Author's Note
Special thanks to Kersia for helping me create this story.
You did WHAT?! Raiku roared into the mind of his ‘companion’, though given current events, that might not be true much longer.
"I currently cannot find our necklace." Kawisa countered as he sat on the inn bed they had rented for the night.
Our SOULSTONE you mean. Retorted the angry drake.
"Yes, that as well." The elf sighed.
It’s a miracle we are still animating this body! Raiku yelled as he started mentally pacing, which Kawisa wasn’t even aware was possible. We need to find it. YOU need to find it. The drake snarled.
“Relax. We still have the protection enchantment on the stone. Anything short of an exploding star shouldn’t even leave a scratch on it.” Raiku didn’t respond.
The elf sighed “Fine, I’ll go look for it.” He said as he got up from the bed. At that moment, a gust of wind blew in from the open window and made Kawisa stop. Not from the chill, but from the fact he didn’t open the window last night. Rushing over to the windowsill, he saw the proof he didn’t want to see. There were fresh gouges in the wood where someone slid a metal bar under the window to force it open.
Someone… stole… our soulgem… Raiku deadpanned. The resulting storm of rage from the drake left Kawisa with a headache for the rest of the day.
Kawisa was getting real tired of walking over Stormwind. They had originally attempted to track the thief out the window, but that didn’t last long. It was clear the thief had some training with magic as Kawisa’s tracking spell fizzed as soon as they walked into a zone of heavy magical interference in the alley behind the inn. They they went to every pawn shop in that section of the city. After being shown the fiftieth tattered sword, they determined this strategy was not working. Kawisa adjusted his tracking spell not to track the clues from the thief, but to direct them towards the amulet, or rather the souls inside. The spell would eventually lead the pair down an alley in the Mage Quarter. At the end of the alley was a shop with a sign that reads “Enchanting, Engineering, and All Things In Between”. Upon opening the door, they were met with a small, rectangle shaped room with a counter at the back. The counter had a display for all sorts of engineering gadgets as well as vellum enchanted with various enchantments. A strange, robotic looking cat was sitting on the counter as well. Once it noticed the new ‘customer’, its eyes lit up.
“Entrance has been breeched!” played from the robotic cat’s mouth.
Kawisa blinked at the strange robotic cat. He wasn’t sure if the cat was stranger, or the phrase it uttered. He wanted to inspect it, but a mental growl from Raiku kept him focused. Behind the counter, on the wall, a pattern of lights had began to glow to the shape of a door. After a few seconds, that section of wall vanished and a Pandaren woman stepped through. She wore a blue robe, with the addition of an ice blue lab coat.She had spectacles on the bridge of her snout as her eyes remained keen on the stone in her leather gloved paws and not the body in her shop.
“I am very busy, so make it quick. What do you need?” She snapped as she continued to examine her prize from behind the counter, not even looking up at Kawisa. It wasn’t that strange to see a Pandaren mage, but they were certainly not as common as their martial-focused brethren. He narrowed his eyes as the mage brushed him off, but there were more important things than rude shop keeps. “Yes, we had something stolen from us that we have been looking for. My tracking spell says-” As he was talking he looked down at the active spell in his hand and saw it pointing straight at the Pandaren. He took another look at what she was holding and his eyes widened a bit. “That’s it! That’s the amulet that was stolen from us.” Kawisa let out a sigh of relief that it was safe. “If you don’t mind, we will be having it back. We can cover whatever it cost for you to acquire it.”
The Pandaren finally glanced at Kawisa standing in doorway and smirked. She thought for a moment as she examined the man, her paws absently moving across the surface of the stone.
“This dirty ol’ piece? It didn’t cost me much, honestly.” She hesitated for a moment. “Two hundred and fifty… thousand… gold coins. A pittance really. Surely you can afford to buy it back?” A disenchantment spell began to form around her fingers as she weaseled her way into the stone’s defensive enchantments. “After all, with such a powerful enchantment spell, it must be quite valuable.”
Kawisa felt his breath leave him as she told him the absurd cost. That was nothing to recognizing the disenchantment magic swirling around her paws. He spent a solid month weaving the enchantment on the stone to prevent it from being removed easily, but it did not seem like it was doing much more than slowing down the Pandaren. He could feel his mental companion’s characteristic rage flare up and instead of blocking him, he ‘stepped’ back, allowing Raiku to take over. The tracking spell faded instantly, replaced with the chaotic magic of the Twisting Nether. “He said the cost that you acquired it, not whatever exorbitant price you want.” Raiku snarled. “And that was a courtesy for your troubles.”
Quickly Raiku, before she strips the enchantment away! Kawisa warned, urging the drake to act before the stone was vulnerable.
Raiku nodded and continued forming his spell. For a moment, he sensed something abnormal about the Pandaren, but right now he didn’t care. He needed to get that soulgem back, and if this shopkeep wanted to play games, she could burn from his flames. He finished drawing energy to himself and let loose a blast of chaotic fire at the Pandaren as she started to speak.
"Who’s to say that wasn’t the-"she stopped her sentence midway as a chaotic blast of fire came flying at her. She vanished from sight, and as she did, the robotic cat started alarming.
“Alert! Hostiles! Alert! Defense systems activating!” Red light came from the cat’s eyes, pin pointing on the man who attacked. Its mouth opened wide as it began to pull in arcane mana from the enchantment below it. As the cat did that, the door behind the man shimmered and vanished.
The mage reappeared behind him. “Rage is not conducive to proper judgement and rationale.” As she spoke, ice began to form under the man and work its way up his legs, with the intention of rooting him in place. “I have a proposition for you, curious one. I’ve wanted to study one of your kin for ages. Though you are no substitute for her, you can at least give me some data. That, and your peculiar circumstances.” As she spoke, the feline finished charging but did not fire.
