Seventh Crystal

The crystal crackles to life, the sound of movement around a room, simple chores and light cleaning.

“Dear You… It’s been a week. Normally I wouldn’t worry but. I dunno. It’s… This week has been weird. And I have a really weird feeling that something bad is about to happen. Or something good is going to dissolve or… I think the Human phrase is I’m waiting for the shoe to drop. It doesn’t really make much sense, it’s more like waiting for a manabomb to explode, I guess.

I’m not going to send this. You’re never going to hear this but that’s okay. Sometimes it’s easier to talk when I think you will, though. I… Ugh.

Man you should have been here last night, so much happened. So first, I walk in and Drex is doin’ something – makin’ some drink he’s calling Justice? Ha, I guess that means he was serving up Justice, right? Iunno, it looked weird and he’s all talkin’ about phosphorous and lithium and apparently lithium would have made it an antidepressant or something and – I seriously want to pick his brain but I wouldn’t even know where to start. Dude is seriously smart. Plus it was weird seeing him and Tess behind the bar for a while. And Kae. Like, there wasn’t even room for me, it was this weird freaky-deaky day.

Aris said something was gonna explode, so I had to stay back anyhow. When THAT finally calmed down, some weird Kal’dorei in an owl costume came in talkin’ about how much she loved killing Sin’dorei. It started to get really uncomfortable really fast, but I mean… Everyone damn near pounced on her, it was pretty amazing. Drex threw out some insults I’m pretty sure I’m not old enough to be hearing, Tess and Kae looked like they were about to draw on her, but Kae was pretty shitfaced.

J-Mom gave me an out, but man… I kind of wanted to fight her. Like. I was standing there, thinking of just how good it would have felt to just whack her with my shovel. But Aris beat everyone to it, he scared her right on out the door, it was pretty amazing. I would pay to see that again…And – man you’re not going to believe this.

So, throughout all this, there’s this Ren’dorei guy just kinda watchin’ me from the table under the stairs. I don’t think a lot of it, apparently I’m entertaining cuz I get watched a lot. He talks to Jiira when that Bird Person is harassing me and she tells me he wants to talk to me. I go over, and you’re not gonna fuckin’ believe this. It’s goddamned Vyn! My brother! I don’t know how he got here, but the charm looked like one the Boss uses to visit family in Stormwind so… Shit, with the amount of people hiding who they are, we’re lucky SI:7 doesn’t round up everyone and just do a mass dispel….”

There’s a long moment of silence as he considers the gravity of that statement.

“…anyhow… Ash and Jiira took me out and taught me how to shoot. I’m not terrible at it, I hit like… most of the things. There’s something about it I like but I can’t put my finger on it. The… the weapon is a lot… heavier than I expected. Not like, weight. But… weight, ya know? Like the implication of what it’s capable of somehow makes it more solid. It makes my gut hurt to think about it. But the weight of it under my arm it…

Jiira gave me her revolver. …It… …It was the one Ash gave her when she first came to Stormwind. It was the one that she says made her feel less afraid. Less helpless. And now she gave it to me. So that I’d feel less afraid and helpless. I don’t… …I’ve never had someone make a sacrifice like that for me. This has meaning to it, a story. A connection. And now…I like wearing it. She gave me some fancy bullets too, she said they were like the ones that she made you. I uh. I hope I don’t ever have to use it. But I’m glad to have it.”

There’s a stretch without speaking, just the sound of tidying.

“This stupid dagger won’t shut up again. Part of me wonders what’s going on, but it’s probably just a trick to get me to commune with it or something. Nice try, Asshole Dagger.

…I should probably name it. Eh. Maybe later. Now that’d be a fel of a story…

Anyhow, Sim showed up part way through the shooting, it was really good to see her. Vyn snuck over too. It’s… really weird having him here. It’s weird seeing people from home, like…

I feel like part of me needs to hide who I was from everyone. Like I risk losing everything the more people know about my life as a rat. I mean I guess that’s silly, what with Rutabaga and everything. But… I’m afraid of the attention, I guess. I don’t like being in the spotlight, I guess I know how quickly I’d let people down. It makes me flighty. But…

We got food from a Pandaren cart and went to hang out to eat and Vyn started tellin’ stories about how we met. I thought it’d make me nervous but… It just kinda made me realize how far I’ve come.

Man I’ve got some damn stories. Like how Braindigger got its name. Or how I got the Asshole Dagger. Well. Well those are the same story, actually.

Or – oh – or how Vyn and I met. How I ended up working for the Argents…Oh shit, right. So. I’m not a Squire anymore. I uh. I got a promotion last night.”

The rising blush can be heard in his voice.

“It uh. It was a big deal. I had to say a vow and answer questions and kneel and he put his blade across my shoulders and everything. I’m a Knight Initiate now. It uh. I’m kind of embarrassed. But my moms were there and…

Maybe this manabomb won’t explode. Maybe it’s not a bomb after all. Maybe it’ll be okay. Maybe I’ll hear from you soon. Or who knows, maybe Kae and I will get fed up with waiting and come get you ourselves. I mean, fuck, I’m a Knight now, right? It’s right there in the title. Go do some knightly shit like rescuing a Princess. Ha… fuck that’s way too fitting, I love it.

I hope you’re safe. I wish you could hear this…”

End transmission.