Daughter of Azeroth

58 | CAN CONJURE BUTTERFLIES

Idira took a step back, apprehensive, recognising the woman as the same one who had been speaking to the Gryphon Master.

'You are not the one I was expecting,' the woman said, cold. 'What are you doing here?'

Idira stepped towards her hesitant. 'I have come to apply to the Kirin Tor.'

The woman sat back and folded her arms over her chest, her eyes roaming over Idira's faded, old dress. 'Have you indeed?' she asked, arch.

Idira moved closer, reaching into her pouch. She pulled out the bank note from Logan. 'I have the gold,' she held the paper out to the woman, ashamed how her hand trembled.

The woman took the bank note and looked it over, suspicious. 'How did you get all this? Someone like you?'

Idira blinked, taken aback. Surely if she had the money, its provenance was none of the other woman's business. The woman, waited, hostile, glaring at her, holding the bank note pinched between her thumb and forefinger as though it were dirty.

'One of the Commanders of the Elite Forces who is leading the assault on the Broken Shore left it to me,' Idira answered, feeling her face begin to heat up, embarrassed to have to share her personal business with such a woman as she. 'His parting wish was for me to join the Kirin Tor. I could show you his letter, but it's . . . personal.'

The dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow, cynical. 'So you were his lover. Typical.'

Idira stared at the woman, astonished. 'I was not. I have known him for almost all my life. He was like a brother to me.' She reached out and took the bank note back. 'I don't understand what this has to do with my application.'

'It has nothing to do with it,' the woman scoffed, 'I was merely curious. People like you fascinate me, like watching animals in a menagerie.'

Completely at a loss, Idira didn't know what to say. The woman looked back down at her ledger and waved her slim, ringed fingers at the door. 'Your application is denied, you may leave.'

'But,' Idira said as she looked back down at the bank note, perplexed, 'I have enough money, four thousand gold. I have it right here.'

The woman continued writing in what Idira now realised was a ledger. 'That amount is for those the Kirin Tor wishes to have in its ranks. For those like you, the amount is five thousand, and as you can see, your Commander is a little short.' She said Logan's title without even trying to hide her derision, as though she couldn't accept someone like Idira could know a Commander of Stormwind's Elite Forces. She glanced up, impatient. 'Now please leave, you're blocking the light.'

Idira backed away, drowning in humiliation. The woman turned her attention back to her ledger, completely ignoring her. Idira pushed back out into the sunshine, where Vanessa was just stubbing out her cigarette, her hood thrown back. She tossed the butt over the side, watching it tumble away, a strange look of longing on her face. Idira moved closer, Vanessa turned, her forlorn expression melting into one of cool arrogance. She jerked her head at the half-open door. 'That was fast. Even to them, money talks, eh?'

Idira sank down onto one of the benches, too stunned and humiliated by what had just happened to answer.

'Hey, what's going on?' Vanessa asked, turning to Idira. 'What happened in there?'

When Idira didn't answer, her niece's fingers drifted to the hilts of her daggers, her eyes slid to the door, narrowing into dangerous slits. 'Did someone disrespect you?'

Alarmed, Idira stood up. 'I don't have enough money, so they denied me.' She shrugged her shoulders as though she didn't care, desperate to lighten the mood.