Ner'zhul fiddled with his staff, conjuring an image of Robbie that shattered like a bubble.
"I'll kill him myself and destroy the Draenei's only hope. I'll make Velen submit to me before that pitiful corpse, and I'll prove his prophecy is worthless."
"Chieftain Ner'zhul, I think you may be mistaken." The little Goblin suppressed the urge to mock him. After all, mocking an Orc chieftain was dangerous.
"We at Peace Dove have already investigated him. He's Defiler Kapol, just insignificant cannon fodder, not the mysterious fiftieth person at the Dark Portal."
"Cannon fodder?"
Ner'zhul laughed mockingly. As chieftain of the Shadowmoon Clan, he had only ever used Peace Dove, who had taken the initiative to approach him in friendship. He had never regarded them as equals.
"I heard long ago that this human defeated an Orc named Thrall in front of the Dark Portal. Thrall holds a position of great importance in your world and is now active around Frostfire Ridge. Are you telling me someone who defeated a noble Orc could only serve as cannon fodder?"
"No, Chieftain, that's a disgraceful rumor."
The little Goblin spoke in a shrill voice. To defend Thrall's reputation, he instinctively forgot how fearsome Ner'zhul was. "Only a stupid fool would believe such a crude lie."
Ner'zhul bent down, grabbed the little Goblin, and squeezed his throat hard, watching his pitiful, futile struggles. Only when the Goblin's limbs began to twitch did he stop.
"No one mocks the great chieftain of the Shadowmoon Clan." Ner'zhul slammed the Goblin to the ground. The little Goblin slowly sat up, taking a long while to catch his breath, coughing all the while.
"Inform your pitiful companions that the time has come to pledge their loyalty."
Yrel and her elder sister Samara depended on each other, and Samara was her only family.
Not a single Draenei had ever died of natural causes. How Yrel's parents had died, given that she was born on Draenor, was a thought-provoking question. Looking at the state of Shadowmoon Valley, the answer was self-evident.
Samara was shorter and fuller-figured than Yrel, with the simple warmth and hospitality of the Draenei. Smiling broadly, she welcomed Robbie and Vanessa and served them two cups of a special boiled drink, each with a purple flower floating in it.
The Talador Orchid was a beautiful, highly poisonous flower. Only thorough cooking could remove its toxins. It had a slightly bitter taste and was very beneficial for increasing mental power.
After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Samara went back to her work.
After chatting for a while, Yrel saw how hard her sister was working and joined in to help.
The Draenei sisters were preparing a kind of food. A tuberous plant root was boiled until soft, then shaped into something resembling bread and sprinkled with a little seasoning.
As adventurers poured in, Lunarfall's population grew, and the Draenei's workload increased accordingly. Samara had been hired to provide food for a small group.
Robbie kept staring at Samara's back as she worked.
"What, do you like the fuller-figured type?" Vanessa's voice was icy.
"Commander, you've misunderstood. I just feel there's something special about this Draenei." Robbie couldn't say that Samara's blood could summon the Dark Star. Even he didn't believe it himself.
"It's just a hunch, but I can't put it into words." That was the only explanation Robbie could offer.
"Is that so? Let's see whether your hunch is right." Vanessa's tone softened considerably as she put on Sargeras's cursed vision.
"Oh, how interesting. After searching so hard, I didn't expect it to be right under my nose." Vanessa took off the eyepatch, hesitated for a while, then took out a slip of paper and handed it to Robbie.
"Write whatever you like."
"Write what? And who am I writing to?" Robbie was baffled.
"When you take something from someone, you should at least say something, shouldn't you? I'm not good at that sort of thing," Vanessa said bluntly.
Robbie didn't understand. After some thought, he wrote a line on the paper:
"I'm not telling you, I'm not telling you."
Vanessa crumpled the note into a ball and crept over to the Draenei sisters like a cat. After a single glance, she immediately returned to Robbie's side.
When she opened her hand, there was a black gem the size of a little fingernail in her palm. It was as dark as the blackest night, and seemed capable of drawing in a person's soul.
Masterful theft.
"What is it?" Robbie asked.
"A fragment of the Dark Star," Vanessa whispered. "The Draenei don't know where these things come from and like to use them as decorations. I got it from the pendant on Samara's necklace. It's the first time I've seen a piece this big."
Robbie's face changed drastically.
Vanessa actually knew about the Dark Star.
Even Velen didn't know the Dark Star existed yet.
The Draenei sisters finished their work and left out plenty of food. Samara picked up a food box and left the house.
Yrel warmly invited Robbie and Vanessa to try the Draenei food.
Robbie took a bite. It tasted terrible, barely palatable.
Vanessa took only one small bite and didn't touch it again.
The Draenei valued spiritual pursuits and didn't put much effort into their food.
Would adventurers from Azeroth fill their stomachs with this kind of food?
Yrel ate with relish. Perhaps the food of her homeland had stirred memories in her taste buds.
"Yrel, who hired your sister?" Robbie had wanted to ask, "What blind fool was it?" but gave up on the idea for fear of being attacked by an unidentified hoof.
