by Milton Garby
She smiled warmly at him. "Hello, I'm just in from Greenvale. How much is a one night's board and dinner here?"
He smiled back at her. "Good to see another face here. One night's board is fifty silver for a blanket and a place by the hearth, two gold for a blanket, pillow, and a more secluded area, ten gold for a private room for the night. Dinner, well that depends on what you want, miss. A buttered wheat roll is twenty silver, a half-pound of roast beef is thirty six silver, and a slab of cheddar cheese is just five silver."
Sara considered her money for a moment. "I'll have a blanket and pillow, then two buttered wheat rolls and a slab of cheddar," she said.
He nodded. "Right away, miss." He strode around the counter and shuffled around its contents for a bit before putting her food out on the counter. "Hang on for a moment while I get your accommodations." He walked back around and headed to a storage room in the back, and Sara took the time to count out two gold and forty five silvers, to her dismay. Shortly after she was done the innkeeper returned, with a pale blue bedroll and white pillow in his hands.
"Alright," he said as she took them into her hands. "Your place for the night is over that way," he said, pointing towards Sara's right down a hallway. "Second door on the left."
"Thank you, sir," she said as she took the bedroll and her food in hand. She turned away from him and, once he was behind her, allowed her smile to melt into a scowl. Ugh. But at least she had a place to stay for the night, and food to eat. Though she'd need to purchase more water in the morning. Just the act of handing over her money when she didn't have a way to replenish it tore at her, but unless she wanted to forage in the woods there was no way around it. Besides, Sara and her parents had deliberately counted how much she was taking with her, and it factored in those costs.
Knowing that didn't make losing money any easier.
The room she could stay in was warmed by a small hearth tucked away against the wall, and there were several raised rectangular sections of the floor pushed against the wall. A single window let in the sunset's light, and the room was mostly unoccupied. The only other person was a short man with a massive, braided black beard - a dwarf! - resting on one of the rectangles and reading a book to himself. She stared for a moment because she'd never actually seen a dwarf before, but then remembered herself and chose one of the cleaner looking sections to make her 'bed'.
Once that was done, she sat on the bedroll, warmed by the heated surface underneath, and stretched. After she was done stretching out the aches left from the horseride, she took out the buttered rolls and began to eat. She finished off the first roll and washed it down with water, then she grabbed the other one, put the cheddar inside and ate it as a sandwich.
Unease rested in Sara's stomach, and she placed her pack under her pillow, then rested her head on it. She didn't want anybody stealing it; in that pack was all that she owned, and she would be a fool to let anybody take that from her.
Sara's lower body still ached from the horseride, and she knew it would only get worse. It was seven days to Stormwind on horseback, and here she had only finished day one. The trip was going to be miserable and she dreaded it. But... at the end of the tunnel was Stormwind. She just had to keep that in mind, and push through.
With her dinner finished and the first leg of her trip behind her, Sara looked out the window. It was still early, but she decided it would be best to get some sleep.
Absolutely everything hurt.
Her head hurt, her neck hurt. Her arms hurt from holding reins, her legs hurt from riding, and her body hurt from the constant jostling. There was no part of Sara's body that did not scream at her in excruciating agony, and she couldn't use her magic to dull the pain lest the horse spook. The light from the sun streamed down harshly, burning her eyes and searing her skin. A griffon flight path would've gotten her to her destination within a day, not a week, but Greenvale wasn't large enough to have more than a horse route, so she had to endure a week of torturous misery.
But none of that mattered. She was in Stormwind.
Beneath the horse's hooves, white cobblestones passed her by. To the sides was a deep moat of glistening water, and closer to her were enormous statues in various poses, casting their shadows upon her. The guards didn't give her any trouble at the gate; why would they? Stormwind wasn't under any sort of lockdown, civilian were free to come and go as they pleased. She'd only encounter real security near King Anduin's throne.
Her horse reached the end of the bridge and galloped to the left, around the bend, and into the Trade District. All at once, Sara's jaw dropped.
