Shifting Fates

Rosellina crouched down in the sand, the heat radiating off the surface making her wince a bit as she placed her hands on the ground in front of her, peering over the dune. It had only taken her a few tries to find some goblins in Gadgetzan whose tongues could be loosened enough with coin to find out what she needed to know. It seemed that a goblin speedbarge had indeed made a landing near Gadgetzan recently; recently enough that it could have been the very same vessel that House Falconoak's crew had delivered their cargo of weapons to.

With this clue discovered, Rosellina had been able to bribe and tease out enough information to determine that the goblins who had offloaded the weapons had then been met by Sin'dorei backers here in town, and that the group had set off into the desert, presumably to take them through some mountain pass and into Thousand Needles where another means of transportation would cross the water there into the Barrens. The odd thing about the information that Rosellina had gleaned was that the goblins that had went with the Sin'dorei buyers had not returned to Gadgetzan yet, and they were several days overdue now.

As Rosellina peered over the dunes, she discovered the reason for that. In the sands below her sat a camp, the tents that it was composed of a mixture of elegant red and gold Sin'dorei constructs and rough assemblies of sticks, cloth, and machinery that made up goblin shelters. In the middle of the camp sat a number of wagons, several of which were damaged by what appeared to be fire and a few suffering broken wheels and axles. The camp seemed to contain a few Sin'dorei who were well armed and on patrol, as well as a few goblin bruisers and what appeared to be wounded laying on cots within some of the tents or simply on the ground. Clearly the camp had come under attack recently.

Rosellina mentally began to count the guards, determining how she could sneak into the camp. After firming up a plan in her mind, she took a deep breath to steady herself, preparing to rise from her position on the dune and head down to investigate the weapons in secret. Just as she was about to rise, a hand clamped down on her shoulder and pushed her back into place, a voice whispering in her ear.

"You are more clever than I thought," Braeth'el said, crouching down beside her.

Rosellina blinked in surprise, shocked that the lithe elf had managed to approach her without being detected. After she took a moment to regain her composure she shook her head, keeping her voice low, "I told you, I knew who the supplier was. I knew when the shipment arrived in Gadgetzan. It's not too hard to figure out from there."

The blood elf nodded, his black hood keeping the worst of the sunlight out of his eyes as he peered down into the camp, "Well done. The question now is, what were you thinking about doing next?"

Rosellina didn't answer at first, taking time to study the elf and judging whether or not she could trust him. In the daylight she was able to get a better look at him. His body was lean and fit, the black leather armor he wore conforming to the curves of his muscles in a way that was not entirely unpleasing to her eyes. The outfit was complete with the black hood, a black mask that he had pulled down for the time being, and black cloak that she suspected had some defensive properties given the thickness and apparent stiffness of the material. The elf was also festooned with daggers, with blades visible at his hip, at the tops of the leather boots that rode up to his mid-calf, and even strapped to his arms at his biceps. Several pouches at his belt hinted at additional equipment and Rosellina quickly decided that he was indeed a professional spy and likely a well trusted one to be so well equipped.

"I'm going to sneak down there and obtain at least one of the weapons," she finally replied. "I decided to go with what you suggested, and check the markings against weapons we already have identified as being owned by the supplier. I'll shadow the caravan once they move out again until I can locate the buyers."

The elf nodded, looking at her and smiling. His face was pleasant, with the fel-green glow of his eyes only partially visible in the pounding sunlight of the desert. Short cropped, spiked blonde hair stuck up from his head and partially framed his face. Rosellina found herself returning his smile as he spoke, "That would be a good idea, except for the fact that the caravan is about to come under attack. Look."

He pointed and she turned her gaze away from him and down to the camp below. She could tell something was wrong as the guards on patrol began to shout, drawing weapons and rousing the rest of the camp. On the dunes opposite where the two spies watched, dust began to billow up as a line of horsemen appeared. Rosellina gasped as she saw them, recognizing the humans who wandered the desert of Tanaris immediately and finally coming to understand why the guards at Gadgetzan had challenged her.

She could have been one of them. Each of them wore a mixture of studded leather and chain armor, their weapons crude sabers, nets, and spears. Many sported the dark colored hair that Rosellina herself had, and a few even carried jewelry in gold that eerily reminded her of her dream from the previous night. She watched as they formed a line and plunged down the side of a dune, their warcries rising into the air as they began their raid on the camp.

"We can't go down there like this," Braeth'el said beside her. Rosellina turned to look at him, her eyes questioning the statement. "It's simple. If we go into the middle of a battle involving raiders from the desert and Sin'dorei, we will be confused for combatants. They'll think I am part of the camp, and no offense to you, think you are one of the raiders."

Rosellina nodded as she came to understand his concern. She thought about it for a moment before responding, "We could try to use stealth to get as close to the wagons as possible. We only need to gather a few of the weapons right? If we can compare the marks to the ones I have we'd be able to confirm it's my supplier, and if we can compare them to the ones you have we can confirm it's the buyer you suspect. That'll give us everything we need."

