The forest swallowed the road before I had time to memorize its name.
One moment I was walking through the edge of Feralas on what passed for a proper path, and the next the trees had closed behind me like a door clicking shut. The canopy above was so thick that the sunlight came through in scattered coins, trembling on the moss as the breeze moved the branches.
I stopped for a moment and just looked.
The bark on these trees was unlike anything I'd seen in the Eastern Kingdoms — dark and ridged, with veins of silver moss running through the crevices like inlaid wire. Someone had taken a knife to one of the lower branches years ago, and the scar had healed into a pattern that looked almost deliberate. I ran my fingers across it before I caught myself.
Focus, Radomir. You're not here to admire the timber.
But I was, a little. That's the trouble with being me.
I found my guides in a small outpost near the border. Two humans and a night elf who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. They were the only ones willing to take me as far as the approaches to Dire Maul. No one goes inside, they said. Not anymore.
I paid them well. Good coin for good work. They looked at my packs, at my clothes, at the way I carried myself, and decided I was either rich or foolish. Possibly both. I didn't correct them.
The night elf, his name was Theren, pointed at a leather satchel I kept close.
"What's in there that's worth dying for?"
I smiled and tightened the strap.
"A diamond. Pristine black. Largest I've ever seen."
He waited for more. I didn't give it.
The truth is, I don't fully know what it's worth. I know what it could be worth, if the stories about the Shen'dralar are true. They say the high elves of Dire Maul are the only ones who still remember how to work with stones like this. That they can draw something out of them that no modern craftsman can touch.
I've been holding onto that diamond for two years. Turning it over in my hands at night. Imagining what it could become.
Tomorrow I'll finally start finding out.
Theren has built a fire. The humans are arguing about something unimportant. The forest has gone quiet around us, like it's listening.
I should sleep. But my hands are restless, and my mind is already walking through gates I haven't reached yet.