Clues

"Look what I've found," Dark Ranger Calila sneered, her footsteps crunching loudly on the soft sand. "A corpse."

Beside her, Marla and Cleya also came over to see her discovery. Swarms of flies had already gathered on the corpse. Maggots swarmed from the torn flesh. It was a Naga soldier, and even the three Dark Ranger, barely alive, felt nauseous at the sight of his gruesome state. Calila herself showed no mercy to these insects; their dense swarming only hindered her investigation, so she struck them down.

"It looks like it's been dead for a long time," she continued, sounding agitated.

Marla wandered around the body, sharing her findings. "There were no jagged wounds from bites, so it probably wasn't a shark. The areas crawling with maggots were caused by a sharp weapon."

"Looks like a pirate; the wounds are very messy."

Calila had little patience in Maraudon to begin with, and now, after investigating for several days, she was even less so. The corpse served as a strange and painful reminder that she had become a complete Undead, which only made her more agitated.

"We've been searching for days, and we haven't found anything."

"Be patient, sister, our work is of utmost importance." Cleya had been prepared to reassure Calila. Looking back now, Veronalara's decision to send her to the trio was the right one.

"We'll be sunburnt to the point of being skin and bones," Calila said angrily, turning away before she could finish her sentence.

"Strange, how come there are pirates in Kalimdor?" Marla used her short sword to open the wounds on the Naga soldier's body. "This guy only has three wounds, and each of the cuts is the same depth."

"So what?"

"This means he was facing an enemy, but pirates never go out alone. There is only one explanation for this situation: a small-scale conflict had occurred between them."

Cleya nodded. "So, there's actually more than just this one Naga corpse? But what does this have to do with our Investigation Alliance's mission?"

Calila was also eager to know the answer to this question, but Marla offered a startling conjecture. "Actually, something Calila said in Razor Ridge reminded me that there are no Alliance outposts left in southern Kalimdor. How did they resupply after two battles? We always thought they were hiding, but hiding doesn't solve the problem."

"Perhaps King Wrynn abandoned the soldiers here," Calila sneered.

"You probably don't even believe that yourself. The Alliance King may be hostile towards us, but he wouldn't be that cruel. My guess is that we might have been misled by our preconceived notions from the start. Who says that the people who attacked Harkel and his group were necessarily from the Alliance?"

"But how do you explain those corpses and the Alliance's weapons..." Cleya stopped speaking, realizing the problem. "Indeed, Harkel only brought back some corpses, some corpses wearing Alliance armor. To confirm that the other party was Alliance, at least we should have seen Alliance ships."

Marla shifted her gaze to Calila. The Dark Ranger turned her head somewhat apologetically and said, "The observer on the Witherer only saw the outline of the ship and the blue lion-head flag fluttering in the wind; he didn't get a clear look at the ship itself."

"That's right, sisters. What if pirates were disguised as Alliance members? After all, Alliance armor and flags are easy to obtain, but Alliance warships can't be built by pirates alone."

"That makes sense." Cleya looked down at the Naga's corpse. "If your guess is true, then these pirates may have clashed with the Naga in order to get a place to rest, but where exactly?"

"The ocean currents won't carry the body too far, and the body wasn't bitten by sharks..." Marla pondered the surrounding area. Just as an answer flashed through her mind, Calila spoke up first.

"It's Dusty Swamp, the Okaz Island in Dusty Swamp."

Military strategist Mathias Shaw spent the entire night on horseback, only taking a two-hour nap in Goldshire, and is now fully refreshed.

A few days ago, an urgent intelligence report reached King Varian. Something had happened again at the Redridge Mountains. The King dispatched him and over twenty Alliance soldiers to Lakeshire to investigate.

The Forsaken? Shaw rode ahead of the squad, gazing silently ahead. His bronze skin gleamed in the pale moonlight filtering through the rolling midnight clouds. Unlike the soldiers behind him, who were drowsily riding their horses, he silently measured the distance to Lakeshire.

"Sir." A captain ran up to him.

"What's wrong?"

"The soldiers are exhausted. Could we stop and rest for a while?"

"No," Shaw replied in a deep voice, as emotionless as a stone. "We can only rest after we reach Lakeshire."

"But..."

"We must move on." He looked earnestly at the captain. No matter what other words the captain intended to use to persuade him, his gaze dispelled any thought the captain might have of continuing the argument.

"Yes, sir."

Shaw wouldn't let the captain's disappointment affect him. As an assassin, no one understood better than him the inherent inertia of the human body. Once exhausted to the extreme, a "moment" of rest could turn into several hours, or even longer. And he couldn't wait any longer.

The unusual situation at the Redridge Mountains is unsettling.

"Lord Shaw." When he arrived at the tower at the triangular intersection, a soldier guarding the roadside recognized him.

"Any discoveries?" Shaw quickly spurred his horse toward the soldier and demanded a report.

Several of Shaw's attendants dutifully followed behind, but their pace was much slower, indicating that their horses were exhausted from traveling all night.

The soldier saluted and pointed to Lakeshire to the north of the bridge. Shaw squinted in the direction he was being directed to, and when he looked up at the northern night sky, it didn't seem as quiet as he had imagined.

"The townspeople are very agitated," Shaw overheard another soldier on duty say as he looked out. "The area where Mayor Solomon works is blocked again."

"Then he can't offer me any real help until he sorts out these troublesome problems. I have to take matters into my own hands." Shaw made his judgment, looked away, and waved to his team. Two SI:7 came to his side.

"Captain," Shaw called out.

"Grown ups?"

