5/9 afternoon
Unfortunately I didn't have anywhere to really camp, so instead I took flight again with Lividia and Lillibeth. Perched on a cliff overlooking the swamp, I started bouncing ideas off of my consort. Lillibeth was there in her Abby-like form, of course, but she was resting and couldn't speak except through text or possession.
I wanted to set up a process to capture a lot of these Draenei. They were an untapped resource with no real connection to the Horde or Alliance so far. They were emotionally vulnerable, and I was pretty sure mentally damaged. That was easy enough. Random healer lady had a bit more mystique to it than Chooser Dragon, but it's ultimately the same scam.
"Yes yes, acceptable minions. They are a bit ugly though."
Second, I wanted them to regain their intelligence and share their advanced knowledge with me. That was entirely on mind defense and body defense actually doing what I hoped it would, and me managing to get my hands on people who actually had that specialized information to share.
"Hmmm. Perhaps you can pick out the smartest ones? If you only need their sages why bother with the rest?"
Third, I wanted to be in position to be the obvious choice of ally for the Exodar and Prophet Velen when they showed up. Long term goal, but for that to work I'd need to have a whole population of Draenei loyal to me. Didn't really matter if they were fully restored as long as they were recognizable, loyal, and in good shape. I didn't really know how many of them were here, or how much I wanted to dedicate to them. This one was a long term investment and probably not worth the effort if the other parts didn't pan out.
"My king; not a single human settlement has been properly enlightened to your glory yet and you're considering a magical sky army in the future as a priority? Why not simply conquer them with human armies?"
Finally, Draenei women were hot. Technically at this point all I needed to do was press a button and I could be fucking Lividia as an Eredar right now. She wouldn't be very happy with me ripping away her glorious human form, but she'd do it. Hell, I could turn every girl in my retinue into a sexy goat girl, though Drusilla might end up with a much darker skin tone from all the fel magic exposure. Unfortunately, the one thing I was certain I couldn't turn these Draenei into was normal Draenei. Similar to how I'd needed to make Mary look like an elf, since the disguise setting could only totally override your appearance to turn you into something you weren't. Besides, the cost/benefit just wasn't there if I needed to actually put necklaces on every single Draenei.
"Why would they want that visage when they could be human? Really, what could possibly look better? That cow you turned into? Really?" Lividia was sharing her insights, to my mild amusement, when something clicked. Visage.
"Lividia, you're still a dragon right now, right? Under your visage? Scales, strength, all that?"
"Oh yes my king. I have all the best physical traits of a human combined with most of the best traits of a dragon. I am approaching perfection."
She was overselling it, but she wasn't totally wrong. "Tell me, what does a visage entail? Do you choose it, or do you just get it one day? How much can you customize it? How do you get one?" I was getting worked up. This might be the solution to all my problems, or at least some of them.
And lo, I got a quick and dirty explanation of how draconic visages worked. "We choose how we will look, usually long before our visage day. It can be however we want, so naturally anyone with sense chooses to look like a human unless they are set upon infiltrating one of the other mortal societies. You imagine the visage, down to the last detail, and then chant the spell and you are in that form. After that, turning back and forth is simple." Seriously? That's all?
"How complicated is the spell? Can non-dragons use it? Can you teach me?"
She cocked her head. "You don't know it instinctively? But you can turn human already, and into anything else you like, at that. Why would you bother?"
"So I can be as strong and tough as a dragon, obviously. Think about it, you just said you were approaching perfection." It seemed logical to me, so eventually I teased out the process using what Lividia could recall. It was an extremely complex and taxing spell, and would be hard to amend once I committed to a certain form, but with Soul Talent I could do it within a few hours.
Naturally I chose my baseline human form as my visage, wearing a simple priestly robe. Easy to take off and replace with better gear, but also nice enough to be taken seriously. It felt nice. I wasn't drastically stronger than I normally was as a human, thanks to body talent I was absolutely jacked anyway, but every little bit helped. Plus, going by what I'd seen of Lividia, any injuries that broke the skin would instead hit a layer of tough scales right underneath.
The question was: could I teach this spell to other people? I was sure Drusilla would be more effective if she was a dragon, for example. Not to mention the potential effect on the Draenei here in the swamp. It would be indirect, but if they could turn into dragons and then turn into whatever Draenei form they wanted, I'd have what amounts to my own small dragonflight. Do you know what makes sexy Eastern European alien goat girls better? Having them also be dragons.
