Warcraft: Stormwind

Year 25, Day 1

As much as I wanted to make a beeline towards wherever the local wizards congregated, I knew better than to allow my desires to control me in such a way. I missed being around other wizards, and here I could see dozens of robed individuals, many of them carrying staves or even wands, moving through the crowds. The Conservatory was nice, but between the many students with aquatic features, the lack of robes, and the watery surroundings, it just didn’t feel like home the same way looking at these people did.

From here, I could almost imagine that I was standing in some slightly foreign version of Diagon Alley. There were shops selling potions and potion ingredients. That stall had a mannequin dressed in a rather ornate looking robe. Another merchant had what was clearly a number of wands amidst his other wares, their forms rather different from the ones I’d seen at Olivanders, but not unrecognizable.

I wanted to enjoy the feeling. To follow the clusters of wizards moving purposefully to my left, perhaps towards a library or some other meeting place. But that would have to wait. There was something far more pressing I needed to take care of now. Namely, figuring out where I was and learning more about both this city––Stormwind as the guard had called it––and this Plane in general.

Thus, I rejoined the crowd, keeping my ears peeled for anything that sounded interesting. As I walked through the crowds of shoppers, a number of words did stand out to me. Hoard. Alliance. Scourge. Forsaken. Gnolls. Bandits. Ironforge. Demons.

I paused from time to time, pretending to look around various stalls as I listened in on particularly interesting conversations. Apparently the local King was missing, his son temporarily ruling in his stead with the aid of some advisors.

I watched curiously as merchants and shoppers haggled over food, clothing, weapons, and all sorts of other goods. Money changed hands frequently, typically in the form of small copper and silver coins, though most enchanted goods cost gold instead. A loaf of bread seemed to cost somewhere between five and twenty-five copper coins, Simple armor and weapons cost anywhere between a few silver pieces and multiple gold pieces. Other things were harder to price. An odd looking ruddy red crystal that glowed from within with powerful magic was sold for what sounded like nearly nine-thousand gold coins, paid in the form of a bank writ.

I was glad that I’d taken the precaution of bringing some gold coins with me from Zatanna’s world. They’d been useless on Remnant, but it sounded like having them would come in handy here. Though, based on what I’d just seen, I doubted the small number of coins I’d brought with me would last very long if I intended to buy anything expensive.

Once I’d gotten a feel for the market, I stopped by what I was pretty sure was the local bank, a place called the Stormwind Counting House. It took some effort, but eventually I was able to exchange the majority of the coins I’d brought with me––which were both slightly larger and made of purer gold than what was used here––into the local currency.

Most of the difficulty came from trying to tell a plausible story about how I’d gotten such unusual looking coins. I claimed I’d been paid in them by someone who’d hired me previously and didn’t know where they’d come from before that. The man, reluctantly, believed me and I left the bank with a pouch of eleven gold coins, forty-nine silver ones, and a hundred coppers.

I also confirmed that the place had an odd hundred-to-one conversion for the coins, very unlike the one between knuts, sickles, and galleons. I was pretty sure I’d gotten a bad deal, but I just needed some starting capital so I didn’t get weird looks trying to pay for food with foreign currency, so it was fine for the time being.

Eventually, I approached a particularly personable looking guard. The man raised a hand in greeting. “Can I help you, mage?”

“Yes, I was hoping you could give me some directions. I’m new in Stormwind, you see, and one of the guards at the gate mentioned that ‘Old Town’ has a number of taverns. I’m looking for somewhere to get something to eat, a drink, and perhaps a place to rest my head.”

“Of course. Firstly, welcome to Stormwind! Greatest city of the Eastern Kingdoms, it is! Now, if it's a bed you’re looking for, you’ll be wanting the Gilded Rose. There are many establishments where you can get a drink in Stormwind, but only one will let you spend the night. It's just down that way, you can’t miss it. I've heard the cost of a room is reasonable and the sheets are clean.”

That sounded promising, but perhaps the man had some other suggestions as well? “What if I’m just looking for a drink?” Alcohol would hopefully make it easy to get the answers I was looking for, and it would also help to hide some of my own lack of knowledge. Drunk men were less likely to wonder why I didn’t know what a scourge was, nor who exactly belonged to this alliance people kept mentioning.

The guard tilted his head to the side. “Well, there’s taverns all about, I guess. I know there’s a few in the Mage District, though I’d stay away from the Slaughtered Lamb if I was you. I’ve heard some nasty rumors about that place, though I don’t think the guard’s ever been called, so it's probably all just talk. The Blue Recluse has a much better reputation, though I’ve never been myself. I’m keen on the Golden Keg in the Dwarven District. The drinks are excellent, and they’ve got the best, most buttery wheat rolls in the whole city.”

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All three locations sounded quite interesting, though the first two far more so than the third. The guard was happy enough to give me directions, though he did say he might have misremembered a turn or two leading to the taverns in the Mage’s District. Apparently, that wasn’t really a place he went often. He did however assure me that guards around there would be able to point me in the right direction if I got lost.