While Raiku might not have known much about ‘alerts’ & ‘defense systems’ he most certainly was able to detect the power of the stored energy in the cat thing, and that was before he noticed the door missing and the ice locking him into place.
Kawisa… I’m bringing to think this is not a normal shopkeep. Raiku growled as he tried to look back at the mage. At his angle he wouldn’t even be able to blast her with a proper attack.
What was your first hint? Kawisa snarked back, realizing there were in way over their head.
Raiku didn’t drop his hostile stance, but the swirl of chaotic magic faded from his hands. “I’m not seeing an option for me here.” He growled. “You do know what you have there, yes?” He challenged. For the brief bit of what he had seen of her abilities, he had very little doubt that she did.
“Your soul gem yes? I’ve not had the opportunity to examine it fully, as I was distracted by the sloppy enchantment on it.” Sensing the fight leave from Raiku, she waved her free hand and the mechanical cat relaxed. It was a rare moment that Kawisa allowed anger to affect him, but he did not appreciate slights against his work.
“Observation mode re-engaged.” The cat stretched and yawned. “Kersia, today you have three scheduled tasks. One, continue study of Kul’Tiran Druid magic. Two, order of dragon scales due. Three, weekly auto task: Strengthen Vinarion seal.”
"Yes, yes Racheytech." The mage, Kersia according to the cat, moved beyond Raiku towards the robotic cat. She pulled a pouch from her belt pouch and handed it to the cat. "Get those to Madam Goya, okay?" The cat took the pouch and hopped off the counter. A rune appeared below him and he vanished.
"Now," Kersia turned towards the man and snapped her fingers. The ice vanished. "If you want this gem back, why not work for me? You seem rather volatile, and unique. I would love to study you, and you could have access to my facilities." The entire back of the room shimmered and vanished, revealing two stairways curving down the left and right, and a path down the middle to a stairway going up. "You could, of course, decline. And I could obliterate this tether to your body. But why would we both do that?"
Even though both of them were pissed in the situation they were in, Kawisa was ever the professional and ‘stepped’ forward once more. “It is as you say. ‘Why would we want that?’” Kawisa took a moment to look past the doors. This place was MUCH bigger than the outside of the shop would have suggested. Which meant they were currently in a pocket dimension, or the mage had created a space distortion in Stormwind. Neither were slight feats and lead the elf to start having doubts about the Pandaren. Her power was much more than the average, and while every individual was unique, she lacked many common Pandaren mannerisms. That would be something to address when they were not being strong armed into an agreement.
“What kind of studies are we talking about? I do hope it’s not torture. That would be woefully cliche.” Kawisa questioned. Despite the heavy handedness of the ‘offer’, Kawisa was actually a little excited about this chance. He had not had access to a proper lab since he was exiled from Quel’Thalas. He might finally get a chance to restore Raiku’s form.
Kersia grinned, having caught their interest, or at least Kawisa’s. “Torture is in the eye of the subject, honestly. But we don’t have to do any of that anyway. Simple blood work and the ability to passively observe while you are here is enough. I am beyond electroconductivity studies and flammability at this point in life.”
The pandaren looked him over, apparently finding something entirely fascinating, thought she declined to share what that would be with Kawisa. Instead, she reached behind the counter and pulled out two crystals and set both down. "First, you can register both of your mana signatures with these crystals. Easy enough, just feed a touch of mana into them like you are weaving a spell."
Kawisa studied the crystals for a moment, curious what purpose these signatures would serve, but at the same point realizing they were well past the point of an option. Any illusion thereof was a curtesy from their ‘host’. Kawisa gripped the first of the crystals and focused a moment. His signature would be very structured and layered.
As Kawisa imprinted the first crystal, Kersia began to weave an enchantment of her own over the original enchantment on the stone. Not erasing Kawisa’s, but altering it.
“What are you doing with our soulgem? I don’t need to remind you this agreement comes from the understanding that we will be receiving our gem back unharmed.” He asked, concerned that she was messing with the main thing keeping their souls from shattering across the ether.
“Don’t you mind.” She replied as Raiku stepped forward. He roughly grabbed the second crystal and channeled some magic into it. His signature would be much more wild and primal. He didn’t like this, it reminded him too much of when Kawisa had bound his soul to his service.
“Don’t you mind.” Kersia took the two gems and nonchalantly tossed the amulet, gem and all, at the pair.
“There. With these mana samples, the lab defensive measures won’t trigger.” She smirked. “However, don’t think you are free with your amulet back.” She chuckled. “I’ve modified your protection enchantment. With the right trigger from me, a contained explosion will go off within it. If you try to remove it, you best be careful… that could also trigger it.” Chaotic energies began forming in Raiku’s hand as his rage built. She effectively put them in shackles with their own souls Not wanting the drake to do anything unusually stupid, Kawisa quickly took over, dispelling the building spell before it was even properly formed.
With a cackle, Kersia made her way towards the three passages. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves to each other… officially." She mockingly bowed. "I am Kersiagosa.”
Kawisa was pleasantly surprised that he was correct in his assumptions about the Pandaren’s true form. Still, dragons of the blue flight were exceptional masters at their craft. Kawisa wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. "I am Kawisa Duskreaver, formerly of Quel’Thalas. My temperamental companion is Raiku of the Void.”
As Kersia began to show them around the labs and living quarters, Kawisa now, more than ever, resolved to return Raiku to his form so they could be free of their soulgem and rid themselves of this weakness.
I do read all the reactions to the prompts and enjoy seeing others exercising their writing and fleshing out character ideas.