••••••••••
Dammit, dammit, dammit. Ten felsteeds? Ten? That was a fifth of her herd! They'd need to be her best, too. The gene pool would be gutted by this! She'd need to make a trade for a high quality stud or she wouldn't have any foals worth a damn next season. Her herd would do so much more over the years than any one cavalry unit could ever hope to, but if she held anything back for the future she'd be punished.
Sometimes, in her heart, Zelena wondered if this was really what Sargeras wanted? Surely the dark titan would fix this foolishness if he were aware. If so, though, it prompted a far more terrifying question that she was finding harder to dismiss today than usual. Was Sargeras ignorant of the problem, was he negligent, or was the Burning Legion itself so flawed that neither he nor any of his appointed representatives could take the time to review this kind of foolishness?
It was a heretical question. To question her duly appointed overseer, even in the stillness of her own mind, was already shameful. To carry those questions about Nozara to their logical conclusion, questioning the dark titan himself? She would be summarily killed for such thoughts, and she would deserve it. But they refused to leave her mind.
Zelena tried to focus on the problems in the here and now, like the fact that she was going to have to work with Bavira for the barding. If anything was less than perfect it would be Zelena alone getting punished, unless she could be sure that both of their names were attached to the project. Sure, that would mean sharing her glory with a damn oversexed Sayaad bitch, but she might actually take the job seriously in that case.
••••••••••
"So I'll need you to keep a close eye on the target. He's set up a mercenary band in Redridge, and I think he might become a threat. I can get you onto his personal staff with our contact on the inside, but once you're in you will need to be the best personal assistant you can be. See to his every need, before he knows he needs anything if possible. Make sure he enjoys your company; smile at him occasionally, show some skin, that kind of thing. Importantly, never break character."
Irma listened closely to Vanessa's briefing. It was going to be a long infiltration mission, the kind Vanessa would typically handle alone. This one seemed specifically tailored to Irma's strengths, acting as a professional personal assistant for the most part, and she couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect. Just the thought of staying close to Lord Erich Bismark and cataloging his every move, seeing to his every need, and submitting to his every whim seemed incredibly fun to her for reasons she couldn't put her finger on. She'd love this job, even if she was apparently too low ranked to know why he was a target. She'd just trust Vanessa; it had always worked out in the past.
••••••••••
Abby hummed happily as she worked alongside Eliza, repairing the deteriorated form of her masterpiece. Save the fact that they now served the Master, everything was back to normal. Stitches had decayed a bit while she'd been abducted by those meddling idiots, but they could make up for so much lost time now that she and her partner were both able to work around the clock. His brain was still alive, now suspended in fresh zombie juice.
Eliza seemed shaken by the experience, and kept getting confused by the strangest little things. She'd been stunned the first time Abby had kissed her, which was silly. Eliza had always been beautiful, whatever anyone else said, but like most women who became undead she'd become far more conventionally attractive and Abby just couldn't keep her hands to herself. Not everyone found the pale grey skin and hair of the undead attractive, but it was flawlessly smooth and soft, and now that they'd cleaned the grave dirt off she was an absolute knockout. They could even share clothes, though Abby was annoyed to find that many of her old outfits seemed way too big for her for some reason.
https://imgur.com/a/RyJAE9e
No one was sure why female undead were turned into wet dreams while males were turned into rotting nightmares. Some experts believe that it was for pragmatic reasons; the Lich King could recruit many stupid young men by offering them harems of nearly mindless slave-wives. But that didn't explain Eliza, who was animated by a ritual of Abby's own design from a text that predated the Scourge. It was a great mystery, but not one that plagued the necromancer.
"It's ok if you want to talk while we work. You seem troubled, dear."
Her lover's nose wrinkled in that cute way that she did when she wasn't sure how to say something. "Are you my… wife?"
Ah. It must have been a traumatic experience being severed from her grave. Abby put down the tongs and turned to face Eliza once she finished embedding the rib into her masterpiece. "No. No, You always did want to find the right man. I supported it, but it just never happened. I suppose we both found the right man now, though?" That was good, right?
It took Eliza several long moments considering that, moments with her face screwed up with thought and something that looked like pain. Yes, it seems she hadn't been herself for quite some time. Somehow Eliza had, in her feverish undead state, attached her dreams for mister right onto her best friend and lover. Not a hard leap to make in that kind of mental state, but it was rough to have to break the news to her.
Eventually she seemed to find peace, and smiled. "Yes. That is a good thing."