The day before she had stopped in Goldshire and rested in the Lion's Pride Inn. She'd thought the town was massive, but the Trade District dwarfed Goldshire and eclipsed Greenvale. People everywhere, of every race of the Alliance. Humans and dwarves, gnomes, night elves, pandaren, draenei, worgen. Open stalls crowded with business, blue-roofed houses with painted signs hanging out front. The smell of mounts and goods and services clung to the air, and the sound of chatter murmured around her like a stream, a discordant river of noise impossible to make out.
The crowd cleared before her horse, which was trained well enough to ignore the riotous noise and make its way to a tiny stable, tucked away between a thread store and a food store. The stablehand, a young man with slick black hair, came to help her down and take the horse to the back of the stable to rest. Once on the ground she fell flat on her ass before he helped her up, and then she gave him a terse thanks and, wobbling, left.
The very first thing Sara did was find a bench and sit on it. It wasn't that she needed more sitting around, but by all that she held dear after a week on horseback her legs just couldn't go on. Once that was done, she took a few minutes of breathing lightly for the pain to subside to a tolerable level. Then, with a groan, she realized she still needed to make her way to the Mage Quarter, find the Academy of Arcane Arts and Sciences, write a letter to her parents letting them know she'd arrived, find her area of residence, get something to eat, then find out where she would be studying magic.
Ugh, she thought. This all better pay off. And I have to get up now. She winced, but peeled herself off the bench and headed in the direction she thought the Mage Quarter was in. Walking pulled at her tendons and made her wince, but she powered through and, after a few minutes of turns and roundabouts, she left the Trade District and walked along the Canals.
She took a deep breath, breathing in the humid air. The Canals were far less crowded than the Trade District, but there were still so many people it made Sara's head spin. She put a hand in her pocket to secretly set up a mind reading spell on a night elf, and she heard -
'Let's see, eight nine ten, I have enough gold for the glyph, and enough afterwards to get a snack. I should probably swing over by the Cone of Cold, their new server is really cute. Hmm, probably go for butterscotch ice cream today. Oh, shoot, missed the turn, I'm such an idiot - '
At that point Sara grew more distant from the night elf and let the magic dissolve. The Cone of Cold, apparently, sold ice cream. Maybe she could get a job there, once she was settled.
Sara soon arrived at a stone bridge and walked across it, passing over the deep, sparkling waters of the Canal. Up ahead she could see purple rooftops, she could smell grass, and she in the distance was a spire rising into the sky. There was no doubt in her mind; she'd found the Mage Quarter.
When she entered, she immediately found that there was much more grass than the Trade District. Rather than being lined with stone, the Mage Quarter was more like a park; the narrow path was flanked on either side by lush green grass. She took a deep breath, smelling the air, then took a moment on a bench to pull out her entry ticket for the Academy to examine it. More specifically she examined the address, memorized it, then headed towards that location.
It took her a while to get there. She had to go near the middle of the Mage Quarter, where flowers were in bloom, mages in robes and warlocks in darker robes walked around and discussed their
abilities, druids tended to the flowers, and the spire of the Wizard's Sanctum, the pride and joy of the Academy of Arcane Arts and Sciences with its winding spiral ramp and tinted windows, held silent vigil over them all.
Sara kept walking, until she found a large, brownish building. The sign on the outside showed an outstretched hand with a double-layered circle around it. She checked her ticket, and nodded. This was it, the Shadow Magic division. She cracked her neck and, with a quick glance around to make sure nobody was looking her way, gave her magic a quick pulse to remind herself that she was going to take the place by storm. Then she entered the building.
Inside was dark and gloomy, and there were a few paintings hung on the wall of various people in robes. There was a stairway up to her left, and a staircase down to her right. A shelf filled with various bottles made her wonder if the place hadn't been a pub of some kind in the past. A few - presumable - warlocks traveled up and down the stairs in groups of two and three, talking animatedly with each other. Across from Sara was a desk behind which stood a man who was certainly a warlock, clad in dark red robes lined with purple. She strode up to him and placed her entry ticket on the counter, scowling.
