The three men sat a table, deep in the silence of Stormwind Keep. "Voreph?" Silas finally broke the silence, and the mage gave him a calm look completely at odds from the enthusiastic, bubbling façade he'd given the young Gilnean earlier. "Well?"
"He's a mage. No doubts. Mostly self taught, his basics are extremely sporadic, but I'm sure he can fight his way out of a corner. His combat magery is excellent, but his basic levels are nonexistent. He can polymorph, and lay down a lot of hurt, but can't even conjure the most basic of foods. He's a mage who's learned pretty much everything in the field, under duress. It fits with the refugee story. What doesn't please us is whatever has been done to him…magically. It's such a bundle of effects, we're not even sure where to start, and since most of it appears to be druidic in nature, we're not sure if we should. The Kal'dorei have mucked with him, Silas. Why, I don't know, but that is high level elven druid crap bound to him."
"I don't understand why the Kal'dorei are even involved." The second man sighed, shaking his head. "Their silence in regards to this is, as usual, completely overwhelming. They confirm that they have rendered an evacuation of the population of Gilneas, a human held kingdom, to Teldrassil. They confirm that they rendered military aid to allow this evacuation. What they don't answer is the obvious why. And that's the answer SI:7 wants. What I am absolutely certain of is that Russell and his female companion are the children of merchants, and they are Gilneans. They don't make the best sense to be what they appear to be."
"Genn's eyes on the ground before he arrives." Silas pondered the tabletop. "A small, fast talking mage with merchant ties to Kul'tiras. And a woman who serves tea while armed to the teeth, with a hunter's pet staring the table down. I could think of less likely, Joshua. A mage and a hunter make fine sense to me. Just because neither one is a rogue doesn't mean they're completely incompetent to find information. My concerns are obvious."
"Gilneas." Voreph sighed, mindlessly folding a scrap of paper. "The Wall breached by the Cataclysm, her population under attack by the Forsaken, and forced from their…uh….sanctuary. An unknown, back in play."
"They're cowards. Genn only halfheartedly supported the Alliance during the War, and turned his back on us at the earliest possible moment…which happened to be when we needed Gilneas the most. And, according to Russell, he's still king. I don't like it." He glanced at the origami giraffe that Voreph had teased from the scrap of paper, but gave it not even the hint of a smile. "And the night elves suddenly, out of the blue, back a full scale support and evacuation of them? Why? I wasn't aware Gilneas had contact with anyone, much less Darnassus."
"Gilneas has maintained trade with Kul'tiras. That we knew. Their ships have also been seen in Booty Bay and Ratchet, rarely. We've had no hints of any Gilnean vessels in any of the northern Kalimdor ports to have contact with Teldrassil. It does certainly appear that their sudden support of Gilneas came, as you put it, completely out of the blue, blue sky. But, Silas, you're the paladin, do they feel up to no good?"
Silas sighed, flicking the giraffe off of the table. "The boy feels dangerous. The girl is a killer, but I can place that. She serves tea with a shy smile, while hiding at least three weapons under her clothes. But the boy… There's something else going on there." There was silence at the table, waiting, and he finally shrugged. "The closest I've known is dealing with dragons when they aren't in draconic form. They feel the same way. This is what you see, but it's not what you get."
"Hmmmm." Joshua leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "Well, the Gilnean presence here in Stormwind is still very small. We keep an eye on it, and we let the Gilnean king, and the Kal'dorei, if they're still involved, place their case before Varian."
"He should at least be informed that Genn is coming, that Gilneas has fallen, and that the Kal'dorei are involved." Silas murmured, ignoring Voreph's flow of expressions. "No. We are not going into Gilneas, Voreph. Not until we're told to."
"But, they had libraries…a College… a capital, which remained untouched through the last war… Which will now fall to the Horde!"
"I have to agree with Silas." Joshua affirmed. "We don't know what's going on in Gilneas. We don't know why the elves are involved. Until we do…."
"We keep an eye on Russell, and his heavily armed female companion."
