They were up before the sun rose, both parents getting their children up and ready to go before worrying about themselves.
“Mum-ma,” a sleepy Rose muttered while her brother rubbed at his eyes.
“Yer gonna go with daddy fer a bit,” Gin muttered, pausing as she finished buckling the straps to her leather shoulder piece. “Both you an’ yer brother. Somewhere fun, yeah?” She bent down, scooping up both children in her arms to snuggle them. “Ah’ve jus’ gotta run a quick errand, then we’ll all ‘ave a nice lil’ family vacation, yeah?”
Gin stood, handing the twins to their father just as Finnegan fluttered over to his perch on her left shoulder. “Stay safe, love,” she muttered the words against his lips before picking up her pack. “Four days.”
“Four days,” he repeated as she shouldered her pack.
Once more, she took off, soaring through the skies on the back of her rylak, Finnegan flying along nearby. While much slower than portal travel, the flight itself should only take the day, landing on the edge of the country before making her way to the Ebonsteed lands. The cover of nightfall would make it easier for her to sneak into the city, but also more dangerous.
One stop was all she granted herself, long enough to eat something and rest for a bit, stopping in the forests of Loch Modan. “...go t’th’estate t’nigh’, Finnegan, we’ll worry ‘bout th’rest tomorrow.”
The black raven pulled his head from under his wing as his mistress spoke, letting out a soft caw in response. She’d found a secluded clearing, leaning her back against a tree as Fluffy rested nearby, chewing on some unfortunate rams he’d found. “Be nice t’sleep in an estate, yeah? Too bad ‘s run down, would loved t’see - ‘ey, stop tha’, yer beak ‘s sharp.”
The raven had nipped at her ear, beginning to hop about on her shoulder as he noticed the white raven resting on a nearby tree branch. And ravens - while not uncommon - were not usually white in the wild, the mutation making them a bright beacon for predators to come find. Gin immediately stopped talking as she noticed it, staring at the unusual eyes on the creature. Violet eyes. She resumed eating, acting as if she’d noticed nothing as she repacked the rylak’s saddle and took to the skies once more.
“Still followin’ us, Finn?”
An answering caw from the bird, atop his special perch on the rylak’s neck armor.
“Figures,” she muttered, urging the flying beast onward.
The white raven struggled to keep up, her wings flapping as hard as she could to try and keep up with the large beast. She was clearly exhausted, but determined not to let the woman out of her sight. There was a moment through the Wetlands that Gin thought she lost the second raven, only to have it reappear moments later, sluggishly beating its wings.
There were no more stops in her journey, the sun getting lower and lower as she got closer to Silverpine Forest. The plan now was to lead the bird to Pyrewood and hopefully locate some form of cage and blindfold. If she was correct in her assumptions - while the bird was a natural bird - those eyes held Void magics in the them.
It didn’t take long to reach Silverpine, making sure to land far enough away from from the town that she could remain somewhat hidden. And as if on cue, the fluttering of wings was heard behind her, followed by a flash of white. Again, Gin gave no indication that she knew she was being watched, simply beginning to search through some of the houses. What she was looking for was unclear, but she was clearly searching for something.
The pale raven would be able to keep her in sight until she entered the chapel. Every other building had taken her only a few minutes to search while this one seemed to be taking longer. The white raven let out an annoyed and tired sounding caw, hopping around on her perch. What was taking the woman so long?
The answer came shortly after as a bag was placed over raven’s head, quickly flipping her over and tying the end. Gin was rewarded with angry and tired caws of protest, fighting against the damp, musty smelling sack weakly.
“At’s right, y’bastard, y’get t’come with me,” Gin muttered, pulling a small needle from the special pouch on her belt. This one was tipped in a mild sleeping potion, enough to knock the bird out long enough for Gin to blindfold and cage it. There was a quick jab at the flailing bag, waiting until it stopped moving before removing the bag. “Hmph, who’s bird’re you, then?” She didn’t take time to contemplate, using a bandage to wrap around the bird’s eyes before locking it in a metal cage she’d found.
“C’mon, Finnegan...we can still make it t’th’estate ‘fore nightfall if we ‘urry.”
( @terrick-ebonsteed, @areniaagn, @lucentlycanthrope, @confessor-caleb. @dear-dark-sister for plot purposes)
One decent thing about having a new body was the ability to sneak into places she would have otherwise been unable to get. A rotting, walking corpse followed by a disinterested void walker attempting to get into the Alliance inn in Dalaran? Huge red flags.
But a lone, blind, seemingly Quel’dorei woman? No problem. “Zerin” was free to go where she pleased, regardless of faction.
Which - for tonight - found her near Krasus’ Landing, fingers trailing over her map as she memorized the topography. Things would get a bit easier away from the city, allowing her to call on an unfortunate Void Walker to be the warlock’s eyes.
It was to be a simple matter of gathering more supplies for her rituals, though being able to pull energy from the fel-infused lands was also a plus. Her long ear twitched, causing her to raise her head and look blindly upward, unknowingly staring towards Argus in the sky.
She had felt a tug at something she had long thought dormant: the call of Shadows.
Without a word, Abi blindly grabbed at the staff resting next to her, using it to guide her way through the city to the entrance of the Underbelly. Once safely inside, she’d summon the demon allowing her to see, the dark underworld of the mage city finally visible to her as she did so.
“уєѕ...?” The Void Walker sighed heavily as he looked around for the woman.
Gin looked up from rubbing her temples. They’d kept her aboard the Vindicaar after she’d collapsed on the surface, keeping her around under the guise of “strategic purposes” as they kept a closer eye on her. Nothing had changed since the day she’d asked to come back aboard, to be removed from the front lines. No more loud voices in an unknown language, no more spikes of shadow power - minus the Shadowy raven she’d sent to Aren, unbeknownst to anyone. But even she had no desire to return to the front line for once.
“Aye?”
“We’re sending you back to Stormwind. You’ve barely had any rest since this war started, maybe being home for a few days will do you some good.”
Gin simply nodded, looking up from the charts she’d been going over. Home with the twins and Terrick sounded wonderful right now, but then...her original home. Gin had vague memories of a dark figure lurking in the corners of their home. She’d brushed it off as a half-formed childhood memory, until recently. Maybe there was something still there, unexplored.
“Aye...aye, alrigh’. When ‘m ah t’be leavin’, then?”
“Tonight. We’ll give you enough time to gather what you need, then we’re sending you through the portal to Dalaran. If you feel up to it, you can take the portal back to Stormwind from there, or you can rest in Greyfang Enclave for the evening.”
Another nod, this time closing various charts and journals she’d been rifling through. The Gilnean rarely - if ever - asked to be taken out of active combat, but this was different. She was fighting something she had no idea how to combat. And unlike the fel corruption, whatever this was had no outside cause that she could tell.
