A week after she’d fought Onyxia for the second time in her life, reassuring mundanity has returned by the process of recreation.

The two soldiers behind her have been chattering about Vanessa Van Cleef as if she is the second coming that she undoubtedly is. A group of merchants on the other side of the courtyard are more interested in the rumours from the North, from Arathi, of an ancient hero who appears to have emerged from the centre of the earth.

All that consumes her is here, in the re-fashioning of this armour into something more stylish, less like the showy reward it was meant to embody.

Blue has become a colour she resents wearing: favoured by jingoistic men in power, far too many women behind them, and the almost infinite agents of chaos. Void Purple might be the finish everyone else craved right now, but those connotations remained far too unsettling. Red was never supposed to be an Alliance colour, and it was time to exploit that.

A much-needed new breastplate and leggings now glow in silver and deep, carmine tones, and the effort it has taken to re-enamel both is time well spent.

Ana Weaver is pleased that no-one pays her attention or interest, that their own needs and compulsions matter more, especially now. Rumours are a cover, the unrest across the Kingdoms a prelude as they always were to something far more serious. There are already far too many Elves and Dwarves in Stormwind, the Alliance needs more humans, but so many have been slaughtered… women should be home-makers and mothers. Nobody needed skilled trackers and vanity blacksmiths any more…

‘When you said you only wanted the job to destroy the rewards, I was curious. This looks far better than the armour we gave you.’

Suddenly she has become far more interesting to the patrons and traders of the Dwarven District. Mathias Shaw stands opposite the external Forge, eyeing her last five days of work with what is undoubtedly an approving eye.

‘The red is an inspired choice, especially when the uninitiated might not realize you wear as you wish.’

‘Camouflage was one of the wiser investments I made in the training after the Dragon Isles. This means that taste can supersede use without an issue. Considering how long these will have to last, it needs to be both something I have placed my mark upon, and I am not embarrassed to wear.’

‘I also hear you have paid your bill with the Innkeeper at the Pig and Whistle by repairing his oven?’

‘There were many debts related to the farm when I returned. My pension is better spent helping the Alliance rebuild from the fields. I trust my brother and father to continue a family’s legacy without me. Both know that my future does not and should not remain tied there.’

‘Indeed, and I have ensured that they both will have an easier and less stressful harvest going forward.’

‘When you asked me what I would take in lieu of a gold reward, I did not think you’d care.’

‘It is my job to do that, and much more, and the two mares from our Stables no longer have nobles to carry or coaches to pull. The sea air at Longshore will do them good, and knowing now what I do about your family, I can rest assured they will live happy and fulfilling lives when not pulling plough or cart.’

Shaw did not come out of the Keep for small talk or to share her family history with bystanders… or maybe, Ana considers, he did. With all the rumours of ‘foreign’ races and overseas wars draining both coin and lives for so long, perhaps it is time to be seen to be giving back. With no King on the throne, it must be heard on the streets that someone has the citizens of these lands in their thoughts –

The vision fades from Ana’s mind: after what must be a dozen times in the last week, since returning here from home. The first flash of her King dressed in rags and broken armour had caused a headache and a nosebleed, that knocked her out for a whole day.

Now she knows when they are coming, and is able to cover it well… better, it appears, than Shaw. His discomfort is apparent and the acceptance that he too saw something as she did is both undeniable and simultaneously disturbing.

‘I… will send someone to collect this amour when it has properly cooled. I have a person… of some importance who has asked for you by name, waiting in my chambers. Please do not keep either him or me waiting.’

His stealth is far more practised and subtle than hers, so much so that nobody seems to even realize that SI7’s spymaster has vanished. The day continues as it did before she’d stopped hammering, before Shaw had dangled the possibility of more work in her direction…

Except, it wasn’t just that. All the times before in that vision, she’d assumed that what was appearing in her head wasn’t actually real. Now, Ana Weaver is absolutely certain of what she saw, and how important it is.

The melody of this new song is still playing in her head…