"It's not my blood. It's the wolf's."
The dwarf moved closer to the wolf's head and studied it. "This isn't a wolf from Elwynn. It's an orc worg. The orcs brought a lot of creatures from another world with them when they came from Draenor. Apart from the ogres, these wolves have caused some of the worst trouble. There aren't any horses to ride on the other side of the Dark Portal, so the orcs ride these wolves into battle."
Looking at the enormous wolf lying on the ground, Jess gripped his axe. "Would its claws count as Evil Claws?"
"They're certainly evil enough," the dwarf agreed.
Jess was about to raise his axe and chop off a paw when he suddenly realized something. Could claws from a beast native to another world be used as the same alchemy ingredient as claws from an Azeroth creature?
Well, whether they worked or not, he might as well cut them off first.
Gred lifted the worg's upper jaw and examined its knife-like fangs, turning them this way and that.
"Tell me, Jess. What's it really like over there?"
Jess held the axe blade over a paw, lining up his cut. "Where?"
"The other side of the Dark Portal, of course."
Gred patted the giant wolf's forehead. "Look at this animal. It has a mouth, a whole mouthful of teeth, ears, fur, and the same bright-red blood... You could say it's just a bigger gray wolf with a long neck and long legs. If I hadn't known what it was and you'd told me it was a wolf, I'd have believed you. Maybe they have deer over there, and sheep for the wolves to eat. Grass, flowers, trees. Maybe even dwarves and humans. Draenor humans and Draenor dwarves."
Jess resisted the urge to explain the world's background to him ahead of time. "Maybe."
"When the expedition returns, we'll know everything." The dwarf rolled his shoulders and shook his head. "I can't wait."
They worked for half an hour. Gred cut off some meat and chopped out a leg bone to carry back to Raven Hill for a better meal. Jess took charge of the claws.
It was a shame about the wolf's hide. The creature was absurdly heavy, and skinning it would have been many times harder than skinning a small wolf. Even if they could remove the hide intact, they'd have a hard time carrying it back. They had no choice but to leave it there.
Just as they were about to go, Jess suddenly remembered something.
"Didn't we come here to look for an orc warlock?"
"Wasn't there only one wolf here?" the dwarf asked.
"Then what was the wolf eating?" Jess asked back.
They both turned toward the corner where the beast had been feeding.
The wolf's body had filled the mill with the smell of blood. In one corner lay a jumble of severed limbs, pieces of flesh, and bones. They clearly weren't parts of a wolf.
"Look here, Jess," Gred called from another corner.
Jess turned and saw a dark-brown head lying at the dwarf's feet, its wide-open eyes staring toward them.
It was an orc's head. The skin was much darker than usual for an orc. Even among green-skinned orcs who had drunk demon blood and brown-skinned orcs who hadn't, skin this dark was rare.
"Check over there," the dwarf said. "I'll search this side. There's some stuff here too."
Jess nodded and lifted a piece of torn cloth. It was a black-and-gray rag with faint patterns that were hard to make out because it was soaked in blood.
He saw an iron chain buried beneath bones and cloth. He picked it up and pulled it out bit by bit until a bloodstained leather bag came out with it.
He couldn't tell what kind of leather the bag was made of. It was carefully crafted and didn't look like the sort of thing orcs made.
He untied it. The first thing he saw inside was the spine of a book.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Jess's heart gave an excited thump. He carefully pulled the book out, only to find that the spine was the only undamaged part. Most of the pages had been burned away, and what remained was scorched yellow and curled.
The bag was fine, but the book was burned. That probably meant the orc had found it somewhere else. There was little dust on it, and the worst burned sections, where the words couldn't be read, seemed to have been carefully removed. Most of what remained was yellowed paper with legible writing. The orc had clearly taken good care of the damaged book.
If he'd kept it, it must have been useful for something.
Jess couldn't understand a single word. He couldn't even tell whether it was written in Demonic or Orcish, since he'd never seen either script. Whatever it was, he could take it back and study it.
He searched farther inside and found a second book.
This one was mostly intact, although many of its pages were stained with blood. It was packed with writing he couldn't read. There weren't any drawings or runes, just words of different sizes and extra lines that looked like notes. It made his head hurt to look at it.
Even with his limited knowledge, though, Jess could roughly tell that the book contained two languages. There seemed to be some kind of relationship between one set of writing and the other.
Could this be a language textbook? Something to teach orcs Demonic?