Yrel's mouth was stuffed with food, and she spoke with puffed-out cheeks. "I heard they're a group of adventurers staying at the Truna Observatory. They're very generous and gave her quite a few gold coins."
The Truna Observatory?
Adventurers had flooded into Embaari Village, and there wasn't enough room for everyone, so it was no surprise that some were staying at the Truna Observatory.
Robbie still remembered that in the game, Ner'zhul had kidnapped Samara at the Truna Observatory.
This was bad.
Robbie's heart sank.
No adventurer could endure Draenei food every day.
"Quick, to the Truna Observatory! I hope nothing happens tonight." Robbie had no time to explain. He grabbed the Cursed Torch and ran out the door.
Vanessa didn't hesitate for a moment and was even faster than Robbie. Yrel froze for a moment, then realized it concerned her sister's safety. Her expression changed drastically, and she picked up the Hammer of the Naaru and followed.
Only when they arrived did they learn that the Truna Observatory had been closed off. Supposedly, mages from Dalaran were observing the stars.
The guards at the entrance were well equipped, arrogant, and of fairly high rank. When they saw Robbie, they didn't even look up.
"Get lost, get lost! Anyone who dares disturb the mage lords' stargazing is an enemy of the Alliance and will be killed on sight."
The soldiers wore matching tabards bearing a white dove clutching an olive branch.
Peace Dove.
A scream came from inside the observatory.
"Yrel, your sister is inside!" Robbie shouted. In this situation, Yrel, being a Draenei, was the best person to step forward.
Yrel's almond-shaped eyes widened, and she lashed out with a hoof. Several guards had their bones and tendons broken on the spot and fell to the ground, unable to get up.
Robbie grabbed Yrel's arm and burst into the Truna Observatory. Suddenly, he felt a bone-chilling wind rushing toward him. Powerful shadow energy pressed in on every inch of space.
A muscular, bare-chested Orc stood in the center of the observatory, casting a spell. Yrel's sister Samara and several Draenei astrologers were held captive in the air.
"The chieftain of the Shadowmoon Clan, Ner'zhul," Yrel said through gritted teeth, enunciating every word.
"You know Ner'zhul?" Robbie asked in surprise.
"No. Someone told me that if I met a bare-chested Orc holding a staff, with a smug face begging to be punched, nine times out of ten it'd be Ner'zhul."
Robbie: "..."
Among the seven great leaders of Draenor, Ner'zhul wasn't the strongest.
Even in magic, Ner'zhul was a notch below Gul'dan.
However, Ner'zhul had a perfect upper body, with graceful lines and sculpted muscles that attracted countless female Orcs, ranking him first among the seven great leaders of Draenor.
That was why he was always bare-chested, ready to show off his assets at any time.
The price was that Ner'zhul's wife, Rulkan, couldn't stand his womanizing and had separated from him.
Now, the Orc with the perfect muscles wore a sinister expression on his gloomy face, his evil right hand reaching toward the female Draenei's full breasts.
"No, Samara!" Yrel shouted.
"Let that female Draenei go!" Robbie shouted as well.
Samara cried out in pain, "Ner'zhul, what are you going to do? Yrel, run!"
Ner'zhul pulled the pendant from Samara's necklace and secretly hid it away. He deliberately shouted, "How fortunate! This Draenei's blood can summon the Dark Star." Then he looked at Robbie and sneered. "Human, you've come at just the right time."
Beside Ner'zhul, six Peace Dove mages cast a spell together. A rift opened in the Void, and something responded to the summons. All six were sweating profusely. Clearly, they were at a critical point in the spell, and each was straining with all his might, not daring to be careless in the slightest.
"You're too slow. Become sacrifices to the Void!"
Ner'zhul raised his staff, and a tremendous suction force came from the rift, sweeping all six inside before they could even cry out.
A shadow demon more than three meters tall stepped out of the rift and roared at Robbie.
"Devour this human!" Ner'zhul pointed at Robbie.
The shadow demon didn't move.
Ner'zhul was puzzled. Could it be that I didn't sound imposing enough? Right, to command a demon, I should call its name.
"Kanos from the depths of the Void, obey the ancient pact and devour this human!" Ner'zhul shouted with tremendous force.
The shadow demon still didn't move.
Robbie understood that this had to be Vanessa's doing.
"Um, Chieftain Ner'zhul, I won't say anything about you taking that little girl's pendant, but aren't you going to open it and have a look?" Robbie prompted.
His little maneuver had been discovered. Ner'zhul's weathered face reddened, and, slightly embarrassed, he opened the pendant and took out the little note.
"I'm not telling you, I'm not telling you."
What does that mean? Ner'zhul frowned, bewildered.
Ner'zhul had received guidance from the ancestors and knew only that the key to communicating with the Dark Star was inside Samara's pendant. He didn't know what the object actually was.
"Nothing can stump the great chieftain of the Shadowmoon Clan." Ner'zhul laughed heartily and declared smugly, "This must be the incantation for communicating with the Dark Star."