The wind blowing through Dalaran carried the promise of spring to come and the last sharp bite of winter. For this last reason, Skaedi was very glad The Filthy Animal kept its fireplace roaring.
“What kind of magic are we going to be doing?” Anna asked. Perched on several thick black furs and dressed in the white robes she favored, hands cupped around a mug of peacebloom tea, to Skaedi the Forsaken priest looked like an exquisite, fragile doll – something to be set on a shelf and admired. Skaedi refilled her own barely-touched tea to hide a smile.
“What kind do you want?” Skaedi had her own ideas, but she wanted to hear from the other two members of their coven. It would be interesting to see how they worked as a group – or if they could.
“I’d like to have visions… spy on people and places far away.” Her mother had had a tool for that, a pool of quicksilver. Skaedi couldn't put a number to the times her hand had been snatched back from its surface as a child. Anna nodded approvingly to Skaedi's idea before adding, “That sounds all well and good. I think a more useful purpose would be to send curses from a distance.”
Znort laughed, dipping a piece of flatbread into her kettle of beans. “I like the sound of that! Catch them in the raw, no warning! With their lover or squatting!" She grinned at the thought, firelight glinting on her tusks.
Anna briefly looked at Znort with amusement and turned her attention back to Skaedi.
“A magic mirror? They’re useful for scrying. It shouldn’t be too difficult to use them for more active magic.” Skaedi stirred honey into her tea. “There’s other ways to send curses, you know. Poppets. Or flowers.”
"FEH! Flowers are a curse!" Znort started ticking off fingers, speaking as she chewed. "They have no purpose, they crawl up out of the dirt and draw bees; they look stupid, they stink, they make me sneeze..." She stopped, realizing that she had run out of fingers unless she put down her flatbread. "I could go on, but there is no point. Flowers are disgusting. They are weak and they are useless. Now... poppets, oh yes, the trolls are good at that I hear. Link the poppet with you enemy, then take the poppet apart, oh, yesss!" She laughed, casting a fine spray of beans back into the cook pot.
The corners of Anna’s mouth tightened before she spoke. She looked down as she addressed the coven in an attempt to distort her emotion. “Flower magic? It sounds like druid nonsense. A mirror delivering curses and hexes sounds far more practical than using dirty plants.”
“No, really, “Skaedi insisted. “Some of the old human kingdoms had a whole symbolic language for flowers: -- ‘love unrequited’ ‘I am lost without you’, that kind of thing.”
“Roses for love, obviously,” Anna pointed out. She speared a wedge of goat cheese between with the cheese knife, stole one of Znort’s flatbreads and spread the cheese over it in swirling designs.
Skaedi nodded. “Different roses have different meanings. Yellow roses mean jealousy, white roses, purity.”
“For SOME of us, purity is a curse.” Znort glared slyly at Anna.
Anna looked dryly at Znort. She continued to stare at the orc as she spoke in hopes of unnerving her. Anna had found an unblinking stare from the dead can make the most stout of the living squeamish. “I was not convinced the flowers were a very good idea. I confess I am now intrigued.”
“The mirror will take a lot of work. I think glass or obsidian would be best, but even silver painted with black enamel would work. The stand for it, the mirror itself…hmm. Neither of us are that level of crafters.”
“Hire out?” Znort sounded half-approving, half-scandalized."Hmm. Peons are too crude and lazy. Mechanics are expensive. They are both untrustworthy. Well, everyone is untrustworthy when you get down to it..." She paused, looking back and forth between Anna and Skaedi. She tried to make her small maroon eyes big and round. "Well, except for you two, of course. You know what I mean." She waved her flatbread around dismissively, dotting the floor and the furs with beans and bits of fat. "Anyway, we are too refined for mundane, physical work. It has to be done by menials." She wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and softly belched.
But not too refined for a napkins, Skaedi thought as she wiped at her dress with a hand-towel she’d brought on impulse from Snowshadow. Or maybe bibs.
“We’ll have to. I’ll draw up the specifications and post them around. We can even appeal to Alliance --
Znort and Anna both made sounds of disgust.
“Come, now, if that’s where we find the best work, why not?”
“Double-cross,” Anna muttered.
“We can take steps against it. And I’ll foot the bill for materials and pay.”
“You better,” Znort mumbled through a mouthful of beans. “You’re the only one of us with serious money. “ And Anna's right. Double cross indeed. Perhaps we can kill them after the work is done? Save the money?”
Skaeid shook her head. “Not unless they try something against us first. What if we need more work done later on? No matter who it is, I’d like to build up a professional relationship if possible.” She took a drink of her tea, frowning in thought. “Besides, craftsmen just up and disappearing would be noticed.”
“You haven’t told us your own personal interest, “Anna said.
“I found notes on an old herb called moly,” Skaedi leaned forward. “It can stop shape-changing and dispel illusion. I want to experiment with it on a worgen.”
Znort tittered. Anna sipped her tea, looking thoughtful. “Magic mirror and flowers. I think we’re going to be busy.”