I didn’t particularly care that the directions I’d been given may not be completely accurate. There was a Mage District! An entire district of the city! That sounded incredible. So unlike how wizards were treated in Zatanna’s world, or even my own. I was very much looking forward to seeing what that looked like, though first I was going to gather a bit more information. Wizards would probably know more, but be harder to interrogate subtly than ordinary city residents and visitors, so I could head down that way once I’d gotten a bit more information. That way, my questions would sound better informed and not immediately paint me as an outsider.

My first stop was the Gilded Rose inn. It was a nice establishment, already filled with people despite still being relatively early in the day. It rather reminded me of the Leaky Cauldron, though somewhat more brightly lit. I started out by renting a room from the innkeeper, a polite red-headed woman named Allison. It cost me twenty silver coins, but came with the promise of both dinner and breakfast, and, much more importantly, a private place where I could put up a few wards, apparate to if needed, and summon up some help.

The room was about what I’d expected. It was rather small, barely big enough to fit a bed, dresser, and single rickety chair. However, it was clean and private, so that was good enough for me. I spent several minutes erecting a handful of basic wards; silencing charms, an alarm spell, and a locking charm that should stand up to any mundane efforts to open the door. It wouldn’t resist a determined attacker, but it should at least warn me if anyone tried to force their way inside and defeat anyone trying to eavesdrop.

With that taken care of, I decided to summon Glynda, who I’d dispelled back home so that I could have her available in the new plane I traveled too. It was rather irritating to be without any mana to protect myself while my lands recharged, but she was both a powerful combatant and another set of eyes and ears. Furthermore, it wasn’t like I was planning to do anything dangerous in the coming hours. This city seemed relatively safe, though the number of people walking around armed and armored was slightly disconcerting.

She appeared beside me and I swiftly filled her in on the situation so far. I left her with about a quarter of the money I’d exchanged, then headed down to the tavern to grab a table and some food, instructing Glynda to come down separately and begin her own investigation into this new plane. Hopefully no one would notice that they hadn’t seen Glynda going up the steps to the inn’s rental rooms on the second floor, or assume that she’d simply been up in her room for longer than they’d been at the inn.

The next few hours were rather productive. With a supersensory charm active, I could hear every conversation going on in the inn, though I could only really pay attention to one of them at a time. The inn was quite busy. It was around lunch time, near as I could tell, and both the two-dozen tables and the seats along the bar were packed with people.

Most of the inn’s visitors were humans, but not all of them. Four dwarves, the apparent race of the stocky, muscular man I’d spoken with outside the city, and a gnome, an even smaller magical being, were gathered together around one table, loudly discussing the latest news that had come from the city of Ironforge where the dwarves were from.

There was also one woman who was something called a night elf. Apparently that was the race of the woman I’d seen before, though this one looked rather different. Instead of pink skin, hers was a deep shade of purple so dark it nearly looked black, and her hair was a similar shade of purple. Her eyes also lacked pupils, but unlike the silver orbs I’d seen before, this night elf had golden eyes and a pair of black tattoos on her cheeks. She also was wearing elaborate blue and purple robes that tightly hugged her lithe figure instead of armor.

By the time I finally decided it was time to go, I’d learned a lot. Stormwind was part of an Alliance of human kingdoms, dwarves, gnomes, and the night elves. Their primary enemy was a group called the Horde, which consisted of several other non-human races, though the two sides apparently occasionally fought together against greater threats like demons and the undead.

Beyond bits and pieces of the local history, I also learned about the various races that could be found in Stormwind, what sorts of magics and abilities were common, some general information about the surrounding region and other kingdoms, and all sorts of other basic information that would hopefully help me blend in with the locals. Detailed knowledge would come later, but for now it was a good start.

I waited outside the inn for several minutes, and eventually Glynda came out to join me. Assuming she hadn’t heard something interesting that I hadn’t, my tentative plan was to go check out those inns in the Mage District that the guard had mentioned, as well as the district in general. Apparently it was home to a place called the Academy of Arcane Arts and Sciences. I knew nothing but the name and that it had a large library, but that was more than enough to catch my interest.

We began to walk, quietly discussing what we’d learned so far as we went. Glynda had paid attention to a number of conversations that I’d ignored, but nothing significant enough to make me change my plans.

And then, as we crossed over the canal that divided the trade district from the mage district, I saw it. A bird was perched on the roof of a nearby building, its white plumage blending in with the pale stone behind it. It was a dove, or perhaps some sort of local equivalent, small enough to fit in my cupped hands and visually looking no different from any of the other small animals I’d seen around us as we walked through the city.

It didn’t look like much. Most of my spells saw it as nothing out of the ordinary, just one more bird. It wasn’t particularly magical, nor did it look at all out of place. But that was no ordinary bird. I’d enchanted my travel clothing with all sorts of magic. Including one spell that I’d both hoped and dreaded would see any use.

The aether detection spell that Kent had taught me. Under that spell exactly, the bird was a little blob of shimmering White. It didn’t look like Ozpin had, but rather like Glynda did now. That was not a real creature, but a copy. One that had been created by someone other than me.

I slowly licked my suddenly dry lips. Well. That was certainly something.