"While I'm gone, you and the other soldiers can rest for a while, then go to town to maintain order."

"Yes, ma'am."

Then he said to one of his agents, "Go to town and find out what's going on, then come back to me."

The spy nodded and left. Shaw was much more satisfied with the self-discipline of his men than with the soldiers who needed rest.

"Sir, if there really are Undead in the Redridge Mountains, then it might be dangerous. Shouldn't we send some soldiers with us?" another agent asked. She was a woman named Amber Gilney, a renowned sniper within SI:7 who had participated in the investigation of the Defias Brotherhood in the Westfall. Shaw had also taken her along on this mission.

"That would be too conspicuous," Shaw said. "We're not sure what the Forsaken's purpose is in coming to the Redridge Mountains, or how many of them there are, but one thing is certain: they're not here to assassinate a retired foreman. It's more likely that Oslo just happened to run into them. Because of this, the Forsaken will probably be even more secretive from now on, but they won't stop monitoring Lakeshire. Our blatant presence will only arouse their suspicion, and I don't want that to happen."

According to intelligence, Oslo's body was found near Stonehold. Shaw couldn't fathom why anyone would go there. It was true that it used to be an Alliance fortress, but after the Second War, Stormwind City never considered reclaiming that lost territory. Blackrock Orc and Gnoll had always occupied it. The Alliance army was often tied down, occupied with Outland and Northrend. Later, when the Lich King was defeated and an opportunity finally arose, Deathwing emerged, triggering the Cataclysm that completely destroyed the area.

Now that only ruins remain of the Stonehold, there is no need to reclaim it, and all the funds for its repair have been invested in military use.

"This is where the body was found," Gilney said, pointing to a dark stain on the ground. "There are still clear traces of blood on the roadside weeds."

"I need a little time to check. You go and keep watch around, Gilney."

"As you wish, Master Shor."

After Gilney left, Shaw knelt down to examine the ground. He was relieved that it hadn't rained, as some traces were still visible.

He produced the detailed report from Lakeshire. Oslo was lying headfirst on the ground, a poisoned dagger Backstab, while a small knife was clutched in his hand. The Forsaken lying beside Oslo had his throat slit, the cut matching the knife in his hand...

The intelligence chief frowned. The report was incomplete. He wanted to see the body for himself to see what its condition was like at the time, but unfortunately, the scene had been disturbed. However, he could still see suspicious points; to be precise, it was riddled with inconsistencies.

First, there's Oslo himself. Judging from the positions of the two corpses in the report, they didn't die together. This means Oslo killed one of the undead first before being killed by the other Forsaken. But Oslo was just a retired foreman, without rigorous military training, and his body still bore old injuries from being crushed by a boulder. How could he possibly be capable of taking one down with him when facing multiple Undead?

The strangest thing is the Forsaken's corpse itself. Why would Forsaken's corpse be left at the crime scene? If it was really the Forsaken who did it, wouldn't leaving the corpse behind expose themselves? Not to mention that the corpse was wearing the Forsaken's battle robes.

Or was it that there wasn't enough time to deal with the body? Shaw shook his head and immediately dismissed the idea. Oslo's body was discovered half a day after he left Lakeshire; there was no way the other party could be that slow to react.

That leaves only one possibility: someone wants to make it appear as if this was the work of the Forsaken, in an attempt to incite conflict between the Alliance and the Forsaken.

That's all that's left to see at the scene. Shaw stood up and whistled. Gilney jumped down from a large tree.

"It seems you've made a discovery."

"Let's go back first." Shaw's expression told Gilney that there were still doubts. "Let's see if there are any clues about those two bodies."

Belmont was quite disappointed to see Alaric enter his office empty-handed. He disliked leaving empty-handed, both for himself and for others.

"I have important intelligence, sir," Alaric reported respectfully.

Belmont dismissed his earlier thoughts; perhaps he had been too pessimistic. "I'm listening, Death Killer?"

"What you asked me to investigate is merely the grievances of a small Forsaken," Alaric stated bluntly. "But I cannot criticize their thoughts, Lord the Witherer..."

Belmont looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "What are they saying about the Witherer?"

Alaric straightened up. "They want Lord the Witherer to return."

The leader of the Shadowblade scoffed dismissively. "This has been a long-standing phenomenon; there's nothing to worry about."

But Alaric didn't think so. "But the Forsaken's negativity is growing, please forgive my intrusion. It's right that the Witherer Master has entrusted you and several other adults with the administration, but not everyone can be satisfied, and we can't blame the Forsaken their master for being wrong."

Belmont's brow furrowed. "That makes a lot of sense, Alaric."

"After I understood the situation, I had a brief chat with those people. I asked them how they could feel at ease for the time being. They assured me that the owner of the Witherer was only leaving temporarily, not abandoning us."

"So what did they say?"

"They want to know why Lord the Witherer suddenly left, when he will return, and... where he went?"

Belmont observed Alaric for a while, expressionless, before finally turning his gaze back to the document in front of him. "These three questions are top secret of the Forsaken. Tell them that Lord the Witherer will return, and when he returns, the Forsaken will be even more powerful than before."

"I don't think they'll believe that."

Belmont raised his head and asked sharply, "You don't believe me? What do you mean?"

"I think it means exactly what it says..."

"Explain yourself clearly." Belmont stood up, arms crossed.

"What the Forsaken want are definitive answers, my lord, not empty promises. Some of them have begun to question the legitimacy of your and the other lords' positions. Some of the bolder Forsaken even claim that the Master of the Witherer has met with misfortune, and you..."