Drown Yourself in a Circle of Stars

Abby was dancing as her magic shimmered around her, her record player a gift from dear Skye. 

 She was so preoccupied she hadn’t even seen the prank portal Lyra cast; then she was still dancing in some spooky place, her light radiating brightly.

Ardelle hears it before she sees it. Something is in the foyer, splashing around in her impluvium. They did say she was crazy for attempting to reclaim Blackmoon Villa and the surrounding area back from the undead–

No. She’s definitely not crazy.

Ardelle grabs her well-worn broom and makes her way to the foyer. “Lannifer! Go get the mop there’s a zombie in the impluvium again!” 

But when she reaches the foyer, she finds no undead stomping around her home at all. No, it’s a human paladin. 

“If I tell you it’s just a portal gone wrong, will you not hit me with the broom?” Abby asks lightly.

She raises her hands “I know I’m a human and we kind of suck..a lot but I am unarmed and honestly? I was just dancing.”

She winces “I uh think my friend played a prank on me and overshot her portal again!”

Not that she cared if some random human was skulking around the Ghostlands. They’ve got bigger things to worry about than petty faction conflicts–but she did find it odd that someone’s portal would short out enough to bring them to the Ghostlands. 

“Lannifer!” She calls over her shoulder, “it’s not the undead, go back to the kitchen!”

Then she turns back to the human. “Well, I have someone who could help you get back to where you belong. Where were you before you fell through this portal?”

“My friend Lyra is very powerful, but her portals can sometimes be unstable, I was in the Dustwallow Marsh before, well..yea, I actually made a little community there.”

Seeing she wasn’t threatened, the Paladin would extend a hand “My name is Abigail Crowfen, I’m a traveling hero and uh, I think your home is very beautfiul!” 

She grins, then blinks and blushes. “Sorry, I tend to..be rather complimentary without a buffer when I think something nice.” 

Rubbing the back of her neck she says “I’m a Paladin too but uh..I’m not sanctimonious or bigoted.” 

She’d look around “Do I have to leave right now? I uh..would love to get to know you and besides, I can show you something really cool!”

Ardelle takes Abby’s hand in her own, giving it a curt shake. “Bal’a dash, malanore. I am Ardelle Blackmoon, and I thank you for the compliment, it has taken much work to keep the house looking so nice during this most recent invasion by the Scourge.”

Zombies in her impluvium, skeletons in the menagerie. The random ghoul that scaled Lannifer’s balcony. She and Sylrin had once swept the entire Villa and found some coming in through a broken window on the first floor. They were everywhere. 

“Oh Abigail, don’t you worry. My daughter is a paladin, I know better than to assume you’re all the same!” Ardelle says with a laugh. “But I thought you might like to get back to wherever you came from, since you arrived here by mistake. This isn’t exactly the most scenic or... hospitable part of Quel’thalas.”

Abby was dancing as her magic shimmered around her, her record player a gift from dear Skye. 

 She was so preoccupied she hadn’t even seen the prank portal Lyra cast; then she was still dancing in some spooky place, her light radiating brightly.

Ardelle hears it before she sees it. Something is in the foyer, splashing around in her impluvium. They did say she was crazy for attempting to reclaim Blackmoon Villa and the surrounding area back from the undead–

No. She’s definitely not crazy.

Ardelle grabs her well-worn broom and makes her way to the foyer. “Lannifer! Go get the mop there’s a zombie in the impluvium again!” 

But when she reaches the foyer, she finds no undead stomping around her home at all. No, it’s a human paladin. 

“If I tell you it’s just a portal gone wrong, will you not hit me with the broom?” Abby asks lightly.

She raises her hands “I know I’m a human and we kind of suck..a lot but I am unarmed and honestly? I was just dancing.”

She winces “I uh think my friend played a prank on me and overshot her portal again!”

