance’s might.

Within it’s ruins two figures watch the mighty city of Stormgarde, a human dressed in black leathers, and a heavy cloak he would almost be a shadow if not for his bright blue eyes shining though. Next to him was an orc, dressed not in assassin’s leathers or Frostwolf attire, but in the garb of an Witherbark Headhunter, in the light of day, it would be a pitiful disguise, but in the middle of the night, with shadows and torch light? One could easily mistake the lithe orc as a forest troll.

“It will be dark enough soon” Spoke the human “Your target will be in the tavern likely trying to stir up trouble, when he leaves, you’ll have plenty of time to catch him alone before he reaches the barracks.”

“And the reason I’m not in my usual gear for this?” The orc spoke in soft feminine tones, clearly frustrated.

“Because if an orc assassin was found out to be behind this, it would result in escalation of tensions, something we’re trying to stop, dear student.” the human purred.

“One: I am not your student anymore, and two: I would work better with my own equipment than this...junk” The orcess bemoaned, looking at her weapons, two crude iron axes and a single hunting spear, hardly strong enough to get through heavy plate armor, but as long as the target is unarmored, they should work just fine. “Yes well, that does remind me of another detail about this mission” the human turned, his once cheery expression turned hard and serious “You are not to use any of your shadow magic during this assassination, Karnna” His voice stern, as a father giving their child an order.
At this Karnna stood up angry, “What?! You want me to go into the middle of an Alliance city, still fully garrisoned, find a single lieutenant and assassinate him and make it out without any of my magic? Why?!” The human, remained unmoved by the she-orc’s outburst and softly said “Because, if what I’ve heard is right, you’ve become too reliant on it, almost addicted, you wield it like a child wield a toy sword, if you do not learn to reel it in, you will be overtaken by it, or have you forgotten my lesions after all these years?”

Karnna let out a hiss of annoyance “The way I use my gifts should not concern you, as long as the job is done, who cares?” she tried to argue. “They make you reckless, sloppy and worst of all a liability to those around you and yourself, I will not repeat myself on this matter, Karnna, you will not use your powers'' The human stare deep into Karnna’s eyes, his piercing blue eyes felt like more a predator’s stare. With a huff Karnna relented “Very well, I will trust your judgement of master of ravens' ' she spoke with mocking reverence for her old mentor, yet she still respected the human, even admired him. “Good” was all he said as he turned to look up the sky, the sun has finally set and darkness began to engulf the land, “You best get going, good luck, Blackfeather'' and with that, Karnna was off, darting through the shadows of the highlands toward the first city of humanity.

The tavern was as loud and as lively as ever, many humans were still celebrating the reclaiming of Arathi for the Alliance, and the return of the original Trollbane bloodline to retake the throne. It was here, one Lieutenant Haris Gibbons was gloating over how he and his men managed to repel a horde scouting party from Hammerfall or raid the Go’shek Farm. They were lies naturally, but the stories themselves were entertaining enough for the soldiers in the tavern, from outside, Karnna watched through a window for when her mark would finally have enough and leave the tavern, yet at the rate things were doing, it looked ready to go right on till the morning.

She was already frustrated, getting into the city without shadow magic and in what was little more than furs and leaves strapped together was difficult enough, she had almost been caught while scaling the walls and again trying to get through the many checkpoints in the city. It was surprisingly really, just how many Alliance forces garrisoned the city, not just those of the Arathi bloodlines returning from exile to their old homeland, but dwarves of all three clans also garrisoned the city, worst still, paladins of the Silver Hand, through whom had sworn loyalty to the “High Exarch” Turalyon, who Karnna had learnt had recently been named Lord Commander of the Alliance, making him now the second most powerful figure in the Alliance save maybe for Anduin Wyrnn himself.

As she waited for her prey, she began to wonder on her mentor’s words, had she become too reliant on her magic? She knew the cost that came with them and always accepted it yet during her time with the Red Blades, she saw how many disdained her use of them, more so when she’d use them for even she would admit, pity torments of her targets. They had caused a rift between her the clan, and soon her thoughts went back to them, the distrust, her arguments with her elders and Nakobu, even Skywise and Gul’rok confronted her on it, maybe she should have given them more heed.

Finally, the Lieutenant was leaving the tavern, he was accompanied by two other men, thankfully all of them were out of uniform, one headed in a different direction to the two, leaving for the living quarters of the city while lieutenant Gibbons and his friend made for the barracks. Good, Karnna though, it would make this easier.
A silently as she could she followed them in the shadows at they made their way to the barracks, finally as they turned a corner, no witnesses to be seen, Karnna sized the moment, racing from her hiding spot, she drew the hunting spear and hauled it into Gibbons’ friend, it went right through him and he went down without making a sound, Gibbon, still too drunk to realize what had happened, slowly turned as Karnna began to reach him, his eyes went wide with horror as the sudden reality of what was going on hit him, then the axes struck, and his head came flying off.

Suddenly a cry went out from behind her, Karnna turned to see it was the second friend, for whatever reason he had come back after them, and now saw what was a tall green figure in troll garb holding bloody axes, with a hiss, Karnna quickly broke into a run trying to reach the wall were she had entered from.

However at every turn, it seemed more humans were showing up, dammit all, she thought, if I could just cloak myself none of this would be an issue! Suddenly a chunk of the stone wall she was running passed blasted apart, as she turned, she saw a dwarven rifleman had arrived to give chase, it was getting worse and worse by the minute yet still she ran.

As the city’s bells sounded alarm, the panic around the city began to work in her favor, humans yelling in different directions claiming to have spotted her, and the few who had manage to spot her quickly got lost in the chaos, finally she reached the wall, the rope still there, hurrying as best she can she scaled the rope and too late noticed the garrison had already heading her way, the only escape, was a leap into the moat. With a mighty leap she flung herself forward sailing through the air, she finally felt like she could breath, she just needed to dive and…

….Suddenly a sharp pain shot through her, and her graceful leap had turned into a freefall, something hit her, but what? She didn’t hear a gunshot, an arrow maybe? The pain was making it unbearable to think and her mind was giving way to panic. Was this it? This was how she would finally die? How pitiful, was her last thought before she crashed into the waters below, from the shock and pain, her eyes closed as she fell deeper into the darkness below her.