He studied her, nodding slowly, "If they see us, we'll be cut down. We need to be fast and silent. Do you think you can handle it?"

Rosellina grinned, "I'd say so. The question is if YOU can handle it hmm?"

The blood elf grunted, reaching down to a belt pouch to pull out a small sphere. He held it up before Rosellina and spoke softly, "This is top of the line, top secret goblin technology. It'll allow me to create a smoke barrier that-"

Rosellina grinned again, holding up a hand to halt him in mid-sentence. She produced a similar looking orb from one of her own pouches, "Top of the line GNOMISH technology. Does the same thing."

The blood elf laughed, the sound muffled by the echoes of combat coming over the dunes. He winked at Rosellina and joked, "If we bump these two orbs together we might literally destroy the continent I suspect."

Rosellina laughed as well, surprised that she and the blood elf could be joking when they were about to do something so stupidly dangerous. She took a deep breath and nodded at him again, preparing herself, "Ready?"

"Ready."

They rose from their position on the dune, running down the sand face and heading towards the combat, human and blood elf keeping pace with one another as they neared the fighting. The camp ahead was pandemonium as individual fights had broken out amongst the tents. It was clear that this was not the first raid on the camp, and the reason why the wagons were damaged and there were wounded. The raiding sand bandits seemed to be quite familiar with their adversaries, avoiding the thickets knots of guards and using nets to capture wounded or individual fighters as they could.

As soon as the two spies reached the edge of the camp, both hurled their orbs in front of them. The two metal containers plopped into the sand silently, both exploding once they came to a rest and sending out huge clouds of dense smoke that began to cover the entire encampment. With grim expressions on their faces, Rosellina and Braeth'el ran into the smoke and towards the position of the wagons.

********************************

The world had closed in around Rosellina as soon as she stepped into the swirling smoke. Her face covered with a mask to keep the worst of it out of her lungs, she hurried past the shadowed forms of combatants all around her, making for the position she'd seen the wagons occupying. Shouts and the sounds of combats echoed weirdly in the shroud of smoke, making it impossible to tell if she were about to stumble into enemies. Now and then a weapon would come out of nowhere, and she parried it with a rapier and continued on her way, avoiding being bogged down in true combat.

The map of the camp she'd made in her mind allowed her to stay relatively on course despite the fighting. She identified a few of the key waypoints along her route by touch, finding a camp tent here or a weapon rack there exactly as she expected. After only a few moments a dark shadow loomed out of the billowing smoke, the side of a wagon materializing a moment later.

Rosellina wasted no time and quickly sheathed her swords. She climbed onto the wagon and took a dagger out, prying open the lid of one of the crates and collecting five short swords. She wrapped them with cords she had in her belt, looping the hilts together and then binding the blades before wrapping all of the weapons in a cloth sack that she slid on her back. Her theft complete, she hopped down from the wagon, drawing her weapons again.

The smoke was beginning to clear, and she knew she had little time to get to the cover of the outlying dunes before she was seen. Even as she began to run back the way she'd come, a horn sounded in the midst of the battle and the raiders roared as they renewed their charge. Shadowed forms appeared out of the smoke, horses riding past her at high speed and weapons flashing. A few struck at her, but most seemed to mistake her for one of their own and passed her by without incident. Rosellina whispered a prayer of thanks to the Light and continued running, keeping her face masked so as to appear as one of the raiders.

There must have been over a hundred of them, so loud were the sounds of hooves in the smoke. As the smoke began to clear Rosellina knew she would never make it to the cover of the dunes in time. A desperate plan formed in her mind. She found a spot far from the tents and just on the edge of the rapidly dissipating smoke screen, dropping to the ground and laying prone. She whipped her own cloak over herself, using her rapiers to scoop sand up and slide it over her body.

Within a few moments she had covered herself with sand, her hands digging into the soft surface beneath her and sliding it over her head. She used the cloth mask covering her face to breath through, the thin material the only part of her exposed and letting her see dimly for a short distance.

Around her the smoke was being blown away by the desert wind, the disturbed dunes making her concealment acceptable given the debris all around from the battle. No one would notice the small bit of cloth sticking out of the sand, and besides that, it looked like the camp guards had lost the battle.

The raiders were withdrawing now, captives in tow as they began to climb back up the dunes. Through her cloth cover, Rosellina could see blood elves and goblins being hauled away in nets, likely to be sold as slaves or killed later. Just as she was about to look away, she noticed something that sent a chill down her spine.

One of the nets contained an unconscious Sin'dorei with spiked blonde hair; the raiders had captured Braeth'el.

Rosellina cursed under her breath, tracking the direction that they were taking the spy as they rode off. She had the weapons on her back, but he knew who the buyer might be. She needed the information he had to complete her mission. As he disappeared over the dunes, dragged behind a horse, Rosellina scowled, resolution setting in.

She was going to have to get that blood elf back, one way or another.