Allow me to introduce the next pair of adventurers to travel together as refer-a-friend buddies: Aefa the Blood Elf Mage and Mengfu the Orc Shaman.
At first, Aefa thought "He's green - that sooo clashes with my hair!", but as they travelled on into the Ghostlands, she found a nice green robe to wear so that she matched a little better with Mengfu.
As they increased in power, they found that Mengfu had to continue to travel all the way back to Orgrimmar to learn new Shaman skills, plus undertake an epic quest all over Azeroth to earn his fire totem. This left Aefa with time on her hands.
The Alchemist's Shop
Aefa pulled another handful of Silverleaf out of the ground and shook the soil off the roots. She muttered under her breath, "This is so boring. Why can't I go questing off across the continents too?". She frowned as she lazily hurled a fireball at a passing Vampiric Plaguebat, cheering up a little as she saw it Ignite and burst into flames.
As the plaguebat dropped to the ground she felt a whoosh of inspiration - her 24th season had arrived. She noticed that her pack was getting full of wilting Peacebloom and squashed Silverleaf, so she decided to pack it in and head back to Silvermoon City to see if Master Quithas had anything interesting to teach her. She looked around for her hawkstrider and saw it a short distance away preening itself, as usual. Aefa whistled and it looked around in confusion. "Dratted bird," she muttered as she stomped over to it and mounted up.
In Sunfury Spire, Master Quithas had some news for Aefa as well as some new lessons. "Aefa, I want you to travel to Undercity and speak with Anastasia there, in the Magic Quarter," he said, fussily brushing some Strange Dust off his robe. "I believe they are having some kind of rift disturbance there and I said I'd send some help."
Aefa was overjoyed. "Oh thank you Master, I haven't been to the Undercity in aaaages so I'd be happy to go!" And have the chance to do a bit of shopping as well, she thought excitedly. Finally, something to do!
Her hands tingled as she cast the teleportation spell, concentrating on the thought of Undercity so that she didn't end up in Orgrimmar again. A few seconds of dizziness and blurred vision later and she was standing in the Magic Quarter of Undercity. She inhaled and started coughing as the damp smell of the sewers assailed her. She steeled herself to the slightly unpleasant thought of dealing with the Forsaken and looked around for Anastasia.
"Anastasia, how are you?" she gushed as she spied the mage trainer at the top of some stairs.
Anastasia's decaying face looked stressed. "Aefa sweetie, I'm glad you're here. I'm flat out with trying to get this treatise on the applications of Arcane Magic to the Kirin Tor magisters finished by the close of business today - would you do me a favor?" Her smile looked strained.
"Sure thing, what do you need? New boots? A Netherweave Bag to go with your new robes maybe?" Aefa grinned hopefully.
"Sorry, you'll have to leave the shopping until later," Anastasia said apologetically. "Algernon's alchemist shop in the Apothecarium is the locus of a strange disturbance. Invisible creatures, made solely of magic, wander the shop--there must be a reason, and we must find it! I need you to take these coffers and capture a few of the creatures." She gestured behind her with one finger dangling slightly from her rotting hand.
"I-invisible creatures?" Aefa said, looking apprehensive.
"It's okay, just read this scroll and they should appear. You should be able to deal with them easily after that. Embrace the shadow," she added cheerfully.
Aefa took the coffers and the scroll and rode around to the Apothecarium, wondering how exactly she was supposed to deal with the creatures. She found the Apothecary shop and nodded to Algernon. "I hear you're having some magical trouble?" she said, shivering as the cold creepiness of the shop crept over her.
Algernon nodded and grunted.
Forsaken are so helpful sometimes, Aefa thought sarcastically as she turned away and rolled her eyes.
She stood in the middle of the shop and looked around. Nothing but shadows, she thought, but felt her skin crawl as the magical rift made the air feel slightly greasy. She stood up straight and waved a hand, chanting the scroll's contents under her breath.
She started violently as several apparitions appeared around the room. They silently all turned to look at her, then started rushing forward towards her. Aefa screamed and cast Frost Nova in panic and ran for her life away from the shop and over the bridge toward the centre of the city. She stopped running near the Enchanting shop and stood, panting, watching for a few moments to make sure the void spawns weren't following her and trying to look as nonchalant as possible with a beating heart thumping in her ears.Those little monsters, I'll teach them to make me look like a fool, she thought as she headed back to the Alchemist's, readying the scroll again. This time she read the scroll and as the spawns came towards her, she Frost Nova'd them again and backed up, summoning a Blizzard to rain ice on them. As Aefa stood struggling to retain control of the powerful Blizzard, the Frost Nova broke and the spawns charged in and beat her until she was no more than a broken heap on the stone floor.
Aefa hated the spirit world. It was cold and grey and generally messed up her hair. It had the added benefit though of not allowing emotion so she calmly ghosted back down into the city and thought about how to avoid another death.
The first breath is always very painful after a resurrection. Aefa sat on a step and drank some conjured water to get her strength back, and realised just how quiet it was in this corner of the city. She stood up and moved carefully into the Alchemist's shop again. Alganon barely paid her any attention.
She crept forward, carefully feeling the air around her for magical traces. A rat scuttled in the corner, making her jump slightly. Pull yourself together, girl, she thought as she released a small burst of arcane energy from her fingers. She moved forward a little further, releasing another burst.
This time, she felt a slight resistance in the air, a pushing back. She released more arcane energy and suddenly a void spawn exploded out of the air almost on top of her. She leaped back in fright but managed to gather her senses and charged up a fireball quickly. She threw one of the containment coffers on the ground and it opened, drawing the struggling void spawn into it and closing with a snap. The coffer lay there on the floor, jumping around slightly. Aefa let out a whoop of triumph and repeated the process, creeping around the room and casting Arcane Explosions until she soon she had a bagful of struggling void spawns in coffers to take back to Anastasia."Oh, Aefa, there you are, what took you so long?" Anastasia put down her pen and looked up, taking in Aefa's ripped dress and tousled hair. "What happened to you?" she asked, trying not to laugh.
Aefa was upset. "Your magical disturbance has ruined my dress," she said indignantly.
Anastasia said hurriedly, "Oh I beg your pardon, allow me to replace it for you."
Aefa looked mollified, but changed her mind when Anastasia added, "I'd get it myself but the pattern requires Dalaran Power Gems from Silverpine Forest and I really am flat out this afternoon..."
Aefa sighed and called her hawkstrider over again to get ready for a long ride.
~o~
Thanks for reading my first attempt at a Wow short story. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of it (but try to be gentle!).The quest Aefa did was part of the chain for mages that ends with receiving the rather fetching red [Lesser Spellfire Robes]. The top tip for using Arcane Explosion to pull just one void spawn at a time came from the comments on the wowhead page for the quest, and worked like a charm.