"I'm here to learn shadow magic. Where?" she demanded.
"Relax, miss," he said with a knowing smile as he took her ticket in hand, looking it over. After a few minutes he nodded, then reached under his desk to pull out a few sheets of paper inscribed with dense writing. "Ah yes, Sara Smithers. Your schedule is here," he said, pulling out a sheet from under the top one and handing it to her. "This is your area of residence, and this is your key. And I just need you to sign out this form, it confirms that you are who you say you are. Take all the time you need to read it."
Sara snatched the form out of his hand, and read it over quickly. Seeing nothing wrong she set it back down, the man handed her a pencil, and she signed her name. "Alright. Thank you," she said stiffly.
"Make sure to get an initiate's robe, you can find one at the Sacred Thread, right across from the Wizard's Sanctum. They're mandatory for classes," he said.
"Noted," she mumbled as she stuffed the papers beside the rest of her belongings. She turned around stiffly and stormed out of the building. She was so close. She could just go to the apartment complex housing magicians in training and finally sleep on a proper bed for the first time in a week. She couldn't wait, but she still had so many things to do!
When she stepped outside she squinted in the light, then found the roads leading to the Magician's Hollow. On the outside it looked identical to most of the other buildings in the Mage Quarter: Purple roof, wooden construction, tinted windows. However it was significantly wider, there were more windows, and she suspected it went back further than other buildings did. Walking inside, she was immediately overtaken by the casualness of it all. Nobody was actually wearing spellcaster robes, opting instead for casual shirts, pants, and skirts. A few seats were set up, in which men and women, humans, gnomes and even high elves, rested. She boggled at their short height and lengthy ears for a moment before walking further in. The paper had said she was on the third floor, so she found a stairwell and climbed up.
Once on the third floor, she turned right and found her room in mere moments. There was a simple little door, which she opened with the key in order to step inside the musty-smelling room.
Sara frowned. She was going to be sharing the room with someone. She knew that for a fact because, beyond the window, two dressers, and a few desks, there was a bunk bed and the bottom bunk was already made and filled with someone's belongings. Sara grumbled but climbed onto the top bunk, shrugging off her pack and laying out onto the pillow that was already there for her.
"Gods," she sighed, relaxing. Finally, a bed. She wanted to just conk out and get some real sleep, and she finally had the chance...
But I have things to do, she thought to herself irately, peeling herself off the bed. She still needed to write and send a letter to her parents - and Leira now that she thought about it - before getting something to eat, and her initiate's robes. Thanks to the schedule she knew where she was going to go to learn, so that was done.
Sara lifted her pack and emptied it onto her bed, letting the extra clothing fall out. After switching out of her pants into a short, comfortable brown skirt, she pocketed the bag of coin, jumped off the bunk, and headed out with an empty pack and an empty stomach. She bounded down the stairs and out into the increasingly-cloudy Mage Quarter.
She breathed in, and headed towards Sacred Threads. The shop was a nice little place, it was cute and the attendant was swift to direct her to warlock initiate robes - not that she intended to be a warlock, she just wanted to learn shadow magic - and let her pick out her size. After that she purchased it, put it in her pack and left. Sara stopped by a tavern called the 'Blue Recluse' for a late lunch. Nothing of any note happened there either; she went in, got a few slices of pie to eat, ate, then left to return to her apartment. She entered the building, trudged up the stairs to the correct door, opened it and -
Someone's here someone's here SOMEONE'S HERE!
Before she even took in who it was, Sara's shadow magic flared to life and she held her left hand out at the intruder. She immediately pushed even more power into it, going from black-purple-green to swirling, hungry violet energy. "Who are you?!"
The woman looked at her and backed up, her hands in the air. "Whoa whoa, Sara it's me! From Greenvale, don't you remember?"