Not that she cared if some random human was skulking around the Ghostlands. They’ve got bigger things to worry about than petty faction conflicts--but she did find it odd that someone’s portal would short out enough to bring them to the Ghostlands. 

“Lannifer!” She calls over her shoulder, “it’s not the undead, go back to the kitchen!”

Then she turns back to the human. “Well, I have someone who could help you get back to where you belong. Where were you before you fell through this portal?”

A smile blooms across her face as he says that he would take the job. She felt giddy already- she hadn’t seen Seth in nearly fifteen years, he had to be in his early nineties by now. Ardelle’s hands sprung up and she did a very polite little clap, the kind of clapping you hear at poetry readings.

“Thank you so much.” She said, looking up at him. When he says her name, she cocks a brow. She isn’t used to every Tom, Dick and Harry calling her by her first name.

“Lady Blackmoon-” She mumbles, “Oh Delphine, she always cuts right to the case, doesn’t she?” She chuckles. She dwells on this train of thought for a few more moments before she flips to another subject, though it did pertain to the broader topic of the conversation; “Do you uh- need more pictures, descriptions or anything?” 

She made her way back to her desk where she had been keeping the recent reports about sightings of Sethan.

{ @havalin }

Havalin chuckles right back. “I prefer in-formalities, if that’s alright with you. If we’re going to be doing business together, you can call me Havalin, but most just shorten it to Hav. Doesn’t matter to me.” He pauses for a moment, straightening up and dropping his arms to his sides. “But if it’s not, Lady Blackmoon it is.” 

Havalin resisted the urge to laugh more, however, upon hearing the blue-clad death knight waiting outside the office snort with annoyance. Apparently, her friend didn’t appreciate his casual approach, and Havalin wouldn’t be Havalin if he didn’t push at least one person’s buttons while picking up a contract. 

The smuggler nodded his head, bringing his hands up to absentmindedly tighten the ponytail that kept his hair out of his face. It was getting to be too long - he was wondering if it was about time for him to get a haircut. 

“Anything you have for me would be more than helpful, thank you.”

She searches her desk for a moment, gathering up all of the papers and whatnot that held the reports from The Eye about her boy, along with few precious pictures that had been snagged of him after his change. What an awful change it was, his skin a light lilac, tentacles sprouting from the nape of his neck, but his hair was still as dark red as the day he had been born. 

She taps the ends of the paper against her desk, shuffling them a bit to even everything out before handing them over to Havalin. “There we have it, everything we have on him so far.”

As he makes his way over to her, she walks out from behind her desk. She might appear to be floating, for her red gown was so long it obscured her feet, but the thumping of what was unmistakably work boots gave away that her feet did indeed touch the ground. 

“Let’s get right to business then.” She walked straight to the covered painting and pulled the drapery off of the only canvas.

Underneath the sheet was a family of five. A Farstrider, a woman holding a baby, a man in full Spellbreaker regalia and a woman wearing a pink dress. With the exception of the husband, all of them possessed red hair. She pointed to the Spellbreaker.

“My oldest. I have received reports of a red-haired Ren’dorei among the Alliance forces.” She turned back to Havalin. “I know you’re not a P.I., but I haven’t seen Seth since we joined the Horde.” Her eyes, which normally drooped on the outer corners to give her a much gentler appearance than most Sin’dorei now only seemed to enhance how sad she suddenly appeared. 

She snapped back after a moment, “So will you take the job? I can assure you that you will be heavily compensated for your efforts.”

{ @havalin }

Fortunately for Ardelle, Havalin just so happened to have a Ren’dorei brother, curiously also named Seth. He would hopefully be able to have Seth help him find who he was now going to affectionately refer to as Baby Seth - not to his client, of course. 

The job seemed dangerous, but Havalin had to admit he liked money, and he especially liked large sums of money, and if they were able to pull off the job, they wouldn’t have to worry about money for quite some time. It also didn’t help that his client was giving him what essentially looked like the look of a lost puppy. He was sure it wasn’t intentional - or was it? Regardless, he nodded his head as he studied the portrait. 

