A Covert Meeting

Summary
Tali sells Yssiel drugs, because he's a very naughty boy. Drug use content warning, but otherwise nothing else.

Characters

 * Taliessin Emberheart
 * Yssiel Sunbringer

A Covert Meeting
Taliessin stifled a yawn, leaning back against the white stone walls of an elegant townhouse overlooking Murder Row. Of all the streets in Silvermoon, this one was notorious for its shady dealings by rogues and warlocks and, as the name suggested, the occasional murder. Yet still for its reputation as Silvermoon’s worst, Murder Row remained freer from crime than any other territory beneath the Horde’s scarlet banner. More murders had occurred in Grommash Hold before the Warchief’s very eyes than had ever happened here. Still, to be here at night was unsettling for Tali, and he cast a prying glare over anyone who walked a little too close for comfort.

The clinking of metal boots on paving stone caught his attention and Taliessin turned to look at the familiar gold-armoured form of Yssiel Sunbringer. Standing a little under five feet, Yssiel’s stern and strong presence often made her seem a lot bigger to her foes. To her friends, however…

“Is someone there? I could have sworn I heard footsteps!” Tali mocked, frowning as he peered searchingly over Yssiel’s helmeted head.

“Ugh, your goods had better not be as stale as your humour, Tali,” she warned, pulling her helmet off and breathing in relief. Her long, red plait slipping out from beneath the metal like a snake. She turned her face to him— deceptively doll-like, her features possessing a regal sharpness common to the Sunbringer family— but it was paler than usual. Dark crescents hung beneath her eyes and her cheeks bore a hollowness that could only mean her time away from the reaches of the Sunwell had been testing. Her green eyes bored in Tali’s, crinkling into a frown.

“Do you want to stand here and stare at me all night? Because if so, I will need a little pick-me-up before I keel over.”

Tali sighed, his hand moving to his pocket and feeling the small bump of the bag of bloodthistle that rested there. “I thought you were getting off of this stuff. You know there are alternatives, right? Not that I sell any. Yet. But still, you could—”

Yssiel held a hand up. It trembled slightly, but her voice was taut. “I do not need a lecture from you, of all people. I have no interest in absolving the guilt you might feel for supplying me thus far. I have the gold, and I want the goods.” As if emphasising her words, Yssiel picked a small pouch from her belt and shook it. The coins within clinked noisily.

The coin pouch was usually the conversation ender when it came to Tali, but this time he persisted a bit more. He had reason to now… or perhaps just a bit more reason than before. At the start of all this he had been down on his luck and desperate to marry in secret the night elf that stole his heart, and willing to do anything in his power to fund it. So naturally, he had turned to bloodthistle. A simple and largely worthless herb to the untrained eye, its arcane potency was enough to sate any hunger a blood elf had felt after the destruction of the Sunwell. However, it was horribly addictive and had…. certain unfortunate side effects.

But Tali had never much cared about what it might do to his customers, just that he had the customers to begin with. It was a slow start, with most of his early patrons being as poor if not poorer than he was, but slowly some bigger names began to discover him. High-ranking military members would sidle quietly into his corner in Murder Row to buy his wares, which they would always commend for its freshness and quality. He had a background in herbalism anyway, so Tali knew which leaves and stems would be the most enjoyable for consumption.

It was not long after this that Yssiel first came to him, her arm looped around her girlfriend, rosy-cheeked and giggly from alcohol. She was finely dressed and had an air of naivety so terribly easy to take advantage of. Her girlfriend was a regular of his; a tall, sinewy warlock by the name of Nalantha Felfury. Nalantha had smiled at Tali and pulled her tiny girlfriend into a half-hug while she paid for her wares. Yssiel had been more than a little surprised when she realised what was happening.

“Is that bloodthistle?” she’d asked, swaying on her feet.

Nalantha was rolling hers into a thin tube of paper and lit the end with a spark of felfire, the magical flames instantly drying the leaf out. “It is. Would you like some?”

Yssiel blinked in surprise. “Oh, I shouldn’t… what is it actually like, though? I’ve always wondered.”

The warlock gave a short chuckle and tossed a few more gold pieces to Tali. “Start her off with a little bit, would you?”

And Tali had done so unquestioningly, selecting a small cutting of bloodthistle and giving it to Nalantha to prepare. She was probably his only customer that ever dried and smoked the leaf, and he was a little unfamiliar with the process.

Yssiel took the smoking roll of bloodthistle and took a drag. Tali never forgot how her eyes blazed greener that day, how her mouth dropped open in surprise… how she never stopped coming back since, even after Nalantha had wasted away into one of the Wretched that prowled Quel’thalas.

Now Yssiel was holding out her pouch of gold, impatient. She was shaking more and more, and Tali could have sworn she growled at him as she demanded he fulfil his part of the transaction.

“Come on!” she snapped. “I am to leave for Draenor soon! Do you want me to die out there?! Do you?!” 

Her shouting was beginning to attract attention. Curtains twitched and shadows moved, faces appeared in windows and doorways. No one said anything, they just watched. Tali suspected a lot of them were waiting for Yssiel to attack him in the hopes either she or he would die, leaving corpses fresh for looting. They certainly seemed to be admiring Yssiel’s gilded and very expensive armour.

“Oh, for— fine!” Taliessin finally caved, tossing the small parcel of bloodthistle at Yssiel. He caught the gold bag before she could drop it in favour of scrambling about to retrieve the herbs. It was bitterly pathetic to watch— a renowned paladin of one of the noblest houses in Quel’thalas, scrabbling about on her hands and knees in the shadows of Murder Row for cuttings of a herb that would inevitably kill her. There was a time when Tali would have taken a dark joy in seeing someone like her brought so low. Now, it was just upsetting to watch.

Once Yssiel had retrieved her drugs she immediately lit them up and was right away in an excellent mood, giddily happy and more than a little clumsy. Tali chose to walk her home this time, hoping this small act of kindness might ease his guilt a bit. It did not work.

“Ahh, what do you think Draenor will be like?” Yssiel was saying, leaving no gaps between her words for Tali to give any kind of response. “If it’s anything like Outland then I’m sure I’m going to hate it. I got such terrible sunburn in Hellfire Peninsula, and I’m quite sure I still have not got the stench of fel out of my old armour from traipsing around Shadowmoon Valley for all that time! So inconvenient! And all those orcs, ugh! I felt like I’d never left Orgrimmar!”

Yssiel cackled at her joke as they reached her home, but stopped when Tali turned to leave. Her small hand gripped the back of his robe with surprising strength and tugged him back. “Oh before you leave, I’m holding a party here tomorrow night in celebration before we storm the Dark Portal! I think most of the Horde will be here actually, so of course do feel free to come by!”

The invite took Tali off guard— Yssiel usually never wanted anything to do with him outside of “business.” It was bad for her image, she would always say.

“Thank you, Yssiel, I’ll be sure to come by,” Tali said, smiling genuinely. He did love a party and was more than a little curious to experience an infamous “Sunbringer party” firsthand. “Oh, can I bring a plus one?”

Yssiel nodded and fumbled to unlock her door. “Please do.” She finally got her door open and slipped inside, poking her head out one more time and grinning deviously. “Bring that night elf boyfriend of yours, why don’t you? But disguise him a bit. Perhaps if you glued some tusks to him he’d pass for a troll!”

The door slammed shut and Yssiel’s cackling receding further into her mansion, leaving Tali to stand there stunned to silence, mouth agape. Finally he turned to leave, stuffing his hands in his pockets and taking comfort in the gold he found there.

“Fucking Sunbringers…” he muttered, disappearing into the night.