Sara narrowed her eyes, looking over the woman. She was pale, even moreso than Sara, and stood about half a head shorter than her with shoulder length, raven-black hair. She was already in red warlock initiate robes, and her face was round with wide blue eyes. Grimacing, Sara lowered her arm and let her magic relax. "Maria, what are you doing here?" she asked her old classmate.
"I live here now! Don't you remember, I'm gonna be a warlock. You too?"
She shrugged. "Except for the whole 'demons' thing."
Maria nodded. "You'll probably want to focus on the affliction spells. Still, I can't believe you're here, with me! What are the odds?" she asked happily, coming in to wrap her arms around Sara.
Sara blinked. "Yes, what are the odds?" She stepped out of the hug and pushed Maria away. "No touching."
"Right, right. Sorry. But still, this is so exciting! I get to share a room with you while we're learning shadow magic! Well, learning more shadow magic in your case."
"Hmm, I'm thrilled. Listen, I still have things to do." She walked over to her bed and slung herself and her pack on top. She pulled out her initiate's robes, then the stationery.
"Oh, right!" Maria said, backing up and taking a seat on the lower bunk. "Sorry."
Sara left the robes on her bed, but hopped off and went to one of the desks with her letters and pencil. She sat down and began writing.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I've arrived safely in Stormwind. I have my schedule for classes, I have all my belongings and my money. I was not robbed, and am in perfect health. Everything is fine. I made it. Unfortunately I'm sharing a room with one of my old classmates, and I'm sore all over from the horse ride, but beyond that everything's great. Hope to hear from you soon.
Love you,
Sara
She folded up the letter and wrote the address on it before tucking it away. Then she pulled out another letter and began writing.
Dear Leira,
Hey, how're you? I've just arrived in Stormwind, finally gonna start learning magic from people who probably know what they're doing. I'm inside some apartment complex, and according to my schedule I'm going to be learning shadow magic from warlocks and magic fundamentals from mages. How are you? Are you still a squire for Huan Earthsong, or are you actually fighting now? Please let me know, I'm curious. Hope to see you soon.
From,
Sara
That letter also was folded up, sealed, and had Leira's address in Ironforge written on it. She grabbed both in hand and walked past Maria. "I'm going to the mailbox
, where's the closest one?" she demanded.
"There's one right by the Blue Recluse. Or, actually, there's a closer one one building to the right of this place. Who're you sending letters to? Your folks?"
She shot Maria a look that said none of your business, but still said, "Yes. Leira too. You do remember her, right?"
"Uh, yeah. She went to Ironforge to be a squire, right?"
"Right well, if everything went well she should be actually a soldier now in that guild. I need to go." Sara walked out and stormed down the stairwell of the apartment. She nearly collided with two mages as they were climbing, but maneuvered around them to reach the ground floor before stepping out. She found the mailbox easily, and plodded towards it with both letters clutched tightly in her hand. She pushed it inwards and dropped both letters in the 'Outgoing' slot, then gave a light smile. Finally, she was done and could rest. She turned back to the house.
When she arrived back in the room she shared with Maria, she climbed to the top bunk and collapsed on top of her belongings. "Ugh, there. That's everything."
Maria looked up from what Sara assumed was her own schedule. "Don't you need to go look for a job? I know this inscription store that's hiring."
"Tomorrow. Can't go like this. I need rest and I'm a mess." And I don't know how to mind control people into giving me a job, she thought. "I'll take a bath at night, but I'm spent."
"Oh you don't need to take a bath, there's a gnomish shower device down the hall," Maria remarked.
"That's nice." Sara rolled over and found her schedule. She pulled it out and looked it over with bleary eyes. Starting tomorrow she had magic classes starting at ten in the morning, and continuing until ten at night. The Basic Fundamentals of Magic, Magic and the Body, The Types of Magic, the list ran on. The enormity of the task before her began to dawn on Sara: the next few years would be mentally straining beyond anything she knew. But she'd get through it. She had to. After all, she'd been using magic for longer than some of the instructors. If they could get through this, then so could she.