“Well, you’re in luck! My brother should be able to help me with this. We do this sorta thing all the time fairly easily.” Well, fairly easily was a lie, but they’d never been caught before, why would this time be any different? A cocky thought, perhaps, but it was one that kept Havalin sneaking into territories he wasn’t invited.

“Sure, I don’t see why we couldn’t do that for you, Ardelle, right?” The name had been mentioned to him once, but he wasn’t the best with remembering the names of his clients. He usually had to write them down somewhere, or have Setharien remind him. 

“Thank you so much.” She said, looking up at him. When he says her name, she cocks a brow. She isn’t used to every Tom, Dick and Harry calling her by her first name.

“Lady Blackmoon-” She mumbles, “Oh Delphine, she always cuts right to the case, doesn’t she?” She chuckles. She dwells on this train of thought for a few more moments before she flips to another subject, though it did pertain to the broader topic of the conversation; “Do you uh- need more pictures, descriptions or anything?” 

She made her way back to her desk where she had been keeping the recent reports about sightings of Sethan.

Ardelle was quite the patient woman, she had been alive for over a hundred years now, she had raised three children, surely ten minutes didn’t really seem like such a long time to her, would it? She tapped her nail against her desk and wondered if Mari’li had stolen away the affections of yet another rogue she had summoned for her esoteric plans. 

While she waited, she shuffled some paper work, she glanced over at the long-covered family painting. She checked the ornate clock that Malukard had bought her as an anniversary present that sat against the far wall.

Boredom would be the death of Ardelle Blackmoon.

Then, the door to her office is unceremoniously thrown open for the thousandth time by her son, who was all but screeching; “Mother!” Lannifer points, gesturing wildly, mumbling about rogues wondering around ‘his’ corridor and Mari’li’s ex-boyfriends before stalking off, leaving a lone figure standing in the doorway to her office. 

Ardelle stands from behind her desk, both hands still resting on the paper-crowded surface. She tilted her head, and with a smile she said; “You are not an easy man to find. I have a job for you.”

{ @havalin }

A smug grin was quick to cross the lips of Havalin Brasshide, shoulder pressed into the wooden doorframe. He was indeed hard to find, and that was just how he liked it to be. He and his brother, Setharien worked in the smuggling business. This meant only those willing to pay their fees, and people with jobs which piqued their interests would have the pleasure of working with them. Mostly, he picked jobs that involved reuniting loved ones. It was rewarding work, which while it may seem it was for a good cause, the governments didn’t always see it that way. He and his brother could get in a lot of trouble for doing what they did best.

After waiting what seemed to be a suitable amount of time, he made his way over to the desk of the potential employer. He studied her for a moment - she had a kind smile and soft features. She was quite pretty, but he didn’t let him distract him from the task at hand. There would be time to ponder such realizations later. 

“A job? What kind of job. I’ve been trying to keep a low profile the past few months, things’ve been rough.” Havalin folded his arms across his chest, brow raised. He tried to keep a smug demeanor while meeting with potential clients. It was mostly for safety, but also to keep up an image of sorts he’d devised for himself. 

“Let’s get right to business then.” She walked straight to the covered painting and pulled the drapery off of the only canvas.

Underneath the sheet was a family of five. A Farstrider, a woman holding a baby, a man in full Spellbreaker regalia and a woman wearing a pink dress. With the exception of the husband, all of them possessed red hair. She pointed to the Spellbreaker.

“My oldest. I have received reports of a red-haired Ren’dorei among the Alliance forces.” She turned back to Havalin. “I know you’re not a P.I., but I haven’t seen Seth since we joined the Horde.” Her eyes, which normally drooped on the outer corners to give her a much gentler appearance than most Sin’dorei now only seemed to enhance how sad she suddenly appeared. 

She snapped back after a moment, “So will you take the job? I can assure you that you will be heavily compensated for your efforts.”