On Draenor, many young orcs had only recently turned to the Void and fel magic. It was possible they couldn't become familiar with the Demonic incantations used in dark magic in such a short time. They might have needed to keep studying even after reaching Azeroth.
But he couldn't jump to conclusions. He was completely in the dark.
If a native English speaker reads an article in French, or someone who knows Chinese reads Japanese news, they'll usually recognize at least a few words or characters on a page and can guess the general subject.
These two books might as well have been Arabic to Jess. He didn't know whether to read from the left or the right. He wasn't even sure he was holding them the right way up.
Under the second book, at the very bottom of the bag, was a leather scroll.
The scroll was undamaged. It had no blood or dirt on it and had been kept in excellent condition.
Jess picked it up and looked at it. As before, he couldn't read a single word. But a symbol in the bottom-right corner caught his eye.
It was a purple rune that looked like the letter S, or a bolt of lightning, drawn in sharp strokes like a symbol carved into stone with a knife.
There was a dot inside the upper curve of the S. Together, the design looked very much like the later Horde insignia.
Jess was sure he'd seen that symbol somewhere in the game. It was the emblem of the Shadow Council.
Yes. In the level-seventy Burning Crusade expansion, in Outland—the remains of Draenor after its destruction—the Shadow Labyrinth beneath the draenei burial grounds of Auchindoun had purple banners bearing this symbol everywhere. It was, after all, one of the Shadow Council's main gathering places.
Was this orc actually a member of the Shadow Council?
The Shadow Council wasn't some little group of nobodies. It had been founded and led by Gul'dan, the first orc warlock. It recruited orcs and even learned ogres to study shadow and demon magic. At the time, it was the most powerful group of warlocks. Some even suspected its members included real demons.
The Shadow Council had worked with Medivh while he was under Sargeras's control. It had played a leading role in the orcs' corruption and the opening of the Dark Portal. After the Horde's Warchief Blackhand listened to Gul'dan's lies, the council became the power manipulating the whole Horde from behind the scenes.
In other words, at this point in history, every member of the Shadow Council was not only a devoted follower of Gul'dan but one of the Horde's elite.
After taking in too much shadow and fel energy, these warlocks' eyes glowed either dark purple or bright green. Exposure to the Void also darkened their skin. That matched the changes in this orc's head.
So why had a member of the Shadow Council died such a miserable death here?
Jess worried that the orc's dark skin and gray robe might have led him to connect the rune with the Shadow Council too quickly. He couldn't be completely sure his memory was right. The warlock might not have belonged to the council at all.
If he could understand the letter, maybe he'd find out.
"Look what I found."
Gred came from behind the door carrying a black staff. "Look at this. What do you think it's made of?"
He held it out. Jess touched it. It didn't feel quite like metal or wood, but something in between.
At one end was a mount or socket, as if something had once been fixed there. Now it was empty.
"This was the orc's staff, right?" Jess asked.
"You're sure this orc was the warlock the elf mentioned?" Gred asked.
Jess shook the bag. "Look at this, and the scroll. See that mark? Does it look familiar?"
He handed the scroll to Gred. The dwarf turned it over and studied it.
"How am I supposed to read this? I don't understand any of it. And this symbol... Never seen it. Looks a bit like the emblem on the Horde's banners."
"He was wearing a black robe, or at least a long coat," Jess said. "And there are two books in here. I can't tell what they're about, but an ordinary orc warrior probably wouldn't have the patience for books packed with this much writing. Even if he wasn't a warlock, he must have been some kind of scholar."
"An orc scholar," Gred said, scratching his chin. "Sounds about as ridiculous as an ogre pickpocket."
He used the staff to lift the bag. "Whatever it is, a magic staff or a walking stick, it'll make a good carrying pole and save me some effort. So, did you find any herbs?"
"No," Jess said. "That orc definitely didn't come here to gather plants."
"So we came all this way for nothing," Gred said. "At least we've got meat to eat."
Jess looked at the scroll. "Do you think it might be a letter between orcs? Maybe passing along orders? If we translate it, we might learn what they're doing."
"We'd better not make wild guesses." Gred glanced at the scroll again. "Why not show it to your boss?"
Jess didn't answer. He wasn't sure whether handing the scroll over to the Wizard's Sanctum would be good or bad for him.
He glanced outside. "We'd better get moving. If we don't leave now, we won't make it back to Raven